Ash vs Shane Storm
This was awful. Everything about it felt disjointed and
clumsy, especially in the performance of Storm. He sets a bad tone by going
down too early on a neckbreaker and is constantly out of position. Ash tries
hard here, liked his running knees to the corner and his trio of sentons, but
Storm is so bad. They blow a collision spot, before Storm hits a Shining Wizard
to advance. At this point, Storm needed to stick with working guys he’s trained
with, as he looked so lost in this one.
Larry Sweeney vs DJ Skittlez
This is probably the best Skittlez match I’ve seen, mainly
because it comes across as a Poundland version of a Ric Flair vs Sting match.
Sweeney (who was accompanied by 3 unnamed henchmen) controlled the match, with
Skittlez making comebacks, and did some fun basic heel shtick – begging off
before a poke to the eye, pinfalls with feet on the ropes and distracting the
ref to allow his henchmen (who were no Anderson or Blanchard) to beat up
Skittlez. Sweeney’s execution isn’t perfect, but he’s a magnetic personality
already. To further the Flair/Sting allusion, Skittlez hits a nice Stinger
Splash, a decent top rope clothesline, catches Sweeney on the top rope to slam
him off and hits an inverted DDT. That has to be deliberate, right? He does
botch a spinning slam, but his diving clothesline over the top rope to wipe out
Sweeney’s goons looked great. However, a distracted ref allows one of them to
come in, nail him with a chokeslam, and Sweeney picks up the victory. This was
fine.
Spider vs Gran Akuma
Spider is just a normal looking guy, but he hits a big dive
to the floor as Akuma makes his entrance to grab some attention. Quite a decent
showcase for Spider here, as he seems happy to commit to taking bumps, both on
moves taken and moves given, leaping off the mat as he delivers a swinging
neckbreaker. Aside from one awkward flub, he doesn’t botch anything, though he
does have a goofy way of selling some early strikes. Akuma looks good too,
loved the big spinebuster he hits. There is a lack of transition to offence
from both guys though, as if a switch has flicked and it’s the guy in perils
time to go on the attack. Akuma finishes it with a slingshot powerbomb and
complicated submission, and this was better than I expected.
Arik Cannon vs Jay Lethal
For two more experienced guys, this wasn’t particularly
great and had a pretty ugly ending. Not as ugly as Cannon’s ring gear, which is
terrible pleather binbag gear. The structure here was pretty weak, with Cannon
basically dominating 75% of the match before Lethal just decided to go on
offence. Cannon’s stuff looks good though, and there appears to be a focus on
Lethal’s back. I mean, Lethal never sells his back as hurting, but Cannon hits
a big spinebuster, a knee to the spine and a back-cracker in quick succession,
so at least there’s intent. Cannon also drops a vicious knee across Lethal’s
throat. Then, after hitting 2 suplexes, a third is blocked and Lethal just
takes over. Simple as that. Then, the sudden ending. Cannon runs into a Lethal
back elbow, and this seems to knock him spark out. Lethal takes ages to cover
him, Bryce Remsburg only counts two, then realises Cannon aint getting up, so
counts three.
Mike Quackenbush, Mister Zero & Icarus vs Skayde,
Ultramantis Black & Hallowicked
Fun trio match to break up the tournament. This is 2/3
falls, but seeing as how the whole match goes 10 minutes, they could just have
made it one fall to a finish. This is as fast-paced and action-packed as you’d
expect, with lucha tag rules meaning there’s no resting. Loved the Skayde/Quack
section at the start to lead to a sweet Quack dive, and Ultramantis takes the
Hamrick bump to a matless floor, which had to hurt. The rudos win the first
fall with a Black/Hallowicked slingshot/big boot combo on Icarus. The heat is
maintained on Icarus in the second fall, until a fun spot where the rudos keep hitting
a triple team move, only to let the technico out and having to repeat the spot
on his replacement. This obviously end with Quack being the last technico involved
and reversing the move. A trip on Hallowicked is followed by stacking Skayde in
a submission on top of him for the equalising fall. The third fall fair breezes
by, though Skayde looks pretty sloppy throughout it. He seems to stumble his
way through a sequence with Quack, before rolling him in a crucifix to win the
match for the rudos.
American Gigolo vs Anton Arakis
No idea who Arakis is, but he doesn’t impress here. He moves
really oddly, and his standing moonsault looks naff. In contrast, Gigolo seems
to be working hard here, a few stiff strikes and some nifty work on the mat,
tangling up Arakis’ legs, help carry the match. He also eats turnbuckle on a
missed splash with gusto. Gigolo gets the rope-assisted pin after Arakis misses
a top rope legdrop
Eddie Kingston vs Jolly Roger
Probably the best Roger match I’ve seen to date, mainly
because Kingston really forces him out of his comfort zone. Kingston is vicious
here, chopping nastily in the corner, hitting double-foot stomps and nailing a
tough Yakuza kick in the corner. Roger seems to be aware of the risk of being
eaten up, so fires back with his own nice blows, and gets great height on his
own stomps. A top rope cutter is a bit clumsy still, and Walk The Plank is a
move that never looks good, but I liked his big dive to the floor. Still,
Kingston rightly wins, kicking ref Bryce Remsburg into the ropes as Roger goes
to the top, and nailing a top rope exploder to pick up victory.
Blackjack Marciano vs Jimmy Jacobs
Marciano is so much fun as a stooging heel here, really
playing up to the antics of Jacobs (who was in full “Barbaric Berserker” mode
here). Loved him heelishly putting Jacobs on the top rope, then doing a muscle
pose despite his entirely average body. Marciano initially outwrestles Jacobs,
so Jacobs retorts by biting him on the arse. Marciano is a lot of fun in
control, posturing and showing off, and I like how Jacobs’ comeback wasn’t just
due to his speed, but also because he was striking Marciano pretty stiffly. A
big boot to the face looked great. The end sees Jacobs try the Contra Code, but
Blackjack stops it and nails a reverse powerslam to win. All good stuff.
Sabian vs Niles Young
These guys both come from the CZW wrestling school, and you
can tell by the early going, which is all pretty slick in a “we’ve practised
this every week in training” kind of way. Sabian decides to focus on Young’s
spine, hitting a dropkick to the back, followed by a rolling senton and a
penalty kick all to the spine. I loved Sabian’s smarts when, after getting
locked in a half grab, he pulls at Bryce Remsburg to pull himself to the ropes
for a break. Sabian hits a dropkick to Young’s face so nasty it earns applause.
A back-cracker and a sweet looking straitjacket Camel Clutch give Sabian the
win.
Jigsaw vs Rorschach
Big sign of Quack’s faith in Jigsaw, as he gets the main
event and against a guy who’s been pretty unimpressive in previous shows. One
of the fun things about watching CHIKARA from the start is seeing the guys who
evolve quicker than others. At first, these two guys felt very similar, thanks
to their near identical look, but before the bell rings, you can see Jigsaw has
better poise, a better looking physique and better gear, showing an
improvement. Here, he works a pretty decent match and Rorschach has never
looked better. This is leagues ahead of the Jolly Roger stinker from a few
shows previous. Both guys bump big, Jigsaw eating an overhead suplex to the
corner and tumbling to the floor, whilst Rorschach takes a nasty spill to floor
from the top. Both guys also take big dives, which were impressive. They even
get perfect timing on Jigsaw springboarding into the ring, and into a dropkick
from Rorschach. Not everything looks good – we’ll not talk about Jigsaw’s
twisting moonsault that barely touches Rorschach – but this was a good main
event with a great ending, as Jigsaw hits a middle-rope Jig’N’Tonic to
definitively put away Rorschach.
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