Post by Hobo on May 23, 2009 11:47:15 GMT -5
I like CHIKARA.
When you tell the common person that on the street, they usually assume one of two things. Either A, you’re crazy and are talking gibberish, or B, you’re a big fan of the KISS Japanese album. But a select few among the wrestling fan base know exactly what you mean.
In a landscape flooded with pro wrestling of every kind imaginable, from the old school Memphis style, to the polar oppisite in giant space monsters battling in a city full of miniature buildings that can barely even be called wrestling, CHIKARA has somehow found their own niche, combining elements from puroseu, lucha libre, the American indy style, and even elements of sports entertainment to create a well rounded, fun for the whole family product.
On the surface, CHIKARA is just for the kids. With characters like Los Ice Creams, “The Self Replicating Mini Monster” Hydra, and others around, this could be an accurate statement. But when you dive deeper into the CHIKARA universe, you see a who’s who of today’s independent wrestling “names”. Eddie Kingston, Claudio Castagnoli, former ECW superstar Colin Delaney, and of course, CHIKARA founder and former columnist for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, “Lightening” Mike Quackenbush. In the last 12 months, independent wrestling superstars Austin Aries, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, Drake Younger, “The New Horror” Sami Callihan, El Generico, Sara Del Ray, and even relics from the past such as Glacier, D-Lo Brown, Al Snow, “Squire” David Taylor and Pantera have passed through the CHIKARA realm. But to get deep into CHIKARA, you have to do the unheard of in today’s wrestling. You have to look beyond “the card” deep into the angles. And that’s where the fun starts in CHIKARA.
One of the biggest angles in recent CHIKARA history has centered around the devious Ultramantis Black and his control of the Eye of the Tyr, a mystical device of unheard of power, giving him the ability of mind control over whoever he chooses to use it on. In the past, Ultramantis has used this device on his former protegee, Hydra, to give away a win to a down on his luck Shane Storm (now called Stigma). But Mantis does not use the Eye without a cost. His cost to Shane Storm was the reversal to the CHIKARA special, a hold invented by Mike Quackenbush and taught to all of his students, previously inescapable. Even Chris Hero was forced to tap out to the Special, to a relative new comer in Equinox (now Vin Gerard, not to be confused with the present day Equinox, Jimmy Olsen). Something as simple as Hydra falling off of the top rope drunkenly set in motion an almost two year and running angle that has focused around two people (Chris Hero and Kaiju Big Battel’s Dr. Cube) that will probably never return to a CHIKARA ring.
The comic book like stories are what keeps wrestling fans drawn to CHIKARA. But what draws them in initially? Matches like Mike Quackenbush, Johnny Saint, and Jorge “Skyade” Rivera battling it out with American Dragon Bryan Danielson, “Squire” David Taylor, and “Double C” Claudio Castagnoli, which happened at this year’s King of Trios tournament, certainly don’t hurt. Nor do technical masterpieces such as the match Quackenbush had against Saint in Germany as part of a co promoted weekend of shows with Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw).
CHIKARA has been running monthly shows since 2002 in Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas, sometimes stretching as far as Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, and even Oberhausen, Germany! So why is it, just now, that CHIKARA is really becoming known among the indy wrestling fan base? It’s not that they haven’t TRIED to expand. In 2004 & 2005, CHIKARA had a series of “road trip” matches all across the country for IWA Mid South in northern Indiana, Combat Zone Wrestling in Philadelphia, and Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Germany, among others. These showcase matches are still happening. On the debut show of Dragon Gate USA, CHIKARA will feature an eight man tag team showcase match.
If you have not checked out CHIKARA, you can purchase their shows from Smart Mark Video at www.smartmarkvideo.com. Every release from December 2007 and back are priced at just $15, which includes several Best Of’s, highlighting entire years of CHIKARA. You can find The Best of CHIKARA from Big Vision Entertainment in stores, more often than not for less than $10. And if you’re in the East Coast, you can check out their monthly live shows. (for more information, visit chikarapro.com). So why haven’t you tried CHIKARA? All the cool kids are doing it.. Just try it once.. What’s the worst that can happen? You get hooked?
www.chikarapro.com
www.smartmarkvideo.com
When you tell the common person that on the street, they usually assume one of two things. Either A, you’re crazy and are talking gibberish, or B, you’re a big fan of the KISS Japanese album. But a select few among the wrestling fan base know exactly what you mean.
In a landscape flooded with pro wrestling of every kind imaginable, from the old school Memphis style, to the polar oppisite in giant space monsters battling in a city full of miniature buildings that can barely even be called wrestling, CHIKARA has somehow found their own niche, combining elements from puroseu, lucha libre, the American indy style, and even elements of sports entertainment to create a well rounded, fun for the whole family product.
On the surface, CHIKARA is just for the kids. With characters like Los Ice Creams, “The Self Replicating Mini Monster” Hydra, and others around, this could be an accurate statement. But when you dive deeper into the CHIKARA universe, you see a who’s who of today’s independent wrestling “names”. Eddie Kingston, Claudio Castagnoli, former ECW superstar Colin Delaney, and of course, CHIKARA founder and former columnist for Pro Wrestling Illustrated, “Lightening” Mike Quackenbush. In the last 12 months, independent wrestling superstars Austin Aries, “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson, Drake Younger, “The New Horror” Sami Callihan, El Generico, Sara Del Ray, and even relics from the past such as Glacier, D-Lo Brown, Al Snow, “Squire” David Taylor and Pantera have passed through the CHIKARA realm. But to get deep into CHIKARA, you have to do the unheard of in today’s wrestling. You have to look beyond “the card” deep into the angles. And that’s where the fun starts in CHIKARA.
One of the biggest angles in recent CHIKARA history has centered around the devious Ultramantis Black and his control of the Eye of the Tyr, a mystical device of unheard of power, giving him the ability of mind control over whoever he chooses to use it on. In the past, Ultramantis has used this device on his former protegee, Hydra, to give away a win to a down on his luck Shane Storm (now called Stigma). But Mantis does not use the Eye without a cost. His cost to Shane Storm was the reversal to the CHIKARA special, a hold invented by Mike Quackenbush and taught to all of his students, previously inescapable. Even Chris Hero was forced to tap out to the Special, to a relative new comer in Equinox (now Vin Gerard, not to be confused with the present day Equinox, Jimmy Olsen). Something as simple as Hydra falling off of the top rope drunkenly set in motion an almost two year and running angle that has focused around two people (Chris Hero and Kaiju Big Battel’s Dr. Cube) that will probably never return to a CHIKARA ring.
The comic book like stories are what keeps wrestling fans drawn to CHIKARA. But what draws them in initially? Matches like Mike Quackenbush, Johnny Saint, and Jorge “Skyade” Rivera battling it out with American Dragon Bryan Danielson, “Squire” David Taylor, and “Double C” Claudio Castagnoli, which happened at this year’s King of Trios tournament, certainly don’t hurt. Nor do technical masterpieces such as the match Quackenbush had against Saint in Germany as part of a co promoted weekend of shows with Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw).
CHIKARA has been running monthly shows since 2002 in Pennsylvania and the surrounding areas, sometimes stretching as far as Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland, Ohio, and even Oberhausen, Germany! So why is it, just now, that CHIKARA is really becoming known among the indy wrestling fan base? It’s not that they haven’t TRIED to expand. In 2004 & 2005, CHIKARA had a series of “road trip” matches all across the country for IWA Mid South in northern Indiana, Combat Zone Wrestling in Philadelphia, and Westside Xtreme Wrestling in Germany, among others. These showcase matches are still happening. On the debut show of Dragon Gate USA, CHIKARA will feature an eight man tag team showcase match.
If you have not checked out CHIKARA, you can purchase their shows from Smart Mark Video at www.smartmarkvideo.com. Every release from December 2007 and back are priced at just $15, which includes several Best Of’s, highlighting entire years of CHIKARA. You can find The Best of CHIKARA from Big Vision Entertainment in stores, more often than not for less than $10. And if you’re in the East Coast, you can check out their monthly live shows. (for more information, visit chikarapro.com). So why haven’t you tried CHIKARA? All the cool kids are doing it.. Just try it once.. What’s the worst that can happen? You get hooked?
www.chikarapro.com
www.smartmarkvideo.com
