This time around I'm going to flashback several years for the Match of the Week. Flashback to 2011. The 12 Large Tournament had ran throughout the year in Chikara, all to crown the company's first ever Grand Champion. Claudio Castagnoli made his swan song during the tournament, to pop up just weeks later on WWE television as Cesaro. But two stars still remained on the roster as they sped towards the finals and an epic confrontation. On one side, the founder of Chikara Mike Quackenbush and on the other, the company's ugly stepchild, a man that warred with the entire company until just over a year before, when everything he said about Claudio proved to be true with the debut of the BDK.
Emotions were high, as both men wanted to dedicate their win to their loss compatriot Larry Sweeney. The pipebomb promo had lit the world on fire just a few months before, but I will argue in the lead up to the event, Eddie Kingston cut the most passionate wrestling promo of all time.
All of it culminated on November 13, 2011 in a huge fight in the ECW arena between arguably the two biggest stars in Chikara. Watch it below and prepare to be wowed.
I first learned of the existence of Pete Dunne way back in 2014 when he teamed with storyline brother Damien Dunne and perpetual foe Mark Andrews to form Team UK in Chikara's King of Trios. I was particular impressed him back then, but his exposure to American audiences was pretty much non-existence outside a few folks that subscribe to Revolution Pro or PROGRESS Wrestling's streams.
That changed at the very beginning of 2017 when Dunne was one of eight names inserted into the tournament for the WWE United Kingdom Championship. He burst onto the scene with a series of hard-hitting and compelling matches. He jumped his foes more than once during the tournament as he made his way through Roy Johnson, Sam Gradwell, and perpetual enemy Mark Andrews (a man that walked away from Impact Wrestling for a place in the UK division.) Ultimately, he would fall to one of the men he assaulted, Tyler Bate, in the finals.
Image credit: WWE.com.
Four months later, Dunne would take the title for the first time. He would hold onto it through the end of the year, defending against Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Wolfgang, Johnny Gargano and Jack Gallagher. His run with the title has made him a clear anti-hero, something helpful when he spends so much time teaming with former rivals Tyler Bate and Trent Seven outside the purview of NXT and WWE. British Strong Style took home the King of Trios this year, held in the UK for the first time, three years after Dunne's first appearance and arrival on American soil.
As he ends the year, he also holds the ATTACK 24:7 title and the Destiny World Wrestling belt, while also spending most of the year as PROGRESS World Champion. He's made appearances all over the independents and starred in the first shows PROGRESS put on in the United States earlier this year.
His unique contract means he's regularly working all over the world for multiple promotions, with limits only on televised promotions not approved by WWE. Whatever the future for the UK division in the WWE will be, it seems clear Pete Dunne will continue to dominate the indies and his division. Hopefully, WWE realizes how much star power they have with the Bruiserweight. He could have major programs in WWE with some truly stellar talents. Who wouldn't want to see Dunne versus Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe or AJ Styles?
Now, it sure would be nice to see Dunne beat the hell out of Enzo Amore one more time.
Tomorrow we continue the non-WWE exclusive stars with another highly decorated worker in 2017...
Manami Toyota is one of the best wrestlers in the world today, even if she barely gets any attention in the internet wrestling community. Even at 46, she is still one of the most accomplished tacticians in the business. When she announced her plan to retire last weekend, the news sadly came to the world with little fanfare, even if those in the know about joshi wrestling know how monumental that announcement truly is. She innovated several moves and her Ocean Cyclone Suplex is still one of the meanest looking moves in professional wrestling, whether it came from her, Al Snow, Rey Mysterio or Elix Skipper.
And of course, she's recognized as the purveyor of more five star matches than any other female wrestler, all despite making her United States wrestling debut in 2010, nearly twenty-four years into her career. She made that debut in Chikara, where she wrestled off and on for two years, putting on matches that perhaps weren't as great as her classic All Japan Women's battles, but were still impressive for a forty year old talent. As far as this writer knows, Chikara remains the only United States promotion where Toyota plied her trade. It seems likely it will remain the only one as well, as it seems unlikely she will make any US appearances elsewhere between now and her retirement on November 3rd.
If you have never watched her wrestle before, you're in luck because many of her five star matches are available on Youtube. Here are a pair of her best to get you started. I'll give the complete list from Meltzer at the bottom of the page.
The list:
(1991) with Etsuko Mita vs Aja Kong and Bison Kimura on January 5
(1992) with Toshiyo Yamada vs Yumiko Hotta and Suzuka Minami on March 7
(1992) vs Kyoko Inoue on April 25
(1992) vs Toshiyo Yamada on June 21
(1992) vs Toshiyo Yamada (IWA, Hair vs Hair Match) on August 15
(1992) with Toshiyo Yamada vs Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki on November 26
(1993) with Toshiyo Yamada vs Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki on April 2
(1993) with Toshiyo Yamada vs Dynamite Kansai and Mayumi Ozaki on December 6
(1993) with Akira Hokuto vs Toshiyo Yamada and Kyoko Inoue (Tag League, Round Robin) on December 10
(1993) with Akira Hokuto vs Toshiyo Yamada and Kyoko Inoue (Tag League, Final) on December 10
(1994) with Toshiyo Yamada vs Takako Inoue and Kyoko Inoue on September 10
(1994) vs Aja Kong on November 20
(1995) vs Kyoko Inoue on May 7
(1995) vs Aja Kong on June 27
(1995) vs Mima Shimoda on July 23
(1995) with Sakie Hasegawa vs. Kyoko Inoue and Takako Inoue on August 30
The Perros Del Mal faction in Mexico is mostly known today as a t-shirt Pentagon Jr. sometimes wears, but they were once a collection of the most wanted talent in Mexico. They also sent a team to the 2010 King of Trios. Oriental and company instantly lit the fires of the Chikara audience, though they ran into trouble against the BDK and their leader, one Claudio Castagnoli (a.k.a. Cesaro). While sadly none have returned to the promotion, El Oriental did wrestle regularly for Lucha Libre USA.
Aerostar, Drago and Fenix are the only team to ever be Lucha Underground Trios Champions and Chikara King of Trios, yet they never found quite as much success in their native Mexico. But they could still put on great matches. Here's one against Zorro, Cuervo and Scoria.
WWE has two big shows coming this weekend, which I'll talk about in more detail in the next couple days. But they are far from the only promotion running pay-per-view events. Several independent promotions are also running shows over the weekend, including internet pay-per-views and even a streaming special over an indie service akin to WWE. Here's the details on some of the happenings going down.
Ring of Honor isn't quite an independent, but they are running on Friday night. It's also the odd show out as it is the only one not in the northeast area.
ROH World Title - Jay Lethal vs. Adam Cole: The storyline behind this one is ridiculous. Lethal insisted on a title match because he had his head shaved by the Bullet Club. Why not just demand he get a one on one match with Cole non-title? The whole thing presents Lethal as an idiot, especially since he's likely to drop the title.
ROH World Television Title - Bobby Fish vs. Mark Briscoe.
Silas Young vs. Katsuyori Shibata: Shibata makes his United States debut. I look forward to seeing Silas get his face kicked off.
Toru Yano and Roppongi Vice vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Guerrillas of Destiny: None of these stars make regular appearances for ROH, though Roppongi Vice has made more than the others. It feels strangely inserted, especially with regular Bullet Club members Adam Page and Young Bucks not with a listed match.
No other matches are listed despite Los Ingobernables De Japon, Michael Elgin, Jay Briscoe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and tag champs The Addiction all in attendance. Strange to see ROH selling their show on so little, especially when compared to their Japanese partners that give away all planned matches ahead of time.
The more interesting card on Friday though has to be EVOLVE 66. Gabe Sapolsky's promotion has some of the best wrestling in the world every show and this one brings the independent debut of one Cody Rhodes. And Cody's not facing just some scrub.
Image Credit: WWNLive.com.
Cody Rhodes vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: Most folks might just be learning about Sabre, but this should push Rhodes' wrestling skills to the test in what I hope will be an epic encounter.
EVOLVE Title - Timothy Thatcher vs. Matt Riddle.
Two battles between Cruiserweight Classic talent: Drew Gulak vs. Tony Nese and TJ Perkins vs. Cedric Alexander.
DUSTIN (a.k.a. Chuck Taylor) vs. Ethan Page
Catch Point's Tracy Williams and Fred Yehi vs. Jigsaw and Peter Kaasa
Every few weeks, Chikara has announced a new King of Trios team for this September's incarnation of the event. (This year it has a Pokemon theme.) But today they pulled out one of their biggest units ever.
But first a look back. The first team announced was Team Sendai Girls (a Japanese joshi promotion) team of Cassandra Miyagi and the returning pair of DASH Chisako and Meiko Satomura. The second team announced would represent the SHIMMER promotion as they brought in Candace LeRae, Crazy Mary Dobson and former Chikara regular and SHIMMER champion Madison Eagles.
Today, the roster reveals picked up in a big way. Chikara announced the third team as Team Original Divas Revolution. Most interestingly, it brings too of its talents out of (semi-)retirement to do so.
Image credit: Chikara
Leading up the team is Mickie James, a big name all around the country. Her matches have become fewer since she had a child with Nick "Magnus" Aldis, but she's still an active weekend warrior. She leads two other former WWE heavy hitters.
First up is Lisa Marie Varon, working under the Victoria name for the first time in years. (The WWE trademark is long expired.) She has only appeared for Chikara once in the past as far as I know, and only as a special guest during the Chicago-based Tag World Grand Prix, which I was fortunate to attend live. I even got a picture with the lovely Ms. Varon, so it should be no surprise this news excites me.
But the third figure in the match is even more exciting as Jazz returns to wrestling to team with Mickie and Victoria. Jazz hasn't wrestled regularly for a couple years now, seemingly retiring to spend more time with her husband (the former Rodney Mack) and children.
That is a true power unit of veteran wrestlers and they will surely add tons to the event, even as we await the other thirteen announcements for the event.
The developers of Chikara's official video game seem to be coming along nicely with their weird mix of AKI gameplay and the mid-90s Wrestlemania arcade game. Check out the video below and hope they will vastly improve Kimber Lee's sprites before the game's release.
While the Top 10 list kicks off with #10 later today, I also wanted to focus on the other wrestlers that gained votes from our wide range of judges. In all, 41 names made it on to this year's list from our panelists and they all have reasons to be there (well, outside maybe one in this humble blogger's opinion, but more on that one in a few days.) I will cover these honorable mentions a few at a time in between posts about the winners over the next couple weeks. For now, let's take a look at forty-one through 37.
Image credit: Wikipedia.
41. Princess Kimber Lee: I was the only one to vote for the new Chikara Grand Champion, but I don't think the importance of Kimber Lee's 2015 should be ignored. She became the first top champion of a major US promotion by beating Hallowicked at the end of the season finale. And she will likely have a lot more exposure in the next year. Already an incredibly talented performer, I suspect she will make a huge name for herself in 2016.
Back in the early part of our current decade, Chikara debuted a summer time mega-event called Chikarasaurus Rex. It was all about big matches with great guest stars. The first edition from 2010 featured appearances by several Dragon Gate regulars including Shingo Takagi, CIMA and Masato Yoshino (among others) as well as an early indie appearance by Tommy Dreamer. But it was the women's match that most intrigued me as the nefarious duo of Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey came face to face with two women known for their own dirty tricks in the past: the team of Amazing Kong and Raisha Saeed.
With four of the best women's wrestlers in the history of the business in the ring, the results was something truly special.
I really really do not talk about Chikara enough on this blog, but that is mostly because I have yet to watch any of their events since last year’s series finale. I have started to pick up a couple from their new Chikaratopia set-up and will hopefully get some reviews up in the next few weeks.
But I still follow their storylines and as the company heads towards a weekend in the Midwest and this year’s series finale, two returns seem to be impending for the company.
Deucalion killed many between his debut and Tomorrow Never Dies. His first victim was The Batiri’s Kobald, as the chokebreaker broke the toilet demon. But his biggest kill was almost certainly the Estonian ThunderFrog, the Mjolnir-wielding frog powerhouse of Chikara. (And if that doesn’t sound awesome to you, learn to have more fun.)
The Estonian FarmerFrog from his Twitter profile.
Tomorrow Never Dies ended with the seeming rebirth of the Thunderfrog on a Minnesota farm. Since that time, a very similar in appearance talent named the Estonian FarmerFrog has worked the local Minnesota independents. Now he will make his Chikara debut during their first ever stop in Minnesota. With the ThunderFrog's hammer still being an important part of Chikara storytelling, it remains to be seen if he will take his legacy back and become the ThunderFrog once more.
Along with the ThunderFrog’s return, The Batiri have been down a man for over a year. The Batiri teamed with Ultramantis Black over a promise to resurrect the fallen demon. And with Ultramantis’s in-ring career at an end, he needed a fourth member to enter his Atomicos match against the Wrecking Crew.
Well it seems clear from this video that the toilet demon may very well make his return as the mysterious fourth member of Ultramantis Black’s Atomicos unit. This will mark a pointed return for the impressive-but-tiny talent. Much like the Thunderfrog, he had become a popular competitor just before his demise and his return from whatever Heck the Batiri spawned from should offer tons of excitement to the Chikara faithful.
I have said it before and will say it again. Nothing quite like Chikara exists anywhere in the world.
At the beginning of the year, it seemed for awhile that independent wrestler Tim Donst might be at the end of his career. With cancer issues, he was facing a far greater battle than just a match.
The Chikara alum survived his fight though and made his return to wrestling over the summer. He also released a documentary about his experience that I think everyone should watch.
His current home promotion of Absolute Intense Wrestling put a lot of effort into helping the video become possible. Donst continues to work at AIW as well as CZW and various other indies. Follow him on Twitter for more or head over to Smartmark Video and check him out in tons of great shows.
For most wrestling video gamers, no games have still topped the playability of Wrestlemania 2000 and WWF No Mercy, the final two games Aki produced for the Nintendo 64. With a deep wrestling engine that emphasized technical maneuvers, it is beloved by fans that love a deeper style than that offered by the later Smackdown series that morphed into the current eponymous line.
But the fine folks at Chikara have wanted a video game for awhile. While their previous attempt to make a Streets of Rage-esque brawler fell flat after two developers and a failed Kickstarter, But now they are going with an Unreal Engine based wrestling grappler that feels incredibly familiar to fans of No Mercy. Check out the full video below:
The game is currently on Steam Greenlight and Chikara is asking fans to help support it for a Steam release there. Head to Greenlight Chikara to lend your support.
Before my neck surgery, I made tentative plans to attend this year's Chikara King of Trios. It looks like another amazing tournament from a company famous for putting on amazing tournaments. With a huge group of talent in place, I expect it will be as big or bigger than last weekend's Battle of Los Angeles in California. Chikara continues its tradition of running the show in Easton, Pennsylvania, a great site with tons of room for them to jam the thousand plus fans that will show up for the three day affair.
This year, the regular factions of Chikara were rearranged due to the Challenge of the Immortals tournament. Instead of most of Chikara's regular trios, the teams are based around the COTI teams, which leads to break ups of long running groups like The Osirian Portal and The Colony. I'll run down all the teams as I look at their first round tournament matches.
VICE Magazine recently profiled Sara Del Rey in a great article, but that isn't the first time the online institution looked at her involvement in wrestling.
In September of last year, they did a profile on the Ashes of Chikara era of the promotion, where the company fell off the map due to the works of Condor Security and The Flood. It was a grand and odd storytelling element in a company known for the weird and woolly. Writer Tom Breihan captures it well.
