Chikara High Noon Review

I mentioned Chikara briefly in another post but I thought I would review the show I watched this weekend and go into it a little more.

Chikara is an American independent wrestling promotion that operates primarily out of PA. It has branched out over the years to more and more Mid-West states. The style is primarily based on lucha libre. That means that a lot of the roster wear masks and wrestle a more high flying style. The promotion is also largely comedy based and a lot of the characters are ridiculous and the angles are comic bookish or just silly. Chikara has existed for about 10 years now. I've followed it pretty heavily for about 5 of those years. The DVDs used to be $20 a piece so following wasn't easy. Thankfully, the DVD price has gone down to $15 and has made getting a few shows here and there a lot easier on my wallet.

Anyways, High Noon was the first Chikara iPPV (internet Pay-Per-View) ever and it was a highly successful show. This show was also the first time that Chikara had crowned a singles champion for their promotion. I unfortunately missed the iPPV live but I had been dying to get the DVD. Well, I finally bought it and got to watch it. So here we go...

Jigsaw d. El Generico

This was a high flying affair. It was a pretty short match and it was action packed. This was a good pre-show match as it got the crowd pretty worked up for the show.

Fire Ant and Soldier Ant d. Young Bucks

Both teams came into this match with 2 pts. (you need 3 pts. to earn a title shot, this means you have to win three matches in a row). The early goings where mostly comedy based as the Bucks were frustrated by the antics of the Ants. Things turned into a really fun hard hitting match. The end was really great as the Bucks went for their finisher More Bang For Your Buck and Soldier Ant managed to evade the move and got the win after rolling up his opponent. This match reminded me why I love the Colony so much in Chikara.

Sara Del Ray d. Jakob Hammermeier

This wasn't really much of a match really. It was enjoyable enough I guess.

Green Ant d. Tursas

This was to settle a long term grudge and I loved this match. It was just a brutal hate filled match as both men seemed like they were out to cause harm to the other. At one point Green Ant couldn't turn Tursas for a Texas Cloverleaf and just started kicking him in the back until he finally turned. It was a really cool visual and really showed the complete disdain these two had for each other.

Colt Cabana d. Archibald Peck

This match was pretty much pure comedy. Peck tried attacking Colt before the match and at one point came off the top rope and crashed to the mat when Colt bent over to pick up his towel. This match was hilarious from start to finish as Peck was constantly thwarted by the antics of Colt.

Icarus d. Gregory Iron

This match was okay but kind of forgettable.

Spectral Envoy d. Ares and Tim Donst

This was one of those garbage brawls that you used to see in ECW or the WWF around 1999 and 2000. These guys brawled through the building. The stipulations to the match gave the ending away but this was a fun brawl. Ultramantis Black really shined in this one.

Eddie Kingston d. Mike Quackenbush to win the Grand Championship of Chikara

Great main event here. Both men gave off the impression that they wanted the belt bad. Kingston was playing up that he injured his knee and Mike worked a little heel to get the fans solidly behind Kingston. Kingston got the win after just unloading on Mike at the end to become the first ever Grand Champion of Chikara.

I'll be honest here. I've never found a Chikara show that I didn't enjoy on some level. But I loved this show. This show got me excited for the product and my first reaction was to want to watch more Chikara. This show had it all. Hard hitting main event style, garbage brawls, grudge matches, lucha libre, comedy and spotfests. It kept you on your toes from start to finish.