CHIKARA Small But Mighty DVD Review

-Taped from Burlington, NC

-Your hosts are of course various members of the CHIKARA roster and staff.

Match in Five Words or Less: The Ring Is Blue

Match Highlights: Obaryion immediately powders and the awesome Burlington crowd is into this show right away. Some locking up and neither man is willing to break clean.  Hard chops followed by a kick to the back from Jigsaw. Leg lariat. Gory Special followed by an armdrag. Dropkick to Obaryion’s face. Pair of strikes. He tries a springboard but Obaryion catches him in a gutbuster. Strike battle on the floor which Obaryion wins.  More offense from the Batiri member. Chops by Jigsaw. Obaryion applies an octopus like move. Hard forearm in the corner by Obaryion. Springboard dropkick. Obaryion awkwardly drops Jigsaw in a powerslam. Headscissors.  Jigsaw drops Obaryion. Series of kicks. German suplex into a bridge. Obaryion out of a brainbuster INTO THE BACKCRACKER! WOW!  Hesitation springboard dropkick. Jigsaw hits a cutter out of the corner but again only gets two. Referee gets distracted by Obaryion. Jigsaw has to knock Kodama down. Obaryion takes Jigsaw down. Leaping DDT but Jigsaw out of the way. Baseball dropkick. Kick to Obaryion. Double stomp and a three count.

Match Analysis: If you’ve ever watched a Boise St. football field, you will know how awkward it was watching this match. Because of the lighting, the ring looked really blue to the point of distraction. Anyway…the hot and energetic crowd is already making a huge difference. Because they’re actually into matches, what could have been a pedestrian opener is made better. Jigsaw is a pretty consistent performer at this point, but Obaryion continues to improve and is showing a great deal of aptitude in the ring, even as a young performer.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: Jigsaw/9:44/***/***1/4

Match in Five Words or Less: Battle of The Originals

Match Highlights: Hallowicked and Icarus are of course two original CHIKARA students (and former tag team partners during season one) doing battle for the right to possibly wrestle for the CHIKARA Grand Championship. Both men have four points and could still take block A. Icarus threatens to leave but sadly comes back to the dismay of everyone. Speaking of dismay, the jacket again comes off. Can’t he just keep it on? Just once. Please. Feeling out process. Icarus tries kipping up and fails just like does in every other aspect of his life. Hallowicked is able to kip up. Icarus tries again and fails. Icarus tries to take advantage of another kip up attempt. Quick roll-up gets two for Hallowicked. Lucha armdrag. Hallowicked PUTS THE JACKET BACK ON ICARUS! Then he takes him down AND ZIPS IT UP! Five star match. More fun with the jacket. SHENANIGANS! Sunset flip by halloweicked. Jacket comes off. He tosses the jacket and spears Hallowicked for two. The fun ends with Icarus on offense. Frog splash misses badly. Forearm exchange. Step-up hurancanrana by Hallowicked. Neck snap. Go 2 Sleepy Hollow. 1-2-NO! Running boot misses. Icarus crotches himself. Enziguri but Icarus puts his foot on the bottom rope. Icarus hits a sloppy rana into a nearfall. After arguing with the referee, Icarus eventually gets a dropkick. Sliced bread gets two. Fishermen’s buster. Frog splash sort of hits but again Hallowicked kicks out. Blu Ray countered. Yakuza kick by Hallowicked. Icarus hits a Blu Ray and picks up a clean win!

Match Analysis: I have to classify this is a minor upset considering how Icarus had a recent loss to Gregory Iron and hasn’t been much of a factor as a singles wrestler despite his presence in this tournament. I liked a lot of the goofiness surrounding the jacket, and most of the match was solid if unspectacular. From a quality standpoint, this may actually be in the bottom half of 12 LS tournament matches, but it was still enjoyable.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: Icarus/14:16/***/***1/2

-Icarus talks more about garbage about Gregory Iron and says he’s going to prove the man is a fraud. He makes an official challenge for High Noon.

Match in Five Words or Less: Kana Hits REALLY Hard

Match Highlights: Kana comes to the states from the SMASH promotion (as the SMASH Diva’s Champion), and that’s literally all I know about her. I notice Jon Barber is the referee. Is this due to the budding rivalry between Mr. Remsburg and Ms. McKay? For those who don’t know, McKay did the High Noon reports while Bryce does the event centers. And there’s been an argument about who’s cuter/more popular.Moving on,  Kana, who wrestles barefoot despite wearing kickpads, breaks out stiff kicks right away. McKay responds. Stalemate. Kana twists and works over McKay’s ankle.  More hard kicks as Kana continues to focus on McKay’s left leg. Pinning combo out of the corner gets two. Knee to the stomach and drives Kana down. She shakes her leg. McKay up and over out of the corner. Reverse facebuster gets two. Back to the kicks. Sits down on a neckbreaker. Slap by Kana. Mckay misses a kick. Kana with kicks. Series of counters. German suplex and running knee. Backslide counter gets two for McKay. Reverse DDT by Kana. Kick right in the jaw. Series of body kicks. One more RIGHT IN THE FACE! Oh my God. Kana turns a cover into a kimura. She turns into a pure crank of the arm. Cross armbreaker. McKay grabs the bottom rope. Rolls over. Kana sits up and continues cranking the arm. McKay taps.

Match Analysis: I’m not sure if North Carolina has seen anything this stiff in a long time. Kana is borderline ridiculous with her strikes and kicks. They’re hard and vicious. I almost felt sorry for McKay having to take the punishment she did. She certainly came off very sympathetic in a losing effort. Probably too short to be considered “good” but this was quite the spectacle.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: Kana/8:37/**1/2/***

­-A phenomenal Joshimania video package shows. Great music and move choices. It almost makes me interested in seeing the shows despite not knowing many of the competitors.

Match in Five Words or Less: Poor Kobald

Match Highlights: My Lord. I didn’t think anyone would take any more of a beating than Mckay, but we could easily lose poor Kobald on this show. I firmly believe it’s someone’s idea of a rib to continue putting newer guys against Kingston. Kodama takes out Kingston before the match begins. Kobald actually starts out on top! Kodama continues to cheat quite liberally. Big boot from Kingston. Uh oh. Northern lights suplex. Kobald brings the referee down. Kodama grabs Kingston’s leg. Spear by Kobald gets two. To the outside. Kingston fires a hard chop. A second one along the apron. Why would you do that Eddie? More chops in the ring. Kobald ducks a charge and hits a running knee. Flying leg drop misses. Whoops. Hard strikes but Kobald keeps getting up like a moron. Whip to the corner.running boot in the face. Dropkick to the corner. Kobald tries entering the ring. Referee restrains him. Kobald from behind with a spear. After a two count, Kobald heads up top. Back fist sends Kodama down and out. LARIAT on Kobald. Back Fist to the Future. Good night Kobald.

Match Analysis: This was just an excuse to Kingston on the card and get him another victory. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this concept. Sometimes you put a main event guy in with a low card guy for the express purpose of getting the main event guy a win. In this case, it makes the fans happy since a babyface won, and Kobald looks better for surviving a beating.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: Eddie Kingston/7:04/**/***

-Quack calls Del Rey a fantastic wrestler but makes it clear he’s the master of human chess.

Match in Five Words or Less: Quack Joins Kingston

Match Highlights: Both have six points. Whoever wins this match takes block A and joins Eddie Kingston in the main event of High Noon. The crowd seems to be behind Del Rey. Quack is interested in using mat wrestling while Del Rey is of course wanting to strike. Quack tries to play her game and gets hit with a series of chops, headbutts, and kicks. Quack turns things around with a dropkick to Del Rey’s right knee. He pounces. Quack relentlessly works on the knee. Del Rey grabs a waistlock, avoids a kick, and school boys Quack into the corner. He regains his bears and twists her up, even grabbing Del Rey’s left arm. Reverse cloverleaf into a butterfly. He tosses her down and gets a two count. Tosses her over. Senton misses. Series of counters. Del Rey gets a crucifix for two. Quack steps right on her knee. Back to work on it. Quack applies a modified STF. Del Rey rammed into the corner. Quack misses a charge. Series of forearms. Kick sends Quack down. Quack applies an ankle lock. Del Rey brings him over. Northern lights suplex but the bridge doesn’t work since Del Rey’s knee is hurt. She slowly applies a butterfly. Kick by Quack. Into just a plain old knee bar modifier. Elbows to Quack’s forehead.  Combo kick gets two. Butterfly locked in. Up and over. Del Rey can’t make the cover in time. Piledriver attempt but Quack kicks her in the head. Kick to Del Rey’s knee. What an awful sound. Del Rey small packages Quack for two. Palm strike into a stretch muffler even as he continues cranking the knee. Del Rey taps.

Match Analysis:  A fabulous match between these two. This is a match of major significance since the winner was going to wrestle for the CHIKARA Grand Championship. Quack worked over a body part for the entire match and eventually won by submission. He won using a hold he rarely uses, but it worked because of how much work he did on Del Rey’s knee. The crowd was also really into this throughout. There was a definite sense that they actually embraced this exchange of holds and the slower pace.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: Mike Quackenbush/15:00/****/****

-Quackenbush and Kingston stare each other down and exchange words after the match since they’ll be wrestling at High Noon.

Match in Five Words or Less: The Never Ending Feud Continues!

Match Highlights: Green Ant wants Tursas, but he has to settle for Delirious instead. Not much of a feeling out process.  Everyone slowly ends up being tossed outside until it’s Green Ant and Tursas left. Just as Green Ant is about to take control, the rest of the BDK make the save. Delirious and Fire Ant are the only ones left in the ring as Green Ant’s partners make the save. Tursas sends Fire Ant out. Tursas and Soldier Ant battle. Ophidian gets in a head stand. Jakob isn’t sure how to react. Comedy ensues. Jakob dancing is worth the price of the DVD alone. Death Grip but Donst breaks it up. He ends up in one of his own. Tursas breaks the hold, but Ophidian applies the Death Grip on him. STDonst and thee BDK take full control.  Donst hits a series of gutwrench suplexes with help from his partners. That was creative if nothing else.  Ophidian has to battle all members of the BDK. Green Ant takes two members out. Tursas takes a head out of the ring. Plancha from Green Ant. Double boots by Soldier and Fire on Donst. Flap jack on Jakob. Ants Go Marching. Delirious with kicks on Fire. Soldier saves his partner. Triple dropkick sends Delirious into the corner. Antapault broken up by Tursas. The rest of the BDK drag Soldier and Green out. All eight men take turns hitting various finishers. Ophidian locks in a Death Grip. Donst slowly climbs up and hits a death valley driver off the top for two. Face plant for Ophidian. Twisting dive on Donst. Forearm exchange back in the ring. Soldier and Green finally take Delirious and Jakob out. Antapault! Tursas clotheslines Soldier. He says Green Ant is dead. Green Any chops the big man down. STDONST! Ophidian hits double knees out of nowhere and gets two. Six men continue brawling. Donst hits a facecrusher and locks in a new submission of some sort.  Sort of a version of the Rings of Saturn. Ophidian has no choice but to tap.

Match Analysis: Good little match from these eight as these sorts of tag team matches tend to work out well for CHIKARA. Also worth noting Donst tapped Ophidian out and not any of the Colony members. Thus, the BDK got to look strong but the Colony feud can still simmer… for what reason, I’m not sure. But hey. Storyllines were addressed and this was a fun match.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: BDK/16:37/***1/4/***1/2

-Before the scheduled UltraMantis Black/Archibald Peck match, Bryce Remsburg dashes out with a cell phone to say Gerard has had travel issues and that Mantis has won himself two points. This now means with a win and some help, Mantis could make High Noon a three way dance. Mantis still wants to wrestle, and thankfully there is a man in the back waiting for an opportunity to compete… MARCH ARCHIE! Peck introduces the audience to his new mascot, a present for Veronica really, Colt Cabunny. And here he is in all his glory:

-Mantis says he didn’t come all the way to North Carolina to disappoint his followers. Kick to the gut. Cabunny elbows Mantis! AND HE HAS A CARROT IN HIS HAND! Bell rings and we have…

-UltraMantis Black vs. Archibald Peck (w/Veronica and Colt Cabunny)

Match in Five Words or Less: That’s Not Vin Gerard       

Match Highlights: Series of clotheslines finishing with a running version. Peck low bridges, teases a dive, and marches. Clothesline takes both men out of the ring. Just as Mantis is about to nail Peck with a chair, he puts Veronica in front of him. He kicks the chair in Mantis’ face. Elbow drop on the apron. Running blockbuster gets two back in the ring. Elbow drop hits two. A second is met with Mantis’ boot. Whip to the corner. Peck sends Mantis into the post shoulder first. Running boot doesn’t end well. Suplex battle on the apron. Preying Mantis Bomb, but Cabunny makes the save. Running dive off the apron. Peck sent into chairs. Drop toehold by Peck. Mantis back drops Peck on the entrance ramp. When did this become a hardcore match? Crowd chants “Kill the bunny.” How rude. Peck splits Mantis’ legs on the top rope. Mantis into a Finlay Roll off the top. 1-2-NO! Cosmic doom countered into a modified slam by Peck. Cranial Crescendo misses. Cosmic Doom finally hits and Mantis picks up the win.

Match Analysis: Not a great match by any means but this was okay. Peck has been more entertaining than Gerard anyway, so I guess I’m almost glad we got this instead. Plus, Colt Cabunny is adorable.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: UltraMantis Black/8:28/**1/4/**1/2

-Gargano makes jokes and says Osaka Pro will need Burlington coats for their funerals. Chucky T says it shall be done in two straight falls.

Match in Five Words or Less: Dragon Gate Versus Osaka Pro?

Match Highlights: Icarus comes out with the champions, perhaps to remind everyone they’re still a trio? Bryce does ask him to leave. Harada and Kotoge are the current Osaka Pro tag team champions, so this is a battle of champions. These two teams (in modified forms) have battled in the quarterfinals of the last two King of Trios. Some early quickness from Gargano and Harada. Gargano seeks consolation from his partner. Kotoge and Taylor come in next. Feeling out process continues as Quack brings up both active CHIKARA titles potentially being in Japan. Boots take Kotoge down in the corner. Kotoge responds with boots of his own. F.I.S.T use chicanery and slow Kotoge down. Boots out of the corner by Kotoge, but Taylor is sure to knock Harada off the apron. Doesn’t matter as Kotoge hits a flying acecrusher. Harada gets on the offensive and dropkicks Gargano as he comes in with the spear. Running forearms in the corner. Bodyslam and double stomp for two. Harada with a dive off the apron. Kotoge and Taylor remain in the ring. HEADBUTT! OH…MY…GOD! Moonsault misses. Gargano pretends he was hit by a low blow. Remsburg doesn’t buy it. Taylor from behind with a school boy. He holds the tights (ala Trios from this year) and F.I.S.T wins the first fall in 9:38. Gargano is set outside. Double team on Taylor. Spear/springboard moonsault hit by F.I.S.T. Dropkick on both men from Kotoge. He goes for a dive, but Taylor waffles him with a chair shot on the way down. Now they focus on Harada. Harada ducks a charge. He hits an exploder that sends F.I.S.T into each other. Kotoge is still not in the corner. Bodyslam and a elbow drop off the top on Gargano. 1-2-NO! Taylor knees Harada from behind. He holds on to him. Kotoge dropkicks Taylor off the apron. Harada drops Gargano’s head on his knee. Superkick on Gargano. German suplex from Harada gets three and we’re tied at one fall per team in 15:15. All four men battle in the ring. Osaka Pro with some sweet double team combinations. They nearly get three on Taylor at least twice. Gargano saves Taylor but becomes victim to more double teaming.Gargano out of the doomsday device. Superkick on Kotoge. Roll over and kick to Harada’s head. Acecrusher ducked. Lawn dart by Gargano. Assisted acecrusher for two. Harada sends the partners into each other. Uranagi on Kotoge. Overhead suplex by Harada. Flying knee by Gargano. Spike DDT by Kotoge. All four are down yet again.  Forearm exchange between Harada and Gargano. Gargano hits a trio of superkicks. Harada hits one more hard forearm and gets two. Taylor breaks the count and hits a superkick on Kotoge. Taylor tries to introduce a chain. German suplex by Harada. Bryce would have counted three, but Icarus breaks the count. Kotoge dives on him. Icarus still pulls Bryce his way. Harada from behind with a right hand. Gargano decks Harada with championship belt. 1-2-NO! Kick by Kotoge. More sheningans with Bryce. Icarus brings Kotoge down. Combination of moves ending with the Herts Doughnut gets F.I.S.T the victory.

Match Analysis: This was by far the busiest match of the night. Crowd was really into hating F.I.S.T and liking Osaka Pro, especially amazing since this is the first time Kotoge and Harada had never been in Burlington before. Very good action throughout the match. Even with the interference and underhanded tactics being used, at least the heat was always on F.I.S.T and not a referee. An exciting and compelling way to end an excellent show. An really well done 20 minute sprint.

Winner (s)/Time/Match Rating/Entertainment Rating: STILL Campeones de Parejas- F.I.S.T/22:43/***1/2/***1/2

-FAVE Five

5. They’re great performers, but Kotoge and Harada were pretty much the babyface foils on this night. Nonetheless, it’s always good to watch them wrestle… and hear that pesky, catchy theme song.

4. Obaryion continues to show improvement in the ring, and I bet we see him in a lot more singles matches moving forward. A lot of this will depend on Kodama’s improvement, but Obaryion could be a singles cornerstone in CHIKARA sooner than you might think.

3. Mike Quackenbush doesn’t seem to get the credit he deserves for being one of the best wrestlers on the planet, but he certainly showed off why that is it the case on this night. He worked a safe, solid, and competent match with Del Rey. It was a bit of a preview of his match with Kingston. If you love storytelling, you loved this 12 LS match.

2.  As talented as Gargano and Taylor are, they need to be given credit for their work as pure heels in CHIKARA. They’re able to use their usual offense but still generate heat and get booed. I expect a great deal out of this title reign moving forward.

1. Special props have to be given to the Burlington crowd for bringing heat once again. This was an excellent show anyway, but the crowd being with every match helped significantly. It made the wrestlers’ job easier and they could have more fun.

-The Verdict: The first Burlington show seemed designed to please the live crowd and no one else. A skeleton crew put on one of the weaker CHIKARA 2011 shows back in May. Thanks to a large, active crowd the first time around, CHIKARA came back a second time with a full load of talent ready to deliver. They managed to put on an excellent show, top to bottom one of the better shows of the year. A little something for everyone could be found here. An easy thumbs up from me for Small but Mighty.

For more information in CHIKARA Pro, including tickets and event information, please check their website. While you can purchase DVDs there as well, you can also purchase their DVDs on Smart Mark Video. To get a great sense of history and participate in discussion of the company, check out their official messageboard. One thing the promotion does really well? Videos. They have frequent (almost daily) updates on their YouTube channel.

As someone relatively new to reviewing these shows and not nearly the CHIKARA fan as certain others, even I need to look up information and have a good CHIKARA resource. I can can think of no better place to do this and also read exclusive reviews of every CHIKARA show in history than at The CHIKARA Special. Kevin Ford maintains this little blog and also updates a CHIKARA Special Tumblr with news and videos nearly every day.

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