Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston, CHIKARA Aniversario Yang (5/24/2009)

The first of three matches they’ll have in 2009 that I intend on covering.

Eddie perfectly lays the stage for what they’re trying to do in a backstage promo. He talks about Claudio beating him the previous November and it being no surprise or shame to him, but he was embarrassed when Claudio didn’t even shake his hand and say “good job” or anything, so in his pain, he wants to humble someone he used to consider a friend but now has a strained relationship. It’s a really grounded story, but it’s also a really interesting and unique one that you don’t often see in wrestling, certainly not with a character as relatable as Eddie Kingston.

The best thing about Eddie Kingston is how expressive he is, so the story and the relationship between them is something that pours out of this from the opening matwork. Eddie is gritting his teeth and trying so hard, while Claudio appears bored. What Eddie has to pour his heart and soul into is something that Claudio couldn’t care less about. Eddie gets hot first and slaps him when Claudio is being a little too casual, so Claudio turns it on and begins punishing him for that. It breaks down completely, and while that sort of thing usually develops longer into a match with a story like this, it’s cool that it happens pretty much immediately here. Claudio continues to go through the motions whenever he’s in control, because it’s all he has to do to regain control and keep Eddie in pain, but Eddie goes all over the place. The most notable change of pace for him is a big Tope, but he also breaks out a Sliding D (before he regularly did thaT), and a Hashimoto kind of leaping DDT.

The match drags some in transition from the middle to final third, but they pick it up a lot at the end. They go back to the well that’s worked successfully so far, as Eddie tries to go right at Claudio and keeps getting rocked. Eddie being who he is, he’d obviously love to humble Claudio in this more direct way, but he can’t. Claudio again proves his might in the same way that led him to a victory in November 2008, but Eddie’s tougher and maybe cagier than to Castagnoli, and he trips him out of nowhere before grabbing an Oklahoma Roll for the win. Not stunning that Eddie Kingston wins, but a surprise that he wins like that.

Not the kind of win Eddie Kingston set out for, but he humiliates Claudio all the same and maybe even moreso than with the sort of victory Kingston would usually go after. Tremendous start to a trilogy.

***1/4