Claudio Castagnoli vs. Eddie Kingston, CHIKARA Young Lions Cup VII Night Three (8/16/2009)

Claudio takes the pre-match backstage interview this time, and like Eddie did in May, he sets the tone. Claudio says just because he respects Kingston’s talent, doesn’t mean he respects him, and calls him a street thug, while he is a “true” athlete. Claudio’s been the picture of class and civility in CHIKARA since he left the Kings of Wrestling in 2007, so to have just one loss bring something this ugly out of him is a great little bit.

Like in May, the promo sets the tone for the match, and it’s something I appreciate so much a decade later, when that doesn’t really happen much anymore. Claudio rushes Eddie to start, and forces him onto the mat, and he’s far from casual now. He eats Eddie up, and while you could argue that he did that early on in their first match of the year, it feels like it’s something he’s now making a direct point of. Eddie rolls outside and while it doesn’t seem like he’s trying to bait Claudio outside, he does take advantage of it and uses his surroundings to get an opening that he couldn’t get on his own. He’s more dominant after that, and much more dominant than he was at any point in May. There’s an argument to be made that this loses something because Eddie isn’t fighting from underneath as much, but I liked it even more because of that. As great as that was, this has something even more interesting to me, as Kingston fights harder and gets nastier and meaner. Claudio’s been beaten now, and he’s fighting to hang onto whatever he gained. Claudio’s maybe revealed that he’s never going to respect Eddie Kingston anyways, so he no longer seems concerned about more than that. On top of that, he’s armed now with the knowledge that he CAN beat Claudio, when he never had before.

Eddie goes to the trip and Oklahoma Roll when Claudio begins bombing him out, but it fails. Claudio lights him up after that, and he’s now the one using pieces of offense he doesn’t normally do. He does a bicycle knee here years back when that was inventive, and hurls Eddie around over and over. Kingston isn’t selling an emotion this time so much as exhaustion and suffering, but he does just as well with that. He’s dead on his feet, but escapes the final Ricola Bomb into the Backfist to the Future and then a Backdrop Driver. Claudio is able to roll outside, and Eddie MAYBE has the count out, but he decides he wants a real win to really put a period on the sentence and win 2-0. He tries a shoulderblock off the apron but Claudio ducks and Eddie eats shit. Claudio’s able to pull himself in before the twenty count, and he wins.

Claudio set out to get his win back and prove the fluke, and that a real wrestler always beats a street thug like Eddie Kingston. He had his way with him and eventually won, it’s not a victory he can be happy with at all. Eddie loses, but gets the moral victory. Claudio gets his win back but can only say now that Eddie Kingston beat himself. Two matches in a row now where someone sets out for a certain type of victory,but fails to get it and has to settle for a win where the only solace is how mad it makes the other.

Everything a sequel should be in wrestling, improving on the original and continuing the story in a really interesting way, while still leaving so much on the table.

***1/2