This was for Quackenbush and Jigsaw’s CHIKARA Campeonatos Des Parejas, and as such, was under best of three fall rules.
The Batiri are two young recent grads, working some sort of borderline occult goblin gimmick, facepaint, cheating, aggression and the like. There’s not a lot of tape on them, so Quackenbush and his boy work a more directly offensive style against them early on. Jigsaw is not anywhere near as careful as Quack and winds up with his leg wrapped over the middle rope after a move JUST long enough for The Batiri to take advantage of it and hurt it. They’re still a little inexperienced and don’t directly go after it. It’s hard to tell if it’s intentional or not, but it’s such a great little bit to get that wrinkle over. It’s still enough to stop Jigsaw from being able to fight back effectively, and Obariyon just PLANTS him with a Flying DDT to go 1-0.
Jigsaw is both hurt and injured, so Quack tries to storm in. The Batiri gets him out immediately, and now goes after the leg much more consistently. Jigsaw is smart enough to continually roll out and get Quackenbush in, but the Batiri learns about it the more it happens, and they start to plan against it. Each control period on Jigsaw gets longer and a little meaner, but he still just knows more, and he’s able to grab a Peterson Roll out of nowhere to get to 1-1. In the confusion, Quackenbush and Jigsaw can switch places and like “real” lucha, it’s the third fall where things really begin to happen and where the match is made. The Batiri never quite lived up to their rookie potential, but they’re simple heels doing simple and aggressive heel offense. Quackenbush can do a lot with them, and the leg of Jigsaw adds an element to this that helps so much. He’s not a big time limb seller, historically, but he has a number of wonderful little moments of it here. Quack goes big very quickly once he can get a chance, and defeats one of the little goblin perverts with a rare avalanche-style Quackendriver.
Did The Batiri deserve a title match main event so early into their careers? Probably not. They had one though, and it’s hard to imagine a better Batiri match. None of their future weaknesses were on display here at all, a masterful display of construction by Quackenbush, selling by Jigsaw, and efficiency by everybody involved. If you for some reason have to watch one Batiri match, this is the one.
HANDWERK 