This was a Block A match in the 12 Large Summit to determine the first CHIKARA Grand Champion.
More importantly, it’s the final chapter in one of the great rivalries in independent wrestling history.
The sole oft-repeated Claudio Castagnoli match up that was ever any better than this is El Generico, which is to say that in order to top the chemistry between Castagnoli and Quackenbush, it took one of the single greatest pairings in the history of the medium. Like with those two, it’s a natural fit because just by standing in front of each other, you can find out everything about these two as characters. Claudio is tall, muscular, and very loud in his arrogance. Quackenbush is normal sized, slight, and while he doesn’t lack for confidence, it’s a much quieter and more assured thing.
Stylistically, it’s the same idea, they’re a perfect contrast for all the same reasons. A less educated person might say that you’ll see a lot of the Castagnoli/Generico trademarks between these two, but the more accurate statement is that the Castagnoli/Quackenbush series invented the way Claudio approaches smaller wrestlers. The difference with these two isn’t just a natural chemistry, but it’s that like when he’s against Hero, Claudio always seems like he has something to prove to Quackenbush down on the ground as well in a way that only a student/teacher pairing could ever really achieve in a believable way. It also isn’t entirely a spectacle based on Quackenbush overcoming the size of Castagnoli in these sensational ways like when Claudio wrestles a Generico or Matt Sydal or PAC, there’s also a science to it that you don’t often get in other matches like this. Quackenbush does what he has to do against this behemoth, but that’s not who he is, and it’s much more about this attempt to trap Castagnoli.
All that being said, I would not recommend this being your first Castagnoli/Quackenbush match. Ideally, this is the last one that a newer fan would watch, assuming they ignore the disappointing Ring of Honor match these two had in 2007, where Gabe tried to capitalize on the pairing while never allowing them to actually show why the pairing was so hot to begin with. Those matches from 2005 through 2008 or so are these sensational displays, and this is something much more grounded and restrained. Is it still great? Yes. Of course. Is this the best they can do? No, of course not. It’s something of nostalgia based thing, with the course that Claudio winds up taking having more value if you know how out of control and quickly paced those starmaking matches were, and ideally, if you experienced them and hold them as this integral part of your independent wrestling fandom. Of course, they are professionals who don’t rely on that necessarily, and it works either way. Quackenbush outmaneuvers Castagnoli initially, so the monster throws him into things and works over the body to grind him down, until finally, he cannot. It’s a very simple thing, and even in a far far different match than the ones they became famous for together, it’s a match you can have dropped in front of you with no context and still get something out of. To watch wrestling matches without any sort of context is insane, but these two make it easy.
It is still a very restrained match from a pairing not known for that though, and I can see it being a disappointment. It feels weird to me to call a great match a disappointment, but it is what it is. Claudio is playing it safe with a month left on the indies, and it’s a completely understandable decision. Quackenbush is an older man now, and less interested in wild things than he used to be. On a purely physical level, with Claudio having put on a significant amount of mass since their last one on one meeting, things are a little more awkward than they used to be too. And while he tries his best and hardly embarrasses himself, a match that spends so much time with rib work isn’t really something Quackenbush excels at like he might with an arm or the back. Still, there are things that work. There are a million little things that work. Even when they hold back and make not-perfect choices in what this match consists of, the match innately works because these two connect so well with each other.
The match ends with a series of old bits, after spending the match avoiding them. Claudio’s improved so much, but his undoing is what it always is and will be, resting on his physical gifts and being flustered when confronted with someone having greater scientific mastery than him. Quackenbush breaks out the old backflip off Claudio’s shoulders to block the pop up, before adapting his La Mistica perfectly into the CHIKARA Special. It was enough to conclude CHIKARA’s first great feud four years ago, and it’s enough to beat Claudio as well.
Barring an unfortunate decision or some kind of miracle, this is the last match these two will ever have. It’s carried out with that sort of knowledge, these odes to the past where it counts, but with an emphasis on who these two are now. You can’t change what they meant to each other, to CHIKARA fans, and to CHIKARA as a whole, but to backslide into that solely for the sake of easy nostalgia would be a cop out. Instead, it’s a match about that experience getting them where they are now. It’s about Claudio having to get bigger and stronger to compete with who Quackenbush was, it’s about Quackenbush having to dig back into that well of old fancy tricks at the end, and ultimately, it’s an easygoing sort of thing, a match that feels lived in already. I don’t love it like I love something like the 2006 Ted Petty Invitational match or the August 2005 match, but it’s still such an easy thing to sit back and enjoy.
This isn’t the best they can do, but in something of a recurring theme in summer 2011, it’s a fun epilogue for people who’ve finished the book already.
***
HANDWERK 