This was for CHIKARA’s Grand Championship.
These two had one of the best feuds of the year in 2007, but outside of the brief Incoherence vs. Roughnecks feud in 2008-9 (which focused much more on Brodie Lee vs. Hallowicked), they’ve barely touched since then. Kingston’s reinvention since then as the blue collar face of the company gives this an entirely new feeling, so it may as well be a first time ever match. The value of booking with even just a little care is that you can just throw this out in a semi-main on a big show without a ton of build, and it still feels like a big deal.
It helps that Eddie Kingston recently hurt his right hand and wrist and has a soft cast on too from injuring a tendon punching a mirror. Real relatable stuff, that CHIKARA adapted and turned into a bigger deal and part of the story of King slowly losing his way and being corrupted by the responsibility of the Grand Title. Either way, know that I love that shit. Read the masthead.
It’s definitely limited and a step or three behind their two excellent 2007 singles matches (Aniversario? and Chapter 11, if you’re interested) because he’s real incapacitated with only one hand. So much of Eddie Kingston’s game comes from being able to use the right hand. The slaps, chops, all of that that he just can’t do. This is almost definitely a better match if he’s 100% healthy, although it’s a far far different match, because Kingston goes with it. It’s the great thing about Eddie Kingston and part of why he feels realer than 99% of other wrestlers ever, because he rarely ever lies to you. If he does, it’s based in something real and done well enough that it feels completely genuine, which is good enough for a genre of entertainment based on lying in the first place. People know about the hand injury, people can see the cast on, it would be stupid NOT to do something with it.
Kingston just has the one hand, his non-dominant left, and it’s incredibly interesting to see him adapt, and impressive as hell to see how well he adapts. At this point, I don’t think you need me to tell you that Eddie Kingston is one of the best ever, but it’s such a remarkable performance. He throws shots from the left to little effect, and starts headbutting the chest and neck in positions when he’s otherwise slapping or chopping with the right. Really cool stuff. Something I love about a guy like Bret or Punk or Bryan or whoever is that there’s a reason for everything they seem to do. It’s always more stately and dignified than the stuff Eddie Kingston is doing here, but it works in a similar way, there’s always a thought put into and a reason behind the choices that he makes. Selling the for real injury isn’t all that hard, but Eddie makes a ton out of it, and they build up to Hallowicked finally going to the bad hand and wrist really well. It’s another of these face/face CHIKARA matches to deal with a similar theme of a known Eddie Kingston weakness that someone is initially unwilling to go after because it isn’t morally correct, before they get desperate when King starts beating their ass. It’s one of my favorite CHIKARA subgenres. This is one of the lesser entries into it, but it’s still a super interesting and endearing match.
In the end, Eddie is forced to use the fucked up hand. Without it, he loses the title that’s now pretty much consumed his entire life. He is CHIKARA, and as it starts to crumble, Eddie crumbles with it. Eddie’s capable of just exactly enough to hang on, hurling Hallowicked on his stem with a Backdrop Driver, and using the left hand for a Backfist to the Future, coming from behind Hallowicked and around his neck to hit from an unexpected angle for the win.
Really only the third best meeting between these two, but one of the more interesting Kingston performances in a career full of incredibly interesting performances.
***1/4
HANDWERK 