Chuck Taylor/Johnny Gargano vs. Fire Ant/Soldier Ant, CHIKARA Joshimania Night One (12/2/2011)

This was for Nu FIST/Ronin’s CHIKARA Campeonatos Des Parejas.

Fauxhawk era John Boy is particularly upsetting, but FIST vs. Colony delivers in spite of him. Chuck’s practiced with these guys to the point that everything they do together has a little extra polish to it. Chuck’s better against Fire and Soldier than he is against most other wrestlers.

Still, Johnny Gargano is in this match, so it’s got quite the floor on it. CHIKARA had a way of getting the best out of some bad wrestlers though, and this is streamlined as effectively as possible. Dustin also takes most of the load on his shoulders, leaving Gargano with the job of only hitting his little bits and then getting out of there and letting the professionals work.

The match is interesting too because it takes the idea of a match splitting up traditionally into thirds (shine or back and forth or whatever/control work/finishing run) and divides the falls up along those lines. Fake/Nu FIST takes the first fall early through pure chicanery, and it’s a transition to control. That work in command of Soldier Ant lasts for the entire second fall and the second fall only. Soldier Ant cradles Big Dust to even the match up, and Fire Ant’s entry to start the final fall is the start of the finishing run. That’s not the best work they can do (and this is where John Boy kind of hamstrings everyone else around him, because he is clearly not as good as the others), but it picks up in the final moments when Fire Ant makes it a leg selling match. It’s the sort of thing that could have added a lot to the entire match if it was introduced earlier, but it’s still magnificent work.

Big Dust beats the third greatest babyface of all time with the Killer Crab that beat the second once upon a time.

Nothing anybody needs to see, but full transparency, I watched this solely to help with Fire Ant’s top 25 WOTY case so it was entirely worth my time. He’s gonna make it, especially when he can almost single handedly make a John Gargano match outside of a 2013-16 peak (by peak, i mean “not bad actually somehow wtf???”) not total dogshit. The most underrated wrestler of the decade.

***

 

Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant), CHIKARA Creatures From The Tar Swamp (3/13/2011)

This was for Quack and Jigsaw’s CHIKARA Campeonatos Des Parejas, and accordingly, a best two of three falls match. 

This is the semi main event, but it’s an all time babyface vs. babyface CHIKARA dream tag. Like the other title matches in this reign, it’s a brutally efficient match. Quack gets right into it with Soldier Ant and goes directly into some harder mat stuff, directly putting The Colony in a more sympathetic role, or at least clearly shaping the match with him working directly from above. The first fall is entirely Quackenbush vs. Soldier Ant, which is really interesting and novel. In addition to simply being good as hell, it constantly pushes the story forward. Quack tries to get Solider to go to the ropes or tag out or something to admit defeat, but he hangs tough, and surprises Quack with a chickenwing into a crucifix pin to go 1-0! Quack’s facial selling is again top notch, and pushes the entire thing up just a little bit. He’s pissed, surprised, but also just a little bit impressed. 

He starts the second fall with so much more urgency and a little desperation too. Fire Ant and Jigsaw are able to pick up the pace, and it’s a perfect kind of good guys on good guys action. Super fancy and smooth arm drags and headscissors, constantly trying to top each other, and always getting a little bit rougher. Jigsaw is like Quack here, just a little outmanned at the approach he takes. Quackenbush stays more aggressive when he gets inside again against Soldier Ant. The troop can’t help but making a mistake, akin to blowing the signing bonus on a Dodge Charger, and he tries the same combination that pinned Quack moments ago. Quackenbush is frustrated and desperate, but he’s still the master, and he blocks it a second time into a modification on a Peterson Roll to put it to 1-1, and getting something back from Soldier Ant. 

It’s in the third fall that they get much more serious. Jigsaw brings the intensity too, and we finally get the big Fire Ant vs. Quackenbush exchanges that you (I) came into this really looking forward to. Quacksnbush suffers damage to the left arm, specifically the elbow or forearm, at a point taking a spill outside. He’s smart enough to sell it for the rest of the match despite The Colony being too respectful to ever go for it, and it adds just a little something extra when he has problems with lifting Fire and Soldier because of it. A few really well executed nearfalls and counters get the match just a little further. There’s one really delightful moment where Quackenbush breaks up the CHIKARA Special on Jigsaw by pulling Soldier Ant into the original CHIKARA Special, which just about sums up this delightful little match. Late in the match, Fire Ant finally does aim some of his kicks at the arm, and the refusal to do it earlier makes it mean just a little something extra when he goes for it here. Jigsaw has to carry it after that, but he has a big big one up his sleeve and defeats Fire Ant after an avalanche-style Torture Rack Bomb.

So many times in these reviews, things don’t age as well as I would have hoped. It’s sort of how it goes. This is the rare reversal of that, the match that’s even better than I remembered. A real epic, but done so efficiently. Virtually no fat on this thing. What isn’t essential to the story is simply just incredibly cool, and it’s this beautiful little pocket epic. The CHIKARA fan’s answer to The Steiners vs. Sting and Lex Luger.

***1/2

Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw vs. The Batiri (Obariyon & Kodama), CHIKARA Caught In A Cauldron of Hate (2/19/2011)

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.

***1/4