Claudio Castagnoli vs. Mike Quackenbush, CHIKARA Chikarasaurus Rex: King of Sequel N1 (7/30/2011)

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.

***

 

 

 

 

Mike Quackenbush vs. Ophidian, CHIKARA A Demon in His Pocket (6/25/2011)

This was a Block A match in the 12 Large Summit.

Quackenbush once again leads a student by the hand and has a really fun match. Stunning. Ophidian is in the tournament to replace a hurt Amasis, who may never wrestle again. As such, Quackenbush prepares for Ophidian to be a singles wrestler and goes out of his way to try and make him as legitimate as possible in one match, while still going over because round robin tournaments are so intricately plotted out. A display of technique leads to bigger bombs, but with the wonderful little touch of Quackenbush continuing to sell his arm here and there for the rest of the match because of Ophidian’s work on it. This would have been a great match without it, but it’s a small little touch like that which makes it into something a little bit better than even that.

In his quest to help out, Quackenbush gifts Ophidian nearfalls off of both the QD3 and QD4, before winning with an avalanche-style Black Tornado Slam. It’s a little much and obviously doesn’t take, as Ophidian isn’t quite good enough to be at that level yet, but it’s a really admirable effort.

As good of a Quackenbush showcase as anything else, because it’s not like Ophidian is having matches this good by himself all the time, if he ever even approached having a match as good as this again.

***1/4

Mike Quackenbush vs. Hallowicked, CHIKARA Aniversario & His Amazing Friends (5/21/2011)

This was part of the 12 Large Summit, to determine the first ever CHIKARA Grand Champion. It also happened to be the first match in the tournament.

A classic sort of student vs. teacher fight. Quackenbush is mild mannered and confident, but like in the delightful performance defending the tag titles against The Colony in March, the veneer slips when his student begins one upping him after maybe taking it a little too casually. Quack breaks out some new tricks, modifies some older ones, and gets meaner when he has to.

Quack’s a true blue babyface, but his best work tends to come in these face/face match ups, where he’s able to straddle the line better than almost every peer he’s ever had, arguably even the greatest wrestler of all time. Quack has some particularly nasty stuff to pull out of the bag of tricks when he decides to kill some time working over Hallowicked’s arm. Hallowicked has a lot of trouble with it and tries to just use his right arm, to limited success. He can’t do a lot of the things he normally does, so he adapts and uses some of Quack’s stuff and starts to predict what he’ll do. Quack never gets cocky, it’s not in his nature, but when you work with someone for nine years and they trained you, you learn things, and when they fight over cradles, Hallowicked innovates a combination of a prawn hold and a European Clutch, and pulls off one of his biggest singles wins ever.

Hallowicked is as good as he always is in this match, and he sticks with the arm damage through most of the match in a most admirable fashion, but sometimes Quackenbush is just ON and intent on reminding you that he’s an all time great. Nothing to be done about it.

***1/4

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/Hallowicked/Frightmare vs. BDK (Claudio Castagnoli/Sara Del Rey/Tim Donst), CHIKARA Operation Big Freeze (3/12/2011)

It’s a b show main event tag match, but it’s also four of the best wrestlers in the company and also Tim Donst and Frightmare. A good guiding principle with this stuff is that if one side has Mike Quackenbush on it and the other has Claudio Castagnoli on it, you watch it. 

The story here is the slow implosion of the BDK following a loss of power. Tim Donst and Sara Del Rey both have things to prove to Castagnoli, vying for a larger role. Donst also keeps calling out Hallowicked, and that doesn’t become a big issue until the next year, but it’s not nothing. The first third or so is classic CHIKARA tag work, harkening back to the last time before this storyline where Quack and Claudio were on opposite sides so frequently. A lot of forced miscommunication, tecnico evasions leading to the rudos hitting each other, all of that. BDK control work is as good as it can be. Donst is a weak link, but Claudio and Del Rey are both terrific, bullying around Quackenbush and Frightmare. Donst is rougher in the finishing run too, as it starts to become apparent by now that he might just never live up to that rookie year. 

Ultimately, the match isn’t all it could be because of that. Great little microcosm here to help explain CHIKARA’s fall from being one of the best wrestling companies in the world from 2007-11. Four to five great wrestlers perfectly set the stage, and Donst isn’t good enough to hold up his end and make the most of it. Always a step slow or a step behind, even in his better moments. Comes off sometimes in this push as CHIKARA’s version of a developmental failson, who sticks around out of some adherence to the sunken cost fallacy. Still, in this specific match, everyone else does a good enough job that he can’t hinder it too much. Classic CHIKARA finish where Claudio and Del Rey get pinned back in the corner while Donst is up top. Hallowicked runs up the backs of Quack and Frightmare to get up top for a avalanche-style Fisherman’s Buster for the win. 

Nice sort of send them home happy b show main event six man. There are thousands of worse matches.

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

Mike Quackenbush vs. Tyler Bate, FCP Internacional Tecnico (11/29/2019)

Tyler Bate does far worse against the other half of the Superheroes than he did against the first.

Right off the bat, this match is not for me. The target audience for this match is someone who respects Quack, but loves Tyler Bate. I love Mike Quackenbush, and I tolerate Tyler Bate. The match sees Quack torturing Bate for a long stretch and while the performance is incredible and very lively, it inspires nothing in me, because I do not care for this man. It works on the crowd very well though, so hey, whatever. For his part, Quackenbush is tremendous here. The Billy Roc performance was one thing, but with this, he’s finding a way onto any list I may or may not publish. He grows more and more frustrated with Tyler on the mat early on, and eventually takes a surprising amount of joy in tearing up the knee of the wunderkind. The work down there is phenomenal. So many cool holds and nasty little tricks, it’s among the best limbwork segments of the year. The match falls a little short though because Tyler Bate is not especially good in this. He is not bad. He’s fine. He sells the leg well enough, but also doesn’t sometimes and it all comes off a little odd. Not a lot of urgency or fire to it either, and his striking is weaker than usual. Still, you know, he’s fine. The offense is great and he avoids the vanity of a showy one-leg bridge spot, which I respect immensely. They go into a few finishers, and after avoiding the Spiral Tap, Quack breaks out the old head spike QD2 for the win.

When this was announced, I was incredibly happy about it. Quackenbush taking everything Tyler Bate excels at and plugging it into a Mike Quackenbush match sounded delightful. This was naivete on my part, because this was in FCP and not CHIKARA or anything close to it. Quackenbush’s best traits were instead plugged into a Tyler Bate match. Quack was able to ground the match and avoid many of the excesses and mistakes that tend to plague matches in this part of the world, but it was still the least interesting route that this pairing could have taken. Still, Mike Quackenbush man. One of the best performances of the year overall, but only Quackenbush’s second or third. You don’t get to see him work like this too often, even if it was only subtle heel work, so take the opportunity to see something rare while you still can.

***

Mike Quackenbush/Jigsaw/Fire Ant/Soldier Ant vs. Hallowicked/Team FIST/Amasis, DGUSA Enter the Dragon (7/25/2009)

There is at least one great match on this show, as the CHIKARA multi man doesn’t miss at this point. 2009 is arguably the peak of CHIKARA as a roster, if not as a creative endeavor, so everyone in this can go. Yes, everyone. Sleep on all-time level dirtbag Icarus at your own peril. This is a perfect showcase, and a great bit as CHIKARA steals the show away from a troupe of guys that made their bones working matches like this. A fast and inventive formula tag that always stays exciting. CHIKARA did a lot of these in 2003-5 before their guys were really ready and a few more in recent memory before that crop is ready, but this is the time where they absolutely nailed it. Every person in this match is doing unique stuff relative to everyone else in the match, and it feels like the winners win for a reason. Jigsaw and Hallowicked know each other well enough to even each other out. The two teams even each other out, so nobody can use teamwork in and of itself to really get an edge. Quackenbush has the experience edge on everyone though and keeps doing these tricky things that nobody else can or directing traffic for his side in a way that nobody on the oddball heel team is doing. The best DG tags aren’t just incredible spotfests, they’re actually moving forward with something, and this is CHIKARA’s best take on it. Real frantic dive train at the end to cap off a great end run, ending when Jigsaw hits Icarus with the Jig & Tonic to win.

This show was meant to showcase the best wrestling in the world in front of a new crowd (which seems like a comical thing to call 2009 Dragon Gate, but I’ll allow it) and wittingly or not, this match made sure that happened. 

***1/4

Mike Quackenbush vs. Billy Roc, Bizarro Lucha Endless Waltz (9/1/2019)

This was Billy Roc’s seemingly one-off return from a very long retirement, as well as a rematch from the first round of the 2007 Ted Petty Invitational.

It’s terrific to hear “Break It Down Again”. Real testament to the power of real songs as themes, and why that’s what makes independent wrestling better. It’s also real cool just to see Billy Roc back in the ring. I’m not an Indiana guy, but I am a guy who watched just about every CHIKARA and IWA Mid South show that happened in 2007 at the time, so he was always a guy that I liked, if nothing else. These two had a series of matches in Indiana based IPW in 2006, and a 2007 TPI match that were all very good, and this more than lives up to those while being SO different.

The match is tremendous. A testament to how great Quackenbush is and has always been, but especially a testament to how great he is and always has been on the mat, where this primarily takes place. Roc is obviously a man who hasn’t had a professional match in years, there’s a few moments that aren’t completely clean, but he does look tremendous. As it goes on, he goes from a man who looks a little uncomfortable doing a complex roll up spot early on to a guy managing to pull off complex double springboard arm drags combinations. He’s getting back in his stride live in the ring, and very slowly becomes more and more of a threat to Quackenbush. There’s a charm to the entire thing that’s only helped out by the reverence commentary and the crowd has for Billy Roc. The IPW series is talked up like it changed the world or something, while the crowd never leaves their feet despite the match again being hypertechnical. There’s even just an “INDIANA” chant at one point. I always liked Billy Roc, but this feels like I’ve wandered into another country and I’m watching their national sporting hero take the field one last time. It’s as much of an experience as the physical match itself.

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of the matches that Mike Quackenbush had against Johnny Saint or Johnny Kid a decade earlier , just on a surface level of this young man who didn’t quite have the career of the legend, but can completely hang with them and just wants to prove something to the world and realistically to himself. Billy Roc was always someone who was clearly a Mike Quackenbush fan and always tried to work that style of wrestling, and he’s still trying ti prove something. Quack is as sporting as those legends were, but ultimately turns up the aggression. He’s Mike Quackenbush and that kind of just means he’s less sporting on the mat and selectively gets real mean with a few holds. He starts to target the leg, and it hinders Roc. Quack keeps stopping the run and taking him back down, only for Roc to trip him up to stop a La Magistral, and he pulls off the miracle pinfall with a crucifix pin of his own, set up in a very Mike Quackenbush type of way.

Quack didn’t make any real mistake, Billy Roc just had it tonight. Emotion carried him though a match that meant the world to him, and maybe didn’t mean quite as much to a Mike Quackenbush with nothing to prove. After the improbable three count, the building about explodes in the kind of visceral joyous reaction that you just don’t see from a lot of independent wrestling very often, historically or now. Billy Roc doesn’t just return and turn back the clock, he returns and has a better match than he may have ever had before, and gets a win that clearly meant the world to him.

One of the most wholesome and fun wrestling matches of 2019 and in recent memory. It’s a match that, if you look at this on paper and think it’s interesting, you’re going to love it. This completely surpassed my expectations to become not just a fun curiosity, but among the best matches of 2019. If I was someone from Indiana who came into this with the sort of reverence for Billy Roc that appeared to exist in everyone in the building, I’m not sure this wouldn’t be my match of the year.

***1/2

Bryan Danielson vs. Mike Quackenbush, WXW 16 Carat Gold 2008 Night One (3/7/2008)

This was a 1st Round match in the 2008 16 Carat Gold tournament.

These two have a handful of matches, and they’re all great. They’re all really different too. 2004 is them meeting in the semi-finals of the famous 2004 Ted Petty Invitational, and it’s a very respectful face vs. face match. Their two ROH matches in 2007 and 2009 are similar to that, but with more dominant Bryan performances, since Quack was always a part timer there. This is not like those matches at all, as for some reason the WXW crowd positively REVILES our hero.It’s a theme with these 2008-9 Bryan matches and it always allows him to do different things there than he’d do in America, and gives his matches a little more energy.

They go on the mat back and forth for a real long time until Bryan can target the left arm. He gets to be REALLY mean here, since he’s finally a heel against Quackenbush and doesn’t have to preserve his own likability or positive crowd connection at all. Work is nasty, as always, and Bryan really seems to revel in finally getting people to actually hate him. Quack’s selling is great, and there’s a lot of real cool bits too. A few great nearfalls, although that section probably goes on just a little too long. Bryan gets on a real nasty looking Cattle Mutilation, where he again does something new and rotates on the bridge to keep shaking on it, and that gets him the win.

Not any better than their ROH or IWA-MS stuff, but they got to go a little longer and it’s the closest we get to a main event level match with them at their peaks.

***1/2