BRM Reviews CHIKARA Once Upon a Beginning

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews CHIKARA Once Upon a Beginning

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 6th, '19, 21:21

CHIKARA Once Upon a Beginning (4/5/2019)- Jersey City, NJ


CORNELIUS CRUMMELS & SONNY DEFARGE vs. CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos)- 5.75/10
A fine match once they got the gross stuff at the beginning out of the way.

BOOMER HATFIELD vs. MILLSILE ASSAULT MAN- 3/10
Very good for what it was and the short time it got. This was a big guy taking on a small rookie and mostly dominating him, but giving the rookie enough to make him look good before the end. Mike Quackenbush also pointed out to us that it was Boomer’s father Dasher who got this match signed in an attempt to stop Missile Assault Man from reaching his third point and is basically using his son for his own gain, which is not cool.

ARIK CANNON CAM ZAGAMI, HALLOWICKED & HERMIT CRAB vs. RAZERHAWK, ESTONIAN THUNDER FROG, JIGSAW, & STOKELY HATHAWAY™- 6.5/10
For those not up to speed on their CHIKARA lore, Stokely Hathaway™ is Chuck Taylor, who uses the name as revenge for Stokely sneakily purchasing all of the intellectual property rights around Chuck Taylor. The match was… fine. Some CHIKARA stuff happened, but mostly it was just kind of there. I was expecting more from an eight-man tag that went almost fifteen minutes.

A-KID vs. AIR WOLF- 7.25/10
This is a rematch from last year’s Rey de Voladores finals, and it delivered rather well.

JUAN FRANCISCO DE CORONADO PROMO- He talks about all of the hard times he has been going through lately, but turns it into a real mea culpa promo, acknowledging that he deserves the ridicule he has gotten form the fans but says he is trying to change. He changes his name to “John Francis of Coronado” (because he Ecuadorian Citizenship got revoked). We’ll see how this goes.

CHIKARA YOUNG LIONS CUP MATCH: Still Life With Apricots And Pears(c) vs. Carlos Romo- 4.5/10
This was a very good match for the time it got, but was shockingly short. It’s possible that this was the whole idea, as it makes SLWAAP look strong, while simultaneously being something that should draw Blank’s attention as SLWAAP desires, but seemingly does not, allowing our commentary team to push that storyline point.

PRINCESS KIMBERLEE vs. THE WHISPER- no rating, dull segment
The Whisper handed PKL her half of the Campeonatos de Parejas but she threw it down, and when he went to put his title in the corner, she jumped him from behind with a German Suplex to start off the match. KimberLee won what was pretty much a squash. The announcers wondered if this match could function as PKL getting all of his dislike for The Whisper out of her system so they could start to be an effective team (which they will need to be if they hope to defend their Campeonatos de Parejas against F.I.S.T. at the next show). This seemed like it served a storyline purpose, but it absolutely was not entertaining or exciting.

F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Tony Deppen, & Travis Huckabee) vs. THE COLONY (Fire Ant, Green Ant II, & Thief Ant)- 7/10
Standard exciting CHIKARA trios action.

WHO WILL BE THE NEW DIRECTOR OF FUN?- It’s Sidney Bakabella, even though he came out to Ashley Remmington’s music just to troll the fans. That right there seems like a sign that he is not the right person for this job. The fans were not happy about this and chanted “YOU’RE NOT FUN!” at him.

LADDER MATCH TO DETERMINE THE OFFICIAL CHIKARA GRAND CHAMPION: Dasher Hatfield(interim champion) vs. “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Angelosetti(champion of record)- 8/10
This was an excellent example of how you can have an awesome Ladder Match while still being rather tame not doing anything too crazy. The match built well, used previous elements (Touchdown’s leg injury) to help tell a story, and made great use of emotion. The stuff with Boomer Hatfield not really leading to anything was a bit surprising, as was Dasher retaining the title, but neither felt like it took away from the story of the match by happening the way they did. One more thing I’d like to give them credit for was that Danielson/McGuinness headbutts-style spots with the ladders in the ropes. I thought that spot was very creative and worked rather well at its spot in the match.

A solid show from CHIKARA, mixing solid storytelling, storyline advancement, and action the way CHIKARA does when it’s at its best (although none of them to level it does when it is at its best). As someone who hasn’t paid too much attention to CHIKARA for the past few months, I found the storylines easy to pick up once again and the show as a whole was an easy and enjoyable watch.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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Re: BRM Reviews CHIKARA Once Upon a Beginning

Post by cero2k » Apr 6th, '19, 21:59

Bakabella is totally fun!

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