BRM Reviews CHIKARA Terror in the Neighborhood

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews CHIKARA Terror in the Neighborhood

Post by Big Red Machine » Nov 3rd, '22, 17:47

CHIKARA Terror in the Neighborhood (10/24/2010)- Hamden, CT


THE OLSEN TWINS vs. THE UNSTABLE (Vin Gerard & STIGMA)- 5/10
A fine opener. Vin Gerard won with an STFU on Colin Olsen. I’m fine with the Olsens losing their first match back as a team to the guys Colin rejected and turned on to help his brother, but given that we just got the big reunion with the happy babyface moment last month, I was expecting a much dirtier win for the UnStable to get some heat back for an inevitable rematch at the season finale.

SOLDIER ANT vs. DRAGON YUKI- 2/10
Soldier Ant won a short match cleanly with the CHIKARA Special. Dragon Yuki was not very good.

WINK VAVASSEUR INTERRUPTS THE SUPER SMASH BROTHERS BACKSTAGE- fine
Wink interrupts SSB, which I was fine with, because they were just speaking French and doing pantomime. Wink says he likes them, but thinks their name is the “Game Boys.” He also has trouble coming up with the word “match.” He has brought Soldier Ant along, though he calls him “Army Ant.” He wants them all to team together. SSB wonder why he is pitching these silly ideas when he’s just an auditor. He gets offended that they think of him as “just an auditor,” when he is trying to create “synergy” via this idea for a new trio of his.
This appears to be the first hint of CHIKARAbrmetrics, which was an idea of Wink’s that would become a relevant plot device in Season 11, over a year later. The acting here was fine (if a little hammy on Wink’s part), and the segment served its purpose, as establishing Wink’s “outsider who thinks he understands things but clearly doesn’t” character that would be essential later on needs to be done very early on (this was his second appearance, and his first one of even moderate substance).

SUPER SMASH BROTHERS vs. BRUDERSCHAFT DES KREUZES (Sara Del Rey & Daizee Haze)- 7/10
This one just came together really well for the time it got. The BDK ladies worked over Player Dos’ knee, and he sold it extremely well. The hot tag was great, the comeback had the right stuff at just the right times, and we got a finish that gives us a potentially interesting development, as Sara and Daizee got the win here, giving them three points… but their BDK stablemates are the current Campeonatos de Parejas. It could be to set up them as challengers as soon as babyfaces win the titles, but any decent length of time not being able to challenge should create some resentment, or we could see resentment emerge if they wind up losing their points before they have the chance to get a title shot.

INCOHERENCE PROMO- It was incoherent. That’s their thing.

INCOHERENCE (Frightmare & Hallowicked) vs. F.I.S.T. (Johnny Gargano & Icarus)- 7.25/10
Another great action match here. Incoherence got the win… but not before Gargano had what would have been a clean win erased by a ref bump. That was pretty surprising to see, but I guess it does work to set up him getting a shot at Frightmare’s Young Lions’ Cup without the champ actually having to do a job.

MIKE QUACKENBUSH (& JIGSAW) PROMO- very good
Quack sets the stage for tonight’s match: He and Jigsaw are once again at two points… and once again it just happens to be another BDK team that they have to beat to get that third point and the tag title shot that comes with it. But unlike last time, CHIKARA has some real momentum behind them this time after last night’s big win in the Cibernetico. Tonight, Quack says, things will go differently than last time.

MIKE QUACKENBUSH & JIGSAW vs. BRUDERSCHAFT DES KREUZES (Pinkie Sanchez & Tursas)- 7/10
They started to play the wrong music for Quackensaw. Quack shouted “NOT OUR MUSIC!” but in a way that made it kind of fun, rather than a boss yelling at someone for screwing up.
Quack’s midsection and Pinkie’s knee got worked over, and those two factors, along with Derek Sabato’s heel referee BS, were the foundations of the story of this match. It’ a real testament to the booking that the sort of heel ref crap that Sabato did got the right kind of heat throughout the year, as that is the sort of thing that fans usually despise for completely non-kayfabe reasons. A fast-count from Sabato eventually screwed Quacken-Saw out of this match and their hard-worn two points.

GRIZZLY REDWOOD vs. DASHER HATFIELD- 4/10
Grizz won clean with a small package.

TIM DONST PROMO- TREMENDOUS!
Donst ran through his history with Eddie Kingston and explained to us that he had to win tonight to finally the stigma of being a being a “punching bag” before heading off for his first tour of Japan in a few days.

EDDIE KINGSTON vs. TIM DONST- 6.5/10
This one just didn’t get there for me. There was a solid enough story, with Donst playing the coward earlier on to lure Kingston into a trap to cut him off, but as they continued through with the story of Kingston fighting through everything and making his comeback, the emotion just wasn’t there, particularly from Donst. This match had so much history behind it, but lacked the necessary emotion to use that history to enhance the story.

2 OUT OF 3 FALLS MATCH FOR THE CHIKARA CAMPEONATOS DE PAREJAS: Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Claudio Castagnoli & Ares)(c) (w/Delirious) vs. Osirian Portal- 6.75/10
Ares had Delirious try to attack Osirian Portal while they were making their entrance (as has happened to past BDK opponents), but this time Osirian Portal were ready for it and took him out. Ares and Claudio then attacked Osirian Portal, but all of the other technicos came out to help them. Claudio looked at referee Derek Sabato and demanded that he “DO SOMETHING!” so Sabato ordered Gavin Loudspeaker to announce that if the wrestlers at the entrance did not go to the back, Osirian Portal would be disqualified in BOTH falls and lose the match (that hadn’t even technically begun yet), so the babyfaces had to leave. Ares and Claudio beat on the OP some more, including Claudio sending Amasis FLYING into a ringpost. Ares then got Ophidian in the ring and went for a Tigerbomb to get a quick first fall like has happened in so many past BDK tag title defenses… but Ophidian reversed it into a small package for a pretty neat little false finish.
A few more roll-ups were unsuccessful in part due to Derek Sabato’s slow counting. Claudio managed to get some offense in and pinned Ophidian for the first fall. Yes, Sabato fast-counted, but Ophidian seemed so out of it that it didn’t seem like it would have changed things if Sabato had been counting fairly.
Claudio grabbed Ophidian’s skirt-thing and put it on to mock him. Then he started blatantly choking him with it, while Sabato treated it like was completely legal. That got good heat. From there, things continued on as you would expect, with the babyfaces eventually making a comeback but having all of their pinfalls frustrated by Sabato’s purposely-slow cadence. Seeing this for a second time on the show definitely showed that there are diminishing returns on it, as things felt utterly hopeless for the babyfaces, no matter what they did. Having Ophidian switch it up to trying to get a submission victory via Ophidian Death Grip was a good spot, but Sabato so clearly just pushing them over when he realized Claudio was out was frustrating in the wrong way, without even the clearly bullsh*t veil of plausible deniability that Sabato’s stuff works best when it has.


This was a good little show by CHIKARA, despite petering out at the end. It was easy to sit through, and 2010 was just such a special, magical year in CHIKARA that a two-hour show that would have been considered bad by pretty much any other promotion becomes a “good little show” due to the booking, the in-ring storytelling, and the atmosphere of the crowd.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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cero2k
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Re: BRM Reviews CHIKARA Terror in the Neighborhood

Post by cero2k » Mar 27th, '23, 19:49

technical question

Is the name of this show how you have it, or "Terror in the Neighborhood (Rendezvous at Big Gulch)"
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