BRM Reviews CHIKARA Hot Off the Griddle

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews CHIKARA Hot Off the Griddle

Post by Big Red Machine » Apr 27th, '23, 23:15

CHIKARA Hot off the Griddle (4/28/2012)- Chicago Ridge, IL



Welcome back to BRM’s Monthly “This Day in Wrestling History” Review Series! Two years ago, we covered the first part of a double-header, ROH Unity. I’m really not sure why I got distracted and decided to watch WrestleMania VI last year instead, but I really wish I hadn’t. My lesson having been learned, we will now finish off the double-header with CHIKARA Hot off the Griddle.

GAVIN LOUDSPEAKER SINGS- fine

JIGSAW & THE COLONY PROMO- not good
They (it was really Jigsaw and Green Ant doing the talking) came off like people trying to portray determination and resilience rather than people who actually were determined and resilient. They talked up the importance of masks and vowed that Gekido would not take them. They also talked about how CHIKARA was a family. They vowed to end this war tonight. Considering that Gekido only showed up two months ago, I’m guess that that won’t happen.

JIGSAW & THE COLONY vs. GEKIDO (AssailANT, CombatANT, DeviANT, & The Shard)- 7/10
Gekido entered from the crowd, chasing Gavin out of the ring while he was giving the fans the rules for behavior at the show. The babyface team came charging out to fight them, kicking off the show with this match… once the referee caught up to them, got into the ring, and signaled for the bell. That was a nice little touch.
Gavin Loudspeaker and Mike Quackenbush were on commentary for this match, although Quack left at one point. I assume he was going to interfere in the match or something, but he didn’t. Maybe he just had to go to the bathroom?
The action in this match was great, and the nature of the gimmick made me a lot more tolerant of some of the cutesy, overly choreographed stuff that would bother me at other times… although I must point out that they also only did that in ways where it helped get across the theme, rather than doing things just because it would be a cool spot).
As good as the action was, the intensity as better. They went for each other’s masks- first only Gekido were doing it, but the babyface started to towards the end as well- and unlike 99.9% of what you see nowadays, this didn’t feel cheap in any way. This was earned, by the established hatred, and by the promo that the babyfaces cut earlier. This was so good that I had a wonderful little revelation while watching them go for each other’s masks and partners breaking it up: Having your mask ripped off is a completely painless disqualification victory… and yet it is so disrespectful that partners were running in to stop it from happening to their teammates. What a wonderful bit of psychology that is, embedded in Lucha Libre for so long, and I never consciously realized it until now.
Soldier Ant made CombatANT tap out with the CHIKARA Special. He kept the hold locked in longer than necessary, but not long enough to get DQed for excessive punishment. Then the Shard got into the ring, and the fight just kept on going for a moment, with Solider getting to clothesline each of his opponents one more time. Then he dove onto them and tried to get at CombatANT’s mask, but Combat ANT and the others were able to escape him.

KOBALD vs. MIXED MARTIAL ARCHIE- 2/10
The graphic for this match still had Archie as Archibald Peck. I don’t know if they were doing that on every show or if this was a mistake.
Archie got many cheers and chants, including “BETTER THAN BROCK!” For context, Brock had just returned to WWE a few weeks before this. Yeah. This current Brock Lesnar run in WWE has been going on for over eleven years now.
Archie double-legged Kobald and started with the ground-and-pound. Kodama was in the ropes. The ref pulled Archie off of him, and Archie thought that this meant he won by stoppage. At this point, Quackenbush returned to the Commentation Station.
They did some more comedy, including a bis where Archie thought that he had won, and then followed it up showing us that the reason for that was that Archie didn’t understand pinfalls. After being showed how to do one, he immediately tried one himself, but with Kobald on his stomach. This was actually several years before Cameron’s infamous pin attempt in such a position. The Archie’s finisher spot made me laugh, but that was about it. My tastes as to what is good comedy wrestling have narrowed a lot over the years, so Archie was nowhere near as funny as I remember him being. He got the win by countering a spear into a guillotine choke. I appreciated that even in this comedy match, there was still a story being told with all of Kobald’s offense targeting Archie’s stomach.

THROWBACKS PROMO- decent
Dasher was kind of annoying here, but he did a fine job of getting over the idea that Mr. Touchdown needs to stop thinking about Veronica and start concentrating more on winning. Touchdown’s promo was good. The stuff with Mr. Touchdown drinking the tuna juice was just stupid.

THE BATIRI vs. THE THROWBACKS (Dasher Hatfield & “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Angelosetti)- 6.25/10
Mike Quackenbush and Dr. Keith Lipinski were on commentary for this match.
There was some really good character stuff here. Mr. Touchdown wouldn’t tag Dasher in and said he didn’t need his help, so Dasher hopped off the apron and sat on the guardrail and wouldn’t help Mr. Touchdown as the Batiri beat on him two-on-one. Eventually the Batiri mocked Dasher with his running the bases spot, and that spurs Dasher into action. We eventually get the hot tag and some nearfalls. Eventually Angelosetti pinned Kodama after a shot with his football helmet while the referee was checking on Dasher and Obarion, who had just done a big spot on the outside.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Veronica came out to celebrate with Mr. Touchdown, but once she raised his arm, he just wanted to go celebrate with Dasher and tell Dasher and everyone else that “I DID IT!”

17 vs. TIANLONG- no rating, GREAT segment
This was Tianlong’s debut, but CHIKARA had built him up with some YouTube videos. He got in some dropkicks, but then 17 caught him in a hold and made him tap out. Mike Quackenbush, “The Man of 1,000 Holds,” was on commentary and nursing a broken wrist courtesy of 17, and he said that he had never seen that submission before. Even after the hold was released, Tianlong was rolling around in pain, and referee Jonathan Barber called in medical help for the poor kid (and we would later learn that his was the end of Tianlong’s career). 17 just walked off calmly and left, as Quack went to check on his maimed student. This was just a GREAT little angle that made the Quack vs. 17 dimension of the CHIKARA vs. Gekido feud feel even more personal. Unfortunately, we would never get a singles match between the two, but the character was written off with Quack snapping and maiming him, so at least we got some artistic closure.

ARIK CANNON & DARIN CORBIN PROMO- snore

YOUNG BUCKS vs. ARIK CANNON & DARIN CORBIN- 6.75/10
This was a fun action match that did a good job of getting the crowd having fun again after the heavy angle that was the match before it.

DURING INTERMISSION, TIM DONST DRESSED UP AS ONE OF LOS ICE CREAMS AND ATTACKED HALLOWICKED- He used the match to slip by Hallowicked’s defenses, then hit him with an STO. He then laid Hallowicked out with the Young Lions Cup, then locked in his finisher until security pulled hi off. Donst left with the Young Lions Cup that Hallowicked stole from him at High Noon. Why did Hallowicked do that? That seems kind of heelish, and Spectral Envoy were the babyfaces in that match.

3.0 & SPECTRAL ENVOY (Hallowicked & UltraMantis Black) vs. THE BRAVADO BROTHERS & DIE BRUDERSCHAFT DES KREUZES (Tim Donst & Jakob Hammermeier)- 5/10
Chuck Taylor and Leonard F. Chikarason have taken over commentary duties.
Due to Donst’s attack at intermission, Hallowicked was not able to come out with his team at the start of the match.
Delirious came out and distracted UltraMantis Black. He took UMB’s ceremonial necklace thing and put it on. Hallowicked came out and attacked Donst and chased him to the back, evening up the odds. Lancelot Bravado used a chair on Parker. Matthews made Jakob tap out moments later. The match never really clicked. You’d think the fact that it was basically a handicap match would make for an easy story, but it never really clicked.

EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO- TREMENDOUS!

CHIKARA GRAND TITLE MATCH: Eddie Kingston(c) vs. Kevin Steen- 7.5/10
Chuck Taylor was replaced on commentary by Gavin Loudspeaker. Steen wore a transformers mask on the way to the ring to mock CHIKARA.
Steen and Kingston brawled on the outside. Kingston backfisted a ringspot, which was a good twist on the old spot where the wrestler ducks and his opponent chops the ringpost. Steen kissed the ringpost afterwards. They told a good story with that and they had some good nearfalls, but ultimately, this was disappointing, as once Kingston really took over, Steen got himself DQed with a low blow.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
Steen mocked Kingston by kissing him, then grabbed the belt, posed with it, then made like he was going to follow through with his threat to urinate on it, but Kingston saved the belt from that fate by attacking Steen. Steen flipped Kingston off (which was blurred out) and left. Kingston was very upset after the match, attacking tables and guardrails, etc.

GRAN AKUMA TRIAL SERIES MATCH #3 HANDICAP MATCH: Gran Akuma vs. TEAM F.I.S.T.- 6.25/10
Gavin was replaced on commentary by UltraMantis Black.
Fortunately for Akuma, this was one of those Handicap matches where tags are required. Akuma waited until Icarus was making a big deal out of taking off his jacket to reveal his ugly tattoo, then charged and hit him with a shotgun dropkick to start things off.
The story was what you’d think it was. Icarus got in a shot with the loaded fanny-pack, but Gregory Irons came out and attacked him so he couldn’t capitalize on it. Akuma countered a Hertz Donut with a roll-up to win the match soon afterwards.

EL GENERICO vs. SARA DEL REY- 8.75/10
This was an absolute war. Those strikes were loud as hell, and their pacing and the timing of their big spots was outstanding.


This was a really fun show from CHIKARA. Good storyline stuff, good action, and a main event good enough to make up for the disappointment of the much-anticipated Steen vs. Kingston match. In fact, it was so good that it has convinced me that next months’ review should also feature Sara Del Rey in a main event.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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