CHIKARA is... Different?

[Shogun Rua]

I watched some CHIKARA videos on youtube, after seeing many posts on it, and honestly, I don't understand what the hell is up with it.

The last video I watched (like, 30 seconds ago) was a video of Chuck Taylor "killing" Soldier Ant with a "grenade"...

What? He pulled an invisible grenade out of nowhere, and then everybody started going in slow motion. Soldier Ant pushes his team mates out of the ring, and jumps on top of the "grenade". Then, he bumps from it.

I've seen some pretty stupid things from TNA and WWE before, but that was easily the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen on a wrestling program. And what stumps me the most is, some of you who like CHIKARA, complain about the stupidity and idiocy that come from TNA and WWE (by the way, I'm not trying to start an argument, it's just an observation)!

So, I'll end this with a question. Some of you like CHIKARA a lot, so, what is it that makes it so good? The wrestling, the characters, or the stupidity (which is my opinion of what it is)?

[Big Red Machine]

What makes CHIKARA great is the angles and the characters.

While CHIKARA has a lot of silliness, a lot of the charm of the company is that the silliness is treated as being, in many ways, serious, on all levels. As was shown in the grenade clip, the guys in the ring sold the grenade like it was real, as did the announcers.

Once you get past the goofiness, the real greatness of the promotion starts to shine. All of the attention to detail in everything they do. Look at the movesets of guys like The Colony, or the way that Ophidian hisses with his esses. CHIKARA, as a promotion,is also just kayfabe perfect.

As for their booking... it is some of the most genius stuff I have ever seen. For example, Chris Hero turning heel on Mike Qauckenbush way back at the end of 2005 led to a feud that would continue until May of 2007. From this one feud, CHIKARA set the seeds for multiple other major events:
1) Shane Storm selling the counter to the CHIKARA SPECIAL to UltraMantis Black and the resulting feud between Storm and Quack... which in turn led to
- Tim Donst infiltrating the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, which eventually turned Hydra into a babyface
- Quack teaching Donst the Inverted CHIKARA Special
2) Equinox being unmasked as Vin Gerard and Vin's resulting heel turn (and he would later help Shane Storm become a full-fledged heel, forming the UnStable)
3) Chris Hero's departure from the company, which led to...
the angle with the Eye of Tyr and UltraMantis Black controlling Delirious...
Which, when combined with the Inverted CHIKARA Special angle (as well as an angle about Daizee Haze and Sara Del Rey feeling that they weren't getting equal respect due to their gender), all led to...
The BDK angle, and their dominance...


the attention to detail in the booking is unlike anything I have ever seen before.



Anyway, the best way to really get into CHIKARA is by watching their series of "previously at CHIKARA" videos, available on youtube.

[Big Red Machine]

I've seen some pretty stupid things from TNA and WWE before, but that was easily the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen on a wrestling program. And what stumps me the most is, some of you who like CHIKARA, complain about the stupidity and idiocy that come from TNA and WWE (by the way, I'm not trying to start an argument, it's just an observation)!

I feel like the best way to explain this is the following. CHIKARA, in many ways, exists in its own world. A lot of the reasons for complaining about the stupidity in WWE and TNA is that it winds up as actual kayfabe stupidity. What I mean by this is that, in the actual kayfabe world, the wrestlers are being stupid. Remember the angle from early last year in ROH where Necro was suspended for accidentally punching a cameraman or something like that, and then brawling with the Embassy in the parking lot? And then, on TV, they had a thing where Cornette made Necro a deal: As long as Necro promised not to hurt any innocents and to keep his matches in the ringside area, Cornette would allow Necro to wrestle all of his matches under "butcher's rules." That is the sort of thing you look at and say "wait a minute... everyone else on the roster is also supposed to keep their matches within the ringside area and not hurt innocents, too. So all Necro has to do is agree to follow the same rules that everyone aside from him already follows (and that he was supposed to be following the whole time... hence why he was suspended)... and in exchange for that, Cornette will not only unsuspend him, but will GIVE HIM AN ADVANTAGE IN EVERY ONE OF HIS MATCHES? WTF?! That is stupid!" From an in-world prospective, you think it is moronic and makes no sense.

In CHIKARA, though, the silliness is something that actually makes sense if you accept that it is going on. From an in-world prospective it is not actually "stupid," but is real, and is treated as such. In CHIKARA, the silliness is actually kayfabe real. When they do a slow-mo spot, the announcers also slow down, as do many of the fans. There is no kayfabe way out of it.

Also, CHIKARA is known as a comedy promotion, and as such, most of their silliness happens in the ring. It is the same reason why people don't complain about Eric Young's comedy in matches, or Santino's comedy wrestling. People complain about dumb sh*t when it isn't in the ring, like backstage skits, but they don't complain about it in the ring unless it is one spot of comedy in a non-comedy match that they think hurts the seriousness of the match. At the same time, when you have a comedy promotion, it is much more expected than it is in a non-comedy promotion, and people take that into account.

There is a major difference between a Colt Cabana match and WWE or TNA booking a skit specifically to dump some icky substance on a heel.