CHIKARA
Tomorrow Never Dies
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania 12/6/14
Pre-Show
1.)
Young Lions Cup XI – Finals – Heidi Lovelace vs. Missile Assault Ant (with The
Colony: Xtreme Force): **3/4
This
was the Finals of the tournament to crown the new Young Lions Cup holder. All
of the previous rounds in this tournament took place on Wrestling is Fun!
shows. I thought this was a pretty decent match. It sucks that it got moved to
the pre-show, but it was still decently good. I’m very happy that Heidi
Lovelace won this. She’s one of the best women’s wrestlers on the North
American independent scene, and her being the first woman to win the Young
Lions Cup is pretty cool.
iPPV
1.)
“Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado: ***
The
iPPV kicks off with a battle of two fascinating personalities. The story here
is that, since both men utilize a German Suplex as their finisher, the only way
the match could be won was via pinfall following a German Suplex. JFDC came out
with two girls in exotic jester-like outfits, but Remington topped him by
coming out with four beautiful ladies. This was a pretty solid opener.
Remington is easily the breakout star of CHIKARA in 2014, and JFDC has been
arguably the main success story of the various “Wrestling is…” promotions. They
did a good job throughout the match building to the German Suplex. At one
point, JFDC hit Remington with a German Suplex on the ring apron!
Unfortunately, he was not able to follow up. Remington eventually hit a German
Suplex of his own and got the pinfall for the win.
Remington
tried to present a fruit basket to JFDC, but the Ecuadorian left the ring.
2.)
Eddie Kingston vs. Jimmy Jacobs: ***
Earlier
in the year, Jacobs convinced Eddie Kingston to join The Flood. Kingston was
part of the stable for a time, but then broke off, and joined back up with his
CHIKARA brethren. The Lithuanian Snow Troll (a “slave” of The Flood) and Volgar
accompany Jacobs at ringside for this match. This was another solid match. It
didn’t go too long, and it had some good action in it too. Kingston not only
would pick up the win here over Jacobs, but he would also get his 3rd
point towards a shot at the CHIKARA Grand Championship.
After the match Kid
Cyclone (who was last seen fleeing after Deucalion killed the rest of
the Green Horned Militia during King of Trios) comes out and attacks Eddie
Kingston with a wrench. He then cuts a promo essentially saying that he's
disgusted by the fact that after all the things Kingston did in the past (most
recently, being a part of The Flood for a few months and playing a role in the
other members of the Green Horned Militia getting killed by Deucalion). Kid
Cyclone then unmasks in the middle of the ring, revealing himself to be Kevin Condron. He frees The Snow Troll
from his chains, and he follows Condron to the back. I think the idea here is
that Kevin Condron really isn't on either side. He's against both CHIKARA &
The Flood.
3.)
CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas – 2/3 Falls Match – The Throwbacks (Dasher
Hatfield & “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Angelosetti) vs. The Devastation
Corporation (Max Smashmaster & Blaster McMassive with Sidney Bakabella):
****1/4
A CHIKARA Season Finale wouldn’t be complete
without a match for the Campeonatos de Parejas. Now The Throwbacks are always
an entertaining team, but going into this, I wasn’t too sure how The
Devastation Corporation would do here. Too the surprise of many (myself
included), they were great here. This was an awesome match!! It told a great
story with the dominant rudos of The Devastation Corporation taking the 1st
fall, forcing The Throwbacks, the champions, to fight back from underneath to
score the second fall. Their best effort, however, wasn’t enough, as The
Devastation Corporation won the 3rd fall to capture the Campeonatos
de Parejas! Not only was the story great, but there was a ton of exciting
action, and the crowd was really into it. This was easily the best match that
The Devastation Corporation have ever had. It was a very nice surprise.
4.)
Loser Leaves CHIKARA Match – Delirious vs. UltraMantis Black: **3/4
These two have been intertwined for several years, and you could
say this was their….Final Battle (pun intended)! Delirious came out covered in
war paint (literally) from head to toe. This was a really....interesting match,
to say the least. It was basically a match that had a lot of finishers being
hit left & right. There was a ref bump, and Derek Sabato (a former rudo referee who worked for the BDK) made
his return to CHIKARA. He's back now, apparently, as a technico referee. Mike
Quackenbush noted on commentary that him coming back was "part of the
deal" he made with Sabato. Eventually, UltraMantis Black score the win!
This means Delirious must leave CHIKARA!
After UltraMantis Black wins, Hallowicked & Frightmare come
out to celebrate with their Spectral Envoy leader, but Delirious used The Eye of Tyr on Hallowicked, who
then turns on UltraMantis Black and attacks him! Frightmare seemed to be not be
as hindered by it, though he did fall to the ground in spasms as Delirious used
it. He tried desperately to fight off it's effects, but eventually followed
Hallowicked to the back. These are some interesting developments, to say the
least. It’ll be interesting to see what a rudo Hallowicked & Frightmare are
like.
5.)
Torneo Cibernetico – Team CHIKARA [The Colony (Fire Ant, Silver Ant, &
Worker Ant), The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian), The Batiri (Kodama
& Obariyon), & Jervis Cottonbelly) vs. The Flood [The BDK (Jakob
Hammermeier & Nøkken), The Wrecking Crew (Flex Rumblecrunch, Jaka, &
Oleg The Usurper), Oliver Grimsly, Soldier Ant, & Volgar]: ***1/4
Of course, the Torneo Cibernetico is another CHIKARA tradition. This
match pitted Team CHIKARA vs. The Flood. The match itself was relatively solid.
These matches tend to be giant clusters, and it was in the beginning. However,
it got better towards the end. The big story here is that Soldier Ant was
running rough shot, no selling the majority of everyone's offense. It came down
to Fire Ant & Silver Ant vs. Soldier Ant & Hammermeier, and eventually,
Fire Ant vs. Soldier Ant. Both Fire Ant & Silver Ant were conflicted with
fighting Solider Ant. In the end, Soldier Ant eliminated Fire Ant to win the
2014 edition of the Torneo Cibernetico.
While
they were setting up the Steel Cage for the Main Event, we some announcement
about 2015. The first show of Season 15 would take place at the 2300 Arena (the
site of this show) on January 25th, the same day that WWE would hold
Royal Rumble in Philadelphia, and the day after ROH would hold a TV Taping in
the 2300 Arena. Chuck Taylor then came out to announce that he would be
challenging for the CHIKARA Grand Championship on the Season 15 Premiere.
We
also got the announcement that CHIKARA would be doing a tour of the UK during
the first week of April, the week after WrestleMania.
They also announced King of Trios 2015,
which had a Harry Potter theme.
6.)
Non-Title Steel Cage Match – CHIKARA Grand Champion Icarus vs. Deucalion:
***3/4
It’s now time for the Main Event! This is only the 2nd
Steel Cage Match in CHIKARA history. The entire CHIKARA vs. The Flood storyline
has built to this moment. Deucalion came out with a chain carrying the masks of
all of the wrestlers he's killed. Icarus comes out carrying The Estonian
ThunderFrog's Hammer, not only proving that he was indeed worthy, but cementing
his status as a full-fledged technico. As far as the match goes, it was much
better than I was expecting. Given Deucalion’s (presumed) lack of experience,
we were able to get a drama-filled Main Event. The crowd was totally invested
in the outcome.
About halfway through, the rest of the tecnico roster came out
to cheer on Icarus. They told a really good story here with Icarus going after
the arm Deucalion uses to hit his Choke Breaker. I really enjoyed it. Icarus was
able to fight back against this monster, and eventually reversed The Choke
Breaker into the CHIKARA Special and got Deucalion to tap out!! Icarus wins the
match for CHIKARA!!
After the match, Deucalion calls out The Flood to help him. It
looks like they're going to, but Jimmy Jacobs stops them, saying that Deucalion
will kill them all if they go to help them (probably to take out his anger on
them for his loss). Jacobs tells Deucalion that he made his bed, and that he
would now have to die in it. Icarus
then gets the ThunderFrog's Hammer inside The Steel Cage and jumps off the top
rope, using the hammer to kill Deucalion!! The technicos celebrate CHIKARA’s
triumph to close the show.
Right at the very end, we get a very
strange vignette that hinted at the return of The Estonian ThunderFrog.
Overall: 7.5/10
Despite
all the criticism regarding the return of CHIKARA and the booking in general of
Season 14, I thought this was a really enjoyable Season Finale. The CHIKARA vs.
The Flood storyline finally came to head in a big way, with a Steel Cage Match
that was much better than expected. There was also a ton of other storyline
developments, including the debut of Kevin Condron, Delirious leaving CHIKARA
for good, but not before getting in a last parting shot against UltraMantis
Black by using The Eye of Tyr on Hallowicked, turning him rudo, and Soldier Ant
winning Torneo Cibernetico. As far as the wrestling was concerned, it was
generally good, with the Match of the Night easily being The Throwbacks vs. The
Devastation Corporation. I really enjoyed this show when I saw it live, and it
was a really good and satisfying conclusion to 2014 for CHIKARA.
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