The fun-filled American Lucha promotion Chikara recently had a whistle-stop tour of the United Kingdom over this past Easter weekend; with two shows in Wolverhampton, one in Cardiff and a final big show in London. I was lucky enough to nab some tickets for me and my brother to the final show at the iconic garage in Islington. The normal gig venue was engulfed by a wresting ring and surrounding it was some of the UK’s most devout independent wrestling fans as we sat down for what became nearly FIVE HOURS of grappling action.
The pre-show was a showcase of the various promotions that Chikara have worked with over the weekend, Fight Club Pro and Attack! Pro Wrestling. The opener was a fantastic interpromotional four way contest between Frightmare, Wild Boar, Chris Brookes and Neo Britannico. A fantastic fast pace match with some tremendous high spots (including Neo nearly killing himself and ruining about four rows of seats of a shooting star press to the outside) which had Frightmare getting the win for Chikara. Fantastic way to kick things off.
We then rolled on to MK McKinnan up against one of my personal favourites and someone who needs to be bigger than he is, Drew Gulak. This was a complete shift from the first contest, pure mat wrestling in the classic British style. The crowd was British as ever, sarcastic and picking up on anything that they could make fun of (when MK was kept on the mat, the crowd chanted ‘lying down’ and then chanted ‘standing up’ when he stood up) but this had the whole Garage enthralled from start to finish with Mk McKinnan getting the win. Gulak was fantastic, it was a pleasure seeing him live for the first time and he kept doing a British accent – which was awesome.
Up next was a nice surprise as the Hunter Brothers came out for their open challenge and it was answered by FSU, Eddie Dennis and Mandrews from TNA – he got a huge pop and it was great to see a man that impressed so much on TV in person. It was a good little tag match with FSU getting the victory with a high angle reverse DDT and double stomp combo meal.
The main event was again, a brilliant surprise as Moustache Mountain, who are fantastic by the way (one of them does a cricket bowl style open hand slap for the win) teaming up with Clint Margera going and Damien and Pete Dunne and the terrifying Jimmy Havoc – it was at this point I told my brother to stop shouting at the bad guys as in no way whatsoever did I want Jimmy Havoc near me whatsoever. This was the least Chikara match ever; swearing, weapons (pots, pans, staple guns) to the point that a ‘family show’ chant broke out. This ended with Jimmy Havoc getting the win in an absolute war. A great little pre-show to kick things off.
Then after a brief intermission (where I bought a Defend Indy Wrestling t-shirt from Eddie Dennis, nice guy and spoke to Maffew from Botchamania, even nicer guy) we went straight onto the main show.
The opening contest was a trios contest in their Challenge of the Immortals round robin tournament, where the winning team at the end of this season will get a golden opportunity (almost a group of Money in The Bank contracts if you will) between Battle Hive (Amasis, Fire Ant and Worker Ant) against The United Nations (Juan Francisco de Coronado, Prakash Sabar and Mr. Azerbaijan). Two things, this match was fantastic, fun opener and Mr. Azerbaijan is AWESOME. His entrance in awesome, his wrestling is awesome and the way he talks is just awesome, I could not stop laughing. The Battle Hive got the win in a fun opener to the main show.
We were then visited by Director of Fun Mike Quackenbush who thanked us for coming to this show and introduced a legend of British wrestling, Johnny Kidd – a nice little thank you and moment for all.
Up next; it was a battle of the monsters as Ultra Mantic Black went up against Blind Rage. It was a good battle between these two mythical creatures, the key thing here is that you are not going to get a dud match in Chikara the wrestling is always solid, this was a good match amongst some great ones – I still enjoyed it. Following interference from Frightmare, Blind Rage gets the shocking win.
Next up, we had the ‘magic move’ match where if they hit a move at “random” (it turned out to be the running powerslam) everyone won a prize! Dasher Hatfield, Hype Rockwell and Kodama faced Mr. Touchdown, Race Jaxon and Obariyon and it was again, a fun little trios match. It was weird seeing three tag teams face off against one another and again I was nearly taken out by a diving senton by Mr. Touchdown off the ring apron – it’s awesome being so up close and personal. THEY HIT THE RUNNING POWERSLAM and Dasher Hatfields teams got the win, they all celebrate and we all got a free trading card – happy days.
Following that, we had Silver Ant (replacing a missing Eddie Kingston) against Oleg the Usurper. Oleg, from what I have heard has been the breakout star of this tour – mainly because the chant of ‘Oleg, Oleg Oleg Oleg’ is so damn catchy. It was, again a great match where they played into the crowd love of both wrestlers and whilst Oleg tried to play bad guy, I am sorry but your name is SO DAMN CATCHY. Oleg nabbed the win and both them shook hands to keep the crowd happy.
Then we had the moment I was waiting for. The Wrecking Crew (Devastation Corporation and Jaka) vs The Gentlemans Club (CHUCK GOD-DAMN TAYLOR, DREW GOD-DAMN GULAK AND THE GOD-DAMN SWAMP MONSTER). The reason I was exciting was to see my two of my favourite indie wrestlers and a swamp monster in action…and it was awesome, another fast-paced, hard hitting six man with some fun comedy moments too (The Dev Corp and Chuck Taylor discussing if Jaka and Swamp Monster knew eachother) and the Swamp Monster got the biggest reaction of the night, the crowd and myself, loved him. The Wrecked Crew sadly got the win but The Gentlemans Club got a heroes send-off. Great semi-main.
Now it was time for the main event, Icarus defending the Grand Championship against Hallowicked. Now, Hallowicked is the last wrestling I feel I felt like a kid about. I loved him, but when he turned of Ultra Mantis I was gutted – so to see him live and boo him with feeling felt awesome, it was the highlight of me being so invested in the whole show. This was phenomenal, a real title fight – some great chain wrestling, some high flying and an all-round great wrestling contest. The end came when Icarus took a dive off the stage and seemingly splatted onto the floor below. I did not see the impact, but the sound was nasty and the crowd around them looked in complete shock. A few moments later, Hallowicked locked in the Chikara special and Bryce drops the arm once, twice and….THREE TIMES?! The bell rings. I am in shock. Icarus loses the Grand Championship to Hallowicked. The crowd boos, turns on Bryce for what we first thought was a screwy ending but we witnessed a world title change no one saw coming. It was Taker vs Brock levels of shock in The Garage as we saw the Nightmare Warriors hoist the world title above their heads as the whole show drew to a dramatic crescendo.
It was a phenomenal show, well worth the roughly £60 paid for two tickets to this. We got nearly five hours of action from bell to bell ,and there was not a dud in the bunch. Every wrestler was on their game and open to talking to any fan in attendance. Much love to Chuck Taylor who seemed genuinely annoyed he didn’t have a shirt in my size so let me get a photo with him and Drew Gulak who was a great guy when I was gushing to him after the show. Another shoutout to Maffew from Botchamania who was a gent, and hung out with me and my brother after the show and was a complete delight and Jimmy Havoc too, who is hilarious.
All in all, if Chikara come back – be you a fan or not, go. It is wrestling it’s purest form; passionate, fun, emotional and complete entertainment. Following ‘Mania and this, I have fallen in love with wrestling all over again and it shows the the road less travelled can sometimes be as good of a journey.
