Wrestling is Art: Remembering Chikara Pro

 

To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of my personal top favorite Professional Wrestling entities to ever exist, I thought that I would write a piece (or two) on the promotion Chikara, both to wistfully remember something now sadly gone, and to inform and educate people "not in the know", on one of the very best things the industry has ever produced. Before I dive headlong into that, I should probably briefly revisit why I like pro wrestling in the first place.

As explained in one of my earliest pieces, circa October 2012, shortly after I first started this blog, wrestling was one of many things I was "not allowed" to watch or partake in growing up. My mother, who lived with us off and on until around 1991, was a big WWF fan, and I was peripherally aware of stars that she liked, or just in general names such as Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, and of course Hulk Hogan. In fact once she lived with us more permanently in the early 90s, she likely watched WWF wrestling in her room sometimes, though I never joined her. I'm not sure that I would have been allowed to, as my grandmother, the one who raised me, didn't like wrestling, or anything "fighting" related in general (hence she wouldn't let me take karate), so she didn't want me partaking either. 

The greatest wrestler of all time (besides Bret Hart).

Thus Pro Wrestling during my childhood, was one of several things, such as heavy metal, such as TMNT, etc., which I convinced myself "probably wasn't that good" anyway, so that I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on something that, realistically, I probably would have otherwise loved. Even from '91-'94, when I finally had my own TV in my own room, while I would eventually sneak watch things I wasn't supposed to, such as MTV, I don't think I even once ever bothered trying to watch wrestling alone. It wasn't until 1996, in point of fact, when a (at the time) friend of mine was watching WWF's "Monday Night Raw" with me around, that I finally got exposed to it. And even then, at first, I kinda looked down my nose at it, feeling like "Do we HAVE to watch this?". That is, until I caught my first glimpse of The Undertaker.

The Undertaker, as seen above, was originally a character WWF owner Vince McMahon conceived, as an old-timey "Wild West" style undertaker, who would come out and "lay his opponents to rest". Early on, he would often put defeated opponents into body bags, to emphasize the point that they would "Rest in Peace", a saying which would become his mantra. But long story short, Mark Calloway, the man portraying the character, would take Vince's initial vision, and over time make it his own, gradually adding more and more supernatural trappings and theatrics. The Undertaker was supposed to be a quite literally undead fighter, hence his initial stiffness and slowness of movement, seeming imperviousness to pain, and seemingly supernatural physical feats for a man his size, such as performing flying clotheslines, or walking (with impeccable balance) across part of the top ring rope, before crashing down on his victims.

Simply put, I initially fell in love with Professional Wrestling, because I fell in love with the persona of the Undertaker. And while I would come, over time, to love many other wrestlers who came and went through WWF/E's ring, and even in other companies, to this day, The Undertaker remains my favorite of all time. He embodied everything that I still love about wrestling; the theatrics, the commitment to always staying in character (which not all wrestlers share), the importance of ambiance, aesthetics, and presentation, not just the moves. He personified what I feel is THE single most important aspect of good Pro Wrestling; the fact that while it IS absolutely what I would call an "Exhibition Sport", because it is an exhibition of athletics, it is also what should rightly be termed "Performance Art", because everything from characters' entrances, the theatrics of their characters (if they have any), and most importantly the action in the ring, they are performing Art. Pro Wrestling is an art form, a performance of "mock battles", using the ring to tell stories of good against evil, and much more besides.

My Second Genesis?

It was the Undertaker who made me a wrestling fan, mainly because he represented what has always appealed to me most about "The Business", and to this day, I don't think there has ever been anyone BETTER at this "Performance Art", than him. And it was because of him, that I would come to watch the WWF (later called "WWE"), quite religiously at times, from around 1997 through at least, let's say, 2007. I continued to watch after 2008, but as the quality (I felt) gradually started to slip, I too gradually started to watch it with less dedication.

That said, ironically, I first came to truly, and fully, experience a little "Indie" wrestling promotion with a weird name, "Chikara", in 2012. I had been aware of Chikara's existence for a few years prior, due to funny clips on Youtube, and my own wrestling geek diggings around those interwebs. But when a friend and I decided to purchase and watch their marquee event, "King of Trios", in the fall of 2012, that was it. Much like my first experiences with The Undertaker, I was hooked. The thing was, I still loved Pro Wrestling. But as stated, my love for the modern WWE product was absolutely waning, to the point that by 2012, I barely watched it anymore. So you could rightly say that Chikara came into my life at a time when I needed it most, at least from a wrestling fan perspective.

Chikara became my new primary outlet for my pro wrestling affection. And not only that, but unlike WWF/E, where I got little bites and tastes of what I loved most about the sport here and there, through specific characters, here I was now presented with practically an entire company full of the colorful, crazy, weird, awesome types of personas that I was most attracted to. It was a company, while "small time" compared to mainstream outlets like WWE or "Total Nonstop Action" wrestling, fully dedicated to the notion that Wrestling IS Art, and they went hard on it. Now allow me to tell you more about this strange beast called Chikara, and why I came to love it.

Where it all started.

In January of 2002, "Reckless Youth" Tom Carter and "Lightning" Mike Quackenbush, two figures who had become top stars of the American wrestling "Indie Scene" by the late 90s, opened their own wrestling school, originally located in Allentown, Pennsylvania, named "The Wrestle Factory". Their vision was a well-rounded school, that not only taught students the basic fundamentals of the business, but gave them a skillset steeped in various styles, including Japanese "Strong Style", and Mexican "Lucha Libre". While it had small and humble beginnings, and Reckless left the school by the autumn, Quackenbush would keep it going, and over the course of many years, "The Wrestle Factory" would eventually come to be widely recognized as one of the best wrestling schools in the country, if not the world. The initial classes from 2002 would produce a handful of what would be long-term Chikara talent, with names like Hallowicked, Ultramantis, Jigsaw, Gran Akuma, and Icarus (then called "Ichabod Slayne"). But the school would, over time, also produce (or give additional training to) such notable names as Eddie Kingston, Claudio Castagnoli (WWE's Cesaro), Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, Lince Dorado, Tracy Williams, Wheeler Yuta, and Madison Eagles.

On May 25th, 2002, a small wrestling promotion called "CHIKARA Pro", was born. An offshoot and outlet for the Wrestle Factory school, Chikara was meant to be a place to showcase the school's top graduates, somewhere they could start getting experience in the business. The very first Chikara show not only featured its first class of graduates, but was also headlined, as you can see in the picture above, by the (at the time) "Superstar" Main Event showdown between "The Black T-Shirt Squad" of Reckless Youth, Mike Quackenbush and Don Montoya, against Colt Cabana, Chris Hero, and one CM Punk. Those three were top stars on the "Indie" scene in the early 2000s, and all went on to have significant levels of success with bigger "mainstream" promotions, most especially Punk. So some might be surprised that they were in the main event of such an initially tiny company's show. Chris Hero, for his part, would go on to forge a long-term partnership, spending several years not only as a Wrestle Factory trainer, but also one of Chikara's top stars in its early days. 

The Wrestle Factory's philosophy of dipping into different pro wrestling traditions, carried over into Chikara as well. For instance, the name "Chikara", is the Japanese word for Power, and their first (and for a few years only) championship, the "Young Lions Cup", took its name from a Japanese tournament.. Yet Chikara also integrated many aspects of Mexican Lucha Libre style, such as the "Lucha" tag rule of a wrestler rolling to the outside of the ring, counting as a "tag" to a partner, instead of having to physically slap hands. Or their tag team championship, introduced in 2006, was named the "Campeones de Parejas", roughly Spanish for "Tag Team Champions". Or Chikara's strong focus on tag team wrestling, including "trios" (three man teams), and their eventual marquee (mostly) annual event, King of Trios, a major tournament of three-man teams, which always featured major "Indie" and international talent, as well as sometimes major veteran names.

Mr. Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood, The Roughnecks.

But "notable" names were not uncommon to Chikara, small time or not. Over time, many such notable names, even some legends of the business, would grace Chikara's ring. Names that include the likes of Mexican luchadors like La Parka, El Pantera, Skayde, El Oriental, and Sin Cara (then called Incognito). Japanese stars like Manami Toyota, Meiko Satomura, Akira Tozawa, Kota Ibushi, The Great Sasuke and Jinsei Shinsaki (WWF's Hakushi). And British stars like Mark Andrews, Zack Sabre Jr., Dave Taylor, Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, Tyler Bate, Johnny Saint, and Johnny Kidd. The biggest surprise might be the number of older wrestling legends that have appeared for the company at various points, with standout names including: Glacier, Al Snow, D'Lo Brown, The Patriot, One Man Gang, Demolition (Axe and Smash), Meng/Haku, The Barbarian and the Warlord, Marty Jannetty, The 123 Kid (X-Pac), Jerry Lynn, Justin Credible, Tommy Dreamer, Tito Santana, Tatanka, Too Cold Scorpio, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Stevie Richards and his Blue World Order, Jazz, Mickie James, Victoria, The Hurricane, and even one Scott Steiner! 

But Chikara wasn't just a place where legends popped up. A great many stars of the American "Indie" scene, and even larger promotions such as TNA and Ring of Honor, would also grace Chikara's ring from time to time. Some of those names included: CM Punk, Colt Cabana, Bryan Danielson, Christopher Daniels (or rather, Curry Man), Sonjay Dutt, Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley, Kevin Steen (aka Kevin Owens), Jon Moxley, El Generico (aka Sami Zayn), and many more. But more importantly, there were many wrestlers who would go on to be standout stars in bigger companies, who were not "Wrestle Factory" graduates, yet still spent a significant amount of time "cutting their teeth", so to speak, in Chikara. Some of these include, as seen above, Brodie Lee (and Grizzly Redwood of ROH fame), Delirious, Sara Del Rey, Heidi Lovelace (aka Ruby Riot/Soho), Ricochet, the aforementioned Chris Hero, Jonathan Gresham, several members of The Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver and Alex Reynolds), 2.0 Scott Parker & Shane Matthews (now with whatever silly names in AEW), Johnny Gargano, and The Young Bucks, among others.

The near-annual event, "King of Trios", was a tournament held over a weekend (usually Friday/Saturday/Sunday), three days of wrestling. A lot to take in, a lot to consume, even for an avid wrestling fan. But it was almost always well worth it. I personally looked forward to King of Trios the same way I once looked forward to, and got excited about, WWE's Wrestlemania. A big part of that excitement, was seeing who the teams would be (16 teams of 3) each year, including who the outside special guest teams were. More often than not, I tended to root for the Chikara "home" teams, but there was still always a lot of excitement and intrigue every year, as they slowly revealed the various participants.

The Great and Devious One

But what truly made Chikara great, and made them stand out to me, was not their guest stars or passers-through. To me, the majority of characters I fell in love with, which in turn made me a fan of the promotion itself, were the mainstays, the "home grown" stars. One such star, in fact a graduate of their first ever class all the way back in 2002, and one of my top favorites, was Ultramantis Black. Originally simply known as "UltraMantis", he was a masked insectoid hero, essentially a mix between popular Japanese children's heroes Ultra Man and Kamen Rider. Before long, however, he tired of being a good guy, and turned his back on the fans, beginning a gradual evolution into his best self, the renamed "UltraMantis Black". This send-up to Saturday Morning Cartoon villains, headed up many evil schemes, and evil groups, with named like the "Dark Breed" and "The Order of the Neo Solar Temple". Claiming to want to "destroy the world, starting with Chikara", Mantis became well known for his often inept villainy, dastardly deeds, and mysterious mystical trappings (he eventually claimed to be a sorcerer with vast dark powers). 

Ultramantis Black and The Order

Hero once more.

But this is precisely the kind of goofball shenanigans (or as I call it, greatness), that made me love Chikara. By the time I began to really immerse myself in Chikara and its characters and lore, Mantis had once again become something of a hero, leading a new group called the "Spectral Envoy", seen above, with his old "Dark Breed" cohort Hallowicked, and Hallowicked's frenetic spawn, Frightmare. Mantis still referred to himself as "The Great and Devious", retaining much of his cartoon-esque villain persona. But he had become a defender of Chikara, instead of its purported destroyer. What led to such a cosmic metamorphosis, you ask? Well, before we get into that...

Seeing Double?

I'd like you to meet Lance Steel. He was a time displaced noble knight, from medieval England, who had somehow fallen through the cracks of time, and found himself in 21st Century America, having to vanquish evil in a wrestling ring, instead of the ancient fields of battle. Well, as it happened, after spending a time teaming with a colorful party pirate by the name of Jolly Roger, Lance would find himself joined in the present by another time displaced noble knight. This was, in fact, another Lance Steel, or to be more accurate, a somewhat younger version of himself. The two joined forces, calling their team "Lancelot" (get it?), and they enjoyed a decent stint as one of Chikara's most heroic tag teams.

However, all was not kosher in the kingdom, as younger Lance was more care-free and accepting of modern things, and this included his tolerance of dragons, or more specifically, Chikara's own resident Dragon Dragon. And that, my friends, was something that the older, original Lance Steel, he who had been forged on the fields of battle, and gallant slayer of said dragons, simply could not stand. Which of course led the two Lances to fight, ultimately ending in a "Loser Leaves the Present" match, which saw older Lance defeat younger Lance, sending him back to his proper time for good. 

Retail Dragon and Dragon Dragon, team Triple Dragon.

This was, in the grand scheme of Chikara, a fairly minor storyline. But it's relevant, because it was also arguably the very first time that the company, who had always had its share of outlandish and quirky characters, saw its first truly elaborate and more fantastical brand of storytelling. Certainly far more than the average pro wrestling fan would be used to. And this was only the beginning, because as the early 2000s gave way to the mid and then late 2000s, little by little Chikara would become steeped in progressively more complex and fantastical plots. 

The UnStable

One such storyline, would surface not too long after the Lance Steel episode. In 2005, a colorful masked luchador, announced as being from Mexico, named Equinox arrived. This half-fire, half-ice alleged trainee of Tito Santana, and protegee of then-Chikara star (and trainer) Skayde, was an enigmatic high flyer, who fought on the side of the Technicos (Lucha Libre for good guys, as opposed to bad guys, or Rudos). But all was not as it appeared. Some time during the course of 2007, Equinox was outed as being, in actuality, former American Wrestle Factory student, Vin Gerard. Gerard had apparently washed out of the school, but as the storyline went, found a "back door" into Chikara anyway, by donning the Equinox garb and gaining the trust of Skayde. 

Former hero Shane Storm, and his partner Mister Zero.

 

Once outed, Vin Gerard dropped the heroic attitude, and instead began a reign of terror that would last for the next couple years. He effectively replaced Chris Hero as the new top "Big Bad" of Chikaradom, and gathered around him similarly disaffected wrestlers. Former hero (and early Wrestle Factory graduate) Shane Storm, a masked, fun-loving "Traffic Regulator", who for years had been a golden boy in the fan's eyes, turned on them, tired of "being seen as a clown", and instead became the darker Stigma. And Colin Delaney, formerly Colin Olsen of the Olsen Twins tag team, who had spent a stint in WWE's "ECW" brand, and returned to Chikara believing he was "too good" for the promotion. Together, they called themselves the "UnStable", with their symbol being Chikara's own logo, turned upside down into a "U".

But even bigger threats loomed on the horizon, than grumpy emo bad boys...

Evil Machinations.

While all of this UnStable tomfoolery was going down, our good friend Ultramantis Black, was being Great and Devious indeed. In an attempt to upgrade his Order of the Neo Solar Temple, from some of the goofier members it had employed in the past, Mantis decided to try a new tactic, to his own folly. He procured for himself a rather ominous and sinister artifact, one that would come to effect Chikara heavily for years, called the "Eye of Tyre". It was said that this crystalline object, could give you control over others, to make them do your bidding. But there was also a warning, that one must pass the Eye on to another after using it, or else the user would be cursed. Mantis, believing he was above worrying about such paltry things, employed the Eye on one Delirious, a crazy but dangerous wrestler, who had been a friend and tag team partner of (at the time) hero Hallowicked. With Delirious now part of his Order, Mantis felt assured that he would finally become all-powerful, and dominate Chikara. Or destroy it, whichever seemed more fun. 

 

 

The Batiri, spawns of evil.

 

However, Mantis would come to be warned that the alleged "Rightful Owner of the Eye" was looking for it, and wanted it back. If he wouldn't give it up, they, whoever they were, would come and take it. Continuing to think himself far too Devious for any opposition, Ultramantis Black set about even more background scheming, secretly ordering a "dark army" to be trained, further foot-soldiers to come and help defend him from the Eye's owner. Thus in the fullness of time, the Devious One would find himself twice cursed, all the product of his own villainous schemes. At the end of 2009, Chikara would suffer its first full blown invasion, by the very same figure that Mantis dismissed...

 

 

Der Bruderschaft des Kreuzes

 

Claudio and Ares

That invasion came in the form of masked mystery men who showed up, dressed in white. They unmasked, revealing themselves to be the Swiss Ares, and his monster Tursas. They were joined by several Chikara stars, who laid waste to the Chikara roster. They called themselves Der Bruderschaft des Kreuzes, German for "The Brotherhood of the Cross". Instead of merely taking back the Eye of Tyre from Ultramantis, the leader Ares, backed by Chikara hero Claudio Castagnoli (later WWE's Cesaro), decided he wanted to conquer Chikara instead. And conquer they did, joined by disaffected wrestlers like Tim Donst, Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze, and Lince Dorado. Most interestingly, the last of their membership, Pinkie Sanchez, had previously infiltrated the heroic Colony (a group of humanoid ants), pretending to be the ant from the future, "Carpenter Ant", only to turn on them and mock them by calling himself "Pink Ant". Then again, Tim Donst was pretending to be a robot from the future named Vokoder prior to the invasion, so you know, it happens. 

Green Ant, Fire Ant, and Soldier Ant, the Colony

 

So not only did The BDK, as they came to be known, go on to dominate Chikara for over a year, but as previously stated, Ultramantis was now twice cursed. For not only did he have to deal with the BDK showing up to stomp a mudhole in his insectoid ass, and them eventually wresting control of Delirious away from him. But when that aforementioned "Dark Army" he had ordered finally showed up, in the form of the demons Kodama and Obariyon, and the "Prince of All Goblins" Kobald, led by their trainer, the evil carny Sinn Bodhi, in the midst of a crisis of conscience over his misdeeds, Mantis rejected their evil services. And so, instead of working FOR him, he now had not only the BDK, but the demonic Batiri after him as well! This is what happens when you layer evil scheme on top of evil scheme. 

Gekido

It took the combined might of the Chikara Technicos AND Rudos to finally, eventually oust most of the BDK from their midst, so that things could get back to whatever passes as normal in the crazy world of Chikara. But, as I mentioned before, the BDK was only the first invasion they would suffer, not the last. In 2012, around the time I finally started gradually wading into the Chikara pool, a different hostile Rudo group showed up, calling themselves "Gekido", which is Japanese for Rage or Fury. It can also stand for Violence. Similar to Vin Gerard, three of this new group's members, a subset of ants called "The Swarm", were, according to Mike Quackenbush, jilted former Wrestle Factory students, who again had washed out. But unlike Gerard, who by this time was gone from Chikara, these boys found themselves a mysterious new teacher, one with "forbidden" wrestling knowledge and zero scruples, known only as "17", so-named for the "17 Forgotten Wrestling Holds" he claimed to know. And all of them were deadly dangerous, as he was soon to display.

The "Swarm" were evil ants, to mock the Colony, heroes of Chikara, who called themselves DeviANT, AssailANT, and CombatANT. Joining their leader 17, was also the mysterious "Shard", who seemed to be an evil doppelganger of Jigsaw, just as 17 himself dressed as an evil doppelganger of Quackenbush. Gekido made their presence known by attacking various Chikara stars, with typical Rudo run-ins and beat-downs. But after not too long, 17 upped the ante, by beginning to use his "Forgotten Holds" to purposefully injure and thus eliminate Chikara wrestlers. This only made Chikara's leader, Quackenbush, more angry and desperate to get rid of these invaders, to the point that he began using their violent tactics against them, eventually himself injuring both CombatANT and 17. The threat of Gekido would ultimately fade, AssailANT even eventually turning good, after being forcibly put in The Colony. But their defeat also carried a heavy cost, as "Quack" had compromised himself, and this caused Jigsaw, longtime friend and hero, to turn on him, surprisingly joining what was left of Gekido. He formed a new team with his own doppelganger Shard, known as the "Pieces of Hate". 

The Pieces of Hate, Jigsaw and Shard

Colony: Xtreme Force

All was not well in Chikara, still, as it was in storyline now owned by a seemingly sinister corporate outfit known as Titor Conglomerate, and the owner's son, Wink Vavasseur, had been in charge of Chikara since the beginning of 2012. It was his idea to instigate the use of "Chikarbametrics", a goofy scheme to "spice things up" by using supposed analytics to tell him which wrestlers would be best teamed together. It was due to this that Soldier Ant was swapped into the villainous Swarm, and AssailANT joined the Colony. It was also due to this that Techonico favorite Sugar Dunkerton, was removed from the sports-themed "Throwbacks" team, and instead paired with the Rudo bullies, F.I.S.T. But in 2013, he had a new bright idea, and introduced yet another team of ants. This lot were supposed to be fun and great for merchandising, based more on action figure tropes. They were called Colony: Xtreme Force; Orbit Adventure Ant, Missile Assault Ant, and Arctic Rescue Ant. They had a propensity for yelling their names out loud a lot (especially Missile Assault), and while they started off harmless enough, they eventually fell under the villainous leadership of DeviANT. 

The Monster, Deucalion.

Jimmy Jacobs and Co.

The now evil Jigsaw and Co.

The Devastation Corporation

The business with Wink, ultimately culminated in the most ambitious (and risky) storyline that perhaps any wrestling company has ever attempted, before or since. In mid-2013, at Chikara's PPV event "Anniversario: Never Compromise", at the end of the show, in the midst of a still ongoing championship match, Titor's own "Condor Security" forces showed up, ejected the wrestlers, ejected the fans, and began tearing down the set. Chikara was, in storyline, effectively "Shut Down", because top secret, and quite sinister information had been threatened to be leaked about Titor Conglomerate. This whole deal was so effective at the time, that fans weren't even sure whether or not it fully WAS a story, or if the company was really closed for good. 

 

 

The Ashes of Chikara

 

 

And this is also about where I came in, as a more regular Chikara viewer. I was already by this point a major fan of Chikara, having watched King of Trios 2012 with my friend, and done as much clip-watching and internet reading as I could, about their storylines, their characters, their history. I was hooked. But it wasn't until the 2014 "Season", that I finally found myself in a financial position to be able to afford to buy and download all their shows (and PPV events). The "Closure" of Chikara, led to basically a full year of the company only existing as a group of several smaller splinter promotions, almost all of whom carried a "Wrestling Is" moniker. "Wrestling is Fun", "Wrestling is Cool", "Wrestling is Art", etc. Over the course of that year, various villainous factions started showing up at these shows, and gradually shutting them down. Titor was still out to extinguish what was left of Chikara.

There was also a series of online, indie-movie quality videos, dubbed the "Ashes of Chikara" series, which also slowly unfolded a storyline of Titor's attempts at destruction, and a handful of Chikara faithful, including the formerly "most hated man in Chikara" Icarus, becoming its new champion and hero, trying to pick up the pieces. They eventually turned the video series into a feature length film, and it was announced at the 2014 "National Pro Wrestling Day" show, that Chikara was finally officially coming back, live on iPPV, at the May 25th event "You Only Live Twice". This was the first Chikara show I got to watch live, and let me tell you, I was stoked. I more than got what I wanted out of it, and I was stoked to actually be able to watch the full season of shows going forward. 

The Unlikely Hero, Icarus

Dasher Hatfield and Mr. Touchdown, The Throwbacks

Amasis and Ophidian, The Osirian Portal

"Big Magic" Shane Matthews and "Jagged" Scott Parker, 3.0

Of course, the overarching story of 2014, featured Chikara's third, and by far biggest invasion, by a veritable army of villains, a "Super Group" if you will, akin to the "Legion of Doom", led by the murderous "Titan of Titor", Deucalion. The group was known collectively as "The Flood", and as a bit of mythological side lore, Deucalion in Greek Mythology was the brother of Prometheus, and was a demi-god of a man (a Titan, actually), who survived a great flood. Well "Duke" and his Flood army, were here to "wash away" Chikara, destroying it completely. And with a force comprised of many smaller Rudo groups, such as Sinn Bodhi's evil "Odditorium", The Devastation Corporation (and their Wrecking Crew cohorts), Colony Xtreme Force led by DeviANT, the last vestiges of Gekido, including Jigsaw, and even a resurfaced version of the BDK, they could do it. The "Field General", or second leader in command of this lot, after "Duke", was indie wrestler and all around not-nice guy, Jimmy Jacobs. Quite a daunting force, indeed. How could Chikara possibly fight back against all of that?

Well, Chikara had some firepower of their own, such as the now heroic Icarus, the sporty Throwbacks, Ultramantis' Spectral Envoy, 3.0 (as they were known then) and their new pal Archibald Peck, who they had rescued from the timestream and "Parts Unknown" (a story for another time), and more. The Chikara side certainly faced losses like never before, though, as this was also arguably the darkest Chikara storytelling in its history. Deucalion had a penchant for murder, favoring a deadly move he called the "Chokebreaker" (a chokeslam onto his own knee, breaking their back and "killing" them). And he used this move early and often, sometimes even against his own teammates, if they lost matches. "Duke" himself didn't even wrestle for most of the season, instead acting as a boogeyman, a terrifying phantom who at any moment during a given show, could pop up like Jason Voorhees, and destroy someone else. More than one beloved fan favorite fell victim to his might, including poor Archibald Peck, and one of my new top favorites, The Estonian Thunderfrog (think Thor, but as a frog-man). 

Not to give TOO much away, but the Flood were eventually defeated, or driven off, but at a much higher cost to the Chikara roster than the BDK had ever taken. 

Portents of the Future...

All Glory, Nazmaldun...

 

Of course past misdeeds have a cost. The now somewhat heroic Ultramantis Black's machinations were not done with him yet. As during the course of the 2014 season, one of Deucalion's "POWs", was none other than his former thrall Delirious. Mantis had freed Delirious from the control of the Eye of Tyre at the end of 2011, but Delirious claimed to "remember everything", and would eventually come back to threaten Mantis with "Two Years of Misery" as recompense for the time he had been controlled. As an at first seemingly unwilling member of The Flood, but later willingly seeking revenge against Mantis, the two clashed at the 2014 finale, "Tomorrow Never Dies", in a "Loser Leaves Chikara" match. Mantis won, but it would prove a Pyrrhic Victory, as after the match, Delirious produced the Eye of Tyre, and used it on Hallowicked, seemingly putting he, and Frightmare who he was spiritually connected to, under his thrall, turning them against Ultramantis.

But something else, far darker happened instead. At the 2015 opener, Hallowicked and Frightmare would show up looking radically different, donning red and white, and toting a strange new banner, as you can see in the picture above. They now seemed to be in the service of some eldrich, Lovecraftian type dark god, called "Nazmaldun, the Lord of Rot". And Hallowicked, who had always spoken in incomprehensible gibberish, spoke with a new voice, clear as crystal, but dark as midnight. He claimed to be the herald of this new power rising, and in the fullness of time, which we won't get into here, he too gathered a small army of Nazmaldun "possessed" villains to try and conquer Chikara. 

Silver Ant, Fire Ant, and Worker Ant (II), the New Colony.

The "Winter" Soldier Ant...

Meanwhile, during the course of 2014, Solider Ant, a long-time stalwart and hero of Chikara, also reappeared as a "POW" of The Flood. Soldier, after being forced to join The Swarm, eventually went AWOL in 2013, disappearing from Chikara and its satellites completely. That was a big storyline in the "Ashes" videos, was Fire Ant and Green Ant's search for him. Well, it turned out that Titor got their hands on him, and seemingly brainwashed him, and turned him into a kind of "Super Soldier" weapon to use against his old friends. Many fans dubbed this version of the character "Winter Soldier Ant", after the Marvel character, and during the course of 2015, he did indeed seem driven to destroy The Colony. Fire Ant and Soldier Ant had debuted as The Colony all the way back in 2006, and had been teammates and friends, defending Chikara, even becoming tag champs and King of Trios together. So it was only fitting that, in the end, Fire faced Soldier alone, to either find a way to get him back, or be destroyed by his friend. Ultimately, he won him back, and the friends were reunited. 

The Gentleman's Club

F.I.S.T. (Friends In Similar Tights)

The Founder, "Lightning" Mike

The point of going over ALL of that, was to illustrate the top-most reason why I love Chikara. What made me fall in love with Chikara Pro, and become such a big fan. From 2012 through 2016, especially, they were pretty much THE wrestling promotion I watched, for the most part. They were "My" company, my preferred flavor of "rasslin", and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I was glad to be able to afford to buy and watch every single show of 2014 and 2015 especially, and those two Seasons remain probably my favorites, overall. Not everything was perfect, I didn't love every single twist or turn or "booking" decision. In fact some I outright hated. BUT, all in all, it was a great ride, and a whole lot of fun.

For all this talk about crazy characters and elaborate plots, and imagery of colorful masks and goofy gimmicks, don't think for a moment that Chikara lacked "serious" wrestling. There was indeed a lot of goofiness and humor. But there were also dark and serious moments, and I'm glad to say, as someone who has watched an awful lot of wrestling in his life, that there were more good Chikara wrestlers, and matches, than bad ones. I'll go into further depth another time, on individual characters I liked, and their in-ring acumen. But sufficed to say, I wasn't merely enjoying fun storytelling, but a lot of very high quality wrestling matches as well. 

 

 

The Xyberhawx, heroes from the future year of 2000.

 

 

I will say, while I want to remain mostly positive, that in my personal view and experience, Chikara did, unfortunately, start to decline a bit over the course of 2017-2020. This was for several reasons, the chief one I think, being that they lost a lot of talent, either to being signed by other companies like TNA, WWE, etc., or other wrestlers simply leaving. But I will say, it definitely soured me, personally, when suddenly many of my favorites, such as Silver Ant, Ashley Remington, Shynron, Jervis Cottonbelly, Thunderfrog, etc., were now gone. New characters popped up, of course, such as the Saturday Morning Cartoon inspired "Xyberhawx 2000", whom I liked. But by and large, the new characters who came along, in my eyes, couldn't really replace the beloved ones who left. And in general, at least in my view, the stories started to become less interesting, as well. It was still my favorite promotion, I'd like to point out, but it just wasn't AS good as it used to be.

I had high hopes, I'll admit, in 2015 and 2016, when it seemed like Chikara's "comeback" was going really well, that the company would continue growing, gaining a bigger audience, making more money, and eventually gaining the recognition (and production budget) it rightly deserved. Sadly, that never materialized, for whatever reasons. And while I will absolutely not bother getting into the sordid (and frankly stupid) details, the company tragically closed its doors, seemingly for good and for real this time, in June of 2020. I will only say, that I don't feel the company should have ever closed, period, and leave it at that. 

Some examples of awesome Chikara DVD art.

Many were based on classic comic book covers.

It needs to be said, that Chikara Pro was a one of a kind wrestling company. I have never seen another quite like it, before or since, with such a dedication to emphasis on characters, with unique, fun, and elaborate personalities, and full-blown, intricate storytelling. That doesn't mean everything they tried worked, or that everything they did was gold. But more of it was gold than not, and what's important, is that Chikara made a LOT of people smile, made a lot of people's days, and gave people a lot of good memories. Myself included. Living on the West Coast, I sadly never go to attend one of their shows live, something that had been a goal of mine. But I was still a fan, from afar.

In a "perfect" world, Chikara never would have closed. And in my heart of hearts, I perhaps naively wish that they would return someday. Though, of course, much like a lot of other modern forms of entertainment, there's no guarantee that the "reboot" would ever be as good as the original. But I will leave you with these final thoughts. If you're at all, even a little bit, of a pro wrestling fan. Or even if you aren't, and have never bothered watching the stuff, I think that there is a lot here for you, a lot to like, and be enjoyed. I firmly believe that Chikara Pro was one of the very best wrestling promotions of the last 20 years, and while they often had probably shoestring budgets, and not WWE's billions, I can say with some authority that this tiny company was putting on better shows than the "Big Leagues" were, for many years running. They deserve to be remembered, appreciated, and still enjoyed, because they were that good. And to people like me, they mattered. 

 

 

If you're at all interested in dipping your toes in yourself, you can catch ALL of their shows on "Independent Wrestling TV", at this link:

https://independentwrestling.tv/partner/CHIKARA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In memory of "Sweet & Sour" Larry Sweeney, 1981-2011