Chikara “Let’s Get Invisible“ - Live Show Report December 8th in Philadelphia, PA
This was Chikara’s final show of 2018 and the finale of their 19th season. A loaded card in front of a capacity crowd.
1. Juan Francisco de Coronado beat Green Ant via submission with the Coronado Clutch. I thought this was a good way to open the show with Wrestle Factory favorite Green Ant, and a nice opener featuring a lot of mat exchanges. Juan worked over Green Ant’s leg, and he caught him in the Clutch when Green Ant came at him flying off the top rope.
2. Cornelius Crummels & Sonny Defarge won a Four Corner Tag Team Eliminator over Los Ice Creams (Ice Cream Jr. y El Hijo del Ice Cream), F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Tony Deppen), and Jeremy Leary & Blanche Babish. Deppen tried to come on to Babish at the start to no avail, offering her a night out at Olive Garden, her treat. Icarus wrestled the entire match wearing his jacket, so he didn’t show off his back tattoo, but he was wrestling in trunks and showing off his leg tattoo, which Leary mocked. Los Ice Creams were the first team out fairly quickly, when Crummels rolled up Hijo as they attempted to suplex Defarge. A new trick in the repertoire of Crummels and Defarge was Defarge ramming his foot into Babish’s face after Crummels sneezed on it (it’s Flu Season you jerks!). The two rudo teams worked together against Leary and Babish, but they eventually came at odds over who could pick up the pinfalls, allowing a hot tag to Babish, who cleaned house on all four of them briefly. Babish soon after made Deppen tap out to the Soda Jerk, eliminating him and Icarus. Crummels and Defarge scored the third and final fall after hitting Leary with the old high low, clipping his knee and hitting him with a lariat. These two falls led to Crummels and Defarge accruing three points for a shot at Los Campeonatos de Parejas next year. Fun character exchanges, fun action.
3. BLANK (w/ Still Life with Apricots and Pears) beat Penelope Ford with a forearm to the back of the head. Still Life came out with a camera. Decent match between these two, with Ford fighting from behind and hitting some cartwheel-based offense and a dive to the floor to get the crowd going. She may have done one backflip too many though, as BLANK caught her with the forearm as she rebounded off the ropes to pick up the win. Ford acted like she was knocked out, and after the match BLANK positioned her into a pose while laid out on the mat. BLANK called this pose “A Lilly in Place of a Rose” and had Still Life take pictures of her. Shades of “The Killing Joke” if you ask me.
4. Lucas Calhoun & Missile Assault Man & Axel Ford beat Professor Nicodemus and the Proteus Wheel (Volgar & Frantik & Callux the Castigator) in a 4-on-3 Philadelphia Street Fight when Missile Assault Man pinned Nicodemus after an inverted DDT. This was the first time I can recall Chikara having a street fight on one of their events, and it was suitably chaotic. The Proteus Wheel brought a trash can full of plunder. Calhoun (wearing a shirt reading “Punch More Nazis”) and his partners were able to send the Proteus Wheel to the floor early and isolate Nicodemus, but he sprayed something in their faces to get away, opting to stay on the floor throughout most of the match. Callux hit Ford (no relation to Penelope) with the trash can lid and a cookie sheet. Calhoun retrieved a bunch of steel chairs from under the ring and walloped his opponents with them. Ford, continuing to have a tough time, received a double chokeslam onto a dusty ironing board. Calhoun was able to prevent Missile Assault Man (sporting a bandaged ankle from “Don’t Go To Sleep!”) getting pillmanized again, leading to Missile Assault Man pillmanizing Frantik’s ankle. He then put Frantik in a figure four, but Volgar broke it up with a splash. Volgar also slammed Calhoun off the top rope onto a bunch of chairs Calhoun had set up earlier. Missile Assault Man hit Volgar with a fishing rod and buried him under chairs, Nicodemus hit him with a bat to no avail, and Nicodemus was once again cornered before his experiments saved him. Callux hit a Boss Man Slam onto a trash can for a nearfall. Eventually, the Proteus Wheel was wiped out on the floor after Calhoun clocked Volgar with his own chain and sent him off the top, allowing for the rather anticlimactic comeuppance for Nicodemus. The fans were into the action and outcome. Other trash can plunder, such as a golf club and a hockey stick, were not used.
- First of two intermissions held.
5. Hallowicked beat Boomer Hatfield after a third snapmare off the top. A short match where Hallowicked was largely dominant, suplexing the younger Hatfield around the ring. Boomer was able to leave the ring on his own afterward.
6. The Creatures of the Deep (Oceanea, Merlok, Hermit Crab, and Cajun Crawdad) beat Fire Ant, Thief Ant, Razerhawk, and Danjerhawk after Oceanea and Merlok hit the Tidal Wave on Razerhawk. They attempted the Tidal Wave the first time on Danjerhawk, but his partners pulled him to the floor, so Oceanea dived onto them off of Merlok’s back. A second attempt, onto Razerhawk, was countered into powerbomb on Merlok by the two ants. Razerhawk scored a nearfall on Oceanea with a Swanton afterward. A lot of fun action throughtout, including Crab hitting Thief Ant with a Spanish Fly off the middle rope, Crab attempting his crab walk on the ropes but taking a hurricanrana off the ropes by Razerhawk, and Razerhawk immediately afterward taking a Muscle Buster by Merlok. Fire Ant caught Merlok with his running kick, but almost fell prey to Oceanea’s fish hook. On the last event November 24th (the Cibernetico show that I was unable to recap here), Oceanea set a message to Crab and Crawdad that there would be consequences if they fail her again, so the two loyal servants/jesters of this court of creatures pulled their weight, preventing any interference from the third attempt at the Tidal Wave being successful. The Creatures of the Deep all celebrated over Razerhawk’s crushed body as Danjerhawk tended to him.
7. Solo Darling beat Travis Huckabee via submission to what looked like the Million Dollar Dream. A strong grudge match and maybe my favorite on the card. Darling wanted to get at Huckabee immediately upon her music hitting. She got him into a Regal Stretch right away. After lots of back and forth, including lots of kicks from Darling, it went to the floor, where Huckabee caught Darling in the Stretch Muffler and threw her into a ring post. Making their way back inside, Huckabee caught her with a piledriver, which he used to take put Darling on the shelf at “La Lotería Letal,” but here it was only good enough for a nearfall. He then hit a second piledriver. He then attempted a cloverleaf (perhaps Darling’s own Sharp Stinger), but Darling maneuvered to the ropes and was sent to the outside. Huckabee pulled the mats up off the floor to attempt a third piledriver on the unprotected floor, but Darling gave him a back body drop instead. Back in the ring, Huckabee suckered Darling into rollup nearfall after a fake apology and doing their old handshake with her, but Darling recouped and scored the satisfying submission win.
8. Princess KimberLee & The Whisper beat The Regime (Sloan Caprice & Rick Roland) to win Los Campeonatos de Parejas 2 falls to 1. Carrying on with the story from when they won the tournament at “La Lotería Letal,” Lee wanted nothing to do with Whisper during this match. They never made actual tags, just lucha style tags by exiting the ring, such as when Lee entered the match for the first time after Whisper took a ton of punishment. Caprice pinned Lee with a rollup to score the first fall. Lee was at a disadvantage afterward, but she didn’t tag out when she had the opportunity to. She was able to even up the falls when Roland missed hitting her with a sexton off the top. Lee also weakened Caprice’s knee with a targeted kick, and Caprice sold it for the rest of the match. Whisper got back in when Lee went to the floor and scored a number of nearfalls. Caprice caught Whisper with a rollup, but Lee instinctually came in and broke it up. Whisper hugged her afterward, causing Lee to hit him with a German suplex. However, Whisper was suplexed onto Caprice and pinned him, resulting in new champions. Lee was dumbfounded by this and left the ring, leaving Whisper alone with the titles. The team that fans in the crowd here referred to as both “WhisperLee” and “Silent Kingdom” are now Tag Team Champions Who Can’t Get Along.
- Second intermission before the main event.
9. Dasher Hatfield beat Ophidian to retain the Chikara Grand Championship with a rolling elbow. This was Ophidian’s second shot at the title this year, earning his third point towards this title match on November 24th with a win over Tony Deppen. When ref Bryce Remsburg asked Ophidian before the match if he was ready to do this, Ophidian responded with, “I’m ready to actually earn this,” a shot at interim champion Hatfield. Good, competitive main event, with Ophidian getting a lot of offense in and getting increasingly aggressive in his attempt to win the title. He got a lot of momentum, including a near submission from the Cobra Clutch Death Grip, and a flipping piledriver right before Hatfield got the win.
- With Ophidian still laid out in the ring after the finish, Boomer came out to celebrate with his dad, as did the returning Mr. Touchdown. He said he was proud of Hatfield for what has now been four defenses of the Grand Championship on his behalf, and then revealed that as of December 10 (Monday), he will be cleared to return to the ring. Remsburg congratulated Touchdown and handed him back the Grand Championship, but Hatfield held onto it… and laid out Touchdown with an elbow! He acted like this was still his title. Boomer was at a loss and went to tend to Touchdown, but Dasher yelled at him to come to the back with him.
This troubling incident put a bow on a very fun season finale to Chikara’s year, which has been almost exclusive to the Wrestle Factory in Philadelphia. They will be back to touring more next year, with the earliest returns to the Wrestle Factory being March 16 for both stages of Young Lions Cup XV, and May 11 for The Infinite Gauntlet.
