Matches from CHIKARA Aniversario: Scotch Mist 5/26/19

The Crucible (EM Demorest/Matt Makowski/Tunku Amir) vs. The Colony (Fire Ant/Green Ant/Thief Ant)

ER: I hadn't heard of Makowski until that Bloodsport show a couple months ago, where he had one of my favorite matches of the year opposite Rory Gulak. So, obviously I'm going to seek out more Makowski, and here we are! This is a fairly sloppy trios match, but the sloppiness kind of worked to the match's advantage. Makowski looked cool throughout, looked great on his missed strikes (great spot where he swung for face on a kick that Fire Ant narrowly avoided) and landed well on his big strikes, and tangled Green Ant up into a cool triangle attempt. All members of The Crucible are super new, and Demorest and Amir look super new, but Makowski already looks like he's been doing this for awhile. It's kind of amazing how quickly MMA people have been able to crossover and adapt. The Crucible is a pretty cool idea, a group of guys throwing a wrench into the gears of the most established trios team in the company. I dug all the spots of Crucible catching the Colony on dives and interrupting their momentum and flow, and how it lead to cool stuff like Green Ant absolutely crushing Makowski with a double stomp off the top while Makowski had a submission locked in. Crucible interrupting the flow of dives, Colony interrupting subs, that's just smart layout. The Colony were clearly pros leading a some sequences, and that's cool, as my main takeaway was just how awesome Makowski looked regardless of experience.

Ophidian vs. Mike Quackenbush

ER: Well this was not what I was expecting. Ophidian jumps Quack to start and locks on a guillotine, then hits a flipping piledriver after sufficient choking had taken place, locks on a sub and Quack's arm hits the mat three times. Well, I'm the one who always gripes about how flipping piledrivers mean nothing, and this certainly put over the danger of a flipping piledriver. The angle was put over strongly by Quack, who did insanely great neck selling post match, looking like a guy who clearly knows the ins and outs of neck pain and neck injuries. I was obviously hoping for an actual match, but am admittedly curious where this angle leads.

43. Mask vs. Mask: Dasher Hatfield vs. Boomer Hatfield

ER: Now I'm not someone who keeps up on Chikara storylines, but that's why I have always appreciated Quackenbush's commentary skills. He presents silly information with a straight face, like Joey Styles without the smarm or digs at competition, and there aren't many commentary guys who can naturally go over storylines while calling action, explaining why certain moves should have more meaning. This is a father and son mask vs. mask match, Dasher one of the longest tenured Chikara guys, and the confusingly named youngster Boomer being an 18 year old rookie. There's a pretty significant size difference, Dasher being possibly the largest guy presently in Chikara and Boomer being practically half his size. But they made up the difference well, with Boomer relying on fast leverage moves like backslides, crucifix roll-ups, hanging off Dasher with guillotines, or just flying into Dasher body or feet first. Dasher worked this less flashy, really being a bully, coming in hard with big one knockdown chops and hard single arm lariats, and using his size advantage to toss him around like a dummy, but also doing dickhead heel stuff like faking a ball shot only to get a minor cheap advantage. Dasher hits a couple powerbombs - one a huge running Liger bomb - and maneuvers him into a cool Gory Special, and I liked how after taking some damage, Boomer started firing back with nice uppercuts. I thought they ramped nicely into the big spots, with one awesome moment really ramping things up: Boomer had reversed lariats into a hanging guillotine a couple times already (and Dasher was really great at selling the guillotine, making it seem better than it looked, really yanking on Boomer's arm to try to free himself), caught him in another, and seeing no better way out Dasher rushed the ropes and took both of them painfully to the floor. Dasher even suplexes him into the ringpost/buckles once they're on the floor. I thought they did a real good job at working like they knew what was coming, really putting over the mentee son angle, and I liked a lot of the learned behavior results (loved Dasher catching a running back elbow and quickly converting it into a Gory bomb into the turnbuckles). I did think the ending was a bit sudden and meant Boomer had to shrug off some pretty big offense, but overall this was a great main event that I thought captured the drama that an apuestas match should have.

PAS: This was shockingly great for a match between an old timey baseball guy and a smaller old timey baseball guy. I couldn't be less interested in this match on paper, but man did they deliver. Dasher was really great as a Great Santini style abusive dad, who continued to escalate his abuse as he began losing control. I thought all of the cheap shot stuff really worked as Dasher was especially dastardly while trying to beat and unmask his son. I thought they built to guillotine really well, with Quackenbush putting over how quickly that move can put someone out, and Dasher already desperately diving out of the ring to avoid it earlier in the match. I didn't like Boomer almost no-selling a top rope powerbomb to put it on, but that was really my only problem with this match. I get the sense that this match was worked out move for move at a training center, but it kind of makes me want to watch more huge Chikara main events.


ER: It looks like you'll be seeing more Chikara on Segunda Caida. We've mostly avoided it over the years, but I watched this show on a lark and came away impressed with some things I wasn't expecting. I liked the allure of the mask match - that's mostly what brought me here: I'll give any lucha unknowns a chance if it's a mask match. I'm a sucker for them. Phil mentioned the main event felt really written out, and I agree, but it's a kind of worked out that makes me want to seek out more of their main events as well. I like how they laid this out and presented the story, and would like to see more of their layouts. We're a Chikara blog now? Seems like.


2019 MOTY MASTER LIST