CHIKARA live event results
June 27, 2010
Cleveland, Ohio
Report by Paul Greer, Torch VIP member

The headline story coming out of the show was Bryan Danielson returning to the ring for the second time after his return the previous night in Detroit. In Cleveland on Sunday, Danielson joked about going to TNA after his 90-day no-compete clause in WWE expired. Details on Danielson's post-match promo are below.

This was my first time seeing a complete CHIKARA show, so I did not know what to expect. Upon entering the building, they had signs up that read it was a family-friendly show and no rude or abusive language would be tolerated. I would estimate the crowd between 150-200 people. It was a small building and all of the seats were filled. Some folks were standing against the wall.

The show opened with the ring announcer Gavin Loudspeaker performing an acoustic song for the audience. I had no idea what to make of that. The crowd seemed familiar with the product and cheered him on.

(1) Tursas pinned Player Dos. Pretty much a squash match.

(2) Da Soul Touchaz defeated The Colony in a tag match. Both teams seemed to be well-liked by the crowd. Fun match.

(3) Shane Matthews & Scott Parker defeated Icarus & Chuck Taylor. This was mostly a comedy match.

(4) Johnny Gargano pinned Player Uno.

(5) Lince Dorado & Pinkie Sanchez defeated Mike Quackenbush & Frightmare. Dorado pinned Frightmare. I had heard a lot of buzz about Quackenbush, but had never seen him wrestle. I was not overly impressed with the little I did see of Quackenbush. To his defense, he allowed Frightmare to work most of the match.

(6) The UnStable (Vin Gerard & STIGMA) defeated The Osirian Portal (Ophidian & Amasis). Colin Delaney interfered and turned Ophidian's mask backwards so Gerard could get the pin. Delaney cut a promo afterward that dragged.

(7) Eddie Kingston pinned Delirious. Decent match. They played up Kingston as the underdog who hurt his leg early in the match.

(8) Bryan Danielson beat Tim Donst via submission to Cattle Mutilation at 18:23. When Danielson came out, he was greeted with neck ties from the audience. Since the show was family-friendly, a chant of "You're gonna get your flipping head kicked in" started. Really good match. It was the kind of match Donst can put on his resume when looking for bookings.

After the match, Danielson took the mic and thanked everyone for supporting him and independent wrestling. He sarcastically said he will be joining TNA when his 90 days are up. The crowd booed. He then laughingly tried to start a TNA chant. When that didn't work, he asked the crowd whether they would like to see him wrestling Desmond Wolfe under his new TNA name Ray Boner. The crowd chanted, "Boner, Boner." He then apologized for breaking CHIKARA's family-friendly policy by starting a "Boner" chant. He said not knowing what constitutes a PG-rating seems to get him in trouble.

Danielson said he doesn't know what his future holds, but no matter where he ends up, he hopes that he can put a spotlight on independent wrestling and that fans should support independent wrestling. He then announced he was wrestling on another show (AIW: Absolutely Intense Wrestling) in the same building following the close of the CHIKARA show. I was too tired to stay for that show, so no report for what happened there.

(9) Claudio Castagnoli & Ares retained beat Equinox & Helios to retain Los Campeonatos de Parejas (Tag Team Titles) in a two-out-of-three falls match. The champs attacked the challengers before the bell, which led to the first pin fall happening in nine seconds. The entire technicos roster came out to cheer on Equinox and Helios and fire up the crowd. This would have worked better had Helios and Equinox scored a pinfall and this was leading up to the deciding pinfall. Instead, it fell flat because the audience was only cheering them on to tie up the match, which was all for nothing since Claudio and Ares won two straight falls to retain the tag belts. Since the technicos coming out signaled that the end was near for the match, it was a bit of a let down.

My overall impression of CHIKARA was that they put on a fun show. The matches weren't sloppy and had lots of good-to-great highspots. They tried to tell stories and further feuds that were easy to follow. Nothing dragged. The characters and way they present their product makes them stand out against other independent groups. I don't know if the match quality was at the point where I would buy their DVDs, but I would come out and see them again if they come back to Cleveland.

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