Chikara: High Noon Review By Ashley Hendricks

On Sunday November 13th, The Wrestling world was given a treat as CHIKARA Pro presented their first iPPV, High Noon. I may just be a CHIKARA mark and I may be giving it too much credit but this PPV was the best PPV I have seen all year, if not top 5. This PPV was worth the wait and worth the money. To purchase this iPPV (until it comes on DVD which by Chikara’s standards, it may already be out) you can go to GFL.TV, now on to this Review.

Match 0 – Jigsaw vs El Generico

This match was available to everyone on the pre-show available on Ustream. The problem for me was Ustream was skipping and jumping throughout the entirety of this match, so I can’t really report on it. I did see the end which was Jigsaw picking up the win via double foot stomp.
Winner- Jigsaw
Rating ***

Match 1 – The Colony vs The Young Bucks

I like the Colony and I don’t mind the Young Bucks as faces, so I was excited for this match. Both are great tag teams and it did make for a great contest. Solid Colony crowd. The commentary (Remsburg, Chikarason and Loudspeaker, not all at once) were fantastic at explaining how Chikara works for the newbies) Fire Ant out shined everyone in this match. Solid action from all, especially when they focused more on the Lucha side of wrestling, when you could roll out of the ring and it is considered as a tag out. Matt Jackson is a beast of a man, capable of doing a double powerbomb into a buckle bomb and lifting the Colony on his shoulders. The ending came when A missed Bang for your buck leads to a roll up for the pin and the win in a fantastic opening contest.
Winners – Colony
Rating *** ½

Match 2 – Sara Del Ray vs Jakob Hammermeier

Saras gonna kill you at Happy Birthday chants to start the match. Sara Del Ray pretty much beat the shit out of this poor Bastard. He got a bit of offense but Sara dominated him. Glorious. Sara won via Royal Butterfly.
Winner – Sara Del Ray
Rating ***

Match 3 – Green Ant vs Tursas

The culmination of over a year’s worth of build-up and one of the best matches on the card, here was Green Ant vs Tursas. Green Ant did the slam again but this time on the floor followed by an elbow drop from the top to the floor. Tursas was his usual behemoth self, just being a general badass but Green Ant used a modified Chikara Special (called the Chikara Special: Green) for the submission victory.

Winner – Green Ant
Rating - *** ¼

Match 4 – Colt Cabana vs Archibald Peck

This was a fantastic match, not because of the wrestling; it was because of the comedy. Whenever Archie would go to attack Cabana, he would fall flat on his face. Fantastic. The ending came when Colt Cabunny (Arichie’s mascot in a Cabana singlet) hit Archie with a baton, leading to Colt getting an easy win.
Winner – Colt Cabana
Rating - ** ½

Match 5 - Gregory Iron vs. Icarus

The most hated man in independent wrestling going the most inspirational wrestler, in which was built as the final confrontation. I enjoyed this match. There wasn’t much I could say about this match. The crowd was a little dead. Icarus got the pin after the Blu Ray. After the match Gran Akuma (who had returned the previous night) made an attempt to attack Icarus only to knock the head out of poor Iron.
Winner – Icarus
Rating - ** ¾

Match 6 – Spectral Envoy (UltraMantis Black and Hallowicked) vs. The BDK (Ares and Tim Donst)

Great feud ender. Fun match. Great Spots. Fun brawl all across the arena. UltraMantis Black is over like a motherfucker in Philly and I don’t blame the Philly crowd, Mantis is a legend. The interesting part is that Tim Donst walked out on Ares leading into Mantis pinning him for the win.
Winner – Spectral Envoy
Rating - *** ¾

Match 7 – Eddie Kingston vs. Mike Quackenbush

The main event of the show was master vs. student as ‘The War King’ Eddie Kingston went up against ‘The Master of 1000 Holds’ Mike Quackenbush for The Chikara Grand Championship. The Chikara Grand Championship looks pretty. Before the math Bryce Remsburg was looking very emotional. Kingston was over with the crowd. Quack was until he started acting Rudo during the match. Eventually Quack started brawling and Kingston started using submissions. During the match, the lockeroom emptied as Chikara wrestlers past and present (no Hero or Claudio) surrounded the ring. Kingston eventually won. The title was then presented to him by friends and family of the late Larry Sweeney. He then cut a promo calling out; WWE, TNA, CZW, John Cena, CM Punk, Triple H and AJ Styles. The show came to a close with Kingston, Ultra Mantis, Hallowicked, Icarus and Jigsaw (Chikara’s class one) in the ring together.