Mike Reviews CHIKARA The Dark Ciberknetico – 23.10.10

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’ve got some CHIKARA today, as I happen to have Dark Ciberknetico on DVD, so I decided to review it. The Main Event sees Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes taking on rudos and technicos alike in a big 16 person Cibernetico bout. Elsewhere we’ve got future WWE/AEW wrestlers Johnny Gargano and Brodie Lee in singles matches.

For those not au fait; CHIKARA is basically “what if wrestling were actually a comic book?” with the wrestling matches essentially filling in for the fight scenes. It’s a family friendly lucha styled product heavily inspired by comics, so any fans of more traditional Pro Wrestling might find it a bit jarring.

There’s also the small fact that there was seemingly all kind of controversies coming out regarding the promotion during the Speaking Out movement, which a quick Google search will locate for you. I can understand that putting off anyone from watching the product today, however, there were people who worked there who weren’t total monsters, and some of them are working on this show, so their work possibly shouldn’t be tarnished by the actions of others. I’m not going to get snippy at anyone who would think otherwise though.

You can view the full card for The Dark Ciberknetico by clicking below;

CHIKARA The Dark Ciberknetico Card

Dark Ciberknetico is emanating from the Palmer Community Centre in Easton, Pennsylvania on the 23rd October 2010

Calling the action is a slew of revolving commentators

Gavin Loudspeaker does a song in the ring before the show starts. I’ve heard worse in fairness.

Opening Match
Brodie Lee Vs Dasher Hatfield

Brodie Lee would go on to be Luke Harper in WWE before wrestling under the Lee name in AEW. Hatfield is a throwback old timey baseball character. We get a pre-match promo from Lee, where he’s quite confident due to being undefeated during the current “season” of CHIKARA (CHIKARA would have clearly delineated beginning and ends of their year, as if they were a TV show). This is your standard scary big man Vs quicker smaller man match, with Lee bullying Hatfield around whilst Hatfield tries to stick and move whenever he can to try and gain an advantage in the contest.

Lee’s offence is nicely executed and Hatfield does a good jump bumping around and selling for him, with the crowd getting into the contest and cheering on Hatfield to try and hang on. That being said; there are definitely some Lee fans in the house, although the other fans try and shout them down. Lee’s finisher at the time was a Big Boot, so Hatfield decides to remove Lee’s shoe so that a kick would hurt less, which is a clever idea but it takes Hatfield forever to do it and the match kind of grinds to a halt for a bit until Hatfield finally manages it.

And indeed, when Lee gets the shoeless Big Boot, the impact is lessened just enough that Hatfield is able to kick out. Lee tries the Boss Man Slam following that, but Hatfield kicks out of that as well, leading to Lee putting his shoe back on so that the Big Boot will have maximum impact. This gives Hatfield time to recover though and he dodges the Big Boot the second time and gets a modified Spicolli Driver for the upset win after 9 Minutes.

WINNER: DASHER HATFIELD
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: I liked the idea of Hatfield taking off Lee’s shoe, but the execution was a bit lacking. That aside, this was a decent opener and a good way of giving Hatfield the win without making Lee look weak, as it was presented more as Hatfield being clever and resourceful rather than Lee himself being weak or stupid. Lee actually gets some applause from sections of the fans following the match, whilst others make fun of him and tell him to tie his shoes. Oh now that’s just mean guys

Match Two
Ophidian w/ Amasis Vs Dragon Yuki

Ophidian is a snake who does an Egyptian styled gimmick, complete with “Walk Like An Egyptian” as an entrance music. I’ll give credit to Ophidian’s commitment to trying to move around like a snake, as it adds to the character. Yuki is a masked Japanese wrestler who apparently wrestled a lot for Okinawa Pro in 2010. Yuki is heftier than Ophidian, meaning we get another Big Vs Small match, which would be a bit more effective if we hadn’t just seen it in the opener. They probably could have done with mixing up the running order a bit so you didn’t two of the same style of match right after the other.

The action itself is decent, with the crowd getting into it and Yuki settling into the rudo role ,considering that he’s a bigger slugger, and it gives Ophidian a chance to use his speed and fight from underneath. Ophidian gets worked over for a bit but is eventually able to send Yuki to the outside before following with an impressive looking twisting dive. Back inside the ring we get some near falls, with Yuki using A-Train’s old shoulder back breaker at one stage. Yuki ends up missing a rolling senton from the second rope and that leads to Ophidian locking in a Cobra Clutch for the tap out after 8 Minutes.

WINNER: OPHIDIAN
RATING: **1/4

Thoughts: This was okay. There was the odd sloppy moment, and doing another Big Guy Vs Smaller Guy match when the opener already had that story wasn’t the best choice from the promotion, but the crowd enjoyed it and it gave Ophidian a battling clean win, keeping him and Amasis’ act cooking along

Match Three
CHIKARA Young Lions Cup
Champion: Frightmare Vs “The Bees Knees, the Cats Pyjamas and the whole shebang” Johnny Gargano

Frightmare is a young high flyer who was a tag partner of Hallowicked at the time and also won the Wrestling Observer rookie of the year around this time. Gargano was a member of the FIST faction at the time, but would eventually move on to WWE, where he’d form a notable team with Tommaso Ciampa. Gargano steps up to wrestle Frightmare here when Frightmare’s original randomly drawn opponents, Tekno Team 2000, don’t show up. This one would have probably made more sense as the second match on Dark Ciberknetico, as it’s two smaller guys working at a quick pace and doing flips and it would have broken things up a bit.

Gargano manages to mostly get the balance right between doing cool stuff whilst still being a jerk to ensure that he gets booed. It helps that Frightmare is a very good bump machine who you can feel sorry for when he’s getting battered. One of the most brutal spots of the match sees Gargano catching Frightmare on a crossbody attempt and then reverse powerslamming Frightmare face first onto the apron, with Frightmare of course taking a fantastic bump for that.

Gargano controls for the majority of the match, with the crowd getting behind Frightmare and trying to will him on to make a comeback, which makes it an effective match structure for the audience. Frightmare is eventually able to catch Gargano with a Pele Kick and follows up with a TOPE CON HILO, leading us into the closing stretch, as the crowd continues to really be into this. Gargano gets his Full Nelson into a Face Buster move, I’m not sure what he calls it in WWE, but Frightmare shockingly manages to kick out and manages to win it with a standing backflip double knees to the mid-section after 11 Minutes.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: FRIGHTMARE
RATING: ***1/3

Thoughts: There were a lot of MOVEZ in this one, so some will automatically find it repellent, but the live crowd enjoyed it and I found it to be an entertaining highlight reel. Watching this in 2010 you wouldn’t think that Gargano would ever find himself in the WWE system, but Black and Gold NXT really opened the door for a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have gotten a look

Match Four
Vin Gerard Vs Cheech Hernandez

Gerard was formerly the masked Equinox, but he lost his mask to Chris Hero and became a bitter rudo. Indeed, Equinox losing his mask was part of the larger story that led to the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes being formed, as Hero did a backroom deal in order to win that match which set things in motion for the Bruderschaft to form. Cheech would often team with Cloudy during this period under the name Up In Smoke, but he’s working as a singles tonight.

Cheech probably gets the move of the match by locking Gerard in a body scissors and then ab crunching up into elbow attacks. Someone super flexible should bring that spot back as it was pretty cool. Gerard eventually hangs Cheech up in the ropes for the cut off, giving us our heat segment, which sees Gerard doing standard rudo tactics such as choking on the ropes and taunting the crowd.

It’s a serviceable heat segment, and the crowd in Easton continue to be a good audience, getting behind Cheech and trying to cheer him on into making a comeback. Gerard focuses more on leaning into being a Heel rather than doing cool stuff, although he does get a very nice looking Northern Lights Suplex for a near fall at one stage. Cheech makes a good comeback and the crowd continues to be with him, but Gerard manages to lock a Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock and that’s enough for the submission win after 10 Minutes.

WINNER: VIN GERARD
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: Kind of just two fellers having a match, but it was totally fine for what it was. Gerard was a decent rudo and Cheech fulfilled the role of technico well enough, with the crowd sticking with the match all the way and seeming to enjoy it. Gerard getting the totally clean win wasn’t something I was expecting, as I thought there might be some chicanery involved in there somewhere. Cheech still gets a good response on the way out though, so losing clean didn’t hurt him in any way.

Match Five
The Batiri (Kodama and Obariyon) Vs The Super Smash Brothers (Player Dos and Player Uno)

Batiri are two creepy lookalike face painted dudes. The Smash Brothers would eventually go on to AEW as Stu Grayson and Evil Uno, and it’s interesting seeing Grayson when he was a bit younger and hadn’t got quite as hench as he’d end up looking in his AEW days. Batiri try doing the jump start as SSB pose on the ropes, meaning SSB are on the backfoot from the opening bell onwards, explaining why the former CHIKARA tag team champs are having such issues with a less experienced team. In case anyone needed proof that Stephanie Vaquer did not in fact invent the Devil’s Kiss, Obariyon uses it on Uno during the heat segment here.

Uno sells reasonably well in the heat, with the continued story of SSB being totally on the backfoot against these dangerous newcomers being told well, and the crowd sticking with SSB. Dos gets to do a pretty nice hot tag segment, earning him a loud “Dos” chant from the crowd, especially when he starts busting out dives. SSB get a really impressive double team move where Uno does a Gory Bomb whilst Dos does a Cutter from the top rope, but Obariyon is there to break it up. Kodama replies with a Back Cracker to Dos and Obariyon follows up with a leaping DDT off the ropes for the three count after 12 Minutes.

WINNERS: THE BATIRI
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a textbook example of how you get a new act over, as Batiri essentially dominated an established and well-pushed team for large swathes of this contest, leading to SSB doing their best to rally at the end only to get caught out due to the previous amassed punishment. SSB were actually a really exciting tag team at points, although I never felt they captured that excitement as Dark Order, possibly because they were 9 years older and more broken down

Main Event
Torneo Cibernetico
Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Ares, Claudio Castagnoli, Daizee Haze, Delirious, Pinkie Sanchez, Sara Del Rey, Tim Donst & Tursas) Vs Eddie Kingston, Hallowicked, Icarus, Jigsaw, Larry Sweeney, Mike Quackenbush, STIGMA & UltraMantis Black

A Cibernetico is a big 16 person tag match with 8 people on each team. The teams have to line up in a pre-agreed “batting order” and have to cycle through that batting order when making tags. That means if you come in before you’re allowed to under the batting order then you will be DQ’ed. There can only be one survivor of the match, so if one team eliminates another then that team will have to wrestle one another until only one luchador is left standing.

So there’s a bit of a backstory to this one. Quite a lot in fact as CHIKARA actually did a good job weaving together literally YEARS of storylines into the Bruderschaft reveal, with some of it dating all the way back to 2006/07. To narrow it down though; in classic comic book tradition the Bruderschaft are a big universe threatening event that is so dangerous that both the villains and the heroes are now forced to fight together against them, hence why technicos Quakenbush, Hallowicked and Jigsaw are teaming up with rudos Icarus, STIGMA and UltraMantis. I think Kingston was more chaotic neutral during this time frame rather than being a clear rudo or technico.

The Bruderschaft tries to instil their own rudo referee for this one, but head CHIKARA official Bryce Remsburg isn’t having that and steps in to referee himself. Delirious isn’t actually evil, but Ultramantis Black was using an artefact called the Eye of Tyr to control him. However, the artefact has fallen into the hands of the Bruderschaft now, which is why Delirious is working for them and literally gets dragged down to the ring on the end of a chain. Some of the CHIKARA team actually enter with their old gimmicks at first, with Icarus wearing a mask and STIGMA having his old Shane Storm mask in a nice call back.

Sweeney initially comes out as the masked cyborg Vökoder, a character that Donst previously played, and then unmasks to reveal his true identity to a massive reaction from the crowd. The rules here are that it’s an elimination match and every time there is a tag someone else has to jump on the apron, with people having to step up in a pre-arranged order. We get the back building wide brawl to start though, and the crowd of course enjoys that, with it suiting the over the top mad vibe that they’re going for with this Dark Ciberknetico thing.

Once the bell rings, the opening exchanges are essentially a showcase for Sweeney, with the crowd really getting behind him. Sanchez comes in to bump around for Sweeney, with Sweeney seemingly attempting to block a Superplex by landing on top of Sanchez, but that doesn’t quite work and Sweeney ends up kind of just falling onto Sanchez for the three count. The crowd doesn’t seem to mind at least and are just happy that Sweeney got to eliminate someone. However, Tursas (the resident tank for Bruderschaft) tries to get into the ring and distracts Remsburg, allowing Claudio to attack Sweeney from behind to eliminate Sweeney.

Larry Sweeney eliminates Pinkie Sanchez after 2:20 Minutes

Claudio Castagnoli eliminates Larry Sweeney after 2:42 Minutes

Bruderschaft works over Kingston’s leg following Sweeney’s elimination, with Eddie selling it well. Claudio gets too cocky though, which allows Kingston time to recover and dive out onto Claudio, which counts as a tag under Cibernetico lucha rules, meaning that STIGMA now becomes the next legal man in CHIKARA’s batting order. However, he gets tripled on by Bruderschaft and Donst pins him with a neck breaker. Poor STIGMA barely got to do anything in the match. Well, it was an easy night for him at least.

Tim Donst eliminates STIGMA after 7:55 Minutes

Team CHIKARA starts to rally a bit following STIGMA’s elimination, leading to some entertaining quickfire action where we get a revolving door of people coming in to do a move before someone else comes in to flatten them. Quackenbush does his best against the monstrous Tursas, but he eventually gets doubled on by Ares and Claudio leading to some brief heat. However, Quackenbush manages to make the tag to UltraMantis, who is super over with the crowd despite years of being a rudo, highlighting how hated the Bruderschaft are. Ares and UltraMantis do fun bit together that ends with UltraMantis pinning Ares with the Praying Mantis Bomb, whilst Hallowicked holds the Bruderschaft at bay, a big deal as Hallowicked and Mantis had been rivals for quite a while prior to this.

UltraMantis Black eliminates Ares after 13:19 Minutes

Hallowicked fights off Bruderschaft for a bit, getting an incredibly impressive Sky High Powerbomb on Haze at one stage. Haze got some AIR on that one. Former partners Delirious and Hallowicked do a good bit together following that. Hallowicked looks to have Delirious on the ropes, but rudo referee Derick Sabato pulls Delirious out of the ring, which means that Tursas can legally come in and squish Hallowicked with a big running cross body block for the three count.

Tursas eliminates Hallowicked after 16:46 Minutes

So this brings Icarus into the ring, normally one of the most hated people in the entire CHIKARA promotion. However, the Bruderschaft are such vile antagonists that the crowd actually starts cheering for Icarus. This would be like fans cheering for Dominik Mysterio back when they totally HATED him if anyone would like a comparison has to how wild it was in 2010 that CHIKARA fans might actually cheer for Icarus. Icarus does some really good stuff with Claudio, with Claudio doing his usual excellent job of being a base for a smaller opponent. Donst comes in after that and it looks like Icarus will eliminate him with a Pedigree, but Sabato puts Donst’s foot on the ropes to break the pin and Donst follows up with a CHIKARA Special to send Icarus to the showers.

Tim Donst eliminates Icarus after 20:37 Minutes

Donst and Kingston resume their regular hostilities following that, with Kingston slapping Donst around until Donst flees, giving us some dives from Jigsaw, Haze and Quackenbush, with the batting order moving along to give us Delirious and UltraMantis Black going at it. Mantis gets the Praying Mantis Bomb and that ends Delirious’ night, as Mantis continues to get a strong push in this one.

UltraMantis Black eliminates Delirious after 23:10 Minutes

We get the multi-person suplexes spot following that, with the five members of Bruderschaft giving the four members of CHIKARA vertical suplexes. Claudio then takes out Jigsaw with Swiss Death and that allows Donst to knock Jigsaw out in the CHIKARA Special for another elimination.

Tim Donst eliminates Jigsaw after 25:00 Minutes

Bruderschaft works through their batting order to beat up Quackenbush for a bit following that, with Quackenbush being able to hold on and avoid elimination. Quackenbush’s selling was always a bit spotty, but he takes some nice bumps for the Bruderschaft team at least. Donst tries to sneak another elimination with the CHIKARA Special on Quackenbush, but Quackenbush is a the technical master so he is able to slip out and apply his own version of the hold to eliminate Donst.

Mike Quackenbush eliminates Tim Donst after 27:28 Minutes

Quackenbush does battle with Del Ray and Haze following that, taking some big bumps that leave him weakened so that Claudio can stroll in and Lariat Quackenbush for three.

Claudio Castagnoli eliminates Mike Quackenbush after 29:19 Minutes

Kingston quickly goes on a run to thin out the Bruderschaft numbers following that as he takes out both Del Ray and Haze with Spinning Backfist’s for some quickfire eliminations.

Eddie Kingston eliminates Sara Del Rey after 30:05 Minutes

Eddie Kingston eliminates Daizee Haze after 30:14 Minutes

So we now have Claudio and Tursas for Bruderschaft against Kingston and Mantis for CHIKARA. However, Mantis is still worn out from previous attacks and that allows Tursas to drag him into the ring for a Splash and the three count, meaning that Kingston now has to go it alone.

Tursas eliminates UltraMantis Black after 31:00 Minutes

Kingston gets to show off his fighting spirit by kicking out of a Riccola Bomb at one, which leads to the crowd cheering Kingston on. Kingston tries to fire up, but Claudio decides that he doesn’t want to deal with a fired up Kingston and kicks him low in full view of Remsburg, which leads to Claudio being DQ’ed.

Claudio Castagnoli is disqualified after 32:42 Minutes

Tursas immediately splashes Kingston, but Kingston manages to kick out as the crowd goes wild. Eddie Kingston essentially filling the role of Bob Hoskins in Toon Town with all these outlandish characters, and pretty much pulling it off, is one of the more enjoyable aspects of his CHIKARA run. Kingston is eventually able to fire up, take Tursas down with a clothesline and follows up with the Sliding D for the crowd pleasing three count.

Eddie Kingston eliminates Tursas after 35:45 Minutes

SOLE SURVIVOR: EDDIE KINGSTON
RATING: ****

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this. It was all-action from the opening bell, with the Sweeney section bringing the nostalgia, the middle section amping up the drama, and then the closing section being all about Eddie Kingston bringing All Japan King’s Road style wrestling to this wacky east coast based comic book influenced lucha libre promotion and actually making it kind of work. The biggest stars of the match, cliché though it is to say, was the crowd though. They were into everything and gave the match a tremendous atmosphere. Definitely worth watching if you’ve never really seen CHIKARA before and would like an idea of what the positives of the promotion could be

In Conclusion:

Dark Ciberknetico was a breezy show with an excellent Main Event and some solid stuff on the undercard. If you’ve never really watched CHIKARA before then Dark Ciberknetico might not be the absolute best show to start with as it’s very much jumping in during the middle of the story. I would suggest watching a King of Trios tournament if you’re a newcomer to the product and want a flavour for what it’s all about. However, on it’s own merits I would still say Dark Ciberknetico is good show and the Main Event is one of the better matches CHIKARA held during this time period

Thomas Hall has previously reviewed CHIKARA on the Blog before and you can read that review HERE