Mike Reviews CHIKARA Whatever Happened, Happened – 31.03.2017

Happy Friday Everyone!

We’re back with more CHIKARA today as we take a look at Whatever Happened, Happened. The reason I wanted to review this show is that I’ve never seen it before and it features a big Main Event between Hallowicked and UltraMantis Black that represented the blow off to a storyline that had been going on for years prior.

You can view the full card by clicking below

CHIKARA Whatever Happened, Happened Card

As usual with a CHIKARA review, I would be remiss not to mention that the company eventually shutdown following allegations that emerged during the Speaking Out movement. If that means you wouldn’t be comfortable reading a review about a CHIKARA event, then I fully understand

Whatever Happened, Happened is emanating from The Wrestle Factory in Philly, PA on the 29th of December 2016 (with it then airing on 31st March 2017)

Calling the action is Mike Quakenbush

The show opens with Lucas Calhoun cutting a good promo to hype up the Hair Vs Hair match for later on in the show. Calhoun’s delivery is reminiscent of Dusty Rhodes meets a 1950s Rock and Roll Star, and it suits him well.

Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield cut a promo backstage, as Hatfield can now get himself a Title shot due to winning a gauntlet. Hatfield says that he’s going to challenge for the tag belts with Touchdown instead of going after the singles belt, which is nice of him. This was some good character work.

Opening Match
Nytehawk Vs Merlok

Nytehawk is CHIKARA owner Mike Quakenbush under a hood, as he was part of a masked trio called Cyberhawk at the time. Merlok is a masked underwater themed powerhouse wrestler who trained under Afa the Wild Samoan. This is your standard Power Vs Speed battle, with Nytehawk trying to stick and move against the bigger Merlok, with Merlok having the upper hand for the most part. Merlok’s offence is mostly clubbing big man attacks and slams, with him also no selling a lot of Nytehawk’s attempted strikes. As a bout, it does the job it needs to within the time it’s given, with it mostly being a showcase for Merlok to look big and scary. Nytehawk receives support from the crowd and makes attempts to fight back, but Merlok eventually catches him with a Samoan Drop, a sliding clothesline and an Emerald Flowsion for the three count.

5 Minutes

WINNER: MERLOK
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This one was hovering around being a squash at points. Nytehawk sold well and made Merlok look suitably imposing, whilst Merlok carried himself like a genuine monster and delivered some impressively nasty-looking offence. The match achieved exactly what it set out to do.

The Force are backstage with their newest member, a cute dog called Magnum. Officer Meloni stumbles over a promo whilst Officer Barksdale sips on “Boot Juice”. Barksdale’s delivery of the line was funny, and Magnum was adorable, but Meloni’s promo was pretty weak.

Second Match
The Force (Officer Bruno Meloni & Officer Warren Barksdale) w/ Officer Magnum Vs Benny The Biel & Hiptoss Hank

All of these folks are graduates of the CHIKARA school. Meloni apparently does a faux X-Pac gimmick on occasion too I believe. The Force actually get an entrance here whilst Benny and Hank are waiting in the ring already like they’re enhancement talent on an episode of WCW Worldwide. This is very much a squash for The Force, who outwrestle their opponents with a mixture of amateur grappling, submissions and double-team offence. Benny and Hank perform their roles as tackle dummies well, and the crowd gets into The Force’s act. Eventually Hank falls prey to a double team move where Meloni does an STO whilst Barksdale does a Leg Sweep, which is enough for the three count.

4 Minutes

WINNERS: THE FORCE
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: This was an effective squash match, with The Force wrestling well and the enhancement team performing their roles unselfishly. The crowd enjoyed the action and the match helped get The Force over in their debut

Princess KimberLee isn’t happy about having to wrestle her friend, Fire Ant, in the next match.

Third Match
Fire Ant Vs Princess KimberLee

Fire Ant would also be known as Orange Cassidy, but in CHIKARA he was an Ant, because CHIKARA. KimberLee was a former CHIKARA Grand Champion, who was looking to get back into contention here by picking up a victory over a ranked competitor. KimberLee ended up leaving Pro Wrestling in 2022 in a situation that I’d rather not delve into here, but you can read about it with the assistance of Professor Google should you wish. They do some very nice technical wrestling exchanges to start, which the crowd enjoys. It’s interesting seeing Orange Cassidy almost be more expressive as a masked Ant than he is in his current guise, which is always difficult to achieve when you wear a mask so kudos to him for that.

Fire Ant ends up hurting his left leg during a rope running exchange, which leads to KimberLee taking on the role of subtle Rudo in this bout by targeting the appendage, although she acts like she is remorseful about it at least, so it’s not a full on turn to evildom it seems. Fire Ant sells well whilst getting worked over, whilst KimberLee’s work looks snug and hard hitting. KimberLee gets some quite impressive looking German Suplexes onto Fire Ant at points, with Fire Ant taking big bumps for them. KimberLee’s tactics appear to split the crowd, with some booing her whilst others continue to cheer her on.

Fire Ant eventually snaps off a Brain Buster and makes the comeback, showing some good er…fire in the process. The clue is in the name I guess! Fire Ant’s leg continues to bother him though, which prevents him from really pressing the issue when he starts restoring some parity, adding to the drama of the contest. Fire Ant tries the Beach Break (called as such by Quakenbush on commentary) at one stage, but his leg goes out, so KimberLee counters with a Yoshi Tonic in a nice sequence. KimberLee continues to reluctantly attack the leg of Fire Ant, even though she isn’t really doing anything illegal so it’s not like she should really feel that bad about it. KimberLee ends up locking Fire Ant in The Coronation, which is a submission hold that looks like a combo of an STF and a Bow and Arrow hold, and Fire taps out after a game effort.

12 Minutes

WINNER: KIMBERLEE
RATING: ***1/4

Thoughts: This was a good match, with a decent mix of wrestling and character work going on. KimberLee reluctantly targeting the wounded appendage of her friend was a sound storyline to tell throughout the match, with Fire Ant both selling the leg well and also geeing up the crowd effectively when he tried to fight back. We get a clean win, both wrestlers look good and the storyline continues. Tip Top!

Cornelius Crummels and Sonny Defarge are serious businessmen and are angry that Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield are going to jump the queue for a Title shot due to Hatfield winning a gauntlet. Defarge did the talking here and was decent.

Fourth Match
Solo Darling and Travis Huckabee Vs Cornelius Crummels and Sonny Defarge

Darling looked to be a very prolific wrestler on the independent scene before seemingly retiring in 2021. Her ring attire makes her look like she could be a member of the X-Men. Huckabee is a technical wrestler from the CHIKARA school who has a traditional technician look. Crummels and Defarge are both CHIKARA graduates who are still wrestling as a team to this day. They look to have a kind of old timey Victorian rogue styled gimmick. Crummels and Huckabee do some decent technical wrestling exchanges to start, with Huckabee getting the better of things. Defarge and Darling do the Big Vs Small battle when they get in, with Darling being spunky whilst Defarge tries to bully her around. The wrestling of the two is a bit iffy, but the character work of the two is decent at least.

Eventually Crummels and Defarge cheat to cut Darling off and work her over in the Rudo corner. Crummels and Defarge work well as a team and show off some decent double team offence, but Darling is able to tag in Huckabee, who runs wild on the Rudos, getting an impressive looking bridging underhook suplex onto Crummels for a two count. Defarge heads back in though and the Rudos do an odd looking double team move where Defarge hoists Crummels into a Vertebreaker position before launching him forward into a splash onto Huckabee, called “Great Expectations” by Quakenbush on commentary, for the three count.

8 Minutes

WINNERS: CRUMMELS & DEFARGE
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: Darling had a few sloppy moments out there, but Huckabee looked fine and the Rudos showed off some decent tag team continuity

Princess KimberLee is approached by a creepy guy in a skull mask backstage, who seems to be telling her to do bad things against her will. The plot thickens!

Fifth Match
Luchas de Apuestas
Hair Vs Hair
Jeremy Leary Vs Lucas Calhoun

Leary looks to be a wrestler from the New England area who worked for CHIKARA between 2015-2019. Calhoun is a power brawler from Virginia who started his CHIKARA run in 2014. Calhoun is doing a 1950’s Rockabilly type gimmick by the looks of things. Leary is dressed in a similar manner to Calhoun here, which was part of the feud between them as Leary kept stealing things from Calhoun, including Calhoun’s car. This one is a slugfest from the opening bell, which helps distinguish this one from some of the other bouts on the card and also makes sense given the heated nature of the feud between the two.

Leary attacks Calhoun out on the floor at one stage, which leads to the cut off and heat section back inside the ring. Leary performs the role of snide villain well and Calhoun’s selling whilst getting worked over is solid. Calhoun shows a decent amount of charisma when he starts fighting back, leading to some nicely executed near falls between the two that the crowd gets into. Leary gets a very nice modified Rocker Dropper at one stage, but Calhoun is able to kick out and eventually gets a Samoan Drop from the second rope for the three count after a fun battle.

9 Minutes

WINNER: LUCAS CALHOUN
RATING: ***

Thoughts: This was a good grudge match, as they fought with decent intensity and the crowd got into the action. I liked how they went straight to slugging it out, as it really added to the feeling that the two didn’t like one another. This felt like a match that was deserving of its placement on the card, with the stipulation adding some extra heat to proceedings

Leary is of course devastated to lose his hair and tries to run away, but Calhoun drags him back to the chair. However, after some taunting from Leary, Calhoun chooses to shave his own head and give up his gimmick, although sadly the razor doesn’t work very well at first and he has to come back and finish the job. Leary finds all of this hilarious of course. That was an interesting twist I must say.

UltraMantis Black cuts a promo saying that the most enjoyable moment of his career was winning The King of Trios with Hallowicked, but now he has to battle Hallowicked for the Grand Championship. UltraMantis toned down his usual bombast here and it worked well in making the match feel important.

Main Event
CHIKARA Grand Title
Champion: Hallowicked
Vs
Challenger: UltraMantis Black

This one has quite a bit of backstory to it. Hallowicked and UltraMantis were originally rivals in CHIKARA dating back to 2003, but in 2004 they formed a tag team that lasted up until 2006, when Hallowicked turned Tecnico and began feuding with UltraMantis. Hallowicked formed a new team with Delirous called Incoherence, and they feuded with UltraMantis and his Neo Solar Temple faction. Eventually UltraMantis used The Eye of Tyr, an artifact capable of brainwashing people, to turn Delirous to his side, but then UltraMantis lost The Eye. This meant that Mantis also lost control of Delirious, who then became a member of the BDK faction, who had managed to nab The Eye of Tyr thanks to Tim Donst infiltrating Neo Solar Temple as the android Vokador. With UltraMantis and the Neo Solar Temple unable to compete with BDK on their own, UltraMantis reached out to the Tecnico’s for help, including Hallowicked.

Hallowicked at first didn’t want to reform his team with UltraMantis, but the BDK was such a dangerous force that he eventually relented, leading to UltraMantis Black, Hallowicked and Frightmare becoming The Spectoral Envoy. The Envoy eventually managed to regain The Eye of Tyr from The BDK and used it to give Delirious his freewill back. However, this turned out to be quite the mistake as Delirious remembered all of the horrible things that both Neo Solar Temple and BDK had made him do, and he placed the blame on UltraMantis Black for using The Eye on him originally. This led to a feud between Delirious’ forces and The Envoy, which eventually led to UltraMantis defeating Delirious in a climactic battle. However, Delirious’ parting shot was to use The Eye of Tyr to turn Hallowicked evil, leading to Hallowicked to become the top Rudo in the whole promotion. Now UltraMantis Black has to try and take down his former ally and finally win the big one in the singles division after being a CHIKARA mainstay for over a decade.

Quackenbush notes on commentary that both of the wrestlers and the referee, Bryce Remsburg, are CHIKARA originals, so there’s a lot of history in that ring. UltraMantis gets the better of Hallowicked in the early going, sending him to the floor for both a dive and a pair of baseball slide’s. Hallowicked catches the third baseball slide though and rams Mantis’ leg into the ring post for the cut off. Mantis just about beats the count back in at 19, but his injured wheel is slowing him down and Hallowicked works the appendage over, with UltraMantis selling it well. Hallowicked does a good job playing Rudo and antagonising the crowd, with a kid even getting out of their seat to get in his face at one stage. If you can get fans that emotionally invested in what you’re doing, especially younger ones, then you’re doing your job efficiently as a Bone-Bender.

Mantis keeps trying to fight back, but his leg keeps giving out whenever he does, which is bad news for him as Quackenbush notes on commentary that a lot of Mantis’ offence involves him using his legs as a base. That’s some good commentary that raises the level of jeopardy that the Tecnico finds himself in. UltraMantis eventually catches Hallowicked with a trio of Full Nelson Slams, but he’s unable to deliver the move properly due to his leg, which limits it’s effectiveness and allows Hallowicked to kick out at two, with Quackenbush pushing the idea on commentary that the leg injury also meant that Mantis couldn’t make a proper cover, all of which goes to protecting the move and explaining why it wasn’t the end of the contest.

Mantis tries a modified Cobra Clutch following that, but Hallowicked gets his foot on the rope to break the hold. At this point the CHIKARA roster heads out to surround the ring, both to amp up the atmosphere and also make this feel like a big deal. Mantis continues to receive good support from the crowd, as he fights off Hallowicked’s finisher, Never Wake Up, and gets a Power Slam for a two count. Hallowicked powers out of another Cobra Clutch though and gets the Go To Sleepy Hollow, but UltraMantis manages to survive that to a healthy pop from the fans. Mantis fights back with a modified Regal-Plex and gets the Praying Mantis Bomb (Sit-Out Tiger Driver 91) for the three count and the belt as the crowd shows it’s approval.

16 Minutes

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: ULTRAMANTIS BLACK
RATING: ***1/3

Thoughts: This was a good match, with Mantis selling the leg well throughout and Hallowicked being an effective bad guy. I liked how they didn’t go kickout crazy at the end either. Mantis had a couple of nears and a submission tease, whilst Hallowicked had his big near fall following Go To Sleepy Hollow, but that was about it and most of the finishing stretch was built around UltraMantis avoiding Hallowicked’s finisher. Hallowicked never got to do his big move either, so you could always run a rematch with the idea that Hallowicked never got to deliver his MDK attack and that being the dramatic hook

Mantis celebrates with the roster following his win and thanks the fans as the show ends

Solo Darling and Travis Huckabee would like to join Ophidian‘s new stable, and he’s down with that, although Solo is a bit upset that the group is called The Furies and not The Furry’s in a cute gag.

In Conclusion

I thought Whatever Happened, Happened was a fun breezy watch. There was decent character work, the storylines moved along nicely, some of the wrestling was very good and the show ended with a well performed feel good moment.

Whatever Happened, Happened gets a thumbs up from me!

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