Chikara While The Dawn Is Breaking
1) Chikara Young Lions Cup
Mr. Touchdown(c) vs Saturyne ~ ***3/4
2) Gran Akuma vs Jakob Hammermeier ~ **
3) Tim Donst vs Archibald Peck ~ **
4) The Colony (Fire Ant, Green Ant, & AssilAnt) vs FIST (Icarus, Chuck Taylor, & Sugar Dunkerton) ~ **1/2
5) Dasher Hatfield vs Kobald ~ *
6) Team Frightning (Mike Quackenbush, Hallowicked, & Frightmare) vs Jigsaw, The Shard, & DeviAnt ~ ***1/4
7) Chikara Grand Championship
Eddie Kingston(c) vs Kevin Steen ~ ***
8) Chikara Tag Team Championship - Two out of Three Falls Match
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs 3.0 (Shane Matthews & Scott Parker) ~ **
~ Touchdown vs Saturyne, wow. I almost hate to say it caught me by surprise, but it did. I like Saturyne. I do. But lets be honest, she is relatively new to the biz so you kind of are unsure at which version of her you'll get on a nightly basis. She brought it here. In spades. Such a wonderful story thrown in. Loved this match. From start to finish. Speaking of love: Mr. Touchdown. This guy is fan-friggin-tastic. Worker of the year in Chikara right now. And damn near one of the best I've seen from 2013 as a whole. Great match vs Peck, great match here vs Saturyne, & two more damn good matches on the Florida shows. As Touchdown would say: IT'S...GOOD.
~ Jakob vs Akuma was kept short and worked well I must say. I'm digging the fire shown by Jakob these days.
~ Donst vs Peck was kept as a feud advancer. Fine match until the quick finish. I'm already enthralled into it. Two of my favorites today intertwined. I'm down.
~ Trios was one of two matches on this show that went entirely too long. This match should have been better, but wasn't. Nothing else to note except for it was an above average tag, with the ending tension of Sugar & Dasher being the real highlight. Such an interesting angle between those two.
~ And here was the other match that suffered from dragging. Dasher is wonderful. I dig Kobald's antics. However, this match went much too long to the point of where it hurt both men. It felt like nothing at the end of it outside of earning a big win for Kobald and to apparently advance a potential program between Dasher & The Batiri. More good story advancing though. That's where the highlight of this event is.
~ Pretty rad trios match. All the guys were cooking and it was worth a watch. Jigsaw & The Shard continue to be a heck of a team. Good match!
~ Kingston vs Steen was good and nothing more. Don't know why these matches don't hit the fever pitch that they should. If only there weren't expectations from both, this match would be considered quite good and worth a look.
~ 3.0 bore me again. Win in a fashion that was flooded with contrived emotion to say the least. Bucks were great in this though. 3.0...eh. I'll simply have to wait out their championship run.
~ End of the day, the name of the game on this show was storytelling. Advancing previous angles & establishing new ones. All did a great job. Matches were the most special pardon the YLC match & Frightning/GEKIDO, but at least Chikara gave us something here to chew on. I'll take a show with substance in some form any day. Matches or storytelling or both. I can't complain.