(29 May 2016, 8:13 am)MurdnunoC wrote I'm going to see CHIKARA today in North Shields.
Anyone else going?
Show starts at 4:00pm
http://chikarapro.com/events/season-16/0...two-towers
I really enjoyed this show and the whole CHIKARA experience.
The venue was small but decent enough to hold wrestling events. It was moved to the Linksill Centre from its original venue of Dominion (somewhere in Newcastle apparently) to accommodate more people and meet demand. There were a few seats spare but these were few and far between. On the DVD release, the venue should look quite full.
Before the main show started there were a couple of showcase matches from local promotions North Wrestling and Absolute Wrestling. The first was a tag team match where The New Nation beat The Sons of Ulaid; and the second was a singles match where H.T. Drake lost to CHIKARA's own Soldier Ant in a comedy affair.
Resident CHIKARA MC and Ring Announcer, 'The Party Czar' (because he knows where the parties are!) Vlad Radinov made a couple of announcements and reminded everyone that CHIKARA is a family-orientated promotion in which there's no swearing or general lewdness. Despite the crowd consisting mostly of adults (there were a few kids there, kids get in free when accompanied by an adult); everyone abided by the conditions set by the company.
The main card, consisting of six matches, was completely different to the showcase matches featured earlier. When attending local events (especially those around the North East), one is usually left unsatisfied due to obvious botches, mis-timings and general business exposure. This is not an attack on local wrestlers as workers have to learn their trade somewhere but it does serve to emphasise the difference between a amateurish affair and a polished product. The best analogy I can think of is noting the difference between a kids-party magician and someone like Dynamo where one is going to look miles better than the other.
Despite CHIKARA's small-time setting, their performers were very polished indeed and everything they did looked mostly believable. In quick results: Heidi Lovelace beat Lucas Calhoun; Slim Perkins (aka Chuck Taylor - in storyline he's not allowed to use the name Chuck Taylor in CHIKARA) beat Officer Warren Barksdale; Solider Ant beat the new, and improved, Chuck Taylor (who attempted to serenade the ladies in the crowd with a PG-style R n' B song both before and during the match); Eddie Kingston beat Hermit Crab; Fire Ant beat Ophidian; and Princess Kimberlee, Los Ice Creams and NRG beat Hallowicked, Frightmare, Icarus and The Batiri in the main event. This main event contained some intrigue for me for, despite following CHIKARA, I hadn't realised The Batiri and Icarus had turned heel recently and became affilated with Nightware Warriors (Hallowicked and Frightmare) and I'm still trying to figure out when this happened in storyline. Princess Kimberlee and Co. are your ultimate underdogs so pitting them against a really strong heel faction works well. A bonus match was also added after the main event where WWE-bound Drew Gulak beat Fight Club Pro wrestlers Dan Mahoney and Tyler Bate in a triple-threat match.
After the event, all the faces were stood at the exit and made sure to shake everyones hand and thanked them for coming to the show. I thought this was a really nice gesture.