***Intermission***
5. Team JWP vs. The Throwbacks. Another female team with JWP and another match that displayed all the great things CHIKARA can be. It was also the perfect match to get the crowd back into it after intermission. Matt Classic joined the Throwbacks and added a hilarious compliment to an already solid act. The Mr. Touchdown kid (Mark Angelosetti) was incredibly impressive with his charisma and ability to play to the crowd. He has a great look, and is very athletic. He still has some learning to do in the ring, but he has every single one of the intangibles. This match gets honorable mention for match of the night due to the entertainment value, and the finish, which saw Tsubasa Kuragaki put Matt Classic in the torture rack. The place came unglued. Even me…
Team JWP defeated the Throwbacks.
The Submission Squad, who were "broken down" a half block from the arena (we drove right past them where they were holding up signs to hitchhike or something), couldn't make it due to "transportation problems," so a random Trio was pulled from a hat. The first two entrants were the Mysterious and Handsome Stranger (Archibald Peck under a mask) and Mihara from Osaka Pro. Ring announcer Gavin Loudspeaker pulled several names from the hat, including wrestling legend Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, but none of them were there. He pulled Tito Santana's name out, and Tito was there in a fun moment for the crowd…
6. The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger, Mihara, and Tito Santana vs. The Spectral Envoy. The story of this match was Tito trying to tag in but being denied for various reasons. He finally did, and showed that he's old and done. But he did manage to hit the flying forearm just before getting rolled up for the loss. The match wasn't bad, but it was forgettable…
The Spectral Envoy defeated The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger, Mihara, and Tito Santana.
7. Team ROH vs. The Trio of Pain. For pure, unadulterated. Old school fun pop, this was the match to see. Warlord looked exactly the same, though a little "thicker" as opposed to "muscular." Barbarian still hasn't aged much. Meng had some gray, and he has that retired Samoan girth to him, but he didn't look bad by any means. He did wrestle in black sewats and tennis shoes, which took a little something off, but the Young Bucks and Mike Bennett put them over big time. The finish was Bennett hitting a sunset flip on Meng, which the live crowd (and I) were a little confused and unhappy with, but it didn't kill the fun…
Team ROH defeated Trio of Pain.
8. Team WWF vs. The Extreme Trio. OK, maybe this was the match for pure old school fun. Do not be confused, this was the farthest thing from a classic all night, but all six guys knew what they wanted to do and pulled it off well. They even did the slo-mo gimmick that saw Tommy Dreamer pull out a remote control from somewhere and pause the action while Tatanka was starting his dance. He punched Tatanka, who no sold it. Dreamer pressed play and Tatanka bumped. Best single spot of the night. The Extreme Trio won with a piledriver from Jerry Lynn to close out a fun first night…
The Extreme Trio defeated Team WWF.
Once again, the night was good, but not without its faults. FIST vs. Osaka Pro probably should have opened the show to set the stage. There were some technical issues at various times, making it hard to hear Gavin, and some of the matches were way, way overbooked. That said, none of those things took away from the overall feel of the first night, and I had a ton of fun.
