Chikara “La Lotería Letal“ - Live Show Report October 27th in Philadelphia, PA
Chikara’s third show this month at their home base was their Lethal Lottery event, which they said they haven’t done in ten years. 2008 was ten years ago! The format was that sixteen wrestlers would be paired up by random draw and compete in an 8-team single elimination tournament. The festivities technically started with the team selection on Facebook, with the lottery tumbler set up in the middle of the ring and Bryce Remsburg coming out with fifteen of the sixteen wrestlers. The sixteenth wrestler, Australian wrestler and recent King of Trios participant Jessica Troy, couldn’t make it today due to travel difficulties. Taking advantage of those travel difficulties was a veteran wrestler making his Chikara debut, Jimmy Rave. He was announced as the self-proclaimed savior of Chikara. I had fun seeing the team selection play out.
1. First Round Match: Princess KimberLee & The Whisper beat Hallowicked & Shazza McKenzie to advance when KimberLee pinned McKenzie after a swanton bomb. Lee and Whisper have a history with one another from before Lee ventured off to NXT. Lee wanted nothing to do with Whisper, while he was still trying to work with her just to win, leading to some unwanted and refused tags between them. Hallowicked and McKenzie (another Australian) acted more cohesive, hitting some doubleteam moves. The fans dubbed them “Shazmaldun.” Fun opener with a good story to it, maybe my favorite of the first round.
2. First Round Match: Cam Zagami & Jimmy Rave beat Oleg the Usurper & Hype Rockwell to advance when Zagami pinned Oleg. This was one of the shorter matches on the show. Oleg and Rockwell have experience working together this year, but also have had their issues. There was a moment where Oleg charged into the corner and accidentally knocked Rockwell off the apron. Rockwell in turn hit Oleg with the Hyperwheel and walked out on him, allowing a worn out Zagami to get the pin.
3. First Round Match: Solo Darling & Rory Gulak beat Ophidian & Travis Huckabee to advance when Darling pinned Ophidian. Outside of a couple of clunky moments, including what looked like a sliced bread attempt by Ophidian that led to a rough landing for him, I liked a lot of what this match had to offer. This had a story to it with Darling wanting to get her hands on Huckabee after the ugly betrayal he committed on her earlier this year. Darling’s desire to get to Huckabee was sometimes detrimental to her, and Ophidian kept trying to make her focus on him since he was the legal man. At one point, both Darling and Huckabee fought off and threw out each other’s partner at the same time before coming to blows. Towards the end, Gulak hit a German suplex with a bridge on Ophidian for a pin attempt, but Huckabee yanked Gulak out of the ring. Ophidian was still in the folded over position from the suplex, so Darling swooped in and pinned him in the folded press position. An irate Huckabee attacked Darling afterward, hitting her with a jumping piledriver. Remsburg yelled at him to get out as he, Gulak, Boomer Hatfield, and other refs came to tend to Darling. This was treated as a serious injury as everyone took great care to get her out of the ring and support her neck.
4. First Round Match: Juan Francisco de Coronado & Missile Assault Man beat BLANK & Ice Cream Jr. to advance when Missile Assault Man pinned BLANK. This was another short one. BLANK introduced Ice Cream Jr. as if he was one of his works of art and titled him “Delicious Dessert.” BLANK never tagged out, which is what cost him in the end as he had the chance to do so. Juan and Missile Assault Man worked well together, and Juan was very happy with his aggressive partner. Afterward, Ice Cream Jr. still helped BLANK get to his feet, as if they were new fans, but BLANK shoved him to the mat and walked out. Ice Cream Jr. yelled after him to come back.
5. Danjerhawk beat Still Life with Apricots and Pears to retain the Chikara Young Lions Cup with a 450 splash. Solid match between the two, with Danjerhawk fighting from behind after Still Life worked him over on the outside against the ring post.
6. Semi-Finals: Princess KimberLee & The Whisper beat Cam Zagami & Jimmy Rave to advance when Whisper made Rave tap to a Boston Crab. Solid action throughout, with Rave having the chance to do more after his previous match in the tournament. KimberLee still wanted nothing to with Whisper, despite their individual efforts coming together. KimberLee still went to the back afterward, leaving Whisper alone.
7. Semi-Finals: Juan Francisco de Coronado & Missile Assault Man advanced. This match never happened. These two were invited out to the ring, and it was announced that Solo Darling was unable to continue in the tournament, so Juan and Missile Assault Man were declared the winners via forfeit. I know Darling is booked for another show tomorrow, and this show ended before quarter to 6, so I assume the injury was all an angle to keep this show at the right length while furthering a feud between Darling and Huckabee.
8. Green Ant beat Volgar by disqualification. Volgar was mostly having his way with the ever-popular Green Ant, who still fought back. Volgar then retrieved the giant chain he brought to the ring with him, and he wrapped it around his right arm as ref Kris Levin kept warning him that he’d be disqualified. Green Ant avoided the metal-enhanced right a couple times before Volgar was able to hit it for the who-gives-a-damn loss. He laid out Green Ant afterward, leading to Thief Ant coming out for the save and getting laid out as well. Not much to it, outside of possibly developing a feud between the Colony and the Proteus Wheel.
9. Dasher Hatfield beat Sloan Caprice to retain the Chikara Grand Championship via submission with a Figure Four variant. Good stuff between these two. Caprice was acting like a jerk from basically the start, even before the bell, though he did have a knee taped up coming into this. He acted cocky, clotheslined Hatfield before the bell, and brushed off some of Hatfield’s early offense before Hatfield picked up the intensity. They fought to the outside, with Caprice attempting to take a breather on a fan’s bleacher seat. From here Hatfield attempted his “Charge” sliding kick, but Caprice caught him and powerbombed him into the wall. Back in the ring, Caprice hit a hurricanrana off the top for a nearfall. In attempting another move off the top, Caprice sold his bum knee upon a rough landing, leading to Hatfield targeting it. From here, Caprice kept pleading to make a deal with Hatfield whenever he was on the defensive. The submission move Hatfield used emphasized pressure on Caprice’s knee.
- They brought back the second intermission, to allow for more merchandise and raffle ticket sales.
10. La Lotería Letal Finals: Princess KimberLee & The Whisper beat Juan Francisco de Coronado & Missile Assault Man when Lee pinned Juan with the alligator press. Enjoyable, competitive main event. There was a funny moment before the match where Juan was looking to make his long entrance, but Missile Assault Man just hustled him along to the ring. Missile Assault Man established himself as more of a heel here during the match, first by beating up Whisper a lot with knees to the midsection after Whisper broke up a pin, then even more so by running KimberLee’s face across the ropes. Even though they still couldn’t get along, KimberLee and Whisper still had a cohesive match against their opponents. After they won the match and the tournament, KimberLee simply went to the back, leaving Whisper behind in the ring alone to celebrate with the three points they earned together. This story between them must continue. I believe they had announced that the winners of this tournament would get their shot at Los Campeonatos de Parejas in December.
I thought today had a lot of quality wrestling and even stronger storytelling, making this my clear favorite of Chikara’s October offerings.
