First Impressions: Chikara Pro

Chikara Pro Wrestling is an independent wrestling company based in Pennsylvania, but has shows all around the Northeast. The selling point for Chikara is, "Wrestling is fun again." which after watching all of season 9, I have to agree completely with.

Chikara can be described as a nerd's wrestling company, who just so happens to be run by nerds. The shows are distributed by DVD, and each DVD cover is a custom drawn image lampooning famous comic book covers. Here's proof these aren't guys pretending to be nerds, but guys being awesome nerds. Here is the title card for the first event of season 10:
Yes, they're lampooning GI Joe.

Something that appeals to me, as someone who is growing very tired of mainstream wrestling and their good guy hero and bad guy bully. Is that they can produce the most kid friendly wrestling show in the world. No one swears, no one bleeds and very little use of outside weapons. While wrestling fans are some of the most raucous fans of anything in worlds, prone to mass booing, hysteria, chanting and in some cases, violence. Chikara fans have fully embraced the silly and PG rated story lines. For example a usual wrestling fan would chant, "Holy shit!" anytime something awesome happens. In Chikara, they chant "Holy poop!" and when angry, "Shut the heck up!"

Of course, let's get down to the nitty gritty of judging a wrestling promotion, first, wrestlers. While I can say without a doubt, that most of the Chikara wrestlers are very skilled at what they do, I'd even say better than some guys on TV. Chikara is also very famous for having over the top and hilarious wrestler gimmicks (characters), most of which wear masks. For example:

- Ultra Mantis Black, a guy who is pretty much a power rangers villain, but is a good guy cause he's awesome.
- The Colony (pictured above), comprised of Soldier Ant who talks and acts like a drill sergeant. Fire Ant, who only speaks in grunts and Green Ant, the only one who talks normally. They also enter the ring to Dave Matthew's Band's "Ants go Marching."
- Dasher Hatfield, the wrestler whose whole gimmick is that of being an old timey baseball player. Complete with baseball mask and old timey mustache.
- Player Uno and Player Dos. Guys whose whole gimmick revolves around old school video games. They even come out to the Mortal Kombat theme song.
- The Olsen Twins, two guys claiming to be identical twins who don't look anything alike. They come out to Ke$ha's Tik Tok.
- The Osirian Portal, an Egyptian themed duo, Amasis the funky pharaoh and Ophidian the serpent from the Nile. They like dancing.

As well as a lot of others, but last but not least...

- Dragon Dragon, the only real dragon in professional wrestling.
Yes, somebody wrestles in that costume.

Now the second thing to look at are the matches. Probably some of the best matches I've seen in years came from King of Trios. The wrestlers show a lot of technical skill, high flying ability and power to make it much more entertaining than anything currently on TV. Also something you rarely see in any wrestling promotion, skits. For example:

- Wrestlers in the middle of match often break into dance.
- The, "look over there" gag is an acceptable match technique.
- One match was in slow motion.
- Player Uno and Player Dos getting put to sleep by pushing their pause button.
- A baseball game replacing the wrestling match. Including the crowd doing the wave and pitcher taunts.
- "Princess Peach is a tramp!" *crowd gasps*

I have fallen in love with Chikara, that's why I'm planning to buy every single season 10 show.