Author: Nathan Paoletta

I attended the CHIKARA event “Sword of Destiny” last night and oh boy. It was a really, really good show. In addition to a roster filled out with some of my favorite wrestlers, every match was just a damn fine piece of work.

Particular highlights: Silver Ant vs. Blaster McMassive in a NJPW-level match that was as Strong Style as anything I’ve ever seen, Snake Pit (Ophidian & Argus) vs. Devastation Corporation (Flex Rumblecrunch & Max Smashmaster) in a really smartly booked, fantastically wrestling “small guys vs big guys” COTI match and Dasher Hatfield vs. g’damn Tommaso Ciampa in the main event.

I love how menacing Ciampa is and he blended so well with institutional crowd favorite Hatfield to where he had real heel heat – not boos, but near-silent “oh god what is going to happen next” intensity when he had the upper hand, and then ecstatic cheers for Hatfield when he was able to turn the tables. So. Good.

It was so good that after the main event the crowd started chanting one more match and, well, they gave us one more match! A trios match (Los Ice Creams and Jervis Cottonbelly vs. United Nations), no less. It was an unprecedented moment! What wrestling promotion throws on another match after the main event?!

One of the big advantages to having half your roster be in masks is that you can do stuff like that, I guess.

Go see CHIKARA!

http://chikarapro.com/events/season-15/06-13-2015_sword-destiny

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A booking tool/possible Hard Move that I’ve been seeing on the indies recently: 

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I think that the Sasha Banks/Becky Lynch match from UNSTOPPABLE last night may be  (a) my favorite women’s match I’ve ever seen and (b) the best NXT match I’ve seen since Zayn/Neville (and tied with it in terms of emotional content, tho maybe second-place on technical execution) and (c) the second-best WWE match of 2015 (behind Rollins/Cena/Lesnar triple threat at Fastlane).

I’m on record as just not really clicking with Lynch but last night she finally won me over, not with her new steampunk-ish look, but with her savage ring work. This match was brutal in a really emotional way that grew out of the feud these two women have had and made total sense even though neither of them is particularly physically imposing.

And the Boss is my favorite wrestler, full stop, so. She brought her A-game. It was amazing.

Look it up if you didn’t watch it!

Looks like some rad matches streaming tonite for the “Rawlternative” event on youtube. If you haven’t checked out indie wrestling, this is good place to get a feel for it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtRI3oPYDY4