Talking Baseball, Insect Style

In preparation of CHIKARA's second New England tour this week, ODESSA STEPS MAGAZINE wrestling editor DOCTOR ALQUIMIA had a chance to sit down and chat with an old friend, the diabolical genius Ultra Mantis Black, leader of The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple. Many people know of his prowess in the wrestling ring, but not everyone might be aware of his fondness for the National Pastime. They chatted (via email) recently about the recent World Series win by his Philadelphia Phillies, as well as some squared circle issues.

Q: Were you optimistic of the Phillies' chances for post-season success when the playoffs started? Almost none of the "baseball experts" picked them to make it to the Series, let alone win it.

A: Surely you jest! My dear, close personal friend J-Roll had dubbed the Fightins' "the team to beat" at the start of the 2007 season. Clearly his premonitions were merely following the metaphysical clock of a leap year.

Q: Were you expecting Tampa Bay to put up a bigger fight? Did you think the Phillies' pitching would be able to cool off Upton and Longoria and the rest of the Rays' hitters?

A: Tampa Bay, you see, is located in an inferior hemisphere - Florida. The temperatures are much too high and the people much too old for The Order's tastes. Therefore it was evident that their bats could simply not perform in the harsh, rugged, and handsome environment of Philadelphia. In addition, they were clearly cursed from the get-go when management foolishly decided to drop the "Devil" portion of their moniker.

Q: What were you thinking during Game Five of the World Series as the rains came down and then when the game was postponed?

A: "Intoxicating! The sacred tribal raindance of The Order is a success!" These words were of course formed in a word bubble over my head, Charlie Brown style.

Q: Were you around for the Phillies' World Series appearance in 1980, 83 or 1993? If so, how did the celebrations compare to those (not that there was much celebrating for the latter two)?

A: I was. As well as for the 1950 series of course. To be fair, my dear, close personal friend Tug McGraw, rest his soul, had a far more memorable post-victory pitcher's mound leap than the more forgettable post-victory pitcher's mound kneeldown of Bradley Lidge.

Q: Rumor has it there was a sighting of someone in an UMB mask partying in downtown Philadelphia after Game Five and the Phillies had won the Series? Can you confirm or deny?

A: I cannot be held responsible for any damage done to any businesses or automobiles during this time.

Q: Did being an evil insect overlord prevent you from going to the parade?

A: No man or beast could have prevented me from such. In fact, after the parade I was privileged enough to share a sparkling apple cider with my dear, close personal friends Jayson Werth and Pat the Bat, who we like to call "Bait". But that my friends is a story for another day.

Q: Onto wrestling matters. It's well-known that Vin Gerard and the Unstable are not popular in the tecnico lockerroom. How are they received by the rudos? Were you pleased to be picked for the Cibernetico, since it would give you a chance for more revenge on Hydra and Tim Donst?

A: The Cibernetico??!! Are you quite sure? I have not had the chance to check my answering service lately but surely there must be some mistake! I don't trust anyone inside or outside of a CHIKARA lockerroom but I do know that The Order is not yet finished with those treasonous snakes Hydra and Donst.

Q: How would you describe two-ought-ought-eight for the Order? Your ranks swelled but were then depleted by the actions of Tim Donst, Mike Quackenbush and your former protege Hydra.

A: We had our ups, we had our downs. We shared some laughs, we made some frowns.

Q: With the Order down to "just" you and Crossbones, will you be looking to expand in 2009?

A: The Order is always looking for new proteges, prophets, and soothsayers. Crossbones and I have determined that the best of course of action to meet our needs is to conduct some sort of televised "Star Search"-esque competition. We have already recruited one celebrity judge - the close, personal friend Mr. Jamie Farr.

Q: How has your relationship changed with the Golden Palamino Larry Sweeney, now that he is a tecnico?

A: I am merely the Palomino's spiritual advisor. He comes to me in times of crisis and I offer him my council. What he chooses to do with my advice is his own prerogative. Who are you to question his decisions?!

Q: There are rumors of that "CHIKARA stars of yesteryear" could be returning next month. Might this be any of your former acquaintances?

A: If you are speaking of former senior official Paul Turner, well I simply am not at liberty to divulge that information. The world is a weird, wild place.

Thanks to Ultra Mantis Black for the time. You can find his Myspace page here. CHIKARA returns to action this weekend in Framingham MA on Saturday and Wallingford CT on Sunday. For ticket information, go here. To talk about all things CHIKARA, go to the CHIKARA FANS website.

Is it that time of year again already?

Continuing what we hope will now be a yearly tradition, here's a few minutes with Mike Quackenbush, as CHIKARA gets ready for their Aniversario shows next weekend in Massachusetts and Connecticut. This weekend, the promotion will run shows in their traditional venues in Hellertown, PA and Philadelphia. The following interview was conducted few weeks ago via e-mail.

Q: Can you tell yet how successful King of Trios 20007 was for the
company, either financially or aesthetically? Or is it still too soon
to tell?

MQ: I think of it as a success for one chief reason: On February 28th,
there were 84 wrestlers booked to appear, and over the next few days,
all 84 of them showed up and did their thing. There are some 8-man
tournaments that can't manage to get everyone together, so I think this
was a big accomplishment. Financially, it was a disaster that we'll
probably spend the rest of the year trying to make up for. The biggest
tournament of all time also comes with the biggest price tag of all time.

Q: Were you surprised by any of the wrestlers at KOT who were making
their CHIKARA debuts? The fans certainly became enamored almost
immediately  with Da Soul Touchaz and The Kartel, to name two teams.

MQ: Not really. I knew what we were getting into in almost every instance.
I  was pleasantly surprised by Sha Samuels and Terry Frazier, who were
two of the five participants that I had not personally seen or wrestled
myself. I had seen Martin Stone before (in my European travels), and his
reputation is well-earned.

Q: How did you think the Fan Conclave at King of Trios turned out? Is it
something  worth repeating at future events?

MQ: I had very little to do with the Fan Conclave, but what I saw seemed
like good clean fun in the mighty CHIKARA manner. I would hope we'll try
it again at some point. Before which, we had all better log some serious
time playing Fire Pro Returns.

Q: CHIKARA is getting ready to debut in a new market (Massachusetts) and
a fairly new one (Connecticut) soon. How did you pick these markets? Will
there be more new markets coming in 2008?

MQ: Our Wallingford test-run last year was a real success for the company,
so returning there is a natural. If Framingham goes as well as Wallingford
did last year, I think it will encourage us to branch out even farther
(we've been to Vermont in years past as well.) Any potential new market
expansions hinge solely on the success or failure of our New England
Aniversario weekend.

Q: As a follow-up, how did you decide to hold the Aniversario shows  in
these new markets instead of having them in Hellertown and Philadelphia?

MQ: We're never content to rest on our laurels, or maintain the status
quo. CHIKARA is an ever-changing beast. Maybe this year we'll drop the
Cibernetico. Maybe we'll bring back the Tag World. Every year the format,
if there even is one, evolves.

Q:This year has seen a growing relationship with KAIJU, with their stars
on CHIKARA shows and some CHIKARA talent on their shows. Do you see
them as "kindred spirits in wackiness?"

MQ: Certainly. We're like estranged cousins.

Q: Have you seen any results yet from being on Italian TV?  More
international DVD sales and/or hits to the website(s)?

MQ: There has been a slight delay in the Italian TV deal, but the first
four episodes are heading back overseas shortly. There were some format
issues that needed to be worked out. Overall though, our international
profile has grown tremendously in the first 2 quarters of 2008. Things
like our Create-A-Wrestler contest really tell the tale, when more than
50% of the responses we hear come from non-U.S. residents.

Q: A hot topic for the fans online lately has been this CHIKARA
Welterweight title that's been defended in Mexico recently and won by
a recent opponent of yours, Cassandro? What's the deal with this belt?
And could we possibly see a visit from Cassandro in a CHIKARA ring?

MQ: It is entirely possible that Cassandro will come to CHIKARA in 2008.
I am glad that the Welterweight title turned up. We also rechristened a
WCW cruiserweight belt the "CHIKARA Middleweight Internet championship"
some years  ago, and left it under a shrub in the outskirts of Mexico
City, so I expect to see that around Valiente's waist sooner or later.
I mean, that was the plan all along.

Q: On a related subject, do you have any more international  defenses
planned for the NWA Jr title? Perhaps even another trip to Japan,
where you might get to fight a human and not a kappa demon?

MQ: Now that New Japan and the NWA are together again, that is certainly
possible. There was talk about sending an NWA rep to Best of the Super
Junior. Evidently, that spot went to Jimmy Rave. Hopefully, I can hang
onto that belt until next year's tournament. I think if I had the chance
to do a J-Cup or BOSJ, then there really would be nothing left for me to
accomplish as a wrestler. I don't know what more I could ask for. That
being said, I never get tired of wrestling with my students and proteges,
and seeing them develop into fully-realized wrestlers.

Q: Where did the idea for the CHIKARA comic book come from? I know
many of the CHIKARA regulars are comics readers.

MQ: It's a bit of a vanity project, in many ways. To have our own comic
book, I mean. It's meant to serve as a live event program, and obviously
intended to appeal to the many fellow comic fans out there. I think it has
the potential to function in our Universe in a really unique way - like
that old Von Erich family  comic book - only with better quality paper and
fewer Iron Claws. By the end of  the year, I think fans will begin to see
what an important role it's going to  play, and maybe then the first issue
will sell briskly and get out of my  basement. Or maybe we better look into
variant, holographic embossed covers featuring Cable and Darkhawk.

Upcoming CHIKARA shows include May 17 in Hellertown PA, May 18 in Philadelphia, May 23 in Framingham MA and May 24 in Wallingford CT. For more information, go to chikarapro.com or visit the Chikara Fans message board.

Chico vs Sweet and Sour

Fight Sport Midwest announced today that the long-awaited rematch between Larry Sweeney and Bryan Alvarez will be taking place.... in CHIKARA.

November 18th, in Philadelphia, for the last CHIKARA show of the year.

Expect a large influx of EMPIRE members for the show.

No word on if Bryan will be seconded by Vinnie V.

Up at the BEAT

an article about CHIKARA's wacky comic book-themed DVD covers.

My trip to OVW and DCW

Thinking Outside the Box (and the Squared Circle)

All men may be created equal, but that cannot be said for wrestling fans. Just as a Lucha company is different from a Japanese company is different from WWE, so to are the fans of particular companies around the world.

I learned this first-hand this week. After seeing shows in the Northeast and in the Mid-Atlantic for years, I got an up-close look at old-fashioned Southern Wrestling and their fans.

Our story begins in the Louisville suburb of New Albany, Indiana, home of XCW Midwest and wrestler Mitch Ryder. Ryder is no stranger to fans in the Northeast, having worked for companies like CZW and CHIKARA of late. And while the show did have some familiar “indy names” on the card, like Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli, fans expecting ROH-style matches would be sorely disappointed.

Like many indy shows, the show was not held in an area, but in a National Guard Armory. One, unfortunately on this night, that did not have air-conditioning. And, being the first day of a 100 degree heatwave in the area, the atmosphere was stifling and most of the crowd could be seen making frequent trips to the snack bar for drinks or fanning themselves with the evening’s programs.

The show had a mixture of wrestlers on it. Some, as mentioned above, were Internet favorites, some were legends (Gypsy Joe, Bill Dundee), some were regional stars (Jamie Dundee, Bull Pain) and some were local workers I admittedly had never seen before (LA Warren, The Prophet).

The crowd, like the ones I would see later in the week in Louisville, was very old school. Families of all ages could be found in the building. Mothers were scurrying after small children oblivious to the matches in the ring. There were grizzled old-timers and young toughs. The one thing that appeared to be in short supply was “the smark fan.” There were only a handful of t-shirts for the likes of Larry Sweeney and Hero. There were more WWE and even WWF/WCW era t-shirts to be found being worn. And there were no real “smart” chants, other than the obligatory “You Fucked Up” chants. Mostly, it was “Go, person, Go” or the traditional stuff yelled at heels, usually questioning their sexuality.

The most unusual thing seen that night was probably the match scheduled to be Castagnoli vs. Necro Butcher. Word was that there was a locker room incident involving the Butcher and the card had to be shuffled. So, Claudio, all 6’5” of him ended up wrestling former WWE talent Zach Gowen. Yes, Zach Gowen. Sadly, we did not get to see Claudio execute a one-legged Giant Swing, which would have been something to behold. Instead, the match was more about Claudio not getting along with special guest referee Gypsy Joe and it ended up being a schmozz when Claudio attacked Joe and just left the ring.

When the night was over (which admittedly came early for me, thanks to the heat and a seven-hour drive that day), a few hundred fans went home happy as Ryder won the main event by DQ over Todd Morton. But this was just the beginning.

Wednesday night was my first trip to see Ohio Valley Wrestling. I had been getting OVW tapes since the “glory days” of the company under Jim Cornette, when the shows were built around Doug Basham, The Damaja and Nick Dinsmore. Interestingly enough, while the product in the ring these days might not match that era, the company is still doing quite well, filling up Davis Arena every week for TV and having successful spot shows all over the area.

I was told to get there by 6 o’clock for the doors to open at 6:30. I came a few minutes before 6:00 and there were already a couple hundred people queued up in line outside the building (in an industrial park on the outskirts of Louisville). There was camaraderie between many of the people milling about, showing that these folks have been seeing the same faces week after week for who knows how long.

After an all-too-long wait in the blistering sun, the crowd went in and the show began in a short time. Thankfully, Davis Arena has air conditioning. Like the night before, the crowd was boisterous, loudly cheering and booing, although not always for the designated babyfaces and heels. There was a strong continent opposed to former Spirit Squadder Johnny Jeter and the recently-arrived (from the Indy scene) Colt Cabana perhaps had the most cheers, but had one extremely-loud non-fan.

OVW, being a developmental territory, is not going to be full of five-star matches (if you’re one who goes for that sort of thing). The workers are learning, getting on-the-job training in front of live fans and television cameras. You could tell there were varying levels of skills on display, especially with former RAW performers like Armando Estrada and Eugene (the former Nick Dinsmore, still doing his “special” gimmick) on the show. On the other end of the spectrum, you had young guys, obviously green, not quite hitting all their marks or not quite exactly nailing a particular move.

One new wrinkle for OVW booking is the addition of the Derby City Wrestling show the next night. This allows them to shoot angles that carry over to the show. On this night, an angle between the James Boys (KC James and Cassidy Riley) and the new babyface team of Jeter and Christian York led to a main event match on OVW that resulted in a rematch the next night on DCW.

Many of the fans in the building Wednesday night were back the next night for DCW. Since the TV tapings for DCW were only about a month old, there was not the same level of attendance (plus, the weather, still hazardous to one’s health) as the night before, but it looks like almost everyone there had been there the night before.

Derby City is made up of wrestlers from OVW’s “intermediate” training school level. These are guys not under WWE contract, like most of the OVW roster, but were in fact still paying tuition to go through the school and still having jobs in the real world to make ends meet. They were just hoping to make it to the next level, which was one step closer to the major leagues. To use the sports analogy, DCW is AA, OVW is AAA and the WWE is The Show (not to be confused with the Big Show).

Obviously, the DCW workers are even less-polished as their OVW counterparts, which doesn’t diminish their willingness to learn or try in the ring. As someone who watches a lot of CHIKARA (another promotion full of young workers fresh out of wrestling school), there are always varying levels of quality you can find in the ring when you have green wrestlers still learning their way. Good fans can forgive miscues in the ring if they can tell that the effort is there. Also, the ring-work is very basic and sound. It would seem odd to a fan of Northeast wrestling that the first highspot (a straightforward plancha) didn’t occur until the fifth match on the card.

Again, there did not appear to be many “smart” fans in the crowd, which doesn’t stop DCW from running an extremely-inside angle. Ted “The Trailer” McNailer is currently having what could be called a one-sided feud with wrestling newsletter writer Bryan Alvarez. McNailer has been cutting promos on Alvarez, who has been reviewing the DCW TV show in his Figure Four Weekly publication. But, as of this writing, it is not building towards anything, as Alvarez, a part-time wrestler, says he has no desire to go all the way to Louisville to deal with McNailer. This likely is both a way for McNailer to practice his promo skills and provide an amusing in-joke for Alvarez, DCW trainer Rip Rogers and their mutual friend and wrestling school trainer, Buddy Wayne.

The one drawback with running very fundamental matches is their repetitiveness. On this night, they were in the middle of running the DCW Tag Team Title Tournament. So, the crowd saw four tag matches that were very formulaic and even saw the same spots in a couple of the matches. Had there not been four of them in a row, it would not have been so plain. They also had the misfortune of running an injury angle (with Sweet Stevie) and later having a real injury take place a few matches later (with the J-Man), but those things happen.

Again, like the night before, everyone in the crowd appeared to have a good time and went home happy. Of course, you can have small expectations for your entertainment when you’re not paying anything for it. (yes, attendance at both TV tapings is free.)

All of this goes to show that the obvious that there are many different kinds of wrestling out there and if you are just a fan of one kind, maybe you should try going outside the box for a new kind of entertainment to watch. If you’re a Northeast fan, try some Southern wrestling and vice versa. Fandom shouldn’t be limited to one particular kind of person.

xxx

Easy Come, Easy Go

Wagner and Ultimo lose the CMLL campones de parajes back to Negro Casas and Mistico after only a week.

what's the point?

three words that go great together

RUDO DR. WAGNER~!

1000 % RUDO~!~!