Paid Members Benno Posted March 16, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 16, 2016 I get the impression they just enjoy riffing on each other. Can't imagine it'll go anywhere anymore than The Rock and Jonathan Coachman went anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philjax Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Anyone still watch any of the American independents like we all use to in '06-'11? Not including ROH. I'm sure there use to be a thread of some sort.  I just dug out my wedge of unwatched rips I purchased several years ago. Picking Chikara back up from July 2011. I have up til the end of the year where they crown their first champ.  I'm glad I did. It's full of names i'd forgotten and it's still as good as i remember. They went a bit joshi crazy that year which is exactly what i want right now. Daizee Haze was still just about active looking absolutely god awful. Meth? She retired and a bit of wiki told me she JUST made a one night only comeback at SHIMMERS (remember them? Another former popular promotion) 10TH ANNIVERSARY(!!). From the one pic i saw she appeared to be healthier. And not dead. This also reminded me of LACEY who also made a one night only comeback after her 2008 exile from the business. Not Meth. She was the shit and one of the hottest women in wrestling around that time. Turns out she moved to China to become an acupuncturist. Pity. I mean good for her, but she always seemed like a few more years and she would have been picked up by WWE. Look what happened to Rebecca 'K-Nox' (she became Becky Lynch for those who don't know). Left the biz a year before Lacey or so to come back 6 years later and finally fulfill the potential everyone saw back then.  Wrestling's changed man..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members IANdrewDiceClay Posted March 17, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2016 (edited) Haze has an eating disorder apparently. She left the business due to "health reasons." Â The likes of Haze and Lacey seemed to be around because they were women. Like they needed some variety on the shows. As opposed to now where ROH hired girls because they are stunning women. I cant imagine Lacey or Daizee Haze would have had jobs if the likes of Maria, Mandy Leon and Sarlett Bordaux were hanging around the ROH locker room back then. Edited March 17, 2016 by IANdrewDiceClay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 I got a Chikaratopia account last week. It's not to everyone's taste but it's right up my alley. I watched last year's King Of Trios over a weekend and enjoyed every bit of it and I'm looking forward to following their story arc linear now. Â Does anyone have any good nods on where to start? From doing a Google on it I'm getting every year of its existence dropped as a good starting point. A lot saying 2011 or thereabouts. Â I'd rather not go right back to the start. It would give me way too much to get through. And I don't like the idea of watching an indie from scratch in its primordial form before certain chinks were ironed out. Â My preference is to sort of drop in slightly before a flash period where the tropes of what I'm watching have been established. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Au Posted March 17, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2016 Did Chikara cease operations for a while a couple of years ago? I imagine picking up when they started up again would be a good place although other than KOT, I've never actually watched much Chikara so I could well be talking out of my arse. They've got two UK tours this year though so worthwhile trying to get up to speed if you fancy going along to that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philjax Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 I got a Chikaratopia account last week. It's not to everyone's taste but it's right up my alley. I watched last year's King Of Trios over a weekend and enjoyed every bit of it and I'm looking forward to following their story arc linear now. Â Does anyone have any good nods on where to start? From doing a Google on it I'm getting every year of its existence dropped as a good starting point. A lot saying 2011 or thereabouts. Â I'd rather not go right back to the start. It would give me way too much to get through. And I don't like the idea of watching an indie from scratch in its primordial form before certain chinks were ironed out. Â My preference is to sort of drop in slightly before a flash period where the tropes of what I'm watching have been established. Â Hard to say really. I've not seen every show. I use to buy the dvds direct from smartmarkvideo so I picked out what I thought would be the best ones. Obviously pre 2005 is fairly basic. A lot of the talent are still learning to wrestle. There's some very long Chris Hero matches you'd want to avoid. I would say absolutely to watch the Tag World Grand Prix from 2006. It's just full of a who's who of talent and people who have no right to be in a Chikara ring. Necro Butcher, tons of obscure Japanese indy talent who are all really great. From there if you watch every King Of Trios you wont be disappointed. Depends how much time you got really. 2007 has some Neville and lots of Cesaro/Castagnoli. The first show of 2008 I believe it is has the most brutal match I can recall between Eddie Kingston and Shane Storm. I think the problem for me is that every show has at least one match I would consider must see. When i finish my discs I'll absolutely get Chikaratopia I think. Â Chikara was on hiatus mid 2013 until May 2014ish. I get the feeling it may not be as good as it use to be due to loss of talent and it becoming a lot more family friendly. But like you said the latest Trios still looked good so i'm sure there's gold to be found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Really Big Shoe Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Going back to Test he could have been a bigger star for sure, and he was super over when they did the angle with Shane O'Mac and then Steph inadvertently jilting him by marrying Hunter. I guess because he wasn't the greatest on the mic that put a stop to a main event run maybe?. He was like a Big Kev 2.0 as they had similar movesets, although Nash was more charismatic. But again that match with Shane was the best of his career and him & Trips could have had a huge angle over Stephanie. From what I remember that just fizzled out and I think that angle could have be successful if they booked it right like having Test get his revenge. Although I'm guessing a corny ending of Steph "annulling" her marriage & going back to Test would have fell flat since there wasn't really much place for sentiment in the Attitude Era. Maybe in the 80's WWF it would have worked, like where you had Liz reunite with Macho at WrestleMania VII. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 The only way that Test could've come out of that storyline better than he went into it in that era is if he'd done a promo saying he always knew she was a ho and he was only in it for the McMahon millions. Ultimately, Vince vs Triple H was a bigger main event than Test vs Triple H, plus it wrote Vince out for a few months. And then after that, they had to crack on with HHH winning the belt and feuding with Foley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinc Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 [Test] was like a Big Kev 2.0 as they had similar movesets, although Nash was more charismatic. Â He was more like a Roman Reigns Beta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 17, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 17, 2016 Going back to Test he could have been a bigger star for sure, and he was super over when they did the angle with Shane O'Mac and then Steph inadvertently jilting him by marrying Hunter. I guess because he wasn't the greatest on the mic that put a stop to a main event run maybe?. He was like a Big Kev 2.0 as they had similar movesets, although Nash was more charismatic. But again that match with Shane was the best of his career and him & Trips could have had a huge angle over Stephanie. From what I remember that just fizzled out and I think that angle could have be successful if they booked it right like having Test get his revenge. Although I'm guessing a corny ending of Steph "annulling" her marriage & going back to Test would have fell flat since there wasn't really much place for sentiment in the Attitude Era. Maybe in the 80's WWF it would have worked, like where you had Liz reunite with Macho at WrestleMania VII.  They did this a bit later, during the HHH/Steph/Angle love triangle storyline - Trips had the cops called falsely on him for apparently beating up Steph, and it turned out Test did it out of revenge. Very little reaction, if at all. They pretty much put paid to it within a week, jobbing both Test and Albert to HHH in a 2-on-1 handicap match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted March 18, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 18, 2016 I watched Wrestlemania 28 last night. Undertaker looks so much better with a shaved head. I've absolute no idea what convinced him to grow his shit hair out again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members ColinBollocks Posted March 18, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 18, 2016 Seeing Sting turn up with a shitty comb back maybe had him thinking his wouldn't be that bad (it's worse). Folk hated it like, but I thought his shaven with that weird goatee was perfect for The Undertaker, made him look like Nosferatu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JNLister Posted March 18, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted March 18, 2016 Not got round to it, but my plan for trying out Chikaratopia was to start with Season 10. That has the creation of the main championship and also seems to be a good starting point for many of the storylines that build up to the big closure angle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Taker needs to finally drop the eyeliner too, it's all too Rocky Horror and no one apart from a hardcore homophobe is going to be scared by him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Nice one Phil and JNLister. I've seen season 10 mentioned a few times now so I'll give that a bash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts