It’s kind of wild going from the heatless nothing FIST match the night before to something like this. As with the Hero match earlier in the year, this benefits from putting Eddie against non-CHIKARA guys. In this case, he’s working against BLK OUT stablemates from CZW, Joker & Sabian. They’re such a breath of fresh air in this setting, clearly so much more polished than the CHIKARA students at this time.
Coming from CZW too and being stablemates with Eddie, there seems to be this unspoken understanding of the kind of physicality they all expect from the match. Because, my god, there’s some good ass potatoes in this. After a not-so-great lucha-inspired chain wrestling segment with Sabian and Blackjack, Joker and Eddie tag in and it gets so suddenly violent in a way that feels entirely uncharacteristic of where CHIKARA is as a company at this time. Out of nowhere, Eddie and Joker just start blasting each other with some truly gross shoot headbutts. Hell fucking yes. Later in the match too, it’s those two again trading some real crunchy elbows. It’s such a stark comparison to the typical, very light CHIKARA home style.
Even Blackjack and Sabian join in the fun, they have some cool kicks that they trade. Add to that there’s a quicker, more reckless edge to the more high flying action with Sabian here, and this just feels so lively even if it does sacrifice the neater structural form of the standard CHIKARA tag.
Shoot headbutts just always make things more fun, don’t know what else to say.
Rating: ***1/4
