This review was commissioned by SiticEye over on my Ko-fi account.
It would have been easy for Bryan Danielson to play some feel good hits for his final CHIKARA match before signing with the WWE. In a set up like this as well, with four tecnicos in the ring, it could have been a simple matter of hitting some signature stuff, showing off a little of that llave-inspired matwork, and going home to send the crowd home happy.
The trick the match plays on the viewer is that for a second, it seems that’s what’s going on. Not to say that Danielson or any of the four are resting on their laurels here, but the early segments are incredibly sporting and respectful. As I mentioned, it has a lot in common with llave, almost maestro-level exhibitions of mat work and beautiful holds. That’s not just Danielson, but Claudio also plays the role, well moving from the chain wrestling into basing for big spots with seamless ease. Quackenbush also does great stuff here, being the homefield veteran testing himself against the departing hero of the indies. Those first few Danielson and Quack exchanges are just such a delight, giving us things like learned psychology over hold counters as well as problem/solution segments built around a courting hold.
It’s when Team Uppercut leans into their name that things start to take a turn. With QuackSaw proving themselves capable of weathering, if not even matching, their opponents hold for hold, Danielson’s the first to start throwing bombs. He lays in a couple of those big uppercuts on Jigsaw which triggers a more frenzied pace leading into the first few dives of the match. Notably, this serves as the transition into Uppercut’s control, but it plays out with in stages as opposed to a sudden shift in control. One key part of the transition is Claudio catching Quack’s tope con hilo attempt on the outside and just fully powerbombing him from the floor back into the ring. It’s such a stunning display of power that it suitably neutralizes Quack from being able to run defense, and it opens up Jigsaw for that grotesque Danielson chop block that really commences the meat and bones of this match.
Once Danielson and Castagnoli put their minds to beating the shit out of Jigsaw, this becomes something a little transcendent.
It’s wild to see it play out it in this setting. CHIKARA has such a lighthearted, family-centric tone, that when Danielson and Castagnoli start turning their attention to pure torture, it can’t help but a draw visceral reaction from the combined DVD forum smarks mixed in with the young children families at the show. And it really is disgusting at some points. The elbows that Dragon throws early in the heat segment are so fucking stiff that even Todd Sinclair has to create some distance between him and Jigsaw despite no real illegal maneuvers being done. Then once Claudio exposes Jigsaw’s injured knee (with so much context richly deploy by Bryce Remsburg making his commentary debut), it’s off to the races with the limb work. Knuckles grinding into bone, a myriad of Indian deathlock variations, stiff kicks through the knee, even a spectacular one legged giant swing by Claudio.
It’s an absolute beating and it goes longer than you imagine it. Team Uppercut are masters of control here, isolating Jigsaw without ever resorting to anything truly underhanded, but simply being so vicious that they paint themselves as natural antagonists to be overcome. Jigsaw holds his own here too, both on the selling front with his bum wheel, and on the offensive, creating small hope spots being defiant against the increasingly cocky Team Uppercut. Whether that manifests as a wild slap, elbows of his own, or even doomed attempts to string together his high flying lucha offense, it’s about as textbook Steamboat rule application as you can ask for.
What’s a little less textbook is the comeback. Just as it seems Jigsaw’s stringing together what should be an opening for a classic hot tag, he gets cut off and put into a single leg crab by Danielson. At this point, after having been knocked off the apron multiple times, Mike Quackenbush has had fucking enough and just slaps the shit out of Danielson. It’s so great. It’s not the traditional move but one that fits so well. A mentor deciding that his opponents have crossed an unseen line, that enough is enough, that things have gone too far, and he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
The final stretch is a little more standard, but still great. It’s the quick paced, moves-heavy modern stretch, but one that never goes a little too far into the indulgent. There are moments I raise an eyebrow at some of the things Jigsaw’s still capable of–leaping kicks, running the ropes, a few dives–but he does still stay smart enough to convey the cost of those bursts of action when he crashes back to the mat clutching a knee. He does genuinely feel hobbled for most of the closing moments of the bout that it’s easy enough to look past the offense he does get in.
It’s also sweet retribution that it’s a Jigsaw cut off knocking Danielson off balance on the top rope that opens things up for Quack to get back into the fight and eventually endure through Danielson’s final offensive to get an alligator clutch for the win. Nothing too easy in this match at all, instead a real struggle and fight that seems to blossom out of nowhere, leaving a final treat for the CHIKARA faithful still talked about to this day.
Rating: ****½
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? Much as I love Kawada in control, could you imagine if he went after Misawa’s bleeding ear with half the creativity, variety, and violence as Claudio and Bryan apply to Jigsaw’s leg? Another one for the super indie boys.
