Weekend Wrap-Up: Hurricane Tadasuke

Your Young Lions Cup IX Champion

- Not really a whole lot to report on this weekend in terms of shows, but what did happen was a good one. Then again, Chikara weekends are always fun, even if this one was truncated by Hurricane Irene. The Young Lions Cup tournament saw Tadasuke surprisingly take the trophy back with him to Osaka Pro after defeating Green Ant in the final. Greenie rode a wave of momentum into the final, eliminating all three of his opponents in his first round match and then taking out Jakob Hammermeir in the semifinal. After the match, Tursas squished him, which I'm sure figured into the final. Tadasuke dispatched Archibald Peck in his semifinal.

In 12 Large Summit action, Claudio Castagnoli gave perhaps the biggest proof yet that he's heading elsewhere other than the indies by dropping a match to... Icarus. Yep, I think losing to Icarus prevents you from winning your block or something like that. With two points and only one match left to go, it's safe to say he's not going to be challenging for the Grand Championship. Sara del Rey was tripped up by Hallowicked, losing via La Majistral cradle. Fire Ant summarily dispatched Vin Gerard in the only Block B match during the weekend.

Other matches included the Young Bucks pulling double duty. Nick wrestled in one of the eliminators, and Matt beat Johnny Gargano in a singles match. Later on in the night, the Bucks teamed up to give the Batiri More Bang for Their Buck. It's unknown whether they shook hands during the event, but my guess is, no one would have cared if they did or not. Finally, UltraMantis Black defeated Pinkie Sanchez and then summarily continued his calling out of Ares. Grizzly Redwood was backstage, but apparently he spent his time whittling, via his Twitter, that is. Not sure why I listed that, except I think it's a total Grizzly Redwood thing for the guy to be doing.

- Goldberg is apparently going to be wrestling for charity in Africa. Regardless about what you think of the guy, that's pretty cool if it materializes. Read more about it at my home slice Dave McKinney's blog, South Atlanta Wrestling.

- Ayumi Kurihara joins KANA, Ayako Hamada, Hiroyo Matsumoto, Yuki Ohka and SHIMMER Tag Team Champion Tomaka Nakagawa as a joshi guest star for the next run of tapings. This isn't really surprising news, but it's welcome, as Kurihara has become ingrained in the fabric of the promotion. Just in case you didn't know, Hailey Hatred will be appearing too, which is pretty huge since she apparently went to Japan and powered up to max level. The tapings will take place October 1 and 2 at the Berwyn Eagles Club. Tickets still available through the SHIMMER website.

Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein - Please visit his site to view the plentiful amounts of pictures he's taken for DGUSA, ROH and other indie feds: Get Lost Photography