Weekend Wrap-Up: Meet the New Champ, Same as the Old Champ

The Queen of the Weekend

- It was a Chikara weekend, and I went to both shows. A full report will be up soon, but for the impatient, here's a very concise run-down. Night one saw Fire Ant and Mike Quackenbush earn points towards their goal in the 12 Large Summit with wins over Jigsaw and Claudio Castagnoli respectively. Johnny Kidd beat Johnny Saint in what may have been the best match of the year. UltraMantis Black spiked Jakob Hammermeir on his head and told Ares that he would do the same to the rest of the BDK until the co-founder of the group stopped being so chicken and wrestled him. Finally, the Flex Express was derailed as Tursas defeated US Ant (Green Ant), but only after crooked officiating, a Jim Cornette-esque tennis racket shot by Jakob and a top rope splash from Tursas himself.

Night two saw a surprise appearance from luchadors Rey Bucanero and Atlantis, only to be disqualified in their match against Chuck Taylor and Johnny Gargano thanks to a low blow that didn't happen. Kidd and Saint tore the house down again, only this time in a tag match where Kidd teamed with Colt Cabana and Saint with Quack. Saint got the receipt on Kidd in this one. Both 12 Large Summit matches were PHENOMENAL, as Eddie Kingston took out Jigsaw in one, and Sara del Rey shocked the world and became the biggest babyface in Chikara in the process, rolling up Claudio in the main event. For her troubles, both she and Daizee Haze got attacked after the match by the big Swiss sore loser.

- AIW ran their fourth Girls Night Out even Friday, and they crowned a new Women's Champion in Mickie Knuckles. She defeated Jessica Havok in a match after the announced main event of Havok retaining over Angel Dust. This seems to be a trend with indie feds lately, with this being the third time in the last couple of months, second time in AIW. Also on the card, Portia Perez retired Roxie Cotton, although Cotton after the match jumped her. Something tells me she's not staying retired for long. Also, Sara del Rey defeated Sassy Stephie.

- Adam Pearce is once again NWA World Champion, in essence negating the entire fiasco that evolved from him losing the title anyway. For those not in the know, he dropped the belt to Colt Cabana in NWA Hollywood, who then dropped it to The Sheik a month or so later in the latter's home fed of NWA Fusion in Jacksonville. This sparked rumors that Cabana was an intermediary between the two because of politics, although again, they were just rumors and were not confirmed by anyone so they are not to be taken as fact. Anyway, Sheik then pulled out of a title defense against Pearce in Milwaukee, which caused the NWA to strip him of his title, necessitating a match in Columbus where Pearce regained the Championship in a four way dance against Chance Prophet, Jimmy Rave and Shawn Tempers. Got it? Good. Anyway, the good news is that the World Championship will again most likely be featured on TV in Hollywood again, and maybe if they do the right thing and strap Cabana again, it'll stick a little longer. Anyway, this is Pearce's fourth reign with the title, and it could be his last as he's on a "One Last Ride" tour, a farewell tour of sorts where he does his thing for a little while longer before his neck injuries become too bad for him to wrestle.

- Finally, in sad blogger news, Josh "PUNTE" Zerkle is leaving Kissing Suzy Kolber. Why should you care about one of six guys leaving a football-related blog? Because if it weren't for PUNTE, there'd probably be no Wrestling Podcast right now. I was a guest on Episode 43 of his House of PUNTE podcast, and thusly, I was bitten by the podcast bug. I had him on Episode 8 of TWP as well. I'm not sure what he'll be doing in his spare time now, although hopefully he'll continue doing the podcast. Either way, best of luck in your future endeavors...

...wait, that didn't come out right.

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