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CHIKARA's Action Arcade
Episode 8- May 16, 2020

by Samoa Rowe

Still Life with Pears and Apricot doesn't want us to forget that he won the Young Lions Cup tournament last year and was the most successful champion with 10 defenses.

From the Wrestle Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Jason Worthington and Sidney Bakabella are on the call.

Donna Rama vs. Ham n' Egger

Donna gleefully assaults the jabroni with a big boot before the bell and doesn't hold back from there. Donna hits a spear but chooses to continue the match. She hits a bicycle kick and her bridged cradle suplex finishes at 1;44. Good squash, Donna Rama is a fun character.
Winner: Donna Rama

Scoreboard with Scott Holliday. He clarifies that points are not in play in Young Lions Cup or Crucible rules fights.

Young Lions Cup XVI Finals:
Ricky South vs. Green Ant

South fakes a test of strength to kick the gut for an early advantage. Green Ant comes back with flippy offense that would enrage Jim Cornette and a third of wrestling Twitter. South counters with a spinning powerslam for 1. South grabs Ant by the antennae to pull him into a stomp to the neck. South dominates with power moves, including a press slam off the buckles. Ant responds with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and uses a flatliner to set up a Koji Clutch. South is stuck in Ant's head scissors for an ungodly amount of time before scraping a rope break. Northern Lights suplex by South and lariat for 2. The Kiss of Death Piledriver only gets 2! Ant finds his second wind and hits a flurry of offense before a superkick leaves them both down. Ant climbs the ropes and South messes with his mask to hit a SECOND ROPE PILEDRIVER to win it all at 9:07. Good piece of business here, ***.
Winner: Ricky South

Warp Zone: we are treated to footage from 2016 of Drew Gulak (who was released by WWE, recently) squaring off against Mike Quackenbush. Was this a cosmic coincidence that CHIKARA would highlight Gulak the same day he was getting axed, or did they know something the rest of us didn't? (For the record, Gulak wrestled a long, competitive match against Daniel Bryan on the 5/15 edition of Smackdown Live). Anyways, they end up showing several minutes of the match, and it's awesome. Gulak wins with the Gu-Lock in what feels like a four star match. This guy will be an asset to whichever company signs him.

Cibernetico Report. Spoiler issues an open challenge to any wrestler, living or dead, who has the guts to face him. Meanwhile, Blank unzips his mask to talk about how he wants to reintroduce himself to CHIKARA and teach Cabana Man Dan a lesson. Sonny Defarge wipes some snot away to balk at Boomer Hatfield accusing him of being a cheater.

Mike Quackenbush looks directly at the camera to explain why he's participating in a Crucible Rules Fight. He reminisces about his brutal training in wrestling, which he feels failed him. Quack feels that he would have reached all his wrestling dreams if his first trainer hadn't been so abusive, and this has fueled his approach to cultivating the next generation. He rejects the Crucible.

Crucible Rules Fight (No Ropes):
Team Wrestle Factory vs. The Crucible

All 14 guys who will be a part of the Cibernetico match are gathered together on opposite sides of the ring.

The first round is Zero vs. Devantes, They hold nothing back and just tear into each other. Devantes shoves Zero out of the ring to win at 1:39. Devantes wins, but that's not how Ophidian wants his guys to win these fights.

The second round is EM DeMorest vs. Josue Ibanez. Some quick sparring leads to Ibanez going for a sleeper. DeMorest tries to block, but Ibanez counters with a jawbreaker and reapplies the sleeper. DeMorest breaks the hold and hits a brutal sitout powerbomb for the KO at 1:56.

The third round is Xavier Faraday vs. Tunku Amir. Faraday scores a shotgun dropkick but Amir responds with an overhead suplex. Faraday hits rapid shots and a Pele kick. Amir cuts him off and double stomps the spine. They trade ring post attacks and Faraday knees the face repeatedly until earning the KO at 1:33. Ophidian is HISSED!

The fourth round is Matt Makowski vs. Joshua Wells. Makowski just tears into Wells with MMA offense and finishes with an armbar at 0:36. The Wrestle Factory guys have to break Makowski out of the hold and throw him onto the Crucible. And that's a wrap. Hard match to rate, but I appreciate the novelty and willingness to take a risk and do something different. This did succeed in adding some much needed hatred to a main event story that didn't seem to have enough bad blood between the participants.

Final Thoughts: Good show, as they finished up with the Young Lions Cup tournament and really started focusing on the build to Cibernetico (which may end up being canceled). This young roster continues to grow on me.

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