Last week, The Summer Of Wrestling unofficially started as  several companies held shows all over the U.S.  EVOLVE dominated the Florida territories with the three iPPVs throughout the weekend. WWE Hall Of Famer, Mick Foley, made a huge step in his comedy career and performed at Caroline’s on Broadway for the first time. CHIKARA and TNA iMPACT Wrestling celebrated their 11th Anniversary Shows in Philadelphia and Boston, respectively. With so much wrestling on, we at Three Man Booth needed to attend at least one of these events, so we spun The Halloween Havoc Wheel and it landed on CHIKARA: Aniversaro: Never Compromise.

Thousands of CHIKARA Army members entered the Trocadero in Philadelphia for CHIKARA’s Annivesary Show. Fans not in the area? well, they watched at home on iPPV. From the moment we got inside, CHIKARA did not disappoint. Scarlett Bordeaux kept us entertained during the pre-show shenanigans until we had our first match: Mr. Touchdown w/ Dasher Hatfield vs. Saturyne in a rematch from the Young Lions Cup.

While the entire card was solid, here are a few matches and moments that stood out for us.

There was much more we enjoyed from CHIKARA, but the biggest shocker of the night came at the end of the show, during the Icarus and Eddie Kingston match for the CHIKARA Grand Championship. Icarus was seconds away from becoming defeating Kingston and becoming the new Grand Champion, when suddenly, Condor Security swooped in,  cleared Icarus and Kingston out of the ring, and proceeded to tear down the set.

After the informed us that the show was actually over, the crowd immediately began protesting. We  chanted, “WE WON’T GO!” over Condor Security’s ushering us out of the arena. Of of the many wrestling shows we’ve been to, we’ve never seen anything like that night at CHIKARA. We couldn’t wait to find out more about this story(line?). Then the news broke that CHIKARA may be shutting its doors for good!

Condor Security telling me to get the camera out his face

We haven’t been to many CHIKARA shows, but the ones we’ve attended have always been a great mix of entertainment and pro wrestling. The promotion found a way to put on great matches with compelling storylines and not taking itself too seriously. We hope this isn’t the end for CHIKARA, but if it is, Thank You for great matches, for memorable characters and for always reminding us that Wrestling Is Fun.