CHIKARA Season 17&18 Thread:Teeth & Claws

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Dustin giving zero f***s anymore with CHIKARA is my favorite thing.

[Allie Kitsune]

Man, Quack's reputation is just slowly circling the drain at this point, isn't it?

[kingoftheindies]

Nov 9, 2017 21:26:42 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Man, Quack's reputation is just slowly circling the drain at this point, isn't it?

Quack's reputation was always kind of iffy, but the one thing even his detractors said was he always did right by CHIKARA. IMO CHIKARA has been a victim or the indy boom going on. Not that long ago, Quack could get away with not paying well because Chikara was one of the only feds that could offer indy wrestlers exposure. Now that's no longer the case... and even more so for CHIKARA since they used to rely heavily on Canada but the Canadian indies are also strong with SMASH,C4, IWS, and Battlewar!

You also have long time Chikara loyal wrestlers admitting that getting away from Chikara has actually been helpful for their careers.

[theaman44]

That was always Quack's greatest strength and greatest weakness. He cares so deeply about his vision of Chikara. On the one hand, it's great because whatever his flaws may be, he's extremely smart and creative, and that allows him to do crazy awesome stuff you wouldn't get elsewhere. Unfortunately, he also chases off people because it's his way or the highway, which obviously has cost him some great talent. You're right that the indy boom hurt, but also the fact that the majors are willing to sign more guys like Drew Gulak or Kimber Lee or Heidi. They've definitely been hurt by more signings than any time in recent memory, whether the signing was WWE or TNA or even ROH. But that's when Quack needs to loosen the idea of "his guys (and girls)" and bring in talented people who can help execute his vision, even if they might not be homegrown and 100% loyal.

[lildude8218]

I need some more Chikara dirt to get me through the work week.

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 12, 2017 20:30:59 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

I need some more Chikara dirt to get me through the work week.

Blaster McMassive thanked me in person at a show once for defending Dev Corp on the 101 Proboards.

[lildude8218]

Nov 12, 2017 20:47:15 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Nov 12, 2017 20:30:59 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

I need some more Chikara dirt to get me through the work week.

Blaster McMassive thanked me in person at a show once for defending Dev Corp on the 101 Proboards.

Anyone know who this Slade Bracey guy is? I see him have twitter exchanges with some Chikara regulars and from his pics he seems like a pretty big dude. I have a suspicion but I'm not sure if he's tall enough.

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 12, 2017 21:10:57 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

Nov 12, 2017 20:47:15 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Blaster McMassive thanked me in person at a show once for defending Dev Corp on the 101 Proboards.

Anyone know who this Slade Bracey guy is? I see him have twitter exchanges with some Chikara regulars and from his pics he seems like a pretty big dude. I have a suspicion but I'm not sure if he's tall enough.

Yeah I do, he's my Cousin  

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}
And Tursas. And yes he and Smashmaster look very much alike, it's a locker room joke. Not the same guy, Slade's actually bigger.

[lildude8218]

Nov 12, 2017 21:41:13 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Nov 12, 2017 21:10:57 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

Anyone know who this Slade Bracey guy is? I see him have twitter exchanges with some Chikara regulars and from his pics he seems like a pretty big dude. I have a suspicion but I'm not sure if he's tall enough.

Yeah I do, he's my Cousin  

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}{Spoiler}{Spoiler}
And Tursas. And yes he and Smashmaster look very much alike, it's a locker room joke. Not the same guy, Slade's actually bigger.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}That's who I thought it was but then I saw a pic of him with a few other guys and he looked too small. The fact that he lives in Texas and Tursas last wrestled in Texas was a big red flag as well.

[kingoftheindies]

From from I've heard he is a guy that also had a pretty big falling out with Quack.... like really ugly one too

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 12, 2017 21:46:03 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

From from I've heard he is a guy that also had a pretty big falling out with Quack.... like really ugly one too

I don't know if Slade has a huge beef with Quack, but Slade's loyal to Hero more than him, he and Cesaro were his main trainers, and after Hero fell out with Quack I assume it was pretty strained. And then when he moved to Texas to be a nurse (He was the Nurse who wheeled Sapphire the Pigeon out that one event by the way, it was a reference to that), I assume Quack wasn't giving him enough compensation for his flights.

Travel compensation is something that burns a nasty bridge with Quack, it becomes not worth it to fly or in some cases like Jakob, drive hundreds of miles for little pay... they did it for so long until they had enough.  

Slade's really cool with the wrestlers though. Colin Delaney always used to prank him backstage, he actually treated AssailtAnt for a broken collerbone (Which he caused in training ) And roomed with Chuck Taylor for awhile. Any time I've brought it up to any CHIKARA person they're responded super positively, Sara Del Rey, who also helped train him, was super happy I was his cousin. Cesaro just said "I'm sorry" when I told him

[lildude8218]

Nov 12, 2017 21:52:25 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Nov 12, 2017 21:46:03 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

From from I've heard he is a guy that also had a pretty big falling out with Quack.... like really ugly one too

I don't know if Slade has a huge beef with Quack, but Slade's loyal to Hero more than him, he and Cesaro were his main trainers, and after Hero fell out with Quack I assume it was pretty strained. And then when he moved to Texas to be a nurse (He was the Nurse who wheeled Sapphire the Pigeon out that one event by the way, it was a reference to that), I assume Quack wasn't giving him enough compensation for his flights.

Travel compensation is something that burns a nasty bridge with Quack, it becomes not worth it to fly or in some cases like Jakob, drive hundreds of miles for little pay... they did it for so long until they had enough.  

Slade's really cool with the wrestlers though. Colin Delaney always used to prank him backstage, he actually treated AssailtAnt for a broken collerbone (Which he caused in training ) And roomed with Chuck Taylor for awhile. Any time I've brought it up to any CHIKARA person they're responded super positively, Sara Del Rey, who also helped train him, was super happy I was his cousin. Cesaro just said "I'm sorry" when I told him

Here I thought the cousin part was a joke haha. What originally brought him to my attention was that tumblr post from a few years back where that one dude buried everyone at the Wrestle Factory. He mentioned 4 students there who had "no potential of being a mature adult." 2 of the others were Drew Gulak (he specifically mentions the name Drew) and Silver Ant (whose real name I won't mention here). I still don't know who the 4th guy actually was.

[kingoftheindies]

Nov 12, 2017 21:52:25 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

Nov 12, 2017 21:46:03 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

From from I've heard he is a guy that also had a pretty big falling out with Quack.... like really ugly one too

I don't know if Slade has a huge beef with Quack, but Slade's loyal to Hero more than him, he and Cesaro were his main trainers, and after Hero fell out with Quack I assume it was pretty strained. And then when he moved to Texas to be a nurse (He was the Nurse who wheeled Sapphire the Pigeon out that one event by the way, it was a reference to that), I assume Quack wasn't giving him enough compensation for his flights.

Travel compensation is something that burns a nasty bridge with Quack, it becomes not worth it to fly or in some cases like Jakob, drive hundreds of miles for little pay... they did it for so long until they had enough.  

Slade's really cool with the wrestlers though. Colin Delaney always used to prank him backstage, he actually treated AssailtAnt for a broken collerbone (Which he caused in training ) And roomed with Chuck Taylor for awhile. Any time I've brought it up to any CHIKARA person they're responded super positively, Sara Del Rey, who also helped train him, was super happy I was his cousin. Cesaro just said "I'm sorry" when I told him

This could be completely wrong as i heard it through the grapevine (ie rumors that could be completely fabricated) but I heard he was not a fan of Quack making Nokken. Probably just rumors.

I need some more Chikara dirt to get me through the work week.

Not really dirt, but I do know that Kevin Condron, Thunderfrog, and Jervis Cottonbelly have been very vocal in telling wrestlers to not let Quack control them which has brought a little heat their way (more so on Condron as he's very vocal in his dislike for how Quack treated him, the other 2 just feel that Quack hindered them a bit)

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 12, 2017 22:30:37 GMT -5 kingoftheindies said:

Nov 12, 2017 21:52:25 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

I don't know if Slade has a huge beef with Quack, but Slade's loyal to Hero more than him, he and Cesaro were his main trainers, and after Hero fell out with Quack I assume it was pretty strained. And then when he moved to Texas to be a nurse (He was the Nurse who wheeled Sapphire the Pigeon out that one event by the way, it was a reference to that), I assume Quack wasn't giving him enough compensation for his flights.

Travel compensation is something that burns a nasty bridge with Quack, it becomes not worth it to fly or in some cases like Jakob, drive hundreds of miles for little pay... they did it for so long until they had enough.  

Slade's really cool with the wrestlers though. Colin Delaney always used to prank him backstage, he actually treated AssailtAnt for a broken collerbone (Which he caused in training ) And roomed with Chuck Taylor for awhile. Any time I've brought it up to any CHIKARA person they're responded super positively, Sara Del Rey, who also helped train him, was super happy I was his cousin. Cesaro just said "I'm sorry" when I told him

This could be completely wrong as i heard it through the grapevine (ie rumors that could be completely fabricated) but I heard he was not a fan of Quack making Nokken. Probably just rumors.

I need some more Chikara dirt to get me through the work week.

Not really dirt, but I do know that Kevin Condron, Thunderfrog, and Jervis Cottonbelly have been very vocal in telling wrestlers to not let Quack control them which has brought a little heat their way (more so on Condron as he's very vocal in his dislike for how Quack treated him, the other 2 just feel that Quack hindered them a bit)

Uuuuh... you do know that Kondron and Jervis... 

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 12, 2017 22:02:01 GMT -5 lildude8218 said:

Nov 12, 2017 21:52:25 GMT -5 cjb01: Limited Edition Item! said:

I don't know if Slade has a huge beef with Quack, but Slade's loyal to Hero more than him, he and Cesaro were his main trainers, and after Hero fell out with Quack I assume it was pretty strained. And then when he moved to Texas to be a nurse (He was the Nurse who wheeled Sapphire the Pigeon out that one event by the way, it was a reference to that), I assume Quack wasn't giving him enough compensation for his flights.

Travel compensation is something that burns a nasty bridge with Quack, it becomes not worth it to fly or in some cases like Jakob, drive hundreds of miles for little pay... they did it for so long until they had enough.  

Slade's really cool with the wrestlers though. Colin Delaney always used to prank him backstage, he actually treated AssailtAnt for a broken collerbone (Which he caused in training ) And roomed with Chuck Taylor for awhile. Any time I've brought it up to any CHIKARA person they're responded super positively, Sara Del Rey, who also helped train him, was super happy I was his cousin. Cesaro just said "I'm sorry" when I told him

Here I thought the cousin part was a joke haha. What originally brought him to my attention was that tumblr post from a few years back where that one dude buried everyone at the Wrestle Factory. He mentioned 4 students there who had "no potential of being a mature adult." 2 of the others were Drew Gulak (he specifically mentions the name Drew) and Silver Ant (whose real name I won't mention here). I still don't know who the 4th guy actually was.

I am to assume that was "The Original Vokoder", he's wrestled at my locals. And he has buried Quack and the entire factory multiple times for how they screwed him over.

[lildude8218]

DO NOT JOIN the CHIKARA Professional Wrestling Factory!

This is more easily said then done, but everything I am about to inform you readers of this blog, will be as honest as I could be.

CHIKARA Professional Wrestling Factory in the Arena of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a fraud of a wrestling school, a cheat, and a hoax. This is not a conspiracy, I am not immature or impulsive. This is more of a forewarning for prospective professional wrestling students, coming from a student myself at the CHIKARA Professional Wrestling Factory. Now, I’m here to tell you why with explicative reasoning:

Free labor: I could not stress this enough. One day, particularly being Saturday, October 29th, 2011 and Sunday, October 30th, 2011 which was last weekend, Michael Quackenbush (the head trainer of CHIKARA Professional Wrestling Factory) explained to the students, being the newer students and the more advanced and experienced ones, that it was mandatory to attend two shows as apart of the “Ring Crew.” Seemingly that was exhilarating for everyone, don’t ask me why, but were we to receive any sort of payment or reward for this laborious activity, attending both shows of CHIKARA in Reading, Pennsylvania and Williamsport, Pennsylvania? Not one bit. As it appeared to be, most professional wrestling schools (being independent promotions) had to serve as an excellent representation for the name of CHIKARA Professional Wrestling. This is not ranked in the top three of WWE, TNA Wrestling, and Ring of Honor, now is it? Absolutely nowhere near. When I attended class session on Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 (yes, they have only one class per week for both beginners and intermediates, which I will explain later), after the warmups that we were doing inside of the ring, Mr. Spillane (Quackenbush) wouldn’t take no for an answer for being absent at both shows. With that being said, he forced us to do 500 squats for not being present at one show, and a total of 1,000 squats for not being present at two shows. Please enlighten me, how is exercising our quadriceps until they tear supposed to teach us anything about professional wrestling? As far as I’m concerned, this is not freestyle high school wrestling where all they care about is physical conditioning and strenuous activity without the wrestling maneuvering. As I talked to one of the students there named [redacted] keeping count of our total squats, I spoke to him saying, “I’m sure almost all of the students have something else to do over the weekends besides travel 140 miles for CHIKARA’s sake.” [redacted] responded, “This is apart of being a professional wrestler.” I talked back stating, “I consider this free labor. I never knew doing free labor for somebody was apart of being a simple prospective student,” as he said, “Maybe if you were an NFL player, then sure, you could go straight to being a professional wrestler.” Is being a National Football League player hold any relevance what-so-ever to becoming a professional wrestler? Yeah, didn’t quite think so. Sorry Charlie, but Ryan Christopher Gately scores one, CHIKARA zero.

One class session per week for Beginners-Intermediates: Somebody who has common sense about professional wrestling and has been a fan for all of their life should definitely understand this, and not even deem CHIKARA necessary as a school choice. Some of you may click the large red X at the top of your browser and either ignore everything that I am admonishing, or regard this clearly comprehensible advice. Some of you go completely out of your way to more then one wrestling class per week, and are unable to come to more then one. Although their website claims that they have three class sessions per week, the truth of the matter is Tuesday is a “Reserved Class.” A reserved class is a class for advanced students, students prepared to step in the ring for their first match (which CHIKARA honestly compels the students to work too hard for then they have to), and students capable of a flawless, perfect Luchadore and Puroresu-infused match. Sunday is stated on the website to be an afternoon class for all students enrolled, but I’ve found out that that class session no longer exists due to the season and the college semester in progress. Professional wrestlers that literally have a strong desire to become a professional wrestler first and foremost (including myself), would practically give two sh**s about college education. With all of this being said now, Wednesday is the only class session for all students enrolled. Enlighten me once more, is one class session per week really adequate and appropriate for learning and proceeding in your valuable professional wrestling career? Exactly, the answer is no. All’s fair in love and war, ladies and gents! Ryan Christopher Gately scores two, CHIKARA remains an unfortunate, overweight zero.

Overconfidence/tactlessly overbearing, inconsiderate, disgraceful attitudes: The first time I returned to this wrestling school which was only a few weeks back, I have never seen as much average men acting like such tough little sh**s, and there wasn’t one day that I didn’t want to kick their a** until they were unconscious. This is what makes CHIKARA appear very corrupt and immature lowering their reputation, especially the adults attending the school. I, for one, am mature, considerate, amicable, and a heartfelt optimist, but seeing this is flat out disgracing to the wonderful name of the professional wrestling industry. Why I say this, is self-explanatory. There are students there named [redacted], Drew, Slade, and [redacted] who have no potential of being a mature adult.

[redacted]: [redacted] is a tall slim male, approximately 6 feet 2 inches, and should weigh more then I do, which is 175 pounds. His jaw is square and vertically large. His hair is dark brown, and usually his bangs are spiked up, doesn’t appear to have any gel or hair product in it. He was the man who spoke to me with quite the lame comebacks on being a successful professional wrestler. He has also been rushing me on doing the total 1,000 squats for his personal gain, so he can get back to training. What I wondered was, why didn’t Quackenbush keep watch over us, or let us keep count until we were finished? [redacted] apparently was responsible for this, but he didn’t serve as a reasonable superior to us doing the squats. He also wasn’t reasonable with the students starting out at the school, since he didn’t direct us on what to do exactly when practice maneuvers were being done.

(To Be Continued)

[daveyt]

I call BS on that. I have no clue what the Wrestle Factory was like in 2011, but I did spend the last year training there as a part of their tiered curriculum.

If there is one thing Mike is not a fan of, it is all the "old school" BS methods of training. I doubt he would have had people doing 1000 squats for not making a show.

And being paid for ring crew? Good luck getting paid for ring crew or working anywhere while you're training. Do I necessarily agree with that being correct? Absolutely not, but that's the way the business works when it comes to paying your dues. I have trained at both Chikara and CZW, and now MPX here in Texas, and no one is going to pay you to work ring crew or do any of that, just how it is.

So many sour grapes in wrestling. I had a great experience with Chikara AND Mike. You get out what you put in, show dedication and that you want to work hard and be there, and you'll be fine. I'd recommend Chikara to anyone, loved my time there, sad when it ended.

And in that case, if you're also in the area and Chikara isn't for you, I'd certainly recommend CZW, too. Loved my time there soooooo much! And in the Dallas area, MPX!

When training, just have a good attitude and lose the damn ego and you'll be treated well, that's all i can say haha

[cjb01: Limited Edition Item!]

Nov 15, 2017 17:36:26 GMT -5 daveyt said:

I call BS on that. I have no clue what the Wrestle Factory was like in 2011, but I did spend the last year training there as a part of their tiered curriculum.

If there is one thing Mike is not a fan of, it is all the "old school" BS methods of training. I doubt he would have had people doing 1000 squats for not making a show.

And being paid for ring crew? Good luck getting paid for ring crew or working anywhere while you're training. Do I necessarily agree with that being correct? Absolutely not, but that's the way the business works when it comes to paying your dues. I have trained at both Chikara and CZW, and now MPX here in Texas, and no one is going to pay you to work ring crew or do any of that, just how it is.

So many sour grapes in wrestling. I had a great experience with Chikara AND Mike. You get out what you put in, show dedication and that you want to work hard and be there, and you'll be fine. I'd recommend Chikara to anyone, loved my time there, sad when it ended.

And in that case, if you're also in the area and Chikara isn't for you, I'd certainly recommend CZW, too. Loved my time there soooooo much! And in the Dallas area, MPX!

When training, just have a good attitude and lose the damn ego and you'll be treated well, that's all i can say haha

Thanks for your input dude, sounds like you've had quite a journey, and all sound like really good schools to train under.

[lildude8218]

Nov 15, 2017 17:36:26 GMT -5 daveyt said:

I call BS on that. I have no clue what the Wrestle Factory was like in 2011, but I did spend the last year training there as a part of their tiered curriculum.

If there is one thing Mike is not a fan of, it is all the "old school" BS methods of training. I doubt he would have had people doing 1000 squats for not making a show.

And being paid for ring crew? Good luck getting paid for ring crew or working anywhere while you're training. Do I necessarily agree with that being correct? Absolutely not, but that's the way the business works when it comes to paying your dues. I have trained at both Chikara and CZW, and now MPX here in Texas, and no one is going to pay you to work ring crew or do any of that, just how it is.

So many sour grapes in wrestling. I had a great experience with Chikara AND Mike. You get out what you put in, show dedication and that you want to work hard and be there, and you'll be fine. I'd recommend Chikara to anyone, loved my time there, sad when it ended.

And in that case, if you're also in the area and Chikara isn't for you, I'd certainly recommend CZW, too. Loved my time there soooooo much! And in the Dallas area, MPX!

When training, just have a good attitude and lose the damn ego and you'll be treated well, that's all i can say haha

I'd like to add that most of the replies to this guy's post were to the effect of "what a douchebag." No one took it seriously and the consensus was that he had no idea how the wrestling business really worked.

[kingoftheindies]

Yeah while I've heard some criticisms of Quack's training methods it's hard to sympathize with this guy