CHIKARA

We did that.

And then it was like in one year, it was like IWA, CZW, Chikara, like all these places like up north.

And so, but then we just kind of got stuck at, not stuck, but we stayed with Chikara more.

That's Philadelphia, right? Yeah, Philadelphia.

And it just went from there.

And that's, I knew all the like the basics of wrestling, but then when I went to Chikara, Quackenbush, he taught us like a lot of the lucha aspects of it.

And that's something I was really like excited to learn about.

Why did the Lucha style excite you so much? I

what's up legion welcome back to i still call it a larry we are a pro wrestling podcast i am of course steve zaff your leader your empresario of the lariat legion but today we have a very special episode we are getting back into our interview segments and our interview today is mike quackenbush for those of you who don't know the former lightning the current master of a thousand holds mike quackenbush is a man who started Chikara.

He has a hand in training such greats as Aleister Black, Chad Gable, Cheeseburger, Drew Gulak.

The list goes on and on.

I don't know if I've just not gotten to a point yet where I've grown to appreciate or love that work, but I'm not there now.

Coaching, yeah, I love doing that.

And The creative end of things, I was so lucky making 21 seasons of Chikara that I really got to flex my muscles with that.

I got to book to my heart's content.

So developing characters and stories that resonate with people, I love that, whether we're talking wrestling or anything else.

Yeah.

I was watching him work Chikara matches in 2010 in bingo halls.

Wow.

I was downloading them off the internet, off news groups-

Uh-

Well, my, my, my favorite, my fav...

Like I said, going back, back in the day when I used to watch, watch Chikara, download Chikara off news groups, favorite show of the year, man, was always King of Trios.

Hmm.

And Billy, I've known for a long time.

when he started as a wrestling trainee at Chikara.

I got the opportunity to work with him once in a match, and he reached out to me back in May to do a tribute show for Jeff.

Even when I broke my finger, I was at the tail end of my recovery.

Um, I used to watch a lot on YouTube as well, and that's a style that I like very much so, and I could never do it as a wrestler.

And with a guy with one arm, it doesn't really make much sense.

But one of the coolest memories that I have of being on a show, one time I did a weekend of Chikara shows, and they had Johnny Kidd and Johnny Saint.

And they did – I got to watch it live, Johnny Kidd and Johnny Saint, and it was like – you know 15 or 20 minutes and it was it was magical man and it's just like it's like watching the same guys on the show in chikara which you know the chikara roster was great back at that time i think it was like 2011 or something like that but it's like the chikara guys doing chain wrestling and then watching johnny saint and johnny kid doing it it was on another level right but to transition you know again seeing you as a deathmatch performer most people wouldn't realize how multifaceted you are, what a student of a game you are for pro wrestling in general.

It's like one state over." So then I was addicted to Mid-South.

Then I learned that people from IPW, it was kinda like Insanity Pro, then you could get on at Mid-South, then you could get looked at at CZW or Chikara.

So then I was just like obsessed with this little network of, of places, 'cause all the same dudes from IPW were going there.

So from then it was off to the races.

'Cause I believe, I'd have to check, but I remember the...

I think to remember the original Jervis Cottonbelly's from Chikara back in the day, I believe.

Yeah.

And there was some, uh, let's just say dodgy and then just-

So-

Yeah, he had, he, dude, he has a skill set too that a lot of, I mean, everyone's s- has seen him wrestle at this point, but he has r- he wrestled under a mask in CHIKARA as the Fire Ant endur- with The Colony.

That was a huge part of his career where CHIKARA was, uh, one of the hottest wrestling promotions in Philly before they went under, and he was a big part of it.

A lot of guys.

Eddie Kingston was there.

There was a lot of dudes in CHIKARA.

Claudio Castagnoli, like, and Orange wrestled under a mask, and people love Fire Ant and what he did, and he winds up, turns into Orange Cassidy later down the line.

But Fire Ant, his work there kinda shows that he can be something different.