Interview with Chikara’s Mike Quackenbush

To the general public, Vince McMahon’s WWE is professional wrestling, and professional wrestling is the demented love child of NASCAR and Days Of Our Lives. Both assumptions are wrong, though. There is something silly about would-be juggernauts wearing next to nothing and dishing out choreographed offense to each other, but couldn’t the same be said for so many other things?

Based out of Philadelphia, independent wrestling federation Chikara is the anti-WWE. Chikara doesn’t hide from the surface-level goofiness—rather, the federation embraces it while retaining a fast-paced artfulness that sweeps the floor with the competition. The A.V. Club asked founder and frequent grappler Mike Quackenbush why Chikara is wrestling for skeptics.

The A.V. Club: What was your inspiration in creating Chikara?

Mike Quackenbush: To irritate wrestling traditionalists that still think we’re still hustling marks for a buck at a carnival. To make pro wrestling more like the live-action comic book I always thought it was, and less like a commercial for GNC supplements. Also, to ensure I’d have the best stories at my high school reunion...More?