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Showing posts with label Mike Quackenbush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Quackenbush. Show all posts

June 24, 2020

Mike Quackenbush Issues Statement On CHIKARA Shutting Down After "#SpeakingOut" Accusations

CHIKARA founder and pro wrestling veteran Mike Quackenbush has officially announced the end of his CHIKARA promotion. He has also stepped down as the head trainer of the WrestleFactory school.

As noted earlier, CHIKARA was set to shut down after several allegations against the promotion in the current "#SpeakingOut" movement, which we noted before at this link. Quackenbush confirmed the end of the promotion tonight and issued a statement on the accusations. His statement is as follows:

"I have been made aware of recent allegations about myself, and people in my employ.
I take all allegations seriously - whether they are about me, or members of my team.
Addressing these with openness and transparency is of the utmost importance to me. So these matters can be given the proper time and attention, I am discontinuing CHIKARA and resigning as head trainer at the Wrestle Factory.
I'll make a full statement on these matters in the near future."

Quackenbush launched CHIKARA back in 2002.

November 14, 2016

More Wrestling Promotions Drop Joey Styles


As noted, former WWE employee and ECW announcer Joey Styles was fired from EVOLVE over the weekend for making a Donald Trump related joke during a broadcast. Beyond Wrestling and CHIKARA have announced that they have also parted ways with Styles.

Beyond Wrestling posted on Twitter:

"Despite his unprofessional behavior I would like to extend him the professional courtesy of a phone call before making an announcement."

"Joey Styles will no longer be appearing at Sunday's live event in Worcester or any future Beyond Wrestling live events. Thank you."

CHIKARA founder Mike Quackenbush also posted a blog piece noting that the company would not be using Styles any further, as seen below:

The events of the last few days have been just cause to take a look at the state of professional wrestling. The art form that I love, and have dedicated my entire adult life to, is embarrassingly behind the times. It is beholden to outdated tenets that threaten to render it...obsolete at worst, and a punchline at best.

I know there are others, influential and celebrated, that imagine pro-wrestling to be a bubble in which the social norms from a bygone era are still relevant and valid. At CHIKARA, we rail against them, and those ideals, with everything we make. It is one thing to speak, to voice an opinion. It is one thing to call for change, to wish for change, to imagine how that change might come about. It is another thing to make it. At CHIKARA, we make it happen. It doesn't matter to us in the least how many people show up to see it, or how many people recognize it for what it is. Our mantra is not about critical acclaim or pats on the back: "We believe pro-wrestling should be fun. That's why we make it for everyone."

Effective today, we are terminating our relationship with Joey Styles. Effective today, we are instituting a zero tolerance policy for misogynistic, racist, and/or homophobic speech, written or verbal, whether it's directed toward our cast, our crew, or our patrons. This is the shape of CHIKARA.

February 19, 2016

Mike Quackenbush On Working At The WWE PC, Trading Holds With Chad Gable, Feeling Validated Now


As noted, indie veteran and CHIKARA owner Mike Quackenbush was recently at the WWE Performance Center for a guest coaching gig. Quack also owns The Wrestle Factory school in Philadelphia and revealed that graduates Cesaro and Sara Amato (Sara Del Rey) were instrumental in WWE contacting him for the guest gig. His week with WWE just wrapped up but "Quack" also worked backstage as a producer for NXT live events. He spoke with WWE's website about working with the company. You can read the full interview at this link. Below are highlights:

What the week consisted of:

I got do a bit of observing, and then I got to do some coaching and training with beginners, intermediates and the advanced players —those that are getting ready to depart NXT and go to the main roster. I got to do in-ring technique, one of my favorites. I got to oversee presentation class. I got to oversee the sessions where the guys and girls review their past performance and we give constructive criticisms and feedback.

Who were some of the WWE NXT talents he worked with:

One of the best things I got to do was spend some one-on-one time with specific talent that wanted to develop certain areas of their game. There was nothing I enjoyed more than having an hour in the ring with Chad Gable, who is simply one of the most outstanding performers I've ever been able to share a ring with. To trade holds and moves, to teach him and learn from him was such pleasure.

Feeling validated after working at the Performance Center:

I recall a study that was done a couple years ago where wrestling fans were asked to name any organization other than WWE. Less than two percent of them could do that. Less than two percent! If that's true, then I've spent my entire adult life laboring in relative obscurity. The things that I do, the things that I make, the theories I espouse, everything I've created, by and large, based on that study, has been in complete obscurity. Oftentimes, especially when it's something you're passionate about , you wonder, "What am I doing? Does it really have value? Does it have any influence?" You want to impact people and make a difference. To be down at the Performance Center and see how openly everything I believed about the art form was not just received, but embraced and celebrated, by people I knew, people I don't know or just met, even people I idolized, like Terry Taylor or Matt Bloom, it gave me a tremendous sense of validation.

February 8, 2016

CHIKARA Owner At The WWE PC


Veteran wrestler and trainer Mike Quackenbush is working at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando as a guest coach this week, according to PWInsider. Quackenbush also owns the CHIKARA promotion.

February 5, 2016

Chikara: Pro Wrestling's Comic Book Turns the Page


He had previously turned his back on his fellow arthropods – a group known as the Colony ­– and was now supposed to destroy former friend Fire Ant, though judging by the way his tiny antennae was twitching, he was struggling with the task at hand. The crowd surrounding the ring picked up on his hesitation, begged him to remember his past and break free of the bonds that had caused him to go bad. Fire Ant begged too. But given that this was pro wrestling, reason quickly gave way to brute force: An errant blow to the head ended his amnesia, Soldier Ant embraced his opponent and all was right with the world.

Obviously, this did not happen at a Vince McMahon-sanctioned event. Instead, it went down at Top Banana, the season-capping event of Chikara, a Philadelphia-based wrestling promotion where ants and anthropomorphic ice cream cones share the ring with tough-as-nails princesses and all manner of masked marauders. Part badass B-movie, part sugary Saturday morning cartoon, it's wild, weird and everything WWE isn't. And that's precisely the point.

"We wanted to make something different from what we were seeing. It just felt monotonous. Everyone was making the same flavor of wrestling," Chikara founder (and former indie wrestler) Mike Quackenbush says. "I think we were kind of bored. At the end of the Nineties, during the [WWE's] Attitude Era, there was a thought that all characters needed to be written with shades of gray. But clear heroes and villains appeal to me. At a young age, I didn't watch wrestling, but I did read X-Men, I read the Justice League. I wanted to make something like that."

Originally, Quackenbush intended Chikara to be little more than a showcase for the students he was training at the Wrestle Factory, a school he had started with fellow indie grappler Tom "Reckless Youth" Carter. But after debuting in 2002, the promotion began to take on a life of its own, thanks in no small part to the Factory's focus: teaching a truly international style of pro wrestling, heavy on the tough, traditional techniques of Japan and the theatrical acrobatics of Mexican lucha libre. In short, the matches were awesome – but the characters that began to emerge were just as compelling...More?

source: rollingstone.com

June 24, 2011

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?

May 19, 2010

CHIKARA Line Up for Aniversario Zehn and Aniversario Elf

Aniversario Zehn

1. 8-Man Tag Team Match: Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Hallowicked, and Frightmare vs. Chuck Taylor, Gran Akuma, Colin Delaney, and Vin Gerard
2. Tag Team Match: Helios and Equinox vs. Lince Dorado and Tim Donst
3. UltraMantis Black (of The Neo Solar Temple) vs. Ares (of The Bruderschaft)
4. Ophidian (of The Osirian Portal) vs. STIGMA (of The UnStable)
5. Fire Ant (of The Colony) vs. Pinkie "Pink Ant" Sanchez (of The Bruderschaft)
6. Tag Team Match: Daizee Haze and Tursas vs. Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton
7. Amasis (of The Osirian Portal) vs. Green Ant (of The Colony)

Aniversario Elf

1. Tommy Dreamer vs. Eddie Kingston
2. Young Lions Cup Match: Tim Donst © (of The Bruderschaft) vs. Soldier Ant (of The Colony)
3. Campeonatos de Parejas (Tag Team Titles) Match: Ares & Claudio Castagnoli © (Bruderschaft) vs. Hallowicked & Frightmare (Incoherence)
4. Amasis (of The Osirian Portal) vs. Vin Gerard (of The UnStable)
5. Four Corner Elimination Tag Team Match: Equinox and Helios vs. 3.0 (Shane Matthews and Scott "Jagged" Parker) vs. F.I.S.T. (Gran Akuma and Chuck Taylor) vs. Super Smash Bros. (Player Uno and Player Dos)
6. Fire Ant (of The Colony) vs. Lince Dorado (of The Bruderschaft)
7. 8-Man Tag Team Match: Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, and The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton) vs. Sara Del Rey, Daizee Haze, Pinkie "Pink Ant" Sanchez, and Tursas

For more information on CHIKARA or either of this weekend's shows, please visit CHIKARAPro.com.

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