July 20, 2013.
This was supposed to be the night of a big show for CHIKARA. Supposed to be. Easton shows in CHIKARA are always good. But, as we know, this show, along with all other CHIKARA shows for the remainder of 2013 are canceled. So, when Icarus tweeted he was going to show up to the Easton Funplex, I was intrigued. Would a bunch of wrestlers show up? Secret show? Rally? Something else? Nobody knew. All I know is I had to be there. And I was.
I showed up at 7 PM sharp. When I went inside, I saw roughly 20-30 others already there. Like me, they wanted answers. We just want something…ANYTHING…to explain what happened to the promotion we all knew and loved. There was also some cookies that someone made too. Blue ones with the CHIKARA logo on them! They were even vegan cookies in case UMB showed up I guess. About the same time I got there, so did Billy Kumohara, along with a camera man. So, we all gathered around some tables and chairs and waited. We waited for Icarus to show up. 7:05 came and he still wasn’t there. We started to tweet him. I played his theme music in hopes he’d appear. Nothing. A couple more minutes passed and someone said he spotted a car pull up. It was Icarus.
We all gathered outside and gave him a standing ovation as he walked up the building. He asked if any other wrestlers showed up. We told them he was the only one. I mentioned that most of the regulars I talked to on Twitter told me they had shows they were booked on tonight. He said “This is more important than other bookings”. He said he didn’t spend the last 12 years working for the promotion he loved for it to end like this. He got a notebook and had us all sign it as a petition to prove we want CHIKARA back. He said, “This isn’t over. I will fight this.”
He then ran back to his car, and came back with a box of shirts. He proceeded to hand them out as a gift to the people who showed up. He told us it meant a lot to him that we came. The shirts were simple black t-shirts that read “I am CHIKARA” on them. Billy said we should wear these shirts to every wrestling show we go to. ANY wrestling show.
And just like that, Icarus hoped in his car, a Kia Soul, and drove off. After that, it started raining pretty heavy so we all went inside again and took a group photo with us all wearing our shirts. We even held up our right hands as a sign of solidarity, or maybe we just thought it looked cool. We all said “DRAGON DRAGON!” as the picture was taken. And then we each took a moment to tell the camera man why we love CHIKARA. Why we came to Easton on this day. What made us love this company. Stuff like that.
I have no idea if any of this footage will be used or who will see it. If I had to say what I got from this whole thing (besides a free shirt), it would one thing:
CHIKARA is not dead. It will be back. Probably not anytime soon, but it’ll be back at some point, 2014 would be my guess. But, this little pep rally with Icarus gave me more hope than I had yesterday. If nothing else, Icarus took the time to get some shirts made up for the fans. He didn’t ask for anything in return other than our names on a petition. So, thanks Icarus.
~ Big thanks to this report from Dave Muscarella/ @DaveMuscarella
