I'm a couple of days late, but I wanted to congratulate Mr. Touchdown on his Young Lions Cup victory in Chikara over the weekend. I got a chance to see Mr. Touchdown wrestle live a couple of times with his partner Dasher Hatfield at Chikara shows in Indiana and Illinois. The Throwbacks were victorious in both outings.
After the show in Chicago Ridge, I had a chance to get a pic with Mr. Touchdown. I always appreciate it when wrestlers take a moment to give fans a chance like this. Many of the Chikara guys (and women) are like that though.
It appears Mr. Touchdown is on the fast track to big things in the company. I'd like to see how things go with Veronica and Archie too. It's been an engaging storyline. Good luck to him and I hope to catch more Chikara shows in person next year. (Come to southern Illinois, we'd love to have you here)
In preparation of Tim
Donst’s upcoming interview on From the Rafters Radio, I decided to finally
review Tim’s self-produced CD that I bought at the Chikara show in Chicago
Ridge. The CD is cleverly titled, Reflections: Old Memories of a Young Lion,
playing off Tim Donst being a former Chikara Young Lion’s Cup winner.
Before I get into thoughts
on the nine tracks, I want to get the harshest criticism out of the way. The
audio levels leave a lot to be desired. I’m guessing Tim recorded this at home
on his computer or cell phone or some type of recording device that wasn’t a
professional studio. There’s little consistency in volume level from track to
track and some of the tracks are over modulated. If you get past the amateur
audio though, this is a highly entertaining CD.
The first track is entitled
Free Bonus: Chapter 36 of Tim’s Biography.This is Tim reading a chapter talking about his youthful
days and a game of tag with friends. A simple game of tag leads to a backyard
tickle fight/wrestling match against Tim’s nemesis Betsy Palmer. I won’t ruin
the ending of the story, but will say the purpose of the story is to show Tim
had a Rudo side to him even as a child.
From there the CD segues
into the first song called “Do the Donstaroo.”It may just be me but this reminded me of the Bloodhound
Gang’s, “The Bad Touch.” Of the five songs on the album, this is the weakest.
Tim shows his versatility on
track 3: Open Mic Night Standup. As the title implies this is Tim doing a
comedy routine.Donst has some
good jokes including one about dating a girl who was such a bad cook she burnt
his Eggo and wondering if Chuck Taylor also dated her and if she was the
inspiration for Chuck’s finisher, the Awful Waffle. Based of this track if Tim
ever comes to Hollywood and performs at the Laugh Factory or Comedy Store, I
would definitely go to the show.
Track 4 should already be on
everyone’s Ipod. It is Tim’s multi-platinum hit song “Who’s the Man?”If you’ve been living under a rock and
aren’t familiar with the song here’s the YouTube video. A running
theme through most of the tracks is Donst’s obsession with proving he’s the
best Young Lion’s Cup Champion and especially better than Hallowicked. On Who’s
the Man” Hallowicked shows up at the end to give his thoughts on the matter.
After the greatness that is
“Who’s the Man,” Tim goes into another story. This one dedicated to former
Chikara Director of Fun Leonard F. Chikarason’s son. “The Talk” offers words of
advice to the young Chikarason about being careful when it comes to women and
trusting them and keeping them away from your tag team partner. The ending to
the story is pretty entertaining.
Following the tale about
being careful about women, Track 6, “Be My Ring Valet” is a pseudo-ballad to a
future rat. Heartwarming and if we were living in 1988, “Be My Ring Valet”
would be a bigger hit than “Every Rose Has its Thorn.”
Track 7, “voicemails from
Easton from 1.28.11 with Jakob Hammermeier.” This is a series of voicemails
Jakob leaves on Tim’s phone. The weakest track on the CD and could have easily
been left on the recording room floor.
Hallowicked & Donst Photo by: Flickr user Rick Foster
The CD ends with my personal
favorite track, “Greatest YLC RAP.” Comparable to Billy Joel’s, “We Didn’t
Start the Fire,” Tim runs down the events of his Young Lion’s Cup reign.
Detailing all the opponents he bested while working in shots at Hallowicked.
Honestly how can you not like a song that includes the line, “Hallowicked
you’re Screech and I’m Zack Morris. All my Donstaroos sing the chorus.” A fine
closer to the CD if ever there was one.
I don’t know if all CDs
feature it but my copy has a hidden bonus track called, “Knockin’ on Wink’s
Door.” Since current Chikara Director of Fun Wink Vavasseur wouldn’t listen to
Tim’s request for a match with Hallowicked, Tim decided to put his request into
song form. It seemed to pay off as Tim and Hallowicked squared off at
Chikarasaurus Rex 3.
When I purchased this CD I did
so more as a novelty and didn’t expect much from it. With the exception of the
Voicemail track and “Do the Donstaroo” this turned out to be a highly
entertaining and catchy CD. I think on the road trip from Chicago to Lafayette,
Indiana to Marion, Illinois we must have listened to this four or five times. There
are a lot of Chikara references so someone who isn’t as familiar with the past
three years of Chikara storylines probably won’t appreciate the stories and
songs as much as die hard Chikara fans, Still there’s a lot worse CDs you could
be listening to. Seriously, listen to “Who’s the Man” and if you don’t find
yourself humming it or singing along later in the day, I’d say you have no
soul.
I don’t know if Tim is still
selling copies at live events he’s booked on, but if you want a copy, you can
always hit him up on Twitter @tdonst and ask how to obtain a copy. The holidays
are coming up and this would make a great present.
After you buy Reflections:
Old Memories of a Young Lion let us know on our Facebook page. Want to hear
from satisfied buyers.
When I started formulating ideas for what topics to cover in this Countdown to High Noon series, I realized if I was trying to persuade people as to why they should watch Chikara, I needed to highlight the differences between the "wrestling" they see on TV on a weekly basis. Yesterday I tried to explain how important tag team wrestling was to the Chikara foundation. Today the focus is on the Young Lions.
There has been a lot of criticism towards TNA and WWE for using wrestlers that are long in the tooth instead of utilizing newer potential stars. In Chikara, it’s practically the opposite. Chikara’s roster is primarily made up of graduates of the Chikara Wrestle Factory. Over the past year there has been a steady influx of outside talents appearing on Chikara shows, but even then the talent is usually some relative young talent rather than an experienced veteran. There are exceptions, such as Johnny Saint and Johnny Kidd appearing on the Chikarasurus Rex weekend of shows and Marty Jannetty was scheduled to make his Chikara debut on October 29. For the most part though, when watching a Chikara show, fans are treated to young and hungry talent that wants to prove themselves.
Young talent has been such a focal point for Chikara that up until November 13, the only singles title the company has had during its tenure is the Young Lions Cup. Each year there is a tournament, usually held in July, to crown a new Young Lion’s Cup champion. The winner will then defend the title until the next tournament. The tournament is open to any competitor 25 years of age or younger.
The 2011 Young Lions Cup tournament saw the first over 25 competitor. Archibald Peck was initially listed for the tournament before Chikara Director of Fun, Wink Vavasseur found out Peck didn’t fall into the age limit restrictions. After being ousted from the tournament, "Marching" Archie got his barrister R.D. Evans to file an injunction claiming due to America not using the metric system; Chikara was falsely determining his age. Or something like that. Check out the video.
Some detractors could say because Chikara uses guys who are fresh out of wrestling school or guys that don’t have a lot of experience the wrestling on the shows suffer. I would argue that such detractors have never watched a Chikara show. Sure there is the occasional botched move and occasionally guys may look a little lost during a match. But those things happen to even the most seasoned wrestler. I would gladly put up any match by Frightmare, The Colony, The Osirian Portal and other Chikara wrestlers past and present against some of the "experienced" wrestlers in other companies and would be shocked if the Young Lions not only held their own, but also had a better match.
I have nothing more to add. Simply put, Chikara is home to the best young talent in the business. If you’re not familiar with them, you are missing out. I’ll leave you with a highlight video from this year’s Young Lion’s Cup tournament.
Once again, High Noon is only $15 and can be ordered by clicking here.As of now there are 5 matches announced so that’s $3 a match. Quite the bargain. For more on Chikara check out their website, and keep up to date with their official YouTube channel.
And of course, follow My123Cents on Facebook, Twitter , and YouTube. Tomorrow we look at the commentation station. Even though there have been several Young Lions Cup holders, only one can claim to be the best ever. I leave you with Tim Donst’s hit video, "Who Is the Man."
