What I'm Watching: Mike Quackenbush\Jigsaw vs Young Bucks

I am a huge, unabashed, mark for Mike Quackenbush. But as I heard him say, perhaps mark isn't the word. That still holds a pejorative tone in my mind. Rather, let me say this:  I am a huge fan of the type of wrestling that he presents, both as a wrestler himself and to whatever degree he has control over Chikara Pro. But I think, that more so than just him, Chikara has given me back something I loved dearly, only to fall out of love with for a while: tag team wrestling.

When I was a kid, I was a frantic, rabid devotee of the Rockers (I still maintain that the Rockers were the best tag team of the era and only got jobbed out of a tag team title run due to politics). Eventually, though, the Rockers became a gateway team for me to maybe my favorite team of all-time. They only had a few martches together, and were perhaps best known as opponents. They were the junior heavyweight dream team of Flyin' Brian and Jushin "Thunder" Liger. To be honest, even though they teamed together a couple of times,they were my favorite. And then, as I got older, I fell in love with the Steiners, and the Rock N' Roll Express, and the Midnight Express. but WWF tag teams never had the same dynamism to my eyes that the Rockers did. Maybe it's because the DNA of southern wrestling is tied together with tag team wrestling, thus making it endlessly important. Maybe it's because the WWE slowly drug the blade across its own throat with the myriad of crappy tag teams they gave us in the post Hart Foundation era. But whatever the reason, tag team wrestling in the WWF didn't seem to mean as much to me as it did other places. Chikara, though, gave me something to care about again. And this is the match that did it.



What you'll notice when you watch the match here is the degree to which both teams involved know the job they are supposed to play. The Young Bucks are supposed to be the invaders, the people no one likes, and they do it well. They don't look for cheers. They cheat, A LOT. Meanwhile, Quackensaw (one of my favorite portmanteaus in the last little while in wrestling) are the heroes. They understand it, and play up to it. Watch this match sometimes when tag team wrestling on big-box TV disappoints you. I hope this one doesn't.