Music…
Hydrocity Zone 1 by Howard Drossin (Sonic 3)
Main Title by Francis Monkman (The Long Good Friday)

Thanks To…
The lovely Batiri for the intro.
John Cmar for having faith.
Chikarason for the ECW stories.

Maffew’s Chikara Awards 2014 To Balance Making This Video And Fail Because The Only Award People Pay Attention To Is Worst Wrestler/Match

Best Wrestler…
Oh great. Erm…well the shows have been about having long, intertwining storylines with dozens of wrestlers rather than have the show focused on so-and-so who has the best match every month and that’s why he headlines. Which is great but makes this award awkward. Balls, Icarus. He sorted his hair out, he covered The Worst Tattoo in Wrestling up and he won the main title. He also wrestled like a motherfucker. Yeah, he gets it. Something I didn’t think I’d type so kudos.

Next best’s gotta be Eddie Kingston for showing more character just walking to the ring than most wrestlers manage in a year.

Worst Wrestler…
One of Chikara’s biggest positives is the lack of bad matches and bad performances and as a result there wasn’t any moments where I thought ”man this guy sucks.” Guys who aren’t Dean Malenko don’t chain wrestle and fat guys don’t try to flip. It’s not rocket science.

That said, I pick Volgar because his ring-gear makes him look like a microwaved Putty Patrol. For a company that typically prides themselves on how cool guys look, Volgar brings the tone down.

Best Tag Team…
The Throwbacks

Chikara’s always blessed with great tag teams but The Throwbacks spent the year bringing prestige to a near-dead set of titles and did so tremendously. Over as hell, always delivering brilliant matches…yeah, they’ll do.
Pieces of Hate (Shard and Jigsaw) get second-place because I love Jigsaw.

Best Moment Of The Year…
Hey, Chikara’s not dead! (You Only Live Twice)

Yeah, it’s back! And not dead! And all those message board jokes that were never intended to be seen by members of the Chikara staff never happened, honest!

The deaths of various wrestlers at the hand of The Flood’s Choke-slam was well done too.

Worst Moment Of The Year…
Drawing IWA-MS numbers in Canada.

Bugger. Oh and putting the fun-fan stuff on the DVDs/MP4s like the thumb-wrestling contests is great for the fans at the show but fast-forward material for home viewers.

OH NO SCREW THAT, missing the pre-show match at Tomorrow Never Dies because SmartMarkVideo posted the wrong time. And the Philadelphia Turnpike for making me miss Team UK’s match at King Of Trios. I could blame my friend’s sat-nav but I’m going to blame a slab of land instead.

Most Improved…
The Devastation Corporation.

They’ve always been good, but in 2014 they went from good to main event good. From their in-ring improvement, their new work-out regimes, newcomer Flex Smashmaster and lovable shit-head manager Sidney Bakabella they’ve become a reason to watch a Chikara show. Arctic Rescue Ant gets the shout-out for the silver medal.

Match of The Year…
The Gentleman’s Club vs. The Submission Squad (King Of Trios Night 3)

The rematch to 2013’s MOTY delivered some of the best comedy wrestling you’ll ever see. You’d think the hype would be too high for the sequel but OH MAFFEW, YE OF LITTLE FAITH you don’t know anything. The absolutely insane Atomicos Ridiculos from Moonraker is a very close second. I’m not going to even bother trying to sum it up.

List of Also-Great Matches….
The Flood & Bruderschaft des Kreuzes vs. The Batiri, 3.0, & Archibald Peck (Diamonds Are Forever)

The Submission Squad vs. The Throwbacks (Quantum of Solace)

Chuck Taylor vs. Jervis Cottonbelly (Goldfinger)

The Pieces of Hate vs. The Osirian Portal (The Living Daylights)

Archibald Peck vs. Ashley Remington (The World Is Not Enough)

The Throwbacks vs. The Pieces of Hate (The World Is Not Enough)

Icarus vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado (Vivre Et Laisser Mourir)

Icarus vs. Jimmy Jacobs (Moonraker)

Worst Match Of The Year…
Worker Ant vs. Arctic Rescue Ant (The World Is Not Enough)

Worker Ant’s clearly learning as he’s going (as do all Chikara guys do on their way to getting great) but he looked like Rick Steiner in 1999 in singles matches this year. Which would be fine, but like Rick he’d win the matches over guys twice as good as him. And there weren’t even any botches! C’mon, step it up.

Show Of The Year…
You Only Live Twice.

King Of Trios was typically awesome but You Only Live Twice was a three-hour feel-good moment after a very uncertain few months. And the crowd never let up the entire time. Moonraker and Tomorrow Never Dies are tied for second because they were both tremendous.

Worst Show Of The Year…
Diamonds Are Forever

The Sunday Night Heat to Quantum of Solace’s PPV (the evening show that followed this afternoon one) featuring some squashes, DQ finishes and a small child on commentary. Some good matches too, but some show has to win Worst Show or I look like a kiss-arse. And I hate kids.

Feud Of The Year…
Ashley Remington vs. Chuck Taylor (You Only Live Twice, The Living Daylights, Vivre Et Laisser Mourir)

They had three matches and they were all the highlight of the night. Taylor’s like the God of Comedy Matches With Some Actual Wrestling and Ashley’s vying for that title alright despite being new so these two were made for each other. Ashley’s feud with Juan Francisco de Coronado was the runner-up.

Yeah, I enjoyed these feuds more than the main Flood vs. Chikara feud that was on every single show. I enjoy Chikara’s long storylines but I enjoyed these mini-ones even better.

Newcomer Of The Year…
Ashley Remington.

More Smooth Sailing love. Great gimmick, great matches and he’s had the best feuds. In his first year.
Jervis deserves a mention too but he’s technically a veteran of Chikara so bah.

Other Things Of Mention…
Mr. Azerbaijin’s intro. I know it off by heart but I still watch it every time.

Missile Assault Ant’s Twitter which is just ”Missile Assault Ant” every day.

Chikara for returning and being GOOD again. There’s only been a few times I’ve typed that’s upset people and sadly my negative views of Chikara 2012-2013. I stand by those statements (ha, you thought I was going to retract? Lord no, they thought Young Bucks vs. 1-2-3 Kid & Marty Jannetty was a good idea) but I’m very happy to type that Chikara is not only back but it’s back to being good again. So many characters, matches and things (I barely mentioned Pinkie Sanchez’s return, Shynron, Rey de Voladores etc.) that I can’t type them all on here as people aren’t here for optimism.