Discuss Here.

I nominated him at the last second so I feel obligated to at least put some sort of argument for him in front of the esteemed (heh) panel of voters.

 

Quackenbush probably thought he was a better wrestler than he ever really was. Similar to Chris Hero in the sense that they both seem to strive to pull from these great wrestlers from various backgrounds with aspirations to at least create a somewhat similar reaction with the way they put it out in front of their audiences. Chris Hero has done that to great effect while Quack had/has a promotion that allowed him to continually put himself out there in that manner for years. To say that he may have had the greatest match in Chikara history doesn't feel like something with any cache since I'm not sure how many wrestlers had as many opportunities to have great matches in the promotion as he did. I can't blame him to an extent as Quack seems like one of the more creative money marks I could imagine as he books these super elaborate comic book type stories while he put himself in situations to wrestle with his favorite wrestlers as well.

 

I tend to like Quack more often than not even if his WOS/lucha hybrid style seems to lean into the cutest aspects of both. One of the reasons I nominated also was that Chikara for a stretch was the promotion I felt I could most sink my teeth into from about 2011 until the "closing". Delivered wrestling I enjoyed with stories I could see unfold. Quack was one of those wrestlers, with Kingston and possibly Jigsaw, who made me consistently not regret purchasing a show. That can't be said about a lot of indie shows then or now.

 

MATCH RECOMMENDATIONS There's a heckuva lot more on YouTube):

v. Eddie Kingston:

-Still view this as the quintessential indie championship match for this period.

 

v. Green Ant:

-A grapply sprint against a wrestler who was still trying to put it all together, and still is tbh.

 

v. Claudio Castognoli:

-TPI 2006 match. Seems like the best match of theirs if I can recall.

 

w/Jigsaw vs. Claudio & Bryan Danielson:

-It is either this or the 12 Large final for greatest Chikara match ever in my book. Though, Quack might be the fourth most important guy in the match.

Major bonus points for pulling something quality out of Eddie Kingston because only a handful of people have been able to do such a thing. That being said, his general style annoys me and he's always felt a little like a fraud.

I'm luke warm on Quackenbush in general, both in and out of the ring, though I do admire his dedication to trying different things in pro wrestling. Not sure I would agree with the fraud criticism.

I think his overactive mind for wrestling is a plus in many ways, but it made things tedious watching him in the ring. Won't make my list.

I considered him for a spot but after watching a bunch and wrapping up my prelim list to cut from, he didn't make it.

 

Thanks for the match recommendations and nice write-up Sammy. I've seen a couple of those. It's good to note how green (pun somewhat intended?) green ant is there as the beginning of that match (which, I'll disagree - wasn't much sprinty about it for me) is some of the worst wrestling I've watched in a while. Slow motion mat wrestling like that, man, I hate to use the word fake but it's bad.

Does very little for me. Presents himself as a mat technician but he never actually impresses me with any of his matwork. There’s gotta be around a dozen or even twenty better US indie wrestlers from the 00s when it comes to their actual performances and I’m not considering his influence or training or booking when I’m making my list.

What I watched so far for this and my match ratings
Mike Quackenbush vs Chris Hero (17/12/07) **¾
Mike Quackenbush vs Johnny Saint (08/03/08) ***½
Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw vs Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli (13/09/09) ***¾
Mike Quackenbush vs Eddie Kingston (13/11/11) ***½
Mike Quackenbush vs Drew Gulak (03/12/16) ***