I've spent the past month reminiscing about CHIKARA and the arc of my life these last 11 years. There is one memory that stands out more than any other: the year CHIKARA ended.
The bureaucrats got the better of us. After a hard fought battle with the Allentown Zoning Board, we were denied our right to run events out of the Wrestle Factory because we lacked adequate parking for the venue. So that was it. The Wrestle Factory moved on and CHIKARA, barely even out of the gate, was put down.
In that down time, the family grew. We should have been scattered, broken apart. But the fight with the zoning board actually brought us together. We hit the road here and there but in the end, we focused on bringing CHIKARA back. We came to understand that when each of us is working tirelessly for the same end goal, together, we can change the world. Even in those dark days, we knew we were at the dawn of something special. So we regrouped. We fought to bring our vision for wrestling to life, we fought for our ideas, and eventually we won.
And now here we are 11 years later, shut down by a group of bureaucrats. And I look at this forum and where are my brothers in arms crying "fight!" like we did back in 2002? I see whimpering posts that seem to be saying "I accept this fate." It makes me sick, and heart-broken. It makes me angry. CHIKARA isn't some shadowy corporate suits pulling the strings behind the scenes. I am CHIKARA. You are CHIKARA. Are you forgetting that?
I was given a family that quite honestly, I can't stand. So I spent my adult life creating and molding a new one. A family that I respect and love. You can shut the doors, liquidate the assets, and slap a "for sale" sign on a company, but not a family. Not my family.
On my calendar July 20th is marked "Easton, PA." That's where my family was supposed to be that day. And I do not accept this fate. If Easton is where CHIKARA was supposed to be, then that's where I'll be. The Palmer Center. 7:00 pm.
I am CHIKARA. Are You?
