At tonight’s CHIKARA Aniversario 2018 event, CHIKARA Grand Champion Juan Francisco de Coronado defended his championship against CHIKARA founder and indie pioneer Mike Quackenbush, continuing his reign at 421 days and counting.
The #Aniversario2018 MAIN EVENT! IT'S TIME! @MikeQuackenbush Vs the grand champion of Chikara @JuanFDCoronado pic.twitter.com/Gk4bHHi6dy
— CHIKARA (@CHIKARApro) May 26, 2018
I didn’t get the thing I was after. But I did wrestle my heart out today. #Aniversario2018 pic.twitter.com/51HVIz2PUg
— Mike Quackenbush (@MikeQuackenbush) May 26, 2018
Something that slipped by a lot of people was a promo that the Grand Champion tweeted to Quackenbush this past Wednesday. It was filmed in a parking garage and at the end of the promo, he gets a rather interesting cameo appearance from a current WWE Superstar.
https://twitter.com/JuanFDCoronado/status/999354372013338629
The parking garage and appearance of WWE Superstar Cesaro of the Smackdown Live roster would seem to indicate that the promo was actually recorded the prior night on Tuesday. But what was CHIKARA’s second longest reigning Grand Champion doing at a WWE event?
Why, wrestling on 205 Live of course! On Tuesday’s edition of the WWE Network show, Juan Francisco de Coronado appeared on 205 Live as the opponent for WWE Superstar TJ Perkins, under the moniker “Christopher Guy“.
Juan Francisco de Coronado chilling out on 205 Live pic.twitter.com/Le0PHRLdsJ
— forever botchamania (@Maffewgregg) May 23, 2018
It wasn’t the first appearance for WWE for the New York City wrestler and CHIKARA regular since 2013. Last December, he teamed with former WWE Superstar Colin Delaney in a squash match to current Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper & Rowan), with Coronado (this time billed as Joe Malone). Coronado went viral for a bit that night as “the scream guy” after his squeal upon taking the Bludgeon Brothers finisher.
Cesaro’s appearance also wasn’t as random as it would appear. Cesaro, back when he wrestled on the indie circuit as Claudio Castagnoli, was a CHIKARA regular from 2003 until his WWE signing in 2011, and is a former 2x CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas Champion, once with Kings of Wrestling (alongside Chris Hero/Kassius Ohno) and once with his longtime ally Ares in Die Bruderschaft des Kreuzes. He was also briefly a member of Los Ice Creams faction (as The Very Mysterious Ice Cream).
