Friday Freak Out: WWE Elimination Chamber, A Horrible Botch, Rosemary Creeps Out Brandi Rhodes

Back in September of 2012 at a Beyond Wrestling event, indie wrestler, Charade, took on Black Baron in a match that would change Charade's life. Finding himself sitting on the top rope, he turned towards the crowd, climbed to the top rope, said a quick prayer and went for a double rotation moonsault that went horribly wrong. The commentator hyped his climb, "What is this? Charade getting on the top floor in the high rent district! Here he goes, "crossing" himself! Oh!..." After the crowd exclaimed it was dead silence from the announce table as Charade landed on the top of his head, very similar to the way Hayabusa did, which put him out of wrestling forever.

Someone in the crowd shouted "Oh my God..." and silence fell over the armory as nobody was quite sure what to do. Black Baron decided to go for the pin, which Charade actually tried to kick out of, for whatever reason the ref called it "2" so Baron went for a second pin, this time getting the three-count. Considering the landing, Charade got away "lucky" with a fracture at the base of his skull which was going to keep him out of action for 3-4 months. The video of the botch is below, if you're squeamish, or just prefer not to watch those types of things, you're welcome to skip ahead.

Charade later spoke on the injury and the move saying:

"Our number 1 goal was to steal the show. On the outside, this double rotation moonsault is one of the craziest death defying moves in wrestling. To me, it was a big move, but I have no doubt in my mind that I could, and can, do it. But I am a human. And sometimes humans make mistakes. This time it almost happened to be fatal. In the end, just because I could have done it, doesn't mean it was necessary. It just didn't need to be done."

Due to his high medical costs, a fund raiser was started up for Charade bringing in close to $1,200 to help differ the costs, on Twitter Charade said that covered about one-quarter of his bills. The video went viral and TV shows – including TruTV's World's Dumbest and Tosh.O used the clip of Charade, which he later blogged about.

"So apparently TruTV has picked up the story of Charade VS Black Baron at Beyond Wrestling, and they couldn't wait to poke fun at my neck/skull injury. Hardy Har Har whatever, at the end of the day I'm recovered, returned, and doing fine. No I'm not embarrassed or offended, People are going to be people, especially in the wake of such an astonishing video surfacing in the first place. My primary hope is that as many people that watched just the clip of the injury also watch the entire match we had. I'm proud of what myself and Baron accomplished. We tore it up, before I tore my neck up."

He was able to heal up and get back to wrestling, where he ended up doing a 630 splash from the second rope as a form of redemption from his previous move gone wrong. He received some training in the Chikara Wrestle Factory and eventually switched his gimmick to the masked wrestler known as Shynron, finding steady work with Chikara and even wrestling in TNA a few times. Six months after his injury, Charade finished up his first blog entry with an uplifting message:

"As I sit here stretching, going over my game plan going into my contest with Pierre, I can't help but look around. I notice the bright blue ropes and the large Chikara Pro graphic on the wall. I look around and see great, established wrestlers like "The Juice" JT Dunn, Chris Dickinson, Anthony Stone, and many, many, MANY others at ringside. I look at a nervous but ready Pierre across the room, I glance over to the man Drew Corderio, Beyond Wrestling's founder/promoter walking around swiftly, handling business And then I look down at the worn, beaten neck brace that once was my neck's home and I realize that the only way to achieve the dream, is to work the dream. and I'm well on my way to my wish."

Elimination Chamber Madness

With the Elimination Chamber coming up this Sunday, I'd be remiss if we didn't at least get in a video of some of the craziest moments from the match's past. If you want to see this year's card, you can check it out here.

WWE posted up this video from three years ago, showing off the chaos that can occur in the unique chamber, with Morrison falling from the skies and the numerous people who have gone through the chambers glass/hard plastic walls. At this point in time, is this the most dangerous match in WWE? It could be at least perceived that way since we only usually see it once a year, I mean the Hell in a Cell match happened three times in one show, and usually appears one other random time during the year. The allure of someone jumping off the cell might say otherwise, but the chamber has a uniqueness and rarity that keeps the race close.

Freak Out of the Week

I'll admit, I'm not an avid watcher of TNA- sorry, Impact Wrestling, these days, but I couldn't help but notice one story they have been running for the past couple weeks. The popular group, Decay (Abyss, Crazzy Steve, and current Knockouts Champion, Rosemary) has been dealing with The Broken Hardys and DCC, but it looks like Rosemary has set her sights on Brandi Rhodes. This week, Brandi let Rosemary they "can never be friends" and doesn't know why she's "creeping" around her, in response Rosemary put her hands on Brandi's face, which was only slightly less weird than two weeks ago when she licked Brandi.

Rosemary apparently thinks Brandi has "potential" and wants her to follow the group "into the darkness, where we can all, decay, together." Brandi gave a great line back saying "I'm not interested in...decaying. I'm not interested in you. I'm not interested in your friends." On the next Impact Wrestling, Decay cornered Brandi in the ring and since she rejected them, Decay would come despite her actions. While the ugliness of Decay is in great contrast of Brandi's classy look and super babyface persona, the action in the ring lacked much substance as Rosemary kicked her in the stomach and simply put her in a guillotine choke until Moose showed up. Only slightly hustling to the ring, Moose did his thing to clear out Steve and Abyss by throwing a punch and doing his "Moose" taunt over and over (not exactly a "frenzied" save to fight off the evil monsters), while Rosemary stopped attacking Brandi and simply watched. While I appreciate the weirdness of the promos, the action that followed lacked urgency, especially when darkness and decay is looming, I mean, who wants to deal with that?