Wrestling Without Wrestling (or, What the Heck is Chikara Playing At?)
Paul: We don’t normally look at indie wrestling here, but the current goings on in Chikara are worth a look – both because Chikara has always been the point where comics and wrestling meet, and because the company appears to be currently engaged in one of the strangest storylines ever attempted in wrestling. Genius? Insanity? Commercial folly? Implosion? ARG? Workaround? Nobody seems entirely sure what they’re up to, or how anyone’s going to make money from it at the end of the day.
Naturally, this makes it fascinating.
Al: Paul’s right that Chikara’s current turn of events is fascinating, but we should note that it’s actually interesting enough that someone who’s a complete outsider to wrestling (i.e. me) is utterly gripped (or possibly armbarred) by what’s currently going on in the promotion. We’re going to have a look at the basics of Chikara here, and go into a bit of detail about not only what’s happening at the moment, but also what makes it sufficiently fun in general that even I’m hooked.
Paul: Since this is not primarily a wrestling blog, let’s set the scene and explain what Chikara actually is (or was). Chikara storylines are, shall we say, a bit complicated, so let’s boil this down to the essentials.
Charts – 29 September 2013
A quiet week for new releases, and it’s X Factor audition season – it must be re-entry time…
37. The Kings of Leon – “Supersoaker”
Originally got to number 32 in July when it was released as the lead single from “Mechanical Bull”. The album enters at number 1 this week, and this is the track being played in the TV adverts, so it’s the one being cherrypicked. It’s got a video now, too!
A+X #12
Shall we cover this one quickly? Why not?
A+X‘s format is being tinkered with in the not too distant future, with an actual serial set to run in the lead slot – presumably on the logic that this will seem like a bigger deal. There’s actually something perversely admirable about the book’s ostentatious dismissal of continuity, and its open willingness to sell its stories purely on their intrinsic entertainment value rather than their big-picture importance. For me, the bigger problem with this book is that its content tends to be throwaway in more senses than one; a parade of generic team-up stories many of which barely gesture at being anything more than a fight scene with some squabbling between two characters whose names were drawn out of a hat.
But this is one of the better issues. Which is ironic, as Christos Gage and David Williams’ lead story reunites Wonder Man and the Beast for a night out catching up with one another. That’s basically the entire story.
Gambit #15-17 – “No Opportunity Wasted”
That’s the title for the final trade paperback, if you’re wondering. Because, yes, it is time once again for the X-books to indulge in the Cancellation of Gambit. We had it in 2001, we had it again in 2005, and now here it is again.
In some ways it’s surprising that Gambit hasn’t been able to support a title better than this. On paper, he ought to be one of the most suitable X-Men to sustain a spin-off book. He’s a loveable rogue adventurer who has ample excuse to go off and have his own stories. He wasn’t specifically conceived as a team player; if I remember rightly, his creator Chris Claremont originally planned for him to be a recurring guest rather than joining the team. He’s got a back story and mythology of his own, which has nothing much to do with the themes of the X-Men and might even be better off explored in its own book.
Cable & X-Force #10-14 – “This Won’t End Well”
Cable & X-Force seems to be a book paced more for the ongoing series than the trade. These five issues are going to form the third trade paperback of the current run, which makes this as good a point as any to check in on the series, and they do indeed have an overall linking arc. But at the same time there are single issue stories as the team split up to fight some villains of the week.
There are two main strands here, though. The main one doesn’t technically feature the title characters at all. Hope goes looking for Blaquesmith in order to find out what’s up with Cable and his spate of visions. She ends up being taken to an apocalyptic near future, where it turns out that Cable’s visions are the result of Blaquesmith and an older Hope trying to kickstart his precognitive powers so that he can change history and avert the apocalypse. Then, of course, she has to go back and try to sort out some of the damage they’ve done to him as a result of their botch job.
Charts – 22 September 2013
We have a new number one – and it’s not very good!
39. Jason Derulo – “The Other Side”
Re-entry, as a spillover effect from the promotion of the new single, which we’ll be coming to. Originally a number 2 hit in June.
38. Chvrches – “The Mother We Share”
Savage Wolverine #6-8
It’s been a while since Marvel last put out a story that so obviously looked as though it had received a visit from the rewrite fairy. Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira were the creative team on the first three issues of the team-up book Avenging Spider-Man, and this story was originally slated to appear in that book. And Spider-Man dutifully appears in the first issue… only to disappear entirely and resurface for a cameo in the coda.
It seems reasonable to infer that he was originally planned to have a larger role, and it’s far from obvious why he’s been removed, given that the story could certainly have used somebody in the outsider/comic relief. And given that a decision has been taken to downplay him, it’s no less clear why he’s still in the story at all, particularly considering that he’s the Peter Parker version of the character, thus placing the story massively out of sequence for no clear reason.
Charts – 15 September 2013
Not much going on in terms of new releases, which means lots of stuff is climbing instead…
40. Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin – “Don’t You Worry Child”
A number 1 at the tail end of last year. I’m guessing that it’s back because somebody covered it in an X Factor audition.
34. Chris Brown featuring Nicki Minaj – “Love More”
Astonishing X-Men #66-67
There’s a big crossover going on in the X-Men books right now, and Astonishing X-Men is not invited to the party. The book is scheduled to end with issue #68 (albeit that it’s being instantly replaced on the schedules by Amazing), so you might have thought that outgoing writer Marjorie Liu would be using these remaining issues to wrap up some outstanding storylines, such as the subplot about Northstar’s immigration status. Instead, these two issues contain a story that doesn’t seem to have much to do with anything else from her run.
Issue #66 picks up in the aftermath of the Iceman storyline. The melting ice floods the New York subway and wakes a green tentacled baby alien that can possess people by touching them. Mostly the alien just wants a hug, so the result is shambling groups of people asking for a cuddle. The X-Men break its hold on some New Yorkers (using a good old fashioned electric shock) and then try to hunt the alien down, while it apparently manages to hitch a lift on a series of vehicles out of town.
Night of Champions 2013
Ah, Night of Champions. The annual show where the entire gimmick is meant to be that every title is defended – and so, of course, one of them won’t be. Admittedly, that’s because the storyline in question pretty much requires a non-title match, but it shows the limitations of the company committing itself in advance to themed shows. (I use the word “committing” loosely, obviously. This is the WWE we’re talking about.)
1. WWE Title: Randy Orton (c) v. Daniel Bryan. Last month, you’ll recall, dimwitted Raw GM Brad Maddox allowed John Cena to pick the challenger for his WWE Title. Being a solid heroic type, Cena played fair and chose Daniel Bryan, setting up the storyline that the McMahon family, who own the company, were divided about whether the misfit underdog Bryan was a remotely acceptable world champion . As widely expected, Bryan did indeed beat Cena to win the title clean, with Triple H refereeing the match fairly – only for Triple H to attack him immediately after the match and basically hand the title to Randy Orton, who cheerfully cashed in the Money in the Bank title shot he won earlier in the year.
