{"id":3087,"date":"2015-07-31T23:24:15","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T22:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3087"},"modified":"2015-07-31T23:24:15","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T22:24:15","slug":"chikara-15-4-altar-egos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3087","title":{"rendered":"Chikara 15.4 – “Altar Egos”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preamble:<\/em>\u00a0Hey, there’s a pre-credits skit on this one. \u00a0The Bloc Party<\/strong> attempt to re-enact\u00a0DX’s invasion of WCW, but they can’t get into the arena, so they give up. \u00a0Okay then.<\/p>\n

Where and when?<\/em> \u00a0It’s Sunday 8 March 2015, the day\u00a0after the previous show. \u00a0We’re in the Norfolk Masonic Temple in Norfolk, Virginia. \u00a0It’s an actual theatre\u00a0with proper lighting and sound, though\u00a0it’s not ideally laid out for wrestling, since most of the audience is on one side of the ring, and so is the camera. \u00a0It’s some way from being full. \u00a0It may have been an overambitious choice of venue. \u00a0This happens sometimes when they go to new towns and take a guess.<\/p>\n

For\u00a0the first time this year, we\u00a0have\u00a0perfect sound quality.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Arcane Horde v Bruderschaft Des Kreuzes, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/i> For the rules of the\u00a0year-long COTI tournament, see the previous post<\/a>. \u00a0The Arcane Horde lost their first match last night because\u00a0their unwanted member Oleg the Usurper screwed it up for them. \u00a0But tonight\u00a0it’s\u00a0a tag match, and the Horde is\u00a0fielding Obariyon<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Kodama<\/b>, who are\u00a0a regular team and should have no such problems.<\/p>\n

Making\u00a0their first tournament appearance, the BDK are\u00a0the battered remnants of a once-dominant heel faction. \u00a0The group currently comprises leader\u00a0Jakob Hammermeier <\/strong>(an ascended flunky desperate to assert his alpha male status and success as a leader),\u00a0the erratic\u00a0Pinkie Sanchez<\/strong>,\u00a0and the powerhouse\u00a0Nokken<\/strong>. \u00a0The COTI team is rounded out\u00a0by the brainwashed\u00a0Soldier Ant<\/strong>, over whom Jakob has some – emphasis on “some” – control. \u00a0Jakob and Pinkie are the team tonight. \u00a0(Quite why you wouldn’t use the super powered Soldier Ant is unclear, but\u00a0bluntly,\u00a0COTI tends to pay lip service to the idea that the team captains are actually\u00a0agreeing on the match formats;\u00a0wrestler availability is doubtless a bigger\u00a0factor.)<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0It’s a\u00a0good\u00a0competitive\u00a0opening tag match. \u00a0The Batiri are a lot more effective when they’re left to their own devices, but Jakob and Pinkie are fairly\u00a0cohesive too. \u00a0The finish leads to the Batiri hitting double teams on both BDK members in quick succession, and Obariyon pins Pinkie clean to get his team off the starting\u00a0blocks in 9:38.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout & United Nations 1, everyone else 0. \u00a0The BDK gets another outing which, while by no means\u00a0embarrassing, falls\u00a0some way short of\u00a0Jakob’s billing. \u00a0And the Arcane Horde can be pretty effective – as long as\u00a0they don’t try to work\u00a0together<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Volgar v. UltraMantis Black.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0UltraMantis Black\u00a0won his last two matches, so if he wins here, he gets a Grand Championship shot! \u00a0Okay, so his Spectral Envoy stable collapsed when Hallowicked and Frightmare got mind-zapped by the Eye of Tyr and turned on him. \u00a0And his Arcane Horde team is saddled with Oleg. \u00a0But 2015 is still off to a decent start. \u00a0All he’s got to do is beat Volgar, a stray henchman left behind when the Flood\u00a0broke up!<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0Mantis beats the hell out of Volgar for a couple of minutes. \u00a0Volgar mounts a brief comeback but gets\u00a0cuts off. \u00a0Mantis hits a couple of big moves,\u00a0but\u00a0Hallowicked<\/strong> comes out and hits a Yakuza Kick while the ref is checking on Volgar. \u00a0Volgar\u00a0doesn’t see that, but\u00a0crawls over\u00a0to\u00a0pins Mantis (holding the tights) in 2:54. \u00a0Pure angle, of course. \u00a0Mantis\u00a0chases Hallowicked backstage, leaving Volgar to celebrate a win that plainly surprises him as much as anyone else. \u00a0Kevin Condron\u00a0<\/strong>comes out and\u00a0encourages Volgar to drop his Flood identity and be his own man. \u00a0He blames the crowd for not supporting Volgar and making him a baddie. \u00a0(“And you know what? \u00a0Villains were babies too!”) \u00a0Condron\u00a0asks Volgar to follow him. \u00a0Volgar hesitates, but decides to leave. \u00a0Condron changes tack and threatens to reveal Volgar’s “secret”. \u00a0Volgar hesitates again,\u00a0but sticks to his guns and leaves.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0UltraMantis\u00a0goes back to square one in chasing a title shot, and his feud with Hallowicked continues its slow burn. \u00a0(Unfortunately, Mantis suffered a leg injury in July, so the pay-off may be indefinitely delayed.) \u00a0Repackaging\u00a0Volgar and aligning\u00a0him with Condron is under way, and Volgar is also made\u00a0more sympathetic. \u00a0Neither Condron nor Volgar was on the UK tour, but we’ll get back to this story in May.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Four Corner Elimination Match: The Nightmare Warriors (Frightmare & Silver Ant) v. The Bloc Party (The Proletariat Boar of Moldova & Prakash Sabar) v. N_R_G (Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell) v. The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Mark Angelosetti).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0A win here will give N_R_G a third point and a shot at the tag titles; anything else, and they’re back to zero. \u00a0As ever,\u00a0Rockwell is exhausted\u00a0from the\u00a0overnight drive, but\u00a0the excitable Jaxon seems oblivious. \u00a0Silver Ant\u00a0and Frightmare teamed for the first time last night after Silver was drafted onto the Nightmare Warriors COTI team, and\u00a0lost. \u00a0The fact that they’re teaming outside the tournament is a story point in itself. \u00a0The Bloc Party have just been drafted to Juan Francisco de Coronado’s COTI team, United Nations. \u00a0The Throwbacks\u00a0are still\u00a0to earn\u00a0a rematch after losing the tag titles back in December. \u00a0Oh, and this is a Magic Move match – if anyone hits the Magic Move, everyone in the crowd gets a (token) prize. \u00a0It’s a superkick, which bodes well for N_R_G, since that’s Race’s finisher.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0The first fall is largely the Nightmare Warriors and the Throwbacks, with the Bloc Party\u00a0briefly pitching in when they spot an opening. \u00a0As with last night, the Warriors are trying to work together, but they still get eliminated first, when\u00a0Dasher pins Silver Ant clean with the\u00a0Suicide Squeeze. \u00a0N_R_G\u00a0inadvisedly enter the match in the second fall (it’d make more sense to wait for the final fall, given that they only need one point, and if I’m nitpicking, it really should have been the overenthusiastic Jaxon who entered here, not Hype). \u00a0Jaxon gets the hot tag and runs wild on the Bloc Party. \u00a0After he dives to the outside, the Throwbacks take that as a tag under lucha rules, and pin\u00a0Sabar with a 3D to eliminate the Bloc Party. \u00a0That leaves N_R_G and the Throwbacks,\u00a0and since the Throwback won the first two falls, whoever wins the final fall\u00a0gets a title shot (the Throwbacks would get\u00a0their three points for winning all three falls). \u00a0 N_R_G win clean with their superkick\/Hyperwheel combo on Angelosetti in 17:17. \u00a0Good wrestling, and a success all round.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em> N_R_G win their title shot, and play down their gimmick in order to look like credible contenders. \u00a0The Throwbacks nearly get their title rematch, but their chase continues. \u00a0The Nightmare Warriors are still working together and still not winning. \u00a0And Juan Francisco was on commentary to put over the angle of him training the\u00a0Bloc Party – who put in a better showing than usual.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0CHIKARA Grand Championship: Icarus\u00a0\u00a9 v Nokken.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0BDK member Nokken earned his title shot in January and has been pushed as a monster heel. \u00a0There’s no particular issue with Icarus beyond that, and nobody is expecting a BDK henchman to actually win the title. \u00a0Common sense says he’s here\u00a0to give Icarus\u00a0a\u00a0successful defence.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em> Nokken dominates for the first few minutes. \u00a0The turning point is\u00a0meant\u00a0<\/em>to be Nokken going for a top rope splash and Icarus rolling out of the way, but he doesn’t make it in time. \u00a0Icarus mounts a fiery comeback anyway, escapes a chokeslam, and pins Nokken clean with the\u00a0Blu-Ray in 4:38. \u00a0Yikes. \u00a0That was a bit of a mess. \u00a0My\u00a0best guess is that this was an\u00a0abbreviated version of the planned match due to injury or something, since it’s not like Chikara to book their singles title in a five minute undercard match.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em> Well, Icarus gets his third defence, and Nokken’s credibility as a monster heel takes a massive knock. \u00a0Beyond that, erm\u2026 yeah, let’s pretend this didn’t happen.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Wrecking Crew v Crown & Court, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0The first tournament outing for both squads is\u00a0an 8-man tag. \u00a0The Wrecking Crew (Max Smashmaster, Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch<\/strong> and Jaka<\/strong>)\u00a0are four-fifths of\u00a0Sydney Bakabella’s squad of eighties throwback rudos. \u00a0The group includes the reigning Kings of Trios and the tag champions, so they’re obvious tournament favourites. \u00a0Crown and Court (Princess Kimberlee, Jervis Cottonbelly, Ice Cream Jr<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0El Hijo Del Ice Cream<\/strong>)\u00a0are a crazy princess, the world’s sweetest man, and two\u00a0insane jobbers. \u00a0 Kimber and Jervis had a decent outing in a tag match last night,\u00a0and are one point away from a\u00a0tag title shot. \u00a0But now they’re teaming with Los Ice Creams, who haven’t won a match in years, against four massive bastards. \u00a0Kimber seems\u00a0oblivious to the win\/loss record of her shiny new team, and\u00a0while Jervis\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0sensible\u00a0enough for\u00a0realise how screwed they are, he’s too polite to tell her.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0Los Ice Creams start off with their usual nonsense, which the Wrecking Crew seem willing to indulge for a bit before\u00a0starting\u00a0the match proper. \u00a0It’s a more even bout than you’d expect, which is to say that it’s not a complete squash. \u00a0Kimber puts up a solid fight against Jaka, and the smitten Jervis is fired up to help her. \u00a0The Ice Creams are trying. \u00a0Kimber briefly takes on the whole Crew on her own and manages near falls on both Flex and Jaka. \u00a0But it’s still the Wrecking Crew versus Crown & Court, and Max pins El Hijo with a Tombstone Piledriver in\u00a013:16.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout,\u00a0United Nations & Wrecking Crew 1, everyone else 0. \u00a0Los Ice Creams’\u00a0unparalleled win-loss record continues, but\u00a0frankly, they surpassed expectations by making it past the two minute mark. \u00a0Kimber continues the tightrope of being booked strong in a\u00a0losing team.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Hallowicked v Oleg the Usurper.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0A win here will give Hallowicked three points and a shot at the Grand Championship. \u00a0Oleg is\u00a0the fifth member of the Wrecking Crew, who was surplus to COTI requirements, and was palmed off on UltraMantis’\u00a0team. \u00a0He’s on a slow-burn tecnico\u00a0turn, making\u00a0him tecnico by default\u00a0against Hallowicked.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0Heartless technician versus loveable brawler, as\u00a0you’d expect from these two. \u00a0Mantis is on commentary, but doesn’t interfere. \u00a0He’s seething\u00a0over Hallowicked having cost him a title shot, and he’s dropped all pretence of caring about curing him. \u00a0Hallowicked works on the arm, to take out Oleg’s finisher. \u00a0Oleg mounts a\u00a0comeback and gets to kick out of Hallowicked’s Rydeen Bomb. \u00a0Oleg hits the Off With His Head with the injured arm, but Hallowicked manages to roll out of the ring. \u00a0Outside, Oleg accidentally chops the ring post, and that’ll be about that for the injured arm. \u00a0Hallowicked finally puts Oleg down with two Yakuza Kicks and pins him\u00a0in\u00a09:47. \u00a0Good match – basic story, but playing to both guys’ strengths. \u00a0Oleg isn’t the best\u00a0pure\u00a0wrestler on the roster but he knows his character.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em> Hallowicked has now beaten all of Mantis’ remaining allies, and earns a title shot which he’ll be claiming on\u00a0next month’s UK tour. \u00a0Oleg looks\u00a0respectably strong in defeat against a main eventer.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Battle Hive v Snake Pit, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0Last night, the Osirian Portal challenged for the tag titles and lost. \u00a0Tonight, their separate COTI teams\u00a0have their first match against each other. \u00a0Ophidian’s Snake Pit\u00a0has the high-flyer Shynron, the rookie Argus, and\u00a0the\u00a0loose cannon brawler Eddie Kingston – all unaffiliated, and Kingston in particular is nobody’s idea of a team player.\u00a0 Amasis, in contrast, has drafted Fire Ant and Worker Ant from the Colony, plus Ashley Remington, which seems like a sensible grouping of nice guys who ought to gel. \u00a0This is\u00a0a 6-man tag, with Ophidian, Shynron and Argus facing Amasis and the Ants. \u00a0In a pre-match promo, Ophidian grumbles about Kingston’s lack of\u00a0commitment, a\u00a0plot thread which seems to have been dropped. \u00a0(Kingston pulled out of the April shows at the last minute, where he would have been the sole representative of the Snake Pit, so I suspect it’s a plot that would have\u00a0played out there.)<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0It’s a face\/face\u00a0match, with both teams working well together. \u00a0They hold off Amasis v Ophidian for a good long while. \u00a0When they get into the ring, at first\u00a0they’re willing to fight but still friendly; later they get more heated. \u00a0Some very good wrestling, and Argus gets to look strong, but it feels like\u00a0the\u00a0crowd aren’t sure who to root for\u00a0and don’t really want either team to win or lose. \u00a0It’s a bit quiet between the big moves. \u00a0Given the\u00a0Grand Championship match earlier, I can’t help suspecting that\u00a0it’s an action match from further down the card that’s been pressed into service as a main event. \u00a0Ophidian pins Amasis with a Super Egyptian\u00a0Destroyer in 20:18, which is several minutes\u00a0longer than the match really needed. \u00a0The Portal reconcile afterwards.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde,\u00a0Dasher’s Dugout,\u00a0Snake Pit, United Nations & Wrecking Crew 1, everyone else nil. \u00a0I guess the idea was to get over the tournament by showing that the Portal were willing to fight for it. \u00a0Note\u00a0that the Arcane Horde wrestled two matches this weekend, and the tenth team (the Gentlemen’s Club) hasn’t wrestled at all yet; we’ll see a lot of them next month. \u00a0This will become an increasing issue over the next couple of months as the teams get further and further out of synch with each other; it’s probably for the best that the tournament\u00a0seems to be planned more on a macro level than match by match.<\/p>\n

Post-credits:<\/strong> Jervis Cottonbelly visits a medium to ask for help in finding\u00a0the Estonian Thunderfrog<\/strong> (who was apparently killed by the Flood during last year’s invasion). \u00a0This picks\u00a0up on a Twitter angle where Jervis was asking for advice on ways of raising the Thunderfrog from the dead. \u00a0A post-show sketch on the 2014 season finale showed the Thunderfrog being reincarnated on a farm, but Jervis doesn’t know that. \u00a0The medium tells Jervis that the Thunderfrog is alive,\u00a0“somewhere to the west, beyond the great river”, but warns Jervis that he has disturbed dark forces who\u00a0seek his destruction.<\/p>\n

Obviously, this is building to the return of the Thunderfrog and hinting at Jervis being sacrificed to bring back all the other guys who were seemingly written out in the Flood’s cull last year. \u00a0So, y’know, keep an eye on that bozo squad he’s part of, because their plot role may be\u00a0bigger than it looks. \u00a0As for the\u00a0Thunderfrog, he’s\u00a0yet to return to Chikara,\u00a0but\u00a0there really is an “Estonian FarmerFrog”\u00a0working on indie shows in Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Bottom line:<\/strong> There are some good matches here and some story advancement – there always are – but the Grand Championship match is obviously disappointing. \u00a0The Saturday show is better, so unless you’re getting the whole season, that’s probably the one to go for.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preamble:\u00a0Hey, there’s a pre-credits skit on this one. \u00a0The Bloc Party attempt to re-enact\u00a0DX’s invasion of WCW, but they can’t get into the arena, so they give up. \u00a0Okay then. Where and when? \u00a0It’s Sunday 8 March 2015, the day\u00a0after the previous show. \u00a0We’re in the Norfolk Masonic Temple in Norfolk, Virginia. \u00a0It’s an actual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3121,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3087\/revisions\/3121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}