{"id":3141,"date":"2015-08-17T21:58:44","date_gmt":"2015-08-17T20:58:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2015-08-17T22:04:25","modified_gmt":"2015-08-17T21:04:25","slug":"chikara-15-6-let-em-eat-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3141","title":{"rendered":"Chikara 15.6: “Let ’em Eat Cake”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Preamble<\/em>:\u00a0This is the second show in the UK tour, and see the previous post in this series<\/a> for some comments on the practical issues of writing four shows\u00a0on consecutive days – principally, that nothing can happen on this show that would be essential knowledge for the next two shows of the tour, since those audiences won’t have seen this one. \u00a0This particular show is the high water mark of that issue; it consists almost entirely of Challenge of the Immortals tournament matches,\u00a0in the early stages of a round robin that\u00a0runs\u00a0through to the rest of the year. \u00a0So while it’s\u00a0certainly useful to burn through some of these early matches and get the scoreboard looking a bit more meaningful, very little of immediate\u00a0consequence\u00a0actually happens on this show.<\/p>\n

When and where:<\/em>\u00a0It’s\u00a0Saturday 4 April 2015, and we’re\u2026 still in Wolverhampton. \u00a0Yes, that’s right, they did a four-date UK tour and half of it was in Wolverhampton. \u00a0We’re moving on to Cardiff and London next. \u00a0The\u00a0show is sold out.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Crown & Court v\u00a0Dasher’s Dugout, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0It’s a tag match. \u00a0Crown & Court\u00a0lost their first match to the Wrecking Crew in March, though at least\u00a0they\u00a0hung in for longer than expected against the tournament favourites. \u00a0But only half the team are on\u00a0the UK tour, and it’s\u00a0Los Ice Creams (El Hijo del\u00a0Ice Cream & Ice Cream Jr)<\/strong>, who are massive jobbers. \u00a0The Dugout are 1 for 2, and are\u00a0fielding the former tag champs\u00a0the Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Mark Angelosetti)<\/strong>. \u00a0This ought to be an easy point for them.<\/p>\n

The match: <\/em>El Hijo immediately walks to the back and fetches a kendo stick, with which he whacks Mark, and which he then tries\u00a0to hide\u00a0behind his back. \u00a0The Ice Creams bring\u00a0a fan\u00a0into the ring and\u00a0use her\u00a0as a foreign object. \u00a0Finally the Throwbacks cut\u00a0this off and a wrestling match breaks out. \u00a0The Ice Creams put up a better fight than usual, and actually manage to control with proper offence for a bit. \u00a0But Rome wasn’t built in a day, so Mark makes the hot tag and the Throwbacks use a kid from the front row as a battering ram to take out the Ice Creams. \u00a0The small child pins El Hijo to win the match for the Throwbacks in 13:36, in what seems a generous refereeing decision. \u00a0The usual Los Ice Creams nonsense, but they were on form here.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout & Wrecking Crew 2,\u00a0Nightmare Warriors, Snake Pit & United Nations 1, everyone else 0. \u00a0So\u00a0the Dugout draw level with the tournament leaders, albeit that any other result would have been a surprise. \u00a0And we continue the\u00a0angle of Los\u00a0Ice Creams proving, if not exactly effective, at least less dismally incompetent since joining\u00a0Crown & Court.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Battle\u00a0Hive v United Nations, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0A\u00a0singles match. \u00a0The Hive have yet to score after two matches, and are fielding team captain\u00a0Amasis<\/strong>. \u00a0The United Nations are 1 for 1. \u00a0Their captain Juan Francisco de Coronado\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0their\u00a0best singles wrestler, but he’s wrestling Icarus later tonight, so\u00a0Prakash Sabar<\/strong> will take\u00a0on this\u00a0match. \u00a0Sabar is a notionally a Pakistani\u00a0expatriate now residing\u00a0in the former Soviet republic of Georgia (thus\u00a0justifying him as a member of\u00a0the Bloc Party), but his actual gimmick is that he’s an X-Pac clone, and he’s\u00a0also now proclaiming himself World’s Sexiest Man (after stealing the sash at National Pro Wrestling Day back in February). \u00a0The sheer pile-up of unrelated gimmicks seems to be the joke.<\/p>\n

The match: <\/em>Amasis toys with\u00a0Sabar, but\u00a0decides he’s overdoing it and apologises. \u00a0Sabar promptly kicks him in the gut and takes control with X-Pac’s signature offence. \u00a0He\u00a0stays on top\u00a0for a surprisingly long time,\u00a0until Amasis mounts his comeback. \u00a0Sabar\u00a0misses X-Pac’s\u00a0Bronco Buster, which he never, ever hits – this is being developed into a running joke – and gets pinned with a 450 splash in 9:02. \u00a0Sabar (who seems to be a genuine rookie) looked good there.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout & Wrecking Crew 2, Battle Hive, Nightmare Warriors, Snake Pit & United Nations 1, everyone else 0. \u00a0Battle Hive are off the blocks, and United Nations suffer their first defeat. \u00a0As for Sabar, he\u00a0outperforms expectations, so the match still helps him.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Challenge of the Immortals: Arcane Horde v Gentleman’s Club, Match 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em> It’s an eight-man tag. \u00a0The Horde\u00a0–\u00a0UltraMantis Black,\u00a0Oleg the Usurper & The Batiri (Obariyon &\u00a0Kodama)<\/strong> – are 2 for 3, but both of their wins were scored by the Batiri\u00a0in tag matches. \u00a0The group as a whole have teamwork problems,\u00a0because\u00a0the Batiri don’t like or trust Mantis, and Oleg is the spare fifth member of the Wrecking Crew, who was palmed off on the Horde as part of a trade. \u00a0Last time the Horde wrestled as a quarter, Crew manager Sidney Bakabella told\u00a0Oleg\u00a0to throw the match, and he got pinned while he was dithering over what to do. \u00a0But\u00a0winning the tournament without Oleg’s input would be tough, and\u00a0if they’re\u00a0going to give him\u00a0another chance, this match is as good a place as any. \u00a0The Gentleman’s Club –\u00a0Chuck Taylor, Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy & The Swamp Monster <\/strong>– are not the strongest opposition. \u00a0Taylor and Gulak are a genuine threat, but Cassidy is usually barely conscious, and the Monster is just weird.<\/p>\n

The match<\/em>:\u00a0Like last night, Taylor keeps tagging out the Swamp Monster. \u00a0Gulak is his team’s\u00a0workhorse,\u00a0and he does plenty of\u00a0technical\u00a0wrestling early, to establish that this is going to be a proper match. \u00a0Cassidy grudgingly accepts a tag at one point, but\u00a0soon ambles out again. \u00a0The Club – well, mainly Taylor and Gulak – manage to isolate Mantis. \u00a0But an attempted double team by Cassidy and the Swamp Monster backfires, and Mantis is forced to hot-tag Oleg, as his nearest teammate. \u00a0Oleg is\u00a0trying to win, but the Batiri still tag\u00a0him out as\u00a0fast as they can. \u00a0The Batiri double team Cassidy, which\u00a0provokes a short-lived burst of energy and a flurry of high flying before he drifts off\u00a0again.\u00a0\u00a0Oleg squares off against the Swamp Monster, but Taylor rolls him up from behind and pins him in 16:31. \u00a0The rest of the Horde aren’t pleased.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em> Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, and Wrecking Crew 2; Battle Hive, Gentlemen’s Club, Nightmare Warriors, Snake Pit, and United Nations 1; everyone else 0. \u00a0So the Gentlemen’s Club are off the blocks, and\u00a0Oleg loses the match\u00a0for the Horde again. \u00a0Oh, and the\u00a0only teams still to score are the BDK and\u00a0Crown & Court.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Challenge of\u00a0the Immortals: Nightmare Warriors v Wrecking Crew, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em>\u00a0This was originally\u00a0announced as a singles match between\u00a0Eddie Kingston<\/strong> and\u00a0Jaka<\/strong>, but Kingston dropped out of the tour at the last minute and was replaced in four of\u00a0his singles matches by\u00a0Silver Ant<\/strong>. \u00a0The other three matches are now just matches on the card, but for whatever reason, this has been deemed a COTI match, with Silver Ant representing the Warriors and Jaka representing the Wrecking Crew. \u00a0(Incidentally, Jaka and Kingston go on to feud over the next couple of shows, so it’s likely that something significant was supposed to happen in this match as originally planned.)<\/p>\n

The is\u00a0Jaka’s first\u00a0singles match of the season. \u00a0The whole Wrecking Crew have a collective gimmick of being\u00a0throwback monster heels, led by\u00a0manager Sidney Bakabella, a Tony Clifton-inspired figure who seems to literally believe that it’s\u00a0still the territorial era. \u00a0Jaka is a fairly mild version of the “savage” trope, which\u00a0is a stock 80s figure and thus fits with the stable theme, though the WWE was using it only a few years back with Umaga.\u00a0 Jaka\u00a0uses the same character in other promotions, and he was mainly working for Beyond Wrestling when he adopted it, so I assume it’s not a persona\u00a0created specifically for Chikara. \u00a0Before that, he was “the Smooth Savage” Jonny Mangue, so apparently\u00a0he’s fond of\u00a0the motif. \u00a0In the Wrecking Crew, he’s often a straight man for his more flamboyant stablemates, and so he’s\u00a0usually presented as\u00a0serious and competent. \u00a0In many ways that makes him\u00a0closer to Rusev than to previous versions of this character, and there’s room for an interpretation where it’s all an act. \u00a0But there are still occasional\u00a0throwbacks to more dubious Umaga-type territory, and he’s a character I’ve never felt at all comfortable about.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0As with last night’s Silver Ant match, in the absence of any particular story, this is your pure technical contest for the show, though rather heavier on the exchange of strikes tonight. \u00a0 Silver Ant wins clean with his\u00a0Chikara\u00a0Special: Green submission in\u00a010:16. \u00a0Good match; whatever my\u00a0doubts about\u00a0his character,\u00a0Jaka\u00a0has a pretty good strike rate for decent matches,\u00a0certainly against solid opponents like Silver Ant.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, Nightmare Warriors, and Wrecking Crew 2; Battle Hive, Gentlemen’s Club, Snake Pit, and United Nations 1; BDK and Crown & Court\u00a00. \u00a0Silver Ant finally gets a win for\u00a0the Nightmare Warriors after a series of defeats – perhaps significantly, in a match where he isn’t having to tag with a lunatic who worships Nazmaldun –\u00a0and\u00a0the Wrecking Crew suffer their first loss of the tournament.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Challenge of\u00a0the Immortals: Dasher’s Dugout v United Nations, Match 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The match:<\/em> Another singles match, as\u00a0Icarus<\/strong>\u00a0represents the Dugout against\u00a0Juan Francisco de Coronado<\/strong> of the United Nations. \u00a0Icarus is the Grand Champion and already beat de Coronado in a title match\u00a0last year, so he’s the favourite on paper. \u00a0But he’s also defending the title against Hallowicked in two days time – is his mind really on this one? \u00a0In a pre-match backstage promo, Icarus\u00a0says that as champion, he represents the title and the company every time he steps into the ring. \u00a0He\u00a0guarantees victory.<\/p>\n

The match:\u00a0<\/em>Lots of early stalling as Juan plays to the crowd. \u00a0Icarus isn’t rattled, and poses for the crowd himself. \u00a0The crowd enters into the spirit of this by starting a “This is Wrestling” chant before any wrestling\u00a0has, strictly speaking, happened at all. \u00a0Finally, they\u00a0wrestle, and at first Icarus’s confidence seems justified. \u00a0But eventually Juan gets control and works on the back for a while. \u00a0They trade near falls\u00a0as Icarus tries repeatedly for his Blu-Ray finisher. \u00a0He finally hits it\u00a0on the third try, but Juan rolls out of the ring to prevent the pin. \u00a0Icarus tries for a German\u00a0suplex, but Juan\u00a0low blows him with a mule kick, and pins him with his own German suplex\u00a0in\u00a015:38. \u00a0Slower and more character-driven than the last match; obviously the idea here is that Icarus’s over-confidence catches up to him to a degree. \u00a0Tainted finishes are fairly rare in Chikara,\u00a0so they carry more weight.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em>\u00a0Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, Nightmare Warriors, United Nations, and Wrecking Crew 2; Battle Hive, Gentlemen’s Club, and Snake Pit 1; BDK and Crown & Court\u00a00. \u00a0A worrying loss for Icarus as he goes into\u00a0his title defence. \u00a0As for the tournament,\u00a0it ends the night with nobody taking a clear lead, but two teams jostling for the ignominy of being last to score.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0The Devastation Corporation\u00a0(Max Smashmaster & Blaster McMassive) & The Nightmare Warriors (Hallowicked & Frightmare) v. N_R_G (Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell) & The Colony (Fire Ant & Worker Ant).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The back story:<\/em> Max and Blaster are the tag champs, and N_R_G will be challenging them tomorrow night in Cardiff. \u00a0So this is the preview, rounded out by four other guys the fans will want to see.<\/p>\n

The match:<\/em>\u00a0DevCorp\u00a0go straight for N_R_G and throw them out of the ring. \u00a0The Colony can’t make any real headway against DevCorp either, but at least\u00a0get them out of the ring by low bridging them. \u00a0N_R_G\u00a0take on the\u00a0Nightmare Warriors and do pretty well. \u00a0Loads of dives to the outside (yes, even Blaster), and the match breaks down into ringside brawling for a bit. \u00a0The\u00a0rudos isolate first Fire Ant, then Worker Ant. \u00a0DevCorp go for their Death Blow double team on Worker, but Fire breaks it up, and N_R_G clear the ring. \u00a0Frightmare takes on N_R_G himself, but misses the Kneecolepsy and gets pinned with their superkick\/Hyperwheel combo in\u00a013:43.<\/p>\n

The upshot:<\/em> N_R_G get a win going into their title match, albeit\u00a0against the most expendable member of the other team – and the Colony worked most of the match here, so it’s not like N_R_G came out of it looking that\u00a0<\/em>strong. \u00a0That might be intentional to avoid over-pushing N_R_G, or it could simply be a case of spreading the workload given that their main event match is up tomorrow in Cardiff.<\/p>\n

Worth getting?<\/strong> \u00a0Another\u00a0show of solid wrestling\u00a0across the card,\u00a0and again, not much going on here in terms of actual story. \u00a0So if you’re only getting one of the UK shows, the next two are likely\u00a0of more interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Preamble:\u00a0This is the second show in the UK tour, and see the previous post in this series for some comments on the practical issues of writing four shows\u00a0on consecutive days – principally, that nothing can happen on this show that would be essential knowledge for the next two shows of the tour, since those audiences […]<\/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-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","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=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3155,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/3155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}