{"id":3537,"date":"2016-09-17T22:49:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T21:49:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3537"},"modified":"2016-09-17T22:50:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T21:50:10","slug":"king-of-trios-2016-night-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=3537","title":{"rendered":"King of Trios 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay. \u00a0So. \u00a0That idea of rewatching the whole Chikara 2015 season\u00a0turns out to run into\u00a0a fairly obvious problem: it means finding time to watch\u00a0both<\/em> the new shows\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the old shows\u00a0on top of\u00a0finding the time to, you know,\u00a0do anything else, and it should be pretty obvious from the\u00a0rate of progress that this isn’t going to work. \u00a0Let’s acknowledge reality on that one. \u00a0And instead, let’s do the just-completed 2016 King of Trios tournament.<\/p>\n

King of Trios is a 16-team elimination tournament run over three nights (and I originally intended to spread it over three posts, but then figured that I’d just do a huge one). \u00a0It’s\u00a0Chikara’s biggest weekend of the year, at least in terms of attendance, guest stars, and interest from outside the normal fanbase. \u00a0For much the same reasons,\u00a0it’s not\u00a0necessarily built around Chikara storylines, although there are usually a few\u00a0turning points for ongoing plots. \u00a0The tournament winner is frequently an outsider team that plays no further part in\u00a0storylines (as with last year’s\u00a0winners, who were visiting from the Mexican promotion AAA).<\/p>\n

Nights 2 and 3 are rounded out with\u00a0a mini-tournament called Rey de Voladores (King of Fliers), a tag team gauntlet match which is usually a bit of a comedy affair, and a few other random matches. \u00a0A lot of these matches feature surprise guests, or just guys who’ve been eliminated from\u00a0King of Trios proper.<\/p>\n

Let’s sketch out the major storylines to start with. \u00a0Last year,\u00a0Princess Kimberlee rallied her team of underdogs to win the Challenge of the Immortals tournament, and earn a title shot, which she promptly cashed in to beat Hallowicked and become Grand Champion. \u00a0And Hallowicked failed in his year-long attempt to recruit Silver Ant as a worshipper of the rot god Nazmaldun. \u00a0But at the start of 2016,\u00a0Hallowicked got his hands on the Eye of Tyr – the mind-control trinket which had turned him into a Nazmaldun-worshipper in the first place – and started using it to expand his ranks. \u00a0He regained the\u00a0title during the UK tour, and is now busily zapping people \u00a0left right and centre, leading to an ever-growing stable:\u00a0the heXed-Men. \u00a0The babyfaces are just starting to get their act together to do something about all this – but as yet, not very effectively.<\/p>\n

Joey Styles<\/strong> is\u00a0guest play by play commentator for the weekend:\u00a0he’s just been released by WWE, plus\u00a0he’s local. \u00a0He does a brief opening promo acknowledging that he’s not familiar with the\u00a0company. \u00a0It turns out he’s not kidding, but he\u00a0turns that to advantage by playing the newcomer who needs to ask questions of his co-commentators, and makes sure that everything gets explained. \u00a0And with so many visitors, knowing the product isn’t as big a deal as it normally would be. \u00a0He’s a pro and he can carry this off.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Dasher Hatfield, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate v. Kobald, Kodama & Obariyon.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Dasher is the saintly soul-of-the-company babyface; Seven and Bate are an English duo who recently won the tag titles. \u00a0Since they work mostly in the UK, this was an upset, and time will tell how actual defences are going to work. \u00a0Together, they’re one of several\u00a0makeshift trios of Chikara regulars formed in order to enter the tournament. \u00a0Kobald, Kodama and Obariyon – the Batiri –\u00a0are<\/em> a regular trio, and one of two heXed-Men teams in the tournament. \u00a0As is often the case with\u00a0a Chikara opener, it’s a straightforward, fast paced action\/comedy match to set the tone. \u00a0\u00a0The Batiri isolate Dasher,\u00a0but he kicks out of their Skull Bronzing, and makes the hot tag to the champs, who clear house and pin Kodama with a\u00a0double team. \u00a0Good opener, and now we don’t have to worry about the two heXed-Men trios meeting in the\u00a0next round.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Juan Francisco de Coronado, Prakash Sabar & The Proletariat Boar of Moldova v. Officer Warren Barksdale, Supercop Dick Justice & Detective Bill Carr.<\/strong> \u00a0Now there’s a list of names\u00a0you’ll only see in Chikara. \u00a0De Coronado’s team are\u00a0what’s left of\u00a0the United Nations, who have done okay\u00a0under his\u00a0leadership – but “okay” isn’t enough for de Coronado’s ego, so the other two are perpetually on thin ice with him. \u00a0Sabar is a shameless\u00a0X-Pac tribute act, and\u00a0Styles spends a lot of the match expressing his\u00a0outrage over it. \u00a0The Boar is a boar. \u00a0Juan is\u00a0currently feuding with the Big Deal, who is Hornswoggle with two big guys doing\u00a0all the work for him. \u00a0It’s an odd\u00a0heel\/heel set-up. \u00a0The\u00a0Big Deal team\u00a0pulled out of the tournament at the last minute (because of a\u00a0medical emergency for Hornswoggle), so presumably plans for the UN had to change. \u00a0Meanwhile, this is\u00a0a first round comedy match against Chikara rookie Officer Warren Barksdale (a wrestling traffic cop\u00a0who keeps trying to pat down his opponents and give them speeding tickets) plus two other indie guys with\u00a0similar schtick. \u00a0The wrestling is nothing to get excited about but the police-themed comedy spots are endearingly ludicrous. \u00a0 The early minutes feature a lot of the UN being scared of finger guns. \u00a0But in the end they all\u00a0hit Barksdale with\u00a0their finishers and win clean. \u00a0It’s the first round novelty match.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: The Big Deal, Rick Roland & Sloan Caprice v…<\/del><\/strong>\u00a0 The Big Deal’s team has withdrawn, so\u00a0the Submission Squad <\/strong>enter through the crowd, paying\u00a0off a\u00a0long-running joke\u00a0about them\u00a0trying and failing to get into the tournament year after year. \u00a0At long last, their services really are required.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Gary the Barn Owl, “The Elegant Assassin”\u00a0Pierre Abernathy & “Brainwave” Davey Vega v. Fire Ant, Silver Ant & Soldier Ant. \u00a0<\/strong>Part of the\u00a0joke of the Submission Squad is the utter randomness of their gimmicks, the dubious connection between their nicknames and anything they actually do,\u00a0and the\u00a0lack\u00a0of submission-based offence that might\u00a0justify\u00a0the team name. \u00a0As for the Colony, they were\u00a0reunited at the end of last year, after Silver Ant escaped Hallowicked and Soldier Ant was freed from his brainwashing. \u00a0\u00a0The Colony also\u00a0still\u00a0includes Worker Ant, the reformed heel who took Soldier’s place – but now that Soldier is back, Worker has been left out of the King of Trios team. \u00a0Don’t think he hasn’t noticed.<\/p>\n

On paper this\u00a0sounds like a walkover for the Colony, but the Squad unexpectedly put up\u00a0some proper resistance before focussing on Silver Ant’s recently injured shoulder. \u00a0The story is that\u00a0the Squad are seriously exceeding\u00a0expectations and, thanks to his\u00a0injury, Silver might even\u00a0tap. \u00a0He doesn’t – and the Colony finish off\u00a0Vega with\u00a0the Ant Hill in around 10 minutes – but\u00a0they managed\u00a0to have a competitive match in a way that made the Squad look good instead of making the\u00a0Colony looking weak, and established an obvious bullseye for the Colony’s future opponents to focus on. \u00a0Remarkably good for a last-minute replacement featuring Chikara’s equivalent to\u00a03MB.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Solo Darling, Crazy Mary Dobson & Candice LeRae v. Mickie James, Jazz & Lisa Marie.<\/strong> \u00a0There are four female teams this year, plus a\u00a0couple of mixed gender trios. \u00a0 Darling, Dobson and LeRae represent\u00a0the women’s\u00a0promotion Shimmer, and don’t have much in common beyond that; Darling, for example, is a sugar-fuelled fox\u00a0girl. \u00a0Their opponents are three WWE wrestlers from a decade or so back (Lisa Marie was\u00a0Victoria). \u00a0It’s one of those matches where they work through the combinations and everyone does their signature stuff; it could use a stronger story as a through line. \u00a0The WWE trio\u00a0drift into playing\u00a0heel as the match goes on, and Mickie is great as the\u00a0smug\u00a0veteran. \u00a0Lisa Marie pins Dobson with\u00a0the\u00a0Widow’s Peak in 15 minutes\u00a0for the veterans to advance. \u00a0Bit long for the amount of story, but plenty of good bits.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Worker Ant, Bullet Ant & Missile Assault Man v. Hallowicked, ??? & ???. \u00a0<\/strong>If Worker doesn’t get to be in the official\u00a0Colony team, he’ll make one of his own. \u00a0Bullet\u00a0and Missile both used to be in the Colony X-Treme Force, a sort of Colony parody created by the Titor Corporation when they were running Chikara a few years back (don’t ask). \u00a0In those days,\u00a0they were “Arctic Rescue Ant” and “Missile Assault Ant”. \u00a0Bullet is now a plucky underdog trying to either prove or ingratiate himself to the Colony, depending on whether you trust\u00a0him. \u00a0Missile is traumatised by his experiences with Titor and swings back and forth at a moment’s notice between being dangerously effective, and being paralysed with confusion. \u00a0He’s notionally\u00a0<\/em>abandoned the Missile Assault Ant identity but… well, come on, look at him. \u00a0He’s plainly uncomfortable in the company of his X-Treme Force teammate. \u00a0Over in the heXed-Men team, Hallowicked’s two mystery partners turn out to Icarus (who’s been in the heXed-Men for months and is not a surprise)\u00a0and Jigsaw (who has no previous connection with the heXed-Men storyline, and must have been zapped since the last show – a neat reveal). \u00a0These are big guns\u00a0within the Chikara-verse.<\/p>\n

It’s\u00a0very much a match for the regular fans;\u00a0superficially it’s a beating, but there’s a lot going on under the surface. \u00a0Poor Bullet, as usual, takes most of the punishment. \u00a0Missile spends most of the match\u00a0lost in his own little world on the apron. \u00a0The idea\u00a0is that by the end of the match Missile is reconciled to Bullet at least enough to come to his aid. \u00a0Meanwhile, the heXed-Men are being insanely and pointlessly\u00a0aggressive: they keep going after people’s masks, even though actually removing them would be an automatic DQ, and they\u00a0just keep attacking without going for pins. \u00a0When the referee finally threatens to DQ them (under Chikara rules, you can be DQd for continuing to beat on a defeated opponent without trying for a pin),\u00a0Hallowicked pins Bullet clean with his finisher. \u00a0The story being set up here is why the heXed-Men are flirting with disqualification, and whether it’s mind games, or a\u00a0lack of self-control in their hexed state, or\u00a0a bit of both. \u00a0If you get all that context, it’s a good match, with all the storyline stuff\u00a0balancing out the fact that\u00a0it’s a one-sided match.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Command Bolshoi, Hanako Nakamori & Manami Katsu v. Ophidian, Amasis & Argus.<\/strong> \u00a0Bolshoi’s team\u00a0represent JWP, her own promotion. \u00a0The\u00a0“Bolshoi” in question is the circus, not the ballet. \u00a0Nakamori is one half of the JWP tag champions; her regular partner is\u00a0Kyoko Kimura,\u00a0and I’m not entirely clear why they brought Katsu\u00a0instead. \u00a0Against them we have the slightly awkward\u00a0trio of Ophidian, Ophidian’s\u00a0new protege, and Ophidian’s\u00a0long-time partner;\u00a0some pre-show angles imply that Amasis has somewhat been dragged into this team against his will, but that doesn’t feed into the match. \u00a0The regulars are\u00a0basically here to\u00a0help establish\u00a0the visitors with a credible first round win. \u00a0The regulars hit their big moves, but can’t put the JWP team away. \u00a0Bolshoi does some great flying. \u00a0Eventually Amasis goes for his 450 splash but takes too long,\u00a0and gets triple teamed and pinned clean by Katsu. \u00a0Good action, and\u00a0it achieved its goal.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Heidi Lovelace, Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell v. Meiko Satomura, Dash Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi.<\/strong> \u00a0Heidi, Race and Hype are another makeshift trio of regulars. \u00a0Heidi is currently building to a heel turn over her feelings of being overshadowed by Kimberlee, but that has nothing to do with this match. \u00a0Race and\u00a0Hype\u00a0just lost the tag titles and are\u00a0effectively between storylines right now. \u00a0The Japanese team represent\u00a0Sendai Girls\u00a0Pro Wrestling; Satamura is the company founder and trainer (and so Bolshoi’s opposite number). \u00a0She’s widely regarded as one of the best\u00a0women wrestlers in the world. \u00a0Miyagi is the team rookie, and she’s nuts. \u00a0She does a lot of eccentric head banging. \u00a0You need a lot of charisma to carry off that\u00a0sort of thing,\u00a0but she’s got it. \u00a0Anyway, Satamura pins Jaxon with a Death Valley Driver for the visitors to\u00a0advance. \u00a0It’s another showcase match to establish the visitors\u00a0with a strong win against\u00a0familiar opponents, and it gets the job done. \u00a0(And Heidi getting knocked out of the tournament much earlier than Kim\u00a0plays, however gently, into their\u00a0story.)<\/p>\n

8. \u00a0King of Trios, Round 1: Princess Kimberlee, Oleg the Usurper & The Estonian Thunderfrog v. Drew Gulak, Cedric Alexander & Johnny Gargano.<\/strong>\u00a0 Kimberlee’s trio\u00a0are another makeshift team – the fact that the non-heXed-Men roster is scattered is a plot point\u00a0in the wider storylines, but it does result in a tournament heavy on visitors and makeshift trios. \u00a0Gulak, Alexander and Gargano are all competitors from the\u00a0WWE’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament, though Gulak is also a Chikara regular, and so was Gargano three or four years back. \u00a0\u00a0In a bit of a giveaway, Alexander is announced for a show\u00a0on the other side of the country the next day. \u00a0It’s a very Chikara\u00a0action\/comedy match, riffing on the\u00a0fact that Gargano and Alexander\u00a0are on their\u00a0farewell tour before\u00a0joining WWE \u00a0full time, with some good natured biting the hand that feeds them. \u00a0Gargano is conspicuously playing to\u00a0the\u00a0hard camera like he’s been taught for TV. \u00a0People\u00a0hit the\u00a0Pedigree and it isn’t a finish. \u00a0That sort of thing. \u00a0All\u00a0good fun with some decent action to boot. \u00a0Oleg\u00a0pins Alexander with his finisher for the regulars to advance.<\/p>\n

A solid first night, all told. \u00a0Nothing really great but\u00a0everything solidly good (albeit in one case for comedy rather than the action).<\/p>\n

Right, day 2! \u00a0The middle\u00a0show has all four King of Trios quarterfinals, the qualifying matches for the Rey de Voladores\u00a0mini-tournament, and a couple of random singles matches thrown in. \u00a0Since we’ve already met all the tournament teams, this ought to go a bit quicker.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0Crazy Mary Dobson v. Deonna Purrazzo.<\/strong>\u00a0 Here’s one of those random singles matches. \u00a0It’s pretty weak. \u00a0Dobson as the heel has way more\u00a0personality than Purrazzo as the babyface; Purrazzo wins a fairly generic exchange, and the crowd would\u00a0clearly have preferred Dobson.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0King of Trios Quarterfinal: Hallowicked, Icarus & Jigsaw v. Dasher Hatfield, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0All\u00a0Chikara regulars here. \u00a0Dasher’s trio beat the junior heXed-Men team in the first round, and now they reach the main eventers. \u00a0The heXed-Men attack before the bell and some\u00a0brawling follows. \u00a0It’s\u00a0an intense pace in\u00a0the first few minutes. \u00a0But as the match goes on, just like last night, the heXed-Men keep\u00a0flirting with\u00a0disqualification by going after Dasher’s mask. \u00a0Seven hits a second rope piledriver on Jigsaw, but Icarus pulls the ref out of the ring. \u00a0Rather generously, that’s apparently not a DQ. \u00a0Anyway,\u00a0after his team have been\u00a0working on Dasher’s mask all match,\u00a0Hallowicked\u00a0loosens enough to twist it round and blind Dasher\u00a0(not an automatic DQ because he didn’t\u00a0remove\u00a0<\/em>it), then pins him with the Never Wake Up. \u00a0I’m going to query\u00a0having the ref ignore\u00a0a blatant DQ when the story is about the heXed-Men flirting with DQ – perhaps the idea was that they dodged a bullet, but if so it doesn’t really come across. \u00a0That\u00a0aside, an excellent match\u00a0which could bring\u00a0Dasher into\u00a0the heXed-Men story\u00a0in future.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Mark Angelosetti v. Missile Assault Man.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Another random singles match. \u00a0Angelosetti is one of the heXed-Men; Missile got\u00a0eliminated by the heXed-Men in round 1. \u00a0Missile is clearly\u00a0a babyface at this point and does a very good job of getting the crowd behind him given that his flat-affect gimmick\u00a0rules out using some of the normal ways of playing to the crowd. \u00a0As for Mark, he’s retooled\u00a0all his body language since getting Hexed; the contrast with his established character is pretty great.\u00a0 The story is basically Missile’s focus coming and going during the match, and the momentum ebbing and flowing with it. \u00a0For the finish, Mark astounds Missile by landing on his feet from a superplex,\u00a0then pins him clean with the Colossal Bomb. \u00a0A bit choppy at times, but some really good stuff in there. \u00a0That gives Mark two points, so his next singles match will be to earn a title shot. \u00a0Not that he’ll be claiming it, mind you –\u00a0the heXed-Men already\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0the\u00a0title – but Icarus has also picked up three points, so it looks like the heXed-Men are banking their title shots in order to win the title straight back in case Hallowicked ever loses it.<\/p>\n

And now, an\u00a0angle for regular viewers! \u00a0Max Smashmaster, who was “fired” months ago for attacking boss Mike Quackenbush, makes his return by cornering ring announcer Vlad Radinov\u00a0and\u00a0demands to be reinstated. \u00a0He’s playing it as if he thinks he’s being reasonable, but his\u00a0sense of “reasonable” is wildly awry – it’s rather good. \u00a0When this gets him nowhere, he attacks Vlad, and\u00a0Mike Quackenbush\u00a0comes out\u00a0to reason with him. \u00a0That\u00a0gets nowhere. \u00a0Kimberlee\u00a0comes out and does the traditional babyface speech demanding that he\u00a0be reinstated so that they can resolve their earlier feud. \u00a0But\u00a0Max doesn’t want her charity, and when the rest of her team come out as back up, he leaves. \u00a0All this means very little if you’re a new fan, but it’s an effective way of kickstarting a storyline that had been sidelined for a few months due to\u00a0injury.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0King of Trios Quarterfinal: Princess Kimberlee, The Estonian Thunderfrog & Oleg the Usurper v. Mickie James, Jazz & Lisa Marie.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Vlad has run away, so neither team gets announced – of course, everyone\u00a0knows who they are. \u00a0Kim and Mickie had a singles match in Chikara back in February, which Mickie won by cheating. \u00a0Oleg is complacent at first,\u00a0and that goes as well for him as you’d expect. \u00a0The heels isolate Kim (obviously), and Mickie is just fantastic at this. \u00a0There’s a lovely spot where she keeps swapping\u00a0hands\u00a0as she pulls Kim’s hair so that she can always claim to be breaking on five. \u00a0It’s the delight that she does it with. \u00a0Anyhow,\u00a0the heels try triple teaming the regulars, but Oleg manages to clear the ring of Mickie’s partners, and Kim pins her with a German suplex to get her win back. \u00a0That was great, with Mickie as the standout. \u00a0If the WWE does decide to go with a women’s tournament\u00a0along the lines of the Cruiserweight Classic (and it’s been rumoured), then they’d be mad not to try and get her\u00a0for the returning veteran role. \u00a0She was clearly wasted in the WWE of her day.<\/p>\n

Vlad returns to announce the next match. \u00a0“Do not worry about me, ladies and gentlemen. \u00a0I am Russian. \u00a0Terrible things happen to me every day from birth to age eight.”<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Rey de Voladores\u00a0Qualifier: Space Monkey v. Frightmare v. Tony Nese v. Candice LeRae.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The Rey de Voladores (King of Fliers) mini-tournament consists of two elimination matches, with the winners meeting in a singles match on night three. \u00a0Sometimes the winner is a Chikara regular who gets\u00a0a push out of it; sometimes it’s an outsider who can\u00a0give it\u00a0some prestige. \u00a0This time we have Candice LeRae,\u00a0from the Shimmer team knocked out in round 1; Tony\u00a0Nese, also from the Cruiserweight Clasic; Frightmare, from the heXed-Men; and Space Monkey, which is exactly what it sounds like – an astronaut monkey. \u00a0\u00a0It’s a fantastic\u00a0act, and he’s a decent\u00a0wrestler too. \u00a0The\u00a0Monkey wins over the crowd, so Frightmare (as the only heel in the match)\u00a0cuts him off to play spoiler. \u00a0Nese\u00a0is reluctant to fight Candice, but gets over it\u00a0after taking some of her offence. \u00a0Nese eliminates the Monkey with his pumphandle driver; Frightmare plants Candice\u00a0for the second\u00a0fall. \u00a0Nese misses a 450 splash and Frightmare pins him with the Kneecolepsy\u00a0to\u00a0win the eliminator. \u00a0Complete spotfest, but that’s kind of what Rey de Voladores is for –\u00a0and it was\u00a0a good one.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0King of Trios Quarterfinal: Juan Francisco de Coronado, Prakash Sabar & The Proletariat Boar of Moldova v. Command Bolshoi, Manami Katsu & Hanako Nakamori. \u00a0<\/strong>The basic story is that the JWP team can get the upper hand on Juan and Prakash by triple-teaming them, but\u00a0they have more trouble with the\u00a0team powerhouse,\u00a0Boar. \u00a0In the end, the Boar and Sabar hit their finishers on team captain Bolshoi, and Juan tries to\u00a0follow with his Coronado Clutch submission, but Bolshoi reverses it to a\u00a0sudden roll-up for the pin. \u00a0The JWP advance,\u00a0having now beaten\u00a0two of the regular teams to establish themselves. \u00a0Fun, though the individual personalities of Katsu and Nakamori weren’t coming across to me. \u00a0After the match, Juan characteristically\u00a0blames\u00a0his teammates for his mistake, and fires them both,\u00a0finally disbanding the group and clearing the way\u00a0for a retooling of Prakash and the Boar. \u00a0(But there’s one more bit of business to take care of tomorrow…)<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0Rey de Voladores Qualifier 2: Johnny Gargano v. Amasis v. Wani v. Aero Star.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Gargano and Amasis were both eliminated\u00a0from the main tournament last night. \u00a0Wani is another Chikara regular, an enigmatic\u00a0masked guy\u00a0ostensibly from Japan (though everyone keeps pointing out that there seems to be no track record of him existing before, and he’s clearly not a rookie). \u00a0Aero Star\u00a0is one of the AAA wrestlers who won\u00a0the King of Trios tournament last year. \u00a0There’s an extended diversion to start as Gargano adjusts his boot\u00a0and the whole thing gets milked wonderfully. \u00a0It gets a “This is wrestling” chant. \u00a0Anyway, it’s another spotfest – as I\u00a0say, that is kind of the point – with Gargano playing the fiery babyface. \u00a0After a big dive spot, Frightmare runs in and lays out Amasis (continuing\u00a0a minor feud from earlier in the year). \u00a0Amasis is apparently out cold and\u00a0the referee declares him to be\u00a0eliminated by TKO. \u00a0Wani pins Gargano with his running neckbreaker finisher, which is a\u00a0real surprise, since Gargano is the biggest star in the match. \u00a0Since\u00a0Frightmare\/Wani would be heel\/heel, it’s pretty obvious that Aero Star is going to win, and indeed he does. \u00a0Good moments, bit lacking in flow.<\/p>\n

8. \u00a0King of Trios Quarterfinal: Fire Ant,\u00a0Silver Ant & Soldier Ant v.\u00a0Meiko Satamura, Dash Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The Colony play\u00a0de facto<\/em>\u00a0heels against the Sendai Girls, which is risky\u00a0given how beloved they are, but they get away with it. \u00a0The Colony\u00a0work on Dash’s leg, setting up a thread that runs through the rest of the weekend. \u00a0The other part of the story is that\u00a0Satamura is the game changer when she’s in the ring, and the Colony’s\u00a0strategy is to get her out as quickly as they can. \u00a0The Colony nearly finish off Dash with a frog splash, but she won’t stay down, and a six-way brawl break out. \u00a0The Sendai Girls clear the ring, isolate Silver Ant, and work on the\u00a0injured shoulder\u00a0that nearly cost them round 1.\u00a0\u00a0We wind up with Silver Ant and his injured shoulder against Dash and her injured leg; she\u00a0reverses a submission into a cross armbreaker and Silver taps. \u00a0Very good, using Silver’s injury as an out for the Colony, and setting up Dash\u00a0as the courageous weak link for the remaining matches.<\/p>\n

Probably the best night of the weekend\u00a0in terms of overall match quality.<\/p>\n

And night 3. \u00a0This has the semifinals and final of the King of Trios tournament,\u00a0the Rey de Voladores final, and the annual tag team gauntlet match.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0King of Trios Semifinal: Meiko Satamura, Dash Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi v. Princess Kimberlee, the Estonian Thunderfrog & Oleg the Usurper.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Naturally, Kim’s team\u00a0go straight for Dash’s injured leg from last night. \u00a0They tease an early submission with the Chikara Special, though I don’t think anyone was buying such a quick win over the guest stars in\u00a0the opening\u00a0match. \u00a0The Sendai Girls isolate Oleg and triple team him. \u00a0Kim gets the hot tag and does her Suplex Kingdom routine on Satamura, which looks great. \u00a0But the Sendai Girls get the numbers advantage on Kim, and Satamura submits her with a cross armbreaker. \u00a0Good action, bit of an abrupt finish. \u00a0It kept the thread of Dash’s injured leg going without bashing us over the head with it.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0King of Trios Semifinal: Hallowicked, Icarus & Jigsaw v. Command Bolshoi, Manami Katsu & Hanako Nakamori.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0A win for the JWP\u00a0team will mean\u00a0both Japanese women’s teams meet in the final, but JWP are underdogs against the main eventers. \u00a0The girls attack on the bell and\u00a0have fun hitting triple teams. \u00a0The heXed-Men isolate\u00a0Nakamori to turn the tables and, as in the earlier rounds, seem more interested in inflicting punishment and going after Bolshoi’s mask than actually trying to win the match. \u00a0This time, it seems clearer that they’re not fully in control. \u00a0They Hallowicked hits the Go 2 Sleepy Hollow on Katsu, but pulls her up at 2. \u00a0Jigsaw hits a brainbuster, and pulls her up at 2 again. \u00a0Icarus hits a Pedigree and doesn’t even bother pretending to go for a pin before setting her up for the Bluray\u00a0– and the referee disqualifies the heXed-Men for excessive punishment. \u00a0The heXed-Men seem amazed and outraged, as if they’ve been watching a different match. \u00a0The excessive punishment DQ is\u00a0an established\u00a0rule, but it’s not used often – which is why they went out of their way to tease it in round 1. \u00a0I can see the argument\u00a0against doing a DQ in a tournament semifinal, but\u00a0the semifinals are in an odd position because they’re also show\u00a0openers<\/em>. \u00a0I don’t mind this; it sets up storylines for both the heXed-Men (on future shows) and the JWP team (in the main event). \u00a0And since they were going with the all-Japanese final, they needed to get Hallowicked\u00a0out of the tournament in some way that\u00a0wouldn’t damage him too badly.<\/p>\n

3. \u00a0Mark Angelosetti v. Arik Cannon.<\/strong>\u00a0 Cannon is a\u00a0former Chikara regular who still pops up from time to time,\u00a0and mainly works out of\u00a0Minnesota. \u00a0It’s a straightforward impact match, which is a nice change of pace\u00a0on this card. \u00a0Cannon gets some fiery comebacks and escapes the Colossal Bomb the first time, but gets pinned\u00a0cleanly with the same move not\u00a0long after. \u00a0That gives Mark his third point and another banked title shot for the heXed-Men.<\/p>\n

4. \u00a0Tag Team Gauntlet 2016.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0This is\u00a0an annual tradition – it\u00a0usually features a bit of storyline and\u00a0a few random appearances. \u00a0Frankly, it’s also the “get everyone else on the show” match, sometimes a bit obviously\u00a0so. \u00a0There’s nothing on the line here, though it does count\u00a0for points towards\u00a0a tag title shot. \u00a0The number of teams isn’t announced in advance –\u00a0it ends when people stop coming out.<\/p>\n

Team #1\u00a0are Blaster McMassive & Flex Rumblecrunch<\/strong>, the remaining members of the Devastation Corporation. \u00a0Before the match can start, their former manager\u00a0Sidney Bakabella comes out and\u00a0berates them, pointing out that two years ago they won the tournament and now they’re\u00a0stuck at the wrong end of the\u00a0novelty match. \u00a0He tells them they’ve\u00a0become weak by\u00a0playing to the fans. \u00a0Max Smashmaster (the exiled third member, who we saw last night) comes in and lays out Blaster with a tombstone before leaving with Sidney. \u00a0This seems to be\u00a0a break-up angle for\u00a0DevCorp and a retooling of both Max and Sidney to lose their 80s retro aspects and take on a more serious persona. \u00a0That’s a very big angle for the regular fans.<\/p>\n

Team #2 are N_R_G – Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell<\/strong>\u00a0– who run in and pin Blaster in the confusion. \u00a0Team #3 are the Big Deal’s security,\u00a0Sloan Caprice & Rick Roland<\/strong>. \u00a0(Since they’re not masked, there’s no harm pointing out that they’re\u00a0indie wrestlers\u00a0Rex Lawless and Mike Verna.)\u00a0 They take forever to make their entrance, so Race\u00a0dives on them. \u00a0Well, I say “on them”, it’s really more “in their general vicinity”. \u00a0Oh, Race.<\/em> \u00a0Anyhow, a slightly sluggish exchange leads to\u00a0the security guards winning\u00a0with\u00a0their\u00a0admittedly impressive Dealbreaker finisher. \u00a0 Gentleman’s Club members\u00a0Drew Gulak & Orange Cassidy<\/strong>\u00a0are #4 –\u00a0Gulak is very serious, Cassidy is characteristically out of it. \u00a0Gulak\u00a0charges the ring to get double teamed, but\u00a0starts to\u00a0get control on his own. \u00a0When Cassidy finally ambles to\u00a0the ring,\u00a0his otherwise unhelpful\u00a0nonsense distracts the security guards long enough for Gulak to eliminate them with a roll-up. \u00a0Cassidy has to be seen to be believed – the timing on his stuff is fantastic, and you’ve got to really know your stuff to get away with doing it this lackadaiscally. \u00a0The Sea Stars,\u00a0Delmi Exo & Ashley Vox<\/strong>, are #5 – another rookie duo, who have a decent enough match with the Club and get eliminated after Cassidy mists Exo with his orange juice. \u00a0Cornelius Crummels & Sonny Defarge <\/strong>are #6 – and these guys are serious rookies, on only their third match. \u00a0They pin Cassidy with what’s meant to be an elaborate double team but looks a bit ropey, and then quickly despatch\u00a0El Hijo del Ice Cream & Ice Cream Jr\u00a0<\/strong>at #7 with the same move. \u00a0Unfortunately, it\u00a0misses by a mile. \u00a0The crowd do\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0like the Ice Creams going in seconds, and are losing patience with the rookies, who pretty obviously are not ready for this show. \u00a0(“The thing is”, muses Styles, “they haven’t got that double team right yet, and they’ve won two matches with it, which is almost more impressive.”)<\/p>\n

Team #8 are\u00a0Donald Kluger & Jasper Tippins<\/strong>, who together comprise the cycling-themed Dez Peloton. \u00a0This is their debut, but they’re clearly way too good to be rookies, so I assume they work under other names somewhere else. \u00a0They’re\u00a0Very Enthusiastic and they actually win back the crowd and make a cycling-themed gimmick work. \u00a0I hope we get to see more of them. \u00a0They win with a double pumphandle, having won the crowd back on side. \u00a0Team #9 are\u00a0Hermit Crab & Rock Lobster<\/strong>, which the Peloton also win, though the finishing sequence is a bit confused. \u00a0Number #10 is\u00a0Prakash Sabar & The Proletariat Boar of Moldova<\/strong>, and again\u00a0\u00a0Styles is outraged by\u00a0Sabar’s\u00a0X-Pac impersonation. \u00a0Sabar hits the Bronco Buster on both guys and pins\u00a0Timmins with the X-Factor. \u00a0That seems to be it, but after a pause D-Generation X’s music plays, and\u00a0X-Pac & Billy Gunn<\/strong> come out as team #11. \u00a0Yes, the real ones. \u00a0As you’d expect, they destroy Sabar and\u00a0the Boar with\u00a0a few signature moves, which is basically the blow-off for Sabar’s X-Pac copycat routine. \u00a0(Between this and the break-up\u00a0of the United Nations, it leaves the way clear to retool Sabar and the Boar for the future, which is fine by me.) \u00a0After the match we get some\u00a0schtick in which everyone\u00a0realises that essentially none of the\u00a0DX spiel can\u00a0actually be done on a\u00a0family-friendly Chikara show, so Billy does some of his pre-DX Rockabilly stuff instead.<\/p>\n

It’s a fun guest appearance at the end and there’s some good work in there with the Gentleman’s Club and Dez Peloton, but yeesh, there’s some ropey old stuff in that gauntlet as well. \u00a0I wouldn’t normally be keen on a 40 minute gauntlet match ending with the last team hitting two moves either (unless they were heels), but\u00a0the surprise guest factor\u00a0meant that they got away with it here.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0Lucas Calhoun v. Chuck Taylor\u2122.<\/strong>\u00a0 This is a match in as much as there’s a bell at either end, but it’s really a comedy skit. \u00a0Chuck Taylor\u2122\u00a0persists in his attempts to cut a promo on Calhoun despite the match having started. \u00a0Calhoun ties him in the bottom rope and the fans do a conga to take turns to chop him. \u00a0Yes, literally. \u00a0And then he\u00a0continues his promo<\/em>. \u00a0The upshot is that he tries to persuade Calhoun to be his tag partner, and Calhoun isn’t having it and pins him with a karate chop. \u00a0The announcers solemnly agree that we have witnessed a technical classic.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah… \u00a0Chuck Taylor\u2122 is not Chuck Taylor. \u00a0He’s Stokely Hathaway from Ring of Honor. \u00a0The idea is that he’s the wrestling equivalent of a domain squatter who swept in and claimed the rights to the name in Chikara when the real Chuck announced his\u00a0retirement last year, changed his mind, and forgot to file the paperwork. \u00a0The real\u00a0Chuck is now DUSTIN (the name he uses in Evolve),\u00a0but he’s in California this weekend for the PWG Battle of Los Angeles shows.<\/p>\n

6. \u00a0Rey de Voladores Final: Frightmare<\/del> Tony Nese v. Aero Star.<\/strong>\u00a0 Frightmare (legitimately) suffered a separated shoulder in his qualifier match and\u00a0has not been cleared to wrestle, so\u00a0the runner-up from his\u00a0qualifier takes the spot. \u00a0So this match no longer has any Chikara regulars in it, and if\u00a0it would have gone\u00a0somewhere in story terms, we’ll never know. \u00a0Still,\u00a0it’s a\u00a0pretty good singles match. \u00a0Nese fights for his finisher,\u00a0and finally gets it only for Aero Star to kick out; Aero Star pins him with a springboard Codebreaker and\u00a0a Backstabber. \u00a0Bit abrupt and maybe lacking in a clear reason to choose sides, but\u00a0some very impressive\u00a0stuff in there.<\/p>\n

7. \u00a0King of Trios Final: Command Bolshoi, Manami Katsu & Hanako Nakamori v. Meiko Satamura, Dash Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi.<\/strong> \u00a0With all the Chikara regulars eliminated, there’s no\u00a0wider storyline here beyond the simple prestige of the tournament, and the rivalry between the two Japanese\u00a0promotions. \u00a0In terms of tonight’s story,\u00a0Katsu took a beating in the last match, but Dash has an injured leg. \u00a0The Sendai Girls are trying to keep her out of the match, which means that even though Katsu isn’t 100%, it’s still worth\u00a0JWP using her to get the numbers advantage. \u00a0Being a plucky babyface, Dash eventually tags in,\u00a0but she can’t do much and the JWP team\u00a0promptly go\u00a0to work on her. \u00a0There’s a nice bit\u00a0where\u00a0Bolshoi nearly submits Dash as her teammates run interference to try and stop it being broken up. \u00a0Finally Dash makes the hot tag to\u00a0Satamura so that the team captains can face off\u00a0for a bit. \u00a0Satamura goes after Katsu, who puts up her best effort but finally falls to the DVD. \u00a0Very good match.<\/p>\n

It’s a good tournament, though there are stronger ones in the Chikaratopia archives – if you’re minded to buy one of these shows then to be honest night two probably has the best wrestling, but they’ll show up on the subscription service anyway within a month or so.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay. \u00a0So. \u00a0That idea of rewatching the whole Chikara 2015 season\u00a0turns out to run into\u00a0a fairly obvious problem: it means finding time to watch\u00a0both the new shows\u00a0and\u00a0the old shows\u00a0on top of\u00a0finding the time to, you know,\u00a0do anything else, and it should be pretty obvious from the\u00a0rate of progress that this isn’t going to work. \u00a0Let’s […]<\/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-3537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537","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=3537"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3546,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3537\/revisions\/3546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}