Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Brian Streleckis is back doing live recollections as Chikara began the biggest tournament in wrestling history with some raucous matches and risque moments.

Upping the ante considerably since last year’s inaugeral King of Trios, this year’s installment has opened the field to 28 teams of three, translating to 84 wrestlers in all. Good thing they only had to wrestle in one venue – Philadelphia’s New Alhambra Arena – and not three. The first two nights (last night and tonight) each feature 14 teams advancing through the first two rounds. Due to such unwieldy amounts of wrestlers, two teams each night get byes into the second round. Last night the lucky teams were BLK OUT (Eddie Kingston & Ruckus & Joker) and IncoHelios AKA The Golden Trio (Campeones de Parejas Delirious & Hallowicked and Young Lions Cup Champion Helios). On to the actual matches (and thanks to my buddy MG Wood for any background on the Japanese competitors included):

Show started late due to the ringside doctor’s late arrival (traffic on I-95 was frightening). Dr. Keith Lipinski was in attendance, once again the time keeper as he was in Wrestling Society X.

1. Las Chivas Rayadas (Chiva II & Chiva III & Chiva IV) defeated Shane Hagadorn & Alex Payne & Rhett Titus. The ROH students soaked up the heel heat coming out, while the more popular Chivas (guys with goat masks dressed in soccer uniforms) came out taking pictures of themselves and the crowd. Some humorous moments to start, including the Chivas’ camera coming into play, but Hagadorn and company soon took control for a while. A lot of these matches got plenty of time (mostly in the 15 minute range), but this went a little long. Chivas advance after one ties up Payne’s legs to hold him in place for another Chiva’s moonsault. Okay, but I was expecting a little more fun out of the ROH students tangling with goats.

2. The Colony (Fire Ant & Soldier Ant & Worker Ant) defeated Team El Dorado (Go & Michael Nakazawa & Mototsuga Shimizu). El Dorado is a Japanese promotion that, like Dragon Gate, shot off of the Toryumon group. Go is the serious one, Shimizu looks like a Jeff Hardy/Shannon Moore-type cruiserweight (mostly due to his ring gear and makeup), and Nakazawa (now a freelancer) is a well-built dude who squirted baby oil on himself. This proved a hassle for Worker Ant when he got in the ring with him (he kept slipping off before he decided to use a towel to grapple him), but it was ultimately Nakazawa’s downfall as it caused him to slip off his opponent during a DDT attempt. Even worse was Nakazawa’s attempt to spray the baby oil a la Muta’s mist backfiring when he hit his opponents. Pretty fun stuff, as the Colony has really improved throughout the time I’ve seen them, and Nakazawa showed good personality despite his too-short tights. The Colony win it with the Ant Hill, in which Fire Ant is heaved off his partners into a splash on a prone opponent, in this case Nakazawa.

3. The Order of the Neo Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black & Hydra & Crossbones) defeated Kaiju Big Battel’s Sea Amigos (Call-Me-Kevin & D.W. Cycloptopuss III & Unibouzu). Kaiju announcer Louden Noxious was the ring announcer for this. Before Mantis came down to the ring, he remarked he’s never dealt with a team as “bubonic” as the Sea Amigos. He then brought out his new friend Dr. Cube for a glorious meeting of the evil masterminds (including picture opportunity and duel evil laughs). Dr. Cube gave Mantis a bottle of tarter sauce to help bring down Kevin. Shortest match on the show, with the costumed monsters of Kaiju getting a better reception than last time, but the Order was a lot more popular. End came when the spiky Unibouzu had Hydra in a bearhug and Cycloptopus had Crossbones in an Octopus hold, but Mantis blinded/confused them with splashes of tarter sauce. He then put away Kevin with the Praying Mantis Bomb (butterfly piledriver) to advance.

4. Mike Quackenbush & Shane Storm & Jorge “Skayde” Rivera defeated Team Egypt (The Osirian Portal of Amasis & Ophidian and Mecha Mummy). My favorite match of the first round (of this night). Team Egypt was one of the teams I was anticipating the most (the Osirian Portal is very good at this stage, and I was excited to see Mummy come back after he murderized Mokujin Ken last year), and they were up against a strong babyface contingent. Skayde, returning to Chikara after two years, got a great reception. He had previously lost his mask in Mexico at some point before this show; he came out masked but removed it when he was introduced in the ring. Lots of really fun stuff going on, be it Quack’s great exchanges with the Portal or Mummy lumbering around and breaking out moves from Hulk Hogan’s playbook. Mummy staggered and fell after some palm strikes from Quack, but he later countered with a giant palm add-on weapon that nearly got the win. After more fast-paced action, Quack scored the win for his team after the Quackendriver 2 (a tombstone variation) on Ophidian.

5. Team WTF? (Cheech & Cloudy & m.c. KZ) defeated Brodie Lee & Jimmy Olsen & Retail Dragon. Originally, this tournament was going to have Brodie team with the Olsen Twins, and they were even dubbed a week or so ago as “Team Dr. Keith.” However, Colin Olsen, better known these days as Colin Delaney on ECW, was finally signed by WWE and was pulled from the tournament. As is a tradition in Chikara’s tag tournaments, Director of Fun Leonard F. Chikarason selected a random partner for Brodie and Jimmy via bingo ball roller. First choice was Colin Delaney; the ref checked behind the curtain and couldn’t find him. Second choice was Johnny Kashmere; the ref checked the men’s bathroom and couldn’t find him. Third choice of Retail Dragon was available, but Brodie was not happy to be teaming with him.

KZ is a rookie from Dragon Gate who’s been doing some training in Mexico. He came out rapping during his entrance with Cheech & Cloudy, and he showed some nice personality and athleticism throughout. Pretty hot match, with Jimmy Olsen looking very good, Dragon getting in some moves when he could, and Brodie (who would toss Dragon out of the ring on occasion) dominating with his power to cheers from the crowd. Long beatdown on Cloudy before a hot tag. Towards the end, Brodie had taken down KZ and had both Cheech and Cloudy on his shoulders, with the plan for Jimmy to dive off of them onto KZ. Resulted in a trainwreck with Jimmy clutching his knee. End ultimately came after Cheech & Cloudy gave Dragon the combination shining wizard off the top into a powerbomb backbreaker, followed by a frog splash by KZ. Mighty fun. Brodie booted Dragon afterwards and left with Jimmy.

6. Team IPW:UK (Martin Stone and The Kartel of Sha Samuels & Terry Frazier) defeated The Naptown Dragons (Drake Younger & Scotty Vortekz & Diehard Dustin Lee). The UK team impressed me this night. Not only were they good wrestlers, but they were great heels, taking every chance they could to jaw-jack with people in the crowd (really getting in their faces) and throw out soccer hooligan-esque chants). The Naptown Dragons, all CZW regulars, were very popular here. Match started out much different from the other matches as all six guys were fighting on the outside and were nearly counted out. The match came back in the ring, with an extended beatdown on Dustin before a hot tag, resulting in some nice strike exchanges. Finish came after Stone took out Younger with a DDT while Younger’s feet were draping off the ropes, and Samuels and Frazier caught Vortekz and Lee in a Boston Crab and a crossface respectively for the submission victory. One of the more raucous matches in terms of fan reactions, and solid overall.

Intermission arrived, I moved to a different seat (if you’re going to boo everything and make bad jokes, why even show up?), and then came the second round:

7. The Colony defeated Las Chivas Rayadas. Lots of humor to start out: the wrestlers had ref Bryce Remsburg take a group photo, there were six-way headlocks, submissions, and lockups, etc. Settled into a good match full of dives and such, and more camera involvement (a photo of a dive being taken and the camera flash being used to blind one of the ants. Hope las Chivas post these photos on their MySpace Espanol eventually. The Colony advanced to the Quarter-Finals on Sunday after Fire Ant gave one of the Chivas a Beach Break (Air Raid Crash) off the top rope for the pin.

During this match, Vin Gerard was out sitting on the entrance stage watching the match. For those who may not know the story, Vin Gerard was the wrestler formerly known as Equinox. He lost his mask in November in a match against Chris Hero, was revealed not to be a genuine luchador but a Chikara Wrestle Factory dropout, was ostricized from the locker room for his lies, and is now a brooding, torn-jeans, Age of the Fall-like loner. At the end of the match here, he looked like he was going to start something with his chair, but then turned around and just walked out the building. I’m digging this storyline.

8. BLK OUT defeated The Order of the Neo Solar Temple. Kingston and company really brought the hurtin’ to the Temple, who did their best to put up a fight and seemed to work as defacto babyfaces here. Heavy beatdown on Hydra before Crossbones could come in and make the save. Not enough, as the fresher BLK OUT advanced when Joker nailed Hydra with a sick Rubix Cube. Strong stuff throughout.

9. Quackenbush & Storm & Skayde defeated Team WTF?. My favorite match of the night, full of fast-paced, luchariffic action. I may have mentioned this before, but Cheech and Cloudy have gotten very good compared to the first time I saw them as Special K auxiliaries. Just lots of nice exchanges throughout, especially involving Cheech with Skayde. End saw a Quack nail a big dive to the outside as Skayde broke out a rollup on KZ for the victory. Fantastic.

10. IncoHelios defeated Team IPW:UK. Some good stuff early as the surely attitudes of the Brits (especially the Kartel) had not tempered and Delirious got under their skin with USA chants and a mocking of the British accent that should be seen to be believed. A lot of this match consisted of masked Helios (who reminds me a lot of Ricochet, wink-wink) getting beatdown before his partners could get tagged in. Hot finishing sequence ended with Helios and Delrious in the Kartel’s submission moves, but Hallowicked broke them up with Yakuza kicks and locked Frazier in the Chikara Special for the tapout win. Delirious cut a promo afterwards, saying (of what I could understand) that the Golden Trio would be the King of Trios. Nice ending to Night 1.

Good start to the weekend. I had a fun time. To think that some of these guys on this show (BLK OUT mainly) are set wrestle in Illinois for IWA Mid-South tonight, then come back out here the next day. Looking forward to tonight’s continuation, featuring such characters as El Generico, Larry Sweeney, Tank Toland & Bobby Dempsey, Demolition, and possibly John and Hansley for a Chronicle pow-wow.