Pro Wrestling Chronicle

A very busy work day leads to really fun evening leads to an extremely late night. King of Trios is off and running, and Brian Streleckis runs down what occurred in the first round.

- There was a swanky new entrance with projections screens on the top and sides of an entrance tunnel. The Arena was packed, with more chairs getting brought out for fans (number I read was around 550), but the show started late. When it began, Louden Noxious introduced Hydra as the “Poet Laureate of Chikara,” who comes out, doesn’t recite poetry, but does throw frisbees out to the crowd. Then we’re alerted that Brain Damage is running late and that Iceberg’s connecting flight was canceled, so he won’t be at the show. Many fans cheer this news.

- All matches tonight took place in the first round of the King of Trios tournament.

1. The F1rst Family defeated Team EPIC WAR after Ryan Cruz and Darin Corbin hit Ryan Drago with Cruz Control. Austin Aries was the star of this match: he wasn’t just showing babyface fire, but was a babyface inferno. Clapping with the fans and to his opponents’ music, looking really happy, and even making a comeback during the match that was shades of Tatanka that must be seen to be believed. He was also sporting corresponding tights with Tony Kozina, who played the straight man of the trio. Drago was the jerk of the squad, acting meaner than his partners and blind-tagging Aries when he had control. Everyone worked well here too, resulting in a fantastic opener. (11:43)

2. The Osirian Portal defeated Team PWG when Ophidian caught El Generico with a crazy rollup. Aside from a two instances of mistiming involving the Young Bucks and whoever they were in the ring with, all six guys were a lot of fun together. Beginning had Amasis counter El Generico’s wrestling with some dancing, only to get “served” by Generico a short time later. The Young Bucks were fun overall. Escorpion Egipcio looked good to me here, taking some lucha offense early and delivering some good power offense later. The Young Bucks get the “Please Come Back” chant afterward. (16:29)

3. Team Uppercut defeated The Roughnecks after Claudio Castagnoli gave Grizzly Redwood maybe the longest giant swing ever and Bryan Danielson finished him off with Cattle Mutilation. This match surprisingly had a lot more comedy than I expected, but it was good, light-hearted comedy. Team Uppercut came off like stars. Eddie Kingston motioned toward Danielson in the beginning wanting a piece of him, but immediately tagged out to Grizzly. Grizzly had a failed pose-off with Danielson and nervously shook Danielson’s hand to the dismay of Kingston and Brodie Lee (a lot of comedy in the facial expressions), then went on to be overpowered for a while as Danielson had that big smile on his face. Fans chanted, “You’re Gonna Get Your Freakin’ Head Kicked In!” when Kingston tried his luck. Kingston was the victim of a parade of uppercuts by his opponents. The middle of the match got more serious as Danielson got his knee worked over, while Kingston took a page from the Nigel playbook by stealing his shtick. Dave Taylor, sticking mostly to uppercuts throughout his time in the match, attempted a move off the top rope, but Claudio and Danielson talked him down. The giant swing finish was astonishing, especially since Grizzly is such a small guy and Claudio got him higher off the ground than I’ve seen him do with other guys with the move. Not the intense match people were hoping for, but just plain fun to watch with the everybody playing there roles excellently. (20:38)

4. Da Soul Touchaz defeated Team CZW when Willie Richardson caught Greg Excellent with a shoulder tackle and hit him with Da Bomb (top rope leg drop). The comedy was broader, but it was still a good time. Team CZW brought a lot of music to the game, coming out to “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Beef Wellington breaking out the first verse of “Ice Ice Baby” on Richardson (and getting rocked for it), and Excellent making Trauma dance to “Apache” (before Trauma snapped out of it and clotheslined him). Pinkie Sanchez brought out some fun stuff with his ass-based offense, and Beef broke out his infamous Ass Punch again late in the match. Pinkie hit a dive to guys on the outside, but Richardson followed it up with a bigger one. I didn’t get a big impression from Excellent, but Pinkie was good, Beef was funny, and Da Soul Touchaz won over people all over again. (14:56)

- Intermission time. Whole lot of merchandise from everybody again. Also, after seeing him put over Chikara in his past couple blogs, I may have spotted Gabe Sapolsky sitting in the back.

5. F.I.S.T. defeated The Death Match Kings when Chuck Taylor hit Toby Klein with a turnbuckle-assisted Awful Waffle. Brain Damage showed up, but boy did he gain some weight since I’ve seen him in a match on DVD from a year ago. Quite disheartening. Necro Butcher was very over as usual, punching out the heels, while Klein broke out some genuine wrestling. A lot of the match early was fought on the outside, with two of the guys finding their way inside the ring before exchanging places with another pair. Probably the biggest highlight was Gran Akuma bringing two chairs into the ring, challenging Necro to sitdown barroom-style fight (as seen in The Wrestler between Necro and The Ram). It didn’t go well for Akuma, who was also given a back suplex by Brain Damage while still seated in the chair (so he and the chair were suplexed together). My least favorite match of the night, but it was different from everything else on the card. (12:01)

6. The Future Is Now defeated Team DDT when Equinox/Jimmy Olsen made Michael Nakazawa tap to the Chikara Special. Very cool to see Kota Ibushi wrestle in person, as he was awesome. All of Team DDT was pretty much awesome in fact. Nakazawa used his baby oil tactics on Lince Dorado early, slipping out of Dorado’s grip and generally grossing him out before getting assaulted with a towel. Olsen exchanged strikes with Kudo, then Helios and Ibushi went for the really fast exchanges. Lots of simultaneously performed moves. Before the finish, Nakazawa downed some baby oil to mist out, but Olsen chopped him in the throat, causing him to choke on it. He went down, the bell was rung for some reason (oops), but Olsen saved him by stomping on his chest. Maybe the match that relied on the most multi-man choreography, but most people kept up with it, and it was pretty fun overall. A lot of boos for Team DDT losing to The Future Is Now. (17:50)

7. The Masters of a Thousand Holds defeated Incoherence when Johnny Saint caught Delirious with one of his many rollups. Great ovation as expected for Saint. My favorite match of the night, with Mike Quackenbush and Saint each having great exchanges with Hallowicked and Delirious, while Jorge Rivera and Frightmare looked good as well. Delirious was the first to fall victim to Saint’s classic counters, and later on Delirious warned Hallowicked that “he’s got tricks!” My enjoyment for everything here was marred by a scary moment towards the end, when Quackenbush (who is expecting to get another back surgery some time this year) did a dive to the outside and hit his back on the floor hard, looking to be in a lot of pain afterward but still getting up as Saint finished the job. (16:43)

- Last match of the night. After the UnStable enter, Glacier and Al Snow (w/ Head) get their own entrances, with Snow getting a huge ovation coming out to his old WWE music. Leonard F. Chikarason comes out to draw the third man in the team. He denied Al Snow’s request to make Head a part of the team. The first three unsuccessful random selections were Avatar, Shinobi, and Leif Cassidy, all vehemently shot down by Mr. Snow, selling his disdain strongly and remarking that he never loved being a Rocker. The next two selections of Amazing Red and Green Ant (newest member of the Colony that first popped up last month), were not there. The final selection that ended up being available… D’Lo Brown! Big surprise seeing the recent ROH competitor, and the fans went crazy for him.

8. The UnStable defeated The Modified Cold Front when D’Lo Brown hit the Sky High on Vin Gerard, but Colin Delaney caught him from behind with a backslide. Colin and Gerard have grown mustaches to go along with STIGMA’s mustache (on his mask). Colin said early how the other team is the past and that his team was the future, but was met with chants of “You Got Fired,” though D’Lo was afraid they were for him and Snow and jokingly told fans to quiet down. Glacier came in occasionally to break out his usual offense, but was mostly on the outside, enjoying himself. It was mostly Snow and D’Lo running through the heels. They also both did moonsaults. D’Lo was definitely bringing the hurt to the UnStable, especially Colin, with chops and lariats (he even quietly remarked in the ring how he learned one strike from Misawa). Snow was the recipient of the heel beatdown. Another sequence saw each of the UnStable members do the Lo Down on Snow (with STIGMA doing the trademark bobble head gesture), mocking D’Lo. This came off as the most traditional match of the night, but given how late it had gotten, I was getting tired and hoping it would end sooner. Not to say it was bad, because it wasn’t, but it would have been better with a few minutes trimmed off. It will play off better on DVD. After the UnStable scored the unpopular victory, the Not-Quite Cold Front beat them down, with Snow using Head as a weapon and D’Lo doing the Lo Down himself. Fans gave the veteran faces a big ovation. (26:22)

Overall: A long night, but lot of fun throughout and a terrific start in general to the weekend. I’m glad my hands don’t have any sores from all of the clapping done. Aside from going very long and seeing Team DDT eliminated (the only hiccup in my predictions), I have no complaints. Tonight will have the second round with: The F1rst Family vs. F.I.S.T., The Osirian Portal vs. The Future Is Now, Team Uppercut vs. The Masters of a Thousand Holds, Da Soul Touchaz vs. The UnStable. In addition, there will be two showcase matches from Canada’s Inter Species Wrestling (with ISW Champion Player Uno no less) and St. Louis’ Lethal Wrestling Alliance (a tag team match). Also, the mini-tournament of Rey de Voladores will coincide with King of Trios this year, with two 4-way elimination matches (featuring regular Chikara talent and guys eliminated from the first round of King of Trios) taking place on Night 2 and the Finals between those two winners taking place on Night 3. I’m also hoping to make it to the Fan Conclave in a few hours, and I’ll remember to catch ROH’s second HDNet episode during a down period and share some thoughts on that as well. This weekend’s already kicking ass.