Pro Wrestling Chronicle

F.I.S.T. vs. The Colony (Chikara 2/20/09)

I’m taking an extended holiday vacation until the first Monday of January and partly using it to enjoy a stack of wrestling DVDs I have. Plowing through my Chikara stack, I hit up a show from much earlier in the year dubbed “If the Airplane is Snowed In, Put Your Bloody Skis on and Get Going!” The venue is a small fire hall in Reading, PA that they used to run a lot more frequently than they do now. Tiny room with a low ceiling, but it has a charm to it, and the crowds at more recent Reading shows (2007-present) have been much larger and more electric than in the past (2005-06). One of the top matches on this show is F.I.S.T. (Icarus & Gran Akuma & Chuck Taylor) vs. The Colony (Soldier Ant & Fire Ant & Worker Ant) with the winners gaining entrance into the 2009 King of Trios tournament (if you remember that tournament’s outcome, you know the outcome here).

I’ve seen these two teams have a number of matches before this match (King of Trios 2008, a raucous match in Wallingford, CT in May 2008) and after (the great Hair vs. Mask match from May in Philadelphia), but this one is a major turning point in their storied history. On commentary was Louden Noxious and Mike Quackenbush. The match itself lasts 11-12 minutes and is wild from the start as F.I.S.T. jumped the Colony during their entrance. Worker Ant (well in his months-long tribute to Stan Hansen) was rammed head-first into the ring post, starting the real story from the match that gets enhanced by Quack’s commentary. Worker Ant was worked over and took some more shots to the head throughout (not in the dangerous Nigel McGuinness way, but you get the point), and Quack continually expressed his concern over these shots, speaking from experience. F.I.S.T. were all business. Later, as one of the other ants was in danger, Worker would come in for the save. Quack admired his bravery but questioned his condition, and either him or Louden acknowledged at one point how gingerly Worker got into the ring. Worker still soldiered on (not to take away from Soldier Ant) and delivered one of his Hansen lariats for a hope spot. In the end, as Worker had one of the heels in the Chikara Special, Icarus broke up the hold with a dropkick and scored the win with a Pedigree (or Wings of Icarus as it’s called here) that Worker sold like gangbusters. With a spot in King of Trios secured, Icarus gave Worker a kiss of death and Chuck Taylor gave him an Awful Waffle on the floor. A motionless Worker is carried to the back by his partners, refs, the doctor, and the debuting Green Ant (popping out of the back for the first time). At the end of the DVD is a promo by F.I.S.T. where they explained how the Colony were simply out there to win, but they had ulterior motives and in turn made themselves Chikara’s top trio by design. Shortly after this show, Worker announced his retirement from wrestling.

The match itself was good if not a little spotty here and there, and crowd stuck with it. From this I’m taking away Worker’s story and the part Quack’s commentary had in it the most. Obviously, concussions are serious business in wrestling and most other sports these days, and I give credit to Chikara for treating it as such with this storyline, coming off the real concussions suffered by Quack himself in IWA-MS’ 2007 TPI (Quack kept trudging on, adding emotion to the story already laid out there) and by Lince Dorado in Chikara’s own ring in November 2007. They’ve done similar stories in past years, with guys legitimately leaving wrestling and their characters getting written out when Icarus injured them, but Worker Ant’s story from this year has even more resonance.

The DVD of “Bloody Skis” can be found HERE. Also included is Claudio Castagnoli having a heavyweight battle in the main event with the Osirian Portal’s long-gone enforcer Escorpion Egipcio, young Frightmare putting on a brave face against Brodie Lee, Delirious vs. Sami Callihan, and Pinkie Sanchez teaming with the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (a small piece in the current BDK storyline).