- Gavin Loudspeaker’s voice has been pounded into submission this weekend, as he was very hoarse (his voice is his only power!). Also, there were some funny pre-show antics between Jakob Hammermeier and the crowd.

1. King of Trios Semi-Finals: The Colony defeated Team Osaka Pro when Green Ant jumped off the bridged arms of his partners (who were on the top turnbuckle) and hit a massive splash onto Tadasuke. Somehow the Colony had a bag of sugar with them (might have been a gift from ringside fans), but Tadasuke took it from them. The teams agreed to put the sugar on the line in the match. They all worked very well together, and Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada continued to look impressive together. Just a lot of fun, and fans chanted for the Osaka Pro team to return.

2. King of Trios Semi-Finals: Claudio Castagnoli & Ares & Tursas defeated Team Big Japan when Ares pinned Kankuro Hoshino with the Tiger Driver. More great stuff from Daisuke Sekimoto, including giving Claudio a deadlift German suplex. He attempted doing the same to Tursas, but it was broken up. Big Japan gave them a run for their money here, showing some weakness against guys closer to their size. Ares was alone with Hoshino in the ring, getting nearfalls on each other (including from a swanton from Ares), while the other four were left at ringside. Claudio even used to the ring steps to pin Yuji Okabayashi against the ring. A very good match, and fans also requested vociferously the Big Japan crew return.

3. Chuck Taylor defeated El Oriental with the half crab. Pretty good match between the two. Taylor screamed like a little girl when Oriental chopped him. Oriental was hitting the three ascending moonsaults when Taylor got his knees up for the third one, then he hit Sole Food and locked in the crab for the submission.

4. Incoherence (Hallowicked & Frightmare) won a 10-team Elimination Gauntlet. The match started with the Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Sugar Dunkerton) and the UnStable (Vin Gerard & STIGMA). Nice stuff that included Dasher putting Vin on his shoulders and counting down the clock for Sugar to dunk him into the turnbuckle. The Throwbacks were doing the ten corner punches in opposite corners when Vin slipped out of Sugar’s grasp and cradled him for the elimination. Next out was a new team for the occasion called the Legion of Green, consisting of Steve “The Turtle” Wiener and the returning Dragon Dragon (a guy in an oversized dragon mascot costume). Dragon Dragon was beloved upon his first appearance in over two years, paraded around the ring cheering on Steve, and then finally got in the ring himself to fight STIGMA and take him down with a dragon screw. He also gave him some Kobashi-style chops against the ropes, successfully hit a dragon suplex, and he and Steve hit a version of Total Elimination. In the second best moment of the match, Gerard made Dragon Dragon tap out with a stepover TAILhold facelock. Next out were the UnStable’s old enemies in the Future is Now (Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen & Helios), who took it to them with some dives. Olsen eliminated the UnStable with a piledriver on Gerard. Then out came Aeroform (Flip Kendrick & Louis Lyndon) for more flippity doos and back and forth action. After all of the flash, Olsen just punched out Flip to eliminate them. The North Star Express (Darin Corbin & Ryan Cruz) came out, and the two teams had a very nice stretch of action. Corbin and Olsen tired each other out by shooting each other into the ropes, and then came the match’s best moment: Corbin and Olsen wrestling in slow motion, and the ref and the crowd followed suit in their speed. They’ve done this before, and it was still very funny and well done until they had trouble nipping up in slow motion, so they used the ropes and returned to normal speed. Cruz and Helios exchanged some nearfalls before Cruz caught him with one for the elimination. Then came the Order of the Neo Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black & Crossbones). They used their rudo power on the NSE, including a flip dive by Mantis off the apron to the floor. Mantis scored the elimination when he hit the Praying Mantis Bomb on Corbin. Then came Incoherence to quickly clean house, scoring a quick elimination after a series of kicks on Crossbones. Icarus & Gran Akuma followed, and the two teams went at it for a while with Frightmare taking a lot of punishment. However, when Icarus attempted to give him the Blu-Ray (death valley driver into the corner), Frightmare countered with a crucifix bomb for the elimination. Final team out was Sara Del Rey & Daizee Haze. Frightmare was worse for wear while Hallowicked offered to take them on by himself. Frightmare survived a piledriver into a German suplex, but then Hallowicked took out Del Rey with a big knee in the corner and got the pin on Daizee after a massive Rydeen Bomb. So they won the Gauntlet and picked up three consecutive points, qualifying them for a tag title shot. Very fun stuff.

- Intermission. There was an animated trailer on the big screen for a Chikara video game called “Rudo Resurrection.” Something about UltraMantis Black making clones of past Chikara characters to battle the BDK. I had thought it was a legitimate angle at first. More info will be available eventually at chikaravideogame.com.

5. Eddie Kingston defeated Christopher Daniels with the backfist. Daniels played it cool, taking a powder twice early and worked in the headlock on Kingston. He especially worked over his neck to good effect. Kingston fought back. Daniels got the ref in the way so as to poke Kingston in the eye and take him down to set up the Best Moonsault Ever. Kingston got up to avoid and hit the backfist to end. Good stuff.

- Immediately after the match, Tommy Dreamer walked out. Big surprise, though he was simply continuing his “Respect for the Indies 2010 Tour.” He said anyone who knows him knows he loves wrestling, promised everyone he really wouldn’t cry this time (he held up to that), and put over Chikara big time. He said he was really enjoying the show, wouldn’t mind wrestling that dragon, and that “this shit is awesome,” but then he corrected himself for the family audience and restated, “this stuff is awesome.” He knew Kingston looked up to him, wished Eddie that his career wouldn’t end up like his, and then said he would do for Kingston what Terry Funk did for him and offered to wrestle him on the May 23rd Chikara show in Union City, NJ. He then removed his jacket as he left the ring to reveal a Chikara shirt and told Kingston to take the moment because this wasn’t Dreamer’s house anymore. This was all very nice, and Dreamer admittedly would seem like a better fit for a Chikara show than a Dragon Gate USA show.

6. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw defeated the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) when Quack hit a Jig n’ Tonic on Matt with a double stomp assist from Jigsaw. A rematch from the last DGUSA show in Phoenix. The Bucks really heeled it up, taking pride in beating down Quack. A great barrage of moves and dives followed, with Quack & Jigsaw avoiding More Bang For Your Buck, but Jigsaw still eating a 450 for Nick when he had Matt down with a German suplex. Just fantastic stuff overall.

7. Rey de Voladores Finals: Ophidian defeated Matt Cross with a moonsault into a small package to win the tournament. The crowd was sssssssolidly behind Ophidian, but they only really reacted to the match when he got the upper hand or kicked out of one of Cross’ moves. The match was just fine and they worked pretty well together, with Cross surviving Ophidian’s 450 and Ophidian surviving Cross’ shooting star press, but not the strongest match for the semi-main event slot, and I don’t think it could follow the previous match. The finish was a little sloppy.

8. King of Trios Finals: Claudio Castagnoli & Ares & Tursas defeated The Colony to win the tournement with Ragnarok on Fire Ant (and a crooked referee). This match was awesome, full of drama the whole way through. The Colony ran into the ring to take the fight to BDK. A few minutes in they attempted to give Ares the same massive splash that got them into the Finals, but Claudio gave Green Ant an uppercut on his way down. The Colony did pretty well avoiding Tursas by taking him down with dives and sliding dropkicks to the outside, and by sidestepping Claudio and Ares so that they’d collide with him. Fire Ant even climbed one of the Arena’s support beams and did dive off of it, which is something I haven’t seen him do since the first time I saw him on a Chikara show in 2006. Green Ant took a quite a bit of punishment, including a big running uppercut, but that only received a 1-count. Fire Ant (I think) and Ares had one of each other’s partners in the Chikara Special and inverted Chikara Special respectively, and dealt blows to one another as they were side by side. Claudio was in Green Ant’s cloverleaf for quite a while without tapping while his partners were on dive duty. A great near-submission had Claudio lock the inverted Chikara Special on Green Ant, stepping on his hand so as not to reach for the ropes, but then it was broken up. Toward the end, ref Bryce Remsburg was knocked down, Ares had a possible pin with the Tiger Driver, but Bryce was slow to count. Then Tursas just splashed on Bryce to take him out completely. A few moments later, the Colony regained control and hit the Ant Hill on Ares. Out ran a second ref in Derek Sabato (who hasn’t reffed in Chikara since maybe 2008). Ares was down for three, but Sabato cut his count short and said it was only two. Then BDK regained control, hit their finisher on Fire Ant, and Sabato did the fastest count imaginable and demanded the bell be rung. So BDK clinch it the tournament with the help of their own referee, the jerks. Sabato even removed his traditional blue ref shirt to reveal an all white ref shirt. Simple yet great storytelling.

Overall: A great last day for another monstrous Chikara weekend. A number of good-to-great matches on the card topped off by the tournament finals. Story-wise, I was hoping the Colony would win to end the weekend on a happy note, but Chikara got it’s happier moments earlier in the weekend with the other members thwarted, and the war continues. I figured it was a matter of time before the BDK got their own heel ref, following in the footsteps of Dragon Gate way back (Muscle Outlawz had their own heel ref) and lucha. A bit of a downer, but the match and the show overall was fantastic. Chikara returns for their Aniversario shows May 22nd in Tyngsboro, MA and May 23rd in Union City, NJ. Their whole announced schedule can be found at their home base of Chikarapro.com.

I had the pleasure of a front row seat tonight. I’m usually fine with second or third row, but this one had a good vantage point of everything and a guy up front invited me to take it. Gavin Loudspeaker made the announcement of Team Mexico not being there (see the edit I made to my preview article) and said people can request a refund if they choose. All that said, the opening round of King of Trios commenced.

1. F.I.S.T. defeated The Throwbacks when Matt Classic received a pair of kicks from Gran Akuma and Chuck Taylor and a lung-blower from Icarus. Very entertaining match from the get-go, with Classic giving F.I.S.T. a run for their money with the dreaded claw hold on Icarus and an airplane spin on Taylor. There was also a moment where Akuma held onto Icarus by the arms to keep him from falling off the apron, inadvertently forming a hoop for Sugar Dunkerton to dunk his ball, as the P.A. system played “I Believe I Can Fly.” This fucking ruled. Dunkerton got worked over heavily shortly after this. We also had a series of dives to the outside, culminating with Classic, after he had done stair-reps for several minutes while the match was still going on, doing a big splash from the apron, although he had downgraded it from off the turnbuckles. (13:43)

2. Team Big Japan defeated Team Frightning when Yuji Okabayashi made Frightmare tap to a cross-armed torture rack. Big Japan’s female ref Nippon Lee came in to ref this weekend, including for this match. It started with Mike Quackenbush facing Daisuke Sekimoto, with Quack largely going after the legs and working them over in an attempt to weaken the big man. It didn’t last, and he started throwing his power about. Kankuro Hoshino, who has a bunch of noticeable scars over his body, liked to do the senton a lot. Hallowicked wasn’t in the match as often as his partners, both of whom down the line received a tandem German suplex from Sekimoto out of the corner. Team Frightning got a very close nearfall with two swanton bombs from Quack and Hallowicked and the double knees moonsault from Frightmare. Quite good, and kind of a surprising result. (11:12)

3. Claudio Castagnoli & Ares & Tursas defeated The Osirian Portal & Sara Del Rey when Ophidian was the victim of the triple-team move that I believe is called Ragnarok. Claudio & Ares survived the volcano! The Portal was drawn out of a Phillies hat by Bryce Remsburg after the previously drawn teams – Well Dunn and Strike Force – were not available. Then out came Director of Fun and BDK sympathizer Dieter VonSteigerwalt with his own hat, and he had BDK ring announcer Jakob Hammermeier draw Del Rey’s name. A very story-heavy match as you would expect, with the Portal essentially at 2 vs. 4 and Del Rey attempting to cost them the victory, including laying down for Tursas her first time in the match. Portal fought back and had a number of hope spots, despite getting beat down heavily whenever Tursas got in. They temporarily thwarted Del Rey’s involvement by hypnotizing her, then just plain traded blows with her. Ophidian had Claudio in the death grip toward the end, but Del Rey pulled his feet and kicked him low to break it up. The Ragnarok finish consisted of Claudio and Tursas holding Ophidian up in a cross position in the corner, allowing Ares to spear him and making him flip over into a massive double-team iconoclasm. Fun stuff and a lot of good heat for it.

4. Team Osaka Pro defeated The UnStable when Daisuke Harada finished off Colin Delaney with a knee to the face from a hip toss position and a German suplex. This match was kind of a blur by the end of the night, but I do remember Team Osaka Pro looking good and the UnStable still heeling it up well, even with BDK in town. Atsushi Kotoge has some good agility, and I really took notice of STIGMA’s hearty evil laugh. There looked to be some dissension between the UnStable following the match, with Vin Gerard even laughing it off or acting as if to say, “Surprise surprise, we lose again.” (9:55)

- Intermission, where Colt Cabana was kind enough to show up. Also, in addition to a lot of the wrestlers this weekend selling their wares, former PWG commissioner Dino Winwood was just chilling up in the balcony taking in the show.

5. The Colony defeated Johnny Gargano & Aeroform when Fire Ant hit the Beach Break on Flip Kendrick. This match didn’t have a lot of heat to it compared to the other matches, but the action was still fine. Louis Lyndon threw off Soldier Ant a bit with his kung fu posery, so he fired back with his salutes. Green Ant suffered the typical tag match beatdown early on, with Lyndon hitting a bunch of kicks and Gargano showing off a wide array of maneuvers. Green Ant fought back with the headbutt. One moment saw Gargano offering to do a plancha to the outside before his partners, but he he ended up eating floor, so both Flip and Louis did dives over the opposite corners onto the ants. Another saw Green Ant reverse Gargano’s finisher into a Texas Cloverleaf. Flip broke out the flips of course, including one off the top for a nearfall. The Colony ultimately kept the dream alive. (14:10)

6. Tim Donst & Lince Dorado & Pinkie “Pink Ant” Sanchez defeated The F1rst Family when Pinkie made Ryan Cruz submit to the inverted Chikara Special. Jakob sat in front of my section, with Tim Donst’s Young Lions Cup by his side and within spitting distance of me (I’m a gentleman though). Arik Cannon was beloved here. Lince has new gear of course that has probably been seen by now (with one eye bordered by red), and Pinkie has dark hair again, but also a bunch of pink streaks over his arms and face. A good lengthy match where they hit nearly every move available to them, including Cannon’s Glimmering Warlock on Lince and a doomsday bulldog by the BDK trio, with Pinkie & Lince delivering the move (with another cross position) off of Donst’s shoulders. Plenty of nearfalls, and they were going at quite a pace. The heels thwarted Cruz Control, and Cruz fell victim to Pinkie’s tree of woe butt splash (shades of Low Ki’s Ghetto Stomp) and Lince’s shooting star press before getting submitted.

7. Team Perros del Mal defeated Team Delicioso when Cuije hit El Hijo del Ice Cream with a Alebrije-assisted splash. An insanely entertaining match, even funnier than the opener. Curry Man indeed came out to his old TNA theme, complete with his puffy hat, and he made Los Ice Creams dance. Seeing Cuije in the ring with all of these guys is something else, and he was the star of the match if not the whole show. He didn’t do much aside from getting thrown around and react to things, but he was highly enjoyable. Curry Man tried to make him do a traditional indy wrestling sequence, but his size and his own intentions wouldn’t allow it. There were moments when Alebrije would do something to El Hijo when he wasn’t looking (kick him in the ass and shove him down), then turn around and see Cuije acting as if he had done it. The Ice Creams bullied Cuije quite a bit, with El Hijo imitating Rob Van Dam’s thumb-pointing, but Curry Man was more considerate of his diminutive opponent. El Oriental, who brought his own streamers to the ring, was more of your meat & potatoes luchador, having some good exchanges with a few hiccups. Alebrije, who is very large, served his purpose, and Curry Man was a pro as usual. Loved this. (15:50)

- They held the first raffle drawing of the weekend, then a guy named James asked a girl named Ashley (both fans from the crowd) to marry him in the middle of the ring. Cute, and I’ve never seen one of these in person, but there were some boo-birds as usual.

8. The Future is Now defeated The Jackson 3 when Malachi Jackson ate a 630 from Helios. Malachi, in the first time I’ve seen him, looked quite impressive; the first move he did was flying off the top with a 630 into an arm drag. I’m sure Chris Hero on ROH commentary would have found plenty odd about him, plus when he’s showing off babyface fire, he sounds like James Cagney. Nick & Matt, with “GenMe” on the back of their tights, began heeling it up over the course of the match, while still hitting their signature moves. Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen came back from a beatdown, and all of the guys commenced in a lot of crazy moves, including a few dives to the outside right in front of me (some of which dislodged the guardrail). Pure insanity with Nick Jackson ending up in someone’s lap. In the actual ring, Jigsaw was given More Bang For His Buck, and I believe Malachi followed up with some change in the form of a shooting star press, but his partners saved him. Following the pinfall, as TFIN attempted to help up Malachi and show him respect, Nick and Matt shooed them away. When Malachi was willing to offer a hand and didn’t understand why his brothers were being such dicks, they just walked out on him. A very good closer. (19:24)

Overall: Pretty amazing night, but if there’s anything I learned from these tournaments, the following nights could only get better. The Quarter-Final matches for Saturday night were announced as Claudio’s team vs. Team Perros del Mal, The Future is Now vs. Team Big Japan, Tim Donst’s team vs. The Colony, and Team Osaka Pro vs. F.I.S.T. Plus Rey de Voladores kicks off featuring (as of now) Ophidian, Cheech Hernandez, and the debuting “M-Dogg 20″ Matt Cross, and two other matches, one of which featuring Brodie Lee.

To reiterate from the last time I wrote about this match two years ago, the Torneo Cibernetico is an 8-on-8 elimination tag team match where the partners have to follow a specific batting order when tagging out. Also, this match has to come down to one winner, so if one team gets completely eliminated, the remaining partners on the other team have to duke it out until the finish. This has actually happened at the last Cibernetico show I attended, and (SPOILERS!) it happened again here tonight. To top things off, this year’s Cibernetico had a Parejas Increibles (Incredible Partners) theme, with NEW Campeones de Parejas Fire Ant & Soldier Ant (they won them last month) as captains of opposing teams made up of other babyface partners opposing one another. Fire Ant was joined by Jigsaw, Green Ant, Player Dos, Cloudy, Frightmare, Helios, and Nick Jackson (of the Young Bucks!), while Soldier Ant’s squad consisted of Mike Quackenbush, Carpenter Ant, Player Uno, Cheech, Hallowicked, Lince Dorado, and Matt Jackson (the other Young Buck!).

Another crowd in the 300-range and very enthusiastic (keep on growin’), but the show started about 10 minutes late.

1. The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Sugar Dunkerton) defeated Los Ice Creams (Ice Cream Jr. y El Hijo del Ice Cream) when Hatfield hit Ice Cream Jr. with the Grand Slam and Dunkerton pinned him following a top rope elbow drop. As you may have guessed or heard, Dunkerton is a Globetrotters-inspired, Afro’d basketball player out of the 70s. He fits pretty well with Hatfield’s Old Timey King of Swing (who I expect may indeed stick around longer due to this pairing and the fact that Hatfield masks are being sold), and they had a lot of fun teamwork. Dunkerton has some good offense from off the court, and the Ice Creams played into it well. Another fun opener. (7:26)

2. Vin Gerard defeated Ryuichi Kawakami with the STF. Kawakami is a young wrestler from Big Japan and has a stocky frame. Gerard was replacing Eddie Kingston, Kawakami’s original opponent, because Kingston is out with a severely broken nose. The two of them were about the same height. Not much to the match, as Gerard worked over Kawakami’s leg and stomped on him, while Kawakami came back with some kicks and a belly-to-belly suplex. Just okay stuff with a pretty surprising end. (6:21)

3. Daizee Haze & Bullfight Sora defeated Sara Del Rey & La Malcriada when Del Rey was disqualified for excessive violence. Haze and Del Rey started a new storyline through ChikaraPro.com’s blog in which both ladies are looking for better competition, so we get this match featuring two Japanese women: Sora with her cow gimmick (complete with a horned mask she put to use and cow-print gear) and Malcriada (who previously appeared in Chikara for King of Trios 2007: Night 3) with her cat motif. Also, Big Japan’s female ref Nikkan Lee officiated the match. I had fun watching this. Most of it was one of the Japanese women with one of the Americans, with Haze and Del Rey not tangling until the very end, when they kept reversing each other’s full nelson attempt as Sora kept wavering on the top rope. In the end, Del Rey hit Sora with a piledriver, but pulled her up at a two count. Then she hit stood Sora up and hit her with a kick to the head, pulled her shoulders up again, hit the Royal Butterfly, and pulled her shoulders up again for the last time as Lee called for the bell. Haze had a brief staredown with Del Rey and seemed to tell her, “You deserve something more.” Haze and Del Rey left while fans showed their appreciation toward the Japanese visitors. Pretty good match. (7:05)

4. Claudio Castagnoli defeated Sal Rinauro when Rinauro tapped to the giant swing. Genuine hilarity ensued here. Rinauro, who made his Chikara debut the previous night in Easton (challenging Mike Quackenbush for his NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title and losing to a headlock takeover pin), was more of his cocky self from FIP and elsewhere as opposed to his hapless jobber role from ROH on HDNet. I believe Claudio wrestled this entire match while wearing a red streamer around his neck. Sal failed to match up to Claudio’s hand-height for an attempted test of strength, so he tossed a dollar, ref Bryce Remsburg bent down to pick it up, and Sal hopped on his shoulders to gain the height advantage. Claudio wrestled Rinauro in this chicken fight position while Bryce kept officiating despite a wrestler being on his shoulders. This has to be seen to get the full impression of it. Some humor in the corner, Rinauro’s failed attempt at a giant swing, and a couple rotations of Claudio’s own version later, and Rinauro was done. A good comedy match. (6:47)

5. Icarus & Crossbones & Colin Delaney defeated Chuck Taylor & UltraMantis Black & STIGMA when Mantis was counted out and/or when Icarus rolled up STIGMA. An unannounced match that also followed the Parejas Increibles rules (at first I thought we were getting a 12-man tag of some sort). All of the regular partners on opposing sides were gentle with one another at first but then got increasingly competitive. All of the wrestlers did a six-way submission spot with all illegal holds, eliciting a “rudos!” chant from a portion of the crowd. A few minutes later, out came Vokoder, a mysterious and possibly robotic wrestler who popped up in the crowd in May and debuted in August in the Young Lions Cup tournament. He came out the previous night to mess around with Mantis’ staff, providing a distraction to Mantis to use it to win a match against Green Ant & Carpenter Ant. Vokoder looked to be doing something similar, but Leonard F. Chikarason came right out afterward and sent him to the back before he could do anything. Very soon afterward, the lights went out, and the mysterious man in white from August (dubbed “BDK” by some fans), who appears to be looking for the Eye of Tyr that Mantis stole, popped up on the screen. The lights came back on, Mantis was backed up against the guardrail outside, and up walked “BDK” and another man in white with a horned mask behind him, causing Mantis to run for the hills in fright. Icarus scored his pinfall on STIGMA, which was counted by the ref, but Louden Noxious announced Icarus’ team winning by count-out. Odd finish to a match with strange-yet-awesome happenings. (6:42)

6. The Osirian Portal (Amasis & Ophidian) defeated The Roughnecks (Brodie Lee & Grizzly Redwood) when they hit the Osirian Sacrament on Grizzly. The Portal were sporting new, more colorful gear, came out to a new cover of “Walk Like An Egyptian,” and were playing the babyface roles here. Brodie appeared more pissed than usual throughout the match, perhaps because he and Grizzly lost in their shot at the tag titles the previous night in two straight falls. He’d even pull Grizzly off one of their opponents when he attempted a pinfall. Outside one moment of dancing, the Portal played it straight and fought back with head scissors and lucha moves. Brodie accidentally hit Grizzly with his big boot, then was sent to the outside and hit with a tope suicida by Ophidian that shifted the guardrail. This all set up the finish, giving the Portal their third point (after gaining two the previous night in a four-team elimination match) and another shot at the titles they just recently lost. Good competitive match. (14:11)

- After the match, Brodie was about to leave, came back in to help Grizzly to his feet, then gave him the big boot again, this time on purpose. Looks like the Roughnecks are dead, or at least Grizzly’s involvement since there’s no clue what Eddie Kingston will do (aside from potentially going face).

- Intermission, during which Gabe Sapolsky hawked tickets to next month’s Dragon Gate USA show (already have mine), Mantis & Crossbones appeared in white masks and Cosby attire, Grizzly finally came to and made his way slowly to the back, and, when the music was just right, Amasis and Sugar Dunkerton had a dance-off.

7. Carpenter Ant won the 6th Annual Torneo Cibernetico. In the beginning, all of the wrestlers went through the batting order once until Soldier Ant and Helios (the last in their respective teams’ batting orders) began exchanging pinfall attempts. Green Ant was the first man eliminated, due to a reversal of La Magistral by Matt Jackson, and this didn’t happen until the around the 15-minute mark. Lots of crisp exchanges and some big dives a little under half-way through. Even though it was all babyfaces, fans had their favorites and a number of the nearfalls had drama to them. The Young Bucks and Cheech & Cloudy didn’t face each other, but the other teammates did, including the Super Smash Bros. very briefly when Dos eliminated Uno with a frog splash. Carpenter Ant looked pretty good throughout the match, giving many fans the impression that he’s more experienced than what we’re led to believe. He eliminated Frightmare with the Burning Hammer (get it?). Fire Ant was all by himself at around 46 minutes. He managed to eliminate Lince Dorado with a pin reversal for the Chikara Special, but then soon fell to Quackendriver IV (almost a gut-wrench cradle powerbomb variation). With one team entirely eliminated, it was down to Quackenbush, Hallowicked, Soldier Ant, and Carpenter Ant. Solider eliminated both Wicked and Quack quickly with a TKO and a pinning combination respectively, leaving behind the competitive Carpenter, who wrestled and lost to Soldier in the Young Lions Cup tournament. Carpenter nearly got a pass-out victory with a hammerlock guillotine, but Soldier fought out of it. He went for the Chikara Special again, but Carpenter countered out of it by kicking Soldier’s head. Then he locked in a half-crab with a head capture with the leg (what is described on Chikarafans as an inverted Chikara Special) and scored the big submission victory. You can’t read the ants’ faces since they’re completely hidden, but Carpenter seemed elated while Soldier seemed a bit dumbfounded but impressed with his rookie partner. A very fun spectacle. (51:20)

Overall: Another good time, and the Torneo Cibernetico is always good for some exciting stuff, even though this one didn’t have the tension of a feud as past Ciberneticos have had. It could still lead to some tension down the line that has already come to fruition between the likes of the Super Smash Bros. and The Future Is Now. The undercards of the Cibernetico shows suffer a little because you get more matches than usual on the first half that don’t get a lot of time, allowing the Cibernetico match to get more time. Fortunately, the undercard matches here were given appropriate amounts of time here for what they were meant to accomplish. Lots of some fun stuff involving Dasher Hatfield and his new partner, Claudio and Rinauro, and even the women, as well as the Eye of Tyr story getting furthered along. The show actually ended up being shorter than usual, but I wasn’t complaining after seeing a nearly hour-long spotfest. The next shows for Chikara will be their final shows of the year – November 21st in Easton (“Throwing Life’s Instructions Away”) and 22nd in in Philadelphia (“Three-Fisted Tales”) – plus there will be more more Chikara involvement with Dragon Gate USA’s “Open The Freedom Gate” show on November 28th, including Quackenbush contending for the Open The Freedom Gate Championship.