CHIKARA King of Trios Night Three Results

Chikara King of Trios 2010: Night 3
Philadelphia, PA – 4/25/10
By Brian Streleckis, PWChronicle.com

– 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.