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 Chikara Pro Wrestling. The indie promotion so obnoxious that it gets its own thread separate from the regular indie wrestling thread. Mike Quackenbush’s pride and joy is kicking into its 15th season, which happens to be the first full season since 2012. The “white boy lucha” promotion uses a lot of comedy and far-out comic book storytelling. While you’re bound to get some outside-the-box angles, the nice thing – and one of the reasons they’re able to keep such a fanbase – is that the stories are well thought-out. It’s rare that something doesn’t get any payoff and everything appears to be sketched out far in advance. Don’t worry about the details unless you want to. One of the big plot devices of Chikara is the Eye of Tyr, a mind-controlling artifact that UltraMantis Black brought into the company back in 2009. Since then, it’s played a role in various angles, but you don’t need to know its backstory to understand what’s going on. Just know that it’s a magic doohickey that alters minds. Usually, the commentary booth are good at getting you caught up. Chikara’s main drawback is how they’ve become a bit too independent for their own good. King of Trios was hurt by the lack of outside teams, even if it was still a fantastic trio of shows. Recently, they’ve decided to step away a bit from Smart Mark Video by filming and editing on their own. Judging from their first show, this is a big, big mistake. The point of this is mostly to use their own site as a place to buy all Chikara shows and even buy matches on their own, kind of like iTunes. Previously on Chikara... Season 14 was about Chikara’s grand return where Icarus defeated Eddie Kingston to win the Grand Championship. Already there was a war between the Chikara faithful and the Flood, a stable made up of other anti-Chikara stables. At the end of the initial show, the Flood’s final end boss leader Deucalion showed himself and started laying waste to the Chikara roster. Throughout the year, he killed off the likes of Kobald, deviANT, Estonian Thunderfrog, Latvian Proud Oak, Equinox III, Create-a-Wrestler II, Archibald Peck and the Shard. Thunderfrog also murdered Tursas. At the finale, Icarus challenged Deucalion to a non-title cage match where not only did Icarus win, but he used Thunderfrog’s magic hammer to take Deucalion down for good. Since then, what’s left of the Flood has disbanded and Chikara can move on. The Challenge of the Immortals As of this writing, we’re two shows into season 15. Recently, it was announced that 2015 would be home to a massive round robin tournament called the Challenge of the Immortals. The last time they did a big round robin variation was 2011 with the 12 Large Summit, which ended fine enough, but was met with all sorts of problems due to a couple wrestlers either leaving (Claudio) or getting injured (Amasis, Vin Gerard). This one sidesteps the problem by being stable-based, so if someone’s off the table, they can write around that. Ten captains had to draft teams of four. Their teams will face all the other teams twice, giving us a total of 90 matches. Ahead of time, the captains will agree on what kind of match it will be: singles, tag, trios or atomicos. They just can’t do the same match type twice. Each victory gets the team a point and whoever has the most points at the end get free title shots whenever they want them. Here are the teams. I’ll add more pics once the site’s roster page includes them. The Wrecking Crew  Members: Max Smashmaster (captain), Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Jaka Affiliation: Rudo The Wrecking Crew is a stable run by King of Managers and all-around anachronistic scumbag Sidney Bakabella, made up of the unstoppable trio of the Devastation Corporation (Smashmaster, McMassive and Rumblecrunch), the wild savage Jaka and doofy Viking guy Oleg the Usurper. The Devastation Corporation outright dominated 2014 by winning King of Trios as well as Max and Blaster winning the tag titles. Already, the two have been racking up singles wins and their momentum makes them a favorite to win the Challenge of the Immortals. Since there are only four spots, they made sure that Oleg was somebody else’s problem. Dasher’s Dugout  Members: Dasher Hatfield (captain), Mr. Touchdown, Icarus and Heidi Lovelace Affiliation: Tecnico Dasher Hatfield and “Mr. Touchdown” Marc Angelosetti, the Throwbacks, spent much of 2014 as the tag champs before losing them to the Devastation Corporation. Earlier in the year, they teamed up with Grand Champion Icarus to enter the King of Trios tournament, only to lose in the finals to the Devastation Corporation. The three are going to try and redeem themselves, while adding new Young Lions Cup champion Heidi Lovelace. The Arcane Horde  Members: UltraMantis Black (captain), Kodama, Obariyon and Oleg the Usurper Affiliation: Mostly Tecnico UltraMantis just came off a bittersweet victory at the end of the last season when he finally defeated his longtime rival Delirious in a match where the loser would leave Chikara. Delirious used the mystical Eye of Tyr to turn UltraMantis’ teammates Hallowicked and Frightmare against him. Hallowicked warned UltraMantis not to recruit any underlings for their impending war, but UltraMantis has been handpicked to be a team captain, so there you go. After a drafting war against Smashmaster and a series of trades, UltraMantis has finally settled on his team. Kodama and Obariyon of the Batiri have been allies and enemies to UltraMantis in years prior, but they’ve been aimless since losing their little buddy Kobald and need direction. The fourth member is Oleg, who UltraMantis was reluctant to include. Not only does he simply not like him, but the rest of the Wrecking Crew consider him to be an idiot who they like to blame for any of their losses. The Gentlemen’s Club  Members: Chuck Taylor (captain), Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy and Swamp Monster Affiliation: ??? Chuck Taylor started out 2015 on a bad foot after failing to capture the Grand Championship against Icarus. Tasked with coming up with his own team, he went the familiar route and brought in his buddies from the Gentlemen’s Club. The team includes expert grappler “The Legal Eagle” Drew Gulak, the krunk-yet-capable “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy and the mysterious and smelly Swamp Monster. They’ve only showed up as a team a couple times in Chikara, but have worked together many times across the indies. They’ve even starred in their own not-so-family-friendly YouTube series. Nightmare Warriors  Members: Hallowicked (captain), Frightmare, Silver Ant and Blind Rage Affiliation: Mostly Rudo Ever since having their minds altered by the Eye of Tyr, Hallowicked and Frightmare have been a mystery. They debuted sinister, new attire in the season premiere and have been more cutthroat in their actions. Hallowicked, who spent years only speaking in gibberish, is now speaking clearly, mentioning stuff about the Cannibal Prince and the Lord of Rot, whatever that means. The zombie wrestler Blind Rage has been an ally of Hallowicked in the past, which makes enough sense, even if he’s been just as friendly with UltraMantis. The more interesting draft choice is Silver Ant – formerly Green Ant – of the Colony, who has nothing to do with any of this madness. Yet. Bruderschaft des Kreuzes  Members: Jakob Hammermeier (captain), Soldier Ant, Nokken and Pinkie Sanchez Affiliation: Rudo The BDK has existed in various forms for years, but in 2014, Jakob Hammermeier took over as leader. In the original incarnation, Jakob was the lowly ring announcer and later bottom-of-the-barrel wrestler. After the team folded, he was Tim Donst’s hanger-on, which went sour once Donst had a mental breakdown and became physically and psychologically abusive. Jakob turned on him before vanishing and instead of coming out of it a good guy, the crowd’s sympathy gave Jakob a bit of a complex. Under the guise of Dr. Cube, he sabotaged and took over the returning BDK from within, having his personal monster Nokken crush former leader Ares and kick him out of Chikara. He also brought back original BDK member Pinkie Sanchez, who spent months disguised as one of Dr. Cube’s underlings. Rounding out the team is Soldier Ant, formerly from the Colony. After a managerial mandate caused Soldier to be removed from the Colony, as well as several other setbacks that hurt his morale, Soldier quit Chikara and went missing. Not even his old team could find him. He returned over a year later as part of the Flood, no longer the ant he once was. Whether it’s the Eye of Tyr’s doing or extensive brainwashing, Soldier Ant has become the Winter Soldier Ant. Not only is he focused on ending the careers of the Colony, but he’s also stronger and virtually impervious to pain. Battle Hive  Members: Amasis (captain), Fire Ant, Worker Ant and Ashley Remington Affiliation: Tecnico Amasis and Ophidian are the Osirian Portal and despite being in contention for the tag titles, they’re both team captains here and are forced to compete against each other. Regardless, Amasis has put together a fairly strong team that includes popular newcomer “Smooth Sailing” Ashley Remington, a yacht enthusiast rich with both money and class, though with a little bit of a temper that’s yet to be fully unleashed. Then there’s Fire Ant and Worker Ant (formerly assailANT) of the Colony, who have been having their problems combating Soldier Ant. Fire really doesn’t want to have to fight him and even put a bit of a crack in Soldier’s programming at the season premiere by saluting him while being strangled. The Snake Pit  Members: Ophidian (captain), Eddie Kingston, Shynron and Argus Affiliation: Tecnico The other half of the Osirian Portal has his own unique team of individuals. Eddie Kingston is one of the top names in Chikara, whose lengthy title reign and eventual loss drove him to madness and depression. Though his head is on a little straighter, he’s still frustrated due to having earned a title shot, only to lose it after Kevin Condron cheated in a match and beat him by disqualification. The high-flyer Shynron won the Rey de Voladores tournament in 2014, but has otherwise kept a low-profile. Then there’s Argus, a weirdo rookie from Chikara’s developmental promotion Wrestling is Fun, who appears to be some kind of mute Aztec robot reptile man who competes with his “gecko-roman” grappling style. While a well-rounded team, Ophidian's mindset might make him a liability. So far, his recent strings of failures have made him question the gods he worships and he might be falling off the deep end soon enough. United Nations  Members: Juan Francisco de Coronado (captain), Mr. Azerbaijan, Prakash Sabar and the Proletariat Boar of Moldova Affiliation: Rudo Juan Francisco has been a lone wolf since showing up. The hated aristocrat from Ecuador almost became Grand Champion last year, but failed, much like he failed to defeat his rival Ashley Remington at the 2014 finale. He’s chosen to work with the trio known as the Bloc Party, three evil foreigners who really haven’t had much to do since their heroic opposites the Baltic Siege were annihilated by Deucalion last year. The trio is made up of aging sexy man Mr. Azerbaijan, the hate-filled Proletariat Boar of Moldova and the X-Pac enthusiast Prakash Sabar. Crown & Court  Members: Princess Kimber Lee (captain), Jervis Cottonbelly, El Hijo del Ice Cream and Ice Cream Jr. Affiliation: Tecnico Welp. These guys aren’t winning. Formerly the manager of Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy, Princess Kimber Lee has become a fan favorite for her ability to take on even the biggest male opponents. Polite gentleman Jervis Cottonbelly has regularly assisted her since she broke away from Knight Eye. During a match, El Hijo del Ice Cream befriended Kimber Lee due to how she reminds him of Elsa from Frozen. After she drafted him, El Hijo begged the princess to draft his brother. Kimber Lee folded to his demands and now has a sweet team on her hands, but also a team of dudes with horrible win/loss records. The rest of the roster... Colony XTREME Force: Missile Assault Ant, Arctic Rescue Ant and Orbit Adventure Ant were brought in as a blatant instance of franchising the Colony name, but with the Colony all split up and the Flood done with, there’s no real point to these guys. As of the season premiere, the team appears to be falling to pieces. Kevin Condron: Kid Cyclone looked to be a can’t-miss prospect, but he was disgusted by how his Chikara mentors weren’t doing enough about Deucalion. He and his fellow masked friends called Deucalion out at King of Trios and Kid Cyclone was forced to watch them murdered in front of his eyes. He escaped and the situation drove him mad. He came back at the season finale and attacked Eddie Kingston with a wrench before unmasking and revealing that he didn’t want to be Kid Cyclone anyway. The Lithuanian Snow Troll, once forced to be Jimmy Jacobs’ chained attack dog slave, now worships and follows Condron. Volgar: Dude was Jimmy Jacobs’ bodyguard. He’s still on the roster, but with the Flood done with, who knows what he’s all about. NRG: Race Jaxon and Hype Rockwell are the new High Energy. Seriously, they wear the same outfits and are interracial and everything. The hook is that Hype is the one constantly stuck driving them to shows while Race gets to sleep during the rides. That means that Race is super pumped during their matches while Hype is constantly falling asleep. 3.0: Shane Matthews and Scott Parker played a big role in bringing Chikara back from death, but due to some real life issues with Matthews’ Twitter being filled with misogynistic crap, a chunk of the crowd has turned on them. They lost a tag title shot at the end of season 2014 and have since not been booked. They might be working towards a heel turn, but they also might be kept away for a bit due to their negative reactions. The Return of Thunderfrog: The Estonian Thunderfrog succeeded in slaying Tursas in 2014, but the next night, Deucalion killed Thunderfrog in return. Since then, Jervis has been broken about losing his best friend and judging from his Twitter, he’s been trying to figure out a way to bring back the dead. After the 2014 finale ended, we got a scene of Thunderfrog being reborn as a regular frog wearing a cape. Surely, this should be a time for celebration, but recently Tursas’ appeared on Twitter to note that when Thunderfrog escaped the afterlife, the monstrous Viking beast returned as well. That doesn’t bode well. Then again, I guess it does, since Tursas loving owns. In the meantime, he and Nokken are acting as a tag team in other indie promotions. Sweet. Gavok fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Mar 14, 2015 |
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Feb 26, 2015 08:34
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njsykora posted:I haven't payed any attenton to Chikara since the Under the Hood iPPV, what in the name of loving nerds is Icarus' new gear? Like mentioned, it's a mix between covering up that tattoo and paying homage to the Greatest American Hero. Back in 2013, right before Chikara "died" they were setting up Eddie Kingston defending the belt against Icarus while both were in the middle of slow-burn turns. Eddie was practically a tweener while Icarus was building up a face turn. Part of it had to do with Marty Jannetty showing up for a couple shows. Icarus started bringing up how he was a huge Jannetty fan growing up and it led to him competing in the title match in Jannetty's old 90's tights. Coincidentally, the outfit mostly covered his back tattoo, making it easier for everyone to cheer him on. Icarus wore that until National Pro Wrestling Day '14. He announced Chikara's return and they immediately tweeted a version of the Chikara logo that looked like the Greatest American Hero logo along with the caption "Believe it or not..." To build on that (and Icarus driving around to the show's theme during the Ashes videos), Icarus showed up like that at the big return show. Again, no sign of the tattoo. He has a better, blue version that he mostly wears when teaming up with the Throwbacks.
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Feb 26, 2015 19:51
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King of Trios has been announced for September 4-6 (Labor Day weekend) and will once again be in Easton. So yay, super cheap hotels! Edit: Bullet Club (AJ Styles and Young Bucks) announced as team #1. Nice. Gavok fucked around with this message at 18:38 on Mar 1, 2015 |
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Mar 1, 2015 18:13
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DM Punk posted:Front Row for all 3 nights is already sold out in just under 8 hours of being on sale. Considering they were $75 each, that's pretty good. I guess they didn't overprice them this year. Man, I missed out. I'm instead going row 3, row 1 and row 3 for the weekend. Hurts that they dropped the option for row 4.
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Mar 2, 2015 04:16
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Jay 2K Winger posted:Unfortunately, the website doesn't say whether Wicked/Argus or Wicked/Oleg are considered part of COTI or not. Likewise, it isn't clear if the Snake Pit/Battle Hive match is atomicos or trios or what. I think the Facebook page said it would be a trios match. Amasis, Fire Ant and Worker Ant vs. Ophidian, Argus and Shynron I believe.
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Mar 3, 2015 21:35
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EL BROMANCE posted:Are the UK shows part of the storyline, being filmed etc? I'm not sure whether to expect a house show or an actual event at the moment. Really looking forward though. Yep and yep. Every Chikara show "counts."
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Mar 3, 2015 21:53
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I watched the first match of NPWD and luckily the production values have improved somewhat. This is probably helped by the venue having better lighting and the fact that not only do they have a third camera, but it's a much-needed hard camera. The sound is better too, since I could actually understand Juan Francisco's promo without needing the subtitles (which are a nice touch). It still needs work and that one guy needs to stop going all Dutch angle on everything, but it's a huge step up from New Start so far.
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Mar 4, 2015 00:09
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I read that Condron got really sick during his match and puked a couple times. Also, Bakabella caused Oleg to lose his match by running out and yelling that he was still his minion under contract. I wouldn't mind if Challenge of the Immortals' final, winner-defining match was something like Oleg vs. Smashmaster where Oleg wins and UltraMantis goes on to become Grand Champion.
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Mar 8, 2015 08:37
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OmegaBR posted:Also, there was no dissension among the Portal and they left together. After the Osirian Sacrament failed, Ophidian yelled out, "Amasis! Why?!" But if you've been paying attention to his twitter, it sounds like a general "Why?" toward the deities rather than at Amasis himself. Makes sense, since the two of them were pretty understanding and respectful about both being captains. Plus, as I've talked about before, the two feuding would be a terrible idea since they already had a lengthy feud, had a big blow-off, and haven't been back together all that long. I'm glad that Hallowicked vs. Argus wasn't part of COTI, only because it would have made Ophidian look like the biggest idiot for agreeing to the match. Speaking of COTI, I updated the OP with some more team images. They still have to put up Gentlemen's Club and Dasher's Dugout. Once they get that done, I'll do a big chart to keep track of the tournament.
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Mar 8, 2015 20:38
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There's only five matches (of the 90 total) done, but here's a chart to keep track of Challenge of the Immortals. Eh... the team name text looked better before I saved it. I'll make it bigger next time.
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Mar 17, 2015 08:01
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Yeah, pretty sure they've done away with sending out tickets and now just want you to print them out or whatever.
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Mar 17, 2015 16:36
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They used to do that, but I'm pretty sure they said that they aren't doing that for this year's Trios, so I imagine it's the same for the other shows.
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Mar 18, 2015 04:35
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A wrestler just made his debut in Minnesota Extreme Wrestling the other day named the Estonian Farmerfrog. He happens to look like Thunderfrog in overalls with an Amish beard.
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Mar 23, 2015 04:20
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Jervis Cottonbelly just tweeted the match to UltraMantis, saying, "I think it is time I see her. Though I am afraid, I must I face my destiny." Whatever that means.
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Mar 23, 2015 05:21
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I am totally cool with the results of that last match.
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Apr 6, 2015 21:53
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The best thing about Hallowicked's heel turn is Silver Ant's role. At one of the shows, Hallowicked's doing his ridiculous monologue and Silver Ant's all, "Um hey, that's great, but anyway, I think that we can make a great team and win matches so I'm going to go and try and win matches. Later." Also, Hallowicked now has a beard and it looks really weird coming out the bottom of his mask.
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Apr 22, 2015 02:42
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Second team announced.
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May 8, 2015 18:46
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EugeneJ posted:Did CHIKARA have a falling out with 2300 Arena? They have a student show scheduled for 5/23, but it's at a new Wrestle Factory on Wingate Street in Philly: Not that I recall. The Arena is just for some big shows, not for training. I wouldn't be surprised if they do the season finale there.
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May 18, 2015 05:27
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I'll be there on Sunday.
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May 20, 2015 03:33
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I also brought a friend who hadn't seen Chikara before. She's considering hitting King of Trios as well. Some notes from the show: - From last night's show, Volgar has unmasked and is now "Juke Joint" Luke Calhoun, an Elvis-like southern rock 'n' roll guy. He and Kevin Condron got two points in a four corners tag match where Calhoun would hit a huge move, then Condron would convince him to leave the ring so he could get the pin. The final fall was against NRG and the show was sponsored by some energy drink. Condron was going to use that drink as a weapon, but Race Jackson stole it from him and used it to wake up Hype Rockwell. Hype snapped into action and they won. - Icarus has new hair and it is HORRIFIC. He has cornrow pigtails. Seriously. It's wretched. - They had Snake Pit vs. Wrecking Crew and Argus was over as gently caress. The story was that for some reason Kingston and Jaka really had it in for each other. The ending seemed screwy as Kingston pinned Jaka anticlimactically (might have been a botch) and the ref had to keep calling for the bell before they finally rang it. Then Kingston and Jaka kept fighting with each other and needed to be pulled apart various times. Afterwards, Kingston went on a rampage, flipping over merch tables and breaking poo poo while his partners tried to calm him down. - Jervis/KimberLee vs. Chuck Taylor/Orange Cassidy had an amazing spot where Jervis caught Cassidy and rocked him around in his arms until he fell asleep. Then he calmly set him down and quietly went to pin him. In the corner, KimberLee had her hand over Chuck's mouth. The crowd whispered "1... 2..." and then Chuck bit KimberLee's hand, causing her to scream and wake Cassidy up. - I had a guy behind me with facepaint who wouldn't shut the gently caress up and was plain terrible. He literally couldn't go ten seconds without talking to nobody in particular (as he came alone) and mainly kept yelling about Barber being a bad referee and how Halloween should be considered a real holiday for some reason. He was the worst.
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May 25, 2015 03:15
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DM Punk posted:That's "Unofficial Artist" I believe. That guy is pretty terrible at every show. Looked him up and yep, that's him. What a turd.
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May 25, 2015 03:45
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Jay 2K Winger posted:I thought it was Frightmare in a different outfit. He's about the right height. He also has the same Blair Witch thing around his neck, peaking out under the bottom of the hood.
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May 25, 2015 22:02
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Also of note is that Kevin Condron has been yelling "You're not an ant, you're a man!" at Missile Assault Ant, suggesting that he's going to be joining his crew. Condron is like Raven for "creative has nothing for you" victims.
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Jun 14, 2015 23:59
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For King of Trios, they just announced Team Attack Wrestling, made up of "Flash" Morgan Webster, Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne. Looks like they realized last year's mistake and front-loaded the announcements with guest teams. That leaves 12 teams.
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Jun 16, 2015 17:13
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Considering the way they've only been announcing guest teams and with this year's Challenge of the Immortals gimmick, I'm wondering if they're just going to allow all ten teams to have one representative trio. That would mean not having the Colony in there, but considering the weirdness of Silver Ant being forced into the Nightmare Warriors, it would make sense to keep him from teaming with Fire and Worker in any capacity. You'd have ten teams (some easier to figure out than others like UltraMantis/Batiri, Jakob/Pinkie/Nokken, DevCorp), the obligatory Kevin Condron-led trio and either another guest team or NRG joined with someone special.
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Jun 17, 2015 11:17
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Still catching up on Chikara one show at a time and so far I'd easily call Spring Breakout the show of the year. After months of Challenge of the Immortals being an excuse to just have otherwise meaningless matches to make up for this season's lack of story (the only major stories are what, Oleg vs. Wrecking Crew, UltraMantis vs. Hallowicked and Colony vs. Soldier Ant?), the concept finally hits its stride and the non-round robin matches are worth checking out too. There aren't any major MOTYCs or anything, but it's completely solid and fun throughout. The worst match of the show is Dasher Hatfield vs. Volgar and it's still a decent carry job. The dynamics are really starting to shine through. Eddie Kingston's disdain for his teammates while chomping at the bit to get a piece of Hallowicked. Princess Kimber Lee's gradual realization that she hosed up completely by recruiting Los Ice Creams and her valiant desperation to NOT be the only team without a single win. Oleg's increasingly hot face turn build. Mantis' inability to hold his team together. The bizarre situation where Chuck Taylor has to play face because he's up against the Boar. The way Silver Ant looks at his teammates in the Nightmare Warriors and goes, "So, you're some kind of crazy death cult thing now, huh? That's weird. Welp, let's go win matches," which is both silly and kind of foreboding because Hallowicked probably has plans for him. Some minor highlights: - During Crown and Court vs. BDK, there's a part where Nokken has Ice Cream Jr. in a camel clutch near the ropes and the camera man gets a fairly close shot of them facing the camera. Pinkie Sanchez, who is on the apron, slowly creeps into the shot with a huge poo poo-eating grin and a thumbs up. It's the best. Pinkie is the best. - During the Snake Pit's match, Eddie walks out in his usual surly, pissy way. Then he steps down from the stage, onto the steps and they completely collapse and he takes a fall. He immediately pops back up, breaking character completely, with a huge smile and both arms in the air, going, "I'M OKAY!" - The end of Amasis vs. Juan Francisco has some prime fan interaction that's built up so well that I legitimately marked out. It's so well done. - The UltraMantis/Kodama/Oleg intro is inexplicable and amazing. Long story short, it involves a Oleg with a cowboy hat on, excitedly walking out of a sheriff's office. I'll get around to updating that big CotI chart once I finish watching Back to Skull.
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Jun 25, 2015 16:13
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Jay 2K Winger posted:Confirmed-- COTI Trios will be a part of the KOT field. Might as well make some predictions: Wrecking Crew: Obviously Devastation Corporation trying to do two in a row. Their win last year kickstarted their momentum and this will cause them to falter for the rest of 2015. Nightmare Warriors: I was thinking Hallowicked/Frightmare/Silver Ant because who the hell wants to see Blind Rage in tournament action, but I can easily see them hyping up a Hallowicked title defense on Night 2, so Frightmare/Silver Ant/Blind Rage. Arcane Horde: Oleg is too important to what's going on but kayfabe-wise, Mantis would be an idiot to put him in there. Either he accidentally interferes in a well-meaning way and screws it up for them, or one of the Batiri guys are injured and he's forced to take the spot. Battle Hive: Remington is more of a solo act, so Amasis/Fire/Worker. Crown and Court: Los Ice Creams have to be together, so it's a coin flip on who the third person is. Probably Kimber Lee, but they're out the first round. United Nations: The Bloc Party are a ready-made trio, so they'll be doing their second run. BDK: This one's the hardest to call. Jakob/Nokken/Pinkie are the core group, but Soldier Ant is important and won the Cibernetico for Jakob, so he won't be snubbed. Probably Jakob/Nokken/Soldier, maybe with Pinkie in Rey de Voladores. Dasher's Dugout: They've barely used Lovelace, so Icarus/Dasher/Touchdown. Snake Pit: Eddie lacks synergy and would be a prime opponent for Hallowicked in a potential title match, so Ophidian/Shynron/Argus. Gentleman's Club: No idea. Whoever it is will be doing double duty at least. Also, things are going to get awkward here if those NXT signings happen.
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Jun 25, 2015 22:50
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Yeah, they chose not to enter on their own accord. I always figured that it was because after being soundly defeated as a stable at the end of the previous season and having lost all their titles, they didn't want to risk tarnishing their record. Claudio/Ares/Tursas will always be undefeated. Besides, FIST (Icarus/Akuma/Taylor) and Spectral Envoy entered the years after their wins. Shockingly, those are the only winning teams to enter again after winning. Even the Colony was replaced with the assailANT version in 2012.
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Jun 26, 2015 03:27
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Finally updated this chart. Here's where everyone is in Challenge of the Immortals. full size 35 of 90 matches are complete. Here are the standings: 1) Wrecking Crew (6 points, 2 losses): Have been really dominant, mostly taking part in team encounters. The Devastation Corporation, being reigning tag champs and King of Trios, have been just about unstoppable. The weak link, minor as it is, is Jaka. He's eaten both of their losses. That hasn't come up storywise at all and as it is, everyone's on the same page. 2) Nightmare Warriors (5 points, 2 losses): In the past few months, Hallowicked won the Grand Championship, which is kind of funny since the current top teams are heels who are champs and the prize is title shots (along with the bragging rights). Hallowicked, Frightmare and Blind Rage are creepy cult guys now, doing weird rituals and talking about their higher power. Silver Ant is the odd man out in all of this. He was drafted by Hallowicked and we don't know why. Silver Ant is weirded out by their behavior, but continues to wrestle his best and move forward. 3) Snake Pit (4 points, 2 losses): The most diverse team in terms of styles, they're only now starting to make themselves known in the tournament. Eddie Kingston, not the biggest team player, has finally started being booked into their matches and he seems to just barely tolerate his teammates. Especially Argus. 4) Dasher's Dugout (4 points, 3 losses): Here's the face team that's supposed to look like it should win on paper, but won't. Icarus just lost the Grand Championship, the Throwbacks recently lost the tag belts and Heidi Lovelace is barely even there. She's shown up for a single 8-man tag and ate the pin. 5) BDK (3 points, 3 losses): Jakob and Pinkie Sanchez are basically midcarders (which is generous to Jakob) who are getting by thanks to Nokken and Soldier Ant. Especially Soldier Ant, who has been practically unbeatable. The Colony has been trying to get him to remember who he is, but he continues to be a pawn and continues to wipe the floor with all of them in the ring. 6) Battle Hive (3 points, 5 losses): These guys are just kind of there. Amasis recently got pinned by Ophidian in a CotI match, the Colony have had no luck with fixing Soldier Ant and Ashley Remington just lost a title match against Hallowicked. None of them have any momentum and because Remington was too busy with his title chase, only now is he actually taking part in CotI. 6) United Nations (3 points, 5 losses): For being a team where half of them are heel comedy jobbers and the other two are ho-hum midcarders, these guys probably have too many wins as is. This includes beating Dasher's Dugout one time. Clean! The dynamic works, at least. The Bloc Party are a ready-made trio with nothing going on and Juan Francisco makes for a perfect leader for them to kiss up to while he takes most of the credit. 8) Arcane Horde (3 points, 6 losses): The team is currently at odds with each other, mostly due to Oleg the Usurper. When he's in gear, he's a credit to the team, but in order to sabotage the Horde, Sidney Bakabella will constantly appear to wave his contract at him, saying that Oleg has to do what he tells him. For a while, Oleg would listen to him, albeit confused and disappointed. He's been getting increasingly confrontational, especially when abused by his so-called friends in the Wrecking Crew. It's still caused the Horde to lose way too many times and nobody can get on the same page. Considering UltraMantis' chances at title shots have constantly been derailed by Hallowicked, I'd imagine these guys are going to pull it out in the end. 9) Gentlemen's Club (2 points, 3 losses): Chuck Taylor's team has basically been a non-factor here. They've only had five matches total. Not much to talk about there. 10) Crown and Court (2 points, 4 losses): Princess Kimber Lee can hold her own as a competent competitor and Jervis is decent enough. Too bad Kimber Lee misfired by drafting the most useless tag team in Chikara history. Outside of a trios match a couple weeks ago that Jervis got the submission for, Los Ice Creams haven't won a match in years and they're weighing the team down hard. This may or may not cause Kimber Lee to completely lose her mind over time.
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Jun 29, 2015 06:15
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 The champs are back. That brings us to six teams.
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Jul 3, 2015 18:03
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Yeah, it looks to me that it comes down to Quack's tendency to write wrestlers out of storylines and then tell them that he's not going to be booking them in the foreseeable future. How they react appears to be based on how much they have going on and how long they had been with the company. Gargano and the Super Smash Bros shrugged and moved on with their careers. Donst had more happening in AIW, so he at least got to film a character epilogue and recently said in an AMA that he'd be okay with returning. Meanwhile, Gran Akuma was very bitter (this was the second time they did this to him, although the first time was at least for the sake of building an angle) and didn't seem to like that one of his last matches with the company was putting over Jakob cleanly. Wrestling is Fun seemed to partially be around for the sake of giving people a place to wrestle when they didn't really have a spot with whatever's going on in Chikara. Especially Jolly Roger. So with Trios last year, Quack wrote Jigsaw out of the whole Flood storyline, did an injury angle that put Roger on the shelf and stopped doing Wrestling is Fun shows a couple months later. Then Quack gave Kimber Lee a push in Chikara while throwing Roger and Lance Steel to the wayside. So I imagine the two bros were seriously peeved about that, especially because they helped build the company in the early days.
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Jul 10, 2015 15:11
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Jay 2K Winger posted:Snake Pit and Battle Hive have yet to face each other in the COTI. They actually did early on. Ophidian/Shynron/Argus vs. Amasis/Fire Ant/Worker Ant. It ended with Ophidian taking out Amasis with an Egyptian Destroyer off the top rope. Afterwards there were no ill feelings.
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Jul 12, 2015 19:37
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rotinaj posted:I wonder if Ashley's working ROH is going to conflict with his working CHIKARA, and more importantly, KOT? He's been working a little less than usual this year and I doubt he'll be in the Trios tournament (Amasis/Fire/Worker seems to be a sure bet), but ROH has been pretty cool with Chikara in the past few years, so they should be fine.
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Jul 12, 2015 19:48
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Chris James 2 posted:ahahhahahhahahah Chikara tried to get their show on Destination America and DA never heard of them And I'm going to end up missing every episode. Ah well.
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Jul 16, 2015 04:44
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Team #10 is the Gentleman's Club: Chuck Taylor, Drew Gulak and Swamp Monster.
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Jul 18, 2015 23:59
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So CotI teams left to be trio'd include: Battle Hive: Amasis, Fire Ant, Worker Ant and Ashley Remington Arcane Horde: UltraMantis, Obaryon, Kodama and Oleg the Usurper Nightmare Warriors: Hallowicked, Frightmare, Blind Rage and Silver Ant Crown and Court: Kimber Lee, Jervis Cottonbelly, El Hijo del Ice Cream and Ice Cream Jr.
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Jul 20, 2015 20:38
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DM Punk posted:I really want this Thunderfrog / Farmer Frog story to hurry up and do something. I really want Farmer Frog to read better comics.
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Jul 23, 2015 05:05
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Jay 2K Winger posted:** Kevin Condron and his crew (Lucas Calhoun & Snow Troll) came out and called out Missile Assault Ant. Condron reveals that Missile used to be part of Condor Security, and then force him to admit that he blew up a school bus in Zimbabwe on Deucalion's orders. Missile Assault Ant unmasked. According to Michael Langan on Twitter, "half the Beyond crowd recognized him." Welp. Guess that explains the weird vignette where Condron kept singing, "I GOT SOUL BUT I'M NOT A SOLDIER!" at Missile Assault Ant until he got pissed off and shoved him.
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Jul 27, 2015 05:45
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I love the escalation of this. Kid Cyclone decides that the mask and gimmick isn't what he's all about, so he removes it and goes by run-of-the-mill heel guy Kevin Condron. Condron then goes to Volgar and says that the mask and gimmick isn't what he's all about because he's really a juking and jiving southern musician who also wrestles. So then the third beat of this is Condron goes to Missile Assault Ant and says that the mask and gimmick isn't what he's all about because he's actually a mass child killer guilty of war crimes. I'm not even mad. That's amazing. Bard Maddox posted:an ant blew up a school bus in Zimbabwe
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Jul 27, 2015 22:56
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Nightmare Warriors will be represented at Trios with the team of Hallowicked, Frightmare and Silver Ant. I guess that means no Hallowicked title defenses that weekend. That leaves three more teams: Arcane Horde, Crown and Court and probably Condron's team. Speaking of which, he had this to say on Twitter: Kevin Condron posted:Missile Assault ANT was a bad guy warped by even worse people Really hope they just start calling him that from now on.
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Jul 28, 2015 07:32
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