CHIKARA King of Trios Night 1
Easton, Penn.
Report by Dot Net Staffer Chris Shore

The first night went just a hair under four hours, but it was a lot of fun. CHIKARA has a good, but interesting crowd. It was approximately 50 percent preppy and 50 percent freak. Not sure how those jibe, but it does. Maria, Mike Bennett, the Young Bucks, Colt Cabana, Chuck Taylor, and Johnny Gargano all signed autographs before the show, and Aldo Montoya joined them at intermission where he also sold photos of him as Justin Credible.

On to the show. All the matches the first night were King of Trios opening round matches. The second round takes place on Saturday, semi-finals and finals are Sunday with extra matches thrown in to round out the card. Saturday also features the Fan Conclave, which I will be reporting live from...

1. Then Sendai Girls vs. The Colony. I admit, I haven't been following CHIKARA much this year, so I don't understand what is going on with all the different ants now. Nevertheless, this was a good match, but I'm not sure it was the right opener. The crowd was hot for the Sendai Girls, like they were for all the Japanese teams, and the Colony, but the match just didn't set the stage like last years opener did. It also still makes me personally uncomfortable to watch the men wrestle the women, especially when they hit them in the head or shove them to the ground, but the crowd didn't seem to mind too much. Green Ant headbutted assailANT on purpose, who is apparently one of the evil ants, which led to the Sendai Girls getting the win...

Sendai Girls defeated The Colony.

2. The Batiri vs. 3.0 and Akuma. 3.0 and Akuma were way over with the CHIKARA crowd. Their act is amusing enough, but this was the match with the least amount of heat throughout. Everything started nice with fans throwing toilet paper at the Batiri, who were accompanied by the rudo version of Ophidian. That even led to a funny moment where one of the Batiri tried to choke Akuma with TP only to have it rip. The problem here was way too many planned spots that took forever to setup and then failed to be executed properly. Ophidian interfered to help his team win...

The Batiri defeated 3.0 and Akuma.

3. Team Osaka Pro vs. F.I.S.T. I know very little about the Japanese promotions that sent teams, but Osaka Pro sure seems like the Japanese version of CHIKARA. What I do know is the three guys on that team were a riot. F.I.S.T. continues to be the most entertaining act in CHIKARA, and Icarus continues to be a heat magnet with nothing more than a jacket and a tattoo. When you buy the DVD for this show, watch this match first. I promise you won't be disappointed. It was match of the night, and it had all the things that make CHIKARA so much fun to watch. It had a few too many planned spots, but most of them were so hilarious it was worth it. Don't believe me, check this out: http://twitter.com/kikutarosan/status/246769066973466624. Icarus used Sugar Dunketon's hair pick to get the win. Some of the sentences I write when covering CHIKARA are so absurd.

F.I.S.T. Defeated Team Osaka Pro.

4. The Swarm vs. Quack, Jigsaw, and Toyota. The intermission main event had more ants in roles I didn't understand. It also had Manami Toyota, who is billed as the Greatest Female Wrestler Alive. She may very well be, but she had a bad night this night, not looking crisp, and shorting a number of jumps. Still, a good match that saw Quack's team get the win amongst dissension in the ant ranks. They had Jigsaw and Quack arguing at the end, which I assume leads to a loss for their team in round 2 and a rudo turn for Jigsaw...

Quackenbush, Jigsaw, and Toyota defeated The Swarm

***Intermission***

5. Team JWP vs. The Throwbacks. Another female team with JWP and another match that displayed all the great things CHIKARA can be. It was also the perfect match to get the crowd back into it after intermission. Matt Classic joined the Throwbacks and added a hilarious compliment to an already solid act. The Mr. Touchdown kid (Mark Angelosetti) was incredibly impressive with his charisma and ability to play to the crowd. He has a great look, and is very athletic. He still has some learning to do in the ring, but he has every single one of the intangibles. This match gets honorable mention for match of the night due to the entertainment value, and the finish, which saw Tsubasa Kuragaki put Matt Classic in the torture rack. The place came unglued. Even me...

Team JWP defeated the Throwbacks.

The Submission Squad, who were "broken down" a half block from the arena (we drove right past them where they were holding up signs to hitchhike or something), couldn't make it due to "transportation problems," so a random Trio was pulled from a hat. The first two entrants were the Mysterious and Handsome Stranger (Archibald Peck under a mask) and Mihara from Osaka Pro. Ring announcer Gavin Loudspeaker pulled several names from the hat, including wrestling legend Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, but none of them were there. He pulled Tito Santana's name out, and Tito was there in a fun moment for the crowd...

6. The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger, Mihara, and Tito Santana vs. The Spectral Envoy. The story of this match was Tito trying to tag in but being denied for various reasons. He finally did, and showed that he's old and done. But he did manage to hit the flying forearm just before getting rolled up for the loss. The match wasn't bad, but it was forgettable...

The Spectral Envoy defeated The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger, Mihara, and Tito Santana.

7. Team ROH vs. The Trio of Pain. For pure, unadulterated. Old school fun pop, this was the match to see. Warlord looked exactly the same, though a little "thicker" as opposed to "muscular." Barbarian still hasn't aged much. Meng had some gray, and he has that retired Samoan girth to him, but he didn't look bad by any means. He did wrestle in black sewats and tennis shoes, which took a little something off, but the Young Bucks and Mike Bennett put them over big time. The finish was Bennett hitting a sunset flip on Meng, which the live crowd (and I) were a little confused and unhappy with, but it didn't kill the fun...

Team ROH defeated Trio of Pain.

8. Team WWF vs. The Extreme Trio. OK, maybe this was the match for pure old school fun. Do not be confused, this was the farthest thing from a classic all night, but all six guys knew what they wanted to do and pulled it off well. They even did the slo-mo gimmick that saw Tommy Dreamer pull out a remote control from somewhere and pause the action while Tatanka was starting his dance. He punched Tatanka, who no sold it. Dreamer pressed play and Tatanka bumped. Best single spot of the night. The Extreme Trio won with a piledriver from Jerry Lynn to close out a fun first night...

The Extreme Trio defeated Team WWF.

Once again, the night was good, but not without its faults. FIST vs. Osaka Pro probably should have opened the show to set the stage. There were some technical issues at various times, making it hard to hear Gavin, and some of the matches were way, way overbooked. That said, none of those things took away from the overall feel of the first night, and I had a ton of fun.

The Fan Conclave will present several opportunities for interviews on Saturday, but those will be exclusive for our members. Sign up now to get access to those audios, plus the ad-free version of the site via Prowrestling.net/amember/signup.php.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE: