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King of Trios 2010 (Night 3)
April 25, 2010 ~ Philadelphia, PA
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– My DVD Review of King of Trios (Night 1)
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– My DVD Review of King of Trios (Night 2)
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– My interview with “Very European” Claudio Castagnoli
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Final Four Teams
1. Bruderschaft Leaders – Claudio Castagnoli, Ares and Tursas
2. Team Big Japan – Daisuke Sekimoto, Kankuro Hoshino and Yuji Okabayashi
3. Team Osaka Pro – Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Tadasuke
4. The Colony – Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant
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1. Semifinal Match: Team Osaka Pro vs. The Colony – ***
Team Osaka Pro shocked the Chikaraverse by defeating 2009 Final Four teams The UnStable and F.I.S.T. on their way to the semis, while The Colony beat Team Oreo and stunned the BDK with a huge win over their legion of young lions. Soldier Ant grabs a bag of sugar on the way to the ring, but Tadasuke ends up stealing it. Bryce Remsburg takes it and say this match is now not only for a spot in the Finals, but for the sugar as well! After the feeling out process between all six men, Kotoge and Harada quickly take control with lightning fast tag team moves on all three Ants. Osaka singles out Fire Ant for a prolonged beating. Kotoge attempts to show off his speed once again, but Fire Ant has it scouted this time, ducking a flying kick that sends Kotoge to the floor. Fire Ant flies out with a beautiful no-hands flip senton to the floor, allowing Soldier Ant to enter. He sends Tadasuke out to the floor with a headscissors and catches Harada with a bridging northern lights suplex. 1…2…Harada kicks out and rolls to the floor. The Ants hit the Antapault, sending Fire Ant crashing into all three Osaka Pro members. Back inside the ring, Fire Ant goes off the ropes but Harada counters with a hip toss into a knee strike. He & Kotoge hit a bridging suplex & springboard splash combination. 1…2…Fire Ant kicks out. Soldier Ant goes up top, but Harada runs to meet him, slamming back down to Earth with a big Avalanche Belly-to-Belly Suplex. 1…2…Green Ant breaks it up. Tadasuke hits Green Ant with a uranage backbreaker, a double knee backbreaker and locks on an elevated Boston Crab. Green Ant gets to the ropes, but Tadasuke pulls him back to the center! Fire Ant breaks it up and hits Burning Down the House on Tadasuke. Soldier Ant with a TKO! Fire & Soldier Ant dispose of Harada & Kotoge and head north to face each other on the second rope. They basically set up for an Antapualt, but it’s Green Ant who’s standing on their shoulders! SUPER MEGA ANTAPULT SPLASH! OH MY! 1…2…3! The Colony is in the Finals! Afterwards, Tadasuke relinquishes the sugar and the Ants celebrate. Really fun match here, which is what you can expect with The Colony. It’s a very generous end for Team Osaka Pro, who have a ton of new fans thanks to their performance here. I’d like to go higher on the rating, but it’s a criminally short match at slightly less than nine minutes.
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2. Semifinal Match: Bruderschaft Leaders vs. Team Big Japan – ***1/4
Team Big Japan steamrolled past fan favorite squads Team Frightning and The Future Is Now while the Bruderschaft Leaders won twice with an arguably soft schedule, having faced The Osirian Portal and BDK member Sara Del Rey in the opening round and Team Perros Del Mal in the quarterfinals. Claudio and Daisuke start things off and Castagnoli outwrestles Sekimoto, flexing and posing each time to try and embarrass the big man. Sekimoto runs over Claudio with a spear, so he leaves the ring. More feeling out from both sides, but it’s Hoshino who gets beaten down by the Bruderschaft. He eventually manages a big lariat on Ares and makes the tag to Okabayashi, who cleans house. Two corner clotheslines and a powerslam get Okabayashi two. A deadlift suplex get him another two. Sideslam from Okabayashi. 1…2…Ares kicks out. Ares hits a Blue Thunder Bomb and tags out to Claudio. Okabayashi and Claudio trade strikes but Claudio drills him with the bicycle kick. 1…2…Okabayashi kicks out. Claudio follows up with a huge UFO slam! 1…2… Okabayashi kicks out again. He hits a powerslam on Claudio and tags in Sekimoto, who locks on the Sharpshooter! The BDK break it up. Claudio and Sekimoto trade strikes, with Claudio looking for a springboard uppercut. But Sekimoto grabs his waste to avoid it. DEADLIFT GERMAN! 1…2…Ares breaks it up. Claudio comes off the ropes with his sick lariat and tags in to Tursas, who hits a big body avalanche for two. Headlock suplex from Tursas and he sets him up for the Vader Bomb, but Tursas comes up empty. Sekimoto looks for the Deadlift German on Tursas! HE’S GOT HIM UP! Ares breaks it up to a chorus of boos. Hoshino hits an STO on Ares, followed by a corner avalanche and a second-rope senton. 1…2…Claudio breaks it up. Hoshino is looking for his top rope senton, but Tursas stops him. Ares slams Hoshino down and follows with a senton bomb. 1…2…Hoshino kicks out. All three BDK members hit a press slam into a cutter! 1…2…Sekimoto makes the save. Ares hits a Samoan Driver. 1…2…Hoshino kicks out again! While the other two Team BJW men are held at bay, Ares hits Hoshino with the Toblerone Driver! 1…2…3. The Bruderschaft Leaders advance to the Finals in a strong match. The weakest of all the BJW matches, but still a damn good one. The crowd gives Sekimoto, Hoshino and Okabayashi a ton of well-earned love and the right teams are in the Main Event.
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3. Chuck Taylor vs. El Oriental – **
Great promo from “The Kentucky Gentlemen” before the match, in which he refers to the RDV as the “Rey de Voladingos” tournament. He’s very southern in the promo, and with Gargano professing love for F.I.S.T., I imagine we could be seeing a break-up and character shift here very soon. The two trade lucha roll-ups to start things off, with Oriental keeping control of Taylor at every turn. They get sloppy and stalemate. Why is this match happening? Taylors gets caught in a couple of nasty submissions before taking Oriental with a few clotheslines. Oriental returns the favor and sends Taylor outside with a satellite armdrag. Oriental hits a suicide dive onto Chuck and rolls him back inside. 1…2…Chuck kicks out. Chuck turns a corner whip into either a moonsault knee strike or a miscommunicated something or other. 1…2…Oriental gets the shoulder up. Chuck works the legs setting up for the Cross Crab. Taylor and Oriental seem somewhat out of synch here. Oriental fights back with a nice headscissors and a spike DDT that sends him to the floor. He hits a baseball slide that knocks Chuck down and follows up with a senton bomb over the top ropes onto Chuck’s head. Yikes. I can’t imagine that it was his intention to do that. Oriental rolls him back in and covers. 1…2…Chuck kicks out. The two trade more roll-ups and reversals. Oriental hits a corner clothesline and a saga of moonsaults, but the last one is blocked with knees. Taylor hits Sole Food and locks on the Cross Crab. El Oriental taps out to give Chuck Taylor the victory. There is no doubt in my mind that this was to be Taylor vs. Cassandro, but injuries happen and they should’ve had a better opponent for Chuck other than El Oriental, who is basically the world’s craziest sandbag. Skip this, unless you like seeing frustrated wrestlers in a frustratingly long match that clocked in at just under eleven minutes.
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4. The Annual Chikara Tag Team Gauntlet – ***1/4
Rules are simple: ten teams total, two teams start, losing team is replaced with next team until one team remains and they keep however many points they collected. We start off with The Throwbacks facing Vin Gerard & STIGMA. Dasher & Dunkerton get some awesome double teams early on, but each fall is broken up. The Throwbacks do corner punches across the ring from one another, but Vin rolls up Sugar while Dasher wails on STIGMA, and he gets three! The Throwbacks are eliminated. The next team enters and it’s Steve “The Turtle” Weiner and…..DRAGON DRAGON!!! The crowd erupts as Weiner takes it to Gerard and Dragon stalks at ringside. Weiner hits a Complete Shot for two, as STIGMA breaks the count. He hits a few boot scrapes on Steve, and Dragon Dragon enters! STIGMA & Dragon trade elbows and Dragon gets the better with a headbutt…er, it was more of a snout butt. My uncle had snout butt. Stop laughing…it’s a real illness. Dragon Dragon hits a Dragon Screw, Dragon Suplex and goes to lock on the Dragon Sleeper! Gerard breaks it up, and eats Machine Gun chops from Dragon Dragon! He finishes up with another Kobashi trademark that I’ll call a two-handed Kesagiri chop. They hit their version of total elimination and set up for the Green-day Device! I can’t stop giggling. Gerard wiggles free and dumps Weiner. Dragon Dragon goes for a crossbody but nobody’s home! GERARD LOCKS ON THE STF USING DRAGON DRAGON’S TAIL! The crowd begs for him not to tap, but he has no choice. The Legion of Green is eliminated. Jimmy “Equinox” Olsen and Helios run out very quickly and hit tandem dives onto the UnStable. Eventually, Jimmy manages an Overbomb out of the corner and, after Helios gets rid of STIGMA with a crossbody, Olsen spikes Gerard with a piledriver and gets the pinfall. The UnStable are eliminated and lose their two points. Louis Lyndon and Flip Kendrick are out next. They hit some double teams on The Future Is Now, but they get caught with a stereo moves from TFIN as Helios hits a spin kick followed by a standing moonsault and Equinox hits a spike rana and a standing SSP. They both cover and get two counts. Lyndon takes out Jimmy with a moonsault press, Helios takes out Lyndon with top rope double knees and Kendrick takes out Helios with a springboard corkscrew lionsault, perhaps the first flying move he’s actually connected with all weekend. Jimmy knocks him out with one punch and I could not be happier. Aeroform gets eliminated and outcome Darin Corbin & Ryan Cruz. Cruz and Helios do some stuff, but the real treat is when Corbin and Jimmy enter. For some reason, whenever these two fight…everything……sloooows………doooooown. SLOW-MO, BABY! It must be seen to be believed, as the ref, the crowd and even the commentators get in on the stupendousness of it all. Alas it comes to an end. Helios and Cruz trade big moves and Cruz counters a school boy into a kneeling pinfall for three! Helios and Equinox are eliminated and they, like The UnStable, lose the two points they had accumulated. UltraMantis Black and Crossbones enter to thunderous applause. Corbin tries to hit a suicide dive, but Crossbones obliterates him with an elbow on the outside! Mantis lays boots to Cruz and The Order double teams Cruz with some nasty offense. Corbin saves his friend with an awkward double dropkick and it looks like it legit injures him. He looks woozy. It may be from the previous elbow. Corbin is killing them but it’s like he’s doing it at sixty percent speed. And no, he’s not doing slow-mo again! The NSE tries Cruise Control on UltraMantis, but Crossbones splashed them both in the corner. UltraMantis Black finishes Corbin with a sick Praying Mantis Bomb for the victory. The North Star Express is eliminated and Incoherence is out now! Hallowicked kills everybody with Yakuza Kicks and pins Crossbones! The Order of the Neo Temple is eliminated! Next up…Icarus and Gran Akuma: F.I.S.T.! They take their sweet time getting into the ring. Icarus and Hallowicked lock up first, and Hallowicked keeps finding ways to slap Ick in the face. Frightmare and Hallowicked hit stereo step-up ranas on F.I.S.T. and Frightmare fakes a dive onto them. When they’re done cowering in fear, Frightmare scares them with a screaming, causing them to collide into one another. Frightmare celebrates too much and gets caught with a spear from Icarus. F.I.S.T. works over Frightmare for a while, stunting every attempt to make a tag. Icarus puts him his shoulders for the Blu-Ray DVD…but Frightmare counters into a crucifix bomb! 1…2…3~! F.I.S.T. is eliminated and…the BDK’s music begins to play. Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze are the final, “randomly selected” tag team in the gauntlet. They target Frightmare immediately. Haze hits the Heart Punch and a Yakuza for a close two. Del Rey hits some nasty disgusting face kicks for two. Del Rey hits a piledriver and hands Frightmare to Haze for a bridging German Suplex! 1…2…Hallowicked makes the save! He kills Del Rey with a corner kick and, after Haze slaps him repeatedly, Hallowicked throws Haze into the lights for a thunderous Rydeen Bomb! 1…2…3! Incoherence wins and have earned themselves a title shot by securing three points in the gauntlet! This was probably the best gauntlet that Chikara has put on. These matches are always made up of huge highs and cavernous lows. For every moment with Dragon Dragon, Slow-Mo and sick moves, there’s another that just sucks the life from the crowd. F.I.S.T. and The Order’s heat segments just killed any momentum they had, and Aeroform…SUCK. OUT. LOUD. Still, the entire package is worth a look as it clocks in at a bit over a half hour and still manages to entertain.
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5. Chikara Dream Match #1: Christopher Daniels vs. Eddie Kingston – ***
We get a pretty good promo from Kingston to start us off. Eddie mocks Daniels repeatedly, and “The Fallen Angel” just outwrestles him on the mat, applying and reapplying a headlock until Kingston suplexes his way out. Kingston keeps control of Daniels with strikes of all kinds. Daniels retakes control with a neck snap and tosses King outside. Daniels beats him outside and continues to work over Eddie’s neck. Daniels stops every attempt for Eddie to break free with another move targeting the neck, forcing him to exert energy by repeatedly kicking out of pinfall attempts. Eddie finally fights back with a belly-to-belly suplex, but Daniels is up first. Eddie fires back with elbows and a big corner lariat. He drills Daniels with a corner Yakuza and follows up with an Exploder Suplex. 1…2…Daniels kicks out. “Fallen Angel” comes back with a chinbreaker into an enzuigiri and an STO. 1…2…Kingston kicks out. Daniels applies the Koji Clutch! A pocket of fans chant for King to tap, but he makes it to the ropes. Daniels argues with the referee about…something. The weather maybe? Daniels looks for Angels Wings, but Eddie counters unto a Uranage. 1…2…Daniels kicks out, but Kingston is on fire! Short arm lariat! However, Daniels is smart enough to bail. Eddie tries to dive onto him, but he eats a palm strikes instead. Daniels goes for another STO, but Eddie tosses him overhead with another suplex. Kingston goes for the Backdrop Driver, but Daniels uses the referee to block and hits Eddie with the STO. Daniels calls for the Best Moonsault Ever…but Kingston dodges the move and then dodges a charging Daniels, sending him crashing into the metal ring post! Backfist to the Future! 1…2…3! Kingston bests Daniels in good, if unspectacular match. Daniels only got okay heat with the heel work because, quite frankly, too many people respect him to boo him. The pace was steady and smooth, just how Daniels likes it, but against Kingston, I would have preferred something more than good. Still fun, just kinda disappointing. Directly after the match ends, Tommy Dreamer emerges from the back and cuts perhaps my favorite promo this year…even better than Am Drag shedding the ‘E moniker on NXT. It’s just so damn genuine; Dreamer pokes fun at his himself repeatedly in a myriad of ways that don’t make you feel uncomfortable or like Dreamer is being false. It’s funny, heartfelt and refreshingly honest. A match is set between the two and the place explodes in authentic excitement. The best part: King doesn’t break character. When Dreamer exposes his Chikara undershirt, King is still unsure as to whether he should clap with his idol or give in to long-held hatred of Chikara and its fans. I could go on and on, but you’ll catch these things for yourself when you see it.
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6. Chikara Dream Match #2: The Young Bucks vs. Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw – ***1/2
The Bucks refuse to shake hands before the match…because they’re heels now! Not nearly the subtlety of Daniels, but what can you do. Matt pummels Quack to start and poses for the crowd. Quack uses his Powers of Lucha and disposes of both Matt and Nick, feinting a dive onto both men. Jigsaw and Nick enter, going hold for hold. Jig gets a two count off of a nice roll-up, and he and Quack hit a really slick tag maneuver. Quack ends up on the apron where Nick tries a sunset bomb. Quack holds on and hits a nice double stomp to the chest, slingshots back inside and dives back out onto Nick Jackson! Matt follows with a dropkick to Quack but Jigsaw dumps him from behind and gears up for a dive of his own. Nick trips him up and Matt delivers a missile dropkick to Jigsaw. Both men pose to boos and Nick forgets which corner he’s supposed to be in. Tee hee…blondes. Jig gets thrown into a boot, but the Bucks take too long and Jig hits a SICK chop on Matt, who sells it like he was just shot. THAT’S good heel shtick. Nick yells for Matt to get in the game. Jigsaw continues to get his neck and midsection beat up by the boy-banders. Jigsaw escapes a suplex by basically landing on his head, but he recovers and tags in Super Mike, beat the bejesus out of both Bucks, but ends up on the floor. Jigsaw eats a very sloppy combo move from the Bucks for two and they go back to work on the young man. They cannot sustain it, and Jigsaw ends up hitting a nice suicide dive on Matt and Quack hits Nick with a sick release German Suplex. They got to the top rope and Quack hits a superplex. 1…2…Nick kicks out. Matt hits a hurricanrana into a pinfall on Jigsaw, but Quack turns it over and dives out onto Nick in one move! 1…2…Matt kicks out. Nick hits a corner knee strike, Matt hits a buckle bomb onto Nick knees on the top rope and two hit an assisted slingshot reverse DDT. Wow. 1…2…Quack breaks it up at the last second. Quackenbush is dumped and the Bucks hit their wheelbarrow hold into a slingshot sitout facebuster. As Matt tries to roll Jigsaw over, Nick runs at Quack, who trips him off the apron. Matt eventually makes to cover, but Quackenbush is there to break it up at two. He slides back out to the apron and nails Nick with an awesome Asai Moonsault! He comes back with a sunset flip on Matt, and QuackenSaw turns it into their enzuigiri and seated shotgun kick! Brainbuster from Jigsaw! 1…2…Nick saves his brother! All four guys trade shots, but Jigsaw is disposed and Quack east an assisted dropkick into the corner. Jigsaw catches Nicks leg, Nick eats a Quack superkick, Quack eats a Matt superkick, Nick is forced to superkick Matt, Jigsaw superkicks Matt, Quack superkicks Jigsaw, Jigsaw superkicks himself, UltraMantis superkicks Mano Metallo and Kazaam superkicks Mean Mr. Mustard. Jigsaw puts Matt in Jig N’ Tonic position and turns around into a superkick, forcing Matt to hit a Yoshi Tonic! 1…2…Jigsaw kicks out! The Bucks set up for More Bang for Your Buck, but Jigsaw escapes and hits a bridging German Suplex on Matt. 1…2…Nick breaks it up with a 450 Splash! 1…2…Quack saves his partner! Jigsaw knocks Nick off the ropes at Quack puts Matt on his shoulders. Matt Jackson tries to wiggle free, but Quack transitions into the Jig N’ Tonic. Jigsaw is up top! DOUBLE STOMP INTO A JIG N’ TONIC! 1…2…3! Mike Quackenbush & Jigsaw earn their second point against Generation Me. A little too spotty for my taste, but overall very enjoyable. I actually dug the beginning and workover stuff more than the finishing stretch, which I found to be way too connect the dots…but with superkicks. I HATE multi-man superkick spots (see: Night 1 main event). Really good match.
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7. Rey de Voladores Finals: Matt Cross vs. Ophidian – *1/2
There is nothing on the Earth that could make me rewatch this match ever again. I suffered through it once and, unless some serious checks start clearing with PWPonderings stamped on the front, I ain’t riding this ride again. Since I’m not going to do lengthy play-by-play, here’s what I remember about this colossal waste of time from the first watch and the accompanying notes: Cross cut a not terrible promo to start where he speaks rather like Elvis at the end. “Hunka hunka” something or other. They started off doing some roll-ups and they ended with a stalemate. I know this because EVERY lucha match starts this way. Ophidian botched a turnbuckle handstand lung blower, which would have ruled if he actually hit it and came later on. Why in the hell are they doing handstand backbreakers five minutes into the match? Ophidian and Cross then did some convoluted series of spots involving the apron that drew cackles from the crowd. Cross botches a snapmare. He BOTCHES…a SNAPMARE. Cross hit a tombstone facebuster out of a headscissors attempt, which I remember being cool. I’m seriously doing this from memory. Cross and Ophidian do more truly bizarre stuff on the apron. Just botcherrific nonsense. Even if they hit these moves, they would still be stupid. Ophidian makes his comeback with lots of roll ups and hit a dive that I think almost killed him. Cross hit a wheelbarrow German and his springboard double stomp. He covered. 1…2…8…4…8 again…Ophidian yawns out. Nobody cares. Ophidian hit a 450 for two near the end. UltraMantis mentioned on commentary that he turns down entry into the RVD every year because fans would get bored of him winning every year. AMAZING. Cross got two off of…a think a standing moonsault. Cross hit the shooting star press and Ophidian kicked out of that, too. They botched a moonsault small package at the end, but Ophidian got the win. He was visibly frustrated afterward, as he knew he had just put on an absolute stinker. In star terms, Ophidian gets one and Cross gets half of one. Cross and his stupid hairdo were disastrous. He shows paper thin moments of charisma, and then resorts to mentally counting off as he does his silly cartwheels. Ophidian is a very good wrestler, but like many flyers of the kind, he will suffer if the guy catching him sucks. Ophidian can have great matches all day long with guys like Claudio, Chuck Taylor and even Vin Gerard because those guys know how to work with the aerial folks. Listen up, pencil neck geeks: unless you have a self-loathing desire to watch awkward spots and botched moves…SKIP THIS MATCH. Ophidian has had many better matches than this, so go watch those and, if he wins, pretend the title of “King of the High Flyers” was on the line. You’re welcome.
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8. 2010 King of Trios Finals: Bruderschaft Leaders vs. The Colony – ****
We get an okay promo before the match, with Quack and the tecnicos trying to inspire The Colony to victory, and after they leave, Quack reveals that there is no counter to the Inverted Chikara Special. Two problems here. One, it was incredibly cheesy, even by Chikara’s standards. Two, Ophidian was shown cheering them on…you know, the guy that was just walking to the back. Also, no Amasis here, so I guess there’s a legit reason that an all Osirian Portal RDV finals wasn’t booked. BDK comes out first, and The Colony run out and start brawling as the bell sounds. Tursas runs himself into the post on the floor, Ares is beaten down and the Ants give Claudio a tree man Ants Go Marching! Triple dropkick into the corner! Fire Ant hits Burning Down the House on Ares. Soldier Ant follows with a saluting top rope headbutt and Green Ant follows that with a diving splash. 1…2…Ares kicks out. The Colony is once again looking for the Super Mega Antapult Splash, which beat Team Osaka Pro. Green Ant flies…AND CLAUDIO DESTROYS HIM WITH AN UPPERCUT!!! Holy Moses! Tursas grabs the other Ants off the top and gives them a double spinebuster! Ares slams Green Ant and hits him with a Senton Bomb. 1…2…Green Ant kicks out. Blue Thunder Bomb! 1…2…Green Ant kicks out again. Ares looks for the Toblerone Driver, but Soldier Ant catches him with a crossbody, causing Green Ant to roll into a jackknife pin. 1…2…Tursas breaks it up. Soldier lays into Tursas, but he gets hip tossed. Tursas misses an elbow drop and Soldier Ant goes for the Chikara Special, but the big man is too powerful. He breaks the hold by powerbombing Soldier with one arm. 1…2…Fire Ant breaks it up with a face kick. Tursas charges at Fire Ant, but he gets low bridged and ends up crashing into the first row! Fire Ant turns around into a Claudio bicycle kick! 1…2…Fire Ant gets the shoulder up. Claudio goes for the UFO, but Fire Ant counters into a roll up for two. Claudio comes back with a sick running lariat for two of his own. Claudio goes for the Ricola Bomb, but Fire Ant hits a firemans carry slam and locks on the Chikara Special! Right in front of him, Ares lock the Inverted Chikara Special on Green Ant. I’m marking out, but the crowd is dead quiet for some reason. Really took me out of that moment. Soldier Ant and Tursas break each submission up. Tursas press slams Soldier Ant out onto Fire Ant and Ares. All four brawl on the outside, and Fire Ant starts climbing a support beam! He dives off taking out everybody! TURSAS IS DOWN! It’s just Claudio and Green Ant in the ring, and they start trading strikes. Swiss Death from Claudio! 1…GREEN ANT KICKS OUT AT ONE! He is getting fired up! RUNNING UPPERCUT FROM CLAUDIO! 1…2…Green Ant kicks out again! Claudio goes for the Ricola Bomb, but Green Ant rolls through and locks on the Texas Cloverleaf! The crowd is desperate for Claudio to tap. Ares tries to breaks it up, but Green Ant won’t let go. Fire and Soldier Ant dump Ares and hit twin dives to the other BDK Leaders. GREEN ANT LOCKS THE CHIKARA SPECIAL ON CLAUDIO!!! But Claudio knows the counter, and kicks his way free. He locks the Inverted Chikara Special on Green Ant! Soldier and Fire Ant manage to break it up and drop Tursas and Claudio outside. They set up the Antapult and launch Fire Ant onto both men. Ares battle Green and Solder Ant, where he eats a TKO from Soldier Ant and a cutthroat neckbreaker. Fire Ant slides in as Green and Soldier dive out onto Claudio and Tursas, taking them out again! Fire Ant drills Ares with the Beach Break! 1…2…NO! Ares kicks out! The Colony sets up for something, but there’s a lot of confusion. Soldier & Greenie are taken out on the outside and Fire Ant hits a few roundhouses on Ares. He goes for Burning Down the House, but Ares holds on and throws him into referee Bryce Remsburg. Ares hits the Toblerone Driver, but Bryce is dazed. 1……2……Fire Ant kicks out! TURSAS SPLASHES REMSBURG! Quack and Chikarason are dumbfounded by this on commentary. Soldier and Green Ant drop Ares and the entire Colony boots Tursas out of the ring. The Colony sets up for the Anthill, a move they’ve not used since the Worker Ant days. It connects! Fire Ant covers Ares…but there’s no referee! Derek Sabato, a disgraceful former Chikara referee, shows up and starts the count. 1…2…Sabato says it’s only two, but Ares never got a shoulder up! It’s a screwjob! Claudio & Tursas low blow Greenie and Soldier, and Sabato ignores the transgression. Claudio & Tursas lift Fire Ant high into the air and Ares charges. RAGNAROK! Ares covers, and Sabato makes the fastest count in history. The Bruderschaft Leaders are your 2010 King of Trios winners. Afterwards, Sabato takes off his regular Chikara officiating shirt to reveal one a white one, and all four men involved posed for pictures as Jakob Hammermeier threw streams from the outside. It was a dramatic, hellacious match that felt as big as it should have. I’d go even higher if not for some gripes here and there. It was one long sustained car crash, and I loved it. Overall, it came off amazing on the DVD. When they got the victory, the entire arena just died. No boos, no cheers…they just died. It resembled the end of a “My Bloody Valentine” concert, where no one really knows what to do. They wander the streets with vacant looks on their faces. I am so hooked into this storyline now, I can only feel a fraction of sympathy for those live who felt underwhelmed. It came off amazing on DVD, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
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Overall – 7 / 10
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This was a pretty strong show with a great ending, but one that had a lot of peaks and valleys. The main event was phenomenal, QuackenSaw/Bucks was really great, the Gauntlet was super fun and the quarterfinal matches were good, too. Even Kingston/Daniels, while a bit disappointing, had its moments. Chuck Taylor vs. El Oriental was a case of just a bad replacement choice, but the Rey de Voladores final was an absolute abomination. I’d advise skipping Taylor/Oriental and Cross/Ophidian, making the experience much more enjoyable and easier to keep up emotionally. Such fluctuations like on this card really make it hard to get into the match that follows the bad ones, and I think the main event suffered a tad from the RDV’s craptastic display. However, there is more than enough to like here, so for Chikara diehards and indy fans alike, this gets a recommendation. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
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The All-Important M’s
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Match: The crazy bread Main Event. Whether it’s the scaffolding dive or the sky-high uppercut from Castagnoli or the BDK getting a referee, this was a match of big moments and high drama. The finish definitely deflated the entire audience, but it came off amazingly well on DVD and will be remembered for a long time to come.
Move: The Super Mega Antapult Splash, both the one that did connect and the one that did not. They were equally amazing moments, with perhaps a very slight edge to the one that saw Claudio give Green Ant a proper European burial courtesy of the European Uppercut.
Moment: Since the BDK went home as winners, I’m gonna go with the appearance of Tommy Dreamer and his pitch-perfect promo. It was heartfelt, honest, hilarious, and it built towards Chikara’s next shows. You will rarely ever see that kind of twinkle in the eye of Eddie Kingston again, as he genuinely loved the moment he shared with the Hardcore Icon that night in Philly.
MVP: For his tireless efforts to put over the trios, his endless energy in the face of exhaustion and his on-point commentary despite a voice that must have burned his own throat with every syllable, this one goes to Gavin Loudspeaker, who once again proves that Chikara is not just another indy promotion…it’s one built upon really love and respect for what it represents, and almost no one in Chikara better exemplifies this than The Loud One. Ku-friggin’-dos to Gavin and his tremendous spirit.
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