The Howling CHIKARMY Insider! (Full Preview of all 16 Teams in King of Trios)

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It’s finally here! This issue of CHIKARMY Insider will focus solely on the mother of all wrestling tournaments: Battle Bowl! Er, wait…Bad Ass Mother 3000! No that’s not it. TPI? King of the Ring? Did I already say Battle Bowl?! I got it! It’s King of Trios, the annual tournament pitting teams of three against teams of three across three nights of heart-starting, pump-fisting, ape-slapping fun! Below, you’ll find write-ups on all fifteen glorious teams as well as that one that no one cares about. You know who you are.
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The legacy of the Friends In Similar Tights is closely associated with the King of Trios tournament. Under the Kings of Wrestling banner, Icarus, Chuck Taylor and former Friend Gran Akuma made it to the semifinals of the very first tournament, finally losing to the team from K-DOJO. In the record-setting 2008 tourney, they made it to the third round only to be ousted by their mortal enemies, The Colony. They finally turned the corner in 2009, winning the entire tournament. However, after a shocking loss to Team Osaka Pro the following year, Ick and Chucky T decided a change needed to be made. Akuma was booted out of F.I.S.T. and Chikara Pro altogether, replaced by Johnny Gargano. The previous trio had been the only team to ever compete in all four tournaments. By the time King of Trios rolls around, they won’t have won a six-man tag in over six months. However, Gargano & Taylor tore through Japan on a tour of Dragon Gate and could come back better than ever. The real question is if F.I.S.T., as a whole, can even be as good as they were two years ago.

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2009 is the year of The Colony. No wait, it’s 2010. Er…maybe next year. It seems the every year is “the year” that The Colony finally put it all together and win King of Trios. Like F.I.S.T., they are tournament veterans still working out the kinks of a new line-up. Fire Ant, Soldier Ant & Worker Ant competed in the first two tourneys, losing in the first round of the first and making it all the way to round four of the second. In 2009, they not only lost a trios match that barred them from competing in the tournament, but lost Worker Ant after Chuck Taylor ended his career with a devastating Awful Waffle on the floor. Green Ant emerged as their newest member and they made it all the way to the finals of last year’s tourney only to be screwed over by a returning Derek Sabato. With the BDK out of this year’s tourney, perhaps 2011 is the year The Colony makes good on a claim fans have been making for years.

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No trio in the history of Chikara can claim as long a debuting win streak as The Osirian Portal’s newest line-up can. When Arik Cannon, Claudio Castagnoli & Chris Hero formed The Kings of Wrestling in 2005, they tore through the company, winning four consecutive six-man tags before finally falling to Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw & Reckless Youth in one of Chikara’s first true classic matches. The team of Amasis, Hieracon & Ophidian have won four straight as well, but they also beat a BDK trio when Hieracon was still known as Jonathan Gresham. That puts them over the top, but it also places quite a lot of pressure on the young triumvirate. Whenever you invoke The Kings of Wrestling as a point of comparison, it’s going to draw some attention. All four teams that they beat pre-Trios are in the tournament: The Colony, F.I.S.T., The Dark Army and a Donst-led Bruderschaft team. There’s a very really possibility that, at some point, The Portal will cross paths with one of them. As the saying goes, no good comes from facing a team twice. Amasis & Ophidian have teamed with Mecha Mummy, Escorpion Egipcio and Sara Del Rey in past tourneys, all of which ended in early exits. Perhaps they’ve finally found the right third man.

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2010 was a strong year for Da Soul Touchaz. Despite not getting into King of Trios, the snub only seemed to feed fan support for Acid Jaz, Marshe Rockett & Willie Richardson. Led by manager C.Red and valet Dymond, the trio pinned The Bruderschaft on three separate occasions, proving to the Chikara locker room that the super rudo ground wasn’t impervious to failure. However, the good times stopped after The Bruderschaft attack them at the Season 9 finale. After a Del Rey piledriver on Dymond and Tursas second-rope splash on C.Red, the two were forced into retirement thanks to the injuries they sustained. Da Soul Touchaz went looking for revenge against the BDK starting in Season 10, but they have only been met with screwjobs and losses. They will get a chance to redeem themselves at King of Trios, the very place they made their names to begin with. After a memorable match in the second round of King of Trios 2008 against F.I.S.T., they were invited back the following year but ultimately lost to The UnStable, once again in the second round. They are back once more, this time with extra incentive to take home the top prize.

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The Throwbacks are back to once again throw down at King of Trios! See what I did?! WORDPLAY! Dasher Hatfield, Sugar Dunkerton and Matt Classic return to the tournament of tournaments with a preliminary goal in mind: GET OUT OF THE FIRST ROUND! Last year, F.I.S.T. sent them home packing in the very first match of the tourney, a result that could be attributed to Sugar’s “Curse of One”. He also lost in the very first match of the Young Lions Cup tournament that same year. If the Throwbacks can successfully lobby Wink Vavasseur to keep them out of match numero uno, they will stand a much better chance of going deep in the tourney. Matt Classic makes us return to Chikara and, despite an UNWILLINGNESS TO ANSWER E-MAILS…is a favorite of this particular writer. In fact, The ‘Backs have a huge advantage in their matches: no matter what the scenario, they will no doubt have the fans behind them.

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Manami Toyota will make her triumphant return to Chikara Pro on the biggest possible stage: King of Trios! She made her United States debut in the company back at September’s Eye to Eye event where she beat Daizee Haze. The following night, in Chikara’s New York debut, Toyota teamed with Mike Quackenbush to face Claudio Castagnoli and Sara Del Rey. Once again, she was victorious as fans appropriately treated her to a shower of applause. She has since been integrated into the Chikara family, as the company is even selling special shirts bearing her name. Now, she returns to make her Pennsylvania and Philadelphia debut, once again teaming with Quack. The third member of their team is Jigsaw, who is currently one half of the Campeones de Parejas with “Lightning” Mike. QuackenSaw, along with Shane Storm, won the very first King of Trios. In fact, this is the first time QuackenSaw has competed in Trios together since winning it all! The team, in their infinite strength, is also without a name. They’re actually the only nameless squad. This needs fixing. Someone, anyone…name this team!

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Obariyon is, undoubtedly, the strongest member of The Dark Army. After he & partner Kodama gained the three points necessary for a title shot, they came up just short against QuackenSaw, with Kodama losing the final fall and Obariyon being the only one of the two who got a pin. At Creatures from the Tar Swamp, he came very close to unseating Frightmare as the Young Lions Cup champion before ultimately falling to the Kneecolepsy. It was his first and so far only loss in singles competition. He even made it to last three in the YLC Eliminator on his debut show back at YLC VIII. Few have achieved so much so soon into their Chikara careers. With Sinn Bodhi leading The Batiri into battle, The Dark Army will look to make a long run in the tournament, and Obariyon might finally get the big win in Chikara that has eluded him so far in his short career.

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The second biggest question mark in this tournament (see below for #1) involves Tim Donst and who he will choose as his partners on the team representing the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes. After Claudio Castagnoli announced that he, Ares & Tursas would not compete this year, Donst took up Castagnoli’s challenge for someone else to captain a BDK team. Donst lead Lince Dorado & Pinkie Sanchez into King of Trios last year, but they were ultimately defeated by The Colony on Night 2. This time, he’s putting together his own dream team. However, the candidates seem to be slimming. He expressed interest in Sara Del Rey, but, despite beating Toshie Uematsu, the two teamed with Castagnoli against Team Frightning at Operation Big Freeze and lost. Daizee Haze is coming off a broken nose and is easily the lightest member of the faction. His partners from last year can also be scratched off the list, with Donst calling Pinkie a loser after getting pinned by Hieracon and Dorado having been taken off the Chikara roster. Delirious, perhaps the most likely member to make the Donst’s crew, is on a long losing streak and he’s never won a tag match with Donst while in the BDK. Then there’s Jakob Hammermeier, who just learned how to wrestle a few months ago. Big Tim’s sure got his work cut out for him.

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When Team Australia became the first international team announced, it sparked quite an outrage. Comments like “the [Aussie] team not surprisingly looks like crap” and “I wonder how much they paid to get on the show” were not shocking considering the overall look of the team painted a bizarre picture. The most dangerous man on the team appears to be Kabel, a masked, near seven-foot-tall, three-hundred-pound beast. Tama Williams is a former NHPW Art of Fighting champion, the second ever in fact. The first was Mana, who worked in Chikara in 2006 as Larry Sweeny’s muscle before they ultimately had a falling out. Trivia! Finally, we have Percy T, who…um…wears glasses? I got nothing. All three are repping New Horizon Pro Wrestling and couldn’t possibly do worse than those shmucks from the Lethal Wrestling Alliance…right?

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No one would have blamed Chikara if this year’s King of Trios used mostly home talent, relying on makeshift teams and fan favorite trios. The economy is still down, and you gotta save money where you can. Through eight selections, we had Manami Toyota and Matt Classic as the only real non-regular entrants. Team Australia was announced and, well…it mostly drew mockery. Fans accepted it and critics used it to fuel their uninspired rants. Then, Team Michinoku Pro was announced. If Chikara had landed even one of those guys, the conversation would’ve become mostly optimistic. They outdid themselves though, landing three of the most well-known and respected Japanese talents in the world. The conversation had become flush with frenzied joy! The Great Sasuke, founder of M-Pro and considered one of the craziest wrestlers of all time, is a former WWF Light Heavyweight champion, Tohoku Jr. Heavyweight Champion, IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion and made it to the finals of one of the greatest tournaments in wrestling history: the 1994 Super J Cup. Dick Togo, a veteran of the WWF, M-Pro, ECW, Ring of Honor, DDT and tons of other promotions, was the founder of famed stable Kaientai and has been seriously considering retirement as of late despite still being a top performer. Jinsei Shinzaki, better known to WWF fans as Hakushi, is the current owner of Michinoku Pro and multi-time tag champion in M-Pro and All Japan. All three are disciples of Gran Hamada, the first man to popularize the lucha libre style in Japan. Sounds like they fit perfectly into the wild world of Chikara.

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The team that won the hearts of all in attendance for King of Trios 2010 is back! Team Osaka Pro will once again be lead by Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada. After shockingly besting feared rudo trios The UnStable & F.I.S.T., it was The Colony who finally stopped them on Night 3. Unlike last year, however, the team should be much more cohesive, replacing friend-turned-foe Tadasuke with fellow Sekigun member Ultimate Spider, Jr. The relationship between Chikara & Osaka Pro has grown stronger since last year’s tourney after Frightmare, Tim Donst, Lince Dorado, Vin Gerard, STIGMA and Dasher Hatfield made a tour of Osaka Pro in Japan. Kotoge & Harada have won the OPW Tag Team Championships twice and Spider is the current OPW Battle Royal champion. They are young, hungry wrestlers looking to prove themselves in a stacked field of not only Chikara talent but Japanese blood as well. One member of the PWP staff even has them as a dark horse to win the tournament. In such a diverse field, it makes quite a lot of sense.

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Amazing Red will make his Chikara debut at Trios, teaming with Wil Maximo & Joel Maximo to reunite The S.A.T. one more time! Real life cousins of Joel Maximo and brother Jose, The Maximos worked as a team in the early days of Ring of Honor. Hell, on the very first show in ROH history, Red teamed with The S.A.T. to face Quiet Storm and Brain XL. Sadly, Jose retired from wrestling in July of last year, seemingly bringing an end to the faction. They would not be gone long as brother Wil would train at their school and will join Red & Joel at King of Trios.  Red is not foreign to retirement himself, having done so in 2006 after a seriously knee injury seemingly ended his career. He would eventually return, however, in JAPW at the end of 2008. Four months later, he signed with TNA. Trios has had active Total Nonstop Action participants in the past: Team TNA of Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Sonjay Dutt competed in 2007 and The Young Bucks aka Generation Me teamed with their brother as The Jackson 3 in 2010. Though Red & the Maximos are a perfect fit for Rey de Voladores, the high-flyers sub-tourney, winning Trios should be the only thing on the team’s mind.

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Many things have changed since Scott Parker & Shane Matthews last competed in King of Trios. Back in 2007, they were still only 2.0 rather than 3.0, Max Boyer, Worker Ant, American Balloon, Chris Bosh and Scott Lost were active wrestlers, Gran Akuma, Hydra and Lince Dorado were still in Chikara, STIGMA was Shane Storm, Chuck Taylor still wielded an invisible grenade and Parker didn’t have a first or last name. Due to an unfortunate mix-up wherein 3.0 thought that Chikara Pro was supposed to supply them with a third man for their team, they’ve been missing from every other tourney. Having cleared that up, Jagged & Big Magic made one phone call to El Generico and just like that, ¡3.0lé! was born! Generico is no stranger to Trios, Having teamed with The Young Bucks and The Super Smash Brothers in past tournaments. One thing’s for sure with this threesome: they’ll be bringing the wackiness in waves!

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When UltraMantis Black, Frightmare & Hallowicked weren’t among the first thirteen teams chosen for King of Trios 2011, many assumed that they would not be participating, myself included. At last year’s season finale show, Sinn Bodhi & the Batiri attacked UltraMantis, with Sinn demanded the Eye of Tyr. Frightmare pleaded with Hallowicked to help his former friend. Wicked & Mantis were close as members of the Dark Breed, but injuries repeatedly Black on the sidelines. Hallowicked teamed with Delirious for the first time at the 2006 Tag World Grand Prix and became fast friends. Mantis declared the faction dead and has been waging war on Hallowicked ever since. That night, Black had offered a truce before getting jumped by The Dark Army. For this reason, Wicked agreed with Frights and they saved UltraMantis from further harm. Now officially together as The Spectral Envoy, the trio will attempt to refocus their attention from the war against Bodhi & Co. to winning the most important tournament in professional wrestling.

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It seemed like a lock that Arik Cannon, Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz would team as The F1RST Family for their fourth consecutive year at King of Trios. However, Cruz is “retired” and the team has only won a single tournament match over that three year span. As fan favorites, Cannon & Corbin were invited back so long as they could find a third member. They searched high and low all across the country only to find that the man they needed was from their own home state! 1-2-3 Kid aka X-Pac aka Syxx aka 6-Pac aka The Lightning Kid aka Sean Waltman will make his Chikara debut in Team Minnesota! Having been a fan of Chikara for quite some time now, it seems fitting that he’d be willing to revert to a character he hasn’t portrayed in FIFTEEN years. A former TNA X Division champion, WCW Cruiserweight champion and WWF Light Heavyweight champion, Waltman may just be the missing ingredient from Arik & Darin to finally achieve glory in the tournament.

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The final team entering the field of King of Trios 2011 is one that I thought might be impossible. With regular shows in the United States & the UK, along with working the most dates of any company in Japan, Team Dragon Gate seemed like a pipe dream. Luckily for all those who will be in attendance, it will be a reality. Super Shisa, a former Triangle Gate & Brave Gate champion, is a disciple of Ultimo Dragon, the head trainer of DG’s wrestling dojo and possesses the strongest lucha array of anyone in Dragon Gate. To be honest, I’ve wanted him in a Chikara ring for a very long time. Akira Tozawa, despite never holding a single title in Dragon Gate, is considered one of the hottest wrestlers on the indys today. He’s also the only member to appear in Chikara before, competing in Young Lions Cup VIII and losing in the main event Eliminator to eventually tourney winner Frightmare. KAGETORA is the most decorated of the three, having been a Triangle Gate champion, Battle of Tokyo winner and holding tag belts in several Japanese independents including El Dorado, Osaka Pro and Michinoku Pro. Though not of the same factions, the trio is quickly gaining steam as a favorite in what appears to be the biggest and best King of Trios yet!

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– Please leave any comments or questions you might have and I’ll do my best to respond with as many hypnotic Japanese lullabies as I can conjure. I’d like to do a contest or something cool like that, but I’m not sure how much interest there’d be. Let your voice be heard! Also, let me know if there’s anything you’d like to see in the column, like fantasy booking, treasure hunts, wish-lists, secret handshakes, etc.

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