What the fuck just happened in CHIKARA!? Spoilers?

[cero2k]

I'm taking this text from reddit since it's perfectly summarized.

If you're new to Chikara, or even a Chikara veteran, you may have been scratching your head at a few things during National Pro Wrestling Day.

First there was Vlad mentioning that Season 17 would be available for binge streaming today. Odd, because season 17 hasn't even started yet!

Then there were some point totals that didn't quite add up (Chikara uses a point system to determine #1 contenders)
There was also the bombshell: Ultramantis Black, who has retired over a year ago due to injury, is not only back, but is also apparently Chikara Grand Champion!

After the show, an ad for season 17 played, stating we'd be able to binge watch starting TONIGHT! The ad featured all sorts of talent that Chikara recently lost to WWE and others.

From what I, and other members of the CHIKARMY, can surmise, is that they taped an entire season in secret before the talent raid!

This is the most creative stunt I've seen pulled in wrestling, and the fact they were able to do it without any word getting out blows my mind.

I am so grateful that Chikara exists. It's easy to fall into the trap about complaining about booking, or rating matches, or who should or should not be pushed. Chikara is an escape from all that. Chikara is simply: fun.

If you've been wondering where to start with Chikara or have been dragging your feet in checking this fantastic promotion out, NOW IS THE TIME!

http://chikarapro.com/events/season-17

I hope some other CHIKARMY members can post below and fill in some gaps I may have missed or correct me if I got something wrong.

Today is Christmas and I had no idea it was coming!

[cero2k]

Did we all just time travel again? realistically they probably just taped an extra season in advance for some reason, but it's still interesting. I'm also seeing that Season 18 shows are all Doctor Who titles, so maybe there will be a bit of traveling.

[Big Red Machine]

Ironically, I spent a chunk of Friday reading up on the Fanboards CHIKARA thread for Season 16 (note to others: DON'T DO THIS ALL IN ONE DAY. It's not healthy. I sh*t you not: I actually had a dream that, like, six other promotions and the NBA were all secretly super-elaborate works run by Mike Quackenbush).
Someone there had floated a hypothetical way to show us an "alternate reality"- which would be to just do a normal show with things being completely different and make no mention of it (maybe have Quack grow a beard a la Mirror Spock), leaving people to figure it out for themselves.

[Big Red Machine]

I've got to say: of all of the people in the world whose Grand Championship win to tape in secret and then spoil like this, UMB has got to be the worst possible choice. He is one of the most beloved wrestlers on the roster, and we only two months ago just learned that he won't have to retire forever (or, more likely, that the whole retirement and injury was a work).

[Big Red Machine]

Also lost in the craziness was an announcement that King of Trios will be in the UK this year, which seems like a horribly irresponsible decision, both financially and in terms of rewarding your most loyal fans.

[Big Red Machine]

I think Quack has jumped the shark. He's all out of good ideas. Hence why there has been exactly ONE WrestleFactory graduate over the past few years who isn't a completely on-dimensional gimmick character-JFDC (I guess two if you want to count Condron, but he was apparently doing his own stuff and then Quack took the angle away from him some time in the fall of 2015 or something). As a result of this, he is doing whatever crazy thing he can think of in an attempt to gain attention. We've had outsiders dominating King of Trios for the past two years (apparently last year's all-Joshi finals really annoyed a lot of fans), KimberLee's title win and playing up the Divas Revolution at KOT this year, putting the tag belts on Mustache Mountain (who are never flown over to defend them), streaming f*cking WrestleFactory CLASSES, and now this.

[Big Red Machine]

I just saw someone make the apt comparison to DC's One Year Forward (i.e. season 18) and 52 (i.e. season 17). For the record, I HATED that gimmick.

[cero2k]

I think Quack has jumped the shark. He's all out of good ideas. Hence why there has been exactly ONE WrestleFactory graduate over the past few years who isn't a completely on-dimensional gimmick character-JFDC (I guess two if you want to count Condron, but he was apparently doing his own stuff and then Quack took the angle away from him some time in the fall of 2015 or something). As a result of this, he is doing whatever crazy thing he can think of in an attempt to gain attention. We've had outsiders dominating King of Trios for the past two years (apparently last year's all-Joshi finals really annoyed a lot of fans), KimberLee's title win and playing up the Divas Revolution at KOT this year, putting the tag belts on Mustache Mountain (who are never flown over to defend them), streaming f*cking WrestleFactory CLASSES, and now this.

booking wise, i don't think he's out of good ideas, i just think he's trying to tackle them all at the same time and nothing clicks, and he hides behind the idea that wrestling is fun! and all the chikara loyals will take whatever he gives them, talk about a loyal fanbase. I tried reading those CHIKARA summaries sometime last year and it felt like everything was all over the place and the only thing that made sense to me was someone was controlling people (hexed). I'd even say that Quack just throws whatever out there and the fans are the ones making sense out of it.

I do agree that he has jumped the shark with the characters, i don't think anyone is special anymore like when The Colony and Fist Spectral Envoy were strong.

[cero2k]

I just saw someone make the apt comparison to DC's One Year Forward (i.e. season 18) and 52 (i.e. season 17). For the record, I HATED that gimmick.

I kinda liked the first 52, hated the second run.