CHIKARA King of Trios 2010: Night 3
KING OF TRIOS 2010 SEMIFINAL MATCH:
The Colony vs. Team Osaka Pro (Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada, & Tadasuke) - 6.75/10
Good action with a really great finish (a freakin’ SUPER ANT-APULT)!
KING OF TRIOS 2010 SEMIFINAL MATCH:
Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Claudio Castagnoli, Ares, & Tursas) vs. Team Big Japan (Daisuke Sekimoto, Yuji Okabayashi, & Kankuro Hoshino) - 6.5/10
They did a lot of good, hard-hitting stuff, but while the fans were happy to get behind Team Big Japan, no one ever thought they had a snowball’s chance of winning.
CHUCK TAYLOR PROMO - Fine.
CHUCK TAYLOR vs. EL ORIENTAL - 6.5/10
TAG TEAM GAUNTLET:
The Throwbacks vs. the UnStable (Vin Gerard & STIGMA) vs. Steve â€"The Turtle†Weiner & Dragon Dragon vs. The Future Is Now (Equinox & Helios) vs. Aeroform vs. North Star Express (Ryan Cruz & Darrin Corbin) vs. Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black & Crossbones) vs. Incoherence (Hallowicked & Frightmare) vs. F.I.S.T. (Gran Akuma & Icarus) vs. Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Sara Del Rey & Daizee Haze) - 5.75/10
This was essentially a plot device to get to Incoherence winning the final three matches (including beating Daizee & Sara, who were gifted the easiest spot, at the end) to get them up as challengers to Ares and Claudio. It moved briskly and accomplished that goal.
EDDIE KINGSTON PROMO - GREAT! He’s got his confidence back.
CHRISTOPHER DANIELS vs. EDDIE KINGSTON - 7.25/10
Daniels was the more solid but still not outright breaking the rules heel here. Eddie overcame him and got the win. In hindsight, it seems like the purpose of Daniels’ appearance and this miniscule little run here where he was framing it as himself against CHIKARA’s best was to facilitate the final step of the Kingston babyface turn… and if that was the plan, it certainly worked, as the crowd was solidly behind Eddie the whole time.
POST-MATCH SEGMENT - Good. The reason Eddie needed to be turned fully babyface was that someone had a big surprise for him: Tommy Dreamer is here. Tommy told the fans that he wants to wrestle Dragon Dragon before he retires â€"because that sh*t was awesome.†I guess no one told Tommy that CHIKARA is a family-friendly show. He quickly got corrected and apologized, then moved on to his main point (other than putting over CHIKARA): He wants to wrestle Eddie Kingston next month.
YOUNG BUCKS vs. MIKE QUACKENBUSH & JIGSAW - 8.5/10
AWESOME! Just awesome! Match of the Weekend so far.
MATT CROSS PROMO - Good.
2010 REY DE VOLADORES TOURNAMENT FINALS:
Matt Cross vs. Ophidian - 7/10
I’m not saying that this wasn’t a great match, but for the finals of a â€"King of the High-Flyers†tournament, I was expecting something a lot flippier and faster-paced.
MIKE QUACKENBUSH GIVES THE COLONY A PEP-TALK IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE TECHNINO LOCKER ROOM - Good. More importantly, Jigsaw suggests that Quack quickly teach the Colony the counter to the Inverted CHIKARA Special, and Quack responds by telling him that there isn’t one.
KING OF TRIOS 2010 TOURNAMENT FINALS:
The Colony vs. Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Claudio -Castagnoli, Ares, & Tursas) - 8.75/10
Jakob Hammermeier shoved Gavin down and snatched the mic from him while Gavin was doing his â€"MMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN EVENT!†drumroll deal.
This was awesome. I’m not going to spoil any of the spots in the match, because whatever I might tell you about what happened won’t come across as great as it did without the emotional context of it all. All I will say is that this was an appropriate cap to the emotional rollercoaster ride that this weekend has been. With eleven years of hindsight and watching wrestling crowds evolve, the thing that has amazed me the most while watching this feud is just how often CHIKARA managed to get the right kind of heat (and lots of it) for things that I think most crowd in the past ten or even fifteen years would have crapped all over.
Final Thoughts
Another excellent night of King of Trios. Great wrestling up and down the card and an awesome rollercoaster of a main event. What else could you ask for?