By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

RADICAN’S CHIKARA DVD REVIEW SERIES
“2012 KING OF TRIOS: NIGHT 1”
SEPT. 14, 2012
EASTON, PA.

CHIKARA did a good job of dressing up the new King of Trios venue with a nice entrance. The sound and picture quality are good throughout this release. The only drawback is that from the hard camera, it’s difficult to see the large crowd as most of the audience is packed in on the other sides of the ring.

(1) The Sendai Girls (Meiko Satomura & Dash Chisako & Sendai Sachiko) beat the Colony (Fire Ant & Solider Ant & Assailant) in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. CHIKARA director of fun Wink Vavasseur has come up with a system called Chikarabrmetrics to make the best pairings for teams, so we get a lot of heels teaming with faces and vice versa this year. The match opened with a long heat segment on Satomura. The action broke down and saw the Colony hit a triple dropkick on Sachiko, but Chisako broke up the pin. Moments later, Green Ant slammed Sachiko and Chisako at the same time to a big pop. Assailant and Green Ant started to argue, which resulted in Green Ant being left alone in the ring. After a combination of dives off the top from the Sendai Girls, Chisako pinned Green Ant with a frog splash. (**1/2)

The Batiri cut a promo backstage. Kobalt said Delirious was a genius for bringing all of UltraMantis Black’s enemies together. Ophidian came into the picture and said their mission was to make sure Black’s dreams didn’t come true in this tournament.

(2) The Batiri (Obariyon & Kodama & Kobald) w/Ophidian beat 3.0 (Scott Parker & Shane Matthews) & Gran Akuma in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. After some early back and forth action, the Batiri got the heat on Akuma. Akuma caught Kodama with a release German suplex and tagged in Parker, who ran wild. The Batiri isolated Parker and hit a combination front and back kick on him, but Parker and Matthews broke up the pin. Both teams went back and forth and there were a lot of nearfalls broken up down the stretch. They did a spot where Akuma knocked the ref over. Ophidian ran in and interfered and the ref saw it, but had to pretend he didn’t see it because he wasn’t supposed to turn around. Kobald ended up hitting the demon toilet off the top on Akuma for the pin. The finish was lousy, but the action was fine leading up to the end. (**1/2)

Team Osaka Pro cut a promo backstage in Japanese backstage. Kikutaro took a picture and they all looked at it.

(3) F.IS.T (Chuck Taylor & Johnny Gargano & Icarus) w/Sugar Dunkerton beat Team Osaka Pro (Ebessan & Kikutaro & Takoyakida) in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. Lots of comedy in this one as expected from this combination of Osaka Pro talent. Ebessan took a series of forearms during the early stages of the match and told Gargano to bring it each time before finally collapsing to the mat. They did another funny spot with Kikutaro not understanding how to do spots off the ropes with Icarus. Sugar Dunkerton, who is a face, has been aligned with F.I.S.T. as part of the new Chikarabrmetrics system and the heel members of his team argued with him during the match. At one point, they wanted him to trip Ebessan when they whipped him off the ropes, but Ebessan countered and he tripped Icarus instead. Icarus ended up getting Dunkerton’s hair pick and poked Takayakida in the eyes with it before rolling him up for the win. This match isn’t for everyone, but the comedy was pretty funny throughout the match. (**3/4)

(4) Mike Quackenbush & Manami Toyota & Jigsaw vs. The Swarm (Combatant & Deviant & Solider Ant) w/ The Shard in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. The story here is that Jigsaw wanted to get Quackenbush to focus on the tournament and not worry about his ongoing feud with the members of the Swarm. The match started with some good chain wrestling between Quackenbush and Soldier Ant, who is the face inserted into the Swarm via Chikarabrmetrics. Quackenbush’s team got the heat on Combatant. Deviant tried to interfere at one point, but ran away when Quackenbush glared at him. The Shard ended up tripping up Jigsaw from ringside a short time later to give the Swarm the upper hand. Solider Ant didn’t like this and shoved the Shard on the outside. Jigsaw got worked over a bit before making the hot tag to Toyota, who ran wild. Quackenbush then hit a dive to the outside to wipe out the Swarm. Solider Ant ended up attacking his own partner Deviant. He then hit a reverse TKO on Jigsaw. The action broke down and Deviant ended up taking a series of moves capped by a moonsault from Toyota for the win. (***1/4)

Quackenbush attacked Combatant after the match and left him down on the mat with a neck breaker. Jigsaw tried to calm Quackenbush down and shoved him. Quackenbush said the Swarm was hiding something. Soldier Ant tried to intervene between Jigsaw and Quackenbush, but Jigsaw told him to stay out of his business. Quackenbush said he did it for the promotion.

(5) Team JWP (Commando Bolshoi, Tsubasa Kuragaki & Kaori Yoneyama) beat (The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Matt Classic & Mr. Touchdown) w/Veronica in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. A lot of comedy in this one mixed in with Mr. Touchdown and Hatfield having some dissension. Classic was funny as well, as he wanted nothing to do with wrestling women at the start of the match and got mad when Hatfield started things off by playing an imaginary game of softball with Yoneyama, who ended up striking out on swings. In another funny moment, Kuragaki, one of the bigger women on the team, exchanged shoulder tackles with Classic later in the match and ended up sending him down to the mat. Mr. Touchdown ran in and attacked Yoneyama from behind a short time later and the crowd booed. Mr. Touchdown got cocky later on during the match after hitting two military press slams on the Bolshoi, who is not very heavy. He went for a third and the crowd popped when she countered it into a big DDT and rolled him up with a nice pinning combination for a nearfall. The finish saw Classic get the claw on Kuragaki, who countered it into a torture rack forcing Classic to tap. (***)

Hatfield and Mr. Touchdown argued after the match. The crowd chanted for Archibald Peck, which caused Veronica to cry. Mr. Touchdown ended up leaving with Veronica after brushing off Hatfield.

The Spectral Envoy cut a promo backstage. Black said that the Submission Squad was just a stepping stone to them winning the King of Trios this year. He said winning the King of Trios was their destiny.

CHIKARA ran an angle where the Submission Squad had transportation issued and were going to miss the show. The crowd cheered heavily when it was announced they would not make the show. They drew names out of hats to determine a random trio for the Spectral Envoy to face. The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger came out first after having his name drawn out of a hat. Veronica and Mr. Touchdown were leaving and she smiled at Stranger, who is obviously Peck under a mask, but it was a funny moment to watch unfold here. Mihara and Tito Santana ended up being the other names drawn out of the hat to face the Envoy.

(6) The Spectral Envoy (Hallowicked & Frightmare & UltraMantis Black) beat The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger & Mihara & Tito Santana in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. This match featured some fun stuff during the early going as Stranger and Black had a jacket battle, which escalated to a prop battle that has to be seen to be explained properly. Frightmare eventually squared off with Mihara, but couldn’t scare him with his fright tactics. The fans wanted to see Santana tag into the match, but neither Mihara nor Stranger would tag him into the match for some reason. At one point Mihara tagged himself in when it looked like Santana was going to get the tag from Stranger. The Envoy worked over Stranger for a long period of time until he finally made the hot tag to Santana, who ran wild and hit his signature flying forearm on Frightmare to a huge pop, but Black ended up rolling him up from behind for the win. This was fun was what it was. (**3/4)

(7) Team ROH (Mike Bennett & The Young Bucks) beat The Faces of Pain (Warlord & Meng & The Barbarian) in King of Trios 2012 First Round match. The Submission Squad was shown trying to get into the building before the match started. Team ROH tried to jump Meng early, but he kept no selling blows to the head. Team ROH hit a triple dropkick on Meng, but he no-sold it and took them all out. Warlord and Barbarian are still in pretty good shape, but Meng was moving slowly here. Team ROH sold well for the Faces of Pain and at one point Barbarian did a double test of strength with the Young Bucks and took them both down. Matt ended up clipping Meng’s leg from behind at one point and Team ROH began working it over. The Young Bucks went for more bang for your buck on Meng, but Matt couldn’t lift him up. After the action broke down, Bennett ended up pinning Meng with a sunset flip. The action was pretty slow in this one, but fans enjoyed seeing the old school WWF spots from the Faces of Pain. (**1/4)

(8) The Extreme Trio (Tommy Dreamer & Jerry Lynn & 2 Cold Scorpio) beat Team WWF (1-2-3 Kid & Aldo Montoya & Tatanka) in a King of Trios 2012 First Round match. They did some comedy early with Dreamer asking Montoya why he was doing Justin Credible’s moves in the ring. Kid and Montoya looked a step slow here at times. The best spot of the night occurred when Tommy Dreamer did some slow motion wrestling with the Extreme Trio. It was so funny to see Dreamer participate in something you only see in CHIKARA when he’s been very serious about his character throughout his career. It was hilarious seeing Tatanka do his fiery comeback in slow motion only to be “paused” by Dreamer. Dreamer nailed a paused Tatanka with a punch and when he hit the “play” button on his remote, Tatanka took a bump. The Extreme Trio worked over Montoya until Dreamer missed an elbow off the second rope. Tatanka got the hot tag and ran wild before the action broke down. Everyone ended up brawling on the outside. They ended up back in the ring and Kid hit the x factor on Dreamer, but Lynn broke up the pin. Lynn eventually ended up pinning Montoya with the cradle piledriver for the win. (**3/4)

The crowd chanted thank you to all the wrestlers as they stood in the ring after the match.

The Extreme Trio cut a funny promo backstage. Scorpio put over Team WWF and his partners. Lynn said tonight was a family reunion for them with their opponents. Dreamer put over CHIKARA and said the promotion reminds him off ECW because they bring something different to the table. He also said his heart will break when Lynn retires later this year. Dreamer said they were ready to face Team ROH tomorrow and then he did different old school ECW poses, which was pretty funny.

Overall thoughts: (6.5) – This was a fun show to watch. The in-ring action didn’t deliver due to the pairings in the first round and some of the in-fighting going on with the various teams thanks to the Chikarabrmetrics where heels have been paired with babyfaces and vice versa in various factions. There was also some in-fighting going on among the various regular teams during several of the matches.

CHIKARA does a good job of tying together storylines and this show set the stage for the rest of the tournament. The story with UltraMantis Black not being able to win the big match should be fun to follow as the tournament unfolds and the stage was set for a potential Spectral Envoy vs. Batiri match through the backstage promos during the show.

Another fun story is Archibald Peck’s disappearance from CHIKARA after Veronica decided to leave him for Mr. Touchdown at “Chikarasaurus Rex” earlier this year. Peck is now working under a mask as the Mysterious and Handsome stranger and had some funny interaction with Veronica and Mr. Touchdown during the show. Quackenbush’s ongoing feud with the Swarm was also spotlighted during the show and you are left wondering whether or not he’s going to be able to focus on winning the tournament with Jigsaw trying to get him focused.

As a standalone show, this didn’t have a lot of great in-ring action like most CHIKARA shows do. Most of the action was average with a healthy dose of comedy thrown in. The crowd was hot most of the night, but the in-ring action rarely set them on fire. This is still an important show within the context of the three night tournament, however, so you’re probably not going to want to sit it out in the end, because King of Trios is more about the sum of its parts rather than a single show.

You can purchase this show as a DVD, VOD, or MP4 at SmartMarkVideo.com

***

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