9/1 CHICKARA “KING OF TRIOS 2017: Night Two” in Wolverhampton, England: House Throwbacks vs. House Strong Style, Quackenbush, Pete Dunn, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven

CHIKARA “KING OF TRIOS 2017” REPORT – NIGHT TWO
SEPTEMBER 1, 2017
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND AT STARWORKS
REPORT BY DAVE GREEN (@dagreeno), PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

(11) “Ophidian” (a/k/a The Whisper) defeated A-Kid, El Phantasmo and Omari in an elimination match in the Rey de Voladores tournament. The Whisper has donned Ophidian’s mask and his mannerisms, even entering to Ophidian’s music and being announced as such. This follows on from Whisper recently claiming the mask after Ophidian disappeared after losing a sarcophagus match to Hallowicked. A fun opener with some great spots, including Phantasmo walking the top rope bringing springing into a moonsault to the floor.  The impressive A-Kid got another rousing response from the Whitewolf faithful, though Omari definitely had the majority of the crowd support from his home venue. At one point, Whisper used his yoyo technique to hypnotise his opponents, making Omari choke slam the others before gaining a nearfall for himself. Kid scored the first elimination over Phantasmo, while Omari sent Kid packing with the incredible looking O-Zone finisher. To the disappointment of the crowd, Whisper channelled Ophidian to deliver an Egyptian Destoryer followed by a Code Red to score the final fall to advance.

(2) Casa Dorada (Chikara Grand Champion Juan Francisco de Coronado & Cornelius Crummels & Sonny DeFarge) defeated House Calamari (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos & Elijah). As the brackets for the KOT tournament had not been published, it was a surprise to see two rudo teams pit against each other, but the UK team of House Calamari were adopted as the protagonists for this encounter. Another fun scrap was had here, with Brookes pulling out his usual wet willie spot, which was turned around by DeFarge who put his finger into his own ear and put it into Brookes’ mouth! Eventually Crummels & DeFarge scored with their top rope monkey flip move to pin Elijah and advance Casa Dorada to the semi finals.

(3) Jody Fleisch defeated Chuck Mambo & Red Eagle and Sylverhawk to advance in the Rey de Voladores tournament. The British contingent of Mambo and Fleisch got a great reception from the crowd. Mambo fit in wonderfully with the Chikara atmosphere, getting some comedy into the proceedings by attempting a people’s elbow with multiple arm bands to take off before convincing Sylverhawk to stay down while he tried to complete the move. Eagle countered a submission into a victory roll to eliminate Mambo, then Fleisch hit the 720 DDT to Eagle to send him packing. A nice exchange between the final pairing saw the home country hero prevail, with Fleisch catching Sylverhawk with a flying DDT to advance to the final tomorrow against Whisper.

(4) House Sendai (Meiko Satomura & Dash Chisako & Cassandra Miyagi) defeated House Seven Seas (Hermit Crab & Cajun Crawdad & Merlok). This match told a great story of the Sendai Girls being able to handle the Crab and Crawdad, but whenever Merlok got in the ring, he dominated. He squashed Chisako with a running Samoan drop. Sakomura tagged in late into the match, which the crowd popped huge for, and she leathered Crawdad and Crab with her huge kicks. Merlok once again took control of the match, but his teammates made he get out of the ring saying that they got it. This proved to be a mistake. Meiko managed to lift Crawdad into her Death Valley Driver. Miyagi took Merlok down with a big dive and Satomura hit a big axe kick to pin Crawdad. It must be said that the Seven Seas team really brought it in their tournament matches and proved themselves worthy of being in the ring with House Sendai, while Satomura proved why she is undoubtedly one of the best wrestlers in the world today as she was on another level tonight.

(5) House Rot (Hallowicked & Frightmare & Kobald) defeated House Furies (Fire Ant & Solo Darling & Travis Huckabee). This was a big storyline match as these factions have been feuding heavily this season. All six competitors started with a crowd brawl, highlighted by Fire Ant climbing one of the structural beams of the building and diving onto House Rot. This match was action packed and full of convincing false finishes. Fire Ant had Frightmare all alone and hit the Beachbreak. Instead of covering, he hit another one. Referee Joel Allen told Fire to go for the win, but Fire was consumed by rage against the man that took his Colony teammates Soldier and Silver Ant out of action and hit another Beachbreak. Allen ruled Castigo Excesivo – trying to hurt an opponent rather than trying to win the match – and disqualified House Furies. Fire had to be held back by his teammates, before sitting in the corner with his head in his hands. Rot tended to Frightmare and celebrated their win.

(6) Mike Quackenbush defeated Johnny Kidd in a British Rules match. Kidd came out of retirement to take on Quackenbush in this final match of their series, with each man picking up a win previous to their draw last year. They put on a technical masterpiece as expected, with a funny moment when Quack teased a dive onto Kidd when he’d been knocked to the outside. Despite it being sold as a one fall match to the finish, they still wrestled in three minute rounds, with the fifth and final round seeing no decision made and another draw being announced. Quack got on the mic and requested they continue the match, no rounds, one fall to the finish, which was accepted by Kidd. It didn’t take long thereafter for Quack to get the deciding fall with a cradle. This was a lovely match, although how much you enjoy it will depend on how much you like his style of wrestling. I enjoyed it thoroughly, although the match had already been advertised as one fall to the finish, so I felt the tease of a draw and the request for the match to carry on was unnecessary.

(7) House Strong Style (Pete Dunne & Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) defeated House Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Mr Touchdown Mark Angelosetti & Simon Grimm). The main event of the evening saw the only British team left in the tournament take on one of the more popular trios. Trent and Dasher started proceedings not wanting to wrestle, since they were teammates at last year’s event. They engaged in a “moustache-off”, and were joined by Bate and Grimm. Dunne had enough and grabbed the ‘taches of Grimm and Hatfield to cease the lightheartedness. Once again, in the theme of these matches, the action was non stop. In an echo of the night before, Dasher found himself on top of a body pile on the top rope ready to jackhammer a Dunne (Pete this time, rather than his brother Damian the previous night), but Bate leaped up behind him and gave Dasher a German Suplex. After many triple team moves, Dunne hit the Bitter End on Hatfield for the win. All six men showed sportsmanship after the match.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Once again, this was a really fun show. I am aware I am using the same words to describe the trios matches, mostly “action packed”, but they really are. So much goes on, it’s difficult to recall a lot of the big moments, so apologies for the repetitiveness. Sendai Girls once again stood out with their performance and they look on course to retain their crown, with hopefully an encounter with British Strong Style at some point in the next show. Simon Grimm did more in his matches in this tournament had I ever saw him do in his WWE run, exhibiting incredible technical acumen. The drama involved with the Fire Ant / Frightmare situation may have been lost to those in attendance not following the storyline, as well as those having to find out why Fire had been disqualified. And it was great to see Johnny Kidd come back for one more match.

Night Three will see the semi-finals and finals of the King of Trios tournament, Jody Fleisch vs The Whisper in the Rey de Voladores final and the annual Tag Gauntlet, with only the Campeones de Parejas Los Ice Creams having been announced, with their sole objective being to stop any teams getting the points they need for a title shot. I’ll have a report for you very soon!

(If you attend a live event, please send us results like those above to pwtorch@pwtorch.com.)

NOW CHECK OUT THIS NIGHT ONE REPORT: 9/1 CHICKARA “KING OF TRIOS 2017: Night One” in Wolverhampton, England: House of Throwbacks vs. House Attack, House Strong Styles vs. House Whitewolf