Indie wrestling stapleCHIKARA Pro Wrestlinghas been kicking around for sixteen years.
Rather than being full-formed, a lot of their big puzzle pieces came gradually over time.
They even used the 2006 tournament to crown their first tag champs.
But in 2007, the idea would take a step further.
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Heres a look at the three-day tournament throughout the years.
You know, unlike CHIKARA did forKing of Trios 2007.Ahem.
It also took a couple years for them to really figure out the structure of the tournament.
Then you haveNight Three, where youd have the semifinals and finals.
A perfect showcase for all the talent eliminated from the tournament with nothing to do.
2007 was a very eclectic group to the point that Ellis wasnt even their strangest get.
That would probably go to Team DDT, which included Danshoku Dino and American Balloon.
As for Dino, he was…a gay sexual predator?
One of my favorite bits of this show was the surprise return of Claudio Castagnoli.
Los Ice Creams CHIKARAs resident loser comedy tag team had an unknown partner going into the tournament.
Then the second year fell into theWrestleMania 2trap of thinking that bigger means better in any form.
Thats ten matches each show!
ThenNight Threewould feature the quarterfinals, semifinals, finals, the Tag Gauntlet, and three exhibition matches!
That was the 32nd match in three days, man.
Once again, Los Ice Creams had a mystery partner.
This time, they filled in the spot via CHIKARAs go-to plan of simply picking names from a hat.
chant when they were booted from the tournament.
The three would show up regularly in CHIKARA in the years that followed.
KING OF TRIOS 2009
March 27-29
This is the year whenKing of Trioshit its stride.
It went back to being 16 teams and found a better format.
Plus there would be extra matches tossed intoNights TwoandThree.
Regardless, the weekend no longer felt overstuffed.
No year had a more stacked roster than 2009.
Then you toss in the returning Soul Touchaz and probably the best collection of in-house CHIKARA talent.
Iceberg couldnt make it and was instead replaced by DLo Brown.
Then he never showed up in CHIKARA again.
Unfortunately, CHIKARAs beloved trio the Colony lost a qualifier against FIST in the lead-up to the show.
Aries didnt like that because he was a heel elsewhere.
Thumbs up, wrestling fans!
Team Uppercut (Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, and Dave Taylor) vs. Luckily, there would be some good follow-up to that long down the line too.
Days before this show, they ran into a big snag.
Arguably three, but Ill get to that in a second.
The Young Bucks even showed up with their less-good third brother Malachi.
Team Big Japan was simply dominant and Sekimotos suplexes were a constant treat.
That went to the team of Flip Kendrick, Louis Lyndon, and Johnny Gargano.
The start of that came from the lack of Team Mexico.
With that no-show, they pulled names from a hat and got Amasis and Ophidian of the Osirian Portal.
A fantastic dynamic that squeezed out a couple nice hope spots in a hopeless situation.
King of Trios 2011came in the shadows of the BDKs downfall.
They were still around, but no longer the dominant heel faction that they once were.
2011 had a good chunk of Japanese imports showing up to mix it up.
Team Dragon Gate included Kagetora, Super Shisa, and future Cruiserweight Champion Akira Tozawa.
Team Michinoku Pro had the legendary trio of Dick Togo, Great Sasuke, and Jinsei Shinzaki.
Then Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw brought in Manami Toyota to round out their team.
Not X-Pac, not Syxx, and not just Sean Waltman.
The 1-2-3 Kid was coming to CHIKARA!
Its more about its performances.
It was my first time seeing Tozawa in action and he immediately looked like a star.
If anything, his showdown with El Generico was a match of the year candidate.
It would also be the finalKing of Triosheld at the ECW Arena.
More on that in a sec.
Now, you might recall the LWA showcase match from 2009 that I talked about getting a rotten reaction.
The four men from that match decided to join forces and invade CHIKARA themselves as the Submission Squad.
The night of the first show, their car broke down…immediately outside the arena.
Team JWP and Sendai Girls also meant we got our first all-female trios for the tournament.
Otherwise, they possibly overdid the nostalgia booking.
They even had Demolition and Marty Jannetty show up during the Tag Gauntlet out of nowhere.
With the main roster, the tournament was mucked up by Wink Vavasseurs questionable brainchild CHIKARAmetrics.
The serious Gran Akuma got stuck with the goofballs Scott Parker and Shane Matthews.
Craziest of all was Soldier Ant being forced to join the Swarm while assailANT was put in the Colony.
The Faces of Pain vs. All the while, the crowd chanted, ITS NOT WORTH IT!
and the Young Bucks considered that advice.
The four matches after intermission were one of the best clusters of matches that CHIKARA has ever had.
There was a hilarious eight man tag comedy match that got a like DONT END!
chant, a joshi tag match, a hard-hitting singles bout, and a cathartic tournament finals.
If youre going to watch just oneKing of Trios, make it this one.
KING OF TRIOS 2014
September 19-21
So you might notice I skipped 2013.
There wasnt aKing of Triosin 2013.
CHIKARA did a storyline where the company was closed down by their evil corporate overlords.
For example, there was noKing of Trios.
Believe me, itll be great!
Like, not hospitalize them or end their careers.
Hed hit a chokeslam-backbreaker and they would treat it like that wrestler actually died.
Since the CHIKARA vs.
Flood war was in full effect, much of the tournament was based on that.
Outside of a couple novelties, it didnt appear to be that interesting of a roster.
Dude completely killed it.
Night Threehad a surprise battle between Chuck Taylors Gentlemans Club and the Submission Squad that needs to be seen.
Then there was a huge photo opportunity out of nowhere andjust watch the match, its wonderful.
Somethingotherthan evil wrestlers invade CHIKARA.
Ten captains drafted their picks and theyd spend months taking on each team twice in different forms (ie.
singles, tag, trios, or eight-man tag).
It was another mixed bag.
In the end, only a handful of teams had much going on.
This ended up being a bit of an issue for the Arcane Horde.
He had no choice but to put Oleg in his spot.
Thats a whole can of worms.
When it comes to memorable moments from this show, I cant not mention Fenixs little misadventure.
DuringNight Two, Team AAA took on the Nightmare Warriors.
Fenix was the face in peril and took a bunch of abuse until finally turning the tables on Frightmare.
Any other promotion and that would have brought the house down.
After the match, they went to intermission.
But anyway, Ive been pretty good at not spoiling too much with these tournaments.
That said, the first teams announced were Team AAA and Bullet Club.
Bakabella got smashed in the head by Olegs arm so hard that his hairpiece flew out of the ring.
The top storyline at the time was the rise of the HeXed Men.
CHIKARA had a mind-control maguffin as part of its lore since 2009 called the Eye of Tyr.
Its continued use led to Hallowicked and Frightmare being awakened into worshippers of a deity called Nazmaldun.
Nazmaldun ended up being a wheelchair-bound UltraMantis Black, also affected by the Eye of Tyr.
Whether he was a host to Nazmaldun or if it was his hidden nature was never certain.
Regardless, there was a psychic in a wheelchair with a collection of guys calling themselves the HeXed Men.
See what they did there?
Speaking of comic book references, CHIKARA brought in Hornswoggle, now known as the Big Deal.
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, Big Deal had to skip out onKing of Trios.
Joey Styles showed up under short notice and did commentary for the whole weekend.
For this year, CHIKARA leaned into womens wrestling to fill the roster.
Worked out well, since Solo is currently a major player on the roster.
They also teamed up CHIKARAs resident wrestlecop Officer Warren Barksdale with Bill Carr and Supercop Dick Justice.
That turned out to be a brainwashed Jigsaw, who hadnt appeared in CHIKARA since 2014sKing of Trios.
Otherwise, they had a trio of brainwashed Batiri members representing the faction too.
No hate towards Gavin Loudspeaker, but Vlads pre-main event speeches would makeID4Bill Pullman nod in respect.
He hit his apex in the finals onNight Three.
Even Colony vs. Submission Squad (Big Deal and bodyguards replacements) is a good outing.
He signed a personalized 810 for someone that said, I am stuck in a net.
Dudes a real professional.
There was a huge exodus of talent and the new guys werent exactly setting the world on fire.
Also, they went with aGame of Thronesaesthetic this time around with each team having House in its name.
Pretty cool to see them involved despite being under the WWE bubble at the time.
Heres a look at the opening matches with a little whos who action for you.
Theres aStar Warsspin on everything because of course there is.
In 2010, WWE introducedNXT, which at the time was a developmental exercise merged with a game show.
The eight Rookies battled it out alongside their established WWE Pros.
After they were defeated atSummerSlam 2010, the team started to gradually fall apart.
Granted, he cheated a lot, but he had his moments of actual valor and skill.
Then you have the Closers,Rick RolandandSloan Caprice.
Usually, their success takes the form of scheming or luck (ie.
Under her leadership, the clownish duo won 2015s Challenge of the Immortals.
He gladly took up the offer, but these guys probably arent long for the tournament.
Solo Darlinghas been having a rough go lately in terms of teamwork.
Still, she just might be the hero that Solo Darling needs.
Merlok,Hermit Crab, andCajun Crawdadcompeted together in the 2017 tournament, but with a far different mentality.
Back then, it was just Merlok as an unstoppable monster, offset by two bumbling idiots undermining him.
Oceanea has been absent lately, but her henchmen have been working well as a unit.
Merlok now has direction and the Crab People are more competent than ever.
This time around, Eagles gets to shine alongside teammatesShazza McKenzieandJessica Troy.
These days, it isntKing of Trioswithout a team of three joshi women kicking peoples faces into mush.
This time around, its three representatives of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, DDTs sister promotion.
These three women have been there since the beginning, including current Princess of Princess Champion Miyu Yamashita.
Yuka is a peppy magical girl while Shoko believes herself to be a giant monster despite her tiny size.
Man, too bad Hydra had to retire all those years ago.
A showdown against Shoko would have destroyed Pennsylvania.
For over a decade, the Colony have been one of the biggest fixtures in CHIKARA.
Founded byFire Antand Soldier Ant, the group had grown to include many members and two different spinoff teams.
Thanks mostly to the actions of Frightmare, the Colony had been cut down to just Fire Ant.
He started lashing out at his allies for various reasons.
Meanwhile, two rookies namedGreen AntandThief Antstarted wrestling at shows, hoping to continue the name of the Colony.
Fire Ant wasnt amused and regularly attacked the duo.
On the other hand, semi-retired Worker Ant II saw potential in the two and acted as a mentor.
A representative of Titor Conglomerate, Volgar became aimless once the Flood was disbanded.
That is, until finding his own identity as rockabilly brawler Juke Joint Lucas Calhoun.
Confused and horrified, Calhoun left CHIKARA.
Calhoun and his team lost.
Now the Proteus Wheel moves on to the next stage:King of Trios.
Super Thunderfrog, formerly known as the Estonian Thunderfrog, was one of CHIKARAs most valiant heroes.
Thunderfrog returns to CHIKARA and with him are his animal super friendsWildcatandAir Wolf.
The latter of which competed in this years Young Lions Cup, only to come up short.
Well see if this amazing zoo crew is powerful enough to see the tournament through to the end.
Their most triumphant form came inIcarusas the unlikable leader alongside no-nonsense grappler Gran Akuma and dangerous goofball Chuck Taylor.
Time passed and the team changed up and fell apart.
Since then, hes been seen as one of the most respected veterans on the roster.
The respect wasnt reciprocal when it came to the rookies.
Icarus grew to feel disgust for the younger crop of CHIKARA wrestlers and would openly mock them on commentary.
He found most of them to be soft, but consideredTravis HuckabeeandTony Deppento be outliers.
The Wing Ringed Warrior took them both under his wing and started a new chapter in FISTs story.
Razerhawk may be the team leader, but he represents far more than flippy space birds.
Coincidentally, their big triple team finisher is exactly the same as the Colonys Ant Hill.
Wonder if that will come into play…
Dasher Hatfieldand his step-cousin-in-lawMr.
Touchdown Mark Angelosettihave competed together as the Throwbacks since 2012.
Formerly a cheater and a bully, Touchdown was tempered by Dashers zest for honor and fair play.
Despite their success, their chances inKing of Triosarent exactly set in stone.
In early 2018,Cam Zagamiwon CHIKARAs Young Lions Cup tournament to become the new champion.
He ended up losing in an impromptu match against Danjerhawk.
Zagami and Milonas will represent Beyond along withChris Dickinson.
Beyond Wrestling eventClan Feuds.
Unlike most CHIKARA shows this year,King of Trios 2018wont be streaming live on CHIKARAtopia.
Luckily, it should be available to purchase as a VOD a day or so later.
Im gonna be there.
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