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| Lee and Steel will comprise a trio with Jolly Roger Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
When last I left you guys with the King of Trios updates, the very Canadian trio of 3Peck0 and Sidney Bakabella's cantankerous flagship trio the Devastation Corporation had just been announced. Since then, the field has doubled in size. The Flood washed ashore with some new entrants into the field, the titleholders within the company banded together, and not one, but two women have made their entry into the fray as part of respective trios. The overall roster of trios is starting to come together, and from where I sit, that roster looks pretty good.
The second team from The Flood is the first one of this batch to be announced. 17, The Shard, and Jigsaw comprise the Gekido. The group has been thinned substantially since its debut in 2012, and even current member Jigsaw is on tenuous terms with 17 and Flood leadership on the whole. At a recent Wrestling Is Fun! show, Jig and 17 had a public altercation following a match against Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy. Chikara's prodigal son still seems to be on good enough terms with his new group to team with them come Trios time, but their pairing will be one to watch. However, if a falling out happens to occur sometime during the weekend, no more rogue ants are left to refill the ranks.
The next team up is the appropriately named Golden Trio, featuring the Grand Champion Icarus and Los Campeones de Parejas, the Throwbacks. On one hand, this team makes infinite amounts of sense. The gold-holders of the company would have every reason to band together and defend the name against invaders. On the other, I was secretly hoping for Icarus to reform Team FIST in the fight against The Flood. I know Chuck Taylor as a tecnico seems anathema to many, but no one said he had to be a total good guy. He just had to be "better" than The Flood, which isn't that hard to do. Additionally, a grand homecoming for Sugar Dunkerton as a third for Dasher Hatfield and Mark "Mr. Touchdown" Angelosetti would've been aces as well. Hatfield and Dunkerton had an impromptu social media reunion at Beyond Wrestling's Battle of New England Sunday. Regardless, I can't throw too much shade on this trio.
The third trio announced since last update is another from The Flood, and it's another mashup of sorts. The BDK looked to be a strong trio to enter the tournament until Tursas met the business end of the Estonian Thunder Frog's (pbuh) hammer. Dr. Cube looked like he had a prospective team backing him with his minions Haack and Slaash. However, necessity being the mother of invention, Cube decided to leave the newbs at home and fill the Finnish sea demon-sized void in the BDK's ranks to form a lethally formidable team in its own right. Cube will join Tursas' bug-faced relative Nøkken and 2010 King of Trios co-Champion Ares in a trio aptly named BDK3.
The next trio has made more of a name for itself in Wrestling Is Fun! rather than the main Chikara roster, but Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy as a full trio is notable for the first woman entered in the tournament this year. Lance Steel and Jolly Roger will go into battle with Princess Kimber Lee by their side. Lee, whose romantic hold has caused Steel to do some questionable things that have been at the detriment of Roger at times, will be making her Chikara debut, and not soon enough. Over the last two years, she's become one of the premiere performers on the independent scene, and if I have to place a demographic label on her, she's become the worthiest inheritor of Sara del Rey's lofty mantel. Of all the announced trios so far, this one is the one I'm most excited to see make a deep run.
The next announced team features another woman making her Chikara debut. Thunderkitty will join the team of Old Fashioned, featuring the world's sweetest man Jervis Cottonbelly and the preternatural pugilist of Parma* himself, Marion Fontaine. The team will be repping the Extravaganza of Wrestling Exhibitions in the tournament this year, but regardless of their affiliations with any professional wrestling organization, this team fits in both Trios and Chikara like a glove.
Finally, the most recent trio announced for the fray is yet another envoy from the nefarious Flood. Sinn Bodhi was around for King of Trios '11 as the third member of The Batiri, but this time, he has two different minions. His Odditorium of Qefka the Quiet and Oliver Grimsley will back him up this time around.
The above five squads will join the following trios already announced for the weekend of September 19-21: The Spirit Squad (Kenny, Mikey, Johnny), the Spectral Envoy (UltraMantis Black, Frightmare, Hallowicked), Team UK (Mark Andrews and Pete and Damian Dunne), The Colony (Fire Ant, Silver Ant, Worker Ant), the Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive, Max Smashmaster, Flex Rumblecrunch), and 3Peck0 (Archibald Peck, Scott Parker, Shane Matthews). Eleven teams have been announced with five more to go until the entire field has been revealed. I don't know about you, but I'm through the roof on the announcements so far. And as a bonus, TWB-approved writer Tom Breihan is back scribing about pro graps at VICE Sports (whose editor-in-chief is Friend of the Blog Tomas Rios), and his first piece back is a comprehensive recap of Chikara's lost year. I highly recommend giving it a read.
* - I don't know if Fontaine is from Parma or not, but it was the first Ohio locale that fit in with the alliterative scheme.