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| The Batiri will be there in the Tag Gauntlet Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
Of course, the main event of the weekend is the trios tournament, and the complete slate of first round matches have been set. As a refresher, the first half of the bracket looks a little like this: Team UK vs. the Bloc Party, Knight Eye for the Pirate Guy vs. the Gekido, The Flood vs. The Spectral Envoy, Devastation Corporation vs. Team Extravaganza. First on the slate for this half of matches is another battle between Chikara and The Flood, as 3Peck0 will face the unholy fusion of the BDK and Dr. Cube. Much like the Flood/Envoy match, this clash is a potential main event for night one. Ares has won the tournament before alongside Claudio Castagnoli and Tursas, and Archibald Peck and 3.0 are three of the major actors behind the rebirth of the company.
The next match is a surprising announcement. I thought the blood feud between the Colony and their military knockoff counterparts would happen later on in the tournament, but Silver Ant, Fire Ant, and Worker Ant will meet Orbit Adventure Ant, Arctic Rescue Ant, and Missile (!) Assault (!) Ant (!) in the first round. The X-Treme Force won the first battle in their war at You Only Live Twice, but this first round match doesn't seem to have finality. I would expect an early exit for the 2011 Champions setting up one final match at the season finale.
The third announced match on this docket is another potential main event just given on the caliber of names involved. On one side of the ring stand the Golden Trio, Grand Champion Icarus and Los Campeones de Parejas Dasher Hatfield and Mark "Mr. Touchdown" Angelosetti. The team of LAX - Homicide, Hernandez, and Chavo Guerrero - will be on the other side. While this match doesn't have the gravitas of other potential main events, it stands as the one so far with the most star power. Night one has traditionally ended with a match like this in other years. In 2009, the UnStable took on Al Snow, Glacier, and D'Lo Brown. 2010 saw the young bucks of The Future Is Now against a team with the actual Young Bucks on it (and Malachi Jackson). In 2011, team Michinoku Pro battled Team Minnesota, featuring Sean Waltman, and in 2012, ECW beat the WWE in the final match of the first day.
Finally, the first announced trio, the Spirit Squad, receive their dance partners in Kizarny and his Odditorium. The Squad, despite arriving into the tourney with much fanfare, are definitely a comic relief team, and Sinn Bodhi's group is the "funniest" portion of The Flood. I'm not saying this match won't be good, but it could definitely end up being the comic relief of the night. Of course, every show needs comic relief, no matter what dudes like Lance Storm say.
With the first night's action set, it's time to concentrate on nights two and three, specifically the ancillary features. Rey de Voladores, which already has Tigre Uno, Rich Swann, and Shynron announced, filled out the first eliminator and added a huge first name to the second match. The final competitor in the first eliminator match is Chuck Taylor. The Kentucky Gentleman won the first ever Rey de Voladores title in 2007, back before it was a part of King of Trios. Taylor usually is embedded in the tournament, but since Team FIST has seemingly disbanded, he needs SOMETHING to do. A King of Trios weekend without Taylor is like a burger without cheese. Sure, it's still worth eating, but it just isn't the same.
The first name for the second eliminator is another import from TNA's X-Division. Seiya Sanada will be joining fellow TNA coworkers Tigre Uno and Rockstar Spud at the extravaganza as the fifth overall name announced for the King of Flyers mini-tourney. Much like with Uno and Spud, I don't know too much about the former X-Division Champion. However, he comes highly regarded by fans of both TNA and his home promotion in Japan, Keiji Mutoh's Wrestle-1.
The Trios tourney, RDV, and the announced-Fan Conclave aren't the only annual traditions associated with the weekend. Night three usually contains a massive, ten-team tag gauntlet, and this year will be no different. The gauntlet was officially announced, and the first team in is The Batiri. Obariyon and Kodama will anchor this year's gauntlet, as their entry into King of Trios was scuttled at You Only Live Twice when Deucalion made Kobald his first victim. I would be shocked if the entire slate was announced beforehand, because so many of the other entrants consist of eliminated wrestlers, but the demons are a good start.
A group that I thought would be part of the gauntlet, The Submission Squad, was also announced, although their fate will be in a relevos atomicos. Their opponents have yet to be announced, which signifies a possible battle between Squads. Obviously, Dolph Ziggler ain't walking through the doors of the Easton Funplex, but Nick "Mitch" Mitchell or even Ziggler's brother, Ryan "Briley Pierce" Nemeth could be the fourth member of a hypothetical Spirit Squad team. Then again, Gary the Barn Owl, Evan Gelistico, Davey Vega, and Pierre Abernathy were the first four wrestlers to lead the charge at National Pro Wrestling Day to bring the company back. I wouldn't be surprised to see them take on a quartet from The Flood. Either way, having the Submission Squad as part of King of Trios weekend is awesome.
Finally, Waltman made the announcement on Twitter that he will be present in Easton for the entire weekend like he was for the last two Trios tournaments. However, he ostensibly won't be there to wrestle; rather, he'll be in the Commentation Station. I know Waltman is a polarizing figure in the Chikaraverse, and I admit that I can do without the "Randy the Ram speeches" (™Brandon Stroud). However, I think it's both surreal and cool that he seems to have a lasting association with Chikara. In a different time and place, he could have lit up a Chikara ring on a regular basis.
This weekend is shaping up to be something special and huge, on the same scale as prior Trios tournaments even. The final bits of news coming in ought to round out what may be the best wrestling weekend of the year.