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| AR Fox is a worthy mic drop name for Rey de Voladores Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
First up, the second RDV eliminator has been fleshed out. Seiya Sanada was announced late last week, and an impressive array of high-flyers will be joining him. The second name for the match announced is none other than the Funky Pharaoh himself, Amasis. This run will be Amasis' second in the tournament; he participated in 2010 when his Osirian Portal tag partner Ophidian won the thing. Speaking of the Serpent from the Nile, a fiendish lout stole his gear off the subway earlier this week, gear that was handmade by his girlfriend Hayley Jane. Check the With Spandex link to get to where you can help him recoup his losses.
The third name in this eliminator match is a relative unknown to the Northeast. Orlando Christopher, whose nickname is "Kid Hybrid," will make his Chikara debut in the RDV tournament. He's a Detroit local who's mostly known for his work in Xtreme Intense Championship Wrestling. Chikara is good for trying new and different options to varying degrees of providence in these kinds of tournament settings, so hopefully Christopher is a diamond in the rough and not just plain old rough.
Rounding out the match and the tournament is AR Fox, which is a name worthy of being a mic-drop announcement. Fox has not worked for Chikara-proper before, but he has dabbled in the Wrestling Is family of promotions, specifically Wrestling Is Art in New England. For those who are fairly new to independent wrestling, Fox is among the best high-flyers going today. He's been to PWG, EVOLVE, CZW, and Beyond Wrestling among others, and he's the perfect standout name to anchor this match alongside Sanada. This appearance will be one of his first, if not his first overall back from a wrist injury that sidelined him for much of the last two months.
Onto the Tag Team Gauntlet, three new teams have been announced for the fray, which already includes Obariyon and Kodama of The Batiri. These four teams are the only ones to be announced beforehand, as the next six will be decided presumably as surprise entrants like Demolition in 2012, or as their trios are eliminated from the tournament at large. The second team in the tournament is the duo of N_R_G, Hype Rockwell and Race Jaxon. They represent the Greenhorn Militia, a group of recent graduates of the Wrestle Factory who look to make their names in a hurry in the bigs. They will have a great shot at proving something.
Next up are representatives of The Flood, Sidney Bakabella's Wrecking Crew to be exact. Oleg the Usurper and Jaka will march into the tournament, looking to ravage anyone who steps in their paths. Given the amount of righteous indignation shown by the Greenhorn Militia towards The Flood, I wouldn't be surprised to see N_R_G and these two goons square off at some point during the proceedings. Either way, I pity anyone who steps in these guys' paths, and if Oleg comes to the ring eating his trademark raw onion like an apple, I pity anyone who's around him in the crowd.
Finally, the ubiquitous and theatrical devilish dairy duo Los Ice Creams is the last announced-ahead-of-time team for the Gauntlet. They've been Chikara mainstays for as long as anyone can remember, but in the last couple of years, I've noticed their game has ramped up substantially to the point where any one of their announced appearances on a show becomes can't-miss. I doubt they'll do more than act as fodder for any one of the other teams, but they'll go down in the most entertaining fashion possible.
And if the Trios news wasn't enough, Chikara made the huge announcement that Young Lions Cup would be coming back. The tournament, which went on hiatus last year thanks to the dissolution of the company by Wink Vavasseur and Condor Security, will return this time as a property of Wrestling Is Fun! Night one will take place October 11 in Haverhill, MA, and night two will touch down in Norristown, PA on November 1. The first part of the tourney will not be the promotion's first venture into New England; it ran a show in Rhode Island a year or so back.
I'm glad this is happening on two fronts. First, Young Lions Cup is a great way for Chikara to give both its younger stars and some fresher faces around the Northeast/country to get a crack at a bigger audience. Second, that it's happening in WIF! is cool as it further strengthens the bond between parent and child promotion. I like that the child company is getting some of Chikara's hand-me-downs. The continuity between the companies allows for more stuff to happen. While a pseudo-isolationist relationship between main company and developmental territory can be a benefit to a larger entity like WWE, having Chikara and WIF! work so closely in concert with each other actually feels better on such a smaller level.
Basically, in regards to Trios, the table has been set as nicely as it's going to be before the events actually start. The only things left to be announced are the surprises, and of course, they wouldn't be surprises if they were announced beforehand. Happy Trios weekend, everyone!