Icarus/Jacobs Is Set Thanks to the Grand Championship Points System

Icarus may be facing the toughest test in his career in Virginia Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

So the main event for Chikara's first ever visit to the Commonwealth of Virginia, Moonraker, has been announced, and it's not all that surprising. The last match of the October 26 show, and the weekend in general, will put Icarus in a match for the Grand Championship against Jimmy Jacobs of The Flood. This match seems to have been brewing for awhile, since Jacobs' focus has either been getting the Grand Championship for himself or for formerly brainwashed acolyte Eddie Kingston since his first promo as The Flood's figurehead. But the tweet that announced the title match mentioned that Jacobs had accrued three points towards a shot.

The points system is nothing new to Chikara. Basically, challengers to Los Campeonatos de Parejas have been decided by it since the titles' inception. Basically, if a team wins a match, it gets a point. It continues to accrue points until it is defeated, at which the points go to zero. Three points mean a title shot. However, when the Grand Championship was introduced, no such point system was put into place. In fact, the willy-nilly nature of title shots was personified in the run up to Aniversario in 2013, when Wink Vavasseur decreed that then-Champion Kingston would defend the strap at every event, culminating in the title match against Icarus where the company went on hiatus.

Forgive me if I'm late on picking this up, but I guess the points system would explain why Juan Francisco de Coronado, a relative newbie on the main Chikara roster, was able to get a title shot so soon into his tenure. Anyway, Jacobs getting his title shot may be shedding some light on how this season may end. At King of Trios, Kingston was brought back from the brink by being reminded what the Grand Championship stood for. Defeating Icarus for a second reign could signal a few things, most notably a complete return to order by stemming the Flood waters and knocking some sense back into the current Champion to stop this hero nonsense and return to being The Worst in the World.

However, a more tantalizing option for the finale would be on the table if Jacobs defeated Icarus in Virginia. I'm not sure how many dates remain between now and the still-unannounced finale, and I'm not sure how many points Kingston possesses, but Jacobs vs. Kingston for the title and the soul of Chikara would not only be tense theater, but it could very well be the match of the year in the company. I'm high on both wrestlers in the ring, and Kingston has shown he can elevate his already superb in-ring abilities when he has a story to work with (see High Noon).

Either way, the late fall swing through the south has some added intrigue to it this year, maybe the most since 2011, when Kana made her Chikara debut in North Carlina and Tennessee. The stretch run for the end of the season has begun, and the clues as to the fate of the Flood and more importantly, what might be revealed AFTER the tidewaters recede are starting to emerge.