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| Long may they reign Photo Credit: Ringside Perspective, via @ChikaraPro |
So Labor Day weekend's big tournaments kicked off in Wolverhampton and Reseda over three days, and tons of action-packed wrestling was enjoyed by scads upon scads of people. King of Trios and the Battle of Los Angeles both had to end, however, and they both ended with high-profile and somewhat controversial but expected winners.
Starting with Trios, the homeland favorite British Strong Style team of Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, and Tyler Bate took home the crown this year, defeating defending Champions the Sendai Girls in the finals. Their victory rubbed some people the wrong way for sure. Moustache Mountain left Chikara initially without dropping Los Campeonatos de Parejas in the ring, and the team is another reminder of WWE hegemony over the wrestling scene, especially in the United Kingdom. However, they're obviously and collectively the biggest thing in BritWres that isn't already signed to Ring of Honor, and one could argue they're even hotter than the Will Ospreay/Marty Scurll crowd.
.
Their path to the final was a bit truncated, however, thanks to Fire Ant absolutely losing his fecal matter in the quarterfinals the night before. The Furies were eliminated from the tournament, not because the team suffered a fall to The Rot, but because Fire Ant got his hands on Frightmare and castigo de excesivo'd his buttocks back to the arms of Nazmaldun. Three beach breaks with no attempt at a pinfall will get you disqualified, and it was a nice bit of symmetry from last year's tournament, when The Rot's emissaries of Hallowicked, Jigsaw, and Icarus gave Team JWP the same treatment except for no apparent reason. So when it came time for The Rot to face off against BSS on night three, well, they had to forfeit because Frightmare was, well, dead.
Still, the BSS/Sendai final was said to be a strong match of the year candidate, which is the least surprising news in the history of pro wrestling. While I'm a bit dismayed that Chikara decided to go guest vs. guest for a third straight year in the finals of its biggest set piece tournament, I can also understand why BSS/Sendai was a finals match and not, say, a quarterfinal match.
Speaking of confusing decisions, Ricochet won his second Battle of Los Angeles over Keith Lee and Jeff Cobb in the finals. Maybe confusing isn't the right word, because of who currently holds the PWG World Championship. Ricochet and Chuck Taylor are old rivals, after all, and if Ricochet is going to WWE like everyone expects him once his Lucha Underground episodes have all aired, you want him to go out in a blaze of glory. That being said, it's not like PWG didn't book a bunch of other guys who might be fodder to get sopped up by WWE at any given moment; one of them even made the finals with Ricochet in Lee.
Of course, the wrestling itself was reputed to be tremendous, but the customer service experience? Eh, for a few fans who purchased front row tickets, not so much. Night two, they went to their front row seats to find that someone else who had purchased general admission tickets just snagged the seats and wouldn't let them go. To make matters worse, PWG officials didn't do anything to rectify the situation. Instead, the people were offered the difference in price between their purchased seats and their new, inferior ones. I'm sorry, but that's not a makegood at all. It instead sends an awful message that all you have to do to get a seat upgrade is get to the seats first, and you can force a downgrade for the people they originally belonged to. BOLA was otherwise a hoot for most who attended, but still, that kind of lack of customer service is wrong regardless of pricepoint or promotion.
Starting with Trios, the homeland favorite British Strong Style team of Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, and Tyler Bate took home the crown this year, defeating defending Champions the Sendai Girls in the finals. Their victory rubbed some people the wrong way for sure. Moustache Mountain left Chikara initially without dropping Los Campeonatos de Parejas in the ring, and the team is another reminder of WWE hegemony over the wrestling scene, especially in the United Kingdom. However, they're obviously and collectively the biggest thing in BritWres that isn't already signed to Ring of Honor, and one could argue they're even hotter than the Will Ospreay/Marty Scurll crowd.
.
Their path to the final was a bit truncated, however, thanks to Fire Ant absolutely losing his fecal matter in the quarterfinals the night before. The Furies were eliminated from the tournament, not because the team suffered a fall to The Rot, but because Fire Ant got his hands on Frightmare and castigo de excesivo'd his buttocks back to the arms of Nazmaldun. Three beach breaks with no attempt at a pinfall will get you disqualified, and it was a nice bit of symmetry from last year's tournament, when The Rot's emissaries of Hallowicked, Jigsaw, and Icarus gave Team JWP the same treatment except for no apparent reason. So when it came time for The Rot to face off against BSS on night three, well, they had to forfeit because Frightmare was, well, dead.
Still, the BSS/Sendai final was said to be a strong match of the year candidate, which is the least surprising news in the history of pro wrestling. While I'm a bit dismayed that Chikara decided to go guest vs. guest for a third straight year in the finals of its biggest set piece tournament, I can also understand why BSS/Sendai was a finals match and not, say, a quarterfinal match.
Speaking of confusing decisions, Ricochet won his second Battle of Los Angeles over Keith Lee and Jeff Cobb in the finals. Maybe confusing isn't the right word, because of who currently holds the PWG World Championship. Ricochet and Chuck Taylor are old rivals, after all, and if Ricochet is going to WWE like everyone expects him once his Lucha Underground episodes have all aired, you want him to go out in a blaze of glory. That being said, it's not like PWG didn't book a bunch of other guys who might be fodder to get sopped up by WWE at any given moment; one of them even made the finals with Ricochet in Lee.
Of course, the wrestling itself was reputed to be tremendous, but the customer service experience? Eh, for a few fans who purchased front row tickets, not so much. Night two, they went to their front row seats to find that someone else who had purchased general admission tickets just snagged the seats and wouldn't let them go. To make matters worse, PWG officials didn't do anything to rectify the situation. Instead, the people were offered the difference in price between their purchased seats and their new, inferior ones. I'm sorry, but that's not a makegood at all. It instead sends an awful message that all you have to do to get a seat upgrade is get to the seats first, and you can force a downgrade for the people they originally belonged to. BOLA was otherwise a hoot for most who attended, but still, that kind of lack of customer service is wrong regardless of pricepoint or promotion.