The Divestiture of Chikara, the Release of Thom, and a Bleak Crossroad

Why do they want full divestment?

The high noon showdown Saturday wasn't really a showdown at all, or at least, it didn't start out as such. The CHIKARmed Forces Ustream page streamed the event at FDR Park, which at first seemed like a non-starter. The Condor emissaries dropped off the impetus for a scavenger hunt, which was broadcast off-and-on all day, thanks to the providence of the recording apparatus' battery and the lack of a secondary charging source. Basically, the hunt culminated with Condor exchanging the release of Thom, the hostage they took at the last Chikara event at FDR Park, for the contents of a folder which contained a rezoning request for the Charles Chirin Community Center of Palmer Township, better known to you and me as the Easton Funplex.

Then, this morning, I woke to find an e-mail from the Titor Conglomerate in my Gmail inbox. The missive announced that they were putting up all intellectual property associated with Chikara up for sale with a deadline date of December 22.

First off, I'm glad Thom is okay and that those monsters at Condor Security, who were all to eager to bust skulls at the Trocadero on June 2, didn't hurt him. Kidnapping obviously carries a certain weight of trauma, but his recovery means that maybe he has some information, a thread to their undoing. Regardless, Thom's safety is the paramount thing to worry about here. Hopefully, he hasn't suffered too much mental stress.

Secondly, the rezoning request for the Funplex, which came with a threat of demolition, and the e-mail for the IP sale signify to me that the Titor Conglomerate is not content with shutting Chikara down. No, they seem to want to eradicate any trace of the company's existence from ever existing or for existing ever again. They've already sold Los Campeonatos de Parejas and various other material sets and props. They've chased Soldier Ant into hiding, and seemingly sent Mike Quackenbush into retirement. They've scared everyone in the company not named Icarus or Hallowicked into divestment of any attachment to the promotion as a living entity.

The apparent desire to raze the Funplex and selling off of the Chikara name would be the penultimate nails in the coffin. All that would be left would be the physical Wrestle Factory if we're talking all things that have only been established canon to the Chikara name. Of course, the other major fingers on the hand belong to the various Wrestlings Are.

The impetus to destroy everything Chikara related only further the theory, which at this point might only be an illuminating link to being recognized as scientific fact, that the Titor Conglomerate is employing all these former Chikara baddies to come back and shut down each individual Wrestling Is… company. With Ares promising certain doom at Wrestling Is Cool's Philadelphia debut on Sunday, the only dominoes left would be Wrestling Is Heart, Wrestling Is Respect, and the lynchpin, Wrestling Is Fun!

Possible answers or actions could come Sunday. If any time was a good time to mount resistance and link the Wrestlings Are with Chikara proper in a manner more than cosmetic, Sunday would be a pretty fortuitous opportunity for Icarus to mount his offensive. Or would they wait until Wrestling has no more Respect or Heart to defend the final bastion? At this point, I'm not sure of anything except the need to fight needs to be sparked in more than two established hearts. 'Wicked and Icarus may have the backing of a legion of hungry Wrestle Factory students, but will that be enough to topple a multinational corporation with the backing of a trained paramilitary security force?

As a postscript, I clicked on the link that was supposed to go to Titor's asset holdings, but I got an Error 404 message. Maybe they really don't have any chips in this whole thing?

EDIT: Actually, the url was just changed. The correct portfolio page can be found here.

A special thanks to Velvet Hound on Tumblr for a recap of the events of Saturday.