King of Trios 2009: Night 3

On Demand
DVD

Match 1
King of Trios Semifinals
The UnStable (Vin Gerard, STIGMA and Colin Delaney) vs. Team Uppercut (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor)

Pre-match Colin cuts a promo about how nobody thought they’d be able to beat the Cold Front and Da Soul Touchaz, but here they are. The arena is decked out in balloons and Claudio jokingly walks around with one before uppercutting it. As he and his partners take turns, the UnStable jump them and sadly, the balloon flies up above into the ceiling. Aw. Team Uppercut easily fight off the UnStable with uppercuts and each UnStable member dashes back into the ring to receive yet another uppercut.

Claudio manhandles Gerard, tags Bryan in and he stretches him with a modified Dragon Sleeper until Colin kicks him off. Taylor steps in to rough up Gerard, focusing mostly on a cravat hold. Gerard eye-rakes Claudio and brings him to the heel corner. Colin comes in and gives Claudio a European uppercut, which does no damage. Claudio uppercuts him across the ring, holds him up and lets his partners each get a piece. Colin desperately wraps his legs around Bryan’s arm for an armbar, but Bryan picks him up and slams him down on his back. Bryan gets shoved into the UnStable’s corner, STIGMA attacks the knee and Bryan ends up in peril. Gerard focuses on the knee, putting him in a Half Crab. Colin pulls him out of the ring, until remembering that – oh yeah – that means a tag, so he throws him back in. STIGMA runs into the corner and gets a boot to the face, followed by Bryan dropping him with a flying kick. Bryan tags in Claudio.

Claudio has some trouble from STIGMA and is forced into sitting position in the corner as STIGMA kicks him across the face. STIGMA bounces the ropes for one more kick, it’s caught and Claudio sends him spinning with the Big Swing. Thankfully, not quite as long as when he did it to Grizzly. Right after, Gerard rolls Claudio up, almost getting him. Claudio throws him across the ropes, tosses him straight up for the Swiss Death, but Colin gets him in a backslide from behind. Claudio barely kicks out. The ring fills up for a second and when the smoke is cleared, we have Bryan vs. Gerard. STIGMA clips Bryan’s knee and Gerard almost gets the pin. He puts Bryan in the STF, garnering a big, “PLEASE DON’T TAP!” chant. Claudio saves him, waits for Gerard to stand up and boots him from the ring, following after him. Taylor is left in there with Colin, slamming him with a Butterfly Suplex into pinning position. Team Uppercut are off to the finals and when Colin tries some post-match chicanery, he gets bounced back and forth with uppercuts.

Match 2
King of Trios Semifinals
FIST (Icarus, Gran Akuma and Chuck Taylor) vs. the Future is Now (Lince Dorado, Helios and Equinox II)

Akuma and Helios square off, doing a bit of feeling out. Helios armdrags Akuma out and does a dive feint to mess with him. Icarus and Lince step in and the crowd boos the hell out of this pairing. They have some okay lucha mix-up, but it seems to be missing a step. Lince gets Icarus out of there, jumps off the apron and gives him a hurricanrana onto the floor. Equinox has Chuck outclassed until Icarus trips Equinox and Akuma kicks him in the head. Equinox is at FIST’s mercy and this whole stretch of the match lasts forever, filled with referee distractions and an Akuma Sharpshooter while Icarus does a legdrop to the back of the head. When Chuck chops his chest in the corner, Equinox has had enough and goes on a surge of hard chops on Chuck before collapsing. They both get back up and Chuck sets up Sole Food, only to be slapped off. Equinox is thrown into the corner, leaps over the top rope and then steps down from the apron, meaning he’s tagged out.

Helios – Chuck Taylor’s old rival – takes it to him. After Helios gives him a Backslide Driver, Akuma decides to enter and help his partner. Helios does a running flip kick off Chuck in the corner, grabs Akuma on the way down and DDTs him.

Then as Akuma escapes, Helios jumps OVER Chuck in the corner and hits an amazing cannonball onto Akuma.

Lince hurricanranas Icarus out of the ring and follows with a tope. Equinox lets loose with a Missile Dropkick on Chuck, lets him get back up for a superkick and fails to put him away. The Future is Now get together for a triple dropkick on Chuck and all pin him, but Akuma breaks it up. Akuma and Icarus do a Flapjack/Ace Crusher combo on Helios and he kicks out. They set him up in the corner, do their triple dropkick and he again kicks out. Equinox takes down Chuck and performs a running Shooting Star Press. Chuck kicks out, so Equinox puts him in the CHIKARA Special. Akuma steps in there and kicks Equinox repeatedly, despite his determination to keep the hold on. After the third and strongest kick, Equinox lets go. Lince gets Akuma with a C-4 flip slam and shortly after, Helios gets Icarus with a 450 Senton (a 540?). Icarus complains about his busted arm to the ref, distracting him so Chuck can hit Helios in the nuts and knock him out with the Omega Driver. Chuck pins him and there’s a massive pop from the crowd.

How much did these fans hate the Future is Now? They actually chanted, “THANK YOU, FIST!” That’s some hate right there. Also, Chuck grabs a balloon and pops it with an angry bite.

Match 3
El Generico vs. Arik Cannon

Remember that balloon that Claudio let go of in the first match? Luckily, El Generico is on the case!

He then gives the balloon to a little kid with a Generico mask on. Aww! So Generico and Arik square off, each getting the better of the other before getting the crowd to yell their respective catchphrases, “OLE!” and, “OH YEAH!” It’s equal and fast-paced. Arik gets annoyed at Generico’s repeated requests for a handshake and when enduring an armbar, he gets out by slapping Generico so hard, he falls out of the ring. A bit later, he starts slapping Generico’s chest in the corner and slaps him in the face so hard that they both sell it. Generico tries a comeback through punches, but gets slapped down. Generico sees Arik going for a backdrop, so he kicks him in the face, slaps him a couple times in the chest, punches him in the corner as the crowd counts to “diez”, sends him to the outside with a spinning heel kick and then gets him with an Asai Moonsault. Shortly after, he hops off the top rope and drives Arik down with a swinging DDT.

Arik surprises Generico by picking him up, draping him over the top and twisting him with the Siakolypse. He sets Generico into the corner and lets loose with a couple clotheslines. As he steps back to get a running start, Generico follows and goes for a Yakuza Kick. Arik dodges it, misses a clothesline, gets suplexed into the corner and gets up to endure a Yakuza Kick and a half-nelson suplex. He kicks out. Generico gets up the Brainbuster, only Arik is able to fight his way out. Generico bounces against the ropes, gets intercepted with a clothesline and Arik finishes him off with a Backdrop Driver and the Glimmering Warlock. Arik gets the win, although he demands that his music be turned off and “Ole” by Bouncing Souls be played. The two are angry at each other for the mutual beating, but eventually they make up and celebrate their match.

Match 4
Tag Team Gauntlet Match

We have a 12-team match this time around, so get some coffee. The first teams are Incoherence (Hallowicked and Frightmare) and Team EPIC WAR (Ryan Drago and Tony Kozina). Huh. I wonder if Kozina will legit rough up Frightmare to “teach him a lesson about the business”. Douche. Despite that recent stupidity tied to his name, Kozina shakes with Hallowicked and Frightmare with Drago refusing. He attacks both of them and gets double-teamed. Having had enough, he shoves Hallowicked away and desperately tags in Kozina. Hallowicked has the advantage here, but drops the ball when Drago kicks him in the back. The EPIC WAR team prepare a double backdrop, but Hallowicked kicks them, gets Frightmare in there and they double-team Drago and Kozina. Both Hallowicked and Frightmare hit hurricanranas that send their opponents to the outside and Frightmare follows with a dive. He becomes too into playing to the crowd that Hallowicked has to drag him back into the ring to continue.

Frightmare planchas in there for a crossbody, but gets caught with Drago’s knees. Kozina gives him a Butterfly Suplex version of the Three Amigos, ending it by spiking him onto his head. They attempt a double superplex, but Hallowicked steps in and pulls them off. He gets Kozina with Go 2 Sleepy Hollow and Frightmare follows with his flipping knee drop, the Kneecolepsy. Drago breaks the pin, slams Frightmare with a Tiger Driver and Hallowicked breaks that pin. Kozina hops off the top rope and hurricanranas Hallowicked over the ropes, comes back into the ring and German suplexes Frightmare. He holds him with a bridge and gets the three-count.

Next is the Sea Donsters (Tim Donst and Hydra), who take the fight directly to EPIC WAR, but Hydra is overpowered by Drago. Donst saves him by grabbing Hydra and throwing him at Drago. Shortly after, Hydra tries the same trick on Kozina, but can’t make the toss and gets his knee clipped by Drago. He’s thrown out of there and EPIC WAR target Donst, delivering a couple German suplexes that fail to keep him down. Hydra keeps Kozina busy on the outside with some brawling while Donst grabs Drago from behind with a Crossface Chickenwing variation, making Drago tap out.

Immediately, they’re attacked by the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple (UltraMantis Black and Crossbones), as Crossbones completely mauls Donst in the ring. Hydra fends against his former master by throwing UltraMantis right into the railing. Donst regains his composure and brings Crossbones to the mat with an STO. Donst gets his hands on UltraMantis, holds him up and Hydra jumps off the top, doing a sitting senton on the way down. He puts UltraMantis in the Hydralock, but he escapes by stomping the foot and picking him up for the Cosmic Doom, a vertical suplex into a piledriver. UltraMantis gets his revenge and the Donsters are back to zero points.

Animal House (Beef Wellington and Steve “The Turtle” Weiner) come out, each getting chants. Beef answers all of Crossbones strikes through a series of parries, but his smugness gets him a punch in the face. As Turtle and UltraMantis stare each other down, they get dueling chants of, “TURTLE POWER!” and, “TURTLE SOUP!” In a very absurd moment, the two have a very loud argument in the center of the ring, where UltraMantis goes for supervillainish theatrics and Turtle talks like… well, like Turtle is wont to do. Turtle keeps hiptossing the Order guys until UltraMantis clips the knee and removes the shell of his costume. Crossbones splashes him, but in a Kamala-like moment, he tries to pin him the wrong way and has to roll him over. As Crossbones boasts over his superiority, Turtle crawls through his legs and makes the tag. Beef does a great job fighting off the Order, but when he hits the Butt Punch on UltraMantis, he knocks UltraMantis into Turtle. Crossbones grabs him from behind, puts him out with the Freakin’ Awesome Driver and Animal House is put to sleep.

We’re halfway in with team six, the Saturday Night Slam Masters (Player Uno and Create-a-Wrestler)… who are stomped down upon entering the ring. Uno deals out a double Shiranui on the Order and then topes out onto UltraMantis as Create-a-Wrestler rolls up Crossbones with a small package. The Order is out.

Mitch Ryder and Pinkie Sanchez show up, bringing closure to Mitch’s commentary compliments from Night 1. They prepare in the corner and Mitch says that they’ll go for it at the count of three. After counting to three, Mitch runs in the opposite direction while Pinkie dashes into the Slam Masters and gets wrecked. Pinkie gets himself to safety by rolling out and Mitch steps in, not faring too well either after he keeps missing elbow drops on Create-a-Wrestler. There’s a bit of a back and forth between the teams until a beaten Create-a-Wrestler dodges an Avalanche from Pinkie and dives to Uno for a tag. Uno grabs Pinkie and gives him an Armpit Stunner, failing to get the three-count. Uno bounces against the ropes, getting kicked by Mitch. Pinkie takes advantage with a Sunset Flip and an unseen Mitch helps hold down Uno while the ref counts to three.

It’s time for Da Soul Touchaz (Marshe Rockett and Willie Richardson), who get jumped during their pre-match chanting. Pinkie vs. Rockett is a fantastic pairing and leads to some awesome and fast chemistry. Rockett boots him down, tags in Willie and Willie performs some kind of suplex driver thingy. Pinkie escapes after Mitch breaks the pin, leaving Mitch alone to fend for himself. He does quite well against Willie and when Pinkie has recovered, he tags back in and finds that he can’t budge the big man. The ring fills up with Rockett doing an Ace Crusher on Pinkie, followed by Willie doing a top-rope legdrop. Better believe that puts him away.

Team nine is the Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson). They get rid of Rockett and double-team Willie, although Willie is able to stand up to them. He sets up the Pounce on Nick, only to get Speared by Matt. Willie rolls to the outside and falls victim to a dive from Nick. The two perform More Bang for Your Buck – a series of traded high-flying moves done rapid fire – onto Rockett and he’s done.

Cheech and Cloudy are next, no longer described as Up in Smoke due to dropping their stoner gimmicks and going with a more family friendly surfer motif. Crowd is definitely split here and coincidentally, so am I. Cheech gets Nick out of the ring and then throws Cloudy onto Matt in a move called the Tidal Wave. The Bucks regroup and start destroying Cheech and Cloudy in an entertaining mess that’s too hard for me to call. More Bang for Your Buck is set up, but Cloudy escapes and rolls up Matt.

Out comes the Roughnecks (Brodie Lee and Grizzly Redwood), brawling with Cheech and Cloudy, while Brodie takes a second to shove away the beaten Young Bucks. In one of the better moments of the match, Brodie pulls back Grizzly so he can be the one to take out Cloudy. Brodie does a running boot that Cloudy ducks under, only Grizzly catches him with a boot of his own. Brodie seems kind of impressed with his little buddy.

Cloudy is in peril, but gets out of it by riling up Grizzly via tugging on the beard. Grizzly misses an axehandle chop, Cloudy rolls to a tag and Cheech takes it to Grizzly. After they hit Partly Cloudy with a Chance of Cheech and Cheech succeeds in powerbombing Brodie (thanks to Brodie already being on the top rope), Cheech backs up to get some momentum and runs into a clothesline. Brodie does a running boot and pins him.

The final team is Quackensaw (Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw). They show some strong offense at first, but a pin on Grizzly is broken up and he gets back into the game by forcing Quack into the second turnbuckle with a hurricanrana. Jigsaw backdrops Grizzly out of there, but then has to tangle with Brodie. Jigsaw eats a running boot and a Black Hole Slam, but Quack makes the save. Quack gets Grizzly in his clutches and holds him over his head for the Quackendriver 1. Grizzly runs at him for a boot, Quack thinks fast and falls to his knees. Brodie accidentally kicks Grizzly, Quackensaw knock him away with a double superkick, Jigsaw keeps him down with a dive and Quack finishes the match with a Quackendriver 2 on Grizzly.

They only got one point from the match, but it’s better than nothing.

Match 5
The Colony (Soldier Ant and Fire Ant) and the North Star Express (Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz) vs. the Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian), Michael Nakazawa and KUDO

The North Star Express cut a promo with all three Colony members behind them. While they try to talk up the match, Fire Ant stands calmly (for once) with an iPod and the headphones connected to his antennae and Soldier Ant yells at Green Ant to do squats. Amasis and Soldier start it off and Soldier is quick to annoy Amasis by giving him a chinlock while forcing him into a salute. Amasis begins dancing out of Soldier’s holds and gets a huge head over it, stepping up and laughing in Soldier’s face. Soldier responds by shoving him face-first into the mat, stepping on his back and commanding him to do pushups. Soldier tries a couple pinning variations that don’t keep him down and Amasis kicks at him. The kick is caught and Amasis realizes that he can’t actually boogie out of this hold. He nervously shrugs, Soldier flips him over onto his back and busts a move himself.

The Colony double-team Amasis until he escapes and Ophidian’s in to face Fire Ant. Pretty even bout between the two, ending when Fire tags out and the North Star Express crush Ophidian with the Shell Shock. Fire keeps it up with a Stunner and then sets up a dive spot. Michael Nakazawa steps in his way and distracts him by pouring oil all over himself. Fire puts him in a headlock and doesn’t realize for a moment that Nakazawa has stepped back and his arms are empty. Fire tries to run the ropes, but slips and falls. Nakazawa pours oil on Fire’s body, stomps onto him and slips into a senton. Fire gets beat on by the Osirian/DDT alliance and at one point endures a series of running corner attacks by each opponent. KUDO picks him up for a powerbomb and Fire grabs the ropes to stop it. Nakazawa puts the kibosh on that with some more oil.

KUDO challenges Fire to a chop war and although Fire obliges, KUDO strikes him down with a hard kick. Nakazawa pours more oil on himself and Fire and goes for a German suplex, but ends up falling back empty-handed. Fire crawls towards his corner and all of his opponents run in to pull him back. Unfortunately, he’s too oily to grasp and he slips out of their grip. The ring fills up and the Colony/North Star team send their enemies out of there with a quadruple dropkick. Fire and Corbin prepare for joint dives to the outside, but they’re each stopped by KUDO and Ophidian, who put each down and hit them with springboard kneedrops. Both men kick out. Amasis works alongside Nakazawa and pours oil on himself, acting like it’s powering him up. It doesn’t really help him in any way and he gets dumped out of there pretty fast.

Ophidian and Nakazawa try to hypnotize Corbin, but Cruz runs over and grabs Ophidian for a Lungblower. Both members of the Osirian Portal are laid out and the Colony and North Star Express double up to do two Cruz Controls on them. Though Corbin is kind of an ass for pulling Fire Ant off of Amasis so he can make the pin instead. Still, they can’t put them away, so the North Star Express stand on the backs of Amasis and Ophidian while sending Fire Ant onto KUDO and Nakazawa with the Antapult. Amasis climbs to the top rope and gets kicked in the chest by Fire. Cruz climbs up and hurricanranas Amasis out of the ring and onto everyone else. Ophidian and Cruz battle it out with Ophidian maneuvering into the Egyptian Destroyer (his version of the Canadian Destroyer, natch). Corbin breaks the pin.

KUDO kicks down Corbin and climbs to the top. Corbin climbs up to stop him, but gets knocked into a Tree of Woe position. KUDO hops down and knees him from that location. He goes back up to do another top-rope double kneedrop and to make sure there’s no interference, Nakazawa sprays a circle of oil around Corbin, causing Cruz and the ants to slip and fall. The knees hit, KUDO gets the pin and he and his teammates celebrate with Nakazawa pouring oil onto everyone. Amasis thinks this is awesome, but Ophidian is a bit disgruntled.

Match 6
Eddie Kingston vs. Austin Aries

The backstage promo lays down some hints on the future of CHIKARA pretty well. Eddie says it was an honor to be in the ring with Dave Taylor and kind of an honor to be in there with Danielson, but not Claudio. He rants that he doesn’t like Claudio and never did. He can’t get his hands on him tonight, so he’ll settle for Aries. Very interesting matchup here, as we have two heels who the crowd absolutely love to the point that there are multiple loud dueling chants.

Aries out-grapples Kingston at the start and gets openly annoyed that Eddie’s war paint has rubbed off all over his pec. They start doing an Irish whip spot where Eddie keeps jumping over Aries while bouncing the ropes, but doesn’t do anything else, leading to Eddie getting extremely winded and having to take a breather. Aries offers a handshake and when Eddie considers it, he gets slapped in the face. Eddie swipes at Aries, misses repeatedly and Aries does a heelish victory lap around the ring. Eddie finally gets him back when Aries tries to trick him into receiving a tope.

Nice. Eddie gets back in there and starts going to town on him with a whole series of slaps. Just lays the hell into him. He chases Aries around inside and outside the ring and when trying to reenter, Aries catches him with a neckbreaker onto the middle rope. Eddie falls off the apron and then finally gets toped into the guard rail. Aries works over Eddie and takes a moment to play to the booing crowd. He does this a bit too long, allowing Eddie to get back up and let loose with four different suplex variations. He sets him up for a Yakuza Kick, misses and Aries exploits it with a dropkick to the exposed leg. He does a neat combo of a kneebreaker into a back suplex with no wasted motion. He starts slapping Eddie around in the corner with Eddie egging him on more and more, as that’s Eddie’s thing. Aries props him up for a top-rope bulldog, Eddie turns it into a weird face-first Fireman’s Carry type move and then follows it by bouncing the ropes and nailing him with a diving forearm to the face, otherwise known as the Sliding D. Eddie gets the win and the crowd cheers as he favors his hurting arm and walks off silently.

Match 7
Rey De Voladores Finals
Kota Ibushi vs. Player Dos

They start slow with some wrist-locking, sprucing it up when they start kicking back and forth. Kota lets loose with a bunch of fast kicks, but Dos ducks and flips over the lot of them.

They start mixing it up faster. Kota performs a springboard dropkick for a two-count. There’s a great moment where Dos keeps going for a Tornado DDT and I don’t know if he was legit having trouble or not, but he plays it off like Kota’s constantly trying to fight it off and Dos has to force it until hitting it on the third try. Dos climbs the ropes and Kota does that cool cartwheel flip kick from the previous night to knock him off, followed by an Asai Moonsault off the top rope. Kota brings Dos back in and unleashes a rapid strike combo. Afterwards he does a standing moonsault that misses, allowing Dos to get up and hit his own standing moonsault. The two go back and forth, wearing each other and themselves down to the point that when Kota does a Dragon Suplex and Dos kicks out, both remain flat on their backs for the next minute or so.

They slowly get up and hit forearms back and forth until Kota wakes up with a kick and sends Dos back to the mat. Kota goes for his twisting, flippy finisher the Golden Star Press and misses, but he lands on his feet regardless. He plants Dos with a German suplex, jumps off the top with a moonsault, misses that but lands on his feet and backflips into a counter moonsault that hits the mark. Dos is able to make a comeback of his own, sends Kota to the outside and gets him with a Twisting Sky Press off the top rope.

A Frog Splash misses, so Kota tries his own. Dos blocks it by putting his legs up and cradles him for a pin, but Kota gets out of it. They both stand and Kota gives out one more flurry of rapid strikes. Dazed and all but defeated, Dos sticks his chin out and points at it, daring Kota to finish him off. Kota kicks him down, hits the Golden Star Press and gets the win. Afterwards, Leonard Chikarason steps in to hand him a plaque and once again, the crowd chants, “PLEASE COME BACK!”

Match 8
King of Trios Finals
FIST (Icarus, Gran Akuma and Chuck Taylor) vs. Team Uppercut (Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Dave Taylor)

I’m surprised that at no point did they ever bring up that there’s a Taylor on both teams. It also means that I’ll have to refer to Dave Taylor as just “Dave” from here on out.

Claudio does a pre-match promo discussing how in the game of “Rock, Fist, Uppercut”, uppercut will always beat fist. Okay, sure. Uppercut comes out second to “Final Countdown” and Bryan’s got a huge limp. FIST hide out behind the ramp to ambush them, but mainly Bryan, with Chuck dropping Bryan’s knee on a nearby table. They all focus on that hurting knee and although Bryan tries fighting back a few times, no go. Chuck adds insult to injury by copying Bryan’s elbows to the head spot and soon Bryan has the wherewithal to shove Chuck off and make the tag to Dave. He uppercuts all of FIST and does a Butterfly Suplex onto Akuma, turning it into a pin. Icarus breaks it. Claudio comes in like a house of fire, but gets knocked into the corner and eats the FIST triple dropkick, followed by a combination of Chuck’s Sole Food and Akuma’s Yoshi Tonic. Dave breaks up the pin.

Bryan leaps off the ropes with a dropkick that hits Akuma and Icarus. Bryan and Dave play uppercut ping-pong with Icarus, knocking him back and forth until Bryan and Claudio decide to give him an uppercut sandwich. Claudio hits a bicycle kick on Akuma, drills him with the Ricola Bomb and would have it if not for Icarus pulling Bryce out of the ring. For some reason he isn’t disqualified on the spot and the match continues with Claudio doing a corkscrew plancha onto Akuma and Icarus. Chuck climbs onto the top in hopes of getting Claudio with his own high-flying, but Bryan gets him from behind and sends him to the mat with a top-rope back suplex. Chuck kicks out, so Bryan unleashes 20 hard elbows to the jaw. Chuck kicks out of that as well, so Bryan puts him in the Cattle Mutilation, propping himself up with one leg. Icarus sees this, steps in and performs a KneeDT on Bryan’s hurting leg. Naturally, he lets go of the hold.

Bryan fights off a Shiranui and gets kicked in the leg by Akuma. Chuck picks him up for the Omega Driver and for what may be the first time in CHIKARA history, Bryan KICKS OUT. It’s a moment of hope, but Chuck snuffs it out by putting Bryan is a Half Crab. Fans argue between chanting, “PLEASE DON’T TAP!” and, “TAP!” but with Claudio and Dave held at bay and Bryan’s knee holding on by a thread, he gives in. Since it’s the final match of the weekend, Bryce goes crazy with the ruling.

FIST are the 2009 King of Trios. Chikarason shows up to shake their hands and give them their medals. During the celebration, Chuck looks to the camera. “We did exactly what we said we were coming to do. For the longest time, nobody listened to us, but tonight we finally proved without a doubt that we are the most dangerous trio in the history of CHIKARA.”

In my eyes, despite a couple missteps, 2009 is the best booked King of Trios show. They do a decent job of making you think that UnStable vs. Future is Now is going to be the finals, something that few wanted to see, especially since they’ve already done the blow-off to that feud. Instead, FIST get to go over a team of a celebrated ring veteran, one of the company’s top faces and the king of the indies months before signing with the WWE. Having Bryan tap out to Chuck is a great way of putting over FIST, which they’ve been needing since losing the tag titles. Not to mention, you can argue that Bryan wouldn’t have tapped had it not been for the abuse his leg took at Quackenbush’s hands the night before.

The shows had some subtle setup for stuff that would snowball in what would be a year of setup in CHIKARA. 2009 ends with a huge shocking ending that leads us to 2010. That’ll be for tomorrow.

King of Trios Retrospective: Contents Page!

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Posted in Chikara, King of Trios, Wrestlecomics by Gavok |