The King of Trios Retrospective: Day 9
September 1st, 2012 Posted by GavokPrelude to King of Trios 2009
After 2008 proved how big they could get, CHIKARA figured maybe they should scale it back just a little for 2009. Things became far more refined and bigger indy names were brought in for star power, such as Bryan Danielson, Austin Aries and the return of El Generico. This would be the first year to give us the format that the company would stick with for the following few years.
Previously on CHIKARA…
2008 was a time of friendships exploding. UltraMantis Black brainwashed Tim Donst into becoming a member of the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, but Donst was only pretending for the sake of gathering intel. Not only did he end up befriending Hydra and convince him to split from UltraMantis, but he found out that Shane Storm was selling Mike Quackenbush’s secrets to the rudos for help in stopping his losing streak. Quack viciously attacked his former friend and Storm became a pariah in the locker room.
Vin Gerard continued to reign victorious against the masked tecnicos of CHIKARA and gained an ally in Shane Storm – renamed STIGMA. Although Fire Ant defeated Gerard at the finals for the Young Lions Cup tournament, Gerard defeated him in the rematch. Gerard and STIGMA also gained a new ally in Colin Delaney, who came back from his less-than-successful WWE run. Together they called themselves the UnStable.
As for last year’s winners, the remainder of 2008 was a mixed bag. El Pantera had a handful of matches before returning to Mexico. Incognito won the big Rey de Voladores tournament. Lince had a series of matches against Eddie Kingston, losing repeatedly but always insisting on another match. Due to personal circumstances, Eddie left the company for much of the year and Lince was inserted into the UnStable storyline. Many fans became unenthused with his push and turned on him quite a bit. It got so bad that during their matches, Eddie would have to shout at the crowd that Lince almost died that one time in order to force sympathy.
When Colin was in WWE for a few months, his brother Jimmy believed him to be on the CHIKARA roster thanks to Gerard whispering in his ear and would unmask different wrestlers to see if they were Colin. Colin betrayed him upon return and Jimmy began his road to revenge by teaming up with Lince. He then decided to become the new Equinox, reprising Gerard’s old identity to successfully get under his skin. By the end of the year, he defeated Gerard for the Young Lions Cup.
The same year also gave us Claudio Castagnoli’s major feud with Brodie Lee as the Swiss wrestler decided to knock that bully down a peg. Their initial matches led to disqualifications and a No DQ match led to the Fabulous Three interfering, so the big blowoff was done via the company’s first and only ever steel cage match. Claudio won decisively.