It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about inventive wrestling promotion CHIKARA and with good reason. At the end of their show in early June, which I went to, security goons swarmed the main event, destroyed the set, told everyone to go home and CHIKARA was declared finished. Many weren’t sure what the game was here, but time has shown that it’s part of some kind of crazy-ass storyline based on bringing CHIKARA back.

Five months have passed and while the events driving it forward are picking up, there’s not enough for me to really go in-depth on. A lot of stuff is happening, but what it’s actually leading to is still the big question, so I’ll table that for later. Either way, it’s interesting, especially because they’re putting so much time and effort into something where the fans can’t even pay them via going to their shows or buying their DVDs.

Luckily, there’s still stuff going on where the CHIKARA regulars can keep themselves busy. There’s a series of regional spin-off promotions called Wrestling Is, such as Wrestling Is Cool, Wrestling is Art, Wrestling is Respect, etc. Coincidentally, these are being picked off one-by-one by various villains from CHIKARA past, like some kind of Secret Society of Superheels, somehow tying into the big CHIKARA return story.

But while all of this is going on, the absolutely BEST thing in the wrestling world is Chuck Taylor’s Instagram, which is nothing but short videos of the new 24/7 Hardcore Championship. See, back in the early 00’s, WWF had their Hardcore Championship with the special rule that as long as you had a referee on hand, the champ had to defend it any time and any place. This led to ridiculous segments of champion Crash Holly being accosted while at an arcade and fighting his way through the ball pit.

The CHIKARA/Wrestling Is alumni have brought back the gimmick, only they decided to get even weirder and more hilarious with it. It all started with the Estonian Thunderfrog (whose gimmick is that he is Thor Frog as a wrestler, complete with hammer that only he may lift) winning a battle royal within seconds. Then he found out how hard holding onto it can be while talking up how he was going to buy a new car in celebration.

From there, it’s been various moment-long videos mostly in Instagram form. The ones involving Chuck tend to be the best. For instance, there’s the time where he loses the belt to Rich Swann. Then Chuck wins it back in a rather controversial and questionable way. This leads to a later title defense against Swann that gets more than a little awkward for Taylor.

Even better is when Green Ant wins the belt at what appears to be a wedding and loses it to Chuck in a way that’s even more questionable. I’ve watched this one a hundred times and it still kills me.