Tag Archives: Chikara

05Jun 2013

The night the Vavasseurs killed Chikara

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conrad-vavasseur1Chikara's Never Compromise was a great show. The show featured a lot of different wrestling styles and did its best to have something for everyone. My favorite match was probably The Colony vs. The Devastation Corporation, but I enjoyed pretty much every match and there is a strong chance Tim Donst vs. Gavin Loudspeaker will be the one I always remember. The main event was actually better than I expected despite the lack of finish. Of course, nobody wants to hear about the wrestling portion of the show because of that non-finish in the main event because that non-finish could be the end of Chikara as we know it.

I suppose we should start with Derek Sabato and mention that we kinda called it on that one (was he the one emailing us? I don't think so because he didn't seem to have the info until late Saturday night, but who knows), but it is the information that we have been seeking that is what got us into this predicament. To this place where we don't know if we'll ever see Chikara again. Was finding out the truth about the Titor Conglomerate really worth the end of my favorite thing ever? If we could do it all over again, would we just accept Wink's flaws and ask no questions about his family? Was the quest for knowledge worth it? I am going to say no. I wanted to attend my first King of Trios this year. I wanted to do whatever it takes to help Chikara return to Milwaukee this year. I wanted to buy DVDs and IPPVs and go see my favorite wrestlers do my favorite thing. That's what I wanted from this year. These questions I asked were not worth the price of the answers.

But here we are. The past cannot be undone because the Everett-Wheeler model is correct. This is the darkest timeline and CHIKARA is really gone right now. So, what do we do? We've gone this far down the rabbit hole, looking for answers that people don't want us to know and it has ended Chikara. We might not be able to bring it back (or maybe we will,) but I don't think we should stop trying to seek these answers. If these questions are so powerful that they could shut down the promotion than they probably need to be answered. We owe Chikara that much. Read More →

01Jun 2013

Chikarageddon: Derek Sabato, the Titor Conglomerate and Tim Donst

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Never Compromise is tomorrow and there are a lot of questions heading into the show. Is this the end of Chkara as we know it? Or the beginning of the next chapter in a whole new world? We've asked many questions here at the site that others are afraid to ask, but we aren't the first ones to ask them. Other blogs have done so as well, but the only member of the Chikara roster that we have ever seen make public comments about the Titor Conglomerate is Derek Sabato. He posted a blog on Chikara's website asking some difficult questions and shortly afterwards that blog was deleted and Sabato was released from Chikara. As we've seen, WMD/Titor do not like people asking questions about them and the silencing of Sabato should have been our first clue that something was not right in the world of Chikara.

While Chikara deleted the blog from their website and hoped to make it disappear, we luckily have the Chikara Special who saved the blog. Here's a snippet of it:

So I’ll have to take this to a public forum if I want any answers to my questions. What is it exactly that Condor Security does for the Titor Conglomerate? There are some outrageous allegations out there about the group. How do you respond to them? Read More →

30May 2013

Delving deeper into Chikarmageddon, conspiracies and John Titor

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conrad vavasseurThe potentially world ending Never Compromise is just three days away and we still have a LOT to talk about. I don't want to waste a lot of time with set-up so let's just get right into it. Please keep in mind that everything you see here is an opinion that I have formed based on things that I have read and is no way a sign of what can or will happen.

  • The Archibald Peck collapsing time line theory is (thankfully) not going to come true.

I believe the Mandible Claw Chikara podcast was the first one to hint at an end of days type scenario based on Archie's time travel. I have come to the conclusion that this is not something that we should be worried about. Why? Because sometimes a banana is just a banana. Let me explain:

In the Chikara Answers post I asked our mysterious informant what the Swamp Monster and Lance Steel were doing in the balcony during Archibald Peck's match right before his time travel. The idea that a known time traveler and a Swamp Monster with potential reality bending powers being in the balcony at the same time as another Chikara wrestler time traveled was not a coincidence. There are a lot of people who have been obsessed with this idea, but the informant's answer has given me some calm on this matter. The informant said:

They seemed to be discussing the properties of an ever-ripe banana.

Which is to say, maybe they were just watching the show and admiring a banana. Maybe nothing sinister was at work. Sometimes a banana is just a banana.

I'd also like to point to what known time traveler John Titor had to say about paradoxes:

If you met yourself on another worldline, what would happen?
It has always surprised me why that concept is so hard for people to imagine and accept. Nothing would happen. The universe would not end and there are no paradox problems that threaten existence.

Temporal space-time is made up of every possible quantum state. The Everett Wheeler model is correct. I have met and/or seen myself twice on different worldlines. The first was a training mission and the second is now.

I was born in 1998 so the other "me" is 2 on this worldline. There is a saying where I come from, "Every possible thing that can happen or will happen has already happened somewhere".

I feel like John Titor is an expert on these things being a time traveler and all, so I'm going with what he said.

  • Why does John Titor share a name with the conglomerate in control of Chikara?

Money? Power? Let your mind wander.

  • Civil war? A fractured country in the future? Worldlines? Read More →
29May 2013

The World Is Wrong: Icarus, Kingston and You

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highnoonSomething is wrong in the world of Chikara, we know this. Things have probably been wrong for quite some time, but it is only now that we have begun to truly notice it. Whether it has to do with Delirious destroying the Eye of Tyr, someone rebuilding it, Archibald Peck's time traveling or the Vavasseur's real plans; we don't know, but what we do know is that something is not right with the world and in no place is that better encapsulated than in the matchup between Eddie Kingston and Icarus.

Let's take a look at Chikara's first IPPV High Noon. At that event Eddie Kingston was the biggest tecnico on the show. He was fighting for redemption, fighting for the memory of Larry Sweeney and fighting for the right to be crowned the first Grand Champion. His opponent, Mike Quackenbush, would do everything short of cheating to defeat Kingston, but he kept overcoming the odds and when he won; tears were shed. The crowd went wild, Quackenbush shook his hand, Tommy Dreamer (who was his corner) helped him to celebrate, Bryce cried, Sweeney's friends and family celebrated and all was right with the world. Kingston was redeemed. It was one of the top moments in Chikara history and a truly emotional experience for even the most jaded fan.

Contrast that with Icarus who wrestled Gregory Iron on the undercard. Gregory Iron, the handicap hero, who wrestled with cerebral palsy. Icarus thought it was wise to accuse Gregory Iron of faking his disability to gain sympathy with the audience. There were fans in the front row with "WORST IN THE WORLD" shirts to taunt Icarus and many chants of the same. His back tattoo, his terrible back tattoo, received more boos than the man himself. He was, without a doubt, the most hated man in the building. Just as he always was. Read More →

28May 2013

Is Armageddon near for Chikara?

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Allow me to creep into Chikara conspiracy theory mode for a second here as I ask: Is something going on with Chikara's events?

wink vavasseurFirst of all, at this moment the only tickets that you can buy to a Chikara event is the June 2nd iPPV Never Compromise. Of course, the next show isn't until July 20th which is almost nine weeks away, but this is something that people are worried about. Chikara events usually go on sale pretty far out from the date. This could be nothing or it could be something.

Adding to the paranoia is the Sunday July 21st show that is advertised for Manhattan, NY. Every Chikara show that has taken place in Manhattan, NY has taken place at the Highline Ballroom. On that date, the Highline Ballroom calendar shows two completely different events booked for that day. One at 1pm and one at 8pm, it's hard to see how they could squeeze in. Of course, New York is a big city with lots of places to book shows at and this could be a mere venue change, but when you add in the lack of tickets being on sale and the unknown venue things start to seem a bit weird. I'd also like to lump in the fact that at Tag World Grand Prix 2013 no future Chicago event was announced during the show. I can only remember them not doing this one other time (the very first show they held in Chicago.) Just an observation of something that I found strange. Again, it could be nothing or it could be Read More →

28May 2013

CHIKARA ANSWERS?

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So this is crazy. I received a mysterious email two days ago from a gmx.com account with the subject "Three Answers for Vince" that read:

Hi there. I am offering you answers about anything CHIKARA related, public or not. Anything at all from the last 12 seasons. Send me a maximum of 3 questions in the next 6 days. I'll answer them.

I didn't know how to take it, really. It didn't seem real, but the wording of it did so I replied with three questions. In retrospect, I wish I had taken more time to craft them. Or even sent one at a time. There are so many questions I have about all things Chikara, but I had to pick just three. After much deliberation I settled on these three.

1. Besides the financial aspect, what did WMD hope to gain by acquiring Chikara?

2. Has the Eye of Tyr been used to control anyone (or anything) besides Delirious?

3. Why were the Swamp Monster and Lance Steel at TWGP13 at the exact time that Archibald Peck traveled through time?

I wanted to cover the biggest issues in Chikara right now which to me are Archibald Peck, WMD/Titor Conglomerate and the Eye of Tyr. Maybe I'd have been better off focusing on one, but one morsel of information is more than we have right now so I asked these three. I didn't know what I expected in return, but I can say that I was surprised (and a bit shocked) when I got this email in reply:

1) Worldwide Media Development Corp. appears to be nothing more than a shell corporation erected by the Titor Conglomerate.

2) Absolutely.

3) They seemed to be discussing the properties of an ever-ripe banana.

Shoot.

I feel like I blew my first question as I already knew that. I should have asked something about Titor. Or Condor Security. Or OSSWE. Or SOMETHING. I knew what I wanted to gain from this question, but I don't think I asked it correctly. They dodged me a bit, but still. Blew it.

The third one, again, I feel like I blew it. I knew that. Yes, the answered dodged my question. I didn't ask WHAT they were doing, I asked why, but still I feel like I screwed this up. I wanted to ask what Archie has been doing since Chikarasaurus Rex 2012 and why we haven't seen him. WHY DIDN'T I ASK THAT?

But the second one? Now that's intriguing. Is whoever recovered the Eye (possibly someone associated with Titor) controlling members of the Chikara roster? If so, who?

I want to attempt to send a follow-up email to this person, but I'm not sure if they will answer. They promised me three answers and they gave me three answers, but I'm not going to do that until I figure out what I should really be asking.

***UPDATE****

I received a tweet from Kevin Ford who says that he got the exact same email. Here were his questions and their answer:

So I got the exact same email you did. Here are the questions I asked:
1) Will the answer to the Mysterium P puzzle ever be revealed?
2) What was in the envelope Mike Quackenbush was handed at "The Shoulder of Pallas?"
3) Who was 17?
Now for #3 I kept it vague. I didn't necessarily want the idea, but moreso what his point was in general? Anyways, here were the responses I received:

1) Mysterium Populous was an overt homage to the concept of Publius Enigma that was tied to the Pink Floyd album "The Division Bell." Unlike the Enigma, the Mysterium was given a very specific timeframe to prevent it from going on indefinitely. There were 13 phases to the Mysterium, each shorter than the one before it, leading to a final phase with just one clue, and one possible answer. The person that correctly solved the Mysterium would have been awarded a prize of every single CHIKARA DVD produced up until the day the Mysterium was solved. It would have also led to the release of a 4 minute video that foreshadowed much of Season 12. On the 365th day of the Mysterium game, no person or group had even progressed to the third phase, leaving the vast majority of the puzzle unsolved. The failure of the fans to solve Mysterium Populous means the video has never, and will never be released.

2) Information collected by a third party on the Vavasseur family.

3) A bitter nobody that spent time training under Skayde.

His email answers a question that I was just curious about, a BIG question about what was in the envelope and that combined with the third one hint at who the sender may have been. I don't want to front him out in public, but I think he probably knows a LOT of holds.

Did you get an email? Check your spam folder just in case. If you did, send it to vintown@olewrestling.com and I can share it here.

***UPDATE 2****

I shared the questions portion of this post on the official Chikara 101 message board in hopes of find others with a similar experience. Since then I was banned and the thread has been deleted. Clearly, WMD/Titor does not like the questions we are asking.

Since this update posts mentioning our post or our banning have been deleted. Someone is getting annoyed.

***UPDATE 3***

I emailed the mysterious person a follow up:

My correspondence with you has gotten me banned from the Chikara101 forums which makes me believe you even more. Clearly you are saying things that the Titor Conglomerate don't want to be exposed. I am on your side and would like to help get the truth out. Let me know if there is any way that I can assist you.

Vince

And received this response:

You must realize how sensitive this is. There is more to come. Look for me on Sunday.

Like I said: Never Compromise is going to be huge.

24May 2013

The end of Archibald Peck?

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I want to start this off by saying that Archibald Peck is not "dead." After his match against Eddie Kingston the crowd chanted "You Killed Archie" and Eddie Kingston took credit for doing so, but he did not do this. Instead, he sent Archie back through time. For an answer on what and how that happened, one only need to look at two YouTube videos.

The first explains Archie's timeline. I will attempt to briefly summarize it.

  • archie time travelIn Archibald Peck's first Chikara match he was Backfisted to the Future by Eddie Kingston. At this time he traveled to the year 2015 and picked up a copy of Chikara's yearbook. When he awoke he was back in 2011, but he remembered what he had read in the book and took advantage of it. The yearbook said that he would win the Young Lions Cup in 2011, but when he didn't time was changed forever. Got that?
  • At Chikarasaurus Rex in 2012, Mixed Martial Archie (Archibald Peck's tougher alias) teamed with Colt Cabana to take on Mr. Touchdown and Dasher Hatfield in a Loser Leaves Chikara match. During the match Mixed Martial Archie was injured and out from the back came Archibald Peck. At the time everyone assumed that this was merely a costume change for Archie and that Archie was assuming his real persona as Colt Cabana had urged him to do, but after Archie's loss this would turn out not to be the case.
    The truth was that Mixed Martial Archie got into a fight backstage with Eddie Kingston (off camera) that sent him back to the year 1885. The Archibald Peck that came to the ring was actually an Archibald Peck from a future date. May 18th to be exact.
  • A series of videos are produced called "Where in the world is Archibald Peck?" after his loss
  • A wrestler named The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger debuts in Chikara. We don't know him, but at Under the Hood he is unmasked to reveal that he is, indeed, Archibald Peck. At this time he is thrown out of the arena because he was not legally allowed to be there after losing a Loser Leaves Town Match. RD Evans explains that this is actually the Mixed Martial Archie that was sent back to the past during the match at Chikarasaurus Rex who then took on the persona of the Mysterious and Handsome Stranger back in the Old West.
  • Since Archibald Peck never actually lost the match against in that timeline he was reinstated. However, the Peck who lost that match would be forced to leave Chikara.
  • In a conversation with Peck's lawyer RD Evans, Wink says that the "Where In the World is Archibald Peck?" videos were actually of Peck's doppelganger who is still out there somewhere. The doppelganger is then seen going into Parts Unknown.

(With everything in Chikara we can only take the things we are told to be true and go from there, but Wink might actually be an unreliable narrator as he has proven himself to be of lacking intelligence about all things Chikara in the past. The man he called "the doppelganger" could easily be Archibald Peck post-TWGP, but until we have reason to believe this I will stick with only what we have been told as that is the only truth there is in Chikara. They do not lie.) Read More →

23May 2013

“Never Compromise” is going to be huge

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ChikaraTWGPevening13-297Chikara's Never Compromise is going to be a really good wrestling show. The matches all look good on paper and perhaps more than any Chikara show since High Noon this one actually feels like a culmination of events. Like something big is going to happen. There is a match that has been building since that event and another that is one of the biggest Grand Championship matches since that event. I'll do my best to cover the wrestling aspects of this show later, but right now I want to cover the storyline aspects of what is happening in Chikara because the storylines of Chikara are the absolute best thing happening in wrestling today.

The 2013 season has taken on a bit of a Watchmen theme with every show being titled after a portion of that book. Past Chikara seasons have done this as well (last season took much of its titles from the 1960's Batman TV show while season 10's shows were all references to 80's cartoons) but the influence isn't always clear. Obviously last season's villains weren't The Riddler and The Penguin, just like this year's won't involve aliens attacking New York City, but often thematic elements seep through. The main theme has always been tecnicos vs. rudos, but since the Watchmen titles have started to appear I feel that the lines have become more blurred and the stories more complex. The once most hated rudo in Chikara Icarus now sees himself as the fan favorite in a match against tecnico Grand Champion Eddie Kingston (arguably season 10's biggest tecnico) who has suddenly seen himself become a villain without him knowing why, we've seen the house divided with The Colony changing into something different as well as the Wink ordered Sugar in FIST causing the eventual break-up of FIST, the Colony Xtreme Force who are designed tecnicos (their alignment on the official roster page reads "Totally radical!") but are hated by the fans as they are impostors holding a crown they didn't win, Archibald Peck traveling through time and the departure of many Chikara mainstays including Soldier Ant and Mike Quackenbush. I think it's safe to say that things have been pretty crazy this year. Chikara has become more of a business since the appointment of Wink Vavasseur and the WMD takeover, and the place of masked heroes within that business has become more confusing. Chikara is entering into a reality that its inhabitants don't feel comfortable in.

(Of course, there are those who believe that this season isn't reality at all. That Archibald Peck and his time traveling ways have caused rifts in reality. That the Eye of Tyr, the Swamp Monster, the Titor Conglomerate and Lance Steel are all involved in this unraveling of reality and that nothing we've seen is actually "real." I find this really hard to take because I find it hard to accept that nothing in my life is "real" but it is an interesting theory that you can check out at The Mandible Claw. For my Archibald Peck thoughts I am going to have to put that into another blog post because I just have too much to say.)

Whatever your belief of what is really going on is, you can't argue that there is a lot going on. Chikara is operating at its storyline peak right now and I am loving it, but I am the belief that a big part of this, the uncertainty of it all comes to an end at Never Compromise and here's why:

Never Compromise is the last show with a Watchmen title. It is a reference to Rorschach's refusal to compromise and play along with the rest of the group's decision to keep the conspiracy a secret in the name of world peace that led to his death. How that specifically ties in to Chikara is up for debate (My best guess? Something to do with Quack and that mysterious envelope at the end of Shoulder of the Pallas), but my feeling is that it will be something and that after Never Compromise things will change. Possibly forever. Read More →

29Nov 2012

Mr. Touchdown must be stopped: An Under The Hood preview

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Chikara's Under the Hood is this Sunday live on iPPV at Smart Mark Video on Demand and you should probably just go ahead and order it. Chikara always delivers with their season finales and their previous iPPVs have been among the top shows of the year. This Sunday should be no different with seven good to great matches on the card and many storylines reaching their boiling point. This is Chikara's last show for two whole months (noooooooo) so everyone should be bringing their A-Game. To say I'm excited would be a gross understatement.

So let's preview the card on the Ole! Wrestling Excitement Scale (with 1 being the most excited and 8 being the least) which is a thing I just made up. Read More →

27Nov 2012

El Generico Numero Uno

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It should probably come as no surprise that El Generico is my current favorite wrestler. His face is plastered all over this place and the name itself is inspired by him.To me, he is the best. Just the absolute best. We should be best friends. My girlfriend picked up on my feeling and offered to take a picture of me with him when we went to Chikara earlier this month. Honestly? I could not have been more excited and this is now my facebook profile pic for the rest of my life.

I'll be 31 next month.

El Generico is really great in the ring. I don't want to get into a whole best in the world thing because I'm not qualified for it, but suffice to say he is up there with the CM Punks and Daniel Bryans of the world. He tells great stories in the ring and I've never seen him have a bad match. His match with The Shard at the aforementioned Chikara show stole the show. Generico had the crowd eating out of his hand and it was the best (and most dangerous) I've seen The Shard look. (Generico did the same thing for the 1-2-3 Kid a year ago and now he's getting a shot at the Campeonatos de Parejas. This is not a coincidence.) He has the coolest movez with the Brainbustahhhhhhhhhh probably being one of the more original and absolutely devastating looking finishers in wrestling today. And for someone who speaks broken English as a second language, Generico has some really entertaining promos. Any way you measure it El Generico is great at wrestling, but none of these things I mentioned is why El Generico is numero uno lucha libre. Read More →