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 Yeah, the pre-show is at 6:20. Kind of a weird time, but okay. Tomorrow Never Dies is the finale of the 2014 Chikara season, which started in May. It's the first Chikara show at the ECW Arena since its renovation. It's available via Smart Mark Video. I did a detailed write-up of the show here. After the clusterfuck that was Chikara in 2013, this year's storyline stuff is pretty straightforward. It's mostly been about a stable war between the Chikara locker room and the Flood, a massive network of various anti-Chikara factions from throughout the years. It's led by Jimmy Jacobs playing Shang Tsung to Deucalion's Shao Kahn. Deucalion is this guy, shown without his badass gas mask.  "COWAAAARD?!" Dude's been showing up since May to kayfabe murder wrestlers with his choke-breaker move. So far he's taken out Kobald, deviANT, Estonian Thunderfrog, Latvian Proud Oak, Equinox III, Create-a-Wrestler II, Archibald Peck and the Shard. A couple of those guys were even on his team. He only just recently had his first match where he just wrecked people during a 10-man tag while standing on the outside, but he's main eventing this show in a steel cage match against the champ (non-title). That's weird, but dude owns, so whatever. Here are the matches. It's a rather stacked show for such an in-house line-up:  Cage Match: Icarus vs. Deucalion Icarus: Decent enough worker who went from most hated guy on the roster to bland hero champ. Deucalion: Is literally Bane.  Cibernetico: Team Chikara vs. Team Flood 16-man Survivor Series tag match where each side has a batting order of who to tag next. There can only be one winner, so if the surviving team has more than 1 guy on it, more fighting happens. Usually these are the centerpieces of whatever show they're on, but here it's like the pre-show Wrestlemania battle royal. Worker Ant (captain): Fat dude who went from evil ant guy to good ant guy. Fire Ant: Excited ant guy who barely talks. Silver Ant: Used to be Green Ant but that name no longer makes sense anymore since he's been around since 2009. Is great. Jervis Cottonbelly: World's Sweetest Man. Powered by Gentlemania. Will probably lose first. Amasis: Breakdancing pharaoh. Ophidian: Breakdancing snake man. Does the most illegal move in wrestling. Kodama: Creepy facepaint guy. Looks cool although he's really tiny. Obariyon: Same. Jakob Hammermeier (captain): Imagine if after having Del Rio turn on him, Ricardo Rodriguez discarded his face heat and turned into a heel mastermind and it was awesome. Then make him German. Nokken: Big masked viking guy. Isn't Tursas. Flex Rumblecrunch: Third wheel of the Devastation Corporation who have more important stuff going on. Oleg the Usurper: Big unmasked viking guy. Jaka: Wild savage. Oliver Grimsley: Evil ringmaster. Not as cool as his partner Quefka the Quiet, who is a wrestling mime. Volgar: Jimmy Jacobs' bodyguard. Is fat and sucks. Soldier Ant: Military ant guy who is now opposing his former friends due to brainwashing and/or feelings of betrayal.  Loser Leaves Chikara: UltraMantis Black vs. Delirious UltraMantis: Charismatic, cartoony supervillain who is a face. Delirious: Crazy dude who is out to get revenge for being mind-controlled for two years. Yes, really.  Tag Team Championship: Throwbacks vs. Devastation Corporation Best 2-out-of-3. Throwbacks: Nerd-hating football guy and his baseball-headed relative. Devastation Corporation: Demolition/Powers of Pain/Road Warriors team with Tony Clifton for a manager. Max Smashmaster (the fat one) is actually fantastic.  Eddie Kingston vs. Jimmy Jacobs Eddie Kingston: Constantly bouncing back and forth between being Chikara's resident bully heel and Chikara's anti-hero. Currently the latter. Jimmy Jacobs: Second in command of the Flood. Will make this one of the better Kingston matches in the last several years.  Winner Can Only Win Via German Suplex: "Smooth Sailing" Ashley Remington vs. Juan Francisco de Coronado Ashley Remington: The Bizarro version of Joey Ryan. Absolutely delightful. Juan Francisco de Coronado: Bargain bin Del Rio from Ecuador.  Young Lions Cup Finals: Heidi Lovelace vs. Missile Assault Ant Heidi Lovelace: Doesn't have much of a personality here except being a face, female underdog. Missile Assault Ant: Missile! Assault! Ant!
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Dec 6, 2014 08:20
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 04:16 |
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I never knew I needed to see a Chuck Taylor RiffTrax until now.rovert posted:Can anyone point me to quality reviews of the post-King of Trios shows, please? I don't have anything in-depth, but the October shows are incredibly solid. Thunderball is pretty must-see and is easily their best non-Trios show in years. The two November shows are pretty average. I've yet to sit through the Throwbacks/3.0 match, but the rest of it isn't too special. The most interesting thing to come out of it was Deucalion's debut match, which was booked incredibly well and did a good job making him look like a monster despite his team losing. Outside of the stuff going on in the matches, here are the dangling plot threads in Chikara: - Flood member 17 was kidnapped and replaced with a mole for Chikara. He remained on the team for the entire season until recently showing his true colors by rescuing Frightmare from Deucalion. He then ran off and all they found was his discarded gear and mask. - Jigsaw left the Flood, but doesn't want to rejoin the Chikara side. He hasn't been seen since. - After Estonian Thunderfrog died, we saw footage of someone lifting his hammer. - Kid Cyclone hasn't been seen since Trios, but has been posting insane rants on Twitter and then immediately deleting them. - Chuck Taylor's slowly turning face due to his matches with Ashley Remington and Jervis Cottonbelly. He doesn't like what he's becoming. - Oleg the Usurper is building towards a face turn due to being constantly yelled at by Sidney Bakabella for losing his matches.
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Dec 6, 2014 23:27
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Here's the pre-show.
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Dec 7, 2014 00:25
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NotQuiteQuentin posted:Not a good gate. Ouch. Parasara posted:For some reason I thought this was tomorrow. Just tuned in; what did I miss in the preshow? Heidi Lovelace won the Young Lions Cup finals.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:10
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Thauros posted:Wow. The excitement over that first show this year didn't seem to last. I know KoT drew well but that always does. I myself aren't nearly as much into CHIKARA as I used to be but I figured first show back in the Arena would at least draw somewhat especially since Philly is more conviently located than Easton to more people. Doesn't help that the tickets were pretty expensive compared to usual Chikara shows.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:20
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Parasara posted:How many Chikara shows are streamed online? That might also eat into their gate. They tend to do two a year. Also, Juan Francisco is history's greatest monster for not accepting that fruit basket.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:28
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Thauros posted:I bought this because Ciberneticos are fun and my poker game fell through, sorry I missed Kingston/JAcobs apparently. It was pretty great, partially because Jimmy Jacobs sells for the backfist by flopping around like a dying fish.
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Dec 7, 2014 01:48
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"Lariat Tubman." That's quite a move name.
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Dec 7, 2014 02:04
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Parasara posted:What did this Ref do that made commentary go crazy? They're doing kind of a poor job of navigating the match. Derek Sabato was the BDK's heel ref years ago, became the liaison for the Gekido, then got fired for getting too close to the truth with the whole Titor storyline.
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Dec 7, 2014 02:42
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Love the Fire Ant/Soldier Ant tag spot.
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Dec 7, 2014 02:59
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Yeah, he has fighting game super armor now.
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Dec 7, 2014 03:28
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Yeah, same thing happened when they did the Claudio/Brody Lee match years ago. It was the main event, so we had a really lengthy intermission before it. It's ridiculous to have that going on for an iPPV.
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Dec 7, 2014 03:52
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 04:16 |
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Deucalion has become a farm.
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Dec 7, 2014 04:23
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