Wrestling
Wrestling
(25 May 2014, 10:21 am)marxistafozzski I have heard of Chikara, never seen any of it though...Is it Japanese???
After the pay-per-view went off the air, the Condor Security began shooing fans out of the Trocadero Theatre.[11] Some of the Chikara staff continued playing up the storyline outside of the arena with referee Bryce Remsburg rushing away in tears, while quiz host Billy Kumohara claimed that he had been fired for standing up to the Condor Security. Pro Wrestling Insider reported that some fans were particularly upset with the closing angle, with one fan breaking one of the Trocadero Theatre's glass doors. Chikara continued the storyline the following day on its official website, "canceling" all events scheduled for the rest of 2013. Though tickets had been put on sale for the events prior to Aniversario: Never Compromise, fans had not been able to purchase them. To help push the storyline, the promotion's physical assets, including the set and audio equipment, were also supposedly put on sale by The Titor Conglomerate. In the days that followed Aniversario: Never Compromise, confusion and speculation arose in the professional wrestling world as to what the show's closing angle meant for the future of Chikara. Insider newsletters such as Pro Wrestling Insider and Wrestling Observer Newsletter speculated on a number of possibilities from the legitimate closing of the promotion to a "comic book style reboot". Bryan Alvarez of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter reported speaking to people close to Chikara founder and booker Mike Quackenbush who "don't have any idea where [the storyline] is going, but feel that [Quackenbush] is trying to do something big, something never done before in wrestling". According to Pro Wrestling Insider, members of the Chikara roster were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements before the pay-per-view to help keep future developments a secret. Chikara remained largely quiet the days following the iPPV, responding only to some of the rumors with the statement "[t]here is no issue regarding ownership of the Chikara name, brand, its assets or intellectual properties. Any speculation to the contrary is 100% false".Though Chikara did not hold any official events for the rest of 2013, the promotion's wrestlers, led by Icarus, who had held fan gatherings in July and September, petitioning for the return of Chikara, held a small "guerrilla event" in Philadelphia's Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park on November 2 with the storyline being that they were fighting Wink Vavasseur to bring back the promotion full-time. The event aired live on Ustream. It was then announced that on November 30 in Philadelphia there would be a city-wide fan scavenger hunt that would "decide the future" of Chikara.
The storyline following Aniversario: Never Compromise was that Derek Sabato had exposed the Titor Conglomerate by showing a connection between its executives and Condor Security's new extremist compound, leaving the Vavasseurs scrambling to cover their tracks. The Titor Conglomerate went into hiding, distanced themselves from WMD and put the Chikara brand, its related intellectual properties and remaining physical assets on sale, reducing the promotion to ashes. Following Aniversario: Never Compromise many Chikara wrestlers began working for its seven "Wrestling is" sister promotions. In the autumn of 2013, several Chikara rudos of the past began emerging in these promotions and shutting them down. First Gekido returned to Wrestling is Intense on September 15, took over the show and forced to promotion to shut down in a scene reminiscent of the closing moments of Aniversario: Never Compromise, then Kaiju Big Battel's Dr. Cube stole Wrestling is Awesome's money and assets, bankrupting them, Sinn Bodhi took over Wrestling is Art and shut it down and in December Wrestling is Cool owner Milo Schnitzler revealed himself aligned with Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK) and shut the promotion down under command from the stable's leader, Ares. The united rudo group then began threatening the biggest and original Wrestling is promotion, Wrestling is Fun! (WiF!), but their attack on January 18, 2014, was thwarted by a group of defenders, led by Icarus. The following day, Wrestling is Respect was shut down, when Sidney Bakabella's Wrecking Crew (The Devastation Corporation, Jaka and Oleg the Usurper) turned on the defenders and joined the rudo group. On February 1, 2014, the second National Pro Wrestling Day concluded in an angle, where the group of rudos, now made up of BDK, The Colony: Xtreme Force, Dr. Cube and his Posse, Gekido, Sidney Bakabella's Wrecking Crew and Sinn Bodhi and his Odditorium stable and led by Jimmy Jacobs, stormed the event to destroy the final remnants of Chikara. This led to several Chikara wrestlers, including rudos The Batiri, Los Ice Creams and Mark Angelosetti and tecnicos The Colony, Dasher Hatfield, Hallowicked and Icarus running in to attack the group. Finally the Chikara side was also joined by 3.0, who arrived on the scene in a DeLorean with Archibald Peck, implying that they had gone back in time to retrieve him. After the invading group had been driven out of the ring, Icarus declared that Chikara was coming back on May 25, 2014, signaling the end of the promotion's one-year long hiatus. It was later revealed that in storyline former Chikara wrestler Robbie Ellis had won the auction in December 2013 and purchased the promotion from WMD, making the return possible. Chikara booker Mike Quackenbush later explained that the idea behind the storyline was to "expand what out performance art is capable of", while admitting that its complexity probably led to the promotion losing a few followers. Quackenbush also dispelled rumors that the promotion's downtime was due to financial difficulties, noting that while the Chikara brand appeared to be dark, it put together a record number of live events through the "Wrestling is" network, while also claiming that the downtime was just "a necessary part of the story". According to Quackenbush he had realized that the single character in the Chikara universe that people had the most emotional investment in was not a wrestler, but the brand itself and as a storyteller his idea was to put the protagonist under a real threat, driving the audience on an emotional journey. Quackenbush also revealed that the storyline was heavily influenced by the third act of the comic book Watchmen. While Chikara was inactive, the storyline was chronicled in a YouTube series, titled Ashes. An extended movie version of the series, titled The Ashes of Chikara, premiered on May 5 in Collegeville, Pennsylvania and was made available for purchase four days later.
(25 May 2014, 10:21 am)marxistafozzski I have heard of Chikara, never seen any of it though...Is it Japanese???
After the pay-per-view went off the air, the Condor Security began shooing fans out of the Trocadero Theatre.[11] Some of the Chikara staff continued playing up the storyline outside of the arena with referee Bryce Remsburg rushing away in tears, while quiz host Billy Kumohara claimed that he had been fired for standing up to the Condor Security. Pro Wrestling Insider reported that some fans were particularly upset with the closing angle, with one fan breaking one of the Trocadero Theatre's glass doors. Chikara continued the storyline the following day on its official website, "canceling" all events scheduled for the rest of 2013. Though tickets had been put on sale for the events prior to Aniversario: Never Compromise, fans had not been able to purchase them. To help push the storyline, the promotion's physical assets, including the set and audio equipment, were also supposedly put on sale by The Titor Conglomerate. In the days that followed Aniversario: Never Compromise, confusion and speculation arose in the professional wrestling world as to what the show's closing angle meant for the future of Chikara. Insider newsletters such as Pro Wrestling Insider and Wrestling Observer Newsletter speculated on a number of possibilities from the legitimate closing of the promotion to a "comic book style reboot". Bryan Alvarez of the Figure Four Weekly newsletter reported speaking to people close to Chikara founder and booker Mike Quackenbush who "don't have any idea where [the storyline] is going, but feel that [Quackenbush] is trying to do something big, something never done before in wrestling". According to Pro Wrestling Insider, members of the Chikara roster were asked to sign non-disclosure agreements before the pay-per-view to help keep future developments a secret. Chikara remained largely quiet the days following the iPPV, responding only to some of the rumors with the statement "[t]here is no issue regarding ownership of the Chikara name, brand, its assets or intellectual properties. Any speculation to the contrary is 100% false".Though Chikara did not hold any official events for the rest of 2013, the promotion's wrestlers, led by Icarus, who had held fan gatherings in July and September, petitioning for the return of Chikara, held a small "guerrilla event" in Philadelphia's Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park on November 2 with the storyline being that they were fighting Wink Vavasseur to bring back the promotion full-time. The event aired live on Ustream. It was then announced that on November 30 in Philadelphia there would be a city-wide fan scavenger hunt that would "decide the future" of Chikara.
The storyline following Aniversario: Never Compromise was that Derek Sabato had exposed the Titor Conglomerate by showing a connection between its executives and Condor Security's new extremist compound, leaving the Vavasseurs scrambling to cover their tracks. The Titor Conglomerate went into hiding, distanced themselves from WMD and put the Chikara brand, its related intellectual properties and remaining physical assets on sale, reducing the promotion to ashes. Following Aniversario: Never Compromise many Chikara wrestlers began working for its seven "Wrestling is" sister promotions. In the autumn of 2013, several Chikara rudos of the past began emerging in these promotions and shutting them down. First Gekido returned to Wrestling is Intense on September 15, took over the show and forced to promotion to shut down in a scene reminiscent of the closing moments of Aniversario: Never Compromise, then Kaiju Big Battel's Dr. Cube stole Wrestling is Awesome's money and assets, bankrupting them, Sinn Bodhi took over Wrestling is Art and shut it down and in December Wrestling is Cool owner Milo Schnitzler revealed himself aligned with Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK) and shut the promotion down under command from the stable's leader, Ares. The united rudo group then began threatening the biggest and original Wrestling is promotion, Wrestling is Fun! (WiF!), but their attack on January 18, 2014, was thwarted by a group of defenders, led by Icarus. The following day, Wrestling is Respect was shut down, when Sidney Bakabella's Wrecking Crew (The Devastation Corporation, Jaka and Oleg the Usurper) turned on the defenders and joined the rudo group. On February 1, 2014, the second National Pro Wrestling Day concluded in an angle, where the group of rudos, now made up of BDK, The Colony: Xtreme Force, Dr. Cube and his Posse, Gekido, Sidney Bakabella's Wrecking Crew and Sinn Bodhi and his Odditorium stable and led by Jimmy Jacobs, stormed the event to destroy the final remnants of Chikara. This led to several Chikara wrestlers, including rudos The Batiri, Los Ice Creams and Mark Angelosetti and tecnicos The Colony, Dasher Hatfield, Hallowicked and Icarus running in to attack the group. Finally the Chikara side was also joined by 3.0, who arrived on the scene in a DeLorean with Archibald Peck, implying that they had gone back in time to retrieve him. After the invading group had been driven out of the ring, Icarus declared that Chikara was coming back on May 25, 2014, signaling the end of the promotion's one-year long hiatus. It was later revealed that in storyline former Chikara wrestler Robbie Ellis had won the auction in December 2013 and purchased the promotion from WMD, making the return possible. Chikara booker Mike Quackenbush later explained that the idea behind the storyline was to "expand what out performance art is capable of", while admitting that its complexity probably led to the promotion losing a few followers. Quackenbush also dispelled rumors that the promotion's downtime was due to financial difficulties, noting that while the Chikara brand appeared to be dark, it put together a record number of live events through the "Wrestling is" network, while also claiming that the downtime was just "a necessary part of the story". According to Quackenbush he had realized that the single character in the Chikara universe that people had the most emotional investment in was not a wrestler, but the brand itself and as a storyteller his idea was to put the protagonist under a real threat, driving the audience on an emotional journey. Quackenbush also revealed that the storyline was heavily influenced by the third act of the comic book Watchmen. While Chikara was inactive, the storyline was chronicled in a YouTube series, titled Ashes. An extended movie version of the series, titled The Ashes of Chikara, premiered on May 5 in Collegeville, Pennsylvania and was made available for purchase four days later.
