Preamble: Hey, there’s a pre-credits skit on this one.  The Bloc Party attempt to re-enact DX’s invasion of WCW, but they can’t get into the arena, so they give up.  Okay then.

Where and when?  It’s Sunday 8 March 2015, the day after the previous show.  We’re in the Norfolk Masonic Temple in Norfolk, Virginia.  It’s an actual theatre with proper lighting and sound, though it’s not ideally laid out for wrestling, since most of the audience is on one side of the ring, and so is the camera.  It’s some way from being full.  It may have been an overambitious choice of venue.  This happens sometimes when they go to new towns and take a guess.

For the first time this year, we have perfect sound quality.

1.  Challenge of the Immortals: Arcane Horde v Bruderschaft Des Kreuzes, Match 1

The back story: For the rules of the year-long COTI tournament, see the previous post.  The Arcane Horde lost their first match last night because their unwanted member Oleg the Usurper screwed it up for them.  But tonight it’s a tag match, and the Horde is fielding Obariyon and Kodama, who are a regular team and should have no such problems.

Making their first tournament appearance, the BDK are the battered remnants of a once-dominant heel faction.  The group currently comprises leader Jakob Hammermeier (an ascended flunky desperate to assert his alpha male status and success as a leader), the erratic Pinkie Sanchez, and the powerhouse Nokken.  The COTI team is rounded out by the brainwashed Soldier Ant, over whom Jakob has some – emphasis on “some” – control.  Jakob and Pinkie are the team tonight.  (Quite why you wouldn’t use the super powered Soldier Ant is unclear, but bluntly, COTI tends to pay lip service to the idea that the team captains are actually agreeing on the match formats; wrestler availability is doubtless a bigger factor.)

The match: It’s a good competitive opening tag match.  The Batiri are a lot more effective when they’re left to their own devices, but Jakob and Pinkie are fairly cohesive too.  The finish leads to the Batiri hitting double teams on both BDK members in quick succession, and Obariyon pins Pinkie clean to get his team off the starting blocks in 9:38.

The upshot: Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout & United Nations 1, everyone else 0.  The BDK gets another outing which, while by no means embarrassing, falls some way short of Jakob’s billing.  And the Arcane Horde can be pretty effective – as long as they don’t try to work together.

2.  Volgar v. UltraMantis Black.

The back story: UltraMantis Black won his last two matches, so if he wins here, he gets a Grand Championship shot!  Okay, so his Spectral Envoy stable collapsed when Hallowicked and Frightmare got mind-zapped by the Eye of Tyr and turned on him.  And his Arcane Horde team is saddled with Oleg.  But 2015 is still off to a decent start.  All he’s got to do is beat Volgar, a stray henchman left behind when the Flood broke up!

The match: Mantis beats the hell out of Volgar for a couple of minutes.  Volgar mounts a brief comeback but gets cuts off.  Mantis hits a couple of big moves, but Hallowicked comes out and hits a Yakuza Kick while the ref is checking on Volgar.  Volgar doesn’t see that, but crawls over to pins Mantis (holding the tights) in 2:54.  Pure angle, of course.  Mantis chases Hallowicked backstage, leaving Volgar to celebrate a win that plainly surprises him as much as anyone else.  Kevin Condron comes out and encourages Volgar to drop his Flood identity and be his own man.  He blames the crowd for not supporting Volgar and making him a baddie.  (“And you know what?  Villains were babies too!”)  Condron asks Volgar to follow him.  Volgar hesitates, but decides to leave.  Condron changes tack and threatens to reveal Volgar’s “secret”.  Volgar hesitates again, but sticks to his guns and leaves.

The upshot: UltraMantis goes back to square one in chasing a title shot, and his feud with Hallowicked continues its slow burn.  (Unfortunately, Mantis suffered a leg injury in July, so the pay-off may be indefinitely delayed.)  Repackaging Volgar and aligning him with Condron is under way, and Volgar is also made more sympathetic.  Neither Condron nor Volgar was on the UK tour, but we’ll get back to this story in May.

3.  Four Corner Elimination Match: The Nightmare Warriors (Frightmare & Silver Ant) v. The Bloc Party (The Proletariat Boar of Moldova & Prakash Sabar) v. N_R_G (Race Jaxon & Hype Rockwell) v. The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield & Mark Angelosetti).

The back story: A win here will give N_R_G a third point and a shot at the tag titles; anything else, and they’re back to zero.  As ever, Rockwell is exhausted from the overnight drive, but the excitable Jaxon seems oblivious.  Silver Ant and Frightmare teamed for the first time last night after Silver was drafted onto the Nightmare Warriors COTI team, and lost.  The fact that they’re teaming outside the tournament is a story point in itself.  The Bloc Party have just been drafted to Juan Francisco de Coronado’s COTI team, United Nations.  The Throwbacks are still to earn a rematch after losing the tag titles back in December.  Oh, and this is a Magic Move match – if anyone hits the Magic Move, everyone in the crowd gets a (token) prize.  It’s a superkick, which bodes well for N_R_G, since that’s Race’s finisher.

The match: The first fall is largely the Nightmare Warriors and the Throwbacks, with the Bloc Party briefly pitching in when they spot an opening.  As with last night, the Warriors are trying to work together, but they still get eliminated first, when Dasher pins Silver Ant clean with the Suicide Squeeze.  N_R_G inadvisedly enter the match in the second fall (it’d make more sense to wait for the final fall, given that they only need one point, and if I’m nitpicking, it really should have been the overenthusiastic Jaxon who entered here, not Hype).  Jaxon gets the hot tag and runs wild on the Bloc Party.  After he dives to the outside, the Throwbacks take that as a tag under lucha rules, and pin Sabar with a 3D to eliminate the Bloc Party.  That leaves N_R_G and the Throwbacks, and since the Throwback won the first two falls, whoever wins the final fall gets a title shot (the Throwbacks would get their three points for winning all three falls).   N_R_G win clean with their superkick/Hyperwheel combo on Angelosetti in 17:17.  Good wrestling, and a success all round.

The upshot: N_R_G win their title shot, and play down their gimmick in order to look like credible contenders.  The Throwbacks nearly get their title rematch, but their chase continues.  The Nightmare Warriors are still working together and still not winning.  And Juan Francisco was on commentary to put over the angle of him training the Bloc Party – who put in a better showing than usual.

4.  CHIKARA Grand Championship: Icarus © v Nokken.

The back story: BDK member Nokken earned his title shot in January and has been pushed as a monster heel.  There’s no particular issue with Icarus beyond that, and nobody is expecting a BDK henchman to actually win the title.  Common sense says he’s here to give Icarus a successful defence.

The match: Nokken dominates for the first few minutes.  The turning point is meant to be Nokken going for a top rope splash and Icarus rolling out of the way, but he doesn’t make it in time.  Icarus mounts a fiery comeback anyway, escapes a chokeslam, and pins Nokken clean with the Blu-Ray in 4:38.  Yikes.  That was a bit of a mess.  My best guess is that this was an abbreviated version of the planned match due to injury or something, since it’s not like Chikara to book their singles title in a five minute undercard match.

The upshot: Well, Icarus gets his third defence, and Nokken’s credibility as a monster heel takes a massive knock.  Beyond that, erm… yeah, let’s pretend this didn’t happen.

5.  Challenge of the Immortals: Wrecking Crew v Crown & Court, Match 1

The back story: The first tournament outing for both squads is an 8-man tag.  The Wrecking Crew (Max Smashmaster, Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch and Jaka) are four-fifths of Sydney Bakabella’s squad of eighties throwback rudos.  The group includes the reigning Kings of Trios and the tag champions, so they’re obvious tournament favourites.  Crown and Court (Princess Kimberlee, Jervis Cottonbelly, Ice Cream Jr and El Hijo Del Ice Cream) are a crazy princess, the world’s sweetest man, and two insane jobbers.   Kimber and Jervis had a decent outing in a tag match last night, and are one point away from a tag title shot.  But now they’re teaming with Los Ice Creams, who haven’t won a match in years, against four massive bastards.  Kimber seems oblivious to the win/loss record of her shiny new team, and while Jervis is sensible enough for realise how screwed they are, he’s too polite to tell her.

The match: Los Ice Creams start off with their usual nonsense, which the Wrecking Crew seem willing to indulge for a bit before starting the match proper.  It’s a more even bout than you’d expect, which is to say that it’s not a complete squash.  Kimber puts up a solid fight against Jaka, and the smitten Jervis is fired up to help her.  The Ice Creams are trying.  Kimber briefly takes on the whole Crew on her own and manages near falls on both Flex and Jaka.  But it’s still the Wrecking Crew versus Crown & Court, and Max pins El Hijo with a Tombstone Piledriver in 13:16.

The upshot: Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, United Nations & Wrecking Crew 1, everyone else 0.  Los Ice Creams’ unparalleled win-loss record continues, but frankly, they surpassed expectations by making it past the two minute mark.  Kimber continues the tightrope of being booked strong in a losing team.

6.  Hallowicked v Oleg the Usurper.

The back story: A win here will give Hallowicked three points and a shot at the Grand Championship.  Oleg is the fifth member of the Wrecking Crew, who was surplus to COTI requirements, and was palmed off on UltraMantis’ team.  He’s on a slow-burn tecnico turn, making him tecnico by default against Hallowicked.

The match: Heartless technician versus loveable brawler, as you’d expect from these two.  Mantis is on commentary, but doesn’t interfere.  He’s seething over Hallowicked having cost him a title shot, and he’s dropped all pretence of caring about curing him.  Hallowicked works on the arm, to take out Oleg’s finisher.  Oleg mounts a comeback and gets to kick out of Hallowicked’s Rydeen Bomb.  Oleg hits the Off With His Head with the injured arm, but Hallowicked manages to roll out of the ring.  Outside, Oleg accidentally chops the ring post, and that’ll be about that for the injured arm.  Hallowicked finally puts Oleg down with two Yakuza Kicks and pins him in 9:47.  Good match – basic story, but playing to both guys’ strengths.  Oleg isn’t the best pure wrestler on the roster but he knows his character.

The upshot: Hallowicked has now beaten all of Mantis’ remaining allies, and earns a title shot which he’ll be claiming on next month’s UK tour.  Oleg looks respectably strong in defeat against a main eventer.

7.  Challenge of the Immortals: Battle Hive v Snake Pit, Match 1

The back story: Last night, the Osirian Portal challenged for the tag titles and lost.  Tonight, their separate COTI teams have their first match against each other.  Ophidian’s Snake Pit has the high-flyer Shynron, the rookie Argus, and the loose cannon brawler Eddie Kingston – all unaffiliated, and Kingston in particular is nobody’s idea of a team player.  Amasis, in contrast, has drafted Fire Ant and Worker Ant from the Colony, plus Ashley Remington, which seems like a sensible grouping of nice guys who ought to gel.  This is a 6-man tag, with Ophidian, Shynron and Argus facing Amasis and the Ants.  In a pre-match promo, Ophidian grumbles about Kingston’s lack of commitment, a plot thread which seems to have been dropped.  (Kingston pulled out of the April shows at the last minute, where he would have been the sole representative of the Snake Pit, so I suspect it’s a plot that would have played out there.)

The match: It’s a face/face match, with both teams working well together.  They hold off Amasis v Ophidian for a good long while.  When they get into the ring, at first they’re willing to fight but still friendly; later they get more heated.  Some very good wrestling, and Argus gets to look strong, but it feels like the crowd aren’t sure who to root for and don’t really want either team to win or lose.  It’s a bit quiet between the big moves.  Given the Grand Championship match earlier, I can’t help suspecting that it’s an action match from further down the card that’s been pressed into service as a main event.  Ophidian pins Amasis with a Super Egyptian Destroyer in 20:18, which is several minutes longer than the match really needed.  The Portal reconcile afterwards.

The upshot: Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, Snake Pit, United Nations & Wrecking Crew 1, everyone else nil.  I guess the idea was to get over the tournament by showing that the Portal were willing to fight for it.  Note that the Arcane Horde wrestled two matches this weekend, and the tenth team (the Gentlemen’s Club) hasn’t wrestled at all yet; we’ll see a lot of them next month.  This will become an increasing issue over the next couple of months as the teams get further and further out of synch with each other; it’s probably for the best that the tournament seems to be planned more on a macro level than match by match.

Post-credits: Jervis Cottonbelly visits a medium to ask for help in finding the Estonian Thunderfrog (who was apparently killed by the Flood during last year’s invasion).  This picks up on a Twitter angle where Jervis was asking for advice on ways of raising the Thunderfrog from the dead.  A post-show sketch on the 2014 season finale showed the Thunderfrog being reincarnated on a farm, but Jervis doesn’t know that.  The medium tells Jervis that the Thunderfrog is alive, “somewhere to the west, beyond the great river”, but warns Jervis that he has disturbed dark forces who seek his destruction.

Obviously, this is building to the return of the Thunderfrog and hinting at Jervis being sacrificed to bring back all the other guys who were seemingly written out in the Flood’s cull last year.  So, y’know, keep an eye on that bozo squad he’s part of, because their plot role may be bigger than it looks.  As for the Thunderfrog, he’s yet to return to Chikara, but there really is an “Estonian FarmerFrog” working on indie shows in Minnesota.

Bottom line: There are some good matches here and some story advancement – there always are – but the Grand Championship match is obviously disappointing.  The Saturday show is better, so unless you’re getting the whole season, that’s probably the one to go for.