Preamble: This is the first of four shows taped in the UK over the spring bank holiday weekend.  Although Chikara has occasionally ventured outside North America before, it’s the first time they’ve run a UK tour.

There are some obvious practical difficulties in writing for a four-show weekend.  You can’t really do stories that develop over the course of the four shows, because the audience on night four won’t actually have seen the earlier shows.  (They might have read the results on line, but that’s it.)  And all four shows need to have cards announced in advance.  And of course you’re limited to pretty much the same roster members for all four shows.

This means, in practice, that it’s pretty hard for the first two shows to do anything that really calls for immediate follow-up – which makes them largely an exercise in continuing longer-term storyline builds, and bashing gamely through tournament matches for “Challenge of the Immortals” (which dominates night 2).  The two title defences scheduled for this tour naturally headline nights 3 and 4.

These shows are slightly shorter than regular Chikara shows, at six matches apiece.  Live, they were promoted as double-headers with local promotions running earlier in the day, but those support shows aren’t officially Chikara, and besides, they aren’t on the website.  The fact that Chikara was relying on local co-promoters to handle the practicalities probably also explains a list of venues which would not be most people’s first guess if you told them “four dates in the UK”.

When and where?  It’s Friday 3 April 2015, a little under a month after the last show.  We’re in the Wulfrun Hall in Wolverhampton – a proper venue, with proper lighting, though for some reason there’s a techie in plain view at the top of the entrance ramp.  It’s a less random choice than it seems, since Wolverhampton was a frequent venue for wrestling back in the days of World of Sport.

1.  Mr Azerbaijan v. UltraMantis Black

The back story: On the last show, UltraMantis Black was screwed out of a title shot by Hallowicked’s interference.  Now he starts the task of collecting points from scratch.  Mr Azerbaijan is a member of the Bloc Party, and his wrestling style is delightfully eccentric.  He tends to start suplexing someone and then just lose interest mid-move and drop them.  He also likes running off the ropes to build up momentum before a lateral press.  His ring introduction: “He is 1998’s Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  He is 1999’s Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  He is year 2000 Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  He is year 2001 Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  No sexist man contest was held in 2002 due to the coal mining strike.  However, 2003 Azerbaijan’s sexiest man! 2004, Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  2005, Azerbaijan’s sexiest man!  Ladies and gentlemen, the sexiest man in Azerbaijan – Mr Azerbaijan!”  You get the idea.  He’s reasonably effective as a member of the Bloc Party, not so much as a singles wrestler.

The match: A straightforward tone-setting opener.  Mantis works his opponent’s tailbone, fights off interference from Bloc Party teammate Prakash Sabar, and jackknifes Mr A for a clean pin in 4:24.  Short, but fast paced and wonderfully timed throughout.

The upshot: Mantis is back on his feet after getting screwed in the last show.

– Mike Quackenbush comes out to thank the fans for their support.

2.  Juan Francisco de Coronado v. Oleg the Usurper.

The back story: Officially both guys are rudos, but Oleg is obviously turning, so he’s the tecnico by default.  Oleg, you’ll recall, is the spare member of the Wrecking Crew who was drafted onto the Arcane Horde team for the Challenge of the Immortals year-long tournament.  These two last met at 15.3, “Out on a Limb”, in the COTI match between the United Nations and the Arcane Horde.   Wrecking Crew manager Sidney Bakabella instructed Oleg to throw the match, and while he didn’t actually do it, he did stand around looking befuddled long enough for Juan to pin him.  But Bakabella is not with us on the UK tour, and besides, this isn’t a tournament match – so Oleg has no conflict of interest here.

The match: The childlike Oleg is surprised and delighted by the crowd’s support.  Juan tries to outwit the big lug and to win through technique, but Oleg outpowers him.  Oleg accidentally chops the ring post (which is becoming the standard turning point in his singles matches), and Juan works the arm.   Juan   escapes the Off With His Head and hits his German suplex finisher, but Oleg kicks out at 2.  Oleg blocks the Coronado Clutch, and superkicks Juan for a clean pin in 7:27.  Nice competitive match, and it’s always good to remind people that guys like Oleg don’t have to win with their established finishers.

The upshot: Bit of an upset.  Juan is higher up the card as a singles wrestler, so a clean win for Oleg matters.  And we’re reminded that when he’s not being confused by competing demands on his loyalties, he can be effective.

3.  Challenge of the Immortals: Battle Hive v Wrecking Crew, Match 1

The back story: The Crew are the tournament favourites and won their first match last month.  The Battle Hive are not, and did not.  Today, it’ll be a 6-man with Amasis, Fire Ant and Worker Ant representing the Hive, and Max Smashmaster, Blaster McMassive and Jaka representing the Crew).

The match: The Battle Hive control for the first few minutes, with a bit of comedy thrown in, until Worker Ant gets into trouble.  The Crew work on him until the rest of the Hive come to his rescue.  Near falls are exchanged, and Max pins Worker Ant with the Death Blow in 15:33 to win the match for the Wrecking Crew.  It’s the classic tag format, and well executed.

The upshot: Wrecking Crew 2, Arcane Horde, Dasher’s Dugout, Snake Pit & United Nations 1, everyone else nil.  So the Battle Hive are yet to get off the blocks, despite two respectable in-ring performances.

4.  Challenge of the Immortals: Arcane Horde v Gentleman’s Club, Match 1

The back story: The Horde have one point from two matches; they haven’t gelled as a team, but this is a  tag match, with the regular duo of the Batiri (Obariyon & Kodama) representing the Horde.  The Gentleman’s Club are the tenth and final tournament team.  They’re a goofy rudo stable associated with Chuck Taylor who have shown up as occasional guests before.  The other members are Drew Gulak (the sensible one), Orange Cassidy (the barely conscious one), and the Swamp Monster (the swamp monster one).  You know how the Man-Thing and the Swamp Thing are completely different characters who are nothing like one another?  Well, so is the Swamp Monster.  He and Taylor are wrestling this match.

The match: Taylor, being an egotist and a fool, is determined to be the star of his team.  The Monster can actually wrestle, but Taylor keeps tagging him out in order to go it alone.  At any rate, it’s getting the Swamp Monster over as a put-upon dogsbody, which is the idea.  The Batiri, of course, are the straight men here.  Rudo miscommunication leads to the Monster getting pinned with the Batiri’s Seventh Circle combo finisher, after 10:09.

The upshot: Arcane Horde & Wrecking Crew 2, Dasher’s Dugout, Snake Pit & United Nations 1, everyone else 0.  The Crew have a match in hand, though.  Taylor’s attitude to the Swamp Monster doesn’t altogether make sense, given that, as team captain, he’s supposed to have agreed to the match in the first place.  Then again, he’s not an entirely rational character.  To be honest, though, the idea that the team captains are negotiating the matches is something that will get lip service and not a great deal more; you suspect that considerations of availability are going to take precedence.  Normally that’s not a major issue but we’ll see that from time to time a match rears its head that pretty much invites the question “why the hell did so-and-so agree to that?”

5.  Silver Ant v Soldier Ant.

The back story: Further complicating an already difficult booking task, Eddie Kingston was due to wrestle singles matches on all four nights, but pulled out late in the day for reasons that the commentary dances around.   Since he was going to be wrestling four singles matches, two of which would have potentially given him points towards a shot at his beloved Grand Championship, I strongly suspect that there was going to be a story here.  Instead, Silver Ant was added to the tour at the last minute and plugged into all four of Kingston’s already-announced matches, rather than re-jig the rest of the announced cards.  That resulted in four perfectly good matches, but didn’t really fit into story plans.  This one, in particular, is a match which ideally wouldn’t have happened at all, at least at this point in time.

Soldier Ant is the brainwashed ex-Colony member who’s now vaguely under the control of the BDK (in the sense that they can point him in the right direction and hope for the best).  So a match against Silver Ant ought to be a big deal in plot terms, except that Soldier is already due to wrestle Worker Ant, a more junior Colony member, on night 3.  So really, this is a match that ideally wouldn’t have happened for a while.  The rest of the BDK aren’t on this tour, so Soldier is on his own.

The match: One for the fans of pure technical wrestling, which isn’t necessarily what you’d expect from the wider story, but really plays to the strengths of these two guys.  Soldier treats Silver as a complete stranger.  Eventually Silver tries to get Soldier to acknowledge him as a former team-mate, but that only makes Soldier more aggressive.  Finally, Soldier locks in a sleeper and the ref stops the match at 16:23.  A very good match.

The upshot: Essentially treading water in story terms, but that’s probably inevitable in the circumstances.   Smart to make it a technical showcase, and let it shine in another area.

6.  Challenge of the Immortals: Dasher’s Dugout v Nightmare Warriors, Match 2.

The back story: These two teams had their first match last month, and the Dugout won.  This time it’s Dasher Hatfield, Mark Angelosetti & Icarus for tecnicos versus Hallowicked, Frightmare and Blind Rage for the rudos.  Hallowicked is challenging Icarus for the Grand Championship on night 4, so obviously this is a preview of that.

This is the first time we’ve seen Blind Rage this year.  He’s a semi-retired wrestler who’s been with the company since day 1, show 1.  Notionally he’s sort of an undead warrior, though that’s mainly reflected in his face paint rather than his wrestling style.  He was a member of UltraMantis’s previous stable, the Spectral Envoy, which imploded when Hallowicked and Frightmare got zapped with the Eye of Tyr and turned on Mantis.  Blind Rage wasn’t zapped himself, but he has a long history as an ally of Hallowicked, and being a zombie, he could well be on board with Hallowicked’s sudden conversion of the cause of Nazmaldun, God of Rot.  On the other hand, Hallowicked did draft Silver Ant, who was utterly baffled by the decision – could Blind Rage be in the same category?

The match: Blind Rage is completely on board with the Nightmare Warriors.  The match is back-and-forth with no obvious weak links on either team, building to an exchange of big moves, and Hallowicked pins Icarus clean with the Rydeen Bomb in 16:51.  All escalating action, and very good at that.

The upshot: Well, Hallowicked pinned the champion three days before their title match, which is traditional booking to make the challenger look strong.  If this was the WWE, his win here would probably signal that he was losing the title match (their approach to reverse psychology is formulaic in the extreme).  But this isn’t the WWE.

Oh yes, and the Nightmare Warriors are on the tournament scoreboard.  Arcane Horde & Wrecking Crew 2, Dasher’s Dugout, Nightmare Warriors, Snake Pit & United Nations 1, everyone else 0.

The bottom line: No major story developments, but there are reasons why you can’t really expect that on the opening show of the tour.  But good wrestling throughout.