Preamble: This is the final show in the four-date UK tour, which I have taken an inordinately long time to cover even compared to the original plan.  So I thought it might be an idea to wrap it up.  The storyline pace will pick up after this, partly thanks to characters who weren’t on the tour re-entering the storylines after an eight-hour absence, and partly because the shows will be more spread out, which means there’s more scope for each one to advance the plot.  This is the show that Al went to, by the way, so bonus spotting opportunities there for fans of the podcast.

When and where: It’s 6 April 2015, and we’re in London, England, as a pre-show video package of the tourist sights is keen to stress.  More specifically, we’re at the Garage, which is basically a music venue.  Which means it has decent lighting and sound.  It’s packed.

1.  Challenge of the Immortals: Battle Hive v United Nations.

The back story: Continuing the year-long tournament.  To recap: ten teams of four, the top two advance to the final, and the winning team gets a vaguely defined prize which we’ll worry about another time.  It’s a double round robin – every team wrestles every other team twice, with the captains deciding whether it should be a singles match, tag, trios, etc.  As we go in, the Nightmare Warriors and Dasher’s Dugout share the lead on 3, the Wrecking Crew, the United Nations and the Arcane Horde all have 2, the Snake Pit, the Gentlemen’s Club, the BDK and the Battle Hive all have 1, and Crown & Court are still on zero.  This is a trios match, with Juan Francisco de Coronado, Mr Azerbaijan & Prakash Sabar for the United Nations taking on Amasis, Fire Ant & Worker Ant for the Battle Hive.  No more specific story here, beyond the fact that these teams already had their first encounter two nights ago, with the Hive winning.  It’s essentially one of those meetings that the tournament format requires and can happily double as a show-opener.

The match: After a bit of comedy, we settle into a conventional match with Fire Ant as tecnico in peril.  Sabar misses his Bronco Buster as usual, but the ref fails to spot Fire’s tag.  Fire makes the hot tag to Amasis soon enough anyway, so I’m not sure why they did the phantom tag.  The Hive win clear in 15:19 when Juan gets pinned after a rather awkward looking Ant Hill (normally a Colony triple team move, but with Amasis taking Silver Ant’s place).  Bit of an awkward finish, though Amasis being unfamiliar with his teammates repertoire actually works for plot purposes, so they get away with it.  Good opener to set the tone.

The upshot: Well, the Hive are now on two points, level with the Wrecking Crew, the United Nations and the Arcane Horde.

– Director of Fun Mike Quackenbush comes out for a promo to thank the UK fans for coming, and brings out Johnny Kidd to say hi to the crowd.

2.  Blind Rage v UltraMantis Black.

The back story: A minor skirmish in a long running story.  UltraMantis Black used to be the leader of the Spectral Envoy, until his long-time ally Hallowicked turned on him back in December, after getting mind-zapped with the magical Eye of Tyr and undergoing a personality change.  Hallowicked took the rest of the Envoy (including occasional member Blind Rage) to form the Nightmare Warriors.  They now worship a god called Nazmaldun who supposedly has very strong feelings about UltraMantis Black in particular.  This might be a delusion brought on by the Eye of Tyr, but then again, given Mantis’s own dabblings in magic, it might not.

Last month, Hallowicked interfered to stop Mantis getting the three consecutive wins that he needs in order to earn a title shot.  Mantis started over by beating Mr Azerbaijan on the first night of the tour, so a win here will give him two points.  (Unusually, the commentary gets this wrong, and claims that he stands to win a title shot tonight.  This sort of continuity error is uncharacteristic in Chikara, but it does happen a few times this season as the convoluted tournament scoring system seems to confuse everyone at times.)

The match: They a fairly straightforward match.  Mantis hits the Cosmic Doom, but it’s too early, and Rage kicks out at 2.  Rage distracts the ref while Frightmare runs in and nails Mantis with something or other, for the screwjob pin in 6:29.  An angle first and a short match second, with an odd pause near the end that makes me wonder if someone missed a cue.

The upshot: Back to square one again for Mantis and his quest for a title shot, and his feud with Hallowicked continues to tick over.

3.  Mark Angelosetti, Race Jaxon & Obariyon v. Dasher Hatfield, Hype Rockwell & Kodama

The back story: This is a trios increibles match: three regular tag teams – the Throwbacks, N_R_G and the Batiri – split into opposing teams for a trios match.  Obviously, by the fourth day of a tour with a limited crew, you’re working through the permutations.  All six guys are tecnicos, so there are no mixed alignment issues here.  Last night, N_R_G challenged for the tag titles, and lost comprehensively.  In a pre-match promo, Race is pretty unhappy about that and blames Hype – playing into a subplot about Race basically being a bit of a dick to Hype, which will be quietly dropped shortly after this point.  (This is also a Magic Move match – everyone in the audience gets a prize if anyone hits the “randomly selected” (cough, cough) magic move – but that doesn’t really play into anything tonight.)

The match: Some even exchanges in the early minutes before we get the partners facing off against each other.  The Throwbacks shake hands, but are willing to wrestle.  Angelosetti works mild heel, since he was always the one who stated off as a rudo.  But they still hug at the end.  The Batiri consider hugging, but can’t work out how (being demonic henchmen and all).  Instead they wrestle, and Obariyon wins their exchange.  Finally N_R_G come in, and Race is more than willing to fight his partner, but Hype gets tagged out before it can go too far.  Race Jaxon is clearly playing rudo for a night here, as he ends up taking all his opponents’ finishers and getting pinned clean by Kodama in 15:54.  Fun interaction between the regular partners.

The upshot: Some minor advancement for N_R_G’s storyline, but as I say, it changes direction soon after this, and Race’s heelish tendencies will fade out.  More subtly, Angelosetti acts as a self-appointed team captain and showing a few rudo tendencies.  At the time, this looked like a side effect of an increibles match, but it’s actually sowing some seeds for him to start slowly reverting to type over the course of the year.  Chikara can be quite good about disguising the early signs of a story like this.

4.  Silver Ant v. Oleg The Usurper.

The back story: This is another match that was supposed to feature Eddie Kingston until he was pulled from the tour at the last minute and replaced with Silver Ant.  So there’s no particular story reason for this match – it’s just the match they ended up with when Silver was swapped in.  At this point Oleg is essentially a tweener – on the verge of turning face but still under the malign influence of his Wrecking Crew cohorts.  He beat Juan Francisco de Coronado on the first night of the tour, so he has one point coming in.

The match: Technician versus brawler, of course.  A back and forth contest, with duelling chants.  Oleg blocks the frog splash and pins Silver Ant clean with the Off With His Head in 12:05.  One of Oleg’s better singles matches; he’s a personality wrestler, but Silver is able to bring the technical side of things.  It’s a slightly awkward pairing in that the match dynamic naturally casts Oleg as the heel – this wouldn’t have been an issue with Kingston, an antihero brawler.  But they get away with it.  Oleg accepts Silver Ant’s handshake after the match, continuing his turn.

The upshot: Oleg now has 2 points, so his next singles match will be for a title shot.  The rest of the Wrecking Crew regarded him as an expendable fifth wheel when they booted him out of their COTI team and sent him to hobble UltraMantis Black.  Might it be time for a rethink?

5.  Challenge of the Immortals: The Gentleman’s Club v The Wrecking Crew

The back story: The Crew have 2 points – so a win here will make them joint leaders – and will be represented by the tag champions Max Smashmaster & Blaster McMassive, plus stablemate Jaka.  The Club have 1 point, and will be represented by Chuck Taylor, Drew Gulak & The Swamp Monster.  Their fourth member Orange Cassidy is with them, but he’s barely conscious as usual.  Technically this is rudo/rudo, but the Club are loveable rogues and the Crew are dominant bastards, so the Club are babyfaces by default.  They also have Chuck Taylor’s entrance music, which is awesome.

The match: By their standards the Gentleman’s Club are taking this one seriously, and they’re not intimidated by the Wrecking Crew.  And when the Club are taking things seriously, they are a threat – Taylor’s held plenty of titles in Chikara, and Gulak was the CZW Champion for a while.  Taylor even refrains from yelling at the Swamp Monster tonight.  The Club put up a good fight and get some near falls on the tag champions, but ultimately Max and Blaster hit the Master Blaster on the Swamp Monster, and pin him clean in 12:21.  Nice to see the Club wrestle a (relatively) straight match once in a while.

The upshot: The scores at the end of the weekend: Nightmare Warriors, Wrecking Crew and Dasher’s Dugout all on 3; United Nations, Arcane Horde and Battle Hive on 2; Snake Pit, BDK and Gentleman’s Club on 1; and Crown & Court on 0.  No huge surprises at top or bottom of the card, though the Battle Hive have wrestled six matches, more than any other team, and their paltry two wins are starting to look a bit worrying.

6.  CHIKARA Grand Championship: Icarus (c) v Hallowicked

The back story: Both these guys have been with the company since it started in 2002.  Icarus was a long-time heel until he turned babyface during the shutdown angle of 2013-4, and reinvented himself as the face of the company.  That led to him winning the title on the relaunch show in May 2014, and going on to lead the Chikara roster against the Flood invaders for the rest of the year.  This is his fourth defence.  Hallowicked, as already noted, used to be an ally of UltraMantis Black before the Eye of Tyr turned him into a worshipper of the rot god Nazmaldun.  In a backstage promo, Hallowicked recalls how he challenged Eddie Kingston unsuccessfully two years ago, and basically says that he wasn’t ruthless enough in taking advantage of his opponents’ weaknesses then, but he sees the light now, thanks to Nazmaldun.  Icarus has had a bit of a patchy weekend, winning a tag match yesterday, but suffering an upset loss to Juan Francis de Coronado the night before.

The match: It’s a great main event singles match in the traditional mould.  The sense of occasion is there.  The commentators make a point of teasing the possibility of outside interference from the Nightmare Warriors, which doesn’t happen.  Hallowicked escapes the Blu-Ray, and hits his Yakuza Kick and Rydeen Bomb for 2.  Icarus hits the Blu-Ray on the second attempt, but Hallowicked gets his foot on the ropes.  The ref gets bumped, and Icarus applies the Chikara Special, but realises what’s happened, and breaks the hold before Hallowicked taps.  Once the ref is up, Hallowicked promptly hits his Yakuza Kick again for 2.  They go outside and Icarus misses a dive, but still kicks out at 2.  Icarus reverses a Rydeen Bomb into a frankensteiner, but Hallowicked escapes a third attempted Blu-Ray.  Icarus dodges another Yakuza Kick and gets a schoolboy for 2… but Hallowicked applies the Chikara Special.  Icarus passes out, and Hallowicked wins the title by ref stoppage in 18:50.  Frightmare and Blind Rage come out to celebrate (but, conspicuously, not Silver Ant).

The upshot: A new era starts here.  Hallowicked is only the third champion since the title’s inception in 2011 – so any title change is a huge deal.  And it’s absolutely the right time for both guys.  Hallowicked is on the rise as leader of his own faction.  Icarus’ story as the saviour of the company ran its course with the defeat of the Flood in December – the only way from here is down, and the journey starts here.  Oh, and I like the subtlety that while Hallowicked may be a lot more ruthless and aggressive since his conversion, he remains basically a rule-abiding wrestler who wants to win the title honourably, or at least legitimately – just as long as UltraMantis Black isn’t involved, in which case all bets are off, because boy, Nazmaldun really hates that guy.

Obviously, the direction here is Hallowicked and UltraMantis Black for the title.  Unfortunately, that match never happens, because Mantis suffers a career ending injury in the summer.  But he will remain in play as a non-wrestling character, so the broader feud will presumably play out in some form.

Worth getting?  It’s a solid show, but the main event really is excellent, quite aside from being newsworthy in storyline terms.  If you were buying one of the shows from this weekend, this would be the one to go for.  (Though it’s not going to be that long before these shows show up on the Chikaratopia archive subscription service, by all appearances.  Incidentally, you can also buy individual matches on the Chikara website if you want – find the show under “Events” and the option is there.)