While our West Coast brethern gear up for PWG's Battle of Los Angeles (BOLA) in a few weeks, indy wrestling fans in the Northeastern United States have our own event to get psyched for, and it goes down Labor Day weekend in Easton, Pennsylvania, within driving distance of Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey and the New York City area.
It's King of Trios time!
For the last eight years, Chikara has held a three-day tournament to crown the best three-person team in all of Chikara-land (or Chikara-topia, as their $7.99 per month streaming service is called). As those who recently became more familiar with the lucha libre-style via Lucha Underground know, multi-person matches are a staple of Mexican wrestling, with the trio being the most prominent and utilized team size.
Since Chikara is basically a lucha promotion as conceived by a 1980s Marvel Comics fan, two of the biggest events on their calendar are King of Trios (or KoT for short) and the Torneo Cibernetico, a show main evented by an eight-on-eight battle. But it's the weekend long tournament that moved to September a few years back that's become a signature event for fans anxious to gorge on the best non-WWE wrestling that North America has to offer.
This year's no exception, as the rundown of teams in the above video hints. Everything from one of the hottest acts in wrestling, New Japan and Ring of Honor's Bullet Club, to ECW nostalgia from the Blue World Order, to three luchadores from AAA who launched onto the scene via El Rey Network in the last few month, to homegrown fun like Los Ice Creams...KoT's got it.
The full bracket hasn't been announced, but here's a complete list of the teams entered in the tourney:
- Arcane Horde (Kodama, Obariyon & Oleg the Usurper)
- Battleborn (Kevin Condron, Lucas Calhoun & Missile Assault Man)
- Battle Hive (Amasis, Fire Ant & Worker Ant)
- Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (Jakob Hammermeier, Nøkken & Soldier Ant)
- Bullet Club (A.J. Styles, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)
- Crown & Court (El Hijo del Ice Cream, Ice Cream Jr. & Princess KimberLee)
- Dasher's Dugout (Dasher Hatfield, Icarus & Mark Angelosetti)
- The Devastation Corporation (Blaster McMassive, Flex Rumblecrunch & Max Smashmaster)*
- The Gentleman's Club (Chuck Taylor, Drew Gulak & the Swamp Monster)
- Nightmare Warriors (Frightmare, Hallowicked & Silver Ant)
- The Snake Pit (Eddie Kingston, Ophidian & Shynron)
- Team AAA (Aero Star, Drago & Fénix)
- Team Attack! (Mark Andrews, Morgan Webster & Pete Dunne)
- Team bWo (Big Stevie Cool, Da Blue Guy & Hollywood Nova)
- Team Fight Club: Pro (MK McKinnan, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate)
- United Nations (Juan Francisco de Coronado, Mr. Azerbaijan & The Proletariat Boar of Moldova)
* Defending champs
Seats remain for all three nights, and the interactive Fan Conclave set to take place on Saturday - place your order here.
Who's going? And who's your pick to be 2015's King of Trios?