Hello and welcome back my beautiful CHIKArmy friends! I am so pleased to say that any day now the 2013 debut weekend will be coming from Smart Mark Video. There is nothing that gets me more excited than a DVD release. While it has taken me longer to work through the happenings of 2012 than I thought it would, worry not because I will complete them. My priority once the first shows come out will be to watch those and get the stories up online. However, in between my storyline blogs for 2013, I will do clean up work for 2012. I want this blog to become a place for you guys to be able to come and keep current. Say you're going to a show but hadn't seen the last two. I will have you covered! This week I bring you one of the most interesting stables in Chikara history, Gekido. These doppelgangers came into Chikara and made quite the impact. Their departures made quite the impact in their own way as well...
Gekido
CHIKARA Debut - Caught In the Spider's Den February 26th 2012
Affiliations: GEKIDO (17, The Shard, CombatANT, DeviANT, AssailANT)
The Swarm (CombatANT, DeviANT, AssailANT)
The New Swarm (CombatANT, DeviANT, Soldier Ant)
The New Colony (AssailANT, Fire Ant, Green Ant)
Season 11 began with a air of hopefulness. The BDK had been thwarted and their reign of terror in Chikara ended. The debut show came and went with some great wrestling but little in the way of the typical evil that had been haunting the company. Something was amiss however when we arrived in Reading for A Death Worse than Fate. During the debut match of Mr. Touchdown as he and his step cousin in law, Dasher Hatfield took on the Colony, that Green Ant came out from the locker room and pushed Dasher off of the top turnbuckle. The Throwbacks were well in control of the Colony at that point in the match. It would seem that Green Ant was attempting to aid his comrades. Cheating wasn't part of the usual Colony repertoire however. Moving on to the next evening Mike Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Fire Ant and Soldier Ant were dealing with the rather dastardly quartet of the Batiri, Tim Donst and Jakob Hammermeier. Again, Green Ant made his way out towards the ring. Then...Green Ant made his way out to the ring? Two Green Ants stood outside the ring on Long Island. One of them jumped in the ring and attacked Mike Quackenbush! He tore of his mask, revealing a blue and gold one underneath. Rushing the ring came four other individuals, three of which looked a lot like one of our favourite trios. Very off colour ants assaulted the technicos in the ring. They were chased off by the locker room, but had already made quite the first impression.
March fast approached and so did two more Chikara shows. Taking a page out of the Batiri play book, these intruders utilized YouTube and social media. The first of these masked men was the yellow ant, unnamed at the time, but soon to be known as CombatANT. He claimed that he and the other members of the Gekido would unmask the Colony, exposing them for the frauds that they were. The next video featured the well muscled package, the Shard. He warned that he was aware of Jigsaw's knee problems. These guys seemed to know a lot about Chikara. Vaughn came and so did the Gekido. In the match that was supposed to feature Los Ice Creams, CombatANT and DeviANT took them out backstage and interjected themselves into the match in their place. Their move sets seemed rather familiar. Even more so after CombatANT devastated Soldier Ant with a TKO. Following this confrontation, Quack and Jigsaw entered the ring against 17 and the Shard. While it was evident the Shard was a distorted version of Jig, it would soon become evident how much like Mike 17 was. After dropping Quack with his own Quackendriver III, he used a move not seen in years to break the fingers of Mike! It is a good thing for free health care in Canada. These doppelgangers meant to eliminate their likenesses quickly. The next evening in Ottawa, the five members of the Gekido stood in the ring again with some of Chikara's finest technicos. Hallowicked and Ultramantis Black came out on the losing side against the Shard and 17. Shard utilized several of Jigsaw's moves in this bout, particularly his super kick. As their full units, the Swarm and Colony met for the first of many battles inside of a Chikara ring. It became apparent that the Gekido weren't interested in winning titles and belts like the BDK were. Instead, the Swarm were targeting the Colony's masks. Being pinned on his back, Green Ant had his mask torn from his head! This is a instant disqualification in Chikara, but that didn't matter to the sadistic and twisted counterparts of the Colony.
After March, the Gekido had put the whole Chikara locker room on notice. Quack was now on the shelf after his first encounter with 17 who claimed that he knew submissions holds even the master Quackenbush did not. A bold statement by the masked man. Being injured, Mike chose the champ himself, Eddie Kingston, to take his place in a atomicos match in New Jersey. It was another brawl and, even with the added brawn of Eddie, the Colony were not able to overcome their adversaries. For a second time the victory came by TKO utilized by CombatANT. The war building between these two factions was quickly becoming very personal for Soldier Ant, as it was his patented finishing maneuver that was aiding the Swarm. In their next meeting at Synergy, Eddie Kingston was subbed out for the Soaring Jet of Lucha Libre, Jigsaw. Another brawl and well contested match. This time however the technico squad was able to overcome the Gekido via Chikara Special submission applied by Soldier Ant. It had taken nearly two months, but the Colony had taken a small portion of revenge on their colourful counterparts. As well that evening, 17 had a unscheduled match against the debuting Tianlong. We will never know his potential because minutes into the match his career was ended by another forgotten submission hold. Two months, two injuries...one career ending...caused by 17.
Continuing his vendetta towards the Swarm, Soldier Ant took his aggression towards the rudo unit to the new level in Lafayette. During the Colony versus Swarm match, Soldier decided it was no longer necessary to play by the rules that had defined the Colony as a techico squad. He began to attempt to remove the mask from CombatANT. He was unsuccessful as the match was interrupted by Gekido influence. 17 suffered a loss to the Grand champion despite Shard attacking his leg prior to the match. Thankfully 17 was not able to place a submission hold on Eddie. If he had injured him, the champ might have had to vacate his title position.
Anniversario had arrived in the Chikaraverse and everyone was abuzz for what would be a landmark match. The Gekido were set to step into the ring with some of Chikara's finest, past and present. Digging into their reserves Chikara called back Mr. Zero and Dragonfly to fight alongside Hallowicked, Ultramantis and Icarus. It would appear that the Night Shift were back together for one afternoon to defend the gates of Chikara. The technicos fought well and the match seemed to be evenly contested. This was until 17 placed another one of his holds onto the unsuspecting Dragonfly. Another match, another submission and another wrestler injured so severely his career was ended. 17's resume of lost submission holds was only growing and he hadn't even used ten of them yet. If some of the best from the past and present couldn't do it, maybe the Colony, Jigsaw and Kingston could rout the rudos at Chikara's first IPPV of the year, Chikarasaurus Rex. We wouldn't be able to find out if the original technico team could defeat the Gekido however, because during the pre-show festivities Fire Ant was assaulted and his ankle badly injured. That left the technico team a man short facing what has been one of the most destructive stables in Chikara history. Aid came in the form of the healing Mike Quackenbush, who blindsided 17 with a drop kick. He then delivered a palm strike to Derek Sabato, the social liason of Gekido. After a super anthill was used, Soldier Ant forced 17 to tap out to the Chikara Special. That move seemed to be the Achilles heel of the Gekido. Post match Quack whispered something in the ear of 17 before breaking his fingers, gaining his revenge.
In Syracuse, Chikara fans were treated to the first singles competition faced by the Gekido. The purple DeviANT faced off against Green Ant, blue AssailANT faced Soldier Ant and Shard fought with his mirrored likeness Jigsaw. Victory came to the technicos in all matches but Soldier's. These bouts allowed for the Gekido's personalities to be seen for the first time in season 11. DeviANT was becoming a fast striker and AssailANT's strength was nearly as formidable as Eddie Kingston's.
Midway through the summer Chikara took a turn down a very unfamiliar road, the directions coming from the less than competent Wink Vavasseur. Wink had devised a mathematical system he called Chikarabermetrics. Using wrestlers stats, he placed them into teams based on wins, losses and pinning combinations. He had decided that Soldier Ant, DeviANT and CombatANT would make a better team that the original Colony. As well he placed AssailANT with Colony classic. One of these trios would be tested in Portland by another Wink concoction, 3.0 and Gran Akuma. The new Swarm was felled by Booyakuma, and again the next day by the Spectral Envoy. The problem was simple: Soldier only takes his orders from the CHIKArmy. The Gekido were far too controlling over his actions and it was costing them wins.
It was August when Fire Ant was able to return from his injuries sustained at C-Rex. Coincidentally, it was also the same time that 17 was able to return from injuries suffered on the same evening. For Fire Ant however his homecoming was not as sweet as anticipated. In Soldier Ant's place stood the blue bruiser of the Gekido, AssailANT. Unlike the way that DeviANT and CombatANT were trying to control Solider, AssailANT was excited to be a part of the Colony. His enthusiasm was visible in their first teaming together against the Batiri. Exuberance doesn't win matches though and their first opportunity together was a loss. The Swarm still wasn't fairing any better and suffered losses to both the Batiri and F.I.S.T that month. Shard and 17 had an opportunity for their revenge in Indianapolis, a day after Shard nearly upset the Grand Champion. Quack was not going to allow for 17's return to be one of glory. He used all four Quackendrivers on him and ended 17's career the way 17 ended the careers of Dragonfly and Tianlong. Jigsaw took exception to this however, and was becoming increasingly frustrated with Mike's actions.
Excitement was all around as King of Trios 2012 had come to Chikara. Both the new Swarm and Colony were to be a part of the tournament. The first to compete was the Colony against the fan favourite Sendai girls. AssailANT still seemed thrilled to be able to stand in the ring with Fire and Green Ant. They hadn't forgotten that AssailANT had torn Green Ants mask off in March however and disjunction cost them a first round loss. The Swarm stood across from Jigsaw, Quack and Manami Toyota in their first round match up. Wink's mash up team was far more interested in causing each other harm than actually wrestling the opposing trio though. While fun to watch Soldier use knife edge chops as tags, they don't really help you win. They were defeated by a flurry of offense and eliminated. Both of Wink's ant filled teams were defeated in the first round of King of Trios. After the Swarm match had concluded, Mike placed CombatANT in a precarious hold and jerked his body, snapping his neck. Two of the five members of Gekido had been eliminated by Quack now.
Maybe October would be a more friendly month for Gekido and their mismatched teams. The always excited AssailANT was teaming with Fire Ant against the highly volatile Donst and meek Hammermeier. During their match, AssailANT in fact stepped in front of a blow that was meant for Fire Ant! He sacrificed himself for the sake of his team mate. This was not the type of action we were seeing from DeviANT. There was beginning to be more to AssailANT than anyone had first believed. On the very same evening, Shard had a outstanding match with Gran Akuma, coming out with his first win in some time. The confidence itprovided would be necessary, since Mike has promised that he would be added to his list of Gekido victims.
If October wasn't the month of AssailANT, than November surely was. November afforded the big blue bruiser two opportunities to continue gaining the trust of Fire Ant and it finally paid off in Cleveland, Fire Ant actually invited AssailANT to be part of the Colony patented corner drop kick. Finally things were beginning to come together for Big Blue. This wasn't the case for Solider and DeviANT however as they still couldn't get along and suffered several more loses as a unit. Whatever Wink thought would happen between them, didn't. Shard continued to shine, putting on a excellent showing against El Generico. As well, Shard was the only member of Gekido to wrestle on season 11's Cibernetico show. His opponent was a familiar one, Fire Ant, who he had stood in the ring with numerous times over 2012. After being threatened by Quack for months, Shard decided to take his anger out on Fire Ant for his troubles. Trying to re-break Fire Ant's ankle, Shard won the match by submission but refused to release the hold. This caught the attention of the Master of a Thousand Holds. Mike and Jigsaw came out to help Fire Ant. After saving the Hot Property, Jigsaw and Quack tried to work out the tension that had been building between them for months. Mike asked Jig how they could stop what was happening to them. Jig put a stop to it alright as he blasted Mike with a super kick and left with Shard. The Gekido has effectively torn Chikara apart in a way that no other stable had previously.
One final confrontation would take place for Gekido in 2012. Under the Hood, the finale showing for Chikara, would see Mike, Green, Fire and AssailANT square away against Soldier, DeviANT, Jigsaw and Shard. Each entered the ring for their own reasons, but it was clear that Mike wanted to bring a finality to the feud. This would not be the case. During the course of the contest, AssailANT solidified his new standing as a technico as he stepped in front of a Jigsaw super kick meant for Mike. If there was one bright spot in Gekido, it had been him. His good deed was wasted however, as DeviANT covered him winning the match.
The Gekido were such a unique group in 2012. Unlike many stables, they were trying to devalue the Chikara mainstays instead of simply physically dominating. While many doors still remain open from their invasion, the lines have been clearly drawn. AssailANT now stands as a technico with the Colony, while DeviANT is still attempting to control Soldier. Jigsaw has taken Shard as his dark apprentice, to what ends we will only be able to discover in season 12. As always my friends, tell every one you can about The Dark Match. Give me a follow @MurrayDarkMatch on twitter. As well, I highly recommend heading over to the Chikaratorium and listening to AssailANT's interview with them, it is a hour you will highly enjoy. Coming up next for The Dark Match will be the year of 2012 for Jigsaw and Lightning Mike Quackenbush.
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