Over two months ago at King of Trios the major story of the weekend was obviously the rise of F.I.S.T. and their victory in the finals against the popular Team Uppercut. However, another notable occurance over those three days was the emergence of Super Smash Bros. member Player Dos as a true singles threat following an impressive showing in the Rey de Voladores tournament, where he pinned ROH star Austin Aries and took DDT sensation Kota Ibushi to the limit. Come mid-August, Dos is gonna try and replicate that success but actually go all the way this time, as he will be participating in this year’s Young Lions Cup. This will be his second YLC performance after he entered last year’s, a tournament in which he also came very close as he was the last man to fall to Vin Gerard in the first night 6-way elimination match. Not only that, but to earn a spot in that match Dos (or Stupefied at the time) had to defeat Jimmy Olsen – aka Equinox, the current holder of the Young Lions Cup. This will be Dos’ biggest chance yet to show that he is not the “nearly man” of CHIKARA and it’s not a chance he’ll be eager to pass up.

CHIKARA Podcast-A-Go-Go #165 featuring Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli and Ophidian/Escorpion Egipcio vs. Jimmy Olsen/Lince Dorado from the Armdrags to Riches show.

Colin Delaney’s blogging and he’s not a happy bunny!

No real progress on the results front from the Japanese shows, unfortunately, but hopefully BJW will release something informative shortly. Piecing together bits and bobs from various Twitter accounts, it appears that all of the CHIKARA wrestlers were victorious on the D-DASH show (where Chuck Taylor wrestled Yuji Okabayashi, The Colony wrestled Shinobu & Shinya Ishikawa and UltraMantis Black wrestled Daisuke Masaoka), whereas on the Hama Pro show 2.0 defeated Shinya Ishikawa & Yoshihito Sasaki and Mantis, Crossbones & Buta Gunso (Abdullah Kobayashi) lost to Pierre, Daisuke Sekimoto & Western Tiger. Take them all with a pinch of salt until something more concrete comes out, though!

To keep you all at bay, here is an image of CHIKARA rudos making joyful yet evil faces in Japan.

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII ~ Night 1″
August 14, 2009 ~ Palmer Community Center, Easton, PA

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII ~ Night 2″
August 15, 2009 ~ Palmer Community Center, Easton, PA

CHIKARA “Young Lions Cup VII ~ Night 3″
August 16, 2009 ~ The Arena, Philadelphia, PA

Announced Young Lions Cup VII Participants:
1. Create-A-Wrestler (new character TBA) (3rd Young Lions Cup)
2. Soldier Ant (2nd Young Lions Cup)
3. Trik Davis (2nd Young Lions Cup)
4. Frightmare (1st Young Lions Cup)
5. Player Dos (2nd Young Lions Cup)

With CHIKARA’s trip to Japan just about to kick off, we’ve been provided with some sweet information regarding the tour.

- Big Japan Pro-Wrestling intends to release DVDs (or a single DVD) for the Japan Tour 2009 events. The news will be posted at BJW-USA and all BJW merchandise is available for purchase at the Big Japan Shop. No idea if they’ll pass on a copy to Smart Mark Video (as VKF WRESTLE NANIWA did for a time when their shows were sold by SMV), but that bridge will probably be crossed at a later time.
- Limited edition tour t-shirts are available for purchase here. The store is international so you should be able to buy them from wherever you are!
- Similarly, posters are available to buy here.

The tour kicks off on Tuesday with the D-DASH and results will be posted here ASAP!

The second match for the “Aniversario Yin” event in Easton has been added, and it will bring together one of the smallest men on the roster and quite clearly the biggest man on the roster, as Roughnecks member Grizzly Redwood will look to chop down the hulking tree of a monster that is Hydra. Redwood has had mixed fortunes in singles wrestling since he first landed in CHIKARA, defeating Create-A-Wrestler but losing to Hallowicked, whereas Hydra’s last singles match back in December saw him overcome former friend UltraMantis Black. Brodie Lee and Eddie Kingston will NOT want to see their team-mate fall to Hydra, but Hydra will be doing his very best to hurl a spanner into the works.

CHIKARA’s official website has confirmed the shows in Japan in June. What this means for Young Lions Cup VII isn’t known. The first show will be taking place on June 12th at THE ICE RIBBON ARENA~! in Saitama, Japan, and then the next night they will be running in Shinkiba, Tokyo. Both shows will be put on in cooperation with Big Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Updates have been made to the CHIKARA roster page, and the changes have been noted on our own roster page. After his non-appearances at this past weekend’s shows, Mitch Ryder has been removed from the regular roster and moving the the Alumni page. Likewise for Escorpion Egipcio, who was kicked to the curb by the Osirian Portal.

2 Cold Scorpio and The Young Bucks have been added to the DGUSA debut card on July 25th.

- CHIKARA “Aniversario Yin”
May 23, 2009 ~ Palmer Community Center, Easton, PA
1. Hydra vs. Grizzly Redwood
2. Eddie Kingston vs. Create-A-Wrestler

- BJW “CHIKARA Japan Showcase”
June 12, 2009 ~ Ice Ribbon Arena, Saitama, Japan

- BJW “CHIKARA Japan Showcase”
June 13, 2009 ~ Shin-kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo, Japan

A hint leads to a story, a story leads to a terrible translation, and a translation leads to us writing here about CHIKARA headed to Japan – that’s the story of the day as it’s revealed that CHIKARA is working alongside Big Japan Pro Wrestling to present a couple of days of the fun and excitement that only CHIKARA can bring. We know very little so far, but here’s what we’ve gathered via the the CHIKARA Pro Twitter and the Big Japan website (translated here).

1. - Seven CHIKARA wrestlers will be headed over to Japan on June 9th, heading back home on the 14th
2. - Big Japan will be financially supporting two events featuring the CHIKARA talent
3. - June 12th will feature a CHIKARA-hosted event at Warabi City Isami Wrestle Hall in Warabi, Saitama, Japan
4. - June 13th will feature a CHIKARA vs Big Japan Wrestling competition of sorts at Shin-kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo
5. - Atsushi Ohashi, who appeared in CHIKARA over Global Gauntlet ‘08 weekend as a member of the BJW team, will be the official ambassador as selected by Big Japan management

It should be noted that, due to poor translation, all of this aside from the first note could be absolutely off the mark. We shall see; regardless, certainly should be a fun tour of Japan for the CHIKARA boys!

- CHIKARA Live
June 12, 2009 ~ Warabi City Isami Wrestle Budokan, Warabi, Saitama, Japan

- CHIKARA vs. Big Japan Pro Wrestling
June 13, 2009 ~ Shin-kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo, Japan