Chikara: Synergy

[marktaggart]

Flying by the seat of my pants, taking this thing anywhere the dice decide, I will be kicking off Synergy this weekend with a series of events to establish what will become the full-blown Synergy battle when the official ROH set it released later this year. In the meantime, any time you see a ROH wrestler compete here it will be their Legends Of The Future versions (with a tweak here and there to make them current with move names and things of that nature). The exception is The Briscoe Brothers of course, as their special edition ROH cards will be used.

Synergy #1 in Chikara territory of Easton, PA

The Colonydefeated All Night Express and Eddie Edwards when Soldier Ant pinned Titus.

[/b]Fast paced action kicked off the event as Chikara got to highlight their trios superiority. Edwards looked to have it won against Green Ant, but a timely tag kept the Colony in the match. The match broke down with all six men fighting at the end when Soldier caught Titus with the TKO and scored the win.

Zombie Princess Jimmy Jacobs beat Johnny Gargano

[/b].[/center]Gargano used some slick moves to stay in the match as long as he could, but the sadistic Jacobs took it to the floor and brutalized the kid he claims is a "young Alex Shelley wannabe". Gargano had no answer for the End Time and was forced to give up.

Roderick Strong defeated Greg Iron with the Stronghold.

Strong and Iron went back and forth for a little while as Truth Martini shouted encouragement for his man from ringside. Finally Strong hit a series of backbreakers, including a vicious vertical suplex into a double knee backbreaker, then locked in the Stronghold for the submission.

Truth got into the ring and taunted Iron as Roderick kept the hold applied. Finally guest commentator Colt Cabana had seen enough and rushed to the ring to break it up. Colt challenged Strong to face him at the next event and Truth accepted on his protege's behalf.

El Generico pinned Grizzly Redwood after a BRAINBUSTAAAHHH!

[/b][/center]Grizzly showed a lot of heart, but could not chop down the generic luchador. Generico used a spaceman moonsault, then tossed Grizzly back into the ring and finished him

After the bout there was some confusion over which side had gotten the victory, as both men have appeared regularly for ROH and Chikara in the past (Redwood, in fact, still appears on the roster pages for both companies' web sites). Gavin Loudspeaker tried to speak with both men, but the language barrier kept Generico out of the loop somewhat. Grizzly had a huddle with Generico in the corner and came out to declare that they are both on their own sides, and you can consider it a victory for both companies to have two talented men such as themselves wrestling for Ring Of Honor and Chikara.

Synergy tag team title match
Mark and Jay Briscoe won by countout over Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw.

[/b]After about ten minutes of action the Briscoes kicked it into high gear. Mark pulled out his brand of redneck kung fu to combat the powerful kicks of Jigsaw and tossed him to the floor. Briscoe did a high impact plancha over the top rope and knocked Jigsaw hard into a ringside table. Jigsaw was unable to get back into the ring and the Briscoes were awarded the match.

The Brisoces were announced as winners but championship was declared still vacant. After some back and forth between ROH and Chikara representatives it was determined there would be a rematch on the next show: no countouts, no time limits, and there must be a winner.

Synergy championship match
Eddie Kingston pinned Kevin Steen to become the Synergy champion.

The other two members of SCUM, Jacobs and Corino, walked to the ring with Steen but were ejected from ringside by referee Todd Sinclair early in the match. What proceeded was a hard-hitting, harder suplexing contest between two extremely resilient professional wrestlers. Steen used a pop-up power bomb to get a near fall late in the match, then missed a follow-up moonsault (deathjump) that let Kingston get back on offense. Kingston scored with a high angle belly to back suplex followed up immediately with a half-nelson suplex before hitting the spinning Backfist to get the pin.


Synergy # 2 in ROH territory of Baltimore, MD

Jacob Hammermeier v. Davey Richards

Green Ant v. Eddie Edwards

Colt Cabana v. Roderick Strong

El Generico and Grizzly Redwood v. The Young Bucks

trios match:
FIST (Taylor, Gargano, Icarus) v. SCUM (Steen, Corino, Jacobs)

Synergy tag title match, there must be a pinfall or submission:
Quackenbush and Jigsaw v. The Briscoe Brothers

[marktaggart]

Synergy #2 from Baltimore, MD

Davey Richards defeated Jakob Hammermeier with a double stomp off the top rope.

Jakob made a surprisingly good showing for himself after dropkicking Davey in the back as he rebounded off the ropes in an attempted handspring rebound kick. However, he just didn't have the put away power to get Davey in a position to go for a pin or submission. Davey reversed an ankle lock and ended up making Jakod pay en route to a convincing win.

After the match Tim Donst tried to jump Davey, but got dumped over the top rope for his effort.

El Generico and Grizzly Redwood won by disqualification over The Young Bucks.

[/color][/center]Grizzly went for the pin after the Wood Chipper, but Nick hit him with a springboard leg drop to break it up. The referee tried to get Nick out of the ring, but got shoved to the mat for his efforts. Generico came in and cleaned house and the odd couple team was given the victory.

Following the match Gavin Loudspeaker and Nigel McGuinness were talking about the Bucks on commentary. Nigel tried to claim the Bucks were a Chikara team, and Gavin tried to pawn them off on ROH. Neither wanted to claim them as a part of their own company.

Green Ant won by countout over Eddie Edwards.

A hard hitting, fast-paced match ended when Eddie did a dive through the ropes and landed hard. Green Ant recovered first and whipped Eddie hard into the famous ROH guard rails. A brawl ensued and Green Ant rolled into the ring right before the referee's count reached 20.

Roderick Strong defeated Colt Cabana thanks to timely interference by Truth Martini.

A wild and hotly contested match was marred by interference by Truth Martini, who distracted the referee as Colt had the Billy Goat Curse locked in. Roderick came back and got the pin with the Gibson Driver.

FIST defeated SCUM when Icarus pinned Jacobs with a rollup out of the corner.

The Chikara teams continue to prove their mastery of the trios division with this great win. Steen took out Taylor, Gargano took out Corino with a dive to the floor, and Jacobs was in control of Icarus until one crucial mistake.

Briscoe Brothers defeated Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw to become Synergy tag team champions.

Jigsaw ran into trouble at about the ten minute mark. He somehow managed to kick out of a strong double football tackle, but was in dire straits when Jay used the Jay Driller and went for the cover. Mike Quackenbush had no chance to help as a group of men dressed similarly to the Colony in different colors (who we know as The Swarm) ran down and pulled him off the apron and performed a quick triple team beatdown.

After the bout the masked men took off through the crowd as the Briscoe Brothers, who had been seemingly unaware of the interference, were awarded the Synergy tag team belts.

[Vegas]

Having gone to Synergy in Chicago back in April (the picture on the right in my signature was taken at Rosa's after the ROH show,) the title of this fed instantly caught my eye.

I think this Synergy Project is a brilliant idea by MT and will provide all types of great matchups not commonly seen elsewhere in most other fed results (at least not until the ROH color set is released later this year!)

Some of my favorite Synergy Project matchups so far have been Strong/Iron, Briscoes/Quackenbush and Jigsaw, Kingston/Steen, and Strong/Cabana. But I am surprised neither side wants to claim the Young Bucks as their own.

Looking forward to more results!

[marktaggart]

Synergy #3 on neutral grounds in Chicago Ridge, IL

Los Ice Creams defeated All Night Express when Hijo del Ice Cream pinned Rhett Titus.

[/b]The match was barely five minutes old when Hijo del Ice Cream hit the Cold Stone Stunner out of nowhere to get the pin.

Eddie Edwards won by submission over Green Ant.

[/b]Green Ant scored with a dive through the ropes before Eddie could even get into the ring. Edwards took over quickly enough in the ring though, and put Green Ant away with the Achilles Lock.

FIST (Gargano and Taylor) defeated The Young Bucks when Taylor pinned Nick.

This was a very good tag team match that could have gone either way. The Bucks used some nice double team moves, but FIST responded with a great assisted ace crusher and Taylor went on to get the pin.

Davey Richards beat Tim Donst after a fourth brainbuster.

Donst was tenacious and looked like he was going to get an easy win. Davey fought back and returned the beating with an array of armlocks and hard suplexes before using repeated brainbusters to get the win.

Mike Quckenbush entered the ring to be interviewed by Kevin Kelly. He said he was sad that ROH would stoop to the lengths they seem to have stooped to in order to get the Synergy tag team championship into the ROH camp. Sending those masked men out to attack him was a dishonorable move. Jim Cornette entered the ring and said "colorful masked goofs" is more up Chikara's alley than anything, and he assured Quackenbush he didn't have anything to do with it. Before another word could be said, The Swarm, along with their spokesman who identified himself as 17 and his second, Shard walked out and stood in the aisle.

17 said Chikara's chickens have come home to roost, and the company would pay for their past injustices against him and the other members of Gekido. Quackenbush challenged him to a match straight away, but Cornette said Mike still wasn't cleared to wrestle after the beatdown he suffered at the last event. However, Cornette was at liberty to make a match for the next event and he wants to see this 17 goof step into the ring with someone who claims loyalty to BOTH companies. So next show will see the debut of 17 versus El Generico.

In the meantime, the very angry members of The Colony entered the scene and attacked the imposters The Swarm. The brawl went all over the building and the scheduled match involving the Colony had to be cancelled, as Cornette ordered security to escort everyone involved out of the building.

Eddie Kingston defeated Roderick Strong with the backfist to defend the Synergy championship.

High intensity action was the name of the game as Strong tried to make sure Kingston never got to successfully defend the belt. Instead he became fallen challenger number one in what Kingston promises is a long list to come. Strong used the Gibson Driver, but Eddie kicked out. Eddie reversed a whip into the corner and rushed in with a powerful lariat. He covered, but Truth Martini jumped on the apron. Truth got a backfist for his efforts, then Roderick caught one as well. The cover was academic and Kingston was declared the winner.



*special note: now that the last taped All Night Express match has taken place, we can acknowledge that Kenny King has left to take a job in another company. We wish him mutual animosity in his future endeavors.

[marktaggart]

Synergy #4 from Rahway, NJ

Kobald pinned Rhett Titus following the Demon's Toilet.

[/b]Titus was a little lost in his transition back to the singles ranks. He had some good offense, but no answer for Chikara's resident goblin and the dreaded Demon's Toilet maneuver.

Following the match Obariyon and Kodama entered the ring and put a beating on Titus. The referee tried to step in, but got tossed out of the ring for his efforts. The Batiri tossed a few chairs and overturned the announce table on their way out---I think Kodama stole a kids Pop Tart, too(Titus suffered a three card injury).

Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs defeated 3.0 when Jacobs pinned Shane Matthews.

[/b]2/3 SCUM > 3.0 according to the math of this match. Parker and Matthews looked good, but the villainy and cunning of the veteran Corino and demented Jacobs was too much for them on this night. A springboard dropkick by Jacobs was the winning move.

Mark Briscoe pinned Jigsaw after a display of redneck kung fu.

[/b]Mark Briscoe had to pull out all the stops to get the win over the tough Jigsaw, including the dreaded "Tiki Boot". Gekido member Shard showed up down the aisle late in the match, putting a dark cloud over a clean, exciting bout. Shard left without incident after the bell.

17 pinned El Generico with the Quackendriver III.

[/b]17 is certainly no rookie. El Generico fought hard, but 17 had an answer for everything he did and used several of Mike Quackenbush's signature moves. He finished with Mike's own finisher, clearly sending a message to the inspirational leader of Chikara.

Kevin Steen beat Dasher Hatfield with a package piledriver.

[/b]The move isn't banned in Synergy competition, and Steen used the package piledriver to lay out Hatfield for the win. Hatfield gave it everything he had, but he was not able to force extra innings after that out of the park home run by Steen (who did, in fact, mime the old "swing, drop bat, look at it go, home run trot" spot after the pin, using the corners as substitute bases).

The Colony defeated The Swarm on a disqualification after deviANT ripped off Green Ant's mask.

[/b]As intense a first in-ring encounter as can be had was had by these teams. The Colony may have superior physical skills, but the Swarm were just plain nasty. To punctuate that fact, as the other two members of the Colony brawled with the other two Swarm, deviANT ripped away at and finally pulled off the mask of Green Ant in the middle of the ring; a blatant disqualification in the rings of Chikara. Green Ant was able to cover his face with his hands as deviANT put the boots to him. Finally the referee stepped in and tossed a towel over Green Ant's face as Jigsaw came out to help the other two members of the Colony chase the Swarm away.

[marktaggart]

Synergy#5 from Allentown, PA

Roderick Strong defeated Hallowicked.

Strong attacked at the bell and never let up. Hallowicked couldn't mount much offense and got put down by the Gibson Driver. Roderick made it clear that he is still in the title hunt despite coming up short on his first try against Synergy champ Kingston.

Davey Richards defeated Ophidian with a shooting star press.

Ophidian made Davey sweat it out, but Richards eventually weathered the onslaught and wore down the smaller, more agile Ophidian. Richards may head up "Team Respect" but he hasn't got much respect for anyone, especially men like Eddie Kingston. Davey moved one step closer to the title match he craves.

Soldier Ant defeated combatANT with a spinning elbow strike.

The ants tore into each other on site, and didn't let up until the end. Soldier scored the pin, but was immediately attacked by deviANT. Fire Ant rushed out to make the save. When the dust settled director of fun Wink Vavasseur came out and scheduled a match between the two tandems for the next show.

FIST (Gargano and Taylor) won a 4-team elimination match involving The Young Bucks, Corino and Jacobs, and Los Ice Creams to earn a Synergy tag team title match.

The Bucks started against Los Ice Creams and Matt pinned Hijo del Ice Cream to win the first fall. Next came Corino and Jacobs. The two teams went back and forth before Corino brought a weapon into play on the arena floor and got his team disqualified. That made FIST the last team to enter. The Bucks had already been softened up, but they still gave FIST all they could handle. In the end Taylor used the Omega Driver on Matt to get the win.

Joey Ryan showed up between matches. He said Chikara was an impressive company, but he wonders if they're "spotlights and red carpet material". Ryan extended an invite for Chikara to "go west, young man" and test the waters; not the Pacific Ocean, but against the best NWA championship wrestling from Hollywood has to offer.

Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw won by disqualification over 17 and The Shard when 17 got disqualified outside of the ring.

17 took the action to the floor, where he tried to clobber Quackenbush with a chair. Mike moved and the chair struck the corner, but the referee still disqualified the Gekido for the effort. 17's hand was hurt when the chair he was holding struck the steel. Jigsaw dove over to the opposite corner and took out Shard while Quackenbush stomped the injured hand of 17, punctuating the win and making the statement that Chikara will not roll over for the invading squad.

[marktaggart]

Synergy #6
Manhattan, NY

Gregory Iron won by disqualification over Tim Donst (w/Jacob).

[/color][/b]Donst basically beat up Iron for a few minutes, tossed him out of the ring, and kept up the attack. Referee Bryce Remsburg tried to step in, but Donst would not listen and got himself disqualified.

Eddie Edwards, Grizzly Redwood, and El Generico defeated The Batiri when Generico pinned Kobald.

The injured Rhett Titus was the corner man for the ROH team. The end came when Generico hit Brainbustaaaahhh on Kobald. Obariyon and Kodama tried to jump in the ring, but Titus ran over and pulled them off the apron keep them from getting involved.

Kevin Steen defeated Ultramantis Black with a package piledriver.

UMB and Steen had a wild match that ended when UMB missed a dive off the top rope and got put in the package piledriver.

Joey Ryan beat Johnny Yuma in a CWF Hollywood special attraction match.

[/color]Ryan dominated the opening minutes, but Yuma made his comeback and hit a flurry of impressive offense. Ryan turned the tide again and used his potent version of the superkick to set up a top rope bodypress for the pin.

After the match Ryan pressed his attack until Mike Quackenbush ran out to make the save. Mike said he didn't care what company these men represent, he wasn't about to sit back and watch this talented young man get beaten on for no good reason. Mike said Chikara would be making a swing over to the west coast soon, and he hopes he sees Joey Ryan in the ring when they get there.

Fire Ant and Green Ant won by countout over assailANT and deviANT

[/b][/center]The tense series between these factions continued. At about ten minutes into the match Green Ant did a dive over the ropes onto both members of the Swarm. The Swarm regrouped, decided they'd had enough for one night, and walked away to take the intentional countout.

Davey Richards beat Roderick Strong with the DR Driver to earn a Synergy title match.

[/color]Strong worked over Davey with the hard chops, and Davey countered with the stiff kicks. Finally Davey used a brainbuster followed by a DR Driver to get the pin.

Mark and Jay Briscoe defeated FIST (Gargano and Taylor) to defend the Synergy tag team championship.

Icarus accompanied his FIST teammates to the ring, but got ejected to the back by the referee minutes in after trying to interfere. In the end it was the Briscoes with the Doomsday Device on Taylor for the successful title defense.

[marktaggart]

Synergy #7
from Philadelphia, PA

Soldier Ant defeated combatANT with a spinning elbow strike.

Bell to bell action has been the theme when members of the Colony face off against members of the Swarm, and this match was no different. The match began before they could even get in the ring, and ended after Soldier Ant weathered the offense of combatANT and leveled him with a spinning elbow strike for the KO and pin.

Jimmy Jacobs (w/Corino) beat Colt Cabana via END TIME.

[/b]SCUM lived up to the name here, as Corino did not interfere but his noisemaking at ringside seemed to distract Cabana enough to throw him off his game and fall to the Zombie Princess in just under five minutes.

Ophidian beat Nick Jackson via Death Grip.

Nick controlled a good portion of the bout, but Ophidian kicked out of seven pin attempts at various points in the match to slap on the death grip and get the win.

Dave Marquez of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood Wrestling was introduced by Gavin Loudspeaker. He was joined by Chikara ambassador, FOX and Friends co-host Clayton Morris.Clayton said Chikara was heading out for a historic tour of California, and they're doing so to take part in a big event to be known as "The Cross Country Summit". Marquez said he was happy to be the host for Chikara while they are in California and Chikara has been gracious enough to do the same for his crew shortly thereafter when eight of his top wrestlers come to the Pennsylvania to compete in the east coast leg of the cross country event.

Morris explained the way the event will work: eight of Chikara's biggest stars, six singles wrestlers and one tag team, will head west to compete against eight of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood's best in a series of three "meets". Then the Hollywood crew will head east for three more. In the event the teams are tied at three apiece when all is said and done, a seventh and deciding meet will take place on neutral ground.

As a preview of the action to come, Gavin introduced the following tag team match.

3.0 defeated Los Banditos when Matthews used the BOSTON CRAB on Tito.

[/b]Dave Marquez sat ringside for the bout and was none too pleased when his representatives tried to make an illegal switch without a tag. He pointed it out to the referee and it was disallowed. Shortly after Matthews used the BOSTON CRAB! and got the win.

Los Banditos confronted Marquez after the match. He explained that this is a friendly competition and cheating would not be allowed by members of his roster.

Mike Quackenbush and Jigsaw won by disqualification over 17 and The Shard.

Quackenbush did a big dive over the ropes onto Shard and Jigsaw followed. 17 came around the corner with a steel chair and, in a rare display of violence around a Chikara ring, cracked both opponents in the skull with the chair. Quackenbush and Jigsaw won the match, but the Gekido were able to walk away on their own.

Eddie Kingston pinned Davey Richards to defend the Synergy championship.

[/b]A chop battle started off the match, and it just got more hard hitting from there. Davey unleashed the powerful kicks, Eddie landed some hard strikes of his own, and then things escalated to the suplex portion of the festivities. Eddie won that battle when he nailed a half nelson suplex for a near fall. Davey weathered one backfist, spun around, and a second one to the other side of the head did him in for the three count.

[markslayer]

Great idea for a fed. The best of 3 or could it be 4 worlds.......I have enjoyed the start of your new fed!!

[marktaggart]

Synergy #8
Reading, PA

Kevin Steen entered the ring and said Chikara should enjoy their "west coast fling" because when they get back the Synergy belt is coming to join the Synergy tag team championship in ROH. Eddie Kingston stepped onto the scene to confront him. With security on the stand-by Eddie gave an impassioned speech about how he bleeds for Chikara and no one will disrespect him or his company while he breathes. Eddie said Gekido will learn that tonight, then he goes to Hollywood to proves it to them, THEN he'll be glad to come back to the east coast and finish whatever business he has with Steen----once and for all.

Sugar Dunkerton defeated Arik Cannon via Air Dunkerton.

Cannon was in control a good portion of the match, but Sugar withstood the punishment to pick up the impressive win.

The Young Bucks beat 3.0 when Nick pinned Shane after More Bang For Your Buck.

Fast paced, high flying action was the name of the game in this match. A pair of "HEAD SCISSORS!" on the Bucks was followed by "BOSTON CRAB!" but it was not enough to get the win, as Nick made the save for Matt and set up their patented finishing combination.

After the match the Bucks told the crowd they were done riding the fence and that, if given the choice between Chikara and ROH, they'd side with Chikara every time. Nick said they were coming to the next show to compete in the tag team eliminator to decide who would represent Chikara in the cross country series and no one should bet against the Young Bucks OR Chikara. Even though they seemed to mean what they said, fans were rightfully skeptical of the usually sarcastic and duplicitous duo.

Gregory Iron beat Jakob Hammermeier with a top rope bodypress.

[/b]Hammermerier had his moments, but Iron picked up the win. Ti Donst ran into the ring to try to attack, but Iron slid out under the bottom rope before Donst could get to him.

Frightmare and Hallowicked(w/Ultramantis Black) beat Los Ice Creams when Hallowicked pinned Hijo del Ice Cream.

Los Ice Creams got in most of their usual antics, but Wicked and Frightmare got the win. Hallowicked's Graveyard Smash was the move he used to pick up the pin.

The Batiri defeated El Generico and Grizzly Redwood when Obariyon pinned Redwood.

The Batiri were on a mission here, and the makeshift team of Generico and Grizzly were not up to the task. Obariyon scored the winning fall in just under five minutes in a disappointing performance for their opposition.

Eddie Kingston, Mike Quackenbush, and Jigsaw beat 17, The Shard, and assailANT when Jigsaw pinned The Shard.

Quackenbush and Jigsaw picked up some measure of revenge for the devious post-match attack of 17 and Shard at the last show. Jigsaw used JIG N TONIC for the decisive pinfall win.

After the match Quackenbush grabbed a chair and slammed it down hard on the knee of 17 repeatedly. Jigsaw finally had to pull him away. Quackenbush warned The Gekido that they had better not try to follow them to the west coast and they should know that if they continue to assault him and members of the Chikara roster their days on this Earth are numbered.