Views From The Turnbuckle: The Greatest Storyline In Wrestling History Is Going On Right Now

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Admittedly, the writing in wrestling has seen better days. Today's product is filled with unsatisfying storylines, random heel/face turns and an overall sense of preposterousness that often makes you want to scratch your head and wonder why you even bother? However, right now, we are currently witnessing the greatest storyline in wrestling history, only a lot of main stream fans haven't noticed it yet.

For those who are unfamiliar with CHIKARA, the promotion is a relatively popular independent promotion that features remarkable creativity and a family friendly atmosphere. The company hasn't been afraid to try some really outrageous attempts at entertaining its fans, but nothing quite like what they have been doing for the last year or so.

The storyline originally began way back in 2011, when CHIKARA announced that it had been purchased by the fictional World Wide Media Development Corporation; a division of the larger, also fictional corporation called the Titor Conglomerate, and placed under the leadership of a man named Wink Vavasseur, who quickly became a source of anger for the CHIKARA fanbase. Wink introduced a complex algorithm called "CHIKARAmetrics" which was designed to determine what the fans wanted to see. CHIKARAmetrics led to many controversial decisions, including the breakup of the popular stable, The Colony.

In early 2012, a group of men in suits began accompanying Wink to all CHIKARA events. It was eventually revealed that the men in suits were part of the Condor Security Company, although the reason for their presence in CHIKARA was still unclear. Later in the year, Condor became physically involved in CHIKARA matches and doing the bidding of Vavasseaur. At the end of 2012, it was revealed that Vavasseaur was working underneath his father, Conrad, who became upset with Wink's constant use of Conrad Security to solve his problems.

Meanwhile, Wink was involved in an escalating feud with CHIKARA Grand Champion, Eddie Kingston. After Kingston inadvertently injured Wink during a match, Wink ordered that Kingston must defend his championship at all future CHIKARA events. In June of 2013, at CHIKARA's iPPV event "Aniversario: Never Compromise," a disgruntled former employee of the Titor Conglomerate, Daric Sabato, stormed the ring and presented the audience with a photo linking the management of the Titor Conglomerate, including Conrad Vavasseaur, with a group of white supremacists in Elohim City, Oklahoma.

Later, during the main event, longtime CHIKARA heel Icarus was on the verge of a submission victory over Eddie Kingston, but the match was interrupted by Condor Security. Wink Vavasseaur then came out and announced that the Titor Conglomerate has decided to cease the operations of CHIKARA, most likely in order to cover its tracks after the embarrassing photo was leaked online. CHIKARA then canceled all of its remaining scheduled shows, auctioned off its major assets to an unknown bidder and ceasing to exist.

After the incident, all of CHIKARA went silent. The company's website provided no new updates, and their Twitter account and Facebook page also revealed nothing. After several months of inactivity, Icarus began making a grassroots campaign to bring the company back, begging the fans for their support. Icarus held rallies in famous places, such as atop the Rocky stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, drumming up as much support as possible from fans. Icarus became extremely creative when it came to coming up with ideas. For example, on November 3rd, 2013, Philadelphia residents visiting the Franklin Delano Roosvelt park found a wrestling ring located in the middle of the park. In the ring were several CHIKARA mainstays, conducting a six-man tag match (known as a "trios") match in CHIKARA. Things were going well until Condor Security showed up and kidnapped one of the fans watching the event. Eventually, the remaining fans at the event were able to follow clues left by the Condor Security, and with the help of the wrestlers, found the kidnapped victim in a storage unit.

Throughout the rest of 2013, things began to develop more fully. Wink Vavasseuar, tired of being pushed around by his father and Titor Conglomerate superiors, turned away from the group and announced "I am CHIKARA." Also, back in 2011, CHIKARA launched several sister promotions, known throughout the United States as "Wrestling Is..". Each region of the United States had its own form of Wrestling Is.., there was Wrestling is Fun, Wrestling is Art, Wrestling is Cool and other promotions. With CHIKARA no longer a haven for wrestlers, they quickly spread out to the various Wrestling Is.. companies. However, the true terror was about to unfold.

Enemies from CHIKARA's past soon began to also emerge in these companies, and began tearing things up. In August of 2013, the treacherous GEKIDO stable emerged at a Wrestling is Intense show, creating a hostage situation and forcing the shutdown of the company. The villainous Dr. Cube returned from a long hiatus and stole the assets of Wrestling is Awesome, bankrupting the company. The dark Sinn Bohdi used his mysterious powers to gain control of Wrestling is Art, closing the company. In December, things got even worse as the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK) the most infamous stable in CHIKARA history, reappeared in Wrestling is Cool and shut down that company. Whoever these people were, they were not satisfied with destroying CHIKARA, they wanted to destroy anywhere where pro wrestling was being represented.

While this was happening, a series of Youtube videos, titled "Ashes" were released. These videos followed former CHIKARA talents, such as Icarus and the members of The Colony, as they tried to figure out what happened to CHIKARA. These videos were wonderfully done, and began to cover a far range of storylines, all pertaining to the closing of CHIKARA. One particular video featured the popular tag team of 3.0, trying to figure out what happened to fellow wrestler Archibald Peck, who had been missing since CHIKARA closed. Eventually, they found out that Peck, after receiving a backfist from Eddie Kingston (nicknamed "Backfist to the Future) was sent back in time. It was up to 3.0 to travel back in time and bring him back in hopes of solving the mystery.

Things came to a head in February of 2014, at National Pro Wrestling Day, an annual event held by CHIKARA and Wrestling Is Fun. During one of the matches, the entire alliance of villains, GEKIDO, Dr. Cube, Sinn Bohdi, BDK along with some other heels from CHIKARA, all stormed the ring, along with several wrestlers under hoods. One of the hooded men revealed himself to be Jimmy Jacobs, who appeared to be the leader of the group, now dubbed "The Flood." As Jacobs called for the end of the event, a small group of CHIKARA faces, including Icarus, The Throwbacks and other popular wrestlers came out to try and fight the army of villains. Hopelessly out-numbered, the faces were overwhelmed, until the rest of the hooded wrestlers revealed themselves to be former past members of CHIKARA, and evened the odds. The Flood still held a slight edge, but then 3.0 and Archibald Peck emerged in the arena, driving a DeLeorean (because how else were you supposed to go get someone from the past?) and giving the faces the victory.

After National Pro Wrestling Day, it was revealed that the rights to CHIKARA had been purchased by a mystery bidder. It turned out that the bidder was Mike Quackenbush, longtime CHIKARA member and the legit owner and founder of the company. CHIKARA then launched their first event in nearly a year, and iPPV event called "You Only Live Twice" that took place on May 25th. The event featured many matches between CHIKARA mainstays and members of The Flood. The show ended with a rematch between Icarus and Kingston. Throughout their histories in CHIKARA, Kingston had been the popular face, and Icraus the heel, dubbed "The Worst in the World." However, as revealed during the Ashes video series, Icarus was instrumental in getting CHIKARA back while Kingston seemed indifferent to the end of CHIKARA. By the time of "You Only Live Twice", Icarus had become the biggest face in the company, while Kingston was viewed as the heel.

During the main event, Icarus claimed victory, ending Kingston's reign and giving hope to CHIKARA. However, after Icarus's victory, The Flood came out, with a masked, 7 foot tall behemoth, who laid waste to CHIKARA's roster, including the storyline murder of CHIKARA wrestler Kobald. The iPPV went off the air with Jacobs revealing that the giant, not him, was the real leader of The Flood.

So why is this the greatest storyline in wrestling history? There have been plenty of more well-known storylines, and storylines that featured better performers, bigger stars, and made a lot more money. However, there has never been a storyline that was so focused, so ingenious, and so tight when it came to storytelling. The seeds of the story were planted nearly half a decade ago, and it only now has come to full fruition. No storyline has ever involved the incredible commitment to a single goal. Think about it: CHIKARA closed down for an entire year, only they meticulously planned every small detail during their absence so their fans would always be entertained, and always in search of more details.

Today in wrestling, it seems like "creative" is anything but. Very simple things are taken and milked for anything they can get out of it. We just got nearly two months of The Shield and Evolution just going back in forth beating each other up for no reason other than "You are not better than us," and that was considered one of WWE's better ideas recently. With CHIKARA, they really stressed the creativity aspect of everything, and the best part was, this wasn't a team of Hollywood writers coming up with everything, this was just a group of professional wrestlers, looking to do something different. All of the videos were filmed, written and directed by the wrestlers themselves, and they all went together very smoothly. The Pro Wrestling world has seen some major storylines, like Hogan vs Andre, The nWo vs WCW, Austin vs McMahon that were all much more successful and will continue to be much more famous, but no storyline has ever encompassed so much detail and been so good in executing those details.

Another great thing about it was that it has incorporated EVERYONE involved with CHIKARA, right down to the fans themselves. Sure there were the major plays, like Wink Vavasseaur and Icarus, but everyone in CHIKARA was involved in one way or another. I did my best to cover the most important aspects of the storyline, but there are so many side storylines and so many characters involved that it would be impossible to fully cover it here. My suggestion for anyone interested is to subscribed to CHIKARA and Wresltling Is.. Youtube pages and watch all of the summary videos, along with the "Ashes" video series.

The storyline of course, is still going on and likely won't end for a very long time. CHIKARA will continue to develop it over the summer, as they have shows all over the country set up over the next few months. If you are looking to be entertained, drop the $20 (Kids under 12 get in free with a paying adult) to go see a show, it's one of the best investments a wrestling fan can make.