The Zodiac CrimesFollowing his loss, Archibald Peck traveled America, eventually arriving at Dallas, Texas. About a week later, a masked Texan wrestler by the name of “The Mysterious and Handsome Stranger” (and his faux pigeon Sapphire) arrived at Chikara and started a winning streak. Eventually, he would battle Mark Angelosetti who ended his streak (for good measure, Angelosetti crippled Sapphire). At Chikara’s third iPPV Under the Hood, the Stranger and Veronica (the latter seemingly drawn to the Stranger) would be named homecoming king and queen. However, the Stranger would dump pig slop on his queen and unmask to reveal Archibald Peck (leading to his immediate removal by Condor Security). Following this, R.D. Evans explained to the Director of Fun Wink Vavasseur that the Peck pinned at Chikarasaurus Rex is not in fact the same Peck that appeared at Under the Hood. In fact, at Chikarasaurus Rex, Mixed Martial Archie got into a confrontation backstage with Eddie Kingston and was hit with another Backfist to the Future sending him to the year 1885. There, he made a living as a cowboy before being struck with a backfist by one Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen sending him back to his own time but after the match at Chikarasaurus Rex. In other words, there exists two Pecks in the current timeline, the one who is roaming America and the one who performed as the Stranger (where the latter will receive another Backfist to the Future at some point placing him back at Chikarasaurus Rex).

 

A Death Worse Than FateThe biggest story of 2012 was the arrival of the Gekido. A dark mirror version of Chikara’s dominant Tecnicos, the Gekido were composed of the Swarm (opposed to the Colony), the Shard (versus Jigsaw), and 17 (against Mike Quackenbush). The Swarm were in fact Jose and two Franks, former students of the Wrestle Factory that didn’t believe in paying their dues (like building the ring, setting up chairs, and working as security) who dropped out and became deviANT, combatANT, and assailANT with their training completed by 17. The Shard was a friend of Jigsaw and Eddie Kingston where when the pair went to Chikara, the Shard remained at Kevin Knight’s Independent Wrestling Federation (IWF) wrestling school and didn’t achieve the success of his old friends. 17 was a student of Skayde bitter at the success of Quackenbush and Chikara, deciding to found Gekido to burn down Chikara and arise from the ashes (the number 17 in reference to his claim as the Master of the 17 Forbidden Holds, as opposed to Quackenbush’s Master of 1,000 Holds). Along the way, Derek Sabato would return as a sort of manager for the Rudo stable. Shortly after Gekido first emerged, 17 would break Quackenbush’s arm with one of his seventeen forbidden holds. Following this, he would use his holds to end the careers of two wrestlers including Dragonfly. At Chikarasaurus Rex, Mike Quackenbush would return to join his fellow Tecnicos to battle Gekido and defeated the Rudo group. However, Quackenbush wanted revenge and proceeded to break 17’s hand.

 

Zelda The GreatFollowing Chikarasaurus Rex, Wink Vavasseur decided to introduce something new called CHIKARAmetrics (after Sabermetrics). In essence, teams and stables would be altered to make the groups optimal. For example, Gran Akuma (formerly of Team F.I.S.T., turned into their enemy) and placed with the tag team 3.0 (“Big Magic” Shane Matthews and Scott “Jagged” Parker), Soldier Ant and assailANT would be switched between the Colony and Swarm, and Sugar Dunkerton would be taken out of the Throwbacks and added to Team F.I.S.T. (Icarus, Chuck Taylor, and Johnny Gargano). Obviously, the issue made complicated matters that much worse. The month after, 17 would return to the ring only for Quackenbush to deliver a career ending injury to him (or so was thought at the time). Quackenbush’s attitude put him at odds with his partner Jigsaw who believed the Gekido just wanted respect and didn’t think that their careers should be ended over it. A couple of months later, Jigsaw turned on Quackenbush’s group and aligned himself with the Shard. The while, Icarus began a transformation himself.

 

King of Trios 2012The presence of Dunkerton in F.I.S.T. was having a positive influence on Icarus, where in a tag match between Icarus and Dunkerton with Taylor and Gargano, Icarus allowed his stablemates to beat the youth. However, after a while seeing him fight, Icarus decided to help Dunkerton and the pair defeated Taylor and Gargano. Speaking of Taylor, he started a stable in DGUSA (which Chikara formed a loose alliance with in 2009) called the Gentleman’s Club consisting of Drew Gulak, Orange Cassidy, and the Swamp Monster. Oddly enough, the Swamp Monster began appearing in various places including as a judge for one of Mixed Martial Archie’s bouts and would be kidnapped by Condor Security at King of Trios (where Taylor had to rescue his friend a few days later). This creature would begin popping up at even odder times in the days to come.