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| Somebody get these guys a couple of Red Bulls! Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
I know this is inside baseball and nuts and bolts stuff, but after I had completed my A1W 100 ballot, I noticed I had made two glaring omissions - Scott Parker and Shane Matthews, the collective known to Chikaraphiles and fans of Canadian wrestling as 3.0. Every time they're on a Chikara card, they end up stealing the show or coming damn close to doing so. Everyone (including myself) praised Santino Marella last week for his mixture of comedic tropes into a "serious" match, but Matthews and Parker have been doing that for a far, far longer time.
Sometimes, I feel like they can be overlooked. They don't wear masks and because of travel, they haven't always appeared at Chikara events. Lately though, they've been staples at shows, and while I don't want to credit them for the rise of Chikara, I will say that they've added more to the shows than they've taken away.
On a roster that includes such luminary wrestlers as Jigsaw, Mike Quackenbush, Eddie Kingston and Sara del Rey, both members can hold their own just fine. I'm sure if you asked them to wrestle a serious match where they traded holds and did the psychology thing and had to grunt and strike and all that, they could do it and do it well. The evidence is in their matches if you pay attention to them. But the thing is, why would you ask them not to have fun? That's the biggest reason why they rule from where I sit. They're fun characters, and fun characters are the easiest ones in which to get emotionally invested.
The proof of that was Saturday, when they were on separate teams for the main event atomicos match. When it was teased that there would be dissension between the two, there were more than a couple audible gasps. Watching them tussle on the outside of the ring was like watching parents or siblings fight. When they hugged it out at the end of the show, it drew a loud cheer. It was all well-deserved too.
I was kinda bummed when they lost the Campeonatos de Parejas in their first defense. Then again, title belts aren't everything in Chikara, nor are wins and losses. It's the complete opposite atmosphere that you'd find in a company like EVOLVE, yet I bet if you put both 3.0 and Low Ki in front of the same crowd for three months straight, the former would get the better emotional response and it wouldn't even be close. "Taking back a profession" is all well and good if that profession is broken, but the comedic players like 3.0 are huge reasons why wrestling is and continues to be one of the best forms of entertainment around. If wanting to laugh is wrong, then I don't want Jagged and Big Magic to be right.
