Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Emancipation of Jakob Hammermeier?

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The ball is in his court
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein
Gavin Loudspeaker has no reason to trust Jakob Hammermeier. Hammermeier, the fresh-faced Germanic lackey to Tim Donst, entered Chikara as a potential usurper. As the personal ring announcer to der Brüderschaft des Kreuzes, he often antagonized Loudspeaker, who was the established voice of Chikara. An invasion's an invasion. One could say Hammermeier was only "following orders," but at the same time, he seemed to take joy in provoking Loudspeaker, antagonizing him.

In the same vein, there's no reason why Hammermeier should trust Loudspeaker either. When it came time to repay the announcer-turned-wrestler for his misdeeds, Loudspeaker took great revelry in kicking him while he was down. No one could really blame the man; Hammermeier made his life a living hell with the backing of a fierce and imposing group of invaders who thought nothing of bullying those at a disadvantage. These two men have no reason to be friends if limited to their interpersonal interactions with each other.

However, commonality of situation makes strange bedfellows of people, and each man has a common tormentor in Donst. The cocksure Young Lion-turned-nihilistic bully has been abusing Hammermeier, the only person who has stayed by his side since the dissolution of the BDK, for almost a year now. Not only has Hammermeier remained loyal to Donst like a good little cult member, he's stood idly by as Veronica Ticklefeather and Steve "the Turtle" Weiner have entered the fold to be abused as well.

Recently, Donst has turned his aggression outward towards Loudspeaker as well. In recent weeks, he's shoved wrestling's only rock 'n roll ring announcer, punched him, cut his hair, and even went so far as to eat locks of said mane. It's a pattern of psychological and physical abuse that Loudspeaker has been complaining about for its duration. Those complaints have fallen on deaf ears by management, to the point where Wink Vavasseur, who is at best the tone-deafest person in the entire world and at worst in league with Donst in this whole ordeal, put Loudspeaker, an untrained announcer, in a match with Donst at Aniversario: Never Compromise on June 2.

Loudspeaker has noticed this commonality, and in a recent Podcast-a-Go-Go, he addressed it head on. He may not have said it directly, but he's definitely implying that he wants to bury the hatchet. Hammermeier is skeptical, and whether addled by his one-sided devotion to Donst or reminded of the bitter past the ring announcers have shared. It could very well be a ruse by Loudspeaker to further his own agenda, although to be fair, that agenda is trying not to get killed by a man who is much stronger, larger, faster, and more trained than he is in the squared circle. If I were Loudspeaker, I'd try to do anything to get out of that sanctioned maiming that I could.

However, regardless of how pure Loudspeaker's intentions are (and he seems like a stand-up guy to me), the end result will be a great thing. Hammermeier has been mistreated for far too long. His venture into the wrestling ring started out as comedy, but he's become a force in such a short time. Yet, Donst doesn't recognize this. He's even gotten Hammermeier not to recognize his own worth. Wasted talent is the biggest travesty, and right now, Hammermeier is letting his go to waste in service of a man who only seeks to drag those down to his level.

That's why this Loudspeaker/Donst match is so important. It's not going to be a technical wrestling masterpiece. However, what it might be is an arrival. Jakob Hammermeier is going to have a choice in front of him. Will he make the hard one, and side with a former enemy while breaking familiar but destructive bonds? If he does, then he will have gained an arena full of new fans in the process.