Dispatches from the Lake: Mythology Edition

What is the endgame of Deucalion?
Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein

If someone had told me a few years ago that I would be spending multiple nights looking into Greek myths to get a better understanding of the story a professional wrestling company is telling, I would have laughed in your face before asking which company and where I’d be able to find it.

Oh Chikara, what did I do before you?

Season 14 is just starting to rev up, so there will be more story to unpack in the coming months. For now, I think it might be prudent to take a look at the myths that could potentially be inspiring this season’s stories.

First in the spotlight is the Titan of Titor, Deucalion.

The Myth: Deucalion was the son of Prometheus. Prometheus, as some of you may know, was a titan who was best known for bringing fire to mortals from Olympus. Some myths say that the mortals did not have fire yet, and others that Zeus had taken it from the mortals after they had screwed with a sacrifice he was owed. As punishment, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock where his liver would be eaten every day by an eagle for all eternity. Prometheus was eventually rescued by Hercules. Zeus, in his state of perpetual pissed-offness, had decided to set a flood upon the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus warned Deucalion about this, so that he might survive with his wife, Pyrrha. Deucalion built a chest, stuffed it with supplies, and hid there with his wife while the flood washed over the land.

After nine days, the waters receded. Deucalion and Pyrrha sacrificed to Zeus, and were charged with repopulating the earth. They were instructed to throw stones over their shoulders, and once the stones hit the earth, they would become people.

The Meaning: Looking at the myth, I think we can pull out some tin foil to fashion hats out of and make some speculations, both wild and tame. First of all, I think it’s pretty obvious that Deucalion has arrived in Chikara to remake it in his own image. The Flood will wash over Chikara, and he will choose who is reborn. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the fallen. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see Kobald and the Estonian Thunder Frog reborn as part of the faction that killed them.

Now, here’s where we get into tin foil hat territory. Who’s the Prometheus in all this? I’m going to go way out on a limb and say it’s Wink Vavasseur. DON’T CLICK AWAY! Hear me out. Who was the one who gave the Chikarmy the means to save Thom back in November? Mr. Vavasseur. Have we heard from the former Director of Fun since? He claimed on Twitter to stand with the Chikara faithful, and then boom. Gone. If I had to guess, he’s in the bowels of a Condor Security compound, suffering for his defection.

That leads to a bigger revelation. I’m pretty sure that the Titor Conglomerate is still in play. Large corporations don’t just let a slight like Chikara’s go unpunished. Remember the name of the compound they wanted to build on the land where the Easton Funplex sits? It was Elohim City. Elohim in Hebrew means divine or deity, and now we’re dealing with potential links to gods and myth? Elohim City was just relocated, and the Titor Conglomerate is out there, potentially pulling Deucalion’s strings.

As a quick aside, while we’re chatting about big scary corporation playing puppet master, I’d like to touch on the James Bond connection quickly. Nearly all the Chikara events this year are named for Bond movies that either featured the criminal syndicate SPECTRE or QUANTUM. It all points back to the Conglomerate, folks. They have their hands in many sinister soups.

The other myth I wanted to touch on quickly ties back to our current Grand Champion, Icarus.

The Myth: Daedalus, father of Icarus and builder of the labyrinth on Crete that housed the Minotaur, was imprisoned in his creation with his son after helping Theseus solve the maze. To escape, Daedalus fashioned wings out of wax and feathers so he and Icarus could escape. Even though his father instructed him to follow in his path, Icarus flew too close to the sun. His wings melted, and he fell into the sea and drowned.

The Meaning: I think you can draw some connection between the labyrinth and Icarus trying to navigate his way through saving Chikara, rallying the troops, and learning how to be Grand Champion. What worries me most is that it wasn’t the fall that killed Icarus in the myth. It was the sea. Which is filled with water. In the same way a FLOOD is. Color me concerned, especially with Jimmy Jacobs promising Eddie Kingston he can help him get the Grand Championship back.

The myth connections aren’t the only curiosities this season. Robbie Ellis, the new owner of Chikara, is not only a wrestler, but also owns an art gallery. I’ve been looking through the websites for both of Ellis’s lives for anything out of the ordinary, but I haven’t seen anything too strange thus far. The art gallery has an auction coming up in October, and I’ve requested a catalog of the works to be sold. Soon as I get that, I’ll do another post reporting on my findings. During my Wikipedia searches on Icarus, I found a few paintings depicting the myth. If one of those shows up in the catalog, we might just be onto something here.

Or not.

::Adjusts tin foil hat::

Inspired by Tweetbag submissions from Explorations in PW and David Kincannon