The Chikara Grand Championship was a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

owned by the Chikara promotion. The first champion was crowned on November 13, 2011, at the

High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program gu ...

, when

Eddie Kingston Edward Moore (born December 12, 1981), better known by his ring name Eddie Kingston, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Kingston started his wrestling career in 2002, and has wrestled for numerous ...

defeated

Mike Quackenbush Michael Spillane (born March 18, 1976), is an American podcaster, author, professional wrestling trainer, professional wrestling promoter, and retired professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Mike Quackenbush. He has hosted several ...

at the conclusion of a six-month long, twelve-person tournament. Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a scripted match. Since the founding of the promotion in 2002 and before the Chikara Grand Championship was created, Chikara promoted only the

Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas The Chikara Campeonatos de Parejas (''Chikara Tag Team championship'') was a professional wrestling tag team championship contested for in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based promotion Chikara. History The Campeonatos de Parejas was introduced ...

, a

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establis ...

championship, and the

Chikara Young Lions Cup The Young Lions Cup was a professional wrestling championship contested for in the American professional wrestling promotion Chikara. History A tournament is held every year to determine the champion. Originally, experience level was the prima ...

, a championship for rookies, but did not have a major singles championship until an announcement regarding the creation of the Grand Championship was made in February 2011. On March 14, 2013, Chikara announced that in the future the title would be defended at every event held by the promotion. This was later negated following

's takeover as Director of Fun and on August 1, 2014, he announced a three-point system to determine contendership for the title, similar to the system used for the Campeonatos de Parejas. Under the system, wrestlers need to accumulate three back-to-back wins in order to be eligible to challenge for the title. Overall, there have been nine reigns shared among eight wrestlers. One female wrestler, Princess KimberLee, has held the title. With the win, KimberLee became the first female wrestler to hold the top title in a major non-female promotion.

History

12 Large: Summit

On February 3, 2011, Chikara's new Director of Fun Wink Vavasseur announced that the promotion would be determining their first ever singles champion, nine years after the promotion was founded in 2002. Being new in his job, Vavasseur asked the Chikara roster to cast their vote on who should get to compete for the title with the only provision being that a wrestler cannot vote for themselves. For the next two months wrestlers such as Vin Gerard,

UltraMantis Black UltraMantis Black (born July 17, 1975) is a professional wrestler and musician, who performs primarily in the Chikara professional wrestling promotion. He is a former one-time Chikara Grand Champion and winner of the 2012 King of Trios tournam ...

, Green Ant,

Brodie Lee Jonathan Huber (December 16, 1979 – December 26, 2020) was an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Luke Harper (later simply Harper) from 2012 to 2019, and in All E ...

and

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos susp ...

pleaded for votes on Chikara's official website. While most of Chikara's top ''

rudo Rudo ( sr-cyrl, Рудо) is a town and municipality located in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. As of 2013, it has a population of 7,963 inhabitants, while the town of Rudo has a population of 1,949 inhabitants. It is f ...

'' (villainous)

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

Bruderschaft des Kreuzes Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (German for "Brotherhood of the Cross", commonly abbreviated to BDK) was a professional wrestling stable in the Chikara promotion. History Chikara Background (2007–2009) On May 27, 2007, at ''Aniversario?'' Mike Quac ...

(BDK) seemed united behind their leader

Claudio Castagnoli Claudio Castagnoli ( ; born 27 December 1980) is a Swiss professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and is a member of the Blackpool Combat Club stable. Castagnoli also performs for AEW's sister promotion, Ring of Hono ...

, who had ordered his stablemates to vote for him, BDK member

Sara Del Rey Sara Ann Amato (born November 13, 1980) is an American professional wrestling trainer and retired professional wrestler, best known by her ring name Sara Del Rey. She was a mainstay for Chikara and Shimmer, but also appeared for many other ind ...

also asked for votes for herself. EddieKingstonCagedDestiny

On April 21, Vavasseur announced the result of the vote. Castagnoli had received the most votes, getting five votes from his seven stablemates. The others qualified were Jigsaw with three votes and Amasis, Brodie Lee,

Fire Ant Fire ants are several species of ants in the genus ''Solenopsis'', which includes over 200 species. ''Solenopsis'' are stinging ants, and most of their common names reflect this, for example, ginger ants and tropical fire ants. Many of the name ...

Hallowicked Robert Goodwin (born November 1, 1981) is an American professional wrestler, better known by the ring name Hallowicked. He performs primarily in the Chikara professional wrestling promotion, where he started his career in May 2002. His accompli ...

, Icarus,

, Sara Del Rey, UltraMantis Black and Vin Gerard, all with two votes. Vavasseur then revealed that the twelve wrestlers would then be divided into two blocks in a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. M ...

, starting on May 21. On April 11, Chikara Wrestle Factory graduate and former Chikara Young Lions Cup Champion

Larry Sweeney Alexander K. Whybrow (February 18, 1981April 11, 2011) was an American professional wrestler and manager, better known by his ring name Larry Sweeney. He performed primarily on the American independent circuit, but also competed in Canada, Mexi ...

committed suicide. On April 29, Chikara announced that the tournament to determine the promotion's first ever singles champion would be named ''12 Large: Summit'', after Sweeney's catchphrase and finishing maneuver. On May 10, Chikara revealed the tournament's block structure and rules; each match in the tournament had a 60 minute time limit, a win was worth two points and a draw one point. The top wrestler from each block would then face each other on November 13 to determine the first ever Chikara singles champion. On May 16, Vavasseur announced that Amasis had suffered an injury, which would force him out of the tournament. He then gave Chikara's fans the right to vote one of his Osirian Portal stablemates, Hieracon or Ophidian, to take his place. On June 18, Vavasseur announced that Ophidian had won the vote and would get the vacant spot in the tournament. Meanwhile, also Brodie Lee was sidelined with an injury and was forced to pull out of his match with Eddie Kingston on June 26, giving Kingston two points via forfeit. Lee was, however, given the opportunity to rejoin the tournament later, but never did make his return, forfeiting the rest of his matches. Jigsaw started the tournament on the sidelines, but returned at the July 30 event. On July 25, Ophidian announced that he had broken his jaw and would be forced to forfeit his match with Icarus on July 31. On August 27, Claudio Castagnoli became the first person eliminated from contention in the tournament, after being defeated by Icarus. Following the event, Castagnoli signed a contract with WWE and was forced to forfeit his final match against Ophidian. On August 1, Chikara announced that the finals on November 13 would take place on the promotion's first ever live internet

. When the event's poster was revealed on August 29, the championship's name was at the same time revealed as the Chikara Grand Championship. On October 7, Mike Quackenbush secured the top spot in Block A with a win over Sara Del Rey. The following day, Eddie Kingston won Block B, when Jigsaw defeated the only man who could have threatened his number one spot, UltraMantis Black. On November 13 at High Noon, Kingston defeated Quackenbush to win the ''12 Large: Summit'' and become the inaugural Chikara Grand Champion.

Reigns

Combined reigns

References

External links