Everyone’s favorite wrestling summer camp continues to remain open during the winter season, as High Tension Wrestling‘s Camp Leapfrog gets set to host Christmas Trios, premiering on IndependentWrestling.tv on Christmas Eve (December 24) at 8 PM EST (with a free Open Swim portion starting at 7:15 PM on IWTV’s Facebook page). Camp Leapfrog is a new series on IWTV from HTW that has become a new home for many of CHIKARA‘s younger stars and trainees (as well as some select veterans and other indie stars) and its refreshing new approach to pro wrestling specials combines the joys of pro wrestling with the hilarity of summer camp movies like Meatballs and Wet Hot American Summer. The upcoming holidays special is a special eight (8) Trios tag team tournament (in the spirit of CHIKARA’s famous King of Trios), plus other fun match-ups, and looks to be a great season closer for the staff and campers of Camp Leapfrog in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania.
Christmas Trios: Tadpole Initiative
Trajan Horn vs. Pancakes
On the First Day of Christmas, the folks at Camp Leapfrog actually released a very special FREE match to whet your appetite for the holiday season. The match aired for free (and is still available to watch) on the IWTV Facebook page. Trajan Horn is a staple of Camp Leapfrog, but the camper has been wrestling since 2016 and has previously appeared for the likes of Pennsylvania’s TRUE Wrestling, Eclipse Wrestling, and OutBreak Wrestling, where he is the reigning TRUE Champion (for over 750+ days!). Pancakes has quickly become an internet favorite after his appearances with Uncanny Attractions‘ Poly Party II and Pizza Party Wrestling, before heading off to camp this fall.
Christmas Trios: Open Swim
Big Callux made his debut in 2018 with CHIKARA as part of The Proteus Wheel (when he was known as Callux the Castigator), alongside Frantik (now Camp Leapfrog camper Francis Wright) and Volgar, under the leadership of Professor Nicodemus. Now out on his own, Big Callux has become an internet sensation with his Twitter interactions but that isn’t enough for the monster of a man (or man of a monster?). Callux will be having a special interview with the Camp’s resident investigative reporter Sam Leterna – what will Big Callux have to say?
Oreo Speedwagon (Xavier Faraday & Joshua Wavra) vs. The Runway (Calvin Couture & Tyler Klein) vs. Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black)
Although it features three explosive tag teams, the teams themselves won’t be competing in a tag team triple threat – instead, they’ll be taking a “team-building” staple of Lucha Libre and forming two Trios teams featuring one member of each team, as they compete against each other! Oreo Speedwagon has been an exciting new tag team over the past year, featuring Xavier Faraday, who has only gotten more exciting since Joshua Wavra replaced Joshua Wells in recent months, competing in Pizza Party Wrestling amongst others. The Runway is another fresh young tandem that began together last fall, competing in West Virginia at Real Shoot Wrestling (RSW) and Black Diamond Wrestling (BDW), as well as Uncanny Attractions’ Poly Cult II and at EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch for Game Changer Wrestling (GCW). While the first two teams are no strangers to Camp Leapfrog, the members of Mane Event will be making their in-ring debut at Christmas Trios. The tandem are regulars with Pennsylvania Premiere Wrestling (PPW), where they’re the reigning PPW Tag Team Champions, and they’ll be looking to make a big impression in their first trip to the camp in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania.
Cheeseburger vs. The Whisper
Ring of Honor‘s Cheeseburger returns to Camp Leapfrog on Christmas Eve for the first time since the first special event in September, where the ROH veteran lost a grueling contest to Still Life With Apricots & Pears. Cheeseburger takes another CHIKARA alumni in The Whisper, who will be making his own in-ring debut for Camp Leapfrog on Christmas Eve. The Whisper is a former CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion and former CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas (tag team) Champion (alongside IMPACT‘s Kimber Lee) and is a hugely underrated wrestler. These two should have a great match-up to cause a splash on the Open Swim broadcast.
Christmas Trios: Main Card
The actual brackets for the Christmas Trios 8-team tournament will be revealed on Christmas Eve, but here’s a quick rundown of the eight teams competing at Camp Leapfrog on the night before Christmas!
Pop Art Flyers (Still Life With Apricots & Pears, Molly McCoy & Boomer Hatfield)
The first Trios team announced, the Pop Art Flyers has to be one of the favorites to win the entire tournament. Still Life With Apricots & Pears was just hitting her stride as CHIKARA shut down, and the 308-day reigning CHIKARA Young Lions Cup Champion has also begun appearing on other top indies like Beyond Wrestling, GCW, Black Label Pro, and Freelance Wrestling to name a few. She’s easily poised to be one of the top breakout stars of 2021, and leading her Trios team to victory would be a great catalyst. She’s joined by The Outfielders, the “cousin” team of Molly McCoy and Boomer Hatfield, two of CHIKARA’s brightest young stars the past year, who have also begun to find success elsewhere in the likes of Black Label Pro, Beyond, Absolute Intense Wrestling (AIW), Southern Underground Pro (SUP), and GCW, individually and/or collectively. These three didn’t let the pandemic slow them down and have honed themselves in prime positions to be bigger stars in 2021.
Degeneration Hex (The Crusher, Erica Leigh & Kaia McKenna)
The Crusher (not to be confused with the 3x AWA World Heavyweight Champion who terrorized the Midwest from the 1940s to the 1980s) made her debut last fall for Excellence Professional Wrestling (EPW) and is an original camper, appearing in the first event’s Swimming Pool Battle Royale. She’s pairing up with one of 2020’s breakout young stars in Erica Leigh (who previously competed in CHIKARA as Donna Rama and in the US indies as Emma Lou in 2018). Erica switched over to her new name last summer and has appeared in some big events this year during the pandemic, including Prime Time Pro Wrestling (PTPW)‘s Butch vs Gore, Billy Dixon‘s Paris Is Bumping, Synergy Pro Wrestling‘s recent Women’s Garden City Invitational, and a critically acclaimed main event match against Darius Carter this month for Pro Wrestling Magic. The third part of this Trios tandem is another Camp Leapfrog regular in Kaia McKenna, a student of Seth Rollins at The Black & The Brave Wrestling Academy, and another fresh face making waves early after her debut earlier this year with Titan Championship Wrestling (TCW) in New Jersey, as well as winning the Monster Battle Royal at Camp Leapfrog’s Halloween special, Things That Go Bump In The Ring. This tandem has a youthful energy that could make them the dark horse of the tournament.
Salt The Snow (Devantes, Matt Makowski & Travis Huckabee)
Hard to argue with the pure power and technical ability of the Trio team of Salt The Snow. Travis Huckabee is a veteran of CHIKARA and a two-time Campeonatos de Parejas (tag team) Champion – once with Solo Darling in The Rumblebees, and then again with Tony Deppen in FIST – and the 2018 winner of the Johnny Kidd Invitational Tournament (CHIKARA’s technical wrestling tournament). In late 2019, he formed a new tag team with former MMA fighter (and CHIKARA star) Matt Makowski called Salt of the Earth, and the duo has since competed for AIW, Flying V Fights, and at Camp Leapfrog, while Makowski has gone on to blossom in Beyond as well as taking part at GCW’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport. The duo is joined by one of Camp Leapfrog’s true monsters in Devantes, a former stablemate of Makowski’s in CHIKARA where they were soldiers in Ophidian‘s army, The Crucible. Devantes is a devastating blend of raw power and athleticism, and between the three of them, they have striking, power, and submissions down pat. A dangerous triad to be sure.
Killian And His Goons (Killian McMurphy, Myles Millenium & Eel O’Neal)
Killian McMurphy, out of Delaware, has been wrestling in the US indies since 2016, but like many of the stars of Camp Leapfrog, has really found his stride during 2020 and the Pandemic Era. He’s competed for multiple East Coast promotions such as Hardcore Hustle Organization (H2O), Pro Wrestling Magic, Synergy Pro, MCW Pro, East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA), and F1ght Club, and made his Beyond Wrestling debut as part of the Uncharted Territory second season last Boxing Day (December 26, 2019), where he competed in the trios team Head of the Class, that included Logan Easton LaRoux and Eel O’Neal. Speaking of O’Neal, he’s reuniting with McMurphy is his Goons squad for Christmas Trios. O’Neal has been garnering rave reviews as one half of the PTPW Tag Team Champions Kings of the District alongside Jordan Blade in 2020, as well as his work in F1ght Club and ACTION Wrestling. Myles Millenium rounds out this squad, another regular camper who has also worked in the US indies the past few years, most notably with IWA Mid South, Florida’s United States Wrestling Alliance (USWA), and Delaware’s First State Championship Wrestling (1CW).
A Very Good Professional Wrestler Is Bringing A Squad
While we don’t know who the two teammates will be, we do know that A Very Good Professional Wrestler will be captaining a Trios team on Thursday night. AVGPW may be a newer persona on the circuit, but don’t take him lightly – from 2009 until early 2020 he was one of CHIKARA’s top stars, as the masked Dasher Hatfield, who held the CHIKARA Grand Championship for 446-days. Following his unmasking earlier this year, he became A Very Good Professional Wrestler this past summer, where he won the prestigious ECWA Super 8 tournament (defeating KTB in the finals), as well as competing in Black Label Pro’s TURBO GRAPS 16 and in H2O amongst others. AVGPW is determined to make a new legacy in professional wrestling and it’ll be exciting to see who he brings to his side in this tournament. Could he be reuniting the full stable of his former CHIKARA team The Throwbacks? Back in CHIKARA, the team featured AVGPW (as Dasher) alongside both Sugar Dunkerton (from 2009 to 2011) and then “Mr. Touchdown” Mark Angelosetti (from 2012 on), who won the CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas in 2014 for 139 days. We’ll have to watch to find out!
Christmas Trios: Also Scheduled to Appear
Aside from the announced matches and Trios, there’s still plenty of other wrestlers slated to appear on the show, either during the Open Swim or as part of the as yet-to-be-named Trios in the tournament!
- ABBS: Andrew’s Better Body System (ABBS) has become a staple at the Camp and is the current reigning Participation Award Winner!
- Abby Jane: Abby Jane is arguably one of the newest wrestlers on the scene and a student of Travis Huckabee. She’ll be looking to make a big impression as she makes her Camp debut on Christmas Eve.
- Big Game Leroy: “Big Game” Leroy Green has been a big part of the New York City indie scene since 2016, where he’s been a regular with House of Glory (HOG) and a former HOG Crown Jewel Champion. In 2018, he was briefly a member of Private Party in HOG alongside Marq Quen, when he filled in for Isiah Kassidy. He’s also a regular competitor with Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) and has also fought in EVOLVE Wrestling as well as appearing for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on AEW DARK in May of 2020, where he teamed with Bonez (as EJ Lewis) against Inner Circle‘s Santana & Ortiz.
- BLANK: For years, BLANK toiled in CHIKARA as Race Jaxon, one half of the tag team N_R_G with Hype Rockwell (winning the CHIKARA Campeonatos de Parejas for 300 days from 2015 to 2016), before a breakdown resulting in his re-emergence as the artist known as BLANK in early 2018. He gifted the world the masterpiece A Still Life With Apricots & Pears in the new tag team The Nouveau Aesthetic. He also competed as a third persona, the ultra-talented Logan Easton LaRoux throughout the US indies, and continues to be one of the top rising stars on the scene.
- Bonez: Another long time veteran of HOG since his debut in 2014, where he’s a member of the villainous stable, House of Gangone. The dark and demented Bonez was also featured in the Young Bucks’ Being the Elite web series in a storyline with Private Party and, in early 2020, appeared on AEW DARKin tag action alongside Big Game Leroy.
- Chris Horrorshow: Chris Horrorshow is a 20-year veteran who is best remembered for his run in CHIKARA from 2015 through 2020 as the rockabilly bad-ass Lucas Calhoun, and following CHIKARA’s demise, he’s returned to his original persona as Chris Horrorshow. On Christmas Eve, he makes his in-ring debut for Camp Leapfrog.
- Darius Carter: “The Debonair Millionaire” is a 9-year veteran of the ring and one of the US indies most under-rated superstars. He was a staple with Beyond Wrestling from 2010 through 2016 and continues to dominate the New York/New Jersey indie scene, where he’s a belt collector, as the current reigning 2x Warriors of Wrestling (WOW) Champion, American Championship Entertainment (ACE) Diamond Champion, BriiCombination Wrestling (BCW) Champion, and the Forza Lucha Tag Team Champion in The National Treasures with former CHIKARA Grand Champion Juan Francisco de Coronado. A technical dream, he’s also had standout performances in 2020 against the likes of Billy Dixon at Paris is Bumping and Camp Leapfrog camper Erica Leigh at Pro Wrestling Magic’s Card Subject to Change PPV earlier this month.
- Hot Dog Starkes: Another indie veteran from the vibrant New York/New Jersey scene, the hot dog clad grappler has been wrestling since 2013 with the likes of the Pro Wrestling Syndicate, WrestlePro, Pro Wrestling Magic, VXS, and the new TCW, as well as capturing the Eclipse Heavyweight Championship in Pennsylvania in 2017.
- Joey Ibanez: A frequent grappler with Flying V Fights, Ibanez is also an actor who has appeared in various productions like No Exit (2014), The Company We Keep (2014), and Shadowverse (2015). Ibanez made his Camp debut at the Halloween special Things That Go Bump In The Ring and will be looking to make another big holiday impression.
- Johnny Moran: Pennsylvania’s Johnny Moran has been competing for the likes of PPW, Excellence Pro, and others since debuting in 2015, where he won the PPW No Limits Championship in 2018. In 2019, he debuted with New York Wrestling Connection (NYWC), and that December, he captured the NYWC Heavyweight Championship, which he still holds today. He also made his Camp debut at Things That Go Bump In The Ring.
- Killa Watt: Killa Watt is another Pennsylvania indie veteran and frequent performer for PPW. Not only that, he’s co-owner of High Tension Wrestling (Camp Leapfrog’s “sponsor”) alongside Brad Rush and will be looking to keep the power in the hands of HTW.
- Markus Skyler: “The Bristol Lion” is another emerging young star in the US indies hailing from Michigan, who has also been making his presence felt in the Pennsylvania scene of late. He’s been a camper since Camp Leapfrog’s first special.
- Nurse Rhonda: Nurse Rhonda has seen quite the promotion in her rank since debuting as Lunchlady Rhonda with Camp Leapfrog and winning the Swimming Pool Battle Royal on the first special. Now head nurse of the Camp, can she duplicate her success?
- Phil Stamper: Phil Stamper is a near 20-year veteran of the Pennsylvania indie scene who had initially retired back in 2016. But he returned to the ring at Camp Leapfrog’s inaugural event and is poised to return once again, with the young blood of the camp energizing this veteran once again.
- Ryan Nova: New Jersey’s Ryan Nova is only a three-year pro (trained at the ROH Dojo by Cheeseburger), but the youngster is already a top prospect, debuting with ROH in 2017 and then making appearances for NJPW starting in 2018 through ROH’s alliance to the Japanese powerhouse. He’s currently a member of Cheeseburger’s Shinobi Shadow Squad (alongside Eli Isom) and has a big future ahead of him. He made his Camp debut at Things That Go Bump In The Ring.
- Saber Dorado: Saber Dorado is a relative newcomer in the ring, but when he’s not donning his lucha mask, he’s also an in-ring official, as he’s a referee for ICW No Holds Barred. With such knowledge of the rules of the sport (and every loophole to break them), he’ll be looking to make a big impression on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Trios: Special Host?!?
What’s a Christmas party without a party host? The fine folks behind Camp Leapfrog are hinting at a very special guest host for the Christmas Trios festivities. Judging by the ominous mask in the graphic, it would appear that everyone’s favorite Christmas-tattooed former CHIKARA Grand Champion UltraMantis Black will be helping ring in Christmas 2020 this year and taking over the Camp! Will UltraMantis Black keep it all things Yuletide or does he have something more Krampus in store?
Stay tuned to Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can catch Camp Leapfrog on IndependentWrestling.tv (IWTV).
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