Bruderschaft des Kreuzes (BDK) (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 Quackenbush defeated longtime rival Chris Hero in a match two years in the making with a new submission maneuver called the Chikara Special. Following the match Quackenbush announced that since he knew Hero would never be able to break the hold, he would teach it and the counter to it to all tecnicos (good guys) on the Chikara roster. After Lince Dorado, El Pantera, Equinox and Claudio Castagnoli had all used the move to defeat Hero, he was booked to wrestle Equinox in a hair vs. mask match on November 11, 2007, at The Sordid Perils of Everyday Existence. During the match Equinox managed to lock in the Chikara Special, only for Hero to counter out of it and apply the move himself to force Equinox to tap out and lose his mask.
Quackenbush, wanting to find out who had leaked the move and the counter to it to Hero, sent Tim Donst to infiltrate the rudo (villain) stable The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple, led by UltraMantis Black. While undercover in the stable Donst found out that the leak had been Shane Storm, the tag team partner of Mike Quackenbush, who was at the time on a losing streak and was ready to exchange the move for a win over Temple member Hydra. On June 14, 2008, Donst left the Temple and revealed the leak to Quackenbush, who immediately attacked Storm. The team had previously earned a Campeonatos de Parejas (Tag Team Championship) title match, but instead of picking Donst to be his new tag team partner, Quackenbush decided to pick Jigsaw. Donst went on to form a comedy tag team with Hydra, who had left the Neo-Solar Temple with him. However, in August 2009 Quackenbush thanked Donst for the infiltration by teaching him (and only him) a new submission maneuver, the Inverted Chikara Special, in order to give him an edge in the upcoming Young Lions Cup.
It wasn't until January 2009 when UltraMantis Black revealed that he had done this to get a hold of the Eye of Tyr, a mysterious Scandinavian artifact that could be used to control people's minds, named after the Norse god of war. The artifact, which had gone missing from Switzerland, had suddenly appeared in the possession of Dr. Cube, a rudo manager in Kaiju Big Battel. Cube, a fan of Chris Hero's, agreed to swap the Eye for the chance to have Hero wrestle for him. Once UltraMantis had learned both the Chikara Special and the counter to it from Storm, he taught them to Hero; to return the favor Hero left Chikara for good and went to wrestle for Dr. Cube at Kaiju Big Battel.
The Order of the Neo-Solar Temple had been looking for a third member to join UltraMantis and Crossbones after Hydra's departure. After failed attempts with Pinkie Sanchez and Sami Callihan, UltraMantis saw a chance to get back at his former stable mate Hallowicked and used the Eye of Tyr in April 2009 to gain control over the mind of his Incoherence team mate Delirious to make him the third member of the Neo-Solar Temple. According to legend, once the Eye is used, it must be given away, or the user would face bad luck and tragedy. However, UltraMantis didn't believe this and refused to let go of the Eye.
On August 16, 2009, during the third night of the annual Young Lions Cup, a man dressed in a white mask and clothes confronted UltraMantis Black in the ring and gave him a box. Inside of the box was a message stating that a war was coming. That same man then began sending messages over the internet to UltraMantis saying that he and his Temple would be destroyed if he didn't return the Eye of Tyr to the "family". On October 18, 2009, at Cibernetico Increible the man was joined by another larger man dressed in similar fashion. Together, they appeared in the crowd and confronted UltraMantis, who proceeded to flee the arena. Following the event a cyborg named Vökoder, who had debuted during the Young Lions Cup, came to UltraMantis and offered to protect the Eye of Tyr. To convince him of his sincerity, Vökoder started interfering in UltraMantis' matches in order to help him win.
Formation (2009) On November 22, 2009 at Chikara's Season eight finale titled Three Fisted Tales, following the conclusion of the main event between The Colony (Fire Ant and Soldier Ant) and The Osirian Portal (Amasis and Ophidian), the two masked men from months prior invaded the ring and one of them stated that a war was coming and that he was tired of waiting. Green Ant and Carpenter Ant came out to support their fellow Colony members, in addition to the entire tecnico locker room. Mike Quackenbush and Claudio Castagnoli confronted the men, however, one of the men demanded to meet the man with the real power and pointed at UltraMantis Black, who had been doing commentary during the main event. UltraMantis handed the Eye of Tyr to Vökoder before entering the ring, where he said that he was sick of the men and claimed to not even know who they were. This led to both men removing their masks, the larger man revealed another mask with a helmet, horns and beard, while the man with the microphone unmasked as Ares, a Swiss wrestler. Immediately following this Castagnoli, fellow Swiss and Ares' longtime tag team partner, blasted Quackenbush with a European uppercut, turning rudo in Chikara for the first time in three years. A massive brawl broke out, during which Vökoder attacked UltraMantis Black, Carpenter Ant, a relatively new member of The Colony, who had shocked everyone by winning the annual torneo cibernetico with an inverted Chikara Special, turned on the rest of The Colony and Sara Del Rey and Daizee Haze, who had been complaining about the way the company had used them, turned on Chikara wrestlers, helping the rebel faction. Once the fight had subdued with the new group on top, Carpenter Ant unmasked as Pinkie Sanchez and Vökoder unmasked as Tim Donst, both of whom had a history with the Order of the Neo-Solar Temple. The group saluted in a formation, before the larger masked man cut the lights and the stable fled the arena, with the Eye of Tyr intact.
The following day, a Podcast-A-Go-Go special update with Claudio Castagnoli revealed the group's name to be "The Bruderschaft", while also claiming that the group has eight members as opposed to the seven already known. A week later, the Chikara website added a fourth section to the website specifically for the Bruderschaft des Kreuzes alongside the tecnico, rudo and staff pages. On the page, they confirmed the mystery masked man to be a Finn named Tursas, after a sea monster in the Finnish mythology. The eighth member remained unknown.
On December 7, 2009, Chikara's official website announced that a Chikara Wrestle Factory trainee named Dieter VonSteigerwalt, representing BDK, was taking over as the new Director of Fun, replacing Leonard F. Chikarason, who was reassigned as a commentator. During the season break, Sanchez began wearing a pink and white version of the ant mask worn by The Colony, while also adopting the nickname "Pink Ant".
Championship success (2010)
On January 31, 2010, at the season nine premiere, titled A Touch of Class, Lince Dorado was revealed as BDK's eighth member, as he turned on his frequent tag team partner Equinox and together he, Castagnoli, Ares and Tursas defeated Quackenbush, Jigsaw, Equinox and Eddie Kingston, Dorado's replacement in the tecnico team, in an eight-man tag team match, when Castagnoli pinned Kingston, with whom he had feuded most of the previous year, after a low blow. This victory marked a clean sweep for BDK, as earlier in the evening, Donst defeated Player Dos to win the Young Lions Cup, Sanchez began his quest to destroy the Colony after defeating Green Ant and Haze and Del Rey defeated former Campeones de Parejas, The Osirian Portal, in a tag team match. At the event, BDK also debuted their own ring announcer named Jakob Hammermeier. During the weekend of February 27 and 28 Ares and Castagnoli picked up the three points needed in order to challenge for the Campeonatos de Parejas, by defeating The Throwbacks (Dasher Hatfield and Sugar Dunkerton) during the first night and winning a four-way elimination match the second night. During the main event of the second night, in which UltraMantis Black and Delirious challenged The Colony for the Campeonatos de Parejas, Ares used the Eye of Tyr to release Delirious, who then proceeded to go crazy and run out of the arena, leaving UltraMantis to be pinned by The Colony, who retained their titles in two straight falls. The following day Ares declared victory over UltraMantis and announced that now that he had gained revenge on him by destroying his dream of winning, not only the Campeonatos de Parejas, but also the King of Trios, he would be returning the Eye of Tyr to Switzerland and his father's collection. Ares and Castagnoli used their three points at the following show Wit, Verve, and a Bit o' Nerve on March 20, 2010, and defeated The Colony in two straight falls, following interference from Pinkie Sanchez, Lince Dorado and Tursas, who powerbombed Soldier Ant against a wall and rendered him unconscious for most of the match, to win the Campeonatos de Parejas.
On April 23, BDK entered the 2010 King of Trios tournament with two trios, the first one consisting of Ares, Castagnoli and Tursas and the second of Donst, Dorado and Sanchez. When Ares', Castagnoli's and Tursas' original first round opponents Team Mexico (Jorge "Skayde" Rivera, Valiente and Turbo) no-showed the event, their replacement trio was decided by a random draw. After Amasis and Ophidian of the Osirian Portal were picked as their opponents, BDK's own Director of Fun Dieter VonSteigerwalt picked their trios partner out of his own hat and came up Sara Del Rey. Ares, Castagnoli and Tursas advanced in the tournament, pinning Ophidian with their new triple team finisher Ragnarok, after a low blow from Del Rey. Later in the night, Donst, Dorado and Sanchez continued BDK's winning streak by defeating The F1rst Family (Arik Cannon, Darin Corbin and Ryan Cruz) to advance to the second round. The following day Ares, Castagnoli and Tursas defeated Team Perros del Mal (El Alebrije, Cuije and El Oriental) to advance to the semifinals of the tournament, while The Colony (Fire Ant, Soldier Ant and Green Ant) handed BDK their first non-disqualification loss by eliminating the trio of Donst, Dorado and Sanchez from the tournament. On April 25 Ares, Castagnoli and Tursas first defeated Team Big Japan Wrestling (Daisuke Sekimoto, Kankuro Hoshino and Yuji Okabayashi) in the semifinals and then The Colony in the finals, after referee Derek Sabato, who had not been seen in Chikara since December 2008, returned to replace Bryce Remsburg, whom Tursas had knocked out, and performed a fast count, to win the 2010 King of Trios. After the match Sabato revealed himself as the newest member of BDK and in a blog entry on Chikara's official website announced that VonSteigerwalt, whom he had met when he was just starting his training at the Chikara Wrestle Factory, had reinstated him after realizing that his referees had lost power over the wrestlers and the respect of the fans.