CCK and the South Pacific Power Trip explode in the main event, as Travis Banks defends the Progress World Title against Chris Brookes and TK Cooper! It’s Progress Chapter 63, Take Me Underground!
PROGRESS Chapter 63: Take Me Underground
Filmed February 11, 2018 from the O2 Academy in Manchester, England
Commentary from Glen Joseph and Matt Richards
Available to watch at Demand Progress
Natural Progression Series V First Round: Drew Parker vs. Spike Trivet
The Natural Progression Series is a tournament used to spotlight up-and-coming talent in the UK scene, much like ROH’s Top Prospect Tournament. The winner of the tournament will receive a title shot, available to cash in at any time.
Trivet didn’t spit on any fans on this show, so that’s good. I was a little more impressed with Parker here, as he got more of the spotlight here than he did in his previous appearances. Both men were fine here, as they didn’t try anything too crazy to start it off. Trivet may be the new Sebastian, in that the crowd despises him from the jump. Hopefully Trivet sticks around longer than Seb did, because someone like that is always fine with me on a show. Parker moved on with a small package driver. Post match, Trivet busted his champagne bottle over Parker’s head. **1/2
Winner: Drew Parker
House of Couture (Chakara & Nina Samuels) (w/ Jinny) vs. Charlie Morgan & PROGRESS Women’s Champion Toni Storm
I like Jinny having a few flunkies to do her bidding. A character like hers benefits from having people to be mean towards, and Chakara and Samuels are solid hands that could benefit from this as well. This was a solid match. The House worked over Storm for a majority of it. Morgan came in and helped Storm clear them out, allowing Toni to get the win with a Strong Zero on Chakara. The real business occurred after the match. After Storm cut a promo on Jinny about the odds being even, Morgan promptly turned on her and joined the House of Couture. Why would Charlie do a whole match against the House if she was on their side already? **1/2
Winners: Toni Storm and Charlie Morgan
Mark Andrews vs. Flash Morgan Webster
This was a hot little match here. These two came out, and for about 7 or 8 minutes, they just did cool stuff. Vicky Haskins came out to distract Andrews and help Webster, but Webster didn’t want her help. So Vicky stole Flash’s helmet that’s never on his head to distract him, and Andrews took advantage and got the win with a Shooting Star Press. Flash and Mark hugged it out after the match, but Eddie Dennis wasn’t as forgiving.
Eddie crapped on Andrews for winning the way he did. After explaining that he wouldn’t be following Mark to 205 Live the next week, Eddie tried to take Mark out with two chairs before ring crew intervened. They separated the two before Dennis rampaged to the back. What a good segment this was. Two different storylines both naturally evolving, with a fun match in there too. Really good stuff here. ***1/4
Winner: Mark Andrews
Tyler Bate vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Jesus. It says something about Progress’s talent pool (and the talent pool of British wrestling in particular) that they can just throw this match on a card. This was as stellar as you would expect. This started as just gritty technical wrestling where Sabre kept advantage. It morphed into an intense battle of uppercuts and submissions. I really liked Sabre bringing more of his prick heel offense into this match, keeping holds on after Bate made the ropes and throwing multiple Penalty Kicks in a row. Bate brought it just as hard with his strikes, too. Sabre got the win with the Hyper Normalization submission. That’s the one where he rips the other guy’s arms out. Fantastic stuff, and the build to Sabre’s yearly Progress title match continues. ****
Winner: Zack Sabre Jr.
After the intermission, Jack Sexsmith comes to the ring. He reminds everyone that he won a title shot at Chapter 59. He says that Manchester means a lot to him, so he will be taking his title shot at the big Victoria Warehouse show at Chapter 69 (nice)!
British Strong Style: Original Mix (Trent Seven & WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne) vs. The Broduct (David Starr & Matt Riddle)
Fun fact: the original pairing of British Strong Style haven’t been in a straight 2-on-2 tag match since Chapter 39 in November of 2016, which was the same night Dunne won the PROGRESS World Title.
Starr really messed his beard up, and it’s distracting me. But it didn’t distract me for long, because this match was absolutely stellar. It started with some comedy with Trent refusing to get in the ring with Riddle after the six-second incident at Super Strong Style last year. Then Dunne got in and it got real, real quick. Every time he was in the ring with Riddle, it was absolutely fantastic. From the start where they focused on outdoing each other on the mat, to the end where they were having a hockey fight in the middle of the ring. Give me Dunne vs. Riddle on Super Strong Style this year and just let them go for it.
None of that is to say that Starr and Seven weren’t on as well, as those two brought their A-game. BSS hit the Pumpkin Piledriver, a move we haven’t seen since I came up with that name for it. Starr and Riddle had moves as well, hitting a Doomsday Knee-vice on Seven. In the end, Dunne got the win with the Bitter End on Starr. Just four of the best boys going all out here. ****
Winner: British Strong Style
PROGRESS ATLAS Champion WALTER vs. Mark Davis
The ATLAS Championship is not on the line in this match, due to Davis’s participation in the Natural Progression Series.
This was absolutely brutal, and I loved it. Davis challenged WALTER to this match, and he had the unmitigated gall to try and chop him at the start of this. WALTER made him pay by chopping him so hard that his chest started bleeding three minutes in. WALTER refused to let up on him, continuing to chop and club at his beet red, bloody chest. Every time Davis got a hint of offense, WALTER shut him down. This beatdown does get the crowd behind Davis quickly, as they want him to put up some type of defense.
He does, as he hits a big tope and a big lariat on WALTER. But WALTER quickly shuts that down with a John Woo dropkick and a big ass powerbomb for 2. Davis tries to put up one last fight, but WALTER caves his chest in and chokes him out for the win. WALTER has really found his niche in 2018, that niche being beating the shit out of people until they have to fight back. It’s fantastic to see. I hope this is part one of a rivalry that continues after the NPS, as I really want to see more of these two together. ****1/4
Winner: WALTER
PROGRESS Tag Team Championships: Mark Haskins & Jimmy Havoc (w/ Vicky Haskins) vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) (c)
The Grizzled Young Veterans won the titles at Chapter 58. This is their third defense.
Haskins and Havoc’s entrance video says, “Never Accept. Never Explain. Never Apologize.” Well then, I guess that solves everything. Vicky came out, still with Morgan Webster’s helmet. This was weird, as both teams came in as heels and wrestled like their usual selves. The work was good, as is to be expected, but two sets of bad guys being bad guys to each other rarely works. Flash came out to get his helmet back, which “accidentally” led to the Kiss of Death and new tag team champions. I would have bet money that this was meant to be CCK losing the titles here. This was an odd one. **1/2
Winners: NEW PROGRESS Tag Team Champions, Mark Haskins and Jimmy Havoc
PROGRESS World Championship: Chris Brookes vs. TK Cooper vs. Travis Banks (c)
Banks won the World Title at Chapter 55. This is his eighth defense.
I’m just not really feeling this as a main event story. I’ve said before that I’m not into Chris Brookes, but more than that, I just want to see the South Pacific Power Trip back together as a unit. I know Banks is champion and that Dahlia Black is a commentator at the minute (where was she, by the way?), but I feel like we never got their big run after TK and Dahlia’s visas expired. I don’t have any interest seeing TK and Travis tease dissension.
The first five minutes of this were fun, as it was just these three wailing on each other with chairs. It then became an above-average three way match, with some fun tag team spots thrown in. TK tried to one-up breaking his leg by hitting a double Spanish Fly and landing straight on his head. Toward the end, TK tried to hit Banks with the belt, but Brookes took it from him and still hit Banks. Cooper kicked out of the Praying Mantis Bomb, so Brookes put him in the Octopus Stretch. Banks then hit the Slice of Heaven on Brookes and made him tap to the Lion’s Clutch. Banks helped both guys up and shook their hands. Brookes then tried to shake hands with TK, but TK punched him in the face and left. ***1/4
Winner: STILL PROGRESS World Champion, Travis Banks
FINAL THOUGHTS
While it did peter out toward the end, Progress Chapter 63 was a damn good show. The four match combo of Webster/Andrews, Bate/Sabre, BSS/Broduct, and WALTER/Davis is a four match run that I would put up against any four-match run on an independent show. Along with a fun main event title match, I can easily say to check this show out.