It’s a Progress Wrestling Double Shot review of Chapters 85 and 86! DNR may be DOA, and Big Match Travis is back in the main event!
PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 85
Progro.Naut
March 9, 2018
From the O2 Academy in Bournemouth, England
Super Strong Style 16 Qualifying Match – DJZ def. Angelico
Callum Leslie and Glen Joseph are on the call today. I put Angelico in the same camp as Chris Brookes, where they’re both guys who don’t do much for me. In fact, they had a match last year in Progress where I couldn’t think of anything to write. It was two guys just doing…stuff, and there was nothing to say. They are guys who do a little bit of everything, but it comes out as nothing. The saying goes, “A jack of all trades, but a master of none.” Picking a lane and sticking to it would go far for the both of them.
I don’t know how I ended up talking this much about Chris Brookes, he’s not even on these shows. As far as the match goes, it was a good little opener. DJZ did some cool stuff, including a dive in between the turnbuckles to Angelico on the floor. He got the win with a Deep Impact DDT off the top rope. I’m always glad to see more DJZ, and theoretically I will be as he’s recently signed with WWE. Congratulations to him! ***
Trent Seven def. Ligero
Ligero was replacing Jody Fleisch, who had a family matter to attend to. Best wishes to him on that regard.
A genuine first time match-up, as these two have never shared a ring in any capacity until now. These were two veterans going out and having a fine match for their spot on the card. Despite Ligero’s increasing absence from Progress cards, he wasn’t steamrolled to make Seven look good. He hung around for a good amount of time, kicking out of a piledriver that I thought would’ve ended it. But Seven was able to put him away with the Burning Hammer, earning himself a good win on his road to Alexandra Palace. ***
Winner Enters SSS16 Women’s Title Match – Millie McKenzie def. Martina
Martina offered Millie 50 quid to go shopping if she laid down, but Millie rolled her up for two. You had your Martina shenanigans early, but this ended up being a more competitive matchup. Jinny got involved and almost got Millie rolled up, but when Millie won, she attacked Martina. I don’t know why she was here, nor am I particularly enthused by a Jinny/Martina feud. **1/2
Super Strong Style 16 Qualifying Match – Jordan Devlin def. Austin Theory
Austin Theory has never done anything for me. Now, he’s an athletic 21-year-old whose strong as hell and has only been wrestling for a couple of years. He’s nowhere near a finished product, and still has a ton of potential. But he doesn’t have the charisma to do the douchebag heel thing he’s going for, and his wrestling doesn’t flow well. He does his moves, but he hasn’t figured out the stuff in between. If and when he does though, his stock will rise exponentially. The match was another fine match, but there hasn’t been anything standout on this show so far. Devlin wins with the Package Piledriver. Again, the right guy won. ***1/4
Travis Banks (w/ TK Cooper & Niwa) def. El Phantasmo
Travis Banks comes out with the rest of the South Pacific Power Trip, leading me to foolheartedly hope that Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi got the night off from New Japan to save their new Bullet Club stablemate. Unfortunately, ELP has yet to become an Honorary Tongan as no one showed up to help him stave off this three-on-one battle. All jokes aside, ELP was very impressive here, doing a lot of rope walking and cool moves. I can see the New Japan crowd taking very kindly to him.
This was a fun second-half opener, but we got the traditional Progress heel stable interference. TK and Niwa were liberally involved, and Niwa hit a Project Ciampa-style move on ELP to help secure the win for Travis. I know it’s how Progress does things, but Travis was the second longest reigning champion in company history. Phantasmo wouldn’t be damaged if he lost clean to him. This set up a six-man tag on the next show, so it makes sense from that standpoint. It’s just really freaking annoying. Despite this last paragraph, this was fun stuff. ***1/2
The 198 def. The Anti-Fun Police
I completely forgot about Flash Morgan Webster and his heel turn, so this 198 thing has really worked out. It was an Anti-Fun Police match, they do a lot of comedy and then they lose. Fine work if you can get it. Wild Boar hit his nasty Package Piledriver on Dunne to win. With the tag titles tied up between Aussie Open and the Swords of Essex, I appreciate giving a newer team a win to keep them warm for now. **
Do Not Resuscitate (William Eaver, Chuck Mambo & Spike Trivet) def. Jimmy Havoc, Mark Haskins & Eddie Dennis
This match was one of the most wild main events Progress has had in a long time. This was put together like the main event of an ECW show in 1996, or that awesome 10-man tag with Team Austin vs the Hart Foundation in 1997. These six guys beat each other from pillar to post. They brawled to start before DNR took out Haskins by hitting him in the arm against the post. Havoc and Dennis fought 2-on-3 pretty well, with Havoc throwing Eaver off of a balcony onto the rest of the wrestlers before diving onto them himself.
Eddie got taken out with a tombstone on the stage before Haskins came back and put Trivet in a sharpshooter. But to my shock, Eaver hit Haskins with a wrench, allowing Trivet to get the win. I could’ve sworn that I heard that Team Havoc won, but maybe I just assumed that would happen after that crappy handicap match from the last chapter. Either way, this was easily the best thing DNR has done. A real fun main event. ***3/4
PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 86
Corrupted Harmony
March 10, 2019
From the O2 Academy in Birmingham, England
Do Not Resuscitate (William Eaver & Chuck Mambo) def. The Anti-Fun Police
A solid win for Eaver and Mambo after their main event win the night before. They do have to cheat, which…come on. They can’t beat the overweight comedy lucha guy without cheating? Mambo hit Santos with a wrench, leading to Eaver tapping him out with the Million Dollar Dream. **
Kasey Owens, Jinny & Laura Di Matteo def. Nina Samuels, Martina & Millie McKenzie
I recently realized that Progress is giving Nina Samuels a push. I’ll be honest, I checked out on the women’s stuff at the tail end of the House of Couture mess. But she was impressive here, doing moves that I had never seen her do before. Owens didn’t look out of place here, and actually got the pin on Samuels after a running kick. They’re having Samuels put her spot in the SSS16 Women’s Title match on the line against Owens at the next chapter show, so this was to set that up. A fine tag match. **3/4
Haskins & Havoc def. Team Whitewolf
Fraser Thomas joined commentary for this one. As much as I like seeing Vicky Haskins, I genuinely don’t know what purpose she serves with Mark. I don’t know what hit me about it in this match, but something about a hot redhead in a catsuit laughing at other people’s pain screams heel. Commentary described her as vindictive and a mastermind, which is typically how you would describe a heel, yet she’s out here with her fiery babyface husband. They’re just two characters who don’t fit with each other.
Now enough complaining, because this match was dope. Team Whitewolf are a great mix of styles. A-Kid’s technical stuff was in the same vein as Zack Sabre Jr’s, where it makes you rewind a couple times to figure out how he pulled it off. Pair that off with Romo’s modern indy style, and it makes for a damn good pairing. Haskins and Havoc worked well to put on a fun tag match. The Kiss of Death gets the win and caps off a real good weekend for them. If they can, Progress should get Whitewolf in whenever they can. ***3/4
Eddie Dennis def. DJZ
This “I’m not a good guy” deal with Eddie Dennis is getting long in the tooth. I’m not into this ambiguous stuff, just pick a side and work to it. I have to say that this match was a little disappointing. Eddie has put on good matches with guys like Mark Andrews and Speedball Mike Bailey, smaller guys who wrestle a similar style to DJZ. But this one never kicked into that next gear. Eddie used a lot of chinlocks, and DJZ never really got the crowd on his side. But people didn’t know whether to cheer or boo Eddie, so the atmosphere of the whole thing was hurt as a result. Next Stop Driver gets Eddie the win. **1/2
Super Strong Style 16 Qualifying Match – Chris Ridgeway def. Spike Trivet
The rest of DNR were quickly tossed from ringside, leaving this a one-on-one contest. Trivet is only a few years in, but he is coming along in-ring. But Ridgeway kicked the crap out of him and beat him fairly convincingly. I don’t know if I would have put this match together the night after a big DNR win, but as far as match quality goes, it wasn’t bad. It’s good to see Progress stay behind Ridgeway, and I think he can really go far in Super Strong Style. ***
Trent Seven def. Austin Theory
Let’s review Evolve Champion Austin Theory’s weekend.
- Loses cleanly to DJZ
- Challenges Trent Seven to put the Atlas Title on the line, gets politely declined
- Loses cleanly to Trent Seven anyway
I’m sure if Gabe Sapolsky still cared, he’d appreciate this. Anyway, Theory had a slightly better match here than he did the night before, as he and Seven worked well together. Seven continues to build toward the unification match at Super Strong Style with another solid win here. Post match, he poses with the Evolve Title as well, possibly playing into Evolve storylines as well. ***1/2
Lucha Rules – The South Pacific Power Trip def. El Phantasmo, Jordan Devlin & Angelico
I appreciate them doing away with the pretense and just saying whoever is in the ring is legal. This started off really well, with the wild six-man action you would expect from these guys. El Phantasmo’s rope work is awesome. He’s got great balance and ambition to try this stuff, and I expect this stuff to get over for New Japan. Guys walking the ropes will never not be awesome. I saw the 50 year-old shell of The Undertaker at Wrestlemania last year do the rope walk, and I popped for it.
Devlin had a hot tag here that was absolutely incredible. Hell, I think he should win Super Strong Style at this point. I’ll take Devlin/WALTER any day of the week. The finish somewhat out of nowhere, as Cooper rolled up Phantasmo and hung onto the ropes to win. Crowd wasn’t making any noise, so they weren’t expecting that to be the finish. This was real good stuff though. I’m all for these trios forming if we’re gonna get these hot trios main events on these second-tier shows. ***3/4