# PROGRESS Wrestling Thread



## BlackoutLAS

I'm suprised of the so much little discussion about PROGRESS, I just subbed to their network and watched my first show (chapter 20) and I'm absolutely blown away. Jimmy Havoc is fucking amazing, Tommy End completely turned my opinion of him. I'm so glad this isn't like PWG which I was a little worried about. 

Anyone else watch PROGRESS? If so, any recommended matches?


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## Stetho

Fuck yeah !
I'm at chapter 21 at the moment, and it's awesome.


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## Genking48

There we go, pretty much all of the Super Strong Style 16 tournament matches are recommendable.


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## BlackoutLAS

Chapter 20 review:

Noam Dar vs Pastor William Eaver:
**1/2

nothing amazing here, Noam Dar really showed some talent though. The other guy was pretty funny, a nice showcase but nothing amazing.


'Wild Boar' Mike Hitchman vs Bubblegum vs Kyle Ashmore vs 'Flash' Morgan Webster
***1/2

Really good match! Had never seen any of the guys and each on sold me on them. Mike Hitchman is a fucking beast, really reminded me of Rhyno. Bubblegum is really good in the ring and so fucking unlikable. Kyle Ashmore, Holy shit he is legit already one of my favourites. He was literally Chris Hero mixed with a John Morrison, he's awesome. Morgan Webster least sold me but still did some pretty cool shit. I laughed SO much when the crowd started mocking him. 


Sebastian vs Damien Dunne (Natural Progression Series) 
**1/2

Pretty fun match, good showcase of both guys but still nothing to write home about. I like Sebs geeze stick though.

Sumerian Death Squad vs Hunter Brothers (Tag Team Title match) 
****

This match was fucking awesome, I watched Tommy in PWG a couple times and thought he was just another no selling slap kicking wrestler, but holy shit he really changed my mind in this match. The other guys looked like nothing compared to SDS but they really were made in this match with them holding their own. Awesome stuff.

8-Man THUNDERBASTARD match (Tom Irvin, Nathan Cruz, Damon Moser, El Ligero, Mark Haskins, Marty Scurll, Eddie Dennis, Rampage Brown) 
***

Good match, good spots, each guy was highlighted well. Really liked the ending showdown with the last two. When I first saw Eddie I thought he was a joke but he was actually pretty good. Rampage is a legit fucking beast. 

Jimmy Havoc vs Will Osprey (Progress Title match)
*****

Yep, five fucking stars, you can say it's extreme but really I can't think of anything more I could want in a wrestling match, story, character, buildup, tension, drama, amazing wrestling, just an amazing match. In my top 5 match of the year. Havoc is one of my favourite wrestlers, he's SO AWESOME. Osprey is fucking unreal, he's so so so talented in the ring.


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## sXeMope

Chapter 19 is a great set of shows to watch. I really liked the show they did before Mark Andrews left for TNA. I wanna say Chapter 13 that was?

Anyone have any predictions as to what the big announcement they're hyping is gonna be? My guess is a live iPPV streamed on Demand Progress.


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## BlackoutLAS

sXeMope said:


> Chapter 19 is a great set of shows to watch. I really liked the show they did before Mark Andrews left for TNA. I wanna say Chapter 13 that was?
> 
> Anyone have any predictions as to what the big announcement they're hyping is gonna be? My guess is a live iPPV streamed on Demand Progress.


A TV deal?


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## Stetho

The product is too hard for TV I suppose. And I'm not sure they really need it.

Edit : Damn, my dick wasn't ready for this https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/status/681618770222280705?lang=fr :sodone


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## BlackoutLAS

Stetho said:


> The product is too hard for TV I suppose. And I'm not sure they really need it.
> 
> Edit : Damn, my dick wasn't ready for this https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/status/681618770222280705?lang=fr :sodone


Oh my god. Please!


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## sXeMope

Would love to see a few Lucha Underground guys in PROGRESS. Never understood why people want to see Lucha Underground as a whole collab with promotions though. I don't see it ever happening as they're run by a network, more as a TV show than a wrestling promotion. 

I'd love to see Pentagon Jr, Drago, and Fenix in the mix though. Sucks that it would likely be a one-time thing though because there are multiple matches featuring each that I'd want to see.


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## ShadowSucks92

Progress is my favourite wrestling company right now, love this promo for one of my favourite matches this year


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## BlackoutLAS

If they did collab with LU, I'd like to see:

Rampage Brown vs Cage/Mack

Sumerian death squad vs Fenix and Drago

Pentagon JR vs Jimmy Havoc in a no DQ match

Johnny Mundo vs Mark Andrews

Main event: Prince Puma vs Will Osprey for the PROGRESS title


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## Deadman's Hand

*Plan on watching Chapter 24 later tonight. Ciampa/Sabre Jr. :mark:*


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## BlackoutLAS

Just watched the QnA with Jimmy Havoc, holy shit this guy plays his gimmick so well. Quickly becoming one of my favourites.


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## Stetho

Havoc was the best heel in the world for me. So many heat it was unreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbW9_f6jYIE
When the crowd goes from "Please don't die" to "Die ! Die ! Die" when he's on the verge :taker


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## BlackoutLAS

12 noon (UK time I think) they break the 'huge news'. I hope to God it's a callab with LU.


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## Genking48

http://www.progresswrestling.com/letsgo2016/


> After selling out every Chapter since we started back in 2012, we can now reveal that CHAPTER 36 on Sunday September 25th will be at the historic BRIXTON ACADEMY. This will mean our September 2016 show will be the BIGGEST show that we’ve ever put on, with a venue capacity of approximately 2000. Yep, that’s TWO THOUSAND. Let’s fill the place with PROGRESS Ultras and make some history!
> 
> We are also happy to report that for this show we are partnered with the splendid folk at LIVE NATION, the brains behind hundreds of gigs each year, Download Festival and the recent NXT Tour of the UK.
> 
> We know you’re likely to have a few questions about the show – so we’ve tried to answer most of them here:
> 
> _Q: I’ve got a season ticket. Is this show still included in it?_
> 
> A: Oh yes. You showed faith in us by buying a season ticket, so it most certainly counts for this show in Brixton. We will be in touch to arrange you sorting out your ticket allocation, which will have to match your season ticket band.
> 
> _Q: How will the tickets be sold for the show?_
> 
> A: Tickets will be on sale shortly, with the on-sale date TBC (but it will be SOON). Sales will be handled by Ticketmaster, and as this is a much bigger venue we will be using allocated seating; so when you buy a ticket, you choose exactly where you and the rest of your party sit and you are given a ticket number. Prices are also TBC, but we’ll do our very best to keep them as affordable as possible.
> 
> _Q: Will the show start at the same time as the Ballroom shows?_
> 
> A: Door and bell time TBC, but we expect to keep things more or less the same as usual. We’re currently ironing out all the behind the scenes stuff.
> 
> _Q: Does this mean PROGRESS is moving to Brixton permanently?
> _
> A: No. This show is a huge ONE-OFF special event. All of our other London chapter shows in 2016 will remain at the Electric Ballroom in Camden (as we love it there).
> 
> _Q: As it’s such a big show, do you have any other events planned on the day?
> _
> A: We’re looking into potentially doing a VIP / meet and greet package, again we’ll let you know about that ASAP.
> 
> Right then. Spread the word. It’s a big ask to fill the Brixton Academy… but if anyone can do it, it’s the PROGRESS Ultras. Tell everyone you know and feel free to use the hashtag #ProgressBrixton.
> 
> Now THAT’S how you start a new year properly.
> 
> Thanks guys,
> 
> Jim, Jon and Glen
> 
> This. Is. PROGRESS.


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## BlackoutLAS

Genking48 said:


> http://www.progresswrestling.com/letsgo2016/


Two fucking thousand? Holy shit. I might just make the trip to go and see this.

Review of chapter 17:

Rampage Brown vs Haskins
**1/2
Fine match, Haskins is a good heel. Thought rampage could've done more but he's still cool. Didn't really like the ending though.

Marty vs El Ligero
***1/2
Awesome match! Really caught on at the end with some awesome spots. Marty is great, I didn't really like him in PWG but he's really making a fan of me. El Ligero is great too, he's very likeable. Great combinations by the two.

Tommy End vs Dave Mastiff
***
Only reason this didn't get 4 stars is because of how short it was, but seriously, two fucking beasts destroying each other, this was awesome. Tommy End is seriously has this aura about him. first time seeing Mastiff and he's a fucking monster. Can do so much more than some other fat wrestlers who can only do basic things because their fat. Really good for how short it was.

Noam Dar vs Paul Robinson
**1/2
Fine match, Noam really fucked him up. Holy shit, Paul was getting nuclear heat! People even brought fucking socks to throw at him since people call him dobby. He's an awesome heel.

Eddie Dennis vs Mark Andrews
***
Good match, both are very talented, some good spots. Pretty touching ending, sad to see Mark go but still a really great moment.

Morgan Webster vs Zack Gibson 
****
Holy shit, awesome match! Zack played the heel SO WELL and made Morgan look like an underdog, I usually find technical wrestling boring, but the whole 'whatever you do I'll reverse it into a hold' was great. Really good storytelling and match. Glad Morgan got the win, he's really good.

Will Osprey vs Jimmy Havoc
****
Fucking epic match, storytelling was insane. Havoc is SUCH a good heel, him biting Osprey was fucking awesome. So was him undoing the turnbuckle. Awesome spots, great match.


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## Weeto

Two thousand? Wow, the English promotions are tiny compared to up here in Scotland! 

Seriously though, that actually is very good and it is nice to see Progress going up in the world a bit.

This is kinda similar to ICW going to the SECC for Fear & Loathing VIII which had nearly 4000 fans. Of course, they're moving next door to the 13000 capacity SSE Hydro for Fear & Loathing IX.

Haven't seen much of Progress but they seem to be putting on great shows by all accounts. They seem to be England's answer to ICW.


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## Deadman's Hand

*Damn, that's awesome news for Progress! Hopefully they sell out that arena. (Y)

BTW, I finished Chapter 24. Good show. My favorite match had to have been the SDS vs. The London Riots. Tommy End killing people will never not be entertaining to me.*


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## Stetho

Weeto said:


> Two thousand? Wow, the English promotions are tiny compared to up here in Scotland!
> 
> Seriously though, that actually is very good and it is nice to see Progress going up in the world a bit.
> 
> This is kinda similar to ICW going to the SECC for Fear & Loathing VIII which had nearly 4000 fans. Of course, they're moving next door to the 13000 capacity SSE Hydro for Fear & Loathing IX.
> 
> Haven't seen much of Progress but they seem to be putting on great shows by all accounts. They seem to be England's answer to ICW.


I think they could have targetted a bigger venue. But it's a good thing to be careful too.


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## BlackoutLAS

Chapter 25 card: http://www.progresswrestling.com/event/chapter-25-chat-sht-get-banged/

Don't know much about Micheal or Rob so no comment.

Haskins vs Gibson: should be fucking awesome, Haskins can really do everything and Gibson is a great heel technical wrestler.

The Origin vs FSU: I like both teams but the match at chapter 24 didn't impress me. Hopefully this is better.

Osprey vs Scurll: holy shit I'm hyped for this one, Scurll is such a good heel, Osprey is incredible and seemingly they have great chemistry. I think Scurll is the best man to take the belt of him tbh.

Where is Morgan Webster?

Edit: and if none of you have seen Marty's promo to hype up the match, go find it, it's great.


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## 3MB4Life

BlackoutLAS said:


> Edit: and if none of you have seen Marty's promo to hype up the match, go find it, it's great.


No need, got ya'll covered. Get hyped motherfuckers!


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## TheHooliganNex

Imagine a world where no one cares about anyone just them self and their friends... No Good, No Bad, just all down to being entertained.... WELL BITCHES this is my world because no one cares for how nice a guy you are, or I am, they only care about one damn thing... PROGRESS... They want to see every body fly and fly high until their bodies are worn out and crash and burn like a plane out of control they want to see each wrestler suffer for that is what humanity has come to... I don't care about who is or isn't champion, who is a good guy, super hero, baby-face, blue-eye, or a Bad guy, a heel, a nemesis, a sick twisted freak IT DOESN'T MATTER!!! BUT WHAT DOES MATTER !!!! is.... When I get my one chance in progress, ICW, NGW what ever the company... BELIEVE ME !!!! WHAT WILL MATTER IS DESTRUCTION, DEMOLISHING, DETERMINATION OF DEVISTATION OF ALL THOSE AROUND UNTIL I PROVE I AM !!!!! THE BEST !!!! 

"The Hooligans HAVE COME"
NEX CARTER IS HERE!!!!!


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> Imagine a world where no one cares about anyone just them self and their friends... No Good, No Bad, just all down to being entertained.... WELL BITCHES this is my world because no one cares for how nice a guy you are, or I am, they only care about one damn thing... PROGRESS... They want to see every body fly and fly high until their bodies are worn out and crash and burn like a plane out of control they want to see each wrestler suffer for that is what humanity has come to... I don't care about who is or isn't champion, who is a good guy, super hero, baby-face, blue-eye, or a Bad guy, a heel, a nemesis, a sick twisted freak IT DOESN'T MATTER!!! BUT WHAT DOES MATTER !!!! is.... When I get my one chance in progress, ICW, NGW what ever the company... BELIEVE ME !!!! WHAT WILL MATTER IS DESTRUCTION, DEMOLISHING, DETERMINATION OF DEVISTATION OF ALL THOSE AROUND UNTIL I PROVE I AM !!!!! THE BEST !!!!
> 
> "The Hooligans HAVE COME"
> NEX CARTER IS HERE!!!!!


Why don't you go to the ProJo instead of the others you mentioned


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## TheHooliganNex

Whats ProJo? never heard of that ...


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> Whats ProJo? never heard of that ...


It's PROGRESS wrestlings training school. It looks great, I was thinking of going.


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## TheHooliganNex

BlackoutLAS said:


> It's PROGRESS wrestlings training school. It looks great, I was thinking of going.


Ah coz I live in Newcastle England not rich enough to travel lol


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> Ah coz I live in Newcastle England not rich enough to travel lol


Which school are you going to? I was thinking of going to the ProJo but it's like ages. Couldn't really see any other trust-worthy schools outside London tbh


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## TheHooliganNex

New Generation Wrestling I think its called has some decent people in it NGW.
RadPro Wrestling (Embreonix) is moderate

Get basics and stuff then move cities.


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> New Generation Wrestling I think its called has some decent people in it NGW.
> RadPro Wrestling (Embreonix) is moderate
> 
> Get basics and stuff then move cities.


I checked them out and I'd say the first one looks pretty good, I might check it out. Do post how it is once you've gone


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## TheHooliganNex

Where abouts are you based? See NGW is supposed to be on TV there are many companies that claim to be on TV in UK but I wouldn't class them as TV type shows... I would love to train with ICW


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> Where abouts are you based? See NGW is supposed to be on TV there are many companies that claim to be on TV in UK but I wouldn't class them as TV type shows... I would love to train with ICW


There is literally nothing there, traveling to Newcastle really wouldn't be an issue.


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## TheHooliganNex

If there is a way for you to PM me on here let me know or make a thread for Newcastle Wrestling and link me here so we can chat about this as dont wanna take this thread up with our chat on possible stuff... training


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## BlackoutLAS

TheHooliganNex said:


> If there is a way for you to PM me on here let me know or make a thread for Newcastle Wrestling and link me here so we can chat about this as dont wanna take this thread up with our chat on possible stuff... training


I PM'd you.

Back on topic, Damien Dunn vs Tyler Bate also announced, I know nothing of them.

, Morgan Webster vs Paul Robinson announced, that should be great because Pauls pretty good and Webster is one of my absolute favourites tbh. Hope he wins.


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## TheHooliganNex

Cant use PM's at moment as havent posted over 25 posts yet...


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## Corey

How I was introduced to PROGRESS:


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## TheHooliganNex

Same here I watched that free ppv thing


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## Corey

Chaoter 25 results, courtesy of https://wrestleropesuk.wordpress.co...chapter-25-chat-shit-get-banged-full-results/



Spoiler: results



PROGRESS Tag Team Championship – The Origin (‘The Showstealer’ Nathan Cruz & ‘The Mexican Sensation’ El Ligero) defeated FSU (‘White Lightning’ Mark Andrews & ‘The Pride Of Wales’ Eddie Dennis) by Pinfall to retain the PROGRESS Tag Team Championship.

Winner Qualifies For The Natural Progression Series Semi-Finals – Damian Dunne defeated Tyler Bate by Pinfall to qualify for the Natural Progression Series Semi-Finals.

Winner Chooses A Stipulation For The London Riots Vs Sumerian Death Squad On March 27th – Rob Lynch defeated Michael Dante by Pinfall.

Following the match, Rob Lynch announced that he was choosing a Tables, Ladders & Chairs match as a stipulation for The London Riots vs Sumerian Death Squad on March 27th.

PROGRESS Championship Number One Contender – ‘The Star Attraction’ Mark Haskins defeated ‘Liverpool’s No.1’ Zack Gibson by Submission to become the number one contender to the PROGRESS Championship.

‘Flash’ Morgan Webster defeated Paul Robinson by Disqualification after Paul Robinson repeatedly shoved the referee.

Fatal Four-Way – Jinny defeated Pollyanna, Toni Storm & Dahlia Black (w/ TK Cooper) by Pinfall*.

*During the match TK Cooper punched Pollyanna in the face before he was low-blowed by Jinny who then pinned Pollyanna.

PROGRESS Championship: No Disqualification – ‘The Villain’ Marty Scurll defeated ‘The Aerial Assassin’ Will Ospreay by Submission* to win the PROGRESS Championship. *NEW CHAMPION*

*Marty Scurll handcuffed Will Ospreay before attacking him with his umbrella. Scurll then applied the Chickenwing to win.


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## Stetho

They just had an interview witch Fitt Balor on their on demand site.
I so fucking hope it doesn't mean they signed an EVOLVE-like deal.


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## Corey

Chapter 25 is up on demand: https://demandprogress.pivotshare.com/media/progress-chapter-25:-chat-shit-get-banged/41000

Cheapest route is to rent it for $4.99 I HAVE to see Scurll/Ospreay soon.


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## Stetho

I guess Scurll is gonna retain it in the Thunderbastard. Hope it will launch a new real storyline.

https://twitter.com/ThisIs_Progress/status/706049174987526144


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## BlackoutLAS

Watched chapter 25. Haskins vs Zack was probably MOTN, would've been Osprey vs Scurll but near the end the no selling and kick outs just got ridiculous and pointless. The match at the start was really fucking good though.

I hope Morgan Webster wins it at chapter 27.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/714107611528953857
This is actually fucking awesome. Can't wait to see who is in the matches!


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## Stetho

This is actually pretty bad. Every good company in the world should stay as far as possible from the WWE.


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## BlackoutLAS

Stetho said:


> This is actually pretty bad. Every good company in the world should stay as far as possible from the WWE.


You really think let's say Jimmy Havoc wrestling one or two matches in NXT (where Indy wrestlers are taken seriously) would do him harm?


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## sXeMope

BlackoutLAS said:


> You really think let's say Jimmy Havoc wrestling one or two matches in NXT (where Indy wrestlers are taken seriously) would do him harm?


Nothing.

It could hurt the promotion though in the long run though and I think that's what [USER]Stetho[/USER] means. WWE giving indy guys a look and a spot in a WWE Network show is all fine and dandy (And I guess it's a nice rub for the indy fed to have WWE linked to them). The issue is when WWE goes ahead and signs all of those wrestlers and leaves the indy fed with a huge hole. I don't buy the whole gimmick of WWE caring about indy wrestling for a second. Ultimately they're interested in increasing what they have. Vince Jr. killed the territories by doing the same thing that HHH is doing currently with the indies.


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## BlackoutLAS

sXeMope said:


> Nothing.
> 
> It could hurt the promotion though in the long run though and I think that's what [USER]Stetho[/USER] means. WWE giving indy guys a look and a spot in a WWE Network show is all fine and dandy (And I guess it's a nice rub for the indy fed to have WWE linked to them). The issue is when WWE goes ahead and signs all of those wrestlers and leaves the indy fed with a huge hole. I don't buy the whole gimmick of WWE caring about indy wrestling for a second. Ultimately they're interested in increasing what they have. Vince Jr. killed the territories by doing the same thing that HHH is doing currently with the indies.


If they didn't care about the indys instead of paying for a whole new promotion (NXT) to build these guys up, see what their good at and get them ready they would just chuck them on the main roster and do fuck all with them. I also fucking hate this notion on WWE killing the indies, what fucking company wouldn't try to sign the best talent that could be good for their show? It's not like the wrestlers are forced to. Blame the talent for being 'unloyal' or whatever and wanting to follow their dream, not the company simply offering them a place.


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## Deadman's Hand

*Thankfully, Jimmy Havoc & Will Ospreay won't be able to participate in this tournament, due to Havoc being signed by TNA, & Ospreay being signed bu NJPW. Also, Havoc's injured.

Hopefully Scurll & Haskins won't be in the qualifying matches.*


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## just1988

*I hear Scroobious Pip was at Progress this weekend, pretty cool








*


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## sXeMope

BlackoutLAS said:


> If they didn't care about the indys instead of paying for a whole new promotion (NXT) to build these guys up, see what their good at and get them ready they would just chuck them on the main roster and do fuck all with them. I also fucking hate this notion on WWE killing the indies, what fucking company wouldn't try to sign the best talent that could be good for their show? It's not like the wrestlers are forced to. Blame the talent for being 'unloyal' or whatever and wanting to follow their dream, not the company simply offering them a place.


I agree, but there are only so many spots, and WWE already has more talent than they know what to do with. At this point they're overfishing and it seems like they're signing guys for the sake of signing them, with no real plan for them; which is terrible, especially at a time when WWE feels like a chore to watch. If they had any real intention of allowing the indie feds to benefit from their "working agreements", and helping the indies as HHH claims, they'd be allowing their contracted wrestlers to be involved in the promotions that they work with (EVOLVE especially considering HHH has Gabe in his back pocket) rather than send someone to a show for an autograph signing, or an in-ring segment that can't be aired. They're going to eliminate the alternatives, which is an awful thing for the business. A WWE monopoly is not a good thing, no matter how great the WWE contracted talent is.

But on topic: I could see Marty Scurll, Morgan Webster, Mark Haskins, and/or Tommy End being a part of this.


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## USAUSA1

That's what wcw did.

Tommy might be too big.


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## fenixdrago

ZSJ won't be in this tourny. He's too much about wrestling pride to want to work for WWE. He's the new Danielson.

Also, no Ibushi in this or WWE period. He's a CM Punk/Jeff Hardy like free spirit.

BTW, it's been so hilarious tonight reading comments from certain people who question me and their friend in regards to the GCS idea. They be saying things like their sources say people are setting themselves up for disappointment when comes to expectations on who will be in this tourny and that people in the industry are very negative when it comes to WWE's selection process for this. LMAO! So I guess this means I know what I am talking when I say certain people will not be in this and that certain people are in not going to WWE, period. Well how about that!


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## Stetho

No one should support this WWE politic. PROGRESS talents are doing great things in PROGRESS because it's different. It's punk rock pro wrestling, pro wrestling for grown up as they said. I don't want to see amazing talents who helped british wrestling rebirth and growth becoming neutered "good kid who never wrestled in the big league maggle" in WWE. 
WWE is killing everything it touches. You complain about it every week on RAW threads but you still act so naive when they recruit people.


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## SpudCake

I'm like 99% certain ZSJ he'll be in the tournament. Probably qualifying through Evolve though.


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## Corey

The PROGRESS Title is on the line at Wrestlecon:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/714172116501929984


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## Sleepy Jacksons

Too me Progress is just ICW light.

But again it good that British wrestling is getting notice.


----------



## Lesnar Turtle

Sleepy Jacksons said:


> Too me Progress is just ICW light.



Then you either havent watched much of it or you're from Glasgow. Besides both being UK indies that have occasional blood and swearing they arent very much alike at all. Progress is a heavily workrate based promotion with a bit of UK humour thrown in, and regularly features some of the best in ring work and talent on the planet. I enjoy ICW and think its a positive force for spreading awareness of the UK indie scene, but its basically a comedy, gimmick promotion that is more about getting pissed and laughing at Grado dancing or Davey Boy whipping his cock out than in ring work.


----------



## Corey

ZSJ vs. Morgan Webster & Dunne vs. Gallagher


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/721017345649610754


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## TheGeneticFreak

I thought Zack Sabre Jr was already announced to be in it? It was pretty obvious that he was going through but it looks like they spoiled that one.

I hope Gallagher goes through.


----------



## Taker-Tribute-Act

TheGeneticFreak said:


> I thought Zack Sabre Jr was already announced to be in it? It was pretty obvious that he was going through but it looks like they spoiled that one.
> 
> I hope Gallagher goes through.


ZSJ is already in, but Flash has a chance to qualify via that match.


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## still_glen

Nice to see our little company getting a thread of its' own here. Lots of misinformation mind. Still, thank you for watching... except the person who referred to us as "ICW light" or something, who clearly, therefore, hasn't been watching.











Thought you might enjoy these...


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## Bassey

Really enjoyed attending my first Progress show, the whole card was amazing, the atmosphere and friendliness of the crowd added to what was a feel-good, high energy, entertaining and bloody brilliant night out. Can't praise this company enough!


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## Stetho

Have to say it's a nice move to upload those on their youtube channel. I hope people will realize how those 3 mins are better to watch than the 3 hours of Monday Night RAW.


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## sXeMope

Stetho said:


> Have to say it's a nice move to upload those on their youtube channel. I hope people will realize how those 3 mins are better to watch than the 3 hours of Monday Night RAW.


Some who watch will probably realize that, but I feel like most of those people will just get on the "Zach Saber Jr to NXT!!!11!" bandwagon rather than actually take the time to check out Progress.


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## Jet-Jet

I don't know a ton about Progress but I saw their 2 top guys wrestle for the championship at Wrestlecon's Supershow.

It was seriously the closest thing to a 5 star match I've ever seen in person.


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## Stetho

Best draw ever :nerd:


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## War Is Jericho

Off to super strong style 16 now. Tommy fucking end all the way


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## Donnie

Just discovered this amazing thread :mark: time to bring it back to life, or Regression so to speak. 

I've been binge watching the Chapters for the last couple of week, just watched CHP15 with THE best main event thus far. Those Balcony spots were INSANE, both Will and Havoc are lucky to be walking. Loved the ending with Jimmy showing what a CUNT he is. And the last moment when the PROGRESS fans finally cheered the Riots :mj2 incredible stuff. 

So, who else on WF watches and or goes to PROGRESS. I'd love to speak to more fans.


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## SWITCHBLADE

I'm still new to PROGRESS and have greatly enjoyed what I've seen!


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## Donnie

Rainmaka! said:


> I'm still new to PROGRESS and have greatly enjoyed what I've seen!


FUCK YEAH MORE PROGRESS FANS. 

What wrestlers do you like thus far?


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## SWITCHBLADE

Donnie said:


> FUCK YEAH MORE PROGRESS FANS.
> 
> What wrestlers do you like thus far?


Mark Andrews
Marty Scurll is the GOAT
Wasn't feeling Pete Dunne at first but now am a fan
Been a Zack Sabre, Jr. fan for years now
Mikey Whiplash is underrated
LOVE Will Ospreay


----------



## Donnie

Rainmaka! said:


> Mark Andrews
> Marty Scurll is the GOAT
> Wasn't feeling Pete Dunne at first but now am a fan
> Been a Zack Sabre, Jr. fan for years now
> Mikey Whiplash is underrated
> LOVE Will Ospreay


Awesome list!

I got 

My main man, Jimmy CUNT Havoc
London Riots
Mandrews 
Dunne
Seven
Mastiff
Haskins 

Any favourite matches thus far?


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Donnie said:


> Awesome list!
> 
> I got
> 
> My main man, Jimmy CUNT Havoc
> London Riots
> Mandrews
> Dunne
> Seven
> Mastiff
> Haskins
> 
> Any favourite matches thus far?


Havoc vs. Ospreay from Chapter Twenty (?)
Andrews vs. Ospreay from Chapter Twenty Three
Sumerian Death Squad vs. Roderick Strong & Adam Cole from Chapter Twenty One
Haskins vs. Ricochet vs. Sabre from Chapter Nine

Like I said, I'm still new lol.


----------



## Donnie

Rainmaka! said:


> Havoc vs. Ospreay from Chapter Twenty (?)
> Andrews vs. Ospreay from Chapter Twenty Three
> Sumerian Death Squad vs. Roderick Strong & Adam Cole from Chapter Twenty One
> Haskins vs. Ricochet vs. Sabre from Chapter Nine
> 
> Like I said, I'm still new lol.


Hahahaha, sorry to bombard you with questions, just cool to find another PROGRESS fan. :grin2:

I do suspect there will be more fans in the coming weeks, which is awesome news.


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Donnie said:


> Hahahaha, sorry to bombard you with questions, just cool to find another PROGRESS fan. :grin2:
> 
> I do suspect there will be more fans in the coming weeks, which is awesome news.


I want to watch more Thunderbastard matches but I know they're story heavy and have to be seen with a proper context to full enjoy them. Where should I start?


----------



## Donnie

Rainmaka! said:


> I want to watch more Thunderbastard matches but I know they're story heavy and have to be seen with a proper context to full enjoy them. Where should I start?


Easiest and simplest way to get into PROGRESS is chapter 1 (be warned the wrestling is pretty shit, aside from a killer Marty/ZSJ match) You'll meet important wrestlers like, Scrull/Ligero/ZSJ/Cruz/Noam. See the NAZI STAFF for the first time, if you don't know what it is you HAVE to see it for yourself. Smallman trying to explain it whilst the crowd loses it is amazing. Chapter 2 is when Havoc, Riots and Will all debut and its the most important show in terms of storylines. 

So if you start from there you'll be able to enjoy everything more.


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Donnie said:


> Easiest and simplest way to get into PROGRESS is chapter 1 (be warned the wrestling is pretty shit, aside from a killer Marty/ZSJ match) You'll meet important wrestlers like, Scrull/Ligero/ZSJ/Cruz/Noam. See the NAZI STAFF for the first time, if you don't know what it is you HAVE to see it for yourself. Smallman trying to explain it whilst the crowd loses it is amazing. Chapter 2 is when Havoc, Riots and Will all debut and its the most important show in terms of storylines.
> 
> So if you start from there you'll be able to enjoy everything more.


Sounds like a good place to start!


----------



## MarkyWhipwreck

Sh*t, I didn't even know there was a Progress thread here :lol

Will Ospreay v. Adam Cole from Chapter 40 last year, I thought was a top five match of 2016.


----------



## Omega Creed

I plan on trying to hit up a show soon. I'm out here for a few years and been to a few IPW and DOA shows but gotta mark off a Progress show asap.


----------



## Death Rider

Donnie said:


> Easiest and simplest way to get into PROGRESS is chapter 1 (be warned the wrestling is pretty shit, aside from a killer Marty/ZSJ match) You'll meet important wrestlers like, Scrull/Ligero/ZSJ/Cruz/Noam. See the NAZI STAFF for the first time, if you don't know what it is you HAVE to see it for yourself. Smallman trying to explain it whilst the crowd loses it is amazing. Chapter 2 is when Havoc, Riots and Will all debut and its the most important show in terms of storylines.
> 
> So if you start from there you'll be able to enjoy everything more.


Thank you Donnie. Starting watching some of their stuff on youtube and was going to literally post a question for best time to start


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Watched the first two Chapters. Chapter One wasn't anything special aside from Marty Scurll vs. Zack Sabre Jr., which was predictably great. Chapter Two was consistently solid, though nothing was really great.


----------



## Pizzamorg

While it's cool I can watch PROGRESS through the Microsoft Edge app on my Xbone, anyone else have issues with the quality being shit? It's so pixalleted and motion causes tears in the same places even when rewinding. I play the same video on my computer without these issues.


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Pizzamorg said:


> While it's cool I can watch PROGRESS through the Microsoft Edge app on my Xbone, anyone else have issues with the quality being shit? It's so pixalleted and motion causes tears in the same places even when rewinding. I play the same video on my computer without these issues.


I've had that same issue streaming that app and haven't tried it since.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Rainmaka! said:


> I've had that same issue streaming that app and haven't tried it since.


Well I guess it's good news that it isn't just me but it's a shame to know it's a problem at all that doesn't have a known fix at this time. I hope they make an app or something, I guess a big screen/surround system isn't needed for pro wrestling but it's still nice. My laptop screen is like a quarter the size of my TV.


----------



## sXeMope

Pizzamorg said:


> While it's cool I can watch PROGRESS through the Microsoft Edge app on my Xbone, anyone else have issues with the quality being shit? It's so pixalleted and motion causes tears in the same places even when rewinding. I play the same video on my computer without these issues.


Have you tried streaming anything else? Could be that the XBox doesn't have the hardware to stream in such a way, or the Pivotshare website may not play nicely with that particular browser. Do they still have a download speed cap? That could do it as well.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Pizzamorg said:


> While it's cool I can watch PROGRESS through the Microsoft Edge app on my Xbone, anyone else have issues with the quality being shit? It's so pixalleted and motion causes tears in the same places even when rewinding. I play the same video on my computer without these issues.


Had the same problem streaming through my tablet.

Cancelled my subscription in the end due to the poor quality especially with the Manchester shows.


----------



## Pizzamorg

sXeMope said:


> Have you tried streaming anything else? Could be that the XBox doesn't have the hardware to stream in such a way, or the Pivotshare website may not play nicely with that particular browser. Do they still have a download speed cap? That could do it as well.


Admittedly, no. Everything else these days seems to have an app. I know NJPW World doesn't work at all through the Edge browser and neither does Shudder but they bragged on Progress that their shows do. And yeah they play but the quality is so bad it's unwatchable. 



Alright_Mate said:


> Had the same problem streaming through my tablet.
> 
> Cancelled my subscription in the end due to the poor quality especially with the Manchester shows.


Oh so you even had problems on your Tablet? I've not had any issues yet on my PC but on my Xbone it's bad. It's weird as well because it tears the same way in the same places no matter how many times you view it.


----------



## Lazyking

I just wanted to say that the WWE UK Tourny made me more interested in checking out PROGRESS than ever before. I will be getting a subscription soon.


----------



## Platt

Bates, Dunne, Seven & Andrews announced for the Orlando shows.


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Love what I've been watching so far!


----------



## Corey

Chapter 42 is out. What I wanted to see from it ended up being rather disappointing. End vs. Havoc only goes 5 minutes (which is fine considering End wrestled again later that day on a much bigger stage) & Riddle vs. Rampage had some good action but felt pretty one-sided by the end of it. The ending itself was anti-climactic too. Oh well.


----------



## Death Rider

Just watched chapter 10. Havok is so fucking good as a heel.


----------



## Corey

Gonna be a doozy this weekend.


----------



## Pizzamorg

After Night Two of WWE’s UK Championship turned out to be pretty good I decided to check out some Progress Wrestling via their Demand Service and while it has a host of problems and limitations which may explain the price tag, if the shows continue to be as good as the one I just watched, I can live with those warts. 

The show I started with was the opening night of their Super 16 Strong Style Tournament, mostly because the card is absolutely stacked and I hear much further back than this is for PROGRESS diehards only as the wrestling and production qualities were pretty low at the start. I hear they have come a LONG way per episode but that there really is a world apart from the quality of these Chapters and the ones that kick it off. I do still kinda want to give it a go though as I hear they have made sure the stories told there still matter even today, which is nice and rare for a wrestling promotion. Especially a small indie like this. 

Minus that now in hindsight truly heartbreaking opening with Kris Travis, I can’t think of a much better introduction to the company, I have fallen in love with PROGRESS on my first show. It’s basically the British PWG. Honestly up and down the card I think you’d be hard pressed to find a bad match and just as hard pressed to single out one match as a favourite, as such I’m not really left with a lot to say, in the best possible way. 

I mean with work and my other hobbies I will admit it took me two weeks to get this show finished, coming in at nearly four hours but it’s absolutely crammed with content. Their matches are usually short and sweet so I could watch a match or two before bed or whatever. But yeah, the crowd are hot as fuck, some of the wrestling is a little scrappy in places but we’ve got technical matches, high flying matches, matt based matches, hard hitting matches, matches focused on storytelling/character/psychology or matches with a mix of all of those things with some genius match ups, some exposure to big indie guys who somehow flew under my radar and some guys who were made familiar to me in WWE wrestling under different gimmicks here while they still had that indie edge. 

Now onwards to night two!


----------



## Donnie

Don't want to bring any negativity to the PROGRESS thread, but I feel this needs to be seen.






. 

Smallman would respond and show just how classy and awesome he is

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/825364827845619712

Cornette is an absolute piece of shit and a disgrace to the wrestling business. Calling for someone to be murdered because you don't like the way they dress, you fucking cunt. He needs to shut the fuck and remember the golden rule "DON'T BE A DICK"


----------



## Groovemachine

That is atrocious. Cornette is vile.


----------



## Death Rider

Cornette is such a cunt


----------



## Donnie

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/826029809809625089
:cornette


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Definitely getting Chapter 44 tickets tonight.. My first Progress show.

Couple of questions for Progress-heads.. For 44 tonight, will it be standing and seated tickets, or standing only? For standing tickets, what do we think of the experience? I'd imagine it would be a good laugh being standing?

Secondly, does anyone know if Progress on demand has a download and watch offline feature.. Watching Progress on the way into work sounds perfect haha.


----------



## Death Rider

nailz_jaggzy said:


> Definitely getting Chapter 44 tickets tonight.. My first Progress show.
> 
> Couple of questions for Progress-heads.. For 44 tonight, will it be standing and seated tickets, or standing only? For standing tickets, what do we think of the experience? I'd imagine it would be a good laugh being standing?
> 
> Secondly, does anyone know if Progress on demand has a download and watch offline feature.. Watching Progress on the way into work sounds perfect haha.


Don't think so otherwise I would have something to watch during long bus rides to and from work. Can't get it work on my phone


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Anyone else manage to get tickets to Chapter 44 last night? First ticket buying experience with Progress and it was an absolute nightmare. Server crashed three times with tickets in basket trying to check out.. After 45 mins, managed to get two standing tickets.

To be fair, Progress' Twitter and Facebook seemed to be as confused as the fans, don't think they could access it to rectify the issue.

Was lucky enough to get tickets to Chapter 44 and Super Strong Style weekend over the last couple of weeks.. As 44 is my first Progress show, I was just wondering when they usually announce the card? Is it far in advance or right at the last minute?


----------



## Platt

Lucky you I tried but it went from not on sale to on sale to sold out in like 10 seconds.

They'll probably announce some of the talents over the next couple of months then start announcing the card after the previous show.


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Platt said:


> Lucky you I tried but it went from not on sale to on sale to sold out in like 10 seconds.
> 
> They'll probably announce some of the talents over the next couple of months then start announcing the card after the previous show.


Exact same thing happened to me to begin with, immediate 'sold out'.. Checked Progress' twitter and they tweeted to keep trying until 10.15 as baskets empty if not checked out then.. 

At 10.15, still nothing, managed to somehow get them at about 10.20. Proves that if you persevere, you can get lucky.. 

I'm absolutely amazed at how well they are selling though, when I bought tickets for 44 I was expecting it to be easy.. 45 mins later, got them but it was an absolute nightmare as their servers crashed.


----------



## Platt

I was only half wanting to go anyway London is so damn expensive once I travel and get hotels. I'll stick the the Manchester shows, seems much easier to get tickets.


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Platt said:


> I was only half wanting to go anyway London is so damn expensive once I travel and get hotels. I'll stick the the Manchester shows, seems much easier to get tickets.


Yeah tell me about it, me and my mate had a lads weekend in Birmingham the other weekend and it was insanely cheap compared to London. I live in Brighton and work in London though, so its a lot easier for me as I already have my train tickets sorted, and can commute home.

Planning to head up to Manchester soon though, maybe for an event or just a random weekend break. Want to get to an ICW show at some point soon too.


----------



## Corey

*Chapter 43: Tropic Thunderbastard*​
Ringkampf vs. The South Pacific Power Trip - *** 3/4 (Damn good tag match with Walter throwing everyone around like ragdolls. TK Cooper was perfect at being a little shit too)

8-Man Thunderbastard Match - ** 3/4 (The first several minutes of this were fun as shit but it pretty much peaked after Sebastian's elimination and Mastiff's face(?) turn. After that you may as well just turn it off cause it's just some weak eliminations and a segment that went too long with Andrews & Gibson. Sexsmith was entertaining though despite literally disappearing for what felt like a good 10 minutes)

PROGRESS Title: Dunne vs. Havoc - *** 1/2 (Really enjoyable brawl despite the DQ finish. I typically despise DQ finishes in main events but considering what this actually setup post-match, I'm ok with that. Dunne biting and bringing blood to Havoc's fingers to prevent the Rainmaker was a pretty damn cool touch here)

BTW this 6-man is gonna be fucking nuts and I love it:


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

I bothered to sort out a paypal so I got PROGRESS on demand today (and NJPW world.) I just couldn't in good conscience steal the Pastors bible. 

I watched Unboxing live which was pretty fun. I need to watch PROGRESS from the beginning. It's a daunting task but the Jimmy Havoc stuff sounds amazing.

Can't wait for Old Man Yells Out Cloud the chants are going to be off the hook.


----------



## Death Rider

-***** Italiano- said:


> I bothered to sort out a paypal so I got PROGRESS on demand today (and NJPW world.) I just couldn't in good conscience steal the Pastors bible.
> 
> I watched Unboxing live which was pretty fun. I need to watch PROGRESS from the beginning. It's a daunting task but the Jimmy Havoc stuff sounds amazing.
> 
> Can't wait for Old Man Yells Out Cloud the chants are going to be off the hook.


ON chapter 16 atm. The Havok stuff is so worth it. Some great matches sprinkled in their too that are worth watching for sure.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I got PROGRESS last month and have watched one show and bits of others, not that I'm not enjoying it but with every show being somewhere between 3 or 4 hours long I just really struggle to fit it into my life. I try and watch any new content from WWE or NJPW as soon as I can to avoid spoilers but then that only really leaves the weekend to watch PROGRESS shows, but sitting down for a four hour solid session even on a weekend can be a difficult task. It is honestly really frustrating, I have a week off next week from work so I might just lock myself inside and try and watch four PROGRESS shows a day, every day, for seven days.


----------



## Stetho

Easy : Do not watch WWE


----------



## Ron Swanson

newb question: whats the best match in progress history?


----------



## Pizzamorg

Stetho said:


> Easy : Do not watch WWE


I'm gonna ride out til 'Mania, seems kinda silly to stop when the show is only just over a month away and if things don't get any better, I think I will take a break from WWE for a while and use that time to catch up on other things.


----------



## Stetho

Ron Swanson said:


> newb question: whats the best match in progress history?


I don't know if it's the best but the most important one probably is Ospreay vs Havoc


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched Riddle defend the Atlas Championship at a CZW show where some title from Germany was on the line as well (but not a CZW title?) through PROGRESS' demand service. This match sounded really weird on paper and I’ve honestly never heard of David Starr but this might actually be my new match of the month, maybe even of the year so far, it was about as close I've seen to perfect booking. Yeah it had a screw finish, but one which was completely necessary and I can’t think of many in recent memory that were quite as entertaining as that or many in recent memory that actually accentuated the match and still allowed both men to come out looking like superstars. 

The actual match itself was just so damn good, too, Riddle may well be a modern Kurt Angle, a wrestling prodigy, and he struck such great chemistry with David Starr as both of them showed off not just how great they both are as pro wrestlers but also practically worked themselves into a shoot as it all broke down into a fight and for real impact. We had titles used as weapons, we had brutal spots, stiff strikes, a ref piledriving Riddle, a clean tap, a clean pin and a chaotic beatdown. This was just great.

So as people already sorta know I'm really enjoying what I see of PROGRESS, their roster all work really well together, the in ring work is always of a really high quality and they realise that often simple is best which leads to matches which are easy to get invested in thanks to clear heel/face dynamics. But I’m also really struggling to fit it in anywhere in my life, so what I decided I'd just do is like what I'm doing with NJPW and just watch a bunch of matches from loads of different shows so I'm at least getting my monies worth until I actually have the time, if I ever will, to sit down and watch a full show.

I decided that my first focus would be on that of Moustache Mountain/British Strong Style as, what now feels like a lifetime ago, their performances in the UK Tourney for WWE is what lead me to PROGRESS in the first place. Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven are all excellent (and all from around the corner, West Midlands represent!) so I can completely understand why the WWE wants to build their UK Tourney around these guys. 

However, from a storytelling perspective I was kinda disappointed. From what I’m understanding, mostly thanks to frequent pauses and trips to Google, British indies operate in this weird single universe where what a wrestler may do in one promotion may not necessarily tie directly into the continuity of another promotion but whatever character development they make in another promotion is allowed to be carried into a different promotion, seemingly freely. I know that sounds super confusing, I am confused too. 

So what you have is effectively what could be a year long story is actually told in three matches. Trent Seven debuts with Tyler Bate as Moustache Mountain, in the next match Trent Seven betrays Bate to form British Strong Style with Pete Dunne (for reasons never explained) and then in the next British Strong Style win the PROGRESS Tag Team Titles. The three guys may have worked a singles match or two in between these tags matches but that is the literal amount of matches that these guy have worked together, so you can surely see the problem. 

I just felt more like I was watching a collection of PPVs after skipping over the weekly shows which establish everything than really seeing a whole story play out. The dudes all work really well together, they bring a lot of story with them into the ring, but telling a story like this over the course of just three matches really impacts on the well… impact of it. Even the commentators kinda point this out. However if you’re also watching Preston, ICW, Fight Club Pro. and God knows how many other promotions (it is literally mind blowing how many promotions are out there all working with effectively the same roster) then it might all work better for you as you’ve seen these guys tour up and down the country together. Ow, my brain. 

The best match of the bunch for me is definitely when Bate teams up with Damien Dunne to take on British Strong Style, Bate really has a bright, bright, future ahead I believe that but British Strong Style vs London Riots was also excellent… once they got in the ring, anyway. The dicking about on the outside of the ring wasn’t as good as it probably sounds on paper and I while I’m glad we got some kind of finish, really both teams had about six opportunities each to get disqualified and the ref just stood there like a deer in the headlights.


----------



## Stetho

Yup, this is weird for me too.
The Tommy End vs Whiplash thing in PROGRESS is a good example. 

PROGRESS is still fuckin good but I'd love to see them returning to long term storytelling (I'm only at Ch35 tho).


----------



## Corey

Ron Swanson said:


> newb question: whats the best match in progress history?


They've actually asked the fans this and they've made top ten lists for the last 3 years:

2014 and prior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTOzsm_FQE4&t
2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LcoAIh9vEo
2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5dnoNa5Q_Q


----------



## MrWrestlingFan

Is anybody attending the PROGRESS show on Wrestlemania weekend? What do you think we can expect?


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

MrWrestlingFan said:


> Is anybody attending the PROGRESS show on Wrestlemania weekend? What do you think we can expect?


Expect card wise or experience wise? If you want to know the card, I'd follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc, they are very active on social media and usually announce events match by match at 7pm English time. (At least that's what they've been doing recently)

As far as experience, in all honesty I do not know.. In England, Progress is notorious for loud chants, drinking and a much more adult feel than that of a WWE crowd.. which is a BRILLIANT atmosphere, but more stereotypical of a sporting crowd like football etc. The reason why I don't know with this one is.. how will it translate to an American crowd? We will have to wait and see.

I would imagine, with a cult following such as Progress, and so many wrestling fans in the area already for Wrestlemania, there should be a brilliant turnout. If I lived in America, I would be dying to go to a Progress show, and would definitely take the opportunity.

On that note, anyone going to Chapter 44 this weekend? I am.


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS just uploaded another Riddle Atlas Title defence at another promotion outside of PROGRESS, again? This time against Micheal Elgin in the main event of his first show in his new promotion, Glory Pro. Given that Elgin is coming fresh off of a high profile IC Title match in NJPW I was surprised to see his promotion be so small and low budget. How many people are watching here? Like a hundred? Also weird that from some angles it looked like Riddle had roid gut, considering he had such strong opinions against the use of steroids in UFC, it's kinda sad if he's now using them to keep his pro wrestling career going. 

The match is okay, not a touch on either Elgin's IC Title match or Riddle's other Atlas defence in CZW. I like that Elgin is a brick shithouse and works that into his wrestling but he can also move with such pace and land really acrobatic offence. I also got that this really is Elgin's stage but this was some true NJPW booking (at its worst) as Riddle basically got zero offence in, got his ass kicked for about fifteen minutes and then retained his title on the back of basically one sequence at the end.


----------



## Corey

(Y) (Y) (Y)



















Chapter 44 dropped today. The main event is wild (*** 3/4) and Andrews/Strickland is really good (*** 1/2). Banks/Devlin was a nice treat on the undercard too (*** 1/4). I watched the first half of the No DQ match between the Pastor and Sebastian but that was pretty ugly so I skipped it.

Also subscribed for a month just to see Elgin vs. Riddle, which was really good. Another top notch performance from Elgin this year but I wish the finish wasn't so abrupt. *** 1/2


----------



## Pizzamorg

Right so my next plan with PROGRESS was to watch three recent shows still involving members of Moustache Mountain or British Strong Style however since this is wrestling lots of things interconnect and half of the fun is flying down tangents and discovering great matches. In this case, my focus ended up shifting to I guess the face of PROGRESS, Jimmy Havoc. Mostly thanks to his surprise, and awesome, return at the end of Chapter 37. Originally I had this massive all of the place post where I talked about like 12 different matches and I decided to try and split it up into the wrestlers I’m focusing on and do it in a few separate posts over time. 

To better understand the context of things, I went back and watched the matches they kept talking about during commentary of that Triple Threat in Chapter 38, starting with Havoc’s title match against Ospreay all the way back in Chapter 20, some two years ago. The match is kinda scrappy, ugly, maybe even a bit overbooked but man… the emotion, the intensity, the excitement… considering they have the production qualities at a fraction of other promotions the big fight feel to this match is right up there with the very best of them. This is the PROGRESS I always heard about but honestly haven’t really seen much of so far. An absolute triumph. 

I also watched Jimmy Havoc’s Deathmatch from Chapter 21. The match itself was again, kinda scrappy, kinda ugly but when you watch so much WWE, it is nice to watch a proper hardcore match now and then, even if I’m not overall a huge a fan of these sorts of matches. 

The two matches also work fantastically in sequence, too. While I only really have the video package to work with (which was fantastic, by the way) I still got the importance of the broken, bloody, heap of Havoc being helped up by Smallman and then leaving to a standing ovation from the crowd. Hell, even without the video package to work with, what an INCREDIBLE story Havoc tells over the course of the two matches. Like an epic tale of a dramatic rise and fall from grace, a beautiful play with heel/face dynamics and full of truly badass action. I'm a new fan. 

So where does Havoc go from here, not in terms of story but in the sense that he disappears from PROGRESS for over 12 months after this, right? And a lot of the story surrounding these matches quickly fizzles and moves on. I heard he got injured somewhere but not for these full 12 months. 

Either way, we come full circle at Chapter 38. A blindsided Scurll clashes with Havoc over who was the greatest PROGRESS Champion in the history of the company, while the current PROGRESS Champion, Mark Haskins, effectively says, “hang on a minute…” which culminates in a triple threat at Chapter 38. The match itself wasn’t quite as good as the Four Way which got Scurll (and Havoc, sorta) into this match as I loved what the dynamic of having British Strong Style involved brought to the table but that is for another post. 

Regardless, the pace and intensity of this triple threat is a lot of fun and after watching all the brutality of the last two matches, having a “proper” technical showcase again was really refreshing. This is much more my kind of match and it’s nice that Havoc can keep up in both kinds. Haskins is the guy I know least about in this match but that dude is a seriously refined worker.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Corey said:


> Banks/Devlin was a nice treat on the undercard too (*** 1/4).


I'd only seen Devlin in the UK tournament and I thought he was crap. This match completely turned me around on him. I thought it was awesome, wavering between *** 3/4 and **** which will probably make me watch it again.


----------



## Flair Shot

Corey said:


> (Y) (Y) (Y)


----------



## joeysnotright

Watched OMYAC yesterday, and the crowd chants at Devlin's massive head are amazing.


----------



## Corey

-***** Italiano- said:


> I'd only seen Devlin in the UK tournament and I thought he was crap. This match completely turned me around on him. I thought it was awesome, wavering between *** 3/4 and **** which will probably make me watch it again.


You should definitely try to check out more of his work if you can find any. He's a really good heel and it helps even more that everyone hates him. :lol Balor trained him pretty well.

I'm not that high on Banks which may explain why you liked this more than me, but he was rock solid in the match as well.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Corey said:


> You should definitely try to check out more of his work if you can find any. He's a really good heel and it helps even more that everyone hates him. :lol Balor trained him pretty well.
> 
> I'm not that high on Banks which may explain why you liked this more than me, but he was rock solid in the match as well.


I think he just had a couple of botches but clearly he's pretty good. Massive, massive head. Massive, massive head.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Right so post number 2 ended up focused on Matt Riddle who kinda came out of nowhere and was someone I immediately fell in love with. A real prodigy I feel. 

I started with Riddle’s Atlas title challenge against current Champ, Rampage Brown as I've already watched him defend the belt against Starr and Elgin but never saw this match. The match itself was nice, not a masterpiece, but very solid. Like a lot of PROGRESS stuff it was intense and no nonsense and that is often refreshing when you’re watching a lot of NJPW in the background. I like how Riddle the MMA fighter plays a part in his matches, Rampage enters this match seemingly with the idea that he isn’t going to win this working it as a wrestling match, so he tries to outfight him instead. Maybe that is his downfall. Riddle is so slick for someone who has done this for such a short frame of time and I really like the stiffness, the way he sells and the way he moves. Like I say it was a solid match but the ending just kinda comes out of nowhere which lets it down a little.

Continuing with me watching this all out of order, after this I watched Chapter 39 where Matt Riddle made his PROGRESS debut against Will Ospreay. “Pardon my french but Matt Riddle is not fuckin’ about!”. While the match was probably the most green I’ve seen Matt Riddle look, I still thought this was a great match. No one around today can move quite like Will Ospreay or land the kind of spots he does in quite the same, wonderful, way. Between that and the fact that he seemed completely convinced in putting Riddle over made for a fun time. 

Then finally, Chapter 39’s Main Event which crosses through both Riddle and British Strong Style. Despite a stellar performance from Haskins at 38, apparently he was wrestling the match injured and went over Havoc and Scurll only to vacate the title. Not really sure why they went with that angle, I mean I get that this might be one of his last matches and you want him to go out on a high as he’s a central part of PROGRESS, not lose his title but give the title up but it’s kinda made a mess of the wider PROGRESS world around it, hasn’t it? I mean I know they’ve kinda built the Scurll/Havoc feud through this, with the silly but fun screw job finish to their match at 39 and then the less impressive and far more silly beatdown before the main event but I dunno it feels like something they’ve just kinda banged together but reading around it seems fairly well known Haskins was in a bad way at the time unless he kept it secret from PROGRESS, he didn’t really show it in the match I guess. 

The match itself was simply incredible, absolutely off the chain, if Riddle didn’t already look like a superstar in the fashion he put Ospreay away to get into this match, then he definitely looks like a superstar by the end of this multi man match, even without winning it. Outside of Riddle again the dynamic of having British Strong Style in a multi man match is great. The way they are booked/the way in which they work together is just so perfect, no wonder they were in such a rush to get these guys together. And how badass did Jimmy Havoc look standing alone against those two bastards? I love the fact that the Universe seems to be punishing Havoc for past transgressions yet in seeing Havoc constantly getting screwed yet never giving up is turning him from PROGRESS' bogeyman into the crowds superhero. I dunno whether this is intended or not but it's really impactful. I've loved Havoc's trial of blood, bumps and broken light tubes. PROGRESS really can be so special. 

Pete Dunne winning because of Tyler Bate was a bit of a surprise though, after everything, why would he turn heel and align with them? I’m guessing we’ll never find out just like we never found out why Trent Seven betrayed Bate in the first place.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Then finally, Chapter 39’s Main Event which crosses through both Riddle and British Strong Style. Despite a stellar performance from Haskins at 38, apparently he was wrestling the match injured and went over Havoc and Scurll only to vacate the title. Not really sure why they went with that angle, I mean I get that this might be one of his last matches and you want him to go out on a high as he’s a central part of PROGRESS, not lose his title but give the title up but it’s kinda made a mess of the wider PROGRESS world around it, hasn’t it? I mean I know they’ve kinda built the Scurll/Havoc feud through this, with the silly but fun screw job finish to their match at 39 and then the less impressive and far more silly beatdown before the main event but I dunno it feels like something they’ve just kinda banged together but reading around it seems fairly well known Haskins was in a bad way at the time unless he kept it secret from PROGRESS, he didn’t really show it in the match I guess.


The thing with the situation at the time and this is just what I think is that Progress didn't know how bad Haskins was until nearer the time (maybe not even until after) no one knew Haskins was even injured until they made that video with him saying he might not be able to wrestle anymore, and I don't think they wanted to put the belt back on Scurll and Havoc had just returned from injury so the story of him winning the belt was there which they wanted to tell (plus it might've been too soon)


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> The thing with the situation at the time and this is just what I think is that Progress didn't know how bad Haskins was until nearer the time (maybe not even until after) no one knew Haskins was even injured until they made that video with him saying he might not be able to wrestle anymore, and I don't think they wanted to put the belt back on Scurll and Havoc had just returned from injury so the story of him winning the belt was there which they wanted to tell (plus it might've been too soon)


Oh okay! From reading around it made it seem like he was vacating titles and cancelling bookings under doctors orders left right and centre and so I figured that PROGRESS must have known but then the match feels like they had no idea at all which I guess they didn't. Either way the dude wrestled hell of a match even with an injury. The quality is rarely consistent in PROGRESS but man when it's good, it's up there with the very best of them.


----------



## sXeMope

Pizzamorg said:


> And how badass did Jimmy Havoc look standing alone against those two bastards? I love the fact that the Universe seems to be punishing Havoc for past transgressions yet in seeing Havoc constantly getting screwed yet never giving up is turning him from PROGRESS' bogeyman into the crowds superhero. I dunno whether this is intended or not but it's really impactful. I've loved Havoc's trial of blood, bumps and broken light tubes. PROGRESS really can be so special.


I'm behind af on Progress, and while I completely understand why Jimmy Havoc is a face right now, I hope he eventually gets back into his old character. He was such a great heel and I loved the whole storyline of him having a stranglehold on the title (I got into Progress at Chapter 13 so I missed the early shows where he was trying to prove himself as more than a deathmatch guy). I'm in the minority of people who doesn't care for Ospreay that much, but his feud with Havoc had me wanting Ospreay to beat him. #StillRealToMe


----------



## Pizzamorg

sXeMope said:


> I'm behind af on Progress, and while I completely understand why Jimmy Havoc is a face right now, I hope he eventually gets back into his old character. He was such a great heel and I loved the whole storyline of him having a stranglehold on the title (I got into Progress at Chapter 13 so I missed the early shows where he was trying to prove himself as more than a deathmatch guy). I'm in the minority of people who doesn't care for Ospreay that much, but his feud with Havoc had me wanting Ospreay to beat him. #StillRealToMe


Once I've properly caught up on PROGRESS' recent shows (or at least the main threads of those shows) I really do want to go watch PROGRESS from the beginning. I hear it wasn't so great at the start but after watching Ospreay v Havoc and then Havoc Robinson with little context and still getting such a big fight feel from it all, I really do want to go back and watch them in context after watching Havoc's title stranglehold in real time.

Right Post Number 3 and back we go to British Strong Style. Because talking about these two matches made for such a massive post and there are a LOT of British Strong Style matches between 41 and 44 I decided to just leave this post as it is and build further ones later. 

The first match I’m gonna talk about in this post is actually one of the first matches I actually watched before I started all these posts and tangents. That match was the number one contenders four way from Chapter 37 which involves both Dunne and Seven, Joe Coffey and of course Scurll.

Not a lot to say on this match, not in a bad way but in a good way, it’s about as perfect a match as they come I felt. The action is incredible, everyone was taken to their limits here and left it all in the ring. In a weird way this match was so good everything after has almost felt like an anti-climax now in hindsight. 

Plus, while yes, as I mentioned, character/storywork in later PROGRESS is a bit weak because they seem to assume you watch every British Indie simultaneously and just place it all together like a giant jigsaw nonetheless the dynamic of having a heel tag team be a part of this fourway was much better utilised than I’ve seen it done elsewhere. I love British Strong Style. 

Next up was Dunne’s first title defence from Chapter 40 and what a first defence as he’s up against Zack Sabre Jr. Weird video package from the start of this match, I think I better understand what Trent Seven is doing now and man is Pete Dunne good but what is happening with Tyler Bate? Seems like the kid has completely gone off the deep end. Even Seven and Dunne don’t quite seem to know what to make of him. 

Speaking of the match itself, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much personality from Zack Sabre Jr. before, he seems to REALLY hate British Strong Style for some reason (I guess this is another one of those where you need to watch Fight Club or ICW or something to understand it) and I love it. He’s so intense and aggressive, tangling Dunne in knots in the way only Sabre Jr. can. He is also selling far, far, better than I’ve seen him do elsewhere. I do like that in PROGRESS, when someone is committed in this promotion to putting someone over they really go all the way with it. There doesn’t seem to be the kind of egos you can get elsewhere. 

Dunne on the other hand wrestles weird match here, no knock on his performance, but it’s weird he wastes so much time trying to beat Sabre Jr. at his own game. I guess there are mind games involved but with Bate ejected from ringside leaving Dunne to fight alone, a position he’s rarely in if ever, you think he’d immediately want to make this his match. Whenever he goes to things more familiar to him, like stiffing the shit out of Sabre Jr. or hitting him with high impact power moves you can see the match starting to go back into Dunne’s favour so you think he’d just go there immediately and stay there. 

It’s also a shame the crowds sound so fucking hammered for this match, this is probably the first time I’ve actually been annoyed by a PROGRESS crowd but they are really distracting here. 

Overall though I felt this a very good way to cement their new Champion and distract from the elements of chance, luck and circumstance that got Dunne in this position in the first place. If you want to look at it that way, anyway, I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve this but I wonder where British Strong Style would be without Haskins’ injury much like we were saying about Kevin Owens last summer after what happened to Balor. Just a shame about the finish.


----------



## Corey

This show just keeps looking better.


----------



## Flair Shot

Dude/Bro the opening for episode 5 of Freedoms Road with Matt Riddle & Chuck Mambo. :lmao You gotta see this.


----------



## Corey

Holy shit this Sunday's show is stacked!


----------



## Platt

45 is up on demand already. Hoping they can go one better next week and get 46 up by Wednesday so I can watch it on the flight to Orlando.


----------



## kyle.thomas.west

Platt said:


> 45 is up on demand already. Hoping they can go one better next week and get 46 up by Wednesday so I can watch it on the flight to Orlando.


I would be tempted to get their service, but I want to see what their deal is with WWE first, as I'm assuming their shows will going on there too, so no point paying twice I guess.

Stacked card this weekend though. I've concluded that Matt Riddle appears at every indie wrestling show put on, no matter the country.


----------



## Pizzamorg

https://www.facebook.com/ProgressWrestling/videos/1440335822695815/

PROGRESS just posted this vid on their Facebook and it got me HYPE but man I really lost my way with my convoluted catch up with modern PROGRESS but this feels like a kick in the arse to get back on track with it again. Question is, where the fuck was I? *goes off to pick up from Chapter 41*.

Right so as I said I would I took a break from Mass Effect Andromeda and finished up Chapter 41. Or at least the important bits/stuff I care about from the chapter, anyway. 

I also dunno whether I mentioned but I also watched the match from Chapter 40 which sees fallout from Chapter 39 settled in a no DQ match between Scurll and Havoc. It sounds really good on paper but it really made for a pretty weak end to the Scurll/Havoc feud but then maybe that is of no surprise as that seemed more of a feud of necessity to get the cogs moving for PROGRESS with everything that is going on in PROGRESS at the time than maybe a feud that they really cared for on a personal level. Still, woulda preferred to see these two trying to just absolutely kill each other but oh well. 

Onto Chapter 41. I started with the PROGRESS Tag Title triple threat. Kind of a weird match, booking wise, to vacate the titles just so British Strong Style can win them back, just with Tyler Bate rather than Pete Dunne? It also begs the question as to why they raced to have Seven betray Bate and form a new team with Dunne if they were gonna just put Bate back with Seven in the end anyway. Sure British Strong Style had a longer run than Moustache Mountain and they won the titles together but I think Seven and Dunne still only worked like six or seven matches together - actually maybe not even that. 

Still, the match itself was pretty damn good, PROGRESS is one of the few promotions where I really enjoy having loads of people in one ring as their whole roster just works so well together. Quietly in the background I’ve been growing to really love the London Riots, they ain’t pretty but man they can work, work so much better than it may seem like they could. But then everyone in the match was great, like I say, I love Trent Seven and Tyler Bate any way and the formation of “The Leaders” was a stroke of genius. Loved Sabre Jr.’s ridiculous entrance out of that box. 

Then we get Dunne’s second ever PROGRESS title defence which weird comes half way through the show??? A really great match though, I know its bad but I had honestly forgotten all about Fabian Aichner from the CWC but he certainly got my attention here. I think this was his PROGRESS debut too. As much as we’re all marks for Pete Dunne in PROGRESS, Aichner take a fucking bow, you KILLED it. Another stunning title defence for Dunne, it’s nice to see him separated from the rest of British Strong Style too as as fun as they are when they work together, it makes Dunne look all the better for it to win these epic matches himself. 

Then finally the show ends with a surprise rekindling of perhaps PROGRESS’ most historic rivalry, the rivalry that really sold me on PROGRESS and made me a new fan of Jimmy Havoc. The intensity between Ospreay and Havoc here and the sense of continuity that their history still matters was a real nice touch in making this match feel really special. I’d argue it an even better match than their match from Chapter 20. 

Ospreay seems to just want to hurt Havoc here, completely understandably too, but it also really confuses the crowd for fun impact as well. The commentators seem to be really pushing for us to accept Ospreay as a heel in the match itself but I’m not sure I agree with that, it’s more just odd to see Havoc seem so vulnerable as he carries those scars of his history, wrapped in that leg brace. It seemed to emphasis a sense of malice behind Ospreay’s offence. Ospreay takes a fair share of crazy bumps himself but I just love how it seems he’d rather break his neck than take a loss against Havoc. 

Ospreay certainly turns heel at the end though, realigning with Paul Robinson and brutalising Havoc when the match was already long over. Don’t really get what Robinson was doing with that bat though, it was obviously real to some degree as it shredded Havoc’s shirt but Robinson seemed to be able to run his hands along it and tuck it under his arm without hurting himself somehow.

Right, onto Chapter 42. 

Not really a lot on this card I’m interested in which is a shame as it’s the first show of the year for PROGRESS but I did drop in to see what Havoc had to say for himself after the brutalising from 41. Honestly, not a lot it turns out, although I am interested in that comment he made - does WWE have any control over PROGRESS’ content now they’re in some kind of vague partnership with one another?

Oh well, we got a match against Tommy End out of it so it wasn’t all bad.

I don't really know what they are going for but I would like to see Havoc build an army and basically relive his first story line all over again, but have his role reversed so Pete Dunne/British Strong Style can be Jimmy Havoc/Regression to Havoc's Will Ospreay.


----------



## Donnie




----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Just finished Chapter 45. Really good show I thought. A bunch of storylines were advanced while being really entertaining. Top to bottom I think every match delivered and had a purpose.

It's hard to describe how much I love WALTER and now I get to see him against Matt fucking Riddle. The whole card looks amazing. PROGRESS proving that it's well worth the money.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Before TakeOver last night I decided to watch more PROGRESS but didn’t get round to posting my thoughts before going to bed. 

Speaking firstly of the ThunderBastard match from 43, not a lot to say on this one as I loved it, which is per the course of these kinds of matches from PROGRESS. No one does them better in my mind. People always say a promotion can’t put everyone over but you just need to look at PROGRESS whenever they have a big clusterfuck of people in the ring they somehow still make everyone look incredible. The match also featured some of the best commentary I’ve seen from a PROGRESS match too. Just a shame there were so many stories running through this one I have no context for. 

Then the main event of Chapter 43, a pretty good “match” even though it existed basically solely for the shock ending to set up 44. I say “match” too because thanks to the leniency of the ref, this was basically just a fight, a damn near shoot fight, not really a match at all. I’m grateful for it, too, as we’ve been waiting for this and it perfectly evolved the stories of the men involved. 

Then I moved onto the Main Event of 44 which while still a great match, somehow felt oddly flat given the huge stakes involved and given it marks the returns of Webster and Haskins. 

On a side note it's weird they're bring WWE into this as British Strong Style didn't play these characters in the UK Tourney. Well other than Dunne.

Before WrestleMania I thought I'd watch the latest PROGRESS show or at least the key bits. Before we get into the wrestling, can I just say, the acoustics of this show are terrible. I couldn't hear what the fuck Jim Smallman was saying. Also no Haskins on this show? Where is he?

Anyway the matches, surprisingly we kick off with a Title Match with British Strong Style technically defending their belts but not really as it doesn’t seem like they care if they’re champions or not for any reason other than the money. That opening bit with the towel was hilarious and Bate is looking awfully handsome now he’s gotten a bit scruffy I guess to separate the heel in PROGRESS from the face in WWE… despite apparently the two things being connected? I don’t know. It was a good match and a solid way to kick off the show regardless. 

Next up I watched PROGRESS Number One Contender, Mark Andrews, take on a whole new Will Ospreay who I like very much indeed. This match almost felt like that trope in anime where the hero needs to fight his inner self and overcome it so they can go on and face the big bad. It was an epic match and I can forgive Havoc coming in to upstage everyone at the end because it tied into the main event and the continuing evolution of Ospreay and Havoc. This new heel Ospreay is perfect in ways I could have never imagined. 

Then finally, speaking of the Big Bad and Jimmy Havoc, we have the no DQ Main Event. Which was basically what they last match was, until it wasn’t. In terms of the actual match, it was a weird one. I mean don’t get me wrong it was awesome but also oddly bloodless which took away from the match a lot, I felt. It had some of the most brutal spots on paper that I’d seen outside of some backwater promotion built on hardcore but in the execution it just seemed weird that neither man looked particularly hurt. Especially Dunne who walked off like he’d wrestled a regular match. But even Havoc, it took a frying pan to the head (of all things) very late in the match to give us some claret. Maybe it’s the WWE influence creeping in but I felt like this should have been a bloodbath and because it wasn’t that harmed it for me. Then again Havoc’s hardcore match against Scurll way back was underwhelming in similar ways. In terms of matches like this in PROGRESS it feels like Havoc peaked as he was curb stomped through light tubes. Shame, that.


----------



## Stetho

Finally finished Chapter 36, the pop for Havoc was so great... This company is just on another level, you just can't not love it.
Let's just hope WWE won't fuck this.


----------



## sophrichards

Pizzamorg said:


> Before WrestleMania I thought I'd watch the latest PROGRESS show or at least the key bits. Before we get into the wrestling, can I just say, the acoustics of this show are terrible. I couldn't hear what the fuck Jim Smallman was saying. Also no Haskins on this show? Where is he?
> 
> Anyway the matches, surprisingly we kick off with a Title Match with British Strong Style technically defending their belts but not really as it doesn’t seem like they care if they’re champions or not for any reason other than the money. That opening bit with the towel was hilarious and Bate is looking awfully handsome now he’s gotten a bit scruffy I guess to separate the heel in PROGRESS from the face in WWE… despite apparently the two things being connected? I don’t know. It was a good match and a solid way to kick off the show regardless.
> 
> Next up I watched PROGRESS Number One Contender, Mark Andrews, take on a whole new Will Ospreay who I like very much indeed. This match almost felt like that trope in anime where the hero needs to fight his inner self and overcome it so they can go on and face the big bad. It was an epic match and I can forgive Havoc coming in to upstage everyone at the end because it tied into the main event and the continuing evolution of Ospreay and Havoc. This new heel Ospreay is perfect in ways I could have never imagined.
> 
> Then finally, speaking of the Big Bad and Jimmy Havoc, we have the no DQ Main Event. Which was basically what they last match was, until it wasn’t. In terms of the actual match, it was a weird one. I mean don’t get me wrong it was awesome but also oddly bloodless which took away from the match a lot, I felt. It had some of the most brutal spots on paper that I’d seen outside of some backwater promotion built on hardcore but in the execution it just seemed weird that neither man looked particularly hurt. Especially Dunne who walked off like he’d wrestled a regular match. But even Havoc, it took a frying pan to the head (of all things) very late in the match to give us some claret. Maybe it’s the WWE influence creeping in but I felt like this should have been a bloodbath and because it wasn’t that harmed it for me. Then again Havoc’s hardcore match against Scurll way back was underwhelming in similar ways. In terms of matches like this in PROGRESS it feels like Havoc peaked as he was curb stomped through light tubes. Shame, that.


If this is Manchester, the acoustics are always the same on Ondemand. They sometimes improve mid way through show but they are generally terrible...


----------



## Pizzamorg

sophrichards said:


> If this is Manchester, the acoustics are always the same on Ondemand. They sometimes improve mid way through show but they are generally terrible...


Yeah it was the O2 in Manchester. It also made it quite hard to work out what people were chanting too.

PROGRESS 46 dropped, I watched the show over the course of the weekend. This was my payday weekend so some of it I was watching while my head was swimming as I was hanging out my arse so I might need to watch this again, no real complaints with that as the show was stacked, but these are my initial thoughts. 

Never actually watched a Ringkampf match before but I got introduced to both members in the form of two singles matches. Both against guys I’m really glad to see in a PROGRESS ring again, Haskins of course coming off that neck injury and Riddle finally defending the Atlas title in a PROGRESS ring after defending it on a world tour. 

Speaking first of that Haskins/Axel Dieter Jr match – and perhaps most importantly Haskins’ entrance – it was… okay. It had some great standout sequences but I dunno something just felt off about this match as an overall package. There were some really flat moments in between those standout moments, maybe the two of them just don’t have a lot of chemistry between themselves. 

The Walter/Riddle Atlas Title match on the other hand was basically fucking perfection. Walter and Riddle went to war with one another, I pretty much uniformly adore every match involving Matt Riddle, he’s a God damn prodigy and along with Shibata, he’s my MVP of 2017. He hasn’t been in the business very long at all yet I’ve seen few wrestlers who can tell a better story than Matt Riddle, period. 

On a similar sort of vein as Haskins/Axel, The Hunter Brother and British Strong Style put on a solid, stiff, affair but there was so much messing about that I don’t think the match as a whole was nearly as good as some of the individual sequences and exchanges. Those PROGRESS Tag Title belts are beautiful though. 

And of course while not the Main Event, we had probably the most important match on the card in Ospreay v Havoc and my new match of the year so far. If this is really the end of their feud and the end of Ospreay’s time in PROGRESS, it was the perfect ending for one of the best feuds in wrestling in recent memory. The match was full of breathtaking moments and was just so much fun. All the crazy ass “weapons” brought in by the fans which got fully utilised for both an absolute bloodbath but it was also an absolutely fantastic wrestling match in between all the hardcore bits as well. You know Dean Ambrose looks at matches like this with a long sigh.

Speaking of the actual main event, Pete Dunne and Mandrews stole the show at the UK Tourney and on NXT a few months back now (I think?) and Mandrews just came off the back of the match of the year quality match against Ospreay at the last Chapter (which I guess is weird as it seemed like it was just sorta thrown together), now Dunne and Mandrews go face to face in PROGRESS for the first time and honestly I thought this match was a bit of a dud. 

I just really didn’t care for all the antics in the match and the match was kinda botchy and scrappy in places too. PROGRESS is really killing my interest in British Strong Style and Dunne especially, why do they book him so weak when we know he’s an absolute monster? This is just like what WWE did with Owens and the Universal Title. I get that British Strong Style are their big bad stable and this is a good way of generating heat but surely there are better ways of doing this? Every successful title defence from Dunne just feels like a storytelling dead end. If it takes having the titles taken off of British Strong Style so they can rebuild themselves, then I’d honestly be okay with that at this point. It is funny because the commentators basically point this out themselves, too.


----------



## MarkyWhipwreck

Anyone in here seen Chapter 40? More specifically Adam Cole v. Will Ospreay from that show? Most here know I'm WF's resident Adam Cole mark and I wanted to hear people's thoughts on it. Me personally I had it in my top 3 matches of 2016.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

MarkyWhipwreck said:


> Anyone in here seen Chapter 40? More specifically Adam Cole v. Will Ospreay from that show? Most here know I'm WF's resident Adam Cole mark and I wanted to hear people's thoughts on it. Me personally I had it in my top 3 matches of 2016.


Great match, waaaaaaaay better than their NJPW encounter, not sure if I'd call it a MOTY candidate but 2016 was just so good for wrestling anyway.


----------



## MarkyWhipwreck

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Great match, waaaaaaaay better than their NJPW encounter, not sure if I'd call it a MOTY candidate but 2016 was just so good for wrestling anyway.


Defintely, I didn't think their NJPW match was bad it just left a lot to be desired. This one however lived up to everything I thought they could do and more. Ospreay himself even said it was one of his favorite matches he had last year.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Great show 

Riddle vs WALTER was quality

The Ospreay vs Havok match isn't really my thing but making it loser leaves town halfway through was brilliant and the match they had from that point was awesome. Also... Grandfather clock. Fair play.

Haskins with his lad was really cool

I really hate the whole "you won the title.... oops foot under the ropes" thing but apart from that Dunne vs Mandrews was immense.

Progress, especially considering all the talent it's lost, has been on a great run for ages. Makes me so anxious over the WWE relationship.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Chapter 46 was tremendous. One of the best shows of the year so far.









This is gonna RULE :mark:


----------



## Daniel97

Episode 30 Night One is one of the most fun wrestling shows I have watched.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just finished watching PROGRESS Orlando and I thought the show was a massive disappointment if I’m honest. Not a horrible show but given that it was Wrestlemania, the card is so stacked and given the kind of goods PROGRESS seems to deliver on the regular the whole show just gave me an overwhelming sense of “meh”. Matches felt overlong, sluggishly paced and lacked that usual fire that seems to make PROGRESS matches feel so special. 

The best match was probably the main event for the PROGRESS Title, where Haskins effectively first won a handicap match against British Strong Style but then got beaten by Dunne alone. Wrestlingwise this was an incredible match and I suppose in kayfabe it’s logical that Haskins’ neck would be the deal breaker but I dunno, I just didn’t like the booking here. You’ve been booking Dunne like such a bitch for so long now, Haskins gives him his absolute all and Dunne just kicks out of everything and wins the match like some kind of superman. 

It’s just so conflicting and it has been through his reign, is Dunne a badass monster of a heel or another cowardly bitch heel? He can’t be both. 

Probably the second best match on the card was the Atlas Title match but that is mostly because I’m a massive Matt Riddle mark and was happy to just watch him work while this match took an absolute lifetime seemingly to really get going. 

Plus more than the other matches I felt like this one delivered the most once it got there. There was some clunky stuff, mostly from Seven, but some of the bumps and stiffness here were just crazy. Maybe it’s just because of what I know him as but I definitely prefer Seven as a team wrestler, rather than a singles guy. It wasn’t that his performance here was bad or anything I just think it wasn’t nearly as good as his work when he’s got Dunne, Bate or both to work off of. 

Outside of that no real one match stands out but the show had plenty of moments. Zack Sabre Jr. getting busted open, seemingly the hard way, added a lot to the otherwise mostly middle of the road match against Jimmy Havoc. It’s a shame that such a landmark match is so easily forgotten. 

I also thought it was really cool a WWE Title was defended at this show, too, and Tyler Bate’s crazy power on display was a lot of fun. He seemed to deadlift Andrews with ease, at some points snatching him out of the air and others just ripping him from the canvas and all the moves were executed so well. Maybe it’d be too dangerous but I’d love to see him use that deadlift brainbuster as his finisher, was a thing of beauty. 

Is there any point in watching that Evolve v PROGRESS show? I'm guessing one promotion isn't going to exclusively put the other over and I'm guessing no titles are going to change hands, right?


----------



## Omega Creed

So I've lived out here in England for about 7 months now and have slowly been getting into the UK scene of promotions. Progress is one of the last major ones I gotta check out in person and plan on doing so this fall. I've been watching more and more videos on youtube and I'm on the verge of getting their on demand monthly subscription. It seems like it's worth it for the $8 a month. Would yall suggest catching up on more recent stuff or going all the way back to the beginning?


----------



## Death Rider

The Villain said:


> So I've lived out here in England for about 7 months now and have slowly been getting into the UK scene of promotions. Progress is one of the last major ones I gotta check out in person and plan on doing so this fall. I've been watching more and more videos on youtube and I'm on the verge of getting their on demand monthly subscription. It seems like it's worth it for the $8 a month. Would yall suggest catching up on more recent stuff or going all the way back to the beginning?


I am personally only up to Chapter 17 but yes even if the production values are not the best there are still great matches and the Fall of Jimmy Havoc storyline


----------



## Omega Creed

I went ahead and got the subscription. I'm almost through chapter 3 now but must say I've been enjoying these shows.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Not really sure why it’s on PROGRESS’ demand service but I ain’t complaining because I got to watch the “WrestleCon Super Show 2017” which I know Meltzer raved about. What a card, too. Talent jumbled all over the place. 

Now I’ve seen the show, I definitely feel like the show kinda peaked after Team Ospreay v Team Ricochet. I have no idea why this wasn’t the main event, it was genuinely one of the best wrestling matches I’ve ever watched and will most certainly be right up there when it comes to my discussions about the best matches of the year for sure. 

But it wasn’t just that, the first half of the show also delivered the awesome Low Ki/Shane Strickland match and the opening tag match and the Bobby Lashley v the guy who plays Matanza in Lucha Underground for the TNA Title were both heaps of fun.

The second half of the show basically became a DDT PPV for about three matches and then basically just transplanted a Lucha Underground match into the WrestleCon show. I’m sure there are audiences for this stuff but I have no interest in DDT and if I wanted Cage v Mundo, I’d just watch Lucha Underground directly, as this wasn’t as good as any of their “proper” matches from the actual promotion. 

Speaking of the actual Main Event… honestly kinda sucked. Given that on paper the match sounds like an absolute dream, it’s amazing how poorly it was executed.


----------



## december_blue

I've got a feeling it'll be Jinny.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/856490441545588737


----------



## Pizzamorg

New PROGRESS dropped yesterday. What a HUGE show for PROGRESS and nothing is within their control. I wonder what this means for the future of PROGRESS. Paul Robinson is retiring, South Pacific Powertrip’s visa ran out and Axel Dieter Jr. is apparently WWE bound. That is a huge blow for a company who has lost a huge amount of talent over the last few years and will potentially lose even more yet. 

Speaking of Axel Dieter Jr. I’m glad he got to go out in the fashion he did. He took a loss, for sure but if this is the last time we see Ringkampf in this form, I think they gave them a great celebration even in defeat. That is one thing PROGRESS do so well, make everyone look great.

It was a great match in general to be honest, PROGRESS is one of the only promotions I can think of where the more men in the ring, the better the match seems to turn out. British Strong Style especially are so great as a unit but at least in terms of their work in PROGRESS, I ain’t all that impressed by them as individuals. 

Seems like some seeds are being planted, too and while the constant double crossing and murky motivations are getting a little tired now, I suppose it fitting for British Strong Style to end up destroying themselves than being definitively beaten. I guess it’s coming sooner rather than later, too. 

The other big match worth walking about was the battle of the former PROGRESS Champion Marks (sorta), to decide the number one contender for the PROGRESS Title. It wasn’t a horrible match, Andrews certainly did a horrible job in selling the knee (and seriously, is 2017 the year of working the leg? Ugh.) though and botched a few sequences but I felt it was more a match of interesting details than necessarily a match with a great whole. Things like the little threads of respect between the two men threaded through the match, altering the way in which familiar sequences may ordinarily play out which heightened the finish and the fact that both men are so similar in the ring yet so different in how they implement the same kind of things in their arsenal which creates a cool dynamic in a match.


----------



## Corey

Predictions? I'm going with Riddle over Bate in the final because who knows.


----------



## Platt

Travis all the way.


Sent from Verticalsports.com Free App


----------



## Pizzamorg

So PROGRESS 48 dropped the other day I believe, absolutely drowning in wrestling this weekend, I can’t keep up! 

Looked like a really weak card on paper, ended up just skipping to the last two matches on the card. If there was anything else watching from before that, do let us know!

Speaking firstly of Bate/Riddle, it was a weird match because the two men hold four titles between them at this point and yet none of them are on the line which makes you wonder why they are even working a match at all then.

That said, I’m always hungry for more Riddle. I only really get to see him in action thanks to PROGESS or when he works an indie with NJPW talent and I end up loving pretty much every match he’s involved in. Props to Bate too, he seems much more comfortable as his PROGRESS character or maybe just in the PROGRESS environment, showing a lot more charisma than in the always slightly awkward performances in the WWE (until that match with Dunne at Takeover which was just UNPH. But then Dunne seems to get to play his PROGRESS character in WWE, so it’s probably a lot easier for him). 

Speaking of this match specifically, as become the norm seemingly with Tyler Bate matches, the match took a while to really relax into a rhythm but once it did the action, excitement and intensity was second to little else. I was impressed that Bate matched that sort of worked-shoot-MMA style thing Riddle seems to do in his matches which makes them so compelling. These two absolutely went to town here, I can only imagine how great it’d be once they get to work a match with a proper finish and actual stakes. 

Then of course I watched that main event. After Dunne has been booked like a bit of a bitch through his PROGRESS Champion reign, this was probably one of his better moments. A Triple Threat might be the worst nightmare for a Champion, no disqualification and the fact they don’t need to be pinned or submitted to lose their title effectively makes it a handicap match. A handicap match against someone of the quality of Mandrews and a Haskins on a warpath to reclaim the title he never lost is even worse. As such when Dunne’s British Strong Style mates got involved, for once I really didn’t mind and honestly despite the odds, it was probably one of the least invasive and least direct intrusions by the men yet too. 

The match itself wasn’t perfect, there were a few blown spots in there probably because the match moved at such unrelenting pace but when stuff came together, it was just vintage PROGRESS. Pure bliss. Like I always say, PROGRESS is one of the rare promotions which gets better the more people they have in their ring, you just don’t see action quite like this anywhere else. No real two guys work a match while a third rests outside, all three of them are basically active the whole time, working an extra man into familiar spots for magical impact. 

I also have no idea who CCK are but that endiing was nuts.


----------



## december_blue

PROGRESS heading to NYC this summer!


----------



## Flair Shot

CCK's debut at Chapter 48, what a moment. :mark Glen Josephs reaction. :lmao


----------



## Corey

Some damn good looking first round matchups. Sabre vs. Starr, Andrews vs. Flamita, Riddle vs. Trent, Banks vs. Havoc, etc.


----------



## Platt

I tried and failed to get SS16 tickets when they went on sale so it's so annoying seeing how many people are selling their SS16 tickets now. There's been over 70 sets on twickets in just the last week. People must be buying them just in case they can go knowing they'll be able to sell them on last minute if they can't.



Spoiler: Day 1 Results



Sexsmith over Gibson
Sabre over Starr
Banks over Havoc
Flamita over Andrews
Bate over Eaver
Haskins over Webster
Riddle over Seven
Cobb over Cruz

I went 7 for 8 on my predications so not bad.

Round 2 will be

Sexsmith vs Sabre
Banks vs Flamita
Bate vs Haskins
Riddle vs Cobb

I'm predicting Sabre, Banks, Bate & Riddle to win. Bate and Banks to make the final with Banks winning.


----------



## RKing85

woke up this morning looking for Strong Style Day 1 results and couldn't find them anywhere. I was so confused. I just assumed Fri-Sun. Saturday to Monday never crossed my mind once.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Bank holiday Monday here in the UK, so we're all enjoying a three day weekend.


----------



## Platt

Spoiler: Day 2



I went 4 for 4 today

Banks over Flamita
Riddle over Cobb
Bate over Haskins
Sabre over Sexsmith

Non-tournament
Morgan & Andrews over London Riots
BSS (Seven & Dunne ) over Starr & Eaver



First look at the Womens Championship











Spoiler: Womens Champ



Toni Storm over Jinny and Laura.


----------



## kyle.thomas.west

Love the belt, one of the best women's titles in the business right now.

As for Chapter 48, as mentioned further above, the Banks/Seven match is must see too. Really consistent show.


----------



## Platt

Spoiler: Announced for Day 3



Card so far
#1 Contender Match
Katey Harvey vs Kay Lee Ray

Mark Haskins vs Trent Seven

Progress Title
Pete Dunne vs Jeff Cobb :mark:

Semi Final Zack Sabre Jr vs Travis Banks
Semi Final Matt Riddle vs Tyler Bate

Final ??? vs ???





Spoiler: Day 3 Results



Flamita over Roy Johnson, Pastor Eaver, David Starr, Morgan Webster, Jack Sexsmith, Jimmy Havoc & Mark Andrews

Travis Banks over Zack Sabre Jr
Tyler Bate over Matt Riddle

Final is Travis Banks vs Tyler Bate

Kay Lee Ray over Katey Harvey

Trent Seven over Mark Haskins

Pete Dunne over Jeff Cobb

Multiple ref bumps and involvement from BSS and CCK but in the end...

Travis Banks defeats Tyler Bate to win.


----------



## HoHo

Platt said:


> Spoiler: Day 3 Results
> 
> 
> 
> Flamita over Roy Johnson, Pastor Eaver, David Starr, Morgan Webster, Jack Sexsmith, Jimmy Havoc & Mark Andrews
> 
> Travis Banks over Zack Sabre Jr
> Tyler Bate over Matt Riddle
> 
> Final is Travis Banks vs Tyler Bate
> 
> Kay Lee Ray over Katey Harvey
> 
> Trent Seven over Mark Haskins
> 
> Pete Dunne over Jeff Cobb
> 
> Multiple ref bumps and involvement from BSS and CCK but in the end...
> 
> Travis Banks defeats Tyler Bate to win.





Spoiler



Damn Kay Lee Ray vs Toni Storm for the Progress Women's Title oh yes! I mean I've seen them wrestle before in Stardom and their matches were great together, and in Progress they'll get more time to tussle for our enjoyment.


----------



## RKing85

sounds like a good set of shows (surprise surprise, I know)

can't wait to see them.


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Regarding the whole theme change situation at SSS16 last weekend, I heard a lot of rumours in the crowd that it is because Progress is being put on The Network. Is there any validity to this story, or rumour milling?

I completely understand why they had to do it, when I first watched Progress on demand I was surprised they did not remove the copyrighted themes. Playing them at an event is one thing, but broadcasting them online you would have thought would get you into copyright difficulties.

That being said, some of the theme's will definitely be missed.


----------



## Genking48

Marked out when Flamita still had his theme, Dragon Gate really get how to create awesome songs for their wrestlers.


----------



## Pizzamorg

nailz_jaggzy said:


> Regarding the whole theme change situation at SSS16 last weekend, I heard a lot of rumours in the crowd that it is because Progress is being put on The Network. Is there any validity to this story, or rumour milling?
> 
> I completely understand why they had to do it, when I first watched Progress on demand I was surprised they did not remove the copyrighted themes. Playing them at an event is one thing, but broadcasting them online you would have thought would get you into copyright difficulties.
> 
> That being said, some of the theme's will definitely be missed.


There has been rumours of this magical WWE Network which is more expensive but includes a boat load of indy stuff under WWE's umbrella on it as well as video libraries for revival companies for pretty much the entire time I've been back into wrestling over the last few years. The fact that nothing has happened yet makes it feel like it probably won't happen but then the fact that the rumour never goes away might suggest it will. 

Personally I'd love it and I'd hate it, having it all in one place would be convenient and would help my wallet out but just like with the theme changes what else would WWE ask them to change? If that even was them, of course. I dunno, WWE is one kind of product but something like PROGRESS is uniquely different product and I'd never want everything to become WWE, there is a place for WWE but there is a place for PROGRESS and it isn't the same place.


----------



## Flair Shot

Just finished watching Day 1. The Seven vs. Riddle match. Holy shit. :lmao


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched the first Day of Super Strong 16 and it was… okay. Seven just getting squashed to close the show was a weird choice, did they overrun or something? The show was a collection a lot of duds and throwaway matches in my opinion, there were some standout individual performances (PROGRESS meet Jefferey Cobb!) but really of the eight I felt like there were only three matches really worth writing home about. 

Those would be Flamita/Andrews which was the best and the worst of an indy match with insane action coupled with zero psychology ending with trite chants and handshakes and hugs, Webster/Haskins which saw Haskins at his most polished in a great piece of in ring storytelling orchestrated by Webster and finally Banks/Havoc which was an intense collision of charisma’s with a brutal finish. Pretty much all these matches took me by surprise because they were all matches I had no real hype for on paper. Maybe that is what helped. All these matches really made this tournament and in turn PROGRESS as a promotion and the title really feel like it matters.

I also have to say that a PROGRESS crowd is the best in the damn world, seven hundred people who love professional wrestling having a great fucking time. Not hijacking the show with their smark bullshit but enhancing the experience and taking it to whole new levels. Love you guys.

Just watched Day Two of this year’s SS16, it’s hard to know really how to feel about this show as it’s over an hour until we get a proper match which makes the show sound dire but WHAT A MATCH we get. BIG LADS WRESTLING! An of course, I mean by that the Cobb/Riddle match. Another Match of the Year worthy match involving Riddle. 

I mean where do you even start with this? It’s basically perfect and I can sit and bore you by listing every reason why it’s basically perfect or you could… you know… go watch it yourself. I don’t know much about Riddle outside of PROGRESS but he has to be considered one of the best in the world today. A prodigy. To be this fucking polished so young into the game. He puts everyone to shame. 

Hats off to the booking though too, tasking Cobb with all of his athletic ability, thunderous striking and great psychology to take Riddle to his absolute limits, to force him to tap into his soul unlike anything we’ve really seen since he faced Shibata for the RPW Title back in January. Hope to see you again Cobb, you’re welcome in the PROGRESS family. 

After Haskins got screwed by British Strong Style, I hope Riddle murders Tyler Bate in the Semis, chops that roidgut of his until it bursts. It is weird because much like the commentary mentioned, I really haven’t enjoyed any of Bate’s singles stuff in PROGRESS, screwy shit or otherwise, yet his match against Dunne at Takeover as cliche an opinion as it is is one of the best matches I’ve ever seen. Does Bate not bother to go to that level or something for the sake of 700 people? Arrogant if that is the case as without PROGRESS he’d be no one. 

The final Quarter of the show, also seeing a person making their PROGRESS debut exiting but leaving us wanting so much more from them in the best possible way, was great as well but I felt bad for Banks/Flamita going on straight after Cobb/Riddle. It didn’t impact on the crowd because the PROGRESS crowds are the best in the world but I must admit I was really exhausted and probably didn’t really appreciate how good this match was. I mean it’s weird because the show still goes for an hour after this with a random tag match and a match to crown the first ever Women’s Champ in PROGRESS, why not break up the Quarters with these? I also had no interest in these two matches either, so it just meant I turned the show off an hour early.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Just binged SSS16 in one sitting. Fucking... awesome


----------



## Corey

CCK has like every other tag title out there, so how bout another?


----------



## NastyYaffa

The final day of SSS16 is without a doubt a show of the year contender. Phenomenal stuff.


----------



## HoHo

Yeah Night 2 after just finishing the show loved it even more than Night One for sure. Cobb/Riddle was my favorite match of the show. Those two have strength and abilities of the Gods, that earned that standing ovation during the match. I've seen Cobb in Lucha Underground so I know this guy is strong as fuck and can go in that squared circle, but damn Riddle for a small guy is strong as well. It was my first taste of Riddle and after KO'ing Seven, I was even more amazed to see what he could do with Cobb during this match. Truly a knock out, drag out type of match that made both guys look like Gods after the match. Riddle vs Bate Day 3 bruh.

Sabre JR/Sexsmith made me come to tears during the match. Finding out he Torn his Bicep, and the guy was still fighting for all he had was emotional to watch for me. I starting bawling to the point after the match one of my family members asked me what was wrong that's a real man there.

British Strong Style vs Starr/Eaver. A fun match, more comedy than Wrestling at times. The fans let him have it after getting KO'ed by Riddle in 6 seconds the night before. Even he got a good shot by Starr and I thought he was going to lose again. Don't worry Seven you're going to be on a Sticker Book soon haha.

Jinny vs Laura Di Matteo vs Toni Storm. Everyone knows my love for Toni Storm, she's in my top ten Women Wrestlers to watch today she's so exciting to watch. It's always great to be the first anything in the Wrestling world, and Toni Storm in a good match with Jinny and Di Matteo really put over the Womens Wrestling in Progress especially when them in the Main Event. I heard Kay Lee Ray might be knocking on that Door to face Toni Storm can't wait for that, because their match I saw with Stardom was a goodie and with Progress it should be even better.


----------



## nailz_jaggzy

Wow, anyone else seen that Jimmy Havoc is competing in CZW's Tournament of Death this weekend! *worried face* haha.

https://twitter.com/combatzone/status/872258080356130816/photo/1


----------



## Corey

SSS16 Day 1:

Banks vs. Havoc - *** 1/2 (Pretty much the perfect first opponent for Banks)

ZSJ vs. David Starr - **** (Fantastic match. Running triangle choke countered into Project Ciampa was out of this world. Think Starr should've won tbh)

Andrews vs. Flamita - *** 3/4 (Really liked how they let this one progress instead of going balls to the wall from the opening bell. Flamita used two variations of a backbreaker that I've never seen in my life, so kudos for that big time)

Riddle vs. Seven - :lol


----------



## Pizzamorg

THANK YOU PROGRESS.

I finally caught up on Day 3 of SSS16 2017. Other than the Women’s match which I’m sorry but I just don’t care about PROGRESS’ token Women’s Division this was an incredible show as I believe someone else said. No match was quite as near perfect as that Riddle/Cobb barnburner from Day Two but as a top to bottom collection of content, this was a mighty fine package which is impressive really as while this features the most high stake matches you’d figure everyone would be exhausted by now. And as such I really don’t have a lot to say, it’s easy to weave off lengths and lengths of writing when something doesn’t work but when something is this good people should just go out and fucking watch it. 

My favourite match of the card was probably Dunne/Cobb for the PROGRESS Title. In kayfabe it kinda defeats the whole purpose of the show but given Cobb has been the MVP of the tournament, go on then. Not only was this another stunning performance from him but also a rare, stunning, solo performance from Pete Dunne in a PROGRESS ring. Why was Matanza never this good? 

In terms of the tournament stuff, Riddle/Bate was the better of the two semis, it was an incredible in ring spectacle but the match was killed by Bate’s Superman booking. 

Speaking of Travis Banks winning the whole thing, I will say I’m surprised. I know the guy is massively over but I don’t really know why he is, I only know him from PROGRESS for the tag team he was in and never remember much from him that was all that remarkable. Now as a singles performer I still find him very average in the ring. The one thing he really has going for him is his look, he brings a lot of intensity to his matches, making them really feel like they matter making an otherwise mediocre moveset feel like a brutal arsenal of WMDs but when I think about some of the incredible performances throughout the tournament from people like Haskins, Jeff Cobb, Flamita or Matt Riddle I really don’t get why you’d go with Banks. 

I think that was really highlighted in the Final which was a bit of an overbooked, overindulgent, mess. Rampant no selling (I know wrestlers hate us saying things like this but what is the point of a spot like a Gotch Piledriver on the floor which looked brutal if you plan for the match to carry on another ten minutes after it without ever really slowing the pace or skipping a beat? I love a good athletic, explosive, display but there is a ceiling on a match if it’s a collection of well executed moves rather than an actual story), far too many near falls, directionless progression and a pointless CCK cheap pop in the middle for good measure.

PROGRESS just uploaded another Matt Riddle Atlas Title on tour match, I'll be honest in saying I've never heard of Chaos Wrestling or Mike Bird and while I haven't come away with much thought about Chaos with the shit crowd and worse commentary, the match itself was great. Whoever Mike Bird is, he soaked up some stiff, painful looking, punishment and returned it in kind, in another epic pro wrestling war involving Matt Riddle. The match had possibly the best finish I've ever seen, that Brostroyer off the top rope was fucking insanity, Bird kicking out at one to a massive pop FUCKING INSANITY, Riddle then resorting to kicking his head in and crushing his throat to force him unconscious to finally put him away. JESUS. I know it might be considered bad attitude but the bumps here, man, for such a small venue and crowd, two guys taking such risks for the love of the art man. Makes me love being a fan. Oh and I may not have heard of Mike Bird before this but he's got my fucking attention now.


----------



## Corey

Just finished *Riddle vs. Bird* myself and christ that was good as fuck. Huge props to Riddle for putting on a match like that in front of so few people and not holding back in the slightest. Finish was absolutely insane. ******

Speaking of Byrd, he held his own very well in there and earned himself quite the opportunity:


----------



## Pizzamorg

Walter/Riddle for the Atlas title is one of my favourite matches of this year, Bird/Riddle is likely to go down the same, so I'm HELLA hype for what Walter/Bird can do.


----------



## Corey

Simmons gets the shot after beating Riddle to retain his wXw Title last month:










SSS16 Winner vs. 16 Carat Gold Winner










And the first match for the NYC show:










@TJQ


----------



## TJQ

Corey said:


> @TJQ


Oh dear, an hour bus ride could definitely be worth it. We're gunna have to see what this card shapes up like because I'm a broke boi :lol


----------



## MC

Progress Wrestling Chapter 50: I give it 6 months 

Opening Jim Promos: It's pretty funny when someone was late and Jim questioned him why. Then the crowd booed him when he revealed that he was came from the Midlands which was funny being from there myself. Then Pete Dunne comes out with both titles (progress and wwe UK). He cuts a heel promo disrespecting progress and says that he isn't defending the belt then Jim says if anyone beats him they get a title shot. Good opener giving some insight in there future plans and makes ever Dunne match more unpredictable and more exciting. 

Progress women's title match: Toni Storm © vs Kay Lee Ray 

Very technical start to the match with some good chain wrestler which turns to them turning physical with Ray doing some load chops to storms chest. Ray does a nice Swanton dive to to the outside which was was impressive and storm fires back with a few suplexes and a piledriver. There was a spot where storm was in was in a koji clutch and she used her tongue to reach the ropes. The finish was insane and crazy. Great match and a good opener. Match Ratings: *** ¾ 

The London Riots (Rob Lynch and James Davis) vs Banter Edition (El Ligero and Dave Mastiff)

Mastif says that they can't play their song due to copyright but he gets the crowd to sign turn the page with Ligero being the maestro. It's pretty funny and gets the crowd even more hyped than usual even for Ligero and Mastif matches. The crowd chants you deserve it when it's revealed that Ligero got the blue tick verification on Twitter.

The crowd and rob lynch tries to cheer up Mastiff who is not happy about his singlet. Mastif does a bloody HUNNERCARANA to a standing ovation. There are some good comedy spots in the match which make it entertaining without doing much wrestling. The crowd was behind both teams until the riots did heelish things. The match finished with a nice looking spear to an elevated Ligero for a London Riots win. Match Rating: * ¾ in terms of wrestling it wasn't much but for entertainment it was very good, around **** if it was solely based on entertainment. 

Flash Morgan Webster vs Jack Sexsmith 

The two go back and forth trying to get control of the match. Morgan gains control of the majority of the match with simple strikes. Sexsmith comes back after some chops from Webster. Nothing much really happened throughout the match to be honest and if they did they seems a bit clumsy except a kissing spot which was pretty funny. Then Damien Dunne returned to progress attacking webster and Sexsmith. Sexsmith is very good at gaining sympathy but he dragged Webster down this match it seems or Webster could just have regressed since his injury but the match was just Meh. Match Rating: ** 

Pete Dunne vs Donovan Dijak 

So Donovan Dijak is the surprise opponent, great since I didn't know much about him beforehand. They have an explosive start with Dijak doing a springboard moonsault to the outside and chokeslam on the apron. Dunne comes back with a surfboard with fish hooks in the mouth and snaps the fingers. Dunne does lots of submission grounding Dijak while egging on the crowd. Dunne control the match until Dijak fires up and knocks down Dunne and follows up with suplex. Dunne reverses a spring board with a forearm with a pedigree after. Dunne gets cocky and they do the yeah/boo spot. The exchange big blows until Dijak hits a massive big boot. Dunne counters a discus forearm wig one on his own. Dijak this a no hands moonsault to the outside! ! Dunne bits the fingers and hits the bitter end for the win. What a match, great introduction match for Dijak and Dunne winning relatively clean puts him over as a strong champion, the crowd gave Dunne lots of heat and Dijak lots of love. Mission Accomplished. Match Ratings: **** 

Jimmy Havoc & Mark Haskins vs. The Origin (Nathan Cruz & Zack Gibson)


Gibson and Cruz gets massive heat when they come out. Haskins and havoc may look an odd team on paper but in reality they work. They celebrate Haskins birth day with party hats and even havoc gets one but Gibson interrupts to absolute boos. Now you struggle to get the full understanding of what he says anyway but he boos make his words unintelligible. Haskins and havoc stop Gibson by attacking them. Havoc has a drink of beer while Cruz takes control and beats down Haskins. The action spills to the outside and Gibson attacks havocs back. The Origin cut off half the ring and take turns beat up havoc, targeting the back with back racks and back body drops. Jimmy fights back with a rope assisted tornado ddt and gets the hot tag. Haskins uses his quickness to get the better of Gibson Haskins gets an armbar which Cruz interrupts and the Origin regains control. Havoc and Haskins fights back and gets rid of Gibson and double teams Cruz. Havoc gets a chair wrapped in a paper as a present, Gibson gets the chair off Haskins and attempts the Eddie chair spot but fails and havoc attacks him. Haskins tires to throw the chair into Gibson but he ducks and the chair hits havoc. Then gin son rolls Haskins up for the win. Good match with never a boring moment in it, havoc and Haskins proved to be a good tag team and the origin move up with a high profile win against two former progress champs. Match Ratings: *** ½ 

James Drake vs Tavis Banks 

Banks teases a dive but goes for the running PK on the outside. Banks starts belting drake with stiff kicks. Drake gets back into it by slamming bank's face on the apron. Drake plays to the crowd getting good heat but pays when banks retakes control with unbelievable speed and targeting the leg. The reverse suplexes and drake gets the better of the two in the exchange. Drake tires beating banks with forearms bit banks fires back with a running knee and a dive to the outside. Banks hits the ki krusher for the two. Drake hits an inverted ddt but banks comes back and hits a springboard kick for the win. It's an alright match which highlighted both competitors. Match Ratings: **¾ 

BSS (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) vs CCK 
British Strong Styles goes into the crowd and antanogises then more until brooks dives on the outside. Bate shows his strength by catching brooks and slamming him down. The attack each other with chairs, suplexing each other on chairs throwing them in chairs. British Strong styles control the match by double teaming kid lykos. The match heads to the stage where seven nails lykos with kicks and and attempt to powerpomb him of the stage but CCK do the opposite and brooks dives on lykos and BSS. They go back to the ring and FINALLY starts. BSS hit double super kicks and CCK hit them with double knees. BSS low blow CCK for ye intentional dq but are dinied. BSS hit a assisted uppercut for a two. Everyone hits each other with massive hard shots and everyone falls down. A 1 handed poweberbmb from seven to lykos and CCK hits there finisher but bate comes in before the three. 

Lykos hits a flying knee to seven and a spring board cutter to bate. Bate then fires up and delivers two stiff lariats to CCK. Bate takes on both with deadlift Germans and clothe lines. Seven comes back in with a lariat and spinning piledriver for a TWO. Dunne comes down but gets attacked by banks. Seven is distracted but lykos comes in and brooks delivers a ddt from the apron. Bate at tries to go to the top rope but lykos does a Brian buster on the turnbuckle for the win. Wow just wow, absolute carnage, great false finishes, and a shocking result. Great match. Match Ratings: ***¾ 


Overall views: Very good show, two amazing matches and the rest are very good with the exception of the Sexsmith vs webster match. Can't wait for the next show. Match of the night I'll say was the Pete Dunne vs Donovan Dijak match. MVP of the night I'll say Pete Dunne because of the match and his good promo at he start of the show. The show was 8/10


----------



## Corey

Dunne vs. Dijak!? Fuck, I gotta see that.

First thing, new champs.










Second thing, free match!






Third thing, circle September 10th on your calendars.


----------



## Platt

Nevermind that in just three days we get this


----------



## Corey

^^^ Think I'm feelin another new champ there. Match should be awesome (again).


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS Chapter 50 dropped the other day. Given that it is such a special show for them, I was really shocked by how weak this card was. I ended up skipping basically half the card. 

Speaking of the stuff I did watch, given this is an anniversary show of sorts I guess I can see a purpose in recreating the story that basically put their promotion on the map in the first place but in terms of long term storytelling, I’m not sure how I feel about this whole Dunne/Smallman business. 

Speaking of the match, I’d never heard of Donovan Dijak before but he impressed here. If you’re going to send someone after Dunne to try and get the title off of him, this is the kind of person you send. A real hellacious match, really intense and competitive. Minus some shit catches on Dunne’s part, the two guys worked really well, really snug together, I’m pretty sure this was Dijak’s debut in PROGRESS but you’d never know. 

The next match on the card I might have ordinarily skipped but I wanted to see what will happen after the SSS16 shennans between Haskins and Havoc. I felt pretty reward for tuning in, too. It had the usual PROGRESS balance in the booking and competitive action but the stuff involving Havoc’s injuries from the Tournament of Death and Haskins’ birthday were all fun little moments for very different reasons. I did find it weird though given the nature of the finish that there were no repercussions. I guess this makes them even and Havoc is basically a face now but it still felt kinda out of character for him to just shrug it off. 

Then of course the Main Event. I still don’t really know who CCK are, it seemed like one day I just woke up and suddenly they were Tag Team Champions on pretty much every British indy that mattered. 
Whoever they are, they are bloody talented, based on this for evidence. 

I don’t really understand their strategy of engaging in a war with BSS before the bell even rang, potentially it would have never even made it to a match in the first place but it did make way for some absolutely insane action. Some of those chair bumps Chris Brookes took especially…. ouch. 

Then when the match properly started, I loved BSS trying to deliberately get themselves disqualified after being gassed by the before the match fight but Roberts just gives them the finger in return. 

The match did have some indy booking problems though, if I’m being honest. While there was some attempts at storytelling at times, more often than not people were taking huge moves and immediately spring full force into the next move. It creates amazing action for sure but it’s shallow. That moment where Chris Brookes took about ten finishers in a row, still kicked out at two with change and just carried on was dumb as hell. 

I heard some rumblings that the change of hands of the titles is a sign that Seven and Bate will be going to WWE full time. I haven’t really seen any suggestion of this on the WWE side but either way, poor Bate. Beaten by Dunne at Takeover and now eating the pin to drop the PROGRESSS tag belts to CCK.


----------



## Corey

TJQ said:


> Oh dear, an hour bus ride could definitely be worth it. We're gunna have to see what this card shapes up like because I'm a broke boi :lol


Think this might make your decision easier.  They only sold 300 tickets for the show.


----------



## TJQ

Corey said:


> Think this might make your decision easier.  They only sold 300 tickets for the show.


Well this is good, because I'm broke and didn't need to be spending more money LOL.


----------



## Corey

Oh hells yes. Forget about the whole Ringkampf thing, I need WALTER vs. Dijak.











__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/885923168753524736


----------



## Platt

Chapter 51 is up on demand. The tag, 6 man and Atlas matches are must see, Dunne/Webster is good the rest tbh is pretty skip able unless you really like the people in the match. Can't wait to give Riddle/Walter a rewatch.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Watching Chapter 51 right now and this show has been fantastic so far

Haskins vs Bird - ***1/2
Ashmore vs Eddie Dennis - ***
Jigsaw vs Havoc - ***
London Riots vs War Machine - ****1/2
Riddle vs Walter - ****1/2

This is seriously a show of the year contender for me right now and still got 2 matches left


----------



## Pizzamorg

Anyone know what is happening with Progress: Cologne? Watching through the new chapter of PROGRESS now and it seems like the Cologne show almost works as Chapter 50.5 which would be fine as I believe I asked PROGRESS whether it would be on demand and they said yes. However, it has yet to materialise and I wondered if anyone here has any news?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Anyone know what is happening with Progress: Cologne? Watching through the new chapter of PROGRESS now and it seems like the Cologne show almost works as Chapter 50.5 which would be fine as I believe I asked PROGRESS whether it would be on demand and they said yes. However, it has yet to materialise and I wondered if anyone here has any news?


I don't think its a proper chapter show, just a special event and I think they said it won't be uploaded until September


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> I don't think its a proper chapter show, just a special event and I think they said it won't be uploaded until September


Well the Haskins/Bird and Riddle/Walter matches during 51 at least are in direct response to Cologne.










PROGRESS Chapter 51.

It is annoying that whenever PROGRESS steps out of the Electric Ballroom the audio and visual quality of their shows goes to shit. If you were going to have a bunch of your wrestlers cut promos, which is out of the ordinary for PROGRESS, couldn’t you have waited until you were back in the Electric Ballroom where we could actually hear what the fuck you were saying? 

They say the opening match on the card can sometimes be the most important and you kinda get that sense here as out of the gate and even without any real build, Mike Bird and Mark Haskins try and kill each other in an excellent, all impact, contest. I just love it when two guys are working so snug, making that sweat fly and their chest light up. Haskins and Bird loud and proud make the intentions of the show known. Please give Haskins another shot with the title, he fucking deserves that so much. 

Admittedly I had zero interest in the next match on the card so I jumped to Jigsaw’s PROGRESS debut. In ordinary circumstances I’d feel really sorry for anyone making a debut against Jimmy Havoc but PROGRESS have really watered his character down on his return, which is funny as he looks even more monster like now he has those nasty scars from the Tournament of Death from earlier in the year. I don’t feel like Jigsaw set the world alight here in his debut but he’s obviously very talented and I look forward to seeing what he does with PROGRESS moving forwards. The sequence Havoc used to win this match though was awesome. 

Once again not interested in the next match but skipped to the one after, which sees the first title defence of the evening between Atlas Champion Riddle and Walter being the first person I believe to get a rematch for this title against Riddle and what a match too, so fucking brutal and nasty. Outside of the wonderful in ring spectacle of this though, I am in two minds about this match, I’ve loved basically every entry in Riddle’s Atlas world tour, one of my most favourite title runs ever and as such I wouldn’t complain about him facing any of those opponents again. Especially Walter which was one of the very best defences in a long collection of great ones. However, at the same time, why have Riddle drop the title now? And against someone he has already beaten not long ago, no less? AND to a submission? I dunno, this seems to have just come from absolutely nowhere which I appreciate is important in wrestling from time to time but I dunno, it just seems a weird ending to the run. I just hope this means Riddle is going to be moved into the PROGRESS Title picture and not that he is leaving PROGRESS. Also wonder what Walter whispered to Smallman to have him shaking his head? 

As a match, the Main Event took a while to settle in but once it started to develop into a bit of a car crash it got really fun, you gotta love them Sick Fucking Tag Moves but as a piece of storytelling, what a a convoluted mess. Why are are BSS the Tag Champs again? And was Travis Banks crying at the end?


----------



## HoHo

Their were three great Matches in this show, but the show overall was very entertaining.

War Machine vs London Riots. I haven't really been into The London Riots, but War Machine brought out some greatness in them I haven't seen. I heard the Commentators say the London Riots have defeated War Machine two times before, amazing match between the two teams in this one for sure. I mean when I saw Hanson do his Springboard Back Elbow I lost it like the fans in audience. Big men aren't suppose to wrestle that way, he is truly blessed. Imagine a match between Strowman and Hanson could the Earth be able to withstand the abilities of those two in the ring versus each other? London Riots kept pace with War Machine the whole match and that was great to see, big ups for them in a losing performance.

I thought after that match how you can top it, and two matches overall are just as good.

Riddle vs Walter[Progress Atlas Division Championship]. The Chop Battle of all Battles between these two, and when they weren't smacking each other's chest turning them beat red, they decided to kick the crap outta each other and it was great to see. Where did they find this guy Walter, dude was evil as fuck and gave no fucks about the aura around Riddle. He earned that fucking win, and he made one of the most dangerous men in the business tap the fuck out! I have a question for someone, and did Riddle ever face Shibata in any company before getting injured just wondering? I'm just wondering because those are two guys who would be made for each other.

CCK vs British Strong Style[Progress Tag Team Championship] Just amazing from start to finish between these two guys. Seven is so fucking smart to get CCK to put up the Tag Titles, but lol at him suckering the fans and his opponents in thinking as if British Strong Style would actually allow Dunne to put up the title. Great moments in this one between Dunne munching on the Team Mascot for BSS before the match which was a Pigeon, to all three guys posing like Hunter, or even the Meltzer Driver being used it was a great match. I loved the moment when all six guys were down on the ground and they were hitting each other and they got him and it was a melee like that I really dug there. CCK losing the titles poor guys they worked so hard to win it, and they lose it just like that. I mean they should keep their Chins up thought it took a Sledgehammer to get the win. Small things like that might not work for them next time around. They'll get a rematch down the line, and Banks could be taking away the World Title from Dunne, so power is always shifting in this company.


----------



## Gyser

HoHo said:


> I have a question for someone, and did Riddle ever face Shibata in any company before getting injured just wondering? I'm just wondering because those are two guys who would be made for each other.


In RevPro earlier this year, High Stakes 2017 I believe.


----------



## Corey

@Pizzamorg it seems like they're uploading matches from Cologne slowly on their Youtube channel. Walter/Bird went up a couple weeks ago (wasn't that good unfortunately) and now this one's out:


----------



## Pizzamorg

Gyser said:


> In RevPro earlier this year, High Stakes 2017 I believe.


One of my matches of the year, too. 



Corey said:


> @Pizzamorg it seems like they're uploading matches from Cologne slowly on their Youtube channel. Walter/Bird went up a couple weeks ago (wasn't that good unfortunately) and now this one's out:


Cheers for the heads up! Odd to see them on YouTube rather than just them putting the show up on demand.


----------



## Corey

:agree:


----------



## Daniel97

Chapter 51

Riots/War Machine - ****
BD/Riddle - ****1/4
CCK/BSS - ****3/4

I fucking loved the 6 man. Bagged tickets for Chapter 57 today along with Ally Pally.


----------



## Alright_Mate

:bjpenn


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched the new PROGRESS Chapter, while it had one of the best looking PROGRESS Cards on paper in ages and kicked off with that wonderful proposal from those two fans the show I would argue is one of PROGRESS’ worst. It was almost like being teleported to a bizarro world version of PROGRESS where a lot of the in ring work is sloppy, where a lot of the booking is shitty, where matches feel bolted together and where the finishes are baffling. Perhaps worst of all is what they are doing with #CCK... or rather not doing. Their story is practically happening in reverse for no clear reason.

Speaking about positives, other than Riddle effectively cheating to beat Travis Banks at the end there and for Banks to respond by giving Riddle a hug in the most eye rolling indy wrestling way possible, this was a HELL of a match. You take two of the most brutal, hard hitting, bastards on the circuit and throw them in a ring together, you’re going to get fireworks. These two ripped chunks out of each other and this was a hell of a return showing for Riddle after he lost the Atlas Title (he looks so weird without out). Like I’ve said so many times from a mechanical sense I think Banks is so overrated but his in ring storytelling just elevates his basic in ring ability to dizzying heights. 

Much to my surprise I really enjoyed the Women’s Title match, too. I haven’t watched anything involving this title because I felt its introduction was really token but I wanted to see what Toni Storm was all about before the Mae Young Classic and aside from the occasional bit of sloppiness this was a hell of a match too. It had a real sports contest feel and was an intense rollercoaster of snug and brutal looking action. Basically what every good title match should be. Oh and Toni Storm…thickkkk…. and she KNOWS it. Is the story about her, Tyler Bate and the ****** true? 

Then of course, the Main Event. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff about War Machine but this is the first time I’ve really had a reason to watch one of their matches. They weren’t wrong, were they? Plenty of sloppiness from BSS and a botched finish aside, War Machine themselves gave a HELL of a performance here. Does this mean a match between #CCK and War Machine is on the way? Because that sounds fucking awesome.


----------



## Platt

Spoiler: Chapter 53



They're Back :mark


----------



## Flair Shot




----------



## TD Stinger

Platt said:


> Spoiler: Chapter 53
> 
> 
> 
> They're Back :mark





Spoiler: Chapter 53



YES!

Though, I don't know if they reform SPPT since Banks is getting a big singles run and looks to be the next Progress Champion but still, awesome that they're back.




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/891561228753141760
YES! Keith fucking Lee in Progress!


----------



## Platt

Jack Gallagher returns at the New York show to face Dunne with the UK title on the line.


----------



## sailord

Should be awesome match still can't get over wwe lending out their talent two other promotions.


----------



## Corey

Platt said:


> Jack Gallagher returns at the New York show to face Dunne with the UK title on the line.


Should be a great match. Would be nice to see Dunne on WWE programming every now and then though.


----------



## december_blue

Gallagher vs. Dunne in New York is gonna be good.​


----------



## Platt

SPPT get their tag title shot in NYC


----------



## Flair Shot

Spoiler











:mark


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Just got tickets for Chapter 59. Unbelievably excited.


----------



## december_blue

Dakota Kai teaming with Dahlia Black!!!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/892852827898490881


----------



## Flair Shot

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/893232582682345472
Get your chest protectors out. Here we go again.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Yeah, I am pretty confident in saying that there will not be a better moment in wrestling this year than the ending of Chapter 53. That was fucking incredible.


----------



## Flair Shot

That reaction from the crowd near the end of Chapter 53. Oh my god!


----------



## rkdqud23

I thought Super Dragon's return at PWG Steen Wolf was the best ending but, the return of SPPC is exactly 1235161284 times better than that moment. Greatest ending of all-time. More than goosebumps, tears in my eyes. SPPT just delivered two of my favorite pro wrestling moments this year.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched the new PROGRESS Chapter. Why is Rockstar Spud doing ring crew, isn’t he an actual wrestler already? 

This had one of the weaker overall cards on paper that I’ve seen from PROGRESS for a while and I feel like a lot of that translated to the show itself, which had plenty of huge story moments oddly enough like absolutely crammed with them, this was a show full of more moments than maybe any PROGRESS chapter ever but little to talk about really in the way of wrestling outside of really the two matches that bookended the show. Never seen Keith Lee in action before but I’ve heard plenty and he is special, man. 

My favourite story moments here was firstly the blow out between Haskins and Havoc. I thought it was odd to see them in a tag team and this felt like logical pay off to a rather illogical match set up. Still they gave us a hint of what a great tag team they could have been in another universe somewhere.

I actually had no investment in South Pacific Power Trip so I just enjoyed the energy of their return and also enjoyed the subtle character moment for #CCK. Not really sure what SPPT returning means for Travis Banks though as he’s getting this rocket singles push which they surely aren’t going to stop now… right? 

Then again look how all over the place #CCK’s story has been since their debut or how mishandled Havoc has been since his return to prove that PROGRESS doesn’t always get it right. 

Oh and I also want to give a huge shoutout to the promos from Rob Lynch and James Davis. If that was acting then fuck me, those may have been the greatest promos I have seen in my life. I have no investment in this team at all and even I was close to tears, for fans of these guys this must have been just… wow. Ciampa and Gargano eat your hearts out.


----------



## Flair Shot




----------



## NastyYaffa

Fucking hell - Pete Dunne had a match vs. some dude called Darius Carter last night & Dunne got injured in it. PROGRESS just confirmed that Dunne can't wrestle at tomorrow's show vs. Gallagher.

That fucking sucks  Was looking forward to that match so much. 

Also goddamn some wrestlers are giving the Carter dude so much shit on twitter

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896238908287176704

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896242254540558337

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896373233187946498

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896374106551201792Looks like he has quite the reputation based on what Starr tweeted.


----------



## Corey

Yeah that really fuckin sucks. Idk what they're gonna do for a replacement. I've never heard of someone being pulled from shows because of a laceration these days though...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896231102523863040


----------



## Pizzamorg

Weird, I can't see any mention of the injury anywhere other than with Starr losing his fucking shit. Who is this Darius character? Starr seems to hate him but I've never heard of him. Sure this isn't all an elaborate work? If the guy was that bad, why would they let Dunne wrestle him like the day before the New York show?


----------



## TD Stinger

NastyYaffa said:


> Fucking hell - Pete Dunne had a match vs. some dude called Darius Carter last night & Dunne got injured in it. PROGRESS just confirmed that Dunne can't wrestle at tomorrow's show vs. Gallagher.
> 
> That fucking sucks  Was looking forward to that match so much.
> 
> Also goddamn some wrestlers are giving the Carter dude so much shit on twitter
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896238908287176704
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896242254540558337
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896373233187946498
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896374106551201792Looks like he has quite the reputation based on what Starr tweeted.












Well that sucks. I too was looking forward to Gallahger vs. Dunne. Hopefully he has a speedy recovery.


----------



## december_blue

I can see this happening now as a result of what happened to Dunne.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896378856596271104


----------



## TD Stinger

december_blue said:


> I can see this happening now as a result of what happened to Dunne.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896378856596271104


I mean, it’s not like Dunne has been working WWE shows since like, May. If you don’t want them to work indies, fine. But you use them on your own show then or don’t have them locked into a contract at all.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Ironically it seems like WWE is one of the least safe promotions to work for right now, any sign of trouble they pull you straight away because of past issues but until that point they seem quite happy to run you into the ground. Guys go on the circuit for like a decade without a significant injury and then pick something career altering in their first year with WWE.


----------



## december_blue

TD Stinger said:


> I mean, it’s not like Dunne has been working WWE shows since like, May. If you don’t want them to work indies, fine. But you use them on your own show then or don’t have them locked into a contract at all.


That's true. Though I did read that the PROGRESS guys (Dunne included) are all heading to the PC after this weekend. So more than likely, he would've been used on the August 24th set of NXT tapings.


----------



## TD Stinger

december_blue said:


> That's true. Though I did read that the PROGRESS guys (Dunne included) are all heading to the PC after this weekend. So more than likely, he would've been used on the August 24th set of NXT tapings.


If Dunne is healthy that is which I hope he is. Not only does he potentially have NXT stuff coming up, he also has that big match against Travis Banks coming up in September in Alexandra Palace.


----------



## december_blue

I wonder what they'll do with Gallagher now.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896424995932573696


----------



## Pizzamorg

To be honest, it would make more sense for Gallagher to challenge for the UK Title on a NXT or WWE Show/PPV more any way so maybe they'll do the match of Full Sail during the tapings once they've got Dunne's stitches out. No offence to PROGRESS of course, it would have been a treat for the fans, but from a business perspective, as I said on the other page, it is baffling to me that WWE created such a gorgeous title which is currently property of the indys only. 

It has been used in storylines or matches in PROGRESS, Evolve and ICW which are all WWE partners in some capacity but how many UK Title matches have we actually had in a WWE ring since Bate was crowned, four? I don't even know if it has been that many. 

The UK Division is as good as brushed under the carpet at this stage which makes it all the more funny that at Takeover Dunne and Bate put the entire WWE to shame and they aren't even booked for this show.


----------



## volde

Yeah, it looks like whole UK expansion thing is as good as dead. I mean, do casual fans at this point even know that this thing exists in the first place?


----------



## Pizzamorg

volde said:


> Yeah, it looks like whole UK expansion thing is as good as dead. I mean, do casual fans at this point even know that this thing exists in the first place?


Yeah like even that Takeover match, my personal MOTY so far, but if you don't follow the indy's you'd have no reason to give a fuck about that match at all outside the work rate aspect. WWE blows it again.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Dunne being at Ally Pally is all that matters. He should be kept in a padded room full of cotton wool until then.

Sucks for everyone in New York but it'll be a great show anyway


----------



## Savage4Life

I went to the show last night and it was amazing. I had no exposure to Progress before, that is outside ofthe guys who have appeared on WWE I was blown away. All the talent gave it there all. I might be late, but I'm a fan of Jimmy Havoc now. 

WWE would be so much better if they let talent be themselves a little more. 

But Progress is definitely a must watch....


----------



## Corey

So TK Cooper apparently got legit injured last night and cut their match early. Sad to hear.

Also I'll put this in spoiler tags, but I'm a bit lukewarm on this because of the quick turnaround.



Spoiler: Match result





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/896781806736990208


----------



## Pizzamorg

Dunne, then TK Cooper, poor PROGRESS... 

So they put the belt back on Riddle? Sorta not surprised, it was weird that he dropped it to Walter in the fashion he did in the first place and PROGRESS love doing this kinda stuff, just look at BSS and their Tag Titles.


----------



## The Nuke

volde said:


> Yeah, it looks like whole UK expansion thing is as good as dead. I mean, do casual fans at this point even know that this thing exists in the first place?


When WOS started getting some traction WWE jumped big into the UK indy scene.

Now that a WOS return is on hold, WWE has lost interest. WWE doesn't do anything because they actually care. They saw a threat, and acted accordingly. they never cared about these UK promotions or the UK Wrestlers.

Think of the CWC last year. Previously HHH had said he wanted another crack at a CW division. Not long after the CWC is announced, and they buttered it up good. They made it sound as if WWE was opening up and willing to work with guys from all over the world and other promotions even. Something that was going to be a yearly thing. Not long after it was discovered that all the guys were being signed up, and it was never about giving guys a platform to prove something. IT was all just to give HHH's CW division a starting point. Which was why the CW title was introduced at the final. CWC ended, HHH got a lot of good CW indy stars, and got what he wanted in creating a CW division in WWE. It has all but failed, and the likely hood another CWC classic happening is minimal.

Surprised they took the belt off of Walter. I'm not super familiar with Progress, but this fucking dude has an aura about him that fucking shines bright.


----------



## Corey

Alright well so much for me putting that in spoiler tags. :lol


----------



## Pizzamorg

The Nuke said:


> Surprised they took the belt off of Walter. I'm not super familiar with Progress, but this fucking dude has an aura about him that fucking shines bright.


Walter is awesome, the build just wasn't really there for the original title change to make sense. 



Corey said:


> Alright well so much for me putting that in spoiler tags. :lol


Eh. PROGRESS shows usually come out so late on demand after they actually happen it is usually impossible to avoid spoilers anymore. It was often really frustrating at first but now I've gotten over it as there is really no way around it unless I hide for weeks until they upload the show.


----------



## Corey

Mania weekend is gonna be even more bloated than it was this year. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/897185931626762240


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Doing my little PROGRESS catch-up and will be watching Fate Loves The Fearless tomorrow afternoon. Lots of great stuff on the past 2 shows I just watched!


Rainmaka! said:


> PROGRESS Chapter 51: Screaming For PROGRESS:
> _War Machine vs. The London Riots in a Tornado Tag Team Match-******
> Matt Riddle vs. WALTER for the PROGRESS Atlas Championship-*****1/4*
> #CCK (Chris Brookes, Kid Lykos & Travis Banks) vs. British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) for the PROGRESS Six-Man Tag Team Championship-****3/4*_
> 
> PROGRESS Chapter 52: Vote Pies:
> _Toni Storm vs. Laura Di Matteo-******
> Matt Riddle vs. Travis Banks-*****1/2*
> Pete Dunne vs. Eddie Dennis-******
> British Strong Style (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) vs. War Machine in a Tornado Tag Team Match for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championship-*****1/4*_


----------



## Corey

Ladder match!


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Obviously you can see why they're doing a ladder match. It's a huge show and part of their big story arch. But I enjoyed the first match so much that I just want a straight 2 vs 2. No gimmickry no bullshit. Same goes for the mainevent.


----------



## TD Stinger

2 pretty good matches for Alley Palace. Give me a good Toni Storm match and maybe Havoc vs. Haskins and you got a hell of a show.


----------



## Corey

TD Stinger said:


> 2 pretty good matches for Alley Palace. Give me a good Toni Storm match and maybe Havoc vs. Haskins and you got a hell of a show.


Not sure if you saw these two as well. It kinda has the feel of like... the biggest PROGRESS show ever? Maybe idk


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Not sure if you saw these two as well. It kinda has the feel of like... the biggest PROGRESS show ever? Maybe idk


Sweet. Dahlia isn't the best opponent they could do for Storm but she's more than serviceable and the 3 way looks great as well. Again, I hope to see Havoc vs. Haskins added as their friendship seemed to dissolve at the last Progress show I saw.

I've only been watching Progress for about a year now but given that their top 2 matches have been hyped for months and the bigger venue, this feels like their WrestleMania.


----------



## Zatiel

I just watched PROGRESS's New York City show and it's honestly my favorite show they've ever done. So much of it was so fun, and sometimes done in rebound mode. To lose Dunne, but still have Gallagher put on a crowd-pleaser of a match, and then have that unfortunate accident in the big tag only to turn it into a fun story, showed both the versatility of the roster and how receptive the American crowd was. I'm 100% sure the British crowd would've reacted the same way. I love how positive and respectful they can be.

But WALTER Vs. Riddle blew away everything else on the card. One of the best "slaying the giant" matches of the decade. Riddle has ruled for a while now, but WALTER has come so far from when I used to skip his matches in wXw. Strong facial expressions, carries his stature just right, and mixes athleticism with brute power well. They meshed even better than the last time I saw them.

Such a fun show. Boy, I'm glad Progress exists.


----------



## TD Stinger

Progress New York was for sure their best show of the year and one of the best wrestling shows this year period.

Gallagher vs. Gibson, the 4 way, and Riddle vs. Walter were all great matches.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched PROGRESS NYC. 

You would suggest that the loss of both the PROGRESS Tag Title and the WWE UK Title matches from this card would be a killing blow but ironically the matches that resulted from the shuffling of the deck were the strongest efforts from this show while the matches that remained unchanged were all pretty uninspiring. 

This was no truer than in the dull and disappointing No DQ and Atlas Number One Contenders matches, although Joey Janela and Donovan Dijak both gave good individual performances and I can’t wait to see Dakota Kai and Deonna Purrazzo on the Boston show even if I have no interest in ever watching the so called “women’s tag” they were involved in here, again. 

And don’t get me wrong, neither the handicap match that came out of Cooper’s injury nor the four way, which was a product of the reshuffle of the card after the loss of Dunne, were masterpieces but I just thought they were the two most entertaining matches on the card. 

It was also nice to see Gallagher take off those “WWE TV” shackles and work a warts and all indy match again, regardless of who he was facing. Especially as Gallagher sort of indirectly buried WWE here. 

Speaking of the Main Event. PROGRESS sure love having people drop their titles and immediately winning them back, don’t they? The match itself was fine but again the booking just held it back for me.

Right, next up is PROGRESS Boston. It has the better looking card of the two shows, I just hope this one isn’t stained with injuries as well.

While Jim Smallman doesn’t seem particularly happy with the PROGRESS Boston venue, Boston benefits from running an hour shorter and not featuring over a thousand people crammed into a burning sardine can. Sure, maybe even more so than in New York, the Boston card is a, by all regards, a bit of a bolted together Frankenstein’s monster but I honestly preferred this show considerably and it actually might be one of my favourite PROGRESS shows of the year. It also features a solo effort from Glen on commentary and he is a great commentator anyway, but really holds his own on his own, even after being up all night with TK Cooper.

Boston gives us, in my mind, not only the best match of the whole two shows but arguably the best match PROGRESS has put on this year, outside of that match also featuring Riddle when he took on his Chosen Bro partner during SSS16 of course, as Martin Stone takes on Matt Riddle in a non-title match. If you didn’t think Danny Burch was under utilised in WWE after his mini-feud with Oney Lorcan, this match against surely wrestler of the year contender Matt Riddle just shows how CRIMINALLY under-utilised this man is over there. Fuck me, this was an absolute BLINDER. I do wonder what the fuck was going on during that after match promo though, looked like they were cutting bits out of it.

But that isn’t to discredit the excellent David v Goliath slobberknocker between Jeff Cobb and Mandrews to raise the curtain, or the much stronger women’s offering as this time Dakota Kai, Deonna Purrazzo and Jinny face off in a three way (although yes it is a shame about the recycled talent and fifty fifty booking) and even the Gibson/Havoc match I had zero interest in was solid. 

Then there was the Main Event which was not only, ironically, probably the worst match on the card, it further raised questions about the NYC booking. If Stone was too light to challenge for the Atlas Title, wouldn’t it have made sense to keep the title on Walter for now to add some drama during his tag title match, being he is teamed with the now Number One Contender for that Atlas Title? You would think it writes itself. 

Now, it’s the Gallagher/Banks match I don’t really know how to feel about, though. For sure, it was a hell of a match but while they have made “excuses” in the form of bad conditions in New York show and distractions in the Boston show and Gallagher gave that little speech at the end, it seems weird that Gallagher went over twice and even with those “excuses” the sheer number of false finishes in these matches has meant Gallagher has effectively all but buried PROGRESS in his time here. I guess you could kind of sacrifice Gibson if you must but pinning their number one contender for their top title on their promotion just seems fucked up. 

And maybe it is out of PROGRESS’ hands, maybe this is the condition WWE gave PROGRESS to have Gallagher on their shows but I actually think this was deliberate. But WHY they are doing this, is anyone’s guess. Why they would take Terminator Banks, put him on a losing streak and have him go into his match against Dunne the underdog. I mean I’ll give it time for the pay off but a lot of the booking in PROGRESS for a while has been kind of whack. This is like Vince McMahon booking Reigns in his weird mindset that coming from under is the only way to get someone over, even for someone otherwise booked as a monster powerhouse and even for someone who is already over.


----------



## Platt

The booking of Banks has been ridiculous, if I'm remembering right the only match he's won since winning SS16 is the handicap match against the tag champs which is just as stupid as him losing all the others.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Platt said:


> The booking of Banks has been ridiculous, if I'm remembering right the only match he's won since winning SS16 is the handicap match against the tag champs which is just as stupid as him losing all the others.


Yeah I really don't get what is going on, at the start of this year when I was catching up on all the big angles in PROGRESS and all the key title matches and so on what made me fall in love with PROGRESS was the logical, no nonsense, booking of everything, where stuff would unravel organically and there would be clear cause and effect. I also noticed online a HUGE selling point of PROGRESS over numerous other British promotions that use the same talent was this sense that in PROGRESS, "everything mattered". However since I've caught up and been watching the shows as they've come, so much of the booking has me just shrugging my shoulders. 

Even ignoring whatever the fuck they are doing with Travis Banks and assuming it will just make sense in the end, we've had...

Titles being dropped, then immediately going back to the person who held it. Not only does it immediately go back but then usually what happens is the original holder then goes on to hold it for months and months and months while the person who beat them originally usually crashes down the card and is given nothing to work with. They did it with both the Atlas and Tag Titles this year, in fact I believe it has happened multiple times with the tag titles and BSS this year. You remember when CCK came in, red fucking hot, won the titles after being hotshotted. What have they even done since? 

The amount of regular PROGRESS talent they should really be taking care of given the amount of talent they are losing to WWE doing not a whole lot, including former champions for their promotion or guys who are pushed as top talent elsewhere and then used like jobbers here, while PROGRESS splashes on big indy circuit names to take up key spots on their cards. 

A lot of unspoken stories that just come to pretty abrupt ends, only to then never really be discussed-ala Riddle losing to Bate clean, despite Bate always being booked like a bitch heel, during SSS16, bringing to an end Riddle's unbeaten singles streak in PROGRESS yet this loss has ultimately amounted to nothing since for either man. 

Or Havoc retiring his nemesis Ospreay from PROGRESS yet somehow seemingly has less momentum coming out of that than he did going in and booked like this sporting babyface while PROGRESS selectively picks Havoc's past achievements and wants us to seemingly just forget the bad blood between Smallman and Havoc and the fact that Havoc was the biggest evil in PROGRESS until his injury to which he has had little to no repercussions. 

The introduction of a Women's Division/Title which should be a huge moment but feels like a token gesture as PROGRESS themselves have admitted they have zero regular women under their promotion to keep a constant flow of competition for the title so we get random, recycled, fifty fifty booked stuff like we did between NYC and Boston. 

And this is just shit I fired from the hip off the top of my head, if I reread some of my posts from this year I'd probably remember even more wacky decisions. 

And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to bury PROGRESS, I just think there seem to be a lot of problems creeping in and I just wonder why.


----------



## TD Stinger

Platt said:


> The booking of Banks has been ridiculous, if I'm remembering right the only match he's won since winning SS16 is the handicap match against the tag champs which is just as stupid as him losing all the others.


That's also irked me. The guy gets really over, wins the SS16, earns the right to fight for the title at basically their WrestleMania, and now going into the tourney he loses against, Riddle, Lee, and even Gallagher.

Jack Gallagher, who WWE is lending to them. Who isn't even going to be there going forward. And the beats the #1 contender for their biggest title. I don't get it.


----------



## Pizzamorg

The only other way it could make sense I suppose is planting the seeds for Gallagher to come back again down the road and challenge Dunne for the PROGRESS or UK Title but they aren't back in the US again until Wrestlemania next year...


----------



## Corey

This explains why he's joining the New Japan tour late.

Who's gonna be in the UK in 6 days... :hmmm


----------



## Pizzamorg

It is a PROGRESS overload! Chapter 54, I guess the Ally Pally Go Home show, of sorts? 

This was a very “WWE” feeling PROGRESS show where, like WWE do on their builds for PPVs, they basically did they Ally Pally show here, but with the card shuffled around and without the titles on the line, in the name of setting up Ally Pally. 

They also did a talk show bit which I’m not sure I’ve ever seen done outside of WWE in a wrestling promotion before, complete with PROGRESS’ own version of Mitch the plant. It sounds really silly and for the most part it was but it actually really did a great job in giving a fresh way of fleshing out characters and advancing feuds. PROGRESS really has massively cut back on narrative and characters, really focusing on the in ring content this year, so this was especially nice with that context in mind. 

The Lykos/Bate and Brooke/Seven singles matches were both great. On the one level, Bate and Seven got to break free from their booking, at least for a little while, and remind everyone that despite their portrayal as two scoundrel bitches, they are both really really GREAT wrestlers. 

Then on the other level, the screw finish that had me frustratingly rolling my eyes at the end of the Lykos/Bate match perfectly set up the pay off for the screw finish at the end of the Brookes/Seven match that had me cheering like I had just won the world series. A lot of this show feels like a direct reference to my issues with PROGRESS and a reminder that this is the still the same promotion. 

One has to wonder though, if PROGRESS abides by unspoken WWE booking rules, with this huge triumph over evil, beat them at their own game, fuck you moment for CCK right before Ally Pally, does that mean they are doomed in the actual title match? 

Don’t get me wrong, the first ever PROGRESS Tag Title ladder match? Hell-fucking-yeah but if CCK do lose, where do they go then? Their whole run in PROGRESS has been kind of all over the place and if they lose at the stipulation they picked against a team they have already beaten then that will end up feeling a bit like a burial. 

And honestly, I’m really bored of the BSS stranglehold on PROGRESS, I’d much rather see everything get reset by Ally Pally. CCK Tag Champs, Travis Banks PROGRESS Champ and BSS go their separate ways and the three of them reestablish themselves as three dominate singles competitors in PROGRESS but legitimately, rather than bitch cheating and dicking about in every match. 

Then, finally, the Main Event. A well worked car crash of a match, Dunne stepping out to leave Banks effectively in a handicap match is logically booked but less logical is now Banks is suddenly back in Terminator mode again. I just hope this means Banks has “found himself” again, ready for a HUGE win at Ally Pally. Also wow, Haskins and Banks look fucked up. Where were they wrestling before this? Both men were riddled with welts, bruises and cuts with bloodshot eyes. 

A surprisingly dark ending to the show too with some genuinely chilling, goosebumps raising, screams of agony from Dahlia Black and the execution of Travis Banks with the sledgehammer by BSS.


----------



## Daniel97

Caching up on Progress shows before I attend Ally Pally on Sunday.

53

Lynch/Davis - ***3/4
Dunne/Sexsmith - ***1/2

NYC

Gallagher/Gibson - ***1/2
Havoc/Janela - ****
4 Way - ***3/4
Walter/Riddle - ***

Good shows with mainly solid-very good matches. NOTHING too great though.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

I really hope that CCK get the tag titles and Banks beats Dunne. Preferably with no interference, fat chance of that. I really feel that if British Strong Style aren't soundly defeated it will massively derail PROGRESS as a whole. I know that sounds dramatic but so many companies have suffered because they didn't know how or when to end an angle. This is the right time to do it.

Although I do worry about their ability to book a long form story without heel champions. Maybe Banks will be dropping the title to an Evil Jack Sexsmith. Say it ain't so.


----------



## TD Stinger

-***** Italiano- said:


> I really hope that CCK get the tag titles and Banks beats Dunne. Preferably with no interference, fat chance of that. I really feel that if British Strong Style aren't soundly defeated it will massively derail PROGRESS as a whole. I know that sounds dramatic but so many companies have suffered because they didn't know how or when to end an angle. This is the right time to do it.
> 
> Although I do worry about their ability to book a long form story without heel champions. Maybe Banks will be dropping the title to an Evil Jack Sexsmith. Say it ain't so.


I’ve been watching Progress since the beginning of the year and I have enjoyed that a top heel stable is actually booked, for the most part, like a top heel stable. A group of pricks who think they are better than everyone and do whatever they want. The angle they shot at the end of Chapter 54 was great. And I do love that they’ve built a champion in Pete Dunne for months and months.

But no matter how great that heel stable might be or the champion, eventually comes the time where it’s time to shift things and do the big title change. Travis Banks got super over this year, he became the instant crowd favorite to win the SSS16. Progress made the right choice, now it’s time to deliver. This is their WrestleMania. It’s time for everything to culminate in the new top babyface getting his moment in the sun. I don’t care if there is interference or not, Banks has to win this. And afterwards, you can even do a breakup angle with BSS with Bate going face.

Also, side note, after watching Chapter 54, we damn sure better be getting Havoc vs. Haskins on this show. I’m going to keep saying it until it happens, lol.


----------



## Corey

Daniel97 said:


> Walter/Riddle - ***


Huh, lowest rating I've seen for this match by a mile. Care to elaborate? And have you seen their other matches this year?



TD Stinger said:


> Also, side note, after watching Chapter 54, we damn sure better be getting Havoc vs. Haskins on this show. I’m going to keep saying it until it happens, lol.


You keep missing the match announcements. :lol Oh we're getting it... we're getting it to the DEATH! :mark:


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Huh, lowest rating I've seen for this match by a mile. Care to elaborate? And have you seen their other matches this year?
> 
> 
> You keep missing the match announcements. :lol Oh we're getting it... we're getting it to the DEATH! :mark:


Yay! Seriously though where are you getting the announcements? I couldn’t find a match card on their website.


----------



## Corey

TD Stinger said:


> Yay! Seriously though where are you getting the announcements? I couldn’t find a match card on their website.


Ah yeah they never update the website. I get everything from their social media (Facebook and Twitter).


----------



## Pizzamorg

-***** Italiano- said:


> I really hope that CCK get the tag titles and Banks beats Dunne. Preferably with no interference, fat chance of that. I really feel that if British Strong Style aren't soundly defeated it will massively derail PROGRESS as a whole. I know that sounds dramatic but so many companies have suffered because they didn't know how or when to end an angle. This is the right time to do it.
> 
> Although I do worry about their ability to book a long form story without heel champions. Maybe Banks will be dropping the title to an Evil Jack Sexsmith. Say it ain't so.


If BSS walk out of Ally Pally with all their titles it really will start going into NWO territory but you are right, in a lot of ways BSS/CCK/Banks and Ospreay/Regression/Havoc have effectively had the same story so if BSS lose and then another top heel rises and puts a stranglehold on the company again causing a new face to rise from the ashes we've just gone in constant circles.


----------



## Abood sama

Hello guys, am in Germany right now and I want to buy a ticket to chapter 55, is there any one here have extra ticket? Am willing to pay 300 euro I don't care, this is serious and please send me direct message to me or atleast if there a second hand website to buy from


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Abood sama said:


> Hello guys, am in Germany right now and I want to buy a ticket to chapter 55, is there any one here have extra ticket? Am willing to pay 300 euro I don't care, this is serious and please send me direct message to me or atleast if there a second hand website to buy from


http://progresswrestling.twickets.co.uk/

this is the only way I know of getting tickets at this stage. People that bought them but can't go put them on the site for face value. You might have to camp out and hit refresh a lot


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just started watching through old PROGRESS Chapters again. Just watched Episode Nine to see Aleister Black’s (when he was still working as Tommy End) debut in PROGRESS. It is crazy when you go back and watch these old episodes with their horrible production values and (comparatively) small crowds who at this point certainly aren’t abiding by the “Don’t be a Dick” rule, just to see how quickly they have grown as a promotion and deservedly so. Also, have they ever called a show, “Spilled Beer and Broken Dreams”, because if not… they missed a trick. 

Speaking of the match itself, there are four years between this Tommy End and the Aleister Black I fell in love with on NXT but he's still been in the business for over a decade by the time he stepped in the ring with Dave Mastiff here in PROGRESS. As such, other than less tattoos and a less defined character and aura (moves which are treated like weapons of mass destruction in WWE are getting him only a two count here), he's very much the same polished product in the ring. From what Smallman... sorry Barnett... is saying on commentary the match was a last minute slap job, which you can certainly tell, but End doesn’t miss a beat all the same making for a solid, if not exactly earth shattering, debut.

The other match on this show I checked out was the first half main event which was a triple threat including a guy I never knew had even worked for PROGRESS in Ricochet, in apparently his second match with the promotion and two PROGRESS stalwarts both very early in their PROGRESS careers in ZSJ and Mark Haskins back when he was a member of the “Screw Indy Wrestling” Stable (which I honestly don’t know a lot about, basically a bunch wrestlers have decided they are “pro wrestlers” and are separate form everyone else they identify as “indy wrestlers” despite all wrestling in the same promotion in front of the same small crowd and all using a very indy style). From what Smallman said on his podcast, they planned to always have Haskins as a heel but he was so good at wrestling the fans fell in love with him so they had no choice but to turn him Face.

Speaking of the match itself, even this early in the game, few promotions put on a better car crash than PROGRESS. Yeah there are a few more rest periods than I am used to, in the later matches like this it feels like no one stops moving until the pin fall or submission but there is still plenty of innovative action to go around and all three guys show such good chemistry with one another so they can work so snug. It is certainly elevated by having a guy like Ricochet in the ring who glides around the canvas like Spider-Man and by having Smallman… I mean Barnett’s palpable joy displayed on the commentary. Yeah there are probably a few too many near falls and not enough psychology but that is indy wrestling, innit.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Just me or does Progress lack depth.

With the World Title they just seem to go round in circles, with the same guys getting a shot every so often.

This weekend for instance, Mark Andrews winning another title shot when he just had one two defences ago back in May.

That eight way scramble match consisted of some of the dullest wrestlers they feature, to top it off the bland Eddie Dennis turned heel.


----------



## Pizzamorg

The problem PROGRESS seem to have is they build a guy up and then WWE (or some other promotion) pinches them and they then have to start all over again. That doesn't excuse them booking in circles, which is exactly what I said up the page as well, but I do sympathise with the reality of how frustrating it must be to build all this talent just so they can leave and leave PROGRESS to replace them. Smallman has alluded to but never outright stated that with so much of the top indy talent (that doesn't seem at any risk at leaving for WWE) is over in the states or in Japan, they try and get the talent when they can but it isn't easy. 

I mean just shooting from the top of my head, who did they give quite a big role to in the last couple of years that they can no longer use, at least not regularly? You’ve got Axel Dieter Jr, Jack Gallagher, Marty Scurll, Noam Dar, Tommy End, Will Ospreay, ZSJ, seemingly the entirety of BSS, Matt Riddle is surely a matter of time and that isn't mentioning guys currently injured like TK Cooper or the indy guys like Chris Hero, Roderick Strong, Finn Balor, Ciampa/Gargano and many others they used to bring in for special occasions. Probably the only real true regular acquisition they have made is CCK and probably the only people they have no risk of losing are Jimmy Havoc and Mark Haskins as their injury history will probably turn WWE off.


----------



## Platt

A big problem I felt this year was they ran a lot more shows but hadn't put any thought into how to keep the storys going. They obviously had the match they wanted in Dunne/Banks but between SS16 and Ally Pally they were stalling for time the whole way.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So as some of you already know when I stared my PROGRESS catch up earlier in the year I didn't watch much PROGRESS before 2015 as I heard it just wasn't particularly good. However I was listening to Smallman's podcast again when Havoc said one of his favourite PROGRESS matches happened on Chapter Three where Havoc faced one of his trainers in the first ever hardcore match in PROGRESS history.

Speaking of the match itself, for just your basic hardcore match and the first one by PROGRESS it is actually probably one of their better ones. No Earth shattering spots or whatever but I guess since Ryan is Havoc’s trainer they have a special kind of chemistry which allows spots to feel that much more brutal and the bumps that much more crazy.

What does kind of cause the match to fall flat is after an INSANE package piledriver into pins into a wheelbarrow suplex through a barbedwire board finish, Havoc takes the pin then basically no sells the spot as he starts hugging Ryan and giving this babyface speech. But you see, the most shocking thing in this match is nothing to do with bleeding from frying pans or the cracking of a Singapore cane over someones back, it is Jimmy Havoc himself. 

Without his trademark hair and wrestling without a shirt, Jimmy Havoc gets babyface pops and is billed as being from “Dartford, Kent”, with no mention at all about any Kings or Goths nor is there a single Acid Rainmaker in sight. They did say this match is the beginning of the forging process for PROGRESS’ greatest villain but I didn’t think they meant we’d literally see it from the start. Does anyone know what Chapter Jimmy officially debuts as the Jimmy Havoc we all know?


----------



## Mon Joxley

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/909022955912536064

I highly recommend all of you Progress on Demand subscribers check out the Adam Brooks vs. Will Ospreay match (and the rest of the event). Might be a bit refreshing to see some high quality indy wrestling from the southern hemisphere.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So Ally Pally is on Demand now and if I may, I'd like to do a little rant...

I understand that PROGRESS is still effectively a small indy which is predominantly, first and foremost, a live experience. And as such they don't have WWE technologies to stream shows as they happen and they probably wouldn't want to do that anyway in case it impacts on ticket sales. Fine. I get that. But there is also a reality that PROGRESS tickets usually sell out within a matter of minutes and even if they didn't one day, I often cannot afford good seats even at shows like PROGRESS and even if I could, I don't have any friends who like indy pro wrestling and it is daunting to jump on a train or whatever on my own and head across the country for a wrestling show. I appreciate that is their problem and not mine but it is my reality. 

And I know that a lot of people moaned about how long the New York/Boston shows took to be uploaded etc but I LOVE PROGRESS, it is probably my favourite promotion today and while I can't be there on the shows, I am very grateful they have an On Demand service for me to see the shows and support them in my own way, along with merch purchases. As such, while I am very excited, I try not to complain while waiting for a show to be uploaded. Usually, the wait ain't so bad. 

This time though? The wait has been hell. Before even watching Ally Pally, I can tell you every single finish to every single match, I can tell you every single surprise. Even though Jim Smallman is happy to not spoil us on Tuesday Night Jaw, that hasn't stopped PROGRESS filling its social media with spoilers and spreading spoilers by fans further and further out. I haven't been able to get away from any of it and so while I am still excited to see some good wrestling at Ally Pally, the whole experience has been completely ruined by their handling of it. What was I supposed to do, not use social media for a week?

And like I say, I get it, they are predominantly a live experience and as I write this, the show is more than a week old but they know full well there are On Demand fans who won't have seen the show yet, yet they were happy to just spoil the show from top to bottom with complete reckless abandon and with no prior warning. I just wish they'd remember that they have an On Demand audience and while they may not have as much impact on a promotion as the guys in attendance, to be treated like I don't matter at all has made me want to cancel my subscription all together if I'm honest. I mean what is even the point of having this service? I have to wait at least a week for a show which by that point PROGRESS has described in length and with pictures how the show goes down from start to finish making the watch redundant.


----------



## Death Rider

I think they try to keep people away from spoilers but yeah it can be really hard to avoid. I have the same problem as all my mates who do watch indys don't watch Progress or they just watch WWE or can't afford to. Saying that I am personally OK with spoilers as I know the cost of catching something late. I can see how much it would suck for someone else.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Also a correction to my post if it wasn't obvious, it's my problem not theirs. Got that the wrong way round in my fluster.


----------



## TD Stinger

Alright_Mate said:


> Just me or does Progress lack depth.
> 
> With the World Title they just seem to go round in circles, with the same guys getting a shot every so often.
> 
> This weekend for instance, Mark Andrews winning another title shot when he just had one two defences ago back in May.
> 
> That eight way scramble match consisted of some of the dullest wrestlers they feature, to top it off the bland Eddie Dennis turned heel.


I don't know. I think they have as good of depth as any promotion out there not named WWE or NJPW. They have a core of Dunne, Bate, Seven, Havoc, Haskins, Banks, Andrews, Walter, etc. Along with semi regular appearances from guys like Riddle, Sabre Jr. and other big stars. Wolfgang just debuted for them. To me they have some of the better depth in the business, again, outside of WWE and NJPW.

All my opinion, but they have better depth than ICW, WCPW, RevPro, aka the other big promotions in the UK. They have just as good of depth as other promotions in the US like ROH, Evolve, etc. in terms of their regular roster. They deal with the same problems as every other indy promotion out there when it comes to losing talent. They lost Tommy End to WWE. They lost Scurll to ROH & NJPW. Sabre Jr. is doing more with NJPW.

But even despite their losses, for a promotion that only does one or two shows a month, they've got pretty good depth.

Watched Chapter 55 and it was a great show with a great atmosphere with the larger crowd. And the card itself definitely felt like their biggest show of the year.

The opening ladder match with CCK vs. BSS was great and brutal. Seven delivered a Dragon Suplex on Lykos onto the ladder while the ladder was standing on it's side. That ladder windmill spot by Bate was really cool. All in all lots of great action and brutal spots that made for a perfect opener.

Storm vs. Black was a solid match to follow the hot opener. Credit to Black for taking all of those sick bumps from Storm.

Seeing Scurll was a nice surprise and he and Sabre Jr. had the match you pretty much expected them to have. Kind of weird promo by Scurll at the end saying "this is the last time you'll see me for a while in Progress." Now, I know Scurll was in Progress before but hasn't been there all year, likely due to commitments wit ROH. But it was weird, because usually that's the promo someone cuts before they leave for WWE. I don't think that's what happening, but I couldn't help but think it.

Havoc vs. Haskins was the match I was clamoring for and for the most part it delivered. Weapons galore full of cool spots. Although the finish sucked. It looked like Havoc barely connected with that Acid Rainmaker with the barbed wire bat. I mean, if you're a pro like him, you can't end a match like that on a show like this with such a weak finish.

Riddle vs. Walter vs. Thatcher was just a war. Hard hits and suplexes galore. Walter is a beast. Riddle sells his ass off. And Thatcher did his part. Loved it.

The 8 man scamble accomplished two things, get guys on the card and provide a cool down for the main event and it accomplished both things. Fun little match although by this point I was just ready for the main event. In terms of the heel turn at the end, I don't really know about Eddie Dennis or his tag team with Mandrews so I can't say I care that much.

The main event was certainly electric. Very overbooked and probably 3 too many big kickouts by Banks to the point of absurdity at times. But it was still a red hot match with some great action and the right guy won. Can't complain about that.

Again, great show.


----------



## Alright_Mate

TD Stinger said:


> I don't know. I think they have as good of depth as any promotion out there not named WWE or NJPW. They have a core of Dunne, Bate, Seven, Havoc, Haskins, Banks, Andrews, Walter, etc. Along with semi regular appearances from guys like Riddle, Sabre Jr. and other big stars. Wolfgang just debuted for them. To me they have some of the better depth in the business, again, outside of WWE and NJPW.
> 
> All my opinion, but they have better depth than ICW, WCPW, RevPro, aka the other big promotions in the UK. They have just as good of depth as other promotions in the US like ROH, Evolve, etc. in terms of their regular roster. They deal with the same problems as every other indy promotion out there when it comes to losing talent. They lost Tommy End to WWE. They lost Scurll to ROH & NJPW. Sabre Jr. is doing more with NJPW.
> 
> But even despite their losses, for a promotion that only does one or two shows a month, they've got pretty good depth.


You have two championships though, the World Championship and now most recently the Atlas Championship, it's always the same guys fighting over the same championship. They seem to have gone round in circles with both championships recently. World Title has been all about Dunne, Banks, Andrews and Haskins with maybe Havoc getting a shot here and there. Andrews has had two shots this year now he's earned a third, you can't take the title off Banks so soon, while Andrews probably loses again because of the bland Eddie Dennis.

As for the Atlas Championship, you've gone from Riddle to Walter back to Riddle then back to Walter. While they may put on great matches the title is getting yo-yo treatment like it's a WWE Women's Championship.

Get the likes of Seven, Bate and Brookes in more singles matches like we see in Fight Club Pro.


----------



## TD Stinger

Alright_Mate said:


> You have two championships though, the World Championship and now most recently the Atlas Championship, it's always the same guys fighting over the same championship. They seem to have gone round in circles with both championships recently. World Title has been all about Dunne, Banks, Andrews and Haskins with maybe Havoc getting a shot here and there. Andrews has had two shots this year now he's earned a third, you can't take the title off Banks so soon, while Andrews probably loses again because of the bland Eddie Dennis.
> 
> As for the Atlas Championship, you've gone from Riddle to Walter back to Riddle then back to Walter. While they may put on great matches the title is getting yo-yo treatment like it's a WWE Women's Championship.
> 
> Get the likes of Seven, Bate and Brookes in more singles matches like we see in Fight Club Pro.


Does the Atlas title muddy it up a bit? Maybe a little. But again, comparing them to other promotions, espeiscially in the UK, they’ve got a really good cast of regular talent. If they did shows every week it might be a problem. But for a promotion that does a show or 2 once a month, I guess I don’t really see it as a problem.


----------



## Flair Shot

Ally Pally Chapter 55 show. :bow


----------



## SWITCHBLADE

Flair Shot said:


> Ally Pally Chapter 55 show. :bow


Gonna try and watch it tonight. Many folks are calling it the best PROGRESS show of the year so far and considering the year this promotion has had, that's HIGH praise.


----------



## TD Stinger

Rainmaka! said:


> Gonna try and watch it tonight. Many folks are calling it the best PROGRESS show of the year so far and considering the year this promotion has had, that's HIGH praise.


Right up there with Progress New York.


----------



## Platt

Got my Wembley ticket, anyone else going?


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched Ally Pally-AKA PROGRESS’ Wrestlemania. Much like with the New York show, this show is getting RIDICULOUSLY overrated by people online. I love PROGRESS but it is weird that the small group of fans online seem so open to gloss over some of PROGRESS' glaring problems. If you want what I feel is a more balanced write up on thoughts on the show, here are mine. 

Speaking of the first half of the show first (a weird sentence to say and write), the highlight was probably that INSANE fucking pop Marty Scurll got on his PROGRESS return and the response from the crowd during his simultaneous farewell speech at the end. The match itself is likely to be little remembered compared to those moments around it, the story behind the match and all the history was fascinating, just neither man involved is a particularly good in ring storyteller to really, truly, make the match as good as it deserved to be. Where is Scurll going, by the way? 

Probably the biggest disappointment of the first half was the Tag Title Ladder Match. Sure the PROGRESS history books now say that #CCK dethroned BSS from their Tag Title stranglehold in the first ever PROGRESS Tag Title Ladder match but while true, that doesn’t reflect the actual quality of the match itself, which was a bit clunky and all over the place. Filled with overly choreographed spots which looked like spots rather than organic parts of the match, the match struggled by featuring two teams that have plenty of charisma but still can’t tell a compelling in ring story. One of my biggest pet peeves in indy wrestling is that it is so often on fast forward, if I’ve seen someone take a nasty fucking bump and then within seconds is doing cartwheels like they had just arrived in the match then you’ve pretty much killed my investment and this match was FILLED with that. Why even do a ladder match if you treat a ladder bump like a regular bump in the middle of the ring? The finish was also oddly flat, after such a triumphant victory to set up this match, the finish to the actual ladder match was just kinda… eh. 

Then there was the first half Main Event, in the Havoc/Haskins Deathmatch. I will say I am impressed PROGRESS did the stipulation as much justice as they did, they have been very miss when it comes to these types of matches in the past but any good will they garnered with that was lost but the fact that my God this match went on for what felt like a thousand years. Again, like in the ladder match, you bump off of cinderblocks or barbed wire, really that should be the end of the match but if it isn’t, at least sell the weight of the spot/sequence or otherwise it just makes it meaningless. There were some awesome spots in this match dotted throughout but a lack of respect for them from the performers meant they were moments to gif rather than moments that added up to an all round great match. There does seem to be a lot of evidence though that this was just bolted together to give these guys a place on the card, there is a baffling Mrs Haskins heel turn which sort of indirectly leads into the finish but not really and this is the only match on this part of the show with a video package. It just raises so many questions. Havoc and Haskins are two PROGRESS legends, Haskins is one of the best wrestlers in the world today in my books, so why do they even need to bolt something together for them? Why are they not involved in the stories that matter? 

Oh and I know there was a Women’s Match during this half and from what I skimmed through, it actually looked decent but I just really don’t care about PROGRESS’ “Women’s Division”. Soz. 

Moving onto the second half, we kick off with the Atlas Title Triple Threat. Speaking on a pure entertainment level, this is one of the best matches on the card for me. Big lads wrestling. Three meat mountains just going out and beating the shit out of each other. There were again some oddly clunky moments given the familiarity of the parties in the ring and Thatcher getting “tangled” in the ropes and needing help out was so stupid, but in isolation I love matches like this. From a storytelling perspective though, I don’t know why Riddle and Walter pass the title back and forwards between themselves like they are Charlotte and Sasha Banks. I guess at least it looks like they are finally adding someone fresh into the mix, Wolfgang looked like a star there even if it was odd to have him just come out and then immediately leave. Why not debut him properly at the next Chapter during an Open Challenge or something? 

I appreciate there was a Scramble match after this but I already knew how it ended (thanks PROGRESS social media) and I didn’t care about the match to begin with… skip. 

Speaking of the Main Event… fuck me was this was horrible. PROGRESS used to book so perfectly which is why I fell in love with them but lately it seems like they almost try and go out of their way to overbook their marquee match that much more than the one previously. This match was fucking nonsense and after a road so convoluted and often pretty nonsensical itself, this is the worst “pay off” they could have given us. I mean where the fuck do you even go from here? Apparently Travis Banks can’t win a fucking singles match but if you hit him with a Nuke he will no sell it and carry on like nothing happened. If this is one of the last times we see BSS, I’m gonna throw a party. PROGRESS has achieved almost WWE levels in taking something I really loved in their promotion and then killed it over months to the point where I am completely flipped and now just hate it. Individually the three of them can be so good, especially Dunne who is a GREAT wrestler and it is a shame that potentially their whole run with PROGRESS is going to be forever tainted with the reality that their stranglehold of PROGRESS sent the booking in circles and really drove PROGRESS into the toilet at times.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Platt said:


> Got my Wembley ticket, anyone else going?


I need to get on it. The show will be a few days after my 30th and I'm planning on dragging some mates to the show. They're not wrestling fans at all but it's my party and we're doing what I want.

I might be the low man on Alley Pally. Not that I disliked it but I wasn't utterly gripped like Chapter 36 (though I was a little newer to Progress back then) and SSS16. I was only really hyped for the tag match and the main. I preferred the first CCK vs BSS match and I felt the interference hurt the main event rather than help it. Could have been a MOTYC but it wasn't.

Still a good show just suffered from my expectations being too high. There wasn't a Ringkampf vs SPPT or Riddle vs Cobb or even a Bate vs Banks level match that I was hoping for. 

Still well worth my £7.50 and I'm excited to see where we go from here.


----------



## Stadhart02

Platt said:


> Got my Wembley ticket, anyone else going?


going to pick one up in the general sale today. Really expensive but I am going to get one anyway


----------



## Pizzamorg

-***** Italiano- said:


> I need to get on it. The show will be a few days after my 30th and I'm planning on dragging some mates to the show. They're not wrestling fans at all but it's my party and we're doing what I want.
> 
> I might be the low man on Alley Pally. Not that I disliked it but I wasn't utterly gripped like Chapter 36 (though I was a little newer to Progress back then) and SSS16. I was only really hyped for the tag match and the main. I preferred the first CCK vs BSS match and I felt the interference hurt the main event rather than help it. Could have been a MOTYC but it wasn't.
> 
> Still a good show just suffered from my expectations being too high. There wasn't a Ringkampf vs SPPT or Riddle vs Cobb or even a Bate vs Banks level match that I was hoping for.
> 
> Still well worth my £7.50 and I'm excited to see where we go from here.


Don't worry, I had my issues with the show too.

And also, Riddle/Cobb is second only to Riddle/Stone as my PROGRESS match of the year.


----------



## Stadhart02

To ***** and Pizza - is Progress overrated then? I really want to get to one of their Chapter shows but have always been too slow with the tickets


----------



## Pizzamorg

Stadhart02 said:


> To ***** and Pizza - is Progress overrated then? I really want to get to one of their Chapter shows but have always been too slow with the tickets


I don't know whether overrated is the right answer, especially from a live capacity it is the kind of small promotion that is very easy to get swept up in which may explain some of the ludicrously high ratings some of the shows get which they don't really deserve. I only got into PROGRESS this year but they almost immediately became my favourite promotion. The promotion has always had warts, odd booking decisions and wonky production values but it does feel especially that in late 2016 through to now things have started to go a bit pear shaped which is ironic as the promotion is bigger than ever. 

Much like with WWE, when PROGRESS book something near perfectly, they spend the next year or so of shows later trying to recreate that but never quite being able to and if you watch PROGRESS, long enough these holding patterns, loops and circles seem to become more and more evident. The major angle in PROGRESS has been replicated effectively three times since the promotions inception in 2012. 

Once upon a time, things were settled in clean, hard hitting, matches in the ring, stories were simple but logical and PROGRESS always seemed to understand their audience enough as to when to do things where. However now, there does also seem to be in the last twelve months or so ago a real firm move away from pro wrestling and more to sports entertainment with ridiculously overbooked matches, full of absurd and unearned near falls and constant interference. It feels like with each, stupid, overbooked mess PROGRESS tried to outdo it with the next one, which makes for miserable viewing. The Travis Banks/Pete Dunne match from Ally Pally, speaking purely on the wrestling perspective, is one of the worst things I've ever seen PROGRESS put together and the whole run of things leading into it with #CCK 's all over the place run, the creatively bankrupt BSS Stranglehold and the booking of Banks in such a way that it felt like a new writer came into each show and each new writer had never seen a PROGRESS show before. The in ring action is now often vastly watered down, titles that once meant so much have become hot potatoes as they circle between the same small group of performers with no real clear gain. It was all just a bit horrible. 

You know and there might be a reality that everything is going wrong for PROGRESS behind the scenes, WWE seems to have dramatically improved its recruitment drive, seemingly buying every single independent wrestler as soon as they wrestle in front of at least ten people and have never had a neck or head injury so maybe PROGRESS get scared of putting their company on people's shoulders just for them to leave but that doesn't really help the reality that a lot of their 2017 shows just really haven't been all that good. 

That said though, I don't want to dissuade you from watching PROGRESS or supporting them. While the production values can be difficult to get beyond at first, the rise of Jimmy Havoc and Regression is wonderful stuff, especially as they picked Will Ospreay as his foil really ahead of the curve and in between that there is plenty of great little indy matches with top indy talent often paired with top British talent that may not have worldwide reach but will still make you sit up and take notice with matches focused on being tight, clean and hard hitting also making it easy to just dip into a match or two if you don't have a lot of time for things so I really do recommend you just watch from the start.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Stadhart02 said:


> To ***** and Pizza - is Progress overrated then? I really want to get to one of their Chapter shows but have always been too slow with the tickets


No no no absolutely not. This show just didn't live up to a ridiculously high standard. It's still better than any WWE of 2017 anyone new to PROGRESS would be going nuts for this show. Seriously get on PROGRESS for me it is second only to NJPW.


----------



## Stadhart02

Thanks both for your replies

I have got myself a Wembley ticket and will try for a Chapter at some point. I dip in and out of shows rather than become an avid follower of one promotion so I will probably be ok and not get too upset by the criticisms above


----------



## ArnDaddy

Platt said:


> Got my Wembley ticket, anyone else going?


Yeah I've got tickets for this too.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Stadhart02 said:


> Thanks both for your replies
> 
> I have got myself a Wembley ticket and will try for a Chapter at some point. I dip in and out of shows rather than become an avid follower of one promotion so I will probably be ok and not get too upset by the criticisms above


I'm one for dipping in and out of shows too.

Perfect word to describe Progress right now is inconsistent. Overall I don't think they've had a particularly good 2017, @Pizzamorg hit the nail on the head about the overbooking, there's been so many matches that pick up momentum and are on the lines of being good or even great, then they unnecessarily add some stupid shit which spoils the last 5-10 minutes of matches. 

Progress are capable of putting on really good shows and really good matches though; however this year I feel they have gone backwards on that score. Just very very inconsistent, they go from good to bad to good to bad.

Overall though it's definitely the most established British Wrestling promotion out there, much better than Rev Pro which is unbearable to watch, their production levels left me nauseous. Fight Club Pro though are on the up, you can buy their events on Vimeo, great production levels and thoroughly entertaining Wrestling, only downside is they can be too comedic for my liking.

Buy a Progress show, buy a Fight Club Pro show and compare (Y)


----------



## Pizzamorg

Alright_Mate said:


> I'm one for dipping in and out of shows too.
> 
> Perfect word to describe Progress right now is inconsistent. Overall I don't think they've had a particularly good 2017, @Pizzamorg hit the nail on the head about the overbooking, there's been so many matches that pick up momentum and are on the lines of being good or even great, then they unnecessarily add some stupid shit which spoils the last 5-10 minutes of matches.
> 
> Progress are capable of putting on really good shows and really good matches though; however this year I feel they have gone backwards on that score. Just very very inconsistent, they go from good to bad to good to bad.
> 
> Overall though it's definitely the most established British Wrestling promotion out there, much better than Rev Pro which is unbearable to watch, their production levels left me nauseous. Fight Club Pro though are on the up, you can buy their events on Vimeo, great production levels and thoroughly entertaining Wrestling, only downside is they can be too comedic for my liking.
> 
> Buy a Progress show, buy a Fight Club Pro show and compare (Y)





Stadhart02 said:


> Thanks both for your replies
> 
> I have got myself a Wembley ticket and will try for a Chapter at some point. I dip in and out of shows rather than become an avid follower of one promotion so I will probably be ok and not get too upset by the criticisms above


Dipping is how I got into PROGRESS to be fair, a lot of the earlier shows are stuffed with talent I never heard of, so I just focused on the performers I knew and watched just their matches from different shows and slowly branched out my familiarity from there. I am still going back and watching old shows as we speak as I learn about more and more performers. I think this is probably the best way as 55 shows all somewhere between two and three hours is a HELL of a lot of stuff to get through and not all of it is worth it. 

To @Alright_Mate, that Ally Pally main event is a perfect example of that. That match Dunne and Banks work for about five to ten minutes in the middle is SO GOOD but it is just clouded by how much BSS dicking about there is to get there and then in how completely off the rails the match goes once the match starts settling into a healthy rhythm. 

I also agree that PROGRESS are the best thing going in British indy wrestling and are one of my favourite promotions in general, I had a hard time getting into other stuff like RevPro, Attack!, ICW etc and WhatCulture Pro Wrestling is pretty gash. Fight Club Pro is a pretty good shout, I think their shows on Vimeo are overpriced for what they are but there is a certain charm to the commentaryless and utterly barebones presentation, the heavy focus on comedy has me also often put off from from their shows but they work with a lot of the PROGRESS talent plus quite a lot of overseas flavour mixed in and when they put on a good match it is usually a GREAT match. FCP can also be credited with really discovering, shaping and polishing a lot of the biggest talents on the British circuit right now, so it can be quite cool to go back and see this process in near real time, see your fave before they really found out who they were.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Pizzamorg said:


> Dipping is how I got into PROGRESS to be fair, a lot of the earlier shows are stuffed with talent I never heard of, so I just focused on the performers I knew and watched just their matches from different shows and slowly branched out my familiarity from there. I am still going back and watching old shows as we speak as I learn about more and more performers. I think this is probably the best way as 55 shows all somewhere between two and three hours is a HELL of a lot of stuff to get through and not all of it is worth it.
> 
> To @Alright_Mate, that Ally Pally main event is a perfect example of that. That match Dunne and Banks work for about five to ten minutes in the middle is SO GOOD but it is just clouded by how much BSS dicking about there is to get there and then in how completely off the rails the match goes once the match starts settling into a healthy rhythm.
> 
> I also agree that PROGRESS are the best thing going in British indy wrestling and are one of my favourite promotions in general, I had a hard time getting into other stuff like RevPro, Attack!, ICW etc and WhatCulture Pro Wrestling is pretty gash. Fight Club Pro is a pretty good shout, I think their shows on Vimeo are overpriced for what they are but there is a certain charm to the commentaryless and utterly barebones presentation, the heavy focus on comedy has me also often put off from from their shows but they work with a lot of the PROGRESS talent plus quite a lot of overseas flavour mixed in and when they put on a good match it is usually a GREAT match. FCP can also be credited with really discovering, shaping and polishing a lot of the biggest talents on the British circuit right now, so it can be quite cool to go back and see this process in near real time, see your fave before they really found out who they were.


With Progress I started at a certain point, that point being Scurll's first reign as Champ. I was getting familiar with the likes of Marty at the time, I was enjoying his work in particular and that's when I felt the need to branch out to other Promotions. Didn't really want to stick with WWE and the odd NJPW shows. Starting from Chapter 1 of Progress and working your way through is a pretty impossible job, it's just impossible to find the time and my attention span would be shot.

I've found a lot of British Promotions tend to overbook matches, Progress and Rev Pro top that list. It's just so unnecessary and it tarnishes what could be great matches and overall great events. As I said the other day too, Progress seem to be going round in circles regarding their World Championship and Atlas titles, Andrews getting three shots when the title hasn't been defended for a few months is bullshit.

Fight Club Pro imo is just such a simple but fun concept. The production levels are just right, no over dramatics. With their Vimeo service it's just basically the equivalent of buying one of their DVDs, I watched the first three shows they did of 2017 and had zero problems, I've had problems streaming Progress and RevPro but Fight Club was perfect.

Fight Club as some have said is like the best kept secret in British Wrestling right now, the company is owned by Trent Seven, while the company was basically the starting point for Tyler Bate and Chris Brookes to get exposure, they have also helped Pete Dunne and Nixon Newell become the performers they are today. The Newell vs Brookes match from Rise Against this year was great, just one of those matches that gets you on the edge of your seat. As we've both said though the only downside is the comedic value, too much of it for my liking, some of it is Comedy done right and you can have a laugh; however sometimes it can become overbearing.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Alright_Mate said:


> I've found a lot of British Promotions tend to overbook matches, Progress and Rev Pro top that list. It's just so unnecessary and it tarnishes what could be great matches and overall great events. As I said the other day too, Progress seem to be going round in circles regarding their World Championship and Atlas titles, Andrews getting three shots when the title hasn't been defended for a few months is bullshit.
> 
> Fight Club Pro imo is just such a simple but fun concept. The production levels are just right, no over dramatics. With their Vimeo service it's just basically the equivalent of buying one of their DVDs, I watched the first three shows they did of 2017 and had zero problems, I've had problems streaming Progress and RevPro but Fight Club was perfect.
> 
> Fight Club as some have said is like the best kept secret in British Wrestling right now, the company is owned by Trent Seven, while the company was basically the starting point for Tyler Bate and Chris Brookes to get exposure, they have also helped Pete Dunne and Nixon Newell become the performers they are today. The Newell vs Brookes match from Rise Against this year was great, just one of those matches that gets you on the edge of your seat. As we've both said though the only downside is the comedic value, too much of it for my liking, some of it is Comedy done right and you can have a laugh; however sometimes it can become overbearing.


I don't know whether it is just my brain making patterns where there are none but I definitely feel like a lot of PROGRESS' problems started when they partnered with WWE. I don't know whether they dictate what PROGRESS can and can't do but if you go even to say a 2015 PROGRESS show which is still quite recent, it just has a very different feel about it. Older shows were a lot more violent, not nearly as overbooked and feel more like a proper indy than sports entertainment which it often feels like now. 

I think PROGRESS on demand is great value for money but I can't believe how many indys use Pivotshare because it really is a crap platform. 

FCP is one of the few promotions that do inter gender so right. Was it All The Best this year that had the CCK/Kay Lee Ray Nixon Newell match? God, that was dead good. They've chucked Nixon Newell into a few multi man scramble matches too this year if memory serves and she has stood out in those as well and not just for being the only woman.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Pizzamorg said:


> I don't know whether it is just my brain making patterns where there are none but I definitely feel like a lot of PROGRESS' problems started when they partnered with WWE. I don't know whether they dictate what PROGRESS can and can't do but if you go even to say a 2015 PROGRESS show which is still quite recent, it just has a very different feel about it. Older shows were a lot more violent, not nearly as overbooked and feel more like a proper indy than sports entertainment which it often feels like now.
> 
> I think PROGRESS on demand is great value for money but I can't believe how many indys use Pivotshare because it really is a crap platform.
> 
> FCP is one of the few promotions that do inter gender so right. Was it All The Best this year that had the CCK/Kay Lee Ray Nixon Newell match? God, that was dead good. They've chucked Nixon Newell into a few multi man scramble matches too this year if memory serves and she has stood out in those as well and not just for being the only woman.


I doubt WWE dictate what Progress do; however I wouldn't be surprised if HHH and Regal have given them a few pointers. Going back a year or two though I still feel Progress had the tendency to overbook matches, especially matches involving Scurll and Ospreay. I just think Progress's problem is down to inconsistency plain and simple, they just produce too many shows with only a few weeks gap, it's hard to back up a good show with an even better one. This year they've produced some really good moments; however too many times you're left rolling your eyes at certain matches, there is just no need to overbook as it always ends up getting messy.

100% agree about Pivotshare, it's a bag of shit. Every Progress show I watch I always get some interference, picture goes dodgy for a few seconds.

Yep that match was from All The Best, very fun match indeed, the whole event tbh left me satisfied. That's how her Fight Club journey started, you watched the Fight Club documentary on her on YouTube?


----------



## Pizzamorg

Alright_Mate said:


> 100% agree about Pivotshare, it's a bag of shit. Every Progress show I watch I always get some interference, picture goes dodgy for a few seconds.
> 
> Yep that match was from All The Best, very fun match indeed, the whole event tbh left me satisfied. That's how her Fight Club journey started, you watched the Fight Club documentary on her on YouTube?


What I don't get is why can't Pivotshare just remember where I am? Why does the video always crash after a few hours dormancy and require me to find my place manually again?

I had no idea, I thought she signed with WWE already at that point. No I haven't, please send us the link!


----------



## Alright_Mate

Pizzamorg said:


> What I don't get is why can't Pivotshare just remember where I am? Why does the video always crash after a few hours dormancy and require me to find my place manually again?
> 
> I had no idea, I thought she signed with WWE already at that point. No I haven't, please send us the link!


I had the same similar problem, doesn't tend to crash but I have so many picture break up moments, got so annoying I had to unsubscribe, decided to give it another go not so long back, still has its moments unfortunately.


----------



## Stadhart02

Actually I will say one thing that does annoy me in general is interference in matches - I absolutely hate that happening. 

Funnily enough I quite enjoy Rev Pro but they are the one promotion I attend on few times a year because they often run shows in the week so I can go after work. Most promotions run Sunday nights which is always a pain for me to attend (I don't want to be getting home at 11 on a Sunday with a whole week of work starting the Monday)


----------



## Pizzamorg

So Cologne is now online which made me realise it has been on Demand PROGRESS for ages it looks like? I dunno how I missed that release? Anyone seen this? Is it worth watching? The card doesn't blow me away and any continuity from this show has come and go now but if it has some good wrestling I will watch it.


----------



## Platt

A couple of matches went online earlier but this whole show only just went up this weekend.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Platt said:


> A couple of matches went online earlier but this whole show only just went up this weekend.


Oh? Only this weekend? It is buried in the middle somewhere on their "Other" tab so I figured it must have been put up ages ago.


----------



## Alright_Mate

On April 6/7 2018... our two shows in NOLA will be our first EVER Chapter shows outside the UK. Because, you know, we love the USA.

Is this company for fucking real fpalm


----------



## Pizzamorg

Revelations Of Divine Love is now on Demand, anyone go to this show, is it worth watching? Other than Jinny (who isn't very good) and Millie (who is very green) I haven't heard of any of the women involved in this.


----------



## Platt

2018 dates announced.



> 2018 Dates!
> 
> Here's our schedule for 2018 as it stands. We'll add on-sale info as and when we get it, so keep checking back!
> 
> Will we add any more UK dates?
> Possibly midweek but very unlikely to add any more UK weekend dates.
> Will we add any more overseas dates?
> Hopefully!
> 10th Jan - The Dome, Tufnell Park, London
> 14th Jan - O2 Academy, Birmingham SOLD OUT
> 28th Jan - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 7th Feb - The Dome, Tufnell Park, London
> 11th Feb - O2 Ritz, Manchester ON SALE 13TH NOV
> 25th Feb - Electric Ballroom, Camden, London
> 25th March - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 6th & 7th April - Pontchartrain Convention Centre, New Orleans, USA
> 5th, 6th, 7th May - Alexandra Palace, London
> 20th May - Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
> 27th May - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 10th June - O2 Academy, Sheffield
> 24th June - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 15th July - O2 Academy, Birmingham
> 29th July - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 12th August - O2 Ritz, Manchester
> 26th August - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 30th September - The SSE Arena, Wembley , London TICKETS
> 28th October - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 11th November - O2 Ritz, Manchester
> 25th November - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> 9th December - O2 Academy, Sheffield
> 30th December - Electric Ballroom, Camden , London
> All dates are subject to change


----------



## Pizzamorg

This thread is DEAD. Aren’t we onto Chapter 57 now? No one happy to see PROGRESS back? To be fair, Ally Pally was a disappointment and 56 was a bit of a slog… I acknowledge the importance of the show in terms of building a new foundation for a fresh chapter in PROGRESS history but they just didn’t make a particularly interesting show while doing that, for me. Banks and Lee ragged the shit out of each other so that was fun, but the match never quite clicked for me as a whole much like how the show didn’t.


----------



## TD Stinger

So I see British Strong Style have effectively turned face while Haskins and Havoc have turned heel. Pretty big alignment switch but I guess they wanted to change things with a new babyface champion in Travis Banks.

I thought the heel turn was well done but after everything that had happened, I thought it made more sense to just turn Havoc. But we'll see where it goes from here.

Not much else to say about Chapter 56 other than Keith Lee vs. Travis Banks was really good. Much better than their last match I would say. Oh and Wolfgang vs. Walter was pretty good too.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I'm always happy for more Vicky Haskins.


----------



## TD Stinger

Pizzamorg said:


> I'm always happy for more Vicky Haskins.





Spoiler: .


----------



## Pizzamorg

Mark you lucky, lucky, bastard...


----------



## Daniel97

Went to Chapter 57 today. Was one of those Progress shows where everything on the card is good without a MOTY contender. Banks/Andrews was a bit of a let down as at no point did you ever think Andrews was going to win. British Strong Style 6 Man was a great, crazy match & Lee and Webster was great.

Sexsmith/Riddle vs. Haskins/Havoc - ***
Williams vs. Coffee - ***1/4
Womens 4 Way - **3/4
6 Man Tag - ****
CCK vs. Thatcher/Walter - **1/2
Webster/Lee - ****
Banks/Andrews - ***

Live it was probably the most I've enjoyed a show top to bottom and I've been Mania twice.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Took a while but I just watched the new PROGRESS, Chapter 57… which I feel lived up to its name. 

This is the most fun I’ve had with a PROGRESS show in forever, this whole show is best described as “PROGRESS… without the bullshit”. They went back to basics here and in the good way, focusing on good wrestling and not padding the matches out with bollocks sports entertainment style booking, all in front of a red hot crowd. It was also focused on tag team and multi man (and women) wrestling and PROGRESS weirdly has always done those kinds of matches better than singles matches. When PROGRESS is on this kind of form, there really is little better. 

My match of the first half was definitely the surprise six man between British Strong Style (I haven’t enjoyed watching them in a PROGRESS ring more all year, they look completely reenergised) against the Grizzled Young Vets. Even with the DQ finish this match was just so much fun, pure chaotic brilliance from start to finish. This. Is. FUCKING. PROGRESS. 

My match of the second half was the Tag Title match. This kind of wrestling is PROGRESS’ wheelhouse, #CCK are one of the best teams on the circuit right now, the contrast between them and Ringkampf was well utilised, feeding into a very entertaining match and a crucial win to cement #CCK and their reign as champs.

Ironically possibly the worst match on the card was the Main Event. Banks seemed to be on autopilot here, going through the motions, the whole match felt slapdash and unfinished. A bunch of uninspiring sequences that just clumsily clatter by before Banks puts his signature submission on and the opponent taps.

Just watched the new PROGRESS Chapter. Not a great show, most of the card I just didn’t care about and the few things I did have interest in… weren’t very well executed. Then there was the sour ending as Lykos dislocated his shoulder meaning CCK once again drop their titles. And did we really need those shots of Chris Brookes crying?

Talking about the three main talking points, outside of the Lykos shoulder thing, in more detail… it was kinda wild it kicked off with a PROGRESS Title match and I am kind of in two minds about the match too. This match is effectively the same match and story Riddle and Banks had in Lucha Forever. Now I really enjoyed their match in LF, so I should have loved this as well but I feel like I can’t really praise two guys for having exactly the same match... just in a different promotion and while I love PROGRESS… come on guys, if you aren’t repeating your own stories apparently you are telling exactly the same story with exactly the same performers as another British promotion. The irony with all the shade thrown at Peter Kay in this show. Then again, as far as I’m concerned, Banks has basically the same match no matter who he is facing, he seems like a lovely guy and with the right opponent he can put in really special performances but as a whole I think he is one of the most overrated indie performers around today, his psychology is like an embodiment of every reason why people hate indie wrestling. 

The second key talking point, is HHH. Don’t get me wrong, the tag match was pretty bad but I do like how we are almost seeing HHH form as a cohesive unit in real time and while M&M are both extremely green, Mayhew I think has literally just started wrestling, it is good that PROGRESS are getting in as early as possible with this kind of talent. If they are going to build them up and put them on the radar, at least get a few years out of them before they leave for WWE or New Japan. Also, I have never been more envious of someone having a front row seat than those lads behind the bent over Mrs Haskins in those leather trousers. Blimey. 

Then the final point, and probably my highlight of the show, was that Atlas Title Number One Contender match. Not the match itself, which wasn’t even really a match, but because we got amazing moment after amazing moment during that segment. First the fan doing the Ringkampf entrance and confusing the shit out of Timothy Thatcher, then the dramatic, goosebump raising, return of Rob Lynch (Glen’s reaction in the background!), then Paul Robinson with hair and suit AND THEN a debut of Chris Ridgeway. Fucking blimey. I need a sit down.


----------



## TD Stinger

Watched the last couple shows in Chapter 57 and 58:

Chapter 57:

I thought the Havoc & Haskins vs. Sexsmith & Riddle match was fun. And it served it’s purpose in making Havoc & Haskins look strong as a team. The Coffey vs. Williams match was pretty good too and I’m far from a Coffey fan.

With the Women’s 4 Way, I had no idea who Candyfloss and Windsor were, but I have to say, I enjoyed them in this match. And plus it advance the Black vs. Jinny storyline.

Seeing Pete Dunne make a surprise entrance was cool to see as was the 6 man tag to follow. And the tag title match was fun simply for seeing Walter throw Kid Lykos around.

Always love seeing Keith Lee espesically when he’s in there with a smaller guy. Main event was kind of “meh” mainly because it’s 2 babyfaces in there. Action was fine but I didn’t feel any heat in the match.

Chapter 58:

I enjoyed the Banks vs. Riddle match though it was a bit “clichéd.” The constant slapping, kicking out at one, etc. Those things can get annoying but I still enjoyed the action.

The Havoc & Haskins match made me laugh with the “Save the Children!” chant, lol. I think the “Children” got a bit too much offense but the end result was right. And damn it Vicky, stop teasing us.

I will say I think Eddie Dennis has good heel potential. The only thing that holds him back is that he looks like a complete indy jobber, so that doesn’t help.

The Jinny vs. Black match was fun in a spot festy kind of way. Maybe not the crispest match but I wish this is the kind of action we would get when WWE does a big Women’s gimmick match.

I know this Ridgeway guy was supposed to be a big deal but I really didn’t see much to impress me after the pop for his entrance. Still not a big Thatcher fan but he’s a good nonsense wrestler

I agree with the crowd, Joseph Conners is boring. I always see him get so much praise and I never get why. The Women’s title match was pretty good.

And finally, I’m happy to see Zack Gibson with a title. He’s someone who has really impressed me and I think eventually, he will be Progress Champion.


----------



## PrettyLush

Whoa, I didn't know there's a Progress thread in here! I enjoyed the Banks vs Riddle World title match and GYV vs CCK from chapter 58. My only flak was it seems like Toni Storms will win every women's belt in every indy promotion there is. She's still great tho.


----------



## HoHo

Just finished Chapter 58 from Progress and it was a really interesting show. Kykos injury being told to me a week ago had me wondering where he got hurt and their were a few spots that looked like he hurt himself, most likely when he dived onto Drake and Gibson he went down in pain and he was being taught to by Security to get the Medical Staff. Brooke's fought hard during all of this and it just wasn't enough to stop the Grizzled Young Vets this night. Even those two were shocked to hear new Progress Wrestling Tag Champions. I don't see them holding it too long, with the beef they had with Bate and Seven they'll be the ones to take the titles away from them down the line. I wish Kykos a healthy recovery and what do you do with Brooke's now?

I don't know alot of these Matches felt meh to me outside of the greatness of a opener Riddle and Banks, and Jinny and Black were from on this show. Riddle and Banks brutalized each other and it was lovely to see. I wouldn't mind seeing a third Match between the two in the future please make it happen. Jinny and Black ate some Tables and rolled around in Tacks yeah this Match was fun. With Jinny now going to face Toni Storm for the Progress Women's Title is she actually going to win? I mean I swear this is like her third Match or so with Toni, what if Black comes out and does something to cost Toni the title, to start up a threesome feud?

It was downright scary to watch Haskins and Havoc mug Mills and Mayhew. I've seen plenty of young guys get their asses kicked by the veteran talent, but shit they didn't even get a come back spot they said FUCK THAT lol.

Did anyone feel uncomfortable when Davis was starting shit with a fan before his Match with Thatcher? They say don't touch the talent, but Davis just straight up gets in the dude's face and takes his Eye Glasses and Wand Darts them into the Crowd. I mean I paid nearly 500 bucks for my Glasses and if that dude did that to my Glasses yeah I'm throwing down. He bullied that guy to get that heat, that soft ass Davis wouldn't of done that to someone else, just felt like really dude why do that? The guy let it go after that, but shit if he had done that in NY, Boston or Phila yeah he might of gotten his ass kicked. This makes me think of the time when I was in High School hanging out with friends and one of my friends brought this girl, and she came out of no where behind my back and slapped me across my face knocking my Glasses off of my Face. I fucking snapped, I told her don't you ever touch my face like that again I don't know you to even play around like that. The girl apologized later for it, but yeah imagine if the dude's Glasses were broken which the older brands of Glasses are like Paper they break easy, and the Glasses of today thank God can take bumps and keep on going


----------



## Stadhart02

HoHo said:


> Just finished Chapter 58 from Progress and it was a really interesting show. Kykos injury being told to me a week ago had me wondering where he got hurt and their were a few spots that looked like he hurt himself, most likely when he dived onto Drake and Gibson he went down in pain and he was being taught to by Security to get the Medical Staff. Brooke's fought hard during all of this and it just wasn't enough to stop the Grizzled Young Vets this night. Even those two were shocked to hear new Progress Wrestling Tag Champions. I don't see them holding it too long, with the beef they had with Bate and Seven they'll be the ones to take the titles away from them down the line. I wish Kykos a healthy recovery and what do you do with Brooke's now?
> 
> I don't know alot of these Matches felt meh to me outside of the greatness of a opener Riddle and Banks, and Jinny and Black were from on this show. Riddle and Banks brutalized each other and it was lovely to see. I wouldn't mind seeing a third Match between the two in the future please make it happen. Jinny and Black ate some Tables and rolled around in Tacks yeah this Match was fun. With Jinny now going to face Toni Storm for the Progress Women's Title is she actually going to win? I mean I swear this is like her third Match or so with Toni, what if Black comes out and does something to cost Toni the title, to start up a threesome feud?
> 
> It was downright scary to watch Haskins and Havoc mug Mills and Mayhew. I've seen plenty of young guys get their asses kicked by the veteran talent, but shit they didn't even get a come back spot they said FUCK THAT lol.
> 
> Did anyone feel uncomfortable when Davis was starting shit with a fan before his Match with Thatcher? *They say don't touch the talent, but Davis just straight up gets in the dude's face and takes his Eye Glasses and Wand Darts them into the Crowd. I mean I paid nearly 500 bucks for my Glasses *and if that dude did that to my Glasses yeah I'm throwing down. He bullied that guy to get that heat, that soft ass Davis wouldn't of done that to someone else, just felt like really dude why do that? The guy let it go after that, but shit if he had done that in NY, Boston or Phila yeah he might of gotten his ass kicked. This makes me think of the time when I was in High School hanging out with friends and one of my friends brought this girl, and she came out of no where behind my back and slapped me across my face knocking my Glasses off of my Face. I fucking snapped, I told her don't you ever touch my face like that again I don't know you to even play around like that. The girl apologized later for it, but yeah image if the dude's Glasses were broken which the older brands of Glasses are like Paper they break easy, and the Glasses of today thank God can take bumps and keep on going


that is a shitty thing to do - I wouldn't be happy if that happened to me because, like you, I paid a small fortune for my glasses. The problem with reacting to a wrestler is you are guaranteed to get the shit kicked out of you though....


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Just watched chapter 58 good show all round. Shame they had to do the Riddle vs Banks match first but still really good.

Going to chapter 59 as long as the trains are running. But it's forecast to be a snowy day.

Show looks awsome though. I've talked myself into Dennis beating Banks. PROGRESS thrives with a heel champ and Travis Banks can only have so much left on his visa.


----------



## Death Rider

Stadhart02 said:


> that is a shitty thing to do - I wouldn't be happy if that happened to me because, like you, I paid a small fortune for my glasses. The problem with reacting to a wrestler is you are guaranteed to get the shit kicked out of you though....


Agreed if that was a plant or pre agreed I like the spot but as someone who wears glasses if they got broke I would be asking for the money to replace them as glasses are fucking expensive.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Went to Chapter 59 today and enjoyed myself immensely. 

Despite Pete Dunee, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster missing the show due to the snow it was still really good.

Some new faces really seized the oppertunity and made a name for themselves.

Nearly lost my voice booing Gibson.


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS 59 very much takes exactly the shape of what it is, a product of Snowmageddon, a show built in a matter of hours in a mass panic however what it also means is when something is good, knowing the adversity that they had to overcome to bring it into existence makes it even greater.

For example Adam Chase didn’t even intend to wrestle here, he was just ring crew. Then hours before he finds out he’s going to have to work a match a Chris Ridgeway and they are going on second so if the match was even competent then it would have been an achievement. No one could have expected the wonderfully stiff, competitive, match we actually got from the two. I hope Chase will be coming back sooner than later. 

The same can be said for the PROGRESS Tag Title match. This was basically Aussie Open’s coming out party in PROGRESS and fucking blimey, if this is what they can throw together in just a few hours then what the hell could these two teams achieve with actual prep time?

Anyone watched that Live at the Dome show from PROGRESS? It basically appears to be PROGRESS’ latest attempt at getting some kind of developmental series off the ground, with lots of fresh faces for PROGRESS and for me. 

It was pretty horrible in my opinion, well outside of the main event which was charmingly silly, but the real take away for me was how wonderful Dahlia Black is on commentary. Her and Glen make a GREAT duo.


----------



## MC

To be honest, haven't been watching Progress since the Palley Show. Like Travis Banks but he seems like HUGE step down from Dunne, Scurll and Havoc type champions. And the shows aren't interesting enough, they rely too much on Matt Riddle and Walter to make the midcard good. Rev Pro has over took them in my to watch list which is a shame.


----------



## Pizzamorg

MC 16 said:


> To be honest, haven't been watching Progress since the Palley Show. Like Travis Banks but he seems like HUGE step down from Dunne, Scurll and Havoc type champions. And the shows aren't interesting enough, they rely too much on Matt Riddle and Walter to make the midcard good. Rev Pro has over took them in my to watch list which is a shame.


Ally Pally was a huge let down, to be fair and Travis Banks might be the most overrated guy on the British indie circuit right now. I can't really see a clear endgame for Banks as Champ for PROGRESS either, I am assuming he is probably going to drop the title sooner rather than later but right now it is unclear who would step up and take the title off of him. I'm hoping it is not Haskins or Havoc as we really don't need ANOTHER heel stable putting PROGRESS in a stranglehold. 

Never really had much interest in RevPro, outside of individual matches here and there, to me PROGRESS are still king of BritWres indies even with a nosedive in quality this year. A special shoutout to Fight Club Pro though and I'm currently watching through my first Riptide show and their cinematic vision of pro wrestling could make them huge in years to come.


----------



## MC

Pizzamorg said:


> Ally Pally was a huge let down, to be fair and Travis Banks might be the most overrated guy on the British indie circuit right now. I can't really see a clear endgame for Banks as Champ for PROGRESS either, I am assuming he is probably going to drop the title sooner rather than later but right now it is unclear who would step up and take the title off of him. I'm hoping it is not Haskins or Havoc as we really don't need ANOTHER heel stable putting PROGRESS in a stranglehold.
> 
> Never really had much interest in RevPro, outside of individual matches here and there, to me PROGRESS are still king of BritWres indies even with a nosedive in quality this year. A special shoutout to Fight Club Pro though and I'm currently watching through my first Riptide show and their cinematic vision of pro wrestling could make them huge in years to come.



I liked the show, just not the main event. Don't know what it is but they just seem to be going through the motions. Maybe, they will regain the magic they have lost in 2018. For sure, they are missing Scrull and Ospreay on the shows, and will miss Dunne even more when he fully joins WWE. 

As for Rev Pro, they usall have entertaining shows with only one good match but they are started get better shows throughout the card which they didn't normally. Not to mention, they are better at making local talent like Josh Bodom


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just watched this year’s Unboxing Live. This isn’t going to go down as PROGRESS’ best wrestled show of 2017 but in terms of pure entertainment, PROGRESS haven’t delivered much better. Brimming with surprise debuts, feel good moments and genuine comedy (rather than the kind of pantomime shit that sadly plague a lot of British indies [in that regard I agree with you Gibson]) this was a bright way to close out an otherwise pretty lacklustre year for PROGRESS. 

Probably the only missteps of the show was no Glen Joseph on commentary and a complete waste of the return of Will Ospreay. Don’t get me wrong, his match against Banks was top banana but they wasted something that could have been so special down the line. 

Talking about the Main Event, I don’t really know how to feel about it. This is one of the most hotly anticipated UK Title matches in a PROGRESS ring. We were all so excited when it was announced for the New York show and then anticipation only grew further when it was stolen from us before it could actually happen. The closet thing we got before that was when Bate and Gallagher met to face off for the UK Title on NXT. Now it is finally here… and all I could think about was Alpha v Omega. The intensity, the pace, the energy of that match still so raw in my mind and by contrast here it just didn’t have that same… bite to it. The last five or so minutes of the match here is everything the match should have been from the start, we didn’t need them showing off how technical they are as wrestlers, that isn’t the story here. 

You imagine though if there is a rematch at the TakeOver before Wrestlemania?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

As much as I like Progress, I also have to say that in terms of storylines, it's been a long while since Progress had any gripping storylines. I've just watched Unboxing Live and it was really entertaining and I know that show wasn't really meant to do much but in when I really think about it, the only story they're really trying to do is with Eddie Dennis finally getting a shot. Haskins, who was at one point one of, if not the most over guy in Progress and ever since his return to Progress his booking has been bad. The story of him wanting to get back the title he never lost seems to have gone out the window and now he's teaming with Havoc, for reasons unknown. CCK, a team their reigns were really cut short not once, but twice, I get why they did it the 2nd time and that was due to injury but they never should've lost the titles in the first place in their first reign. As for BSS, I still don't know why they've suddenly turned face, I mean get why it happened but there was literally zero build up for their face turn whatsoever and now they're trying to make Joseph Conners, a guy that's as dull as dishwater into one of their next top heels.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> As much as I like Progress, I also have to say that in terms of storylines, it's been a long while since Progress had any gripping storylines. I've just watched Unboxing Live and it was really entertaining and I know that show wasn't really meant to do much but in when I really think about it, the only story they're really trying to do is with Eddie Dennis finally getting a shot. Haskins, who was at one point one of, if not the most over guy in Progress and ever since his return to Progress his booking has been bad. The story of him wanting to get back the title he never lost seems to have gone out the window and now he's teaming with Havoc, for reasons unknown. CCK, a team their reigns were really cut short not once, but twice, I get why they did it the 2nd time and that was due to injury but they never should've lost the titles in the first place in their first reign. As for BSS, I still don't know why they've suddenly turned face, I mean get why it happened but there was literally zero build up for their face turn whatsoever and now they're trying to make Joseph Conners, a guy that's as dull as dishwater into one of their next top heels.


Gotta agree with this. 

I don't remember what show it was, but I think it was after a match against Mike Bird where Haskins cut that soul filled promo about him being home and coming for his title. Then he entered a feud with Havoc for literally no reason seemingly other than to give the two men something to do and now even the commentary can't hide how little meaning there now is to the two men being a chemistryless tag team. 

To be fair, the BSS face turn is no worser handled than the original heel turn. I'm pretty sure the second match Moustache Mountain had in PROGRESS saw Seven or Bate betray one or the other for Dunne (it was so nothing the storytelling I don't even remember who went first), then the one who was betrayed just joined them a show or two later without any storytelling.


----------



## MC

Shame Progress have a deal with WWE, I would say try and get a deal with All Japan. Would help out with their small midcards and would get more tag teams in the company.


----------



## Pizzamorg

MC 16 said:


> Shame Progress have a deal with WWE, I would say try and get a deal with All Japan. Would help out with their small midcards and would get more tag teams in the company.


As has been said on numerous occasions, it is their talent in the other direction that is the problem for PROGRESS. 

The promotion has such a large spotlight on it now, at least within the small circles of wrestling influence, that the promotion is going through a constant refresh cycle. They pluck out the freshest British talent right from the training camps and into their rings, they turn them into a star and build up the promotion around them... just for them to leave. There are no hard feelings involved in this, they are very open about it being a fact of life and it fills them with pride to effectively be a star factory, but it doesn't help PROGRESS have any great, long term, storytelling momentum when they are effectively forced to start all over again every few years. 

This is why I was surprised by the Havoc/Haskins storyline. Two legends of PROGRESS whose injury histories mean they are probably not going anywhere yet they are floundering in a nothing spot on the card. These should be the guys with your titles.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Gotta agree with this.
> 
> I don't remember what show it was, but I think it was after a match against Mike Bird where Haskins cut that soul filled promo about him being home and coming for his title. Then he entered a feud with Havoc for literally no reason seemingly other than to give the two men something to do and now even the commentary can't hide how little meaning there now is to the two men being a chemistryless tag team.
> 
> To be fair, the BSS face turn is no worser handled than the original heel turn. I'm pretty sure the second match Moustache Mountain had in PROGRESS saw Seven or Bate betray one or the other for Dunne (it was so nothing the storytelling I don't even remember who went first), then the one who was betrayed just joined them a show or two later without any storytelling.


I mean I get why they did Havoc vs Haskins as it was a big match to have at Ally Pally but shouldn't that have put Havoc as the next contender for the title? They could've still done the heel turn for Havoc and Haskins and Havoc could've easily been the feud to help Banks get his run of to a hot start but instead they're teaming and I don't really care why because there really doesn't seem to be a logical reason unless they really want the tag titles. I mean I still remember when Haskins & Flash came back to save Havoc & declared war on BSS and they had like 1 match.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> I mean I get why they did Havoc vs Haskins as it was a big match to have at Ally Pally but shouldn't that have put Havoc as the next contender for the title? They could've still done the heel turn for Havoc and Haskins and Havoc could've easily been the feud to help Banks get his run of to a hot start but instead they're teaming and I don't really care why because there really doesn't seem to be a logical reason unless they really want the tag titles. I mean I still remember when Haskins & Flash came back to save Havoc & declared war on BSS and they had like 1 match.


Well is anything more egregious than Ospreay? I didn't realise his match against Havoc was "Loser leaves PROGRESS... for a couple of months before getting to return straight into a PROGRESS title match while people who hadn't taken a stipulation to leave the promotion have ground their way through every show in that time without ever getting a title shot".


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Just finishing off watching Unboxing 2 Unboxmyboogaloo. Good show with some great action.

Really feels like PROGRESS are refilling their ranks as 2017 saw a lot of people leave or disappear for a bit. Especially enjoying seeing new faces in the company. I got to see Aussie Open have their coming out party live at the Sheffield show which was a bit special and the likes of Chris Ridgeway, Millie Mackenzie, Spike Trivet and Adam Chase look promising.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Anyone here listen to Jim Smallman's Podcast, Tuesday Night Jaw? I've been listening for a while now and I would say I'm a fan, you get lots of juicy insights and while Smallman's effective approach of "you can't be negative about wrestling" is pretty stupid, often his constructive criticism of matches shows/characters/matches etc have allowed me to find new angles of appropriation on things to perhaps change my mind on further viewings. As such I find it quite fascinating that pretty much every time he criticises something, you can see him doing that in PROGRESS. Now I appreciate PROGRESS isn't just his, he books with Glen, Briley, the rest of the team and collaborates with the wrestlers but it is just weird that PROGRESS isn't... better given his opinions. PROGRESS seems to be built on everything he criticises other promotions for.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Pizzamorg said:


> Anyone here listen to Jim Smallman's Podcast, Tuesday Night Jaw? I've been listening for a while now and I would say I'm a fan, you get lots of juicy insights and while Smallman's effective approach of "you can't be negative about wrestling" is pretty stupid


I'm actually listening now but I only listen to the post Wrestle Kingdom show. 

I'm fairly sure his positivity is pragmatic. If you're in the wrestling industry you probably don't want to piss people off as you never know who you'll be working with. If we've learnt anything in the internet age it's that people generally cannot take criticism. 

Look at Jinder Mahals title run, did wrestlers comment about how it was a massive slap in the face to wrestlers and fans everywhere? No that would be unprofessional and short sighted instead they all talked about how "improved" he was and how "hardworking" he is. Damning with faint praise


----------



## Pizzamorg

-***** Italiano- said:


> I'm actually listening now but I only listen to the post Wrestle Kingdom show.
> 
> I'm fairly sure his positivity is pragmatic. If you're in the wrestling industry you probably don't want to piss people off as you never know who you'll be working with. If we've learnt anything in the internet age it's that people generally cannot take criticism.
> 
> Look at Jinder Mahals title run, did wrestlers comment about how it was a massive slap in the face to wrestlers and fans everywhere? No that would be unprofessional and short sighted instead they all talked about how "improved" he was and how "hardworking" he is. Damning with faint praise


Smallman has always been pretty open about this as well, he basically all but admits this is why he is so positive. His constructive criticism though usually is pretty good though and the WK12 Round Table is actually a great example of my point. You could pretty much take all of his criticisms of that show and levy it against Unboxing Live, the structure and booking of that show basically did everything he criticised WK12 for.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Pizzamorg said:


> Smallman has always been pretty open about this as well, he basically all but admits this is why he is so positive. His constructive criticism though usually is pretty good though and the WK12 Round Table is actually a great example of my point. You could pretty much take all of his criticisms of that show and levy it against Unboxing Live, the structure and booking of that show basically did everything he criticised WK12 for.


Maybe it's like a parent thats unable to see that their kid is being a massive twat.

To be fair Unboxing is kind of advertised as a bit of a laugh and had two pretty strong matches to finish with.


----------



## Pizzamorg

-***** Italiano- said:


> Maybe it's like a parent thats unable to see that their kid is being a massive twat.
> 
> To be fair Unboxing is kind of advertised as a bit of a laugh and had two pretty strong matches to finish with.


You see I don't agree. 

Like Smallman mentioned about overloading, Ospreay coming back out of nowhere straight into a title match before being forgotten about for Dunne Gallagher was a waste of both surprises. 

Likewise with what he said about Alpha Omega but worse, given how short Dunne and Gallagher was, the fact the match had about ten minutes of feeling out and then five minutes of proper action before ending was far more egregious than the "feeling out period" on AO. At least as far as I'm concerned.

PROGRESS asked for fans to vote their top three PROGRESS matches of the year 2017. My pick was as follows: 

3) Riddle v Walter for the Atlas Title on Chapter 51.

2) Havoc v Ospreay Loser Leaves PROGRESS Fans Bring The Weapons. 

1) Jeff Cobb v Matt Riddle in a Super Strong Style 16 Tournament 2017 Quarter Final Match.


----------



## Corey

My picks would be:

1. SSS16 Final: Travis Banks vs. Tyler Bate (PROGRESS SSS16 Day 3) **** 1/2
2. Matt Riddle vs. WALTER (PROGRESS Chapter 51) **** 1/2
3. Matt Riddle vs. Jeff Cobb (PROGRESS SSS16 Day 2) **** 1/4


----------



## Pizzamorg

Corey said:


> My picks would be:
> 
> 1. SSS16 Final: Travis Banks vs. Tyler Bate (PROGRESS SSS16 Day 3) **** 1/2
> 2. Matt Riddle vs. WALTER (PROGRESS Chapter 51) **** 1/2
> 3. Matt Riddle vs. Jeff Cobb (PROGRESS SSS16 Day 2) **** 1/4


Apparently I can't give you any more rep yet but... I love that Matt Riddle love! Although PROGRESS is one of my only regular promotions now other than NXT, I must admit I struggled to pick three matches of the year... and for the wrong reasons. 

2017 in PROGRESS has been filled with great moments but actual great matches, in my opinion at least, have been scarce. While Smallman, for obvious reasons, says there is no WWE conspiracy that PG friendly Sports Entertainment booking style crept in PROGRESS hard this year for me which soured a lot of potentially great matches and PROGRESS seemed less prepared than ever for their yearly rug pull as talent was thrust onto bolted together cards that clearly weren't ready leading some almost impressively sloppy matches.


----------



## Corey

Pizzamorg said:


> Apparently I can't give you any more rep yet but... I love that Matt Riddle love! Although PROGRESS is one of my only regular promotions now other than NXT, I must admit I struggled to pick three matches of the year... and for the wrong reasons.
> 
> 2017 in PROGRESS has been filled with great moments but actual great matches, in my opinion at least, have been scarce. While Smallman, for obvious reasons, says there is no WWE conspiracy that PG friendly Sports Entertainment booking style crept in PROGRESS hard this year for me which soured a lot of potentially great matches and PROGRESS seemed less prepared than ever for their yearly rug pull as talent was thrust onto bolted together cards that clearly weren't ready leading some almost impressively sloppy matches.


No I definitely agree. BSS getting involved and many times ruining the finishes of matches (or just the overbooking in general on occasion) soured me on the product at times and devalued what were normally great matches before. That's kinda what made me put the SSS16 Final at the top because Banks was FINALLY able to win a big one and it was a great moment on top of being a great match.

I actually looked back at some of my ratings and there were a couple matches I gave ****+ that I hardly remember anything from. :lol Like Keith Lee vs. Travis Banks. I'm sure that was awesome but damn I remember NONE of it.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I think I’ve just witnessed my first Match of The Year Contender quality match, after checking out the Natural Progression Series Qualifier between Maverick Mayhew and Connor Mills from the latest Dome show, which had a buzz around it that just wouldn’t go away. 

When you watch loads and loads of wrestling like I do, while I still love the wrestling I watch, the magic does get lost somewhere at times. I’m remarking at the quality of the execution of a move but I’m not even really thinking about how that move makes me feel, because I’m not really truly feeling anything beyond base levels of entertainment. 

As such, I can say with nothing but pride, that I burst into tears at the end of Mills/Mayhew. I was feeling so much emotion across the course of the match (while still admiring the perfect execution of superhuman feats that simply defied the laws of the world to be done by two wrestlers so young) that I simply couldn't contain it all. Especially when Ospreay got involved, losing his shit mid match and then cutting that promo at the end, all the emotion just surged out of me. Probably the last time that happened was during my rewatch of the Shibata/Okada match but that was for the wrong reasons, as I cried because I knew the second time I was watching one of my favourite wrestlers career die right in front of my eyes. And at the time of the rewatch, potentially even Shibata's life.

More of this please PROGRESS!


----------



## MC

For a match between two people under the age of 20, it was pretty good. It was a complete spotfest but entertaining nonetheless. The flaws were expected so I'm not going to hate on the much because of them. I did prefer Bea Priestley vs Millie McKenzie from the same show. First time watching Millie and she is pretty good. She looked better then I expected from her. Seen Priestley a few times in Stardom, particularly in a match against Toni Storm where she looked great and this was no different. Good showing from them.


----------



## Pizzamorg

McKenzie is from Coventry too, so fucking represent!

My internet is finally fixed so I could catch up with the latest PROGRESS Chapter and… it was a bit of a weird show. 

PROGRESS got over on the back of the Havoc/Ospreay Regression stuff as PROGRESS showed that unlike... basically every other indie, they weren’t just a promotion built on inconsequential matches, there were long running storylines and characters being threaded through the matches to give them purpose and meaning. 

I bring this up as from a purely wrestling standpoint, Chapter 61 might be one of the best PROGRESS shows in recent memory… the UK Title match was great, the Tag Title match wasn’t to my tastes but had moments of brilliance and the second half was fantastic from beginning until the main devolved into a overbooked clusterfuck but while PROGRESS have always strived to deliver great matches, that has never been exclusively what PROGRESS has been about and it is just strange when I think about just how little is really going on in PROGRESS right now and how even less was going on by the time this show ended. 

Last year was bad in the sense that the Banks/Dunne BSS stuff was a poor man’s imitation of what they were doing with Ospreay/Havoc but it at least gave something for PROGRESS to anchor around. Now that is gone PROGRESS just seem to have lost all grip on their sense of self. Character dynamics are all over the place leaving the wrestlers to be visibly confused as to whether they are heel, face, or even what character they are playing and new talent (or returning talent) are injected into cold matches with definitive, clean, finishes that leave no room for anything to be built from beyond it. Like I appreciate that most people HATED how BSS fucked every finish for almost the whole of 2017 but the answer isn’t to do a complete 180. Even the commentators couldn’t hide how much of a dead end this show felt from a storytelling perspective. This might have made sense at one of PROGRESS’ big shows but this was their first show of the year, isn’t that supposed to be a rocket strapped chapter to kick off the year rather than the other way round?


----------



## PUNQ

Pizzamorg said:


> I think I’ve just witnessed my first Match of The Year Contender quality match, after checking out the Natural Progression Series Qualifier between Maverick Mayhew and Connor Mills from the latest Dome show, which had a buzz around it that just wouldn’t go away.
> 
> When you watch loads and loads of wrestling like I do, while I still love the wrestling I watch, the magic does get lost somewhere at times. I’m remarking at the quality of the execution of a move but I’m not even really thinking about how that move makes me feel, because I’m not really truly feeling anything beyond base levels of entertainment.
> 
> As such, I can say with nothing but pride, that I burst into tears at the end of Mills/Mayhew. I was feeling so much emotion across the course of the match (while still admiring the perfect execution of superhuman feats that simply defied the laws of the world to be done by two wrestlers so young) that I simply couldn't contain it all. Especially when Ospreay got involved, losing his shit mid match and then cutting that promo at the end, all the emotion just surged out of me. Probably the last time that happened was during my rewatch of the Shibata/Okada match but that was for the wrong reasons, as I cried because I knew the second time I was watching one of my favourite wrestlers career die right in front of my eyes. And at the time of the rewatch, potentially even Shibata's life.
> 
> More of this please PROGRESS!


Here is a example of how different people can react to a match. The Maverick Mayhew -vs- Connor Mills match from January 10th is the match I've been most INSULTED over so far this year. Really rubbed me the wrong way. I recognize the effort from the two youngsters, but... it felt like kids having seen Japanese wrestling, imitating it backyard-style. Really, REALLY fake choreo of an epic fight. Not impossible they’ll become big news one day, but they need a legit reality check first. I felt bad for them. They were not ready for this. This really wasn't good. Not surprised Will Ospreay was endorsing this. Great as he is, he himself has issues wrestling like a kid when he should be fighting like a man. Under a star from me. [3/4*]

That January 10th show didn't do much for me anyhow, but I recognize they were giving the lesser known guys time to shine. Thankfully Chapter 61 on January 14 was more my cup of tea. Great show!


----------



## Rookie of the Year

Progress Wrestling are coming to Australia! Three cross promotional shows in April.

17th April- Progress X EPW (Perth)
18th April- Progress X PWA (Sydney- I'll be attending this one)
20th April- Progress X MCW (Melbourne)

Hope we get Dunne, Bate and Storm. Insane stuff. 2018 continues to shock me for Aussie wrestling awesomeness.

https://progresswrestling.com/blogs/...lia-this-april

I haven't seen Progress outside of Wrestlemania Axxess and the WWE: UK guys, but this has me very interested.


----------



## Death Rider

Latest video with flash morgan has me interested to see where he goes. Pretty certain that was Vicki haskins at the end so him joining up with havoc and haskins could be cool even if this heel turn from the pair has been underwhelming


----------



## Corey

Pete Dunne is the first official entrant for SSS16. Should be interesting to see how protected he is and/or if he wins it all by default.

Also Chapter 63 is looking pretty tasty:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/958779476833439744

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/959143140094595076

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/958054691065212930


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Pete Dunne is the first official entrant for SSS16. Should be interesting to see how protected he is and/or if he wins it all by default.
> 
> Also Chapter 63 is looking pretty tasty:


That Triple Threat looks intriguing considering Banks is in separate factions with both men. Hell, he also used to be in the Prestige in WCPW. Banks is man whore, lol.

Bate vs. Sabre Jr. sounds good to me too.

Grizzled Young Vets vs. Havoc & Haskins? Meh, could be a fine match but this whole team of Havoc & Haskins, despite Vicky Haskins being hot as hell, has been underwhelming.


----------



## Pizzamorg

New PROGRESS. 

I was actually in Camden during the day of this show, at the time I wished I had planned this in advance because I would have looked to get tickets but then I watched the show and… yeah. Pretty much all my concerns from the last Chapter were realised here, this was a complete nothing show with a Frankenstein’s monster of a card. No direction, purpose or focus going in or coming out. 

The highlights of the show were probably the HHH FSU 2.0 tag match–while I don’t much care for the feud, Eddie Dennis cut a great promo, helped by the fact that that awful promo from Jinny was still fresh in mind and while Danny Jones could probably do with hitting a gym, he maximised his minutes in this one and came out looking great. This is also probably the best synergy we’ve ever seen from HHH too. The triple threat earlier in the show was also fun especially with Dahlia Black jumping on commentary, she is wonderful at it.


----------



## Corey

Pizzamorg said:


> New PROGRESS.
> 
> I was actually in Camden during the day of this show, at the time I wished I had planned this in advance because I would have looked to get tickets but then I watched the show and… yeah. Pretty much all my concerns from the last Chapter were realised here, this was a complete nothing show with a Frankenstein’s monster of a card. No direction, purpose or focus going in or coming out.
> 
> The highlights of the show were probably the HHH FSU 2.0 tag match–while I don’t much care for the feud, Eddie Dennis cut a great promo, helped by the fact that that awful promo from Jinny was still fresh in mind and while Danny Jones could probably do with hitting a gym, he maximised his minutes in this one and came out looking great. This is also probably the best synergy we’ve ever seen from HHH too. The triple threat earlier in the show was also fun especially with Dahlia Black jumping on commentary, she is wonderful at it.


Did you watch WALTER/Thatcher? That was a legitimately incredible match.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Corey said:


> Did you watch WALTER/Thatcher? That was a legitimately incredible match.


To be honest I was so fed up by that point I was just sort of skimming through. Maybe I'll go back and watch it in full then.


----------



## TJQ

Pizzamorg said:


> To be honest I was so fed up by that point I was just sort of skimming through. Maybe I'll go back and watch it in full then.


Please do, MOTY baby.


----------



## TD Stinger

Finally watched Chapter 62 recently. And yeah, Walter vs. Thatcher was pretty damn awesome. Just a vicious match between 2 friends willing to hit each other as hard as they had to to win. Great match.

I do have to say this though about another match. I like Travis Banks, I think he has talent. But damn, I feel like all of his matches feel so similar. I mean how many times can we start a match with a couple strikes and 2 minutes in we're already doing 3 Suicide Dives and knocking chairs out of the way on the outside.

I know I'm picking on him and he's FAR from the only guy to do this. But, I mean can't we ever start a match slow and take our time. I mean even Thatcher vs. Walter eventually turned into a chop fest, but there was at least some chain wrestling to start and everything built and built from there. I guess I notice it more with Banks because he is the champion now but I want to see something more out of him than what he's been doing. Because honestly, I get burned out with his matches 10 minutes in.

The 3 Way between ZSJ vs. Brooks vs. Seven was fun, the bit with Seven "Winning the Rumble" was pretty funny.

Finally, have to say I'm kind of over the Havoc/Haskins team up. Their matces are fine but I don't feel like I know what the purpose of their team is. The tag champs at the moment are also heels. They aren't going for the Progress World Title. They're just wrestling random tag matches every show. I mean outside of looking at Vicky Haskins, there's not much to this team.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Went back and watched the latest PROGRESS Chapter Main Event in full. Not a great match by conventional standards (it was basically fifteen minutes of Walter slapping Thatcher) but the fact this was played so convincingly like a shoot really gave it an edge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone get chopped until they bleed like with Thatcher here, blimey. There is a fine line between a snug match, a stiff match and just two guys literally beating the shit out of each other but I feel like the two stayed on the right side of the line the whole time. 

Also, thank God someone else said it, Travis Banks is one of the most overrated and downright dull wrestlers on the circuit. While I’m glad the days of BSS fucking the finish of every match are done, Banks copy paste, title defences are no better. He literally does the same match no matter who his opponent is.

Also PROGRESS in general lacks direction right now, I think HHH could be so good but there is so little focus and so little story right now HHH are losing all momentum.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

I'm currently watching Chapter 62 and I'm up to the Havoc & Haskins (still wanna know why the fuck these 2 are teaming) vs Andrews & Jones and even though I'm excited to watch the main event, once again this show just feels completely skip-able. The best parts have been the Eddie Dennis promo, Trent Seven and the continuation of Banks vs Cooper vs Brookes but that Chapter 63 card is looking pretty dam good.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

I quite like Travis Banks though I do see these criticisms as valid. I've always seen him as being a lesser Mark Haskins. But after all the stuff with SPPT it made sense to go with Banks. Even though they fucked up his build and the match with Dunne was a let down the crowds were still hot and PROGRESS can consider the whole thing a success.

I think they should see Trav as a transitional champ and would be better served by having TK Cooper win the belt. His offense isn't as as crisp and indyriffic as Banks but his charisma, ability to work a crowd and tell stories could serve him well. I just wonder if the PROGRESS crowds would fully buy another turn. I'm confident they'd boo TK but not sure about Dahlia maybe that's why they're being kept apart.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

-***** Italiano- said:


> I quite like Travis Banks though I do see these criticisms as valid. I've always seen him as being a lesser Mark Haskins. But after all the stuff with SPPT it made sense to go with Banks. Even though they fucked up his build and the match with Dunne was a let down the crowds were still hot and PROGRESS can consider the whole thing a success.
> 
> I think they should see Trav as a transitional champ and would be better served by having TK Cooper win the belt. His offense isn't as as crisp and indyriffic as Banks but his charisma, ability to work a crowd and tell stories could serve him well. I just wonder if the PROGRESS crowds would fully buy another turn. I'm confident they'd boo TK but not sure about Dahlia maybe that's why they're being kept apart.


Yeah when it comes to babyfaces like Mark Haskins and Travis Banks, the money is definitely in the chase and they need good heels to help continue that momentum for the babyface which Banks hasn't had. As for who will dethrone him, I could see it being Cooper but I can't help but feel it's too soon for him especially after his injury.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Yeah when it comes to babyfaces like Mark Haskins and Travis Banks, the money is definitely in the chase and they need good heels to help continue that momentum for the babyface which Banks hasn't had. As for who will dethrone him, I could see it being Cooper but I can't help but feel it's too soon for him especially after his injury.


Yeah I think a lot if it comes down to availability. PROGRESS is full of wrestlers that are much bigger stars than Banks but can't be at every show. It doesn't feel like there are many suitable options to replace him. Beyond Brookes and Cooper theres Andrews, which retreads old ground, Flash Morgan Webster, who doesn't seem ready and Haskins, Havoc and Gibson are all busy.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Maybe all this stuff with Flash is building up to a heel turn and taking the title off of Banks.


----------



## MarkyWhipwreck

Gonna have to get my hands on Ch. 62, seen so many recommendations for Walter/Timmy


----------



## TJQ

MarkyWhipwreck said:


> Gonna have to get my hands on Ch. 62, seen so many recommendations for Walter/Timmy


I gotchu if you haven't found it/watched it yet.


----------



## MarkyWhipwreck

TJQ said:


> I gotchu if you haven't found it/watched it yet.


Slide me that sh*t my closeted Adam Cole fan brotha.


----------



## TD Stinger

-***** Italiano- said:


> I quite like Travis Banks though I do see these criticisms as valid. I've always seen him as being a lesser Mark Haskins. But after all the stuff with SPPT it made sense to go with Banks. Even though they fucked up his build and the match with Dunne was a let down the crowds were still hot and PROGRESS can consider the whole thing a success.
> 
> I think they should see Trav as a transitional champ and would be better served by having TK Cooper win the belt. His offense isn't as as crisp and indyriffic as Banks but his charisma, ability to work a crowd and tell stories could serve him well. I just wonder if the PROGRESS crowds would fully buy another turn. I'm confident they'd boo TK but not sure about Dahlia maybe that's why they're being kept apart.





ShadowSucks92 said:


> Yeah when it comes to babyfaces like Mark Haskins and Travis Banks, the money is definitely in the chase and they need good heels to help continue that momentum for the babyface which Banks hasn't had. As for who will dethrone him, I could see it being Cooper but I can't help but feel it's too soon for him especially after his injury.


TK Cooper?

Eh, I mean he has a different personality than Banks, but I feel like it wouldn't change much. And let's be honest, ever since Banks won the title, he's been getting the CM Punk treatment, and don't mean that in a good way. At least half of his defenses haven't even been the main event of the shows.

If we're talking about who should be the next champion or a champion in the future, I think by the time 2018 ends, Zack Gibson should be Progress Champion. He is already the most hated man in Progress and his matches that I've seen have gotten better and better.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

TD Stinger said:


> TK Cooper?
> 
> Eh, I mean he has a different personality than Banks, but I feel like it wouldn't change much. And let's be honest, ever since Banks won the title, he's been getting the CM Punk treatment, and don't mean that in a good way. At least half of his defenses haven't even been the main event of the shows.
> 
> If we're talking about who should be the next champion or a champion in the future, I think by the time 2018 ends, Zack Gibson should be Progress Champion. He is already the most hated man in Progress and his matches that I've seen have gotten better and better.


I'd be super behind a Zack Gibson run but I don't think they're heading in that direction and he seems busy with the tag titles. If he drops them I'll get excited but at the moment I think babysitting James Drake is his role.


----------



## HoHo

So I finished Chapter 62 of Progress and damn Walter/Thatcher was downright brutal and amazing. Both guys went for it, for our viewing pleasure, but shit their were multiple shots I saw in their Match alone that made me believe they were completely out and in another plane of existence. That Closeline Walter gave Thatcher and then the shot around the Chest on the Apron two of the hardest shots I've ever seen. I put this Match with Almas/Gargano, it's a different type of Match and it makes me love it even more. Walter/Thatcher no doubt the Match of the Night for Chapter 62, while Seven had me in tears with the fake Royal Rumble and him trying to make it there on time.:rofl:

Seven


----------



## CM Buck

Any free links to Walter vs thatch?


----------



## Pizzamorg

Anyone seen PROGRESS has posted their top ten matches of 2017 as voted by the fans? My favourite match made it to number two and my second and third choices also made it into the middle of the list.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Mark Davis has just been added to Walter's chop list.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Pizzamorg said:


> Anyone seen PROGRESS has posted their top ten matches of 2017 as voted by the fans? My favourite match made it to number two and my second and third choices also made it into the middle of the list.


My top-2 both made the list (Riddle/Thatcher/WALTER + Ringkampf/BSS 6-man from Chapter 47) - my #3 didn't though. Riddle/WALTER from NYC, which I think is comfortably the best singles match the 2 have had against each other.


----------



## Platt

Great show from Progress. Sabre vs Bate was a legit MOTYC and Davis vs Walter was just brutal.

Sexsmith announced he’s cashing in his title shot at the big show in May which is a huge let down for me. I don’t mind him but he’s way out of his league headling the first big show in Manchester. I can’t see that being the math to get people buying tickets.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I dunno, PROGRESS put a lot of effort in last year into making Sexsmith a massively over babyface and it seems to work because the crowds seem to love him wherever he pops up.


----------



## Corey

Fucking christ...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/962792050260398082

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/965662435205148677


----------



## Pizzamorg

I feel like Morgan Webster is being built up as their next underdog baby face who will climb the card over the course of the year and be the one to dethrone Banks.

New PROGRESS (finally). Worth the wait too. Also, fuck that guy in the blue shirt who sat near the front and was on his phone for basically the whole show. How about you give me your ticket?

I felt like the show opened on a sour note with Trivet going out of the NPS so unceremoniously, I just hope they have other plans for him and I still find it hard to care about the effectively token women’s division in PROGRESS (even though Storm’s botched promo was really cute) but otherwise this show had pretty much everything I love about PROGRESS in it. 

It had great wrestling with a wide spectrum of different kinds of matches and the promotion seems to finally be getting some sense of direction again with great developments for the PROGRESS Title pictures in each divisions and another blinding promo from Eddie Dennis. Go on PROGRESS put the title on Sexsmith. 

In terms of my favourite match, how do I even choose? So many matches hit the spot in so many different ways. The PROGRESS Tag Title match had a little too much shenans for me (although I can appreciate the necessity) but before all the nonsense there was a real tag team clinic on display here. Earlier in the show we had another tag team match between the Broducts and BSS which was basically exactly the kind of joyous, ridiculous, car crash that made me fall in love with PROGRESS in the first place (although what was with the weird code of honour stuff at the end???).

Then in singles action we didn’t get much of a match out of it, but I can’t deny how much fun I had seeing Mark Davis effectively become that futilely struggling slasher victim against killer WALTER. (why wasn’t the title on the line by the way?) Did they gimmick the chops this time? Thatcher’s mince meat chest seemed legit but with Davis the match had barely begun and his chest was already a crimson mask. Elsewhere, I was surprised to see they had Bate work a singles match rather than with Seven but his match against ZSJ was pretty damn great in all honesty. It was a cold match and there are ceilings on such things but it is always a treat when PROGRESS take the shackles off of Bate and let him be the great wrestler he is without all the bullshit. It obviously helped Bate that he was working with ZSJ who just feels more special a performer every time I see him. Very few performers can truly convince me of their offence like this man can, everything he does looks like it hurts a whole fucking lot.

Talking about the Main Event, I haven’t really got any investment in the whole CCK/SPPT war thing they’ve built here and I have to wonder if they were concerned people like me were the majority, given this match came with a hype package which is usually saved for the biggest matches of the year… which this certainly isn’t. It is a shame they made Brookes take the loss here and left him alone in the ring after getting rejected by Cooper, as he was the person I went in with the most investment, one also has to wonder how long this Banks run can go for as it sounds like the crowds are already starting to turn on him.


----------



## Death Rider

Curious to see where this Eddie Dennis stuff is going with the YouTube promos


----------



## MC

I haven't really been into Progress for months but some of the matches on this show were really good. Broduct vs BSS was really good and was very entertaining. I chuckled so hard at that circumcision joke. Mark Davis vs Walter was nasty. It reminded me of Walters match with Ilja at the 16 caret but as least Ilja had some fat on his chest, Davis had nothing. Cringe but I loved it. Zack Sabre Jr vs Tyler Bate was so good. Loved the counters and reveal they had in this match, loved every second. Sabre was at his technical best in this match. Bate was great as well. I didn't watch the main event as neither of the three interest me at all.


----------



## TD Stinger

Finished watching Chapter 63. Pretty good show top to bottom. Sabre Jr. vs. Bate is my new Progress match of the year so far. That was awesome. Sabre kept finding ways to counter and stretch Bate and Bate used all his power to try to escape.

Walter brutalizing his opponent was fun to see. The 3 way main event was fun too though bordered on ridiculous at times. Seriously, how many times did Cooper get blasted with a chair and 2 seconds later was on his feet? And how did he not break his neck on that Double Top Rope Spanish Fly? Yikes.

Chapter 64 looks good too:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/967343378051543040
Bate vs. Riddle
ZSJ vs. Jonah Rock
The 8 Man Match

Sounds good to me.


----------



## MC

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/967861002913140736

On the money here. Travis Banks has lost the momentum he had before his Progress Title Win.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Any translation for us non ROH fans?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Any translation for us non ROH fans?


Basically fans are bored of Travis Banks now. He hasn't had a compelling feud to where you would actually believed he's going to lose the belt and having good matches just isn't enough especially when other people like Sexsmith, Eddie Dennis, WALTER etc are completely outshining him in terms of getting the fans interested.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Basically fans are bored of Travis Banks now. He hasn't had a compelling feud to where you would actually believed he's going to lose the belt and having good matches just isn't enough especially when other people like Sexsmith, Eddie Dennis, WALTER etc are completely outshining him in terms of getting the fans interested.


Ah okay! 

As I've said dozens of times over, I never got the Travis Banks thing in the first place. It was like one night no one had heard of him and then the next he was winning every title on the British Circuit. 

Don't get me wrong he seems like a lovely guy but he has the same match every single time and in my opinion it isn't even a good match, his entire gimmick is that he no sells everything and sure it creates the odd pop when he jumps straight back up after a particularly big move but in an overall sense you lose far more than you can gain because it takes all the drama out of his matches and makes them impossible to emotionally engage with. 

PROGRESS have also booked themselves into a corner a bit, too. While there are far more interesting possibilities in the locker room to have that title around their waist, PROGRESS has failed to really convincingly build anyone up as an obvious candidate for Banks to drop the title to. Plus Banks really hasn't held the title for very long and there have been no seeds planted to suggest any cracks are forming to allow Banks to lose the title so regardless of whether he loses clean or gets cheated out of the title, it is going to make the last year of PROGRESS feel redundant. But then if they glue the title to Banks to make it seem like the last year of PROGRESS meant something then I fear that Banks will end up becoming the Roman Reigns of PROGRESS.

Honestly if they had perhaps waited a few months and then done that SPPT/CCK Triple Threat that might have been the best option to have a title switch because Banks can lose the title there without having to eat a pin or some kind of shenanigans and since it would involve him losing to one of his tag partners, there would be some poetry in him being built up as a Singles Champion, besting every opponent but then eventually losing it to one of the people he tagged with before this push.


----------



## MC

What ShadowSucks92 said.

This is kinda what Gabe did with Thatcher in Evolve, just in a much smaller reign. Lost any heat or momentum he had due to poor booking and lack of compelling stories. The fans just are bored of Banks and will want anyone to beat him from here on out.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Ah okay!
> 
> As I've said dozens of times over, I never got the Travis Banks thing in the first place. It was like one night no one had heard of him and then the next he was winning every title on the British Circuit.
> 
> Don't get me wrong he seems like a lovely guy but he has the same match every single time and in my opinion it isn't even a good match, his entire gimmick is that he no sells everything and sure it creates the odd pop when he jumps straight back up after a particularly big move but in an overall sense you lose far more than you can gain because it takes all the drama out of his matches and makes them impossible to emotionally engage with.
> 
> PROGRESS have also booked themselves into a corner a bit, too. While there are far more interesting possibilities in the locker room to have that title around their waist, PROGRESS has failed to really convincingly build anyone up as an obvious candidate for Banks to drop the title to. Plus Banks really hasn't held the title for very long and there have been no seeds planted to suggest any cracks are forming to allow Banks to lose the title so regardless of whether he loses clean or gets cheated out of the title, it is going to make the last year of PROGRESS feel redundant. But then if they glue the title to Banks to make it seem like the last year of PROGRESS meant something then I fear that Banks will end up becoming the Roman Reigns of PROGRESS.
> 
> Honestly if they had perhaps waited a few months and then done that SPPT/CCK Triple Threat that might have been the best option to have a title switch because Banks can lose the title there without having to eat a pin or some kind of shenanigans and since it would involve him losing to one of his tag partners, there would be some poetry in him being built up as a Singles Champion, besting every opponent but then eventually losing it to one of the people he tagged with before this push.


Its a problem alot of babyfaces have, the money is always in the chase to the title, it happened with O'Spreay, Haskins and Banks and once you win then the story is over so you need a new story to tell before the fans turn on you and right Progress's biggest feud is Eddie Dennis vs Mark Andrews. As for the SPPT/CCK thing, it really isn't a story than many people care about. The big match there would be SPPT vs CCK for the tag titles anyway.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> As for the SPPT/CCK thing, it really isn't a story than many people care about. The big match there would be SPPT vs CCK for the tag titles anyway.


I never said it was perfect, it was just the best option in my mind with what we have available at this stage. I suppose the only other with what we have right now is to have him lose clean to Sexsmith, Sexsmith is so beloved that I feel like he might be the only person who could drown out the whole "wow we campaigned for Banks for a whole year, only for him to win the title in a shit match, have a shit reign and lose the title in a couple of shows" with him overcoming everything to defeat one of the most dominant forces in PROGRESS in Banks to win the title. 

However, again, where do you go once you put the title on Sexsmith? Do you just immediately have him taken out by HHH, doing a worked injury angle that forces him to vacate the title while also helping HHH's heat which right now is sorely lacking (winning the Tag Titles hasn't changed that), leading to some kind of tournament for the vacated title which PROGRESS could do double duty on in also building up and fleshing out their roster of contenders?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> I never said it was perfect, it was just the best option in my mind with what we have available at this stage. I suppose the only other with what we have right now is to have him lose clean to Sexsmith, Sexsmith is so beloved that I feel like he might be the only person who could drown out the whole "wow we campaigned for Banks for a whole year, only for him to win the title in a shit match, have a shit reign and lose the title in a couple of shows" with him overcoming everything to defeat one of the most dominant forces in PROGRESS in Banks to win the title.
> 
> However, again, where do you go once you put the title on Sexsmith? Do you just immediately have him taken out by HHH, doing a worked injury angle that forces him to vacate the title while also helping HHH's heat which right now is sorely lacking (winning the Tag Titles hasn't changed that), leading to some kind of tournament for the vacated title which PROGRESS could do double duty on in also building up and fleshing out their roster of contenders?


Yeah I completely agree, it would've helped if they hadn't of done this dumb tag team with Havoc and Haskins as Havoc could've easily been Banks first real feud. As for Sexsmith, I appreciate how over he is but he just isn't good enough to have great matches in the main event and as you said, if he does win, apart from turn Travis heel, what do you do unless you put the belt on Eddie like the next month.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Yeah I completely agree, it would've helped if they hadn't of done this dumb tag team with Havoc and Haskins as Havoc could've easily been Banks first real feud. As for Sexsmith, I appreciate how over he is but he just isn't good enough to have great matches in the main event and as you said, if he does win, apart from turn Travis heel, what do you do unless you put the belt on Eddie like the next month.


I'd love to see Eddie with the title. 

Also, wow... HHH really is dumb. Just seen my first dribble of Chapter spoilers and it looks like they lost their titles on their first defence to the team they beat for the titles in the first place. Admittedly I haven't seen the match yet so maybe it makes more sense in context but if not HHH just got buried...


----------



## TD Stinger

Just to throw my 2 cents in, from what I remember Banks got really over last year around the Super Strong Style 16 tournament. I can't explain how or why but he just did. To the point where no one could win that tournament but Banks. Banks vs. Dunne just seemed like THE MATCH, and they were right.

But I remember going into Alley Palace Banks lost every match he was in. Lost to Riddle. Lost to Keith Lee. He even lost to Jack Gallagher, who is a WWE contracted performer. He couldn't even beat him.

So by the time they got to Alley Palace, all the momentum Banks felt like he had was gone, so the title win didn't mean as much. And I guess they did what the did to make Banks come across as more of an underdog. But they call the dude "Terminator Travis." He's more Chris Benoit than Daniel Bryan in that regard.

And then of course he beat Keith Lee in a rematch for the title. He'll probably beat Riddle at the next chapter show. Honestly this screams of something WWE would do. And I'm not just going to shit on WWE, but one of the dumber things they do is with their MITB winners. They have them lose every match going into their cash in to make for a more shocking win and to set up potential opponents after they cash in.

When in reality it just makes the champion look weaker after they cash in. Same thing can be said for Banks. And the thing with Banks is once you get past the inital momentum he had, he's kind of a one note guy. Pretty much has the same match no matter the opponent. And sometimes that can still be pretty good but often it gets very repetitive.


----------



## Genking48

I thought Gabe'ing your champion was to hold off pulling the trigger until the crowd basically did not care/turned on the wrestler and had moved on to the next guy they wanted as champ.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Just finished the new Live at the Dome and I was pleasantly surprised by how good this show was. It almost felt like–as PROGRESS uploaded them out of order–after a great Chapter Show this latest Live At The Dome went, "hold my beer". With your average Chapter Show, there is usually at least a segment and match or two that you can skip with a clear conscience but I was able to watch this Live at The Dome from start to finish and enjoy it from start to finish. Yeah, a lot of the talent featured on these shows are pretty green so matches are never quite as polished and complete as they may be on a main Chapter Show but none of the wrestling here was bad.

The biggest issue with this whole Live at The Dome thing for me right now is... what is the point of it? They haven't established a clear sense of identity for what these shows are meant to be, right now it just seems to be wrestling for the sake of wrestling and maybe it is just a personal taste thing but for me, that isn't enough for me to properly invest in a match. The best stuff on this card was the stuff that had stakes or stories, whether that be Jack Sexsmith's continued evolution as a wrestler or matches wrestled in the name of qualifying for the NPS. The other matches were good but they just felt draggier and sloppier I guess precisely because they were just wrestling for the hell of it. 

Talking about the main event... blimey. I feel like it is easy to make comparisons to the M&M match but I also feel like it'd be wrong to make these comparisons as well as it was a very different kind of match. Aussie Open didn't take me on the same emotional rollercoaster but what they did do is create a much more sound match, these are two far more complete wrestlers and in turn, this was a far more complete match. I wasn't welling up with emotion at the end like I did with M&M but I did feel like Fletcher and Davis took me on a journey which I was fully invested in throughout. These two brothers went to war and took one another to their absolute limits and beyond in the name of an NPS spot, which is seriously awesome. The only thing I hope now is the actual NPS lives up to these tremendous qualifiers because even at their weakest in the Scala/Duggan match (also on this card), these have all been belters. 

It is also funny that so far this year in PROGRESS aside from the ZSJ/Bate match and the BSS/Broducts match, all my favourite PROGRESS matches so far have involved tag teams facing one another.


----------



## Death Rider

Pizzamorg said:


> ShadowSucks92 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Yeah I completely agree, it would've helped if they hadn't of done this dumb tag team with Havoc and Haskins as Havoc could've easily been Banks first real feud. As for Sexsmith, I appreciate how over he is but he just isn't good enough to have great matches in the main event and as you said, if he does win, apart from turn Travis heel, what do you do unless you put the belt on Eddie like the next month.
> 
> 
> 
> I'd love to see Eddie with the title.
> 
> Also, wow... HHH really is dumb. Just seen my first dribble of Chapter spoilers and it looks like they lost their titles on their first defence to the team they beat for the titles in the first place. Admittedly I haven't seen the match yet so maybe it makes more sense in context but if not HHH just got buried...
Click to expand...

From reports havoc may have got injured mid match but yeah otherwise it makes 0 sense. I think I know who is ending the title reign. Also Eddie has a legit injury so is out for 4 months . Sucks as I wanted him to be champ


----------



## Pizzamorg

Roy Mustang said:


> From reports havoc may have got injured mid match but yeah otherwise it makes 0 sense. I think I know who is ending the title reign. Also Eddie has a legit injury so is out for 4 months . Sucks as I wanted him to be champ


While it sucks if Havoc got injured, I guess unlike CCK who had very similar circumstances, HHH have no momentum to lose... so there is that, if anything it might be a blessing as horrible as that sounds. Haskins is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world and while it feels like a lifetime ago when he cut that promo about coming back for his title I was so excited, then for some reason they sent him down this Havoc rabbit hole like this promo never happened. If Havoc needs to be out for any period of time, I'd rather they just push this whole HHH tangent under the rug and just had Haskins gun straight for Banks and take the title off of him. 

Wasn't Eddie Dennis added to the Thunderbastard match on the latest Chapter?


----------



## Death Rider

Pizzamorg said:


> Roy Mustang said:
> 
> 
> 
> From reports havoc may have got injured mid match but yeah otherwise it makes 0 sense. I think I know who is ending the title reign. Also Eddie has a legit injury so is out for 4 months <img src="http://www.wrestlingforum.com/images/smilies/frown.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Frown" class="inlineimg" />. Sucks as I wanted him to be champ
> 
> 
> 
> While it sucks if Havoc got injured, I guess unlike CCK who had very similar circumstances, HHH have no momentum to lose... so there is that, if anything it might be a blessing as horrible as that sounds. Haskins is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world and while it feels like a lifetime ago when he cut that promo about coming back for his title I was so excited, then for some reason they sent him down this Havoc rabbit hole like this promo never happened. If Havoc needs to be out for any period of time, I'd rather they just push this whole HHH tangent under the rug and just had Haskins gun straight for Banks and take the title off of him.
> 
> Wasn't Eddie Dennis added to the Thunderbastard match on the latest Chapter?
Click to expand...

He was but the story was he Faked being OK to get in the match knowing he can't win just to get his hands on mark Andrews. Their YouTube video are quite good for stories they should show them as part of chapters


----------



## Pizzamorg

So the new PROGRESS Chapter is out on Demand. Looks like I noticed the show was up before they could announce it. I've watched about an hour and a bit of it so far, I'm off to bed in a sec so I'll watch the rest in the morning. I never normally leave any feelings midway through the show but I just can't get over how awful this first hour and a bit has been so far. The camerawork is shoddy, the sound mix is horrible so you can barely hear the commentary, Jack Sexsmith's evolution storyline is apparently dropped, Millie McKenzie's title contention also apparently forgotten about, after Mills and Mayhew put on one of the best matches in PROGRESS history, Mayhew was rewarded with being squashed by Mark Davis in about five minutes, the GYV for some reason have another match against HHH and take the titles off of them, making the match from the last show completely pointless. Like what the fuck even is this? Did Vince McMahon decide to do a guest booking for their show?

So picking up from my previous post, where was I? Oh yeah, that tag match. It was fucking awful if that was a planned work then what the fuck are you doing PROGRESS? I hope this doesn't mean we're going back to a Haskins/Havoc feud, it was bad enough the first time. I must say though I have really grown to love GYV, especially Gibson who is such a great promo and such a charming shithead.

Moving onto the second half of the show, Jonah Rock made his PROGRESS debut (I actually don't know if this is true, I don't think they ever said it was, maybe he appeared in some earlier Chapters?) to probably the quietest I have ever heard a PROGRESS crowd, his theme is also absolutely awful. This is in such contrast to the reception of ZSJ where even Smallman was singing along to his entrance. ZSJ is wasted in this position on the card, too, he is one of the best performers PROGRESS has, I hope they intend to push him up the card soon after those hints on commentary. 

Moving onto the Thunderbastard match, there was so much going on in this one it took a while to properly settle in and even when it got there it didn't quite click as well as these matches usually do but it still had plenty of good moments. I did say I thought Morgan Webster would win this but for different reasons than perhaps the direction they are going with. I guess this whole Vicky shenans business is being built to give an excuse for Banks to drop the title to Webster in a dirty finish. The highlights of the match for me was the oh so satisfying moment as Chris Brookes eliminated Cooper after he screwed three guys in a row and also the elimination of Eddie Dennis which was just genius. 

Then the Main Event. I am far enough removed from their other encounters that I quite enjoyed Banks/Riddle. The two of them went to war in the way only they can. Bookingwise the match was fascinating too, they kept hitting home that Riddle wasn't taking this match seriously enough as if to suggest at 100% focus Riddle would clearly win here, this was evidenced in just how strong they made Riddle look in the ring (he broke the no kick out at one rule in PROGRESS practically twice in a row) and then emphasised even further against the backdrop of the increasing volume of the crowd turning on Banks (they had to play his theme over the boos when he won but even that couldn't drown out the cries of "bullshit" and "Riddle's our Champion"). I honestly thought they were going to switch the title at a few points in this match and that kind of excitement creates a level of emotional investment that makes wrestling special. They soured it a little with the finish as the ref should have called it as he was clearly unconscious in that submission but I am guessing Banks is dropping the title soon they are planting so many seeds and the boos cannot be ignored now.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

So I'm currently watching through the latest Progress chapter and I've just finished the tag title match and now I'm more confused than before. First off, the GYV are great at being heels and they somehow managed to get the crowd to actually care about Haskins and Havoc. Secondly its now starting to dawn why the combination of Haskins and Havoc isn't working, its because Haskins is a natural underdog babyface and Havoc is a natural heel when you pair the two up without any explanation the crowd just doesn't know what to make of them. Also what the hell was that flat finish, Havoc returns as a hero and just gets flattened like that. Now I'm not sure if this was a face turn but they really need to make it more clearer because I'm starting to get a headache trying to work them out.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> So I'm currently watching through the latest Progress chapter and I've just finished the tag title match and now I'm more confused than before. First off, the GYV are great at being heels and they somehow managed to get the crowd to actually care about Haskins and Havoc. Secondly its now starting to dawn why the combination of Haskins and Havoc isn't working, its because Haskins is a natural underdog babyface and Havoc is a natural heel when you pair the two up without any explanation the crowd just doesn't know what to make of them. Also what the hell was that flat finish, Havoc returns as a hero and just gets flattened like that. Now I'm not sure if this was a face turn but they really need to make it more clearer because I'm starting to get a headache trying to work them out.


My favourite part is when Havoc returns from “injury” just to immediately get pinned and despite losing the titles and having a tenuous connection they all just shrug their shoulders and walk off like it doesn’t matter.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> My favourite part is when Havoc returns from “injury” just to immediately get pinned and despite losing the titles and having a tenuous connection they all just shrug their shoulders and walk off like it doesn’t matter.


Just finished the thunderbastard and I loved how Eddie never got to fight Andrews because it'll mean so much more when they do finally fight likely at Wembley. But the ending just made my head hurt more, so Vicky is still heel which would automatically mean Havoc and Haskins are still heels so why do everything earlier unless Havoc is genuinly hurt?

Well I can see why the crowd shit on that finish, that was some Super Cena type bullshit.


----------



## Pizzamorg

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Well I can see why the crowd shit on that finish, that was some Super Cena type bullshit.


It is a shame too as after what was a pretty awful show, Riddle/Banks was the light at the end of the tunnel. This was a great match (everything Riddle touches turns to gold), especially in that they made Banks seem more vulnerable which made for a much more dramatic, emotionally engaging, affair than his regular no sell finisher spam shitfests Banks usually wrestles in a loop. Then they had to sour it with that awful finish. It is clear with how Banks was booked in that match and with the way things are being shuffled around in the card they know things are going south and they're going to probably get the title off of him sooner than ever after the reaction at the latest show. I have faith that PROGRESS won't turn Banks into Roman Reigns. There are enough pieces in place now that realistically they can take the title off of Banks without him having to eat a clean pin from out of nowhere.


----------



## TD Stinger

Saw the latest Chapter show:

The Sabre Jr. vs. Rock match was pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing Rock more often in places like Progress or PWG.

The tag title match was kind of confusing. I will say that I love Gibson the mic. I seriously want this guy to be Progress Champion in the near future. He had me fired up along with Haskins after that promo. And the finish made Havoc and Haskins look very endearing.

Although I don't know where this goes now. When Havoc and Haskins were feuding, I was hoping one of them would turn. Preferably Havoc since I've heard good things about him as a heel. With Haskins as a heel, the only thing I really enjoy from it is seeing his wife Vicky carry around a barbwire baseball bat.

The Thunderbastard match was really fun and like a Royal Rumble match should, told multiple stories. They continue to tease Dennis vs. Andrews and if Dennis is really out for 4 months, they can build that match all the way until Wembley. I did get a laugh when Dennis was clearing guys out of the ring waiting for Andrews to come out only for it to be Webster, lol. TK Cooper is coming along nicely as this douche heel with the way he eliminated almost all of British Strong Style.

And the Final 2 of Bate vs. Webster was really good. I know he's young, but I have no idea how Bate has not been Progress Champion yet. Dude is so good. Like Havoc and Haskins though, I have no idea where this Vicky and Webster thing is going. But still, really fun match.

Riddle vs. Banks had it's awesome moments and it's eye rolling moments for me. First off, Riddle hits an amazing Coast to Coast (or "Broast to Broast"). The air and distance he got that was amazing. I would love to see him do that in a bigger ring. But then you had moments like the constant kicking out at 1. And Riddle hit a freaking Tombstone from the 2nd rope and that still doesn't put Banks away.

I understand it's not his finish but it's a freaking Tombstone from the 2nd Rope. Even Pete Dunne had the decency when he beat Gallagher back in December at Unboxing to get the 1-2-3 with a Pumphandle Tombstone, which was awesome by the way.

But, what was interesting after the match is it does seem like fans are starting to turn on Banks. If you watched the match, it's clear fans were more into Riddle and wanted him to win. You combine that with the way Banks won, it all leads to a negative reaction. I'm very interested to see how they play with that.


----------



## MC

Yeah Gibson is very good. He is a Liverpool fan so I automatically hate him :lol 


Thought the Thunderbastrds was good. Wasn't outstanding or anything but entertaining and build various feuds well. 

The main event was same, good but not great. Riddle was very good in this match. Dn't like Banks, never really liked him. Hope they take the title off him soon. Hope Sabre gets the nod


----------



## ShadowSucks92

TD Stinger said:


> Saw the latest Chapter show:
> 
> The Sabre Jr. vs. Rock match was pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing Rock more often in places like Progress or PWG.
> 
> The tag title match was kind of confusing. I will say that I love Gibson the mic. I seriously want this guy to be Progress Champion in the near future. He had me fired up along with Haskins after that promo. And the finish made Havoc and Haskins look very endearing.
> 
> Although I don't know where this goes now. When Havoc and Haskins were feuding, I was hoping one of them would turn. Preferably Havoc since I've heard good things about him as a heel. With Haskins as a heel, the only thing I really enjoy from it is seeing his wife Vicky carry around a barbwire baseball bat.
> 
> The Thunderbastard match was really fun and like a Royal Rumble match should, told multiple stories. They continue to tease Dennis vs. Andrews and if Dennis is really out for 4 months, they can build that match all the way until Wembley. I did get a laugh when Dennis was clearing guys out of the ring waiting for Andrews to come out only for it to be Webster, lol. TK Cooper is coming along nicely as this douche heel with the way he eliminated almost all of British Strong Style.
> 
> And the Final 2 of Bate vs. Webster was really good. I know he's young, but I have no idea how Bate has not been Progress Champion yet. Dude is so good. Like Havoc and Haskins though, I have no idea where this Vicky and Webster thing is going. But still, really fun match.
> 
> Riddle vs. Banks had it's awesome moments and it's eye rolling moments for me. First off, Riddle hits an amazing Coast to Coast (or "Broast to Broast"). The air and distance he got that was amazing. I would love to see him do that in a bigger ring. But then you had moments like the constant kicking out at 1. And Riddle hit a freaking Tombstone from the 2nd rope and that still doesn't put Banks away.
> 
> I understand it's not his finish but it's a freaking Tombstone from the 2nd Rope. Even Pete Dunne had the decency when he beat Gallagher back in December at Unboxing to get the 1-2-3 with a Pumphandle Tombstone, which was awesome by the way.
> 
> But, what was interesting after the match is it does seem like fans are starting to turn on Banks. If you watched the match, it's clear fans were more into Riddle and wanted him to win. You combine that with the way Banks won, it all leads to a negative reaction. I'm very interested to see how they play with that.


If you haven't seen them then I'd highly recommend watching the earlier Progress shows with Jimmy Havoc. His story of not being able to win a match but getting the crowd behind so Jim gives him any match he wants and then uses that to turn heel and steal the Progress title and the company desperately trying to get it off him is seriously one of the best they've ever done and Havocs heel work really helped take Progress to the next level.


----------



## TD Stinger

ShadowSucks92 said:


> If you haven't seen them then I'd highly recommend watching the earlier Progress shows with Jimmy Havoc. His story of not being able to win a match but getting the crowd behind so Jim gives him any match he wants and then uses that to turn heel and steal the Progress title and the company desperately trying to get it off him is seriously one of the best they've ever done and Havocs heel work really helped take Progress to the next level.


Yeah I know the short version of the story. One day I will try and make time to watch Progress from the beginning.


----------



## The Raw Smackdown

ShadowSucks92 said:


> If you haven't seen them then I'd highly recommend watching the earlier Progress shows with Jimmy Havoc. His story of not being able to win a match but getting the crowd behind so Jim gives him any match he wants and then uses that to turn heel and steal the Progress title and the company desperately trying to get it off him is seriously one of the best they've ever done and Havocs heel work really helped take Progress to the next level.


Holy shit. That sounds like one hell of a story.


----------



## Death Rider

The Raw Smackdown said:


> ShadowSucks92 said:
> 
> 
> 
> If you haven't seen them then I'd highly recommend watching the earlier Progress shows with Jimmy Havoc. His story of not being able to win a match but getting the crowd behind so Jim gives him any match he wants and then uses that to turn heel and steal the Progress title and the company desperately trying to get it off him is seriously one of the best they've ever done and Havocs heel work really helped take Progress to the next level.
> 
> 
> 
> Holy shit. That sounds like one hell of a story.
Click to expand...

It really was. I miss those days. The promotion still has great matches but some of the stories are lacking. 

Saying that I think Flash is winning the title at chapter 65.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Roy Mustang said:


> It really was. I miss those days. The promotion still has great matches but some of the stories are lacking.
> 
> Saying that I think Flash is winning the title at chapter 65.


Me too. You know Vicky will cost Banks the title to both simultaneously protect him and also get the title off him asap. Only casualty of this is Webster really as he deserves a proper title reign, he is one of the most slept on talents on the British Circuits right now but this reign will surely be shrouded in controversy.


----------



## Death Rider

Pizzamorg said:


> Me too. You know Vicky will cost Banks the title to both simultaneously protect him and also get the title off him asap. Only casualty of this is Webster really as he deserves a proper title reign, he is one of the most slept on talents on the British Circuits right now but this reign will surely be shrouded in controversy.


I wish it was under better circumstances but I am glad he is getting the title like he has earned. Think he holds it until 69 before losing to Sexsmith.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I decided to watch some classic PROGRESS as I don't really have a lot of new wrestling to watch right now. I have actually skimmed my way through every single Chapter PROGRESS have put out at one time or the other, but I have usually jumped in to focus on a particular wrestler, choosing to follow their specific arc through Chapters (like self-made Collections like what you get on the WWE Network). As I fall in love with more and more BritWres talent, it is giving me more and more motivation to go back and watch matches I might have skipped when watching early Chapters for someone else. 

In this case, I jumped in with Chapter Four, picking this Chapter as it had two matches on it I feel like I should have probably seen already. One being the London Riots v The Hunter Brothers which I am watching just because these are two beloved BritWres tag teams that I've somehow never really seen much of and feel the need to correct that. The other is a topical Mandrews/Ospreay match for PROGRESS' first Natural Progression Series. 

Before we get into the matches, I like how PROGRESS make a big deal out of wins and losses at this point, even going as far as to include it in the graphics. I'm sure there is a very logical reason as to why they dropped that, but it almost seems a shame as I really like it. I also really like Smallman on commentary, again I am sure they gave a very logical reason as to why he stopped commentating on the matches, but as a stand-up comedian the rest of the time he does a fine job flying solo. Also, Glen is wholly unrecognisable and if you watch some of the video packages from Chapters 1 - 3 you get to see Smallman looking a lot heavier with what appears to be an excellent mullet. 

Starting with Riots/Hunter Brothers, I thought this was surprisingly good for what it was even if it went way longer than it needed too and a had a dumb finish. A few comments for the after match stuff, Smallman letting the Riots get in his face was cool, loved Lynch's promo with a mouth full of blood (even at this early stage of their career you can see their potential), and I don't remember PROGRESS using plants before but that guy in the crowd had to be a plant... right?

Finishing with Mandrews/Ospreay. Man, I guess they didn't know it then, but what an opening match for the first NPS this is. This is Ospreay's singles debut for the promotion too, which I guess really shows PROGRESS had their finger on the pulse. This whole match not only stands on its own as a hell of a match but it also adds so many extra layers of joy to the already incredible Mills and Mayhew match. I'm glad M&M didn't fill their match with Harry Potter references, though.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Have not watched the actual full match, but holy shit just saw this gif:








One of the worst things that I have EVER seen in a wrestling ring. Embarrassingly bad. Travis Banks & Will Ospreay shouldn't be cosplaying as fucking Shibata.


----------



## TD Stinger

That's basically every Travis Banks match, the good ones and the bad ones. I mean, that spot is very Shibata like but I see him do stuff like that all the time.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Man that match was so awesome. I wish they had actually given it some build and some heat, though.


----------



## MC

:lmao Travis Banks would be a poor imitation of Kotoge, let alone Shibata :mj4


----------



## Pizzamorg

Also I might have to turn that gif into my signature.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

NastyYaffa said:


> Have not watched the actual full match, but holy shit just saw this gif:
> 
> One of the worst things that I have EVER seen in a wrestling ring. Embarrassingly bad. Travis Banks & Will Ospreay shouldn't be cosplaying as fucking Shibata.


Meh I didn't think it was that bad definitely much other things that are bad in a wrestling ring and at the end of the day the crowd loved it which is what matters.


----------



## TJQ

TD Stinger said:


> That's basically every Travis Banks match, the good ones and the bad ones. *I mean, that spot is very Shibata like* but I see him do stuff like that all the time.


It's a perfect copy of a sequence from the Shibata/Okada match :lol It's not Shibata-like, it's literally Shibata. It's gotta be said, though, Billy has this weird fetish of just doing random Okada shit. He probably suggested it :lol

edit: Slight correction, the only difference is the no sell on the rainmaker being before instead of after


----------



## Corey

BIG LADS


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/974362162394222592


----------



## Pizzamorg

Has anyone watched that PROGRESS Tag Title from that Chinese show they uploaded on Demand?

The match itself was a bit of a nothing affair, the fat guy barely did anything, and the other guy was such a geek and just spent the whole match poorly taking moves from GYV who carried the match despite barely taking any of the offence. I will say in regards to the match that I've fallen in love with Zack Gibson over the last few months, he is a solid worker, but crucially he is just so charismatic, I'd love to see him as PROGRESS Champ one day. Drake is a lot blander than Gibson, but the chemistry he shares with Gibson in the ring is so good. 

I was left so distracted though by everything going on around the match. They had this tiny ring, a whole bunch of empty seats, so why was it playing out in such a massive warehouse? Why did they have that elaborate stage set up and TV looking camera rig? It all just seemed so excessive. I guess the promoter has a lot of money to burn.

New Live at The Dome. Dahlia Black says she doesn't intend to get back in the ring, at least this year, and I feel like that is the right decision. She really wasn't an outstanding wrestler, but she is a great commentator. Anyway, the show, this was another dud of a Live at The Dome if I can be honest, but there were a few talking points: 

Rob Lynch has made his intentions known. Personally, I find him really dull outside of the Riots; still, the PROGRESS Title could do with some fresh challengers, especially if they try and get the belt off of Banks as quickly as possible. 

Mills and Mayhew are one of my favourite things in wrestling right now, and I was anxious that PROGRESS had soured on Mayhew for whatever reason. He got effectively squashed by Davis and then basically got beaten into the floor for fifteen minutes in this match here, with Mills being made to look like the stronger of the two but then as Mayhew flipped that bird and helped Mills secure the pin, I couldn't help but laugh with joy. 

The Atlas Title Number One Contenders match wasn't much of a match overall but what an individual performance from Rampage Brown. I can't wait to see what he and WALTER can achieve an a Chapter show, I think it could be a MOTY contender. BIG LADS WRESTLING. 

Oh and Sid Scala deserves a win, he is excellent. 

Then finally the Main Event, I was never particularly invested in this feud, but the No DQ rules really allowed this to be pretty awesome. It was no IWA-Mid South or GCW death match – although it got pretty close when Trivet almost died when he was put through that mirror. Fuck me. What a perfect shot it was when Trivet was seemingly holding the raw meat remains of his thigh together, immobilised and looking close to tears, as he looked up at Glen Joseph who towered over him before using the ropes to drag himself onto his feet. Perfection. This was loads of fun, the spots fit the story and the characters rather than just being big dangerous no psychology spots for the sake of the crowd's bloodlust like in an IWA-Mid South or GCW show or whatever.

PROGRESS just uploaded the debut show of a new promotion called HUSTLE. The production values are non-existent playing out in a school assembly hall with that old school (and not in a good way) old pantomime like British wrestling shows feel to it. However, the show did have some surprisingly good cinematography even if it was basic and it did present two intriguing matches in the form of Jimmy Havoc/Johnny Kidd and Joseph Conners/Travis Banks. 

Speaking firstly of Jimmy Havoc/Johnny Kidd, this match was actually pretty great. It told a simple but effective story, was well worked as Kidd and Havoc showed off a nice little sequence of old-school catch as catch can British wrestling, had a perfect finish and despite being in his early sixties, Johnny Kidd is still really bloody good at wrestling. Is there anywhere I can watch Kidd in his prime? 

Banks/Conners was not quite as good, but it was still okay. Conners is a good wrestler in the mechanical sense, the dude just has no real charisma and Banks is wrestling the same match he always wrestles. To be fair to him, it is a match he wrestles well, I just feel so oversaturated with Banks now I'd really love to see him taken out of his comfort zone now, please.

Any idea what happened at the end of the women's match during the latest PROGRESS Chapter? That security went running holy shit.


----------



## Platt

Jinny and a fan got physical with each other from what I saw on twitter.


----------



## Corey

Match announcements for NOLA:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/979459479069777921

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/979101082298265601

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/978738542724730880

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/978715905512308736

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/978694448535232518


----------



## Donnie

WALTER vs ZSJ :banderas


----------



## Platt

Pretty underwhelming so far outside of Walter/ZSJ and of course that's on the show I'm not at.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Platt said:


> Pretty underwhelming so far outside of Walter/ZSJ and of course that's on the show I'm not at.


The card does seem pretty tossed together with spare bits of talent PROGRESS have had lying around. Ospreay and Haskins should be able to pull off a great indieriffic match though and as mentioned, ZSJ vs WALTER is hnnnng. 

Also talking of underwhelming I've got one hour left of the new PROGRESS Chapter and it is has been exactly that so far. Considering this is their sixth anniversary and the promotion has undoubtedly grown exponentially in that time, this card didn't feel like much of a celebration. 

Matches have ranged from downright awful to just completely throwaway. I really wanted to love WALTER/Rampage Brown but it went ridiculously long for what it was and just lost all of its momentum in the process, it was so stale and boring and there was still about fifteen minutes of match left. Ironically probably the best part of the show was all the Session Moth banter, even if the actual match was utter dogshit. While my complete lack of investment into the feud probably doesn't help things after how good Parker/Trivet's No DQ match was at the Dome recently, I don't understand why this match here was so limp. 

I've got the Three Way Elimination Tag Team Title match and the PROGRESS Title matches both to watch when I get in from work, I am just hoping they make the show worthwhile.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So I've already made my feelings known on how underwhelming the first two hours of PROGRESS sixth birthday were, but I have now also finished the last hour as well. 

Speaking first of the Three Way Tag Elimination, this match had flashes of brilliance (Gibson's charisma and ability to generate heat is out of this world. He and Drake are legit best friends too, and I feel like that translates into their in-ring chemistry. Sexy Starr are also surprisingly good given they have only wrestled together a handful of times) but overall the match was really sloppy and a little underwhelming again. HHH just really isn't doing it for me and the miscommunication between GYV (unless a very long game Chekov's gun) at this point in time feels pointless as it served no purpose and GYV won anyway, undermining everyone else. 

Talking about the Main Event... damn, after what was ultimately a pretty bad show, this may go down as one of the greatest Main Events in PROGRESS history. This match just had fucking EVERYTHING. Out of the gate, it had that Big Fight electricity, but then it just didn't stop delivering. We got a heart and soul, career-defining performance from Flash Morgan Webster. A perfect heel turn for Travis Banks which completely rejuvenated his in-ring performance and which lead to just a masterclass of emotion generating and finish was just pure perfection for the story being told here. That post match promo from Banks, that hero pop for WALTER. Damn, this was just everything. Even that little post-credits of Webster battered and bruised speaking to HHH just GOD DAMN. What also perfectly fed into the match was how fickle the PROGRESS crowd was, these dudes got fucking worked. They are usually the best fans in the world, so I dunno who this lousy crowd was, especially given what happened to Jinny earlier in the show as well. I loved this so much. PERFECT. PROGRESS you BASTARDS. 

What a crazy journey Banks has had in PROGRESS though. When he was part of SPPT I didn't care about him at all, I only really took notice of him as about twelve months ago he suddenly just seemed to turn up on every single BritWres show everywhere and was always either the Champion or a significant player in each promotion. Then it was PROGRESS turn to get on the bandwagon, but for whatever reason, it has just been fucking horrible through and through. Pretty much the entire booking of Banks going into Ally Pally was pure dogshit, and then he beat the PROGRESS Champ Pete Dunne in possibly one of the most overbooked clusterfucks in wrestling history. 

Now he finally has the Title it seems PROGRESS have done everything they can to get the fans to turn on him, building up opponents just for Banks to no sell everything and effectively squash them. Squashing opponents in matches where he goes through the same motions, working the same match with all the same beats, over and over no matter who his opponent was to the point of pure, painful, tedium. This may work in Japan with Okada, but I couldn't tell you why it works there because it is fucking horrible. Outside of Japan and New Japan marks wrestling fans have made it very clear over the years that they don't enjoy Superman booking and I don't know why PROGRESS thought they would end up with an Okada rather than a Cena. Especially given they went from loser to Superman with no organic transition in between and especially given they got Banks over by being the complete antithesis of a Superman. 

The question now is what next. PROGRESS has been defined by heel Champions using shenans to stay on top of the mountain, it is wrestling 101 but so much of the whole Dunne/Banks thing felt far too reminiscent of the Havoc/Ospreay days. When Banks was still over as a face, it felt really refreshing but as soon as TK Cooper came into the do his Reigns spear I just thought here we go again. It really undermined the No DQ match from earlier in the night, too. In isolation of this match I adored how it all played out but it does leave me questioning the long game.


----------



## Mon Joxley

Progress in general just seems to be underwhelming right now.


----------



## Emperor DC

British Wrestling in general is underwhelming. Loads of great talent but it means new companies and shows just being exactly the same.

Riptide is like a PROGRESS lite, just with cinematic camera's. 

I have heard some good things about Frontline, Ospreay's new promotion. A pal is doing some stuff for them.


----------



## Corey

More NOLA matches:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/979776583832662018

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/980181717465141250

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/980158008767467521
Watched the two matches I wanted to see from Chapter 65:

*Atlas Championship:* WALTER (c) vs. Rampage Brown - **** 3/4*
*PROGRESS Championship:* Travis Banks (c) vs. Flash Morgan Webster - **** 1/2*

WALTER & Rampage rocked my socks off like I knew they would. Had all the CHOPS and BLUDGEONING you could hope for. Rampage never quite felt like he was on the same level as WALTER and they made it apparent but his spots were well received by the crowd and gave a nice little story. He took a fucking beating.

Banks/Webster was pretty damn good for a while. Absolutely loved Webster's Daniel Bryan-like babyface performance. He was on fire and Banks has really accepted his new character and looks to be relishing in it. BUT, I can't help but feel like the dusty finish was cheap and discredited the work they put in before that. 

And with that, here's more NOLA announcements assuming Ospreay can actually make it there. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/980542888319815681

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/980520358590722050


----------



## ShadowSucks92

So I'm going to SSS16. I wasn't that sure on going since I'm not super high on Progress right now (though they're still one of my favourites) and the SSS16 line up doesn't seem that impressive but I decided to just say sod it and got my tickets a few days ago. Should be a great event to see live (I've sat through Defiant Wrestling and WrestleMania 32 so if I enjoyed them live, I'll enjoy anything xD).

As for the latest Progress Chapter, it was better than I thought it was gonna be though no matches were must see. I'm happy it seems like they're pushing Sexsmith & Starr as the top face tag team so that stuff with Haskins & Havoc at the previous chapters was pretty dam pointless. Speaking of which, why did they book Webster as the heel if they were just going to have him place the babyface in the match the whole time? Why couldn't they have just left him away from Vicky rather than have him side with her at the previous chapter? Also I absolutely hate false title changes because for me, it makes the moment when they do win the title less special, they did this crap with Andrews and it led to nothing and I don't see them putting the belt on Webster anytime soon.
Now for some positives, Travis Banks character work as a heel, was outstanding. I loved how the easiest way to get heat was to just act like Roman Reigns and I love how cocky he became and that pop for Walter when he came out to challenge Banks was thunderous and I'm really hyped to see that match.

Their Womens division is still shit though.


----------



## Emperor DC

In fairness, they've been kind of fucked over by Jinny and Dhalia's injuries. Those were to be two of the three cornerstones of the company.

If Tony Storm goes anytime soon, which could happen, then they are truly in trouble.


----------



## Pizzamorg

The women's title was introduced to cash in on what WWE were doing with the whole "Women's Revolution" marketing strategy, nothing more. That much is obvious. There is no Women's Division in PROGRESS and the Women's Title has been a complete afterthought since it was created.


----------



## Brad Only

When will the NOLA show be available for PROGRESS on-demand?


----------



## MC

Not surprised that the Women's title is an afterthought. When you got the title on someone like Storm :lol It's going to be poor.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Bruh, Kassius Ohno announced for SSS16.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Pizzamorg said:


> Bruh, Kassius Ohno announced for SSS16.


WHAT?! :mark:


----------



## Pizzamorg

NastyYaffa said:


> WHAT?! :mark:




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/986304603347144704
BRUH.


----------



## TJQ

I'm actually fucking dead 

:sodone:sodone:sodone


----------



## MC

HERO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark :mark


----------



## TD Stinger

Is the field for Super Strong Style 16 already announced? Because with Ohno, give me guys like Riddle, Lee, Walter, Webster, etc. and I'm set.

Oh and I saw Travis Banks pretty much officially turned heel at Chapter 65. Had to be done really. Like, people didn't necessarily hate him or anything but people were becoming apathetic towards him. Which is the complete opposite of last year around this time where he was the hottest guy on the roster.

And doing it while mimicking Roman Reigns, while making them look a little small time, was a very nice touch IMO. His promo after the match was probably the most interesting thing I've seen him do and I already can't wait for him vs. Walter. And his match with Flash was good too. It wasn't your typical, Super Indy Travis Banks match. He actually took the time to be an asshole, and it was pretty good.

Given this new storyline, I wonder if they have him hold it a whole year to their big show at Wembley and who they have win the SS16 to take it from him.


----------



## NastyYaffa

You just know Hero is coming to remind everyone why he is one of the absolute best. Would really love to see him vs. Starr and/or ZSJ (once again )


----------



## Zatiel

I saw Starr a bunch on Wrestlemania weekend and didn't "get" him. He seemed like a generic heel (except when Walter kicked his ass so badly he was basically a face by victimhood) with a great ring introduction. What do people love about him right now?

Not posting to troll. I want to change my mind.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Zatiel said:


> I saw Starr a bunch on Wrestlemania weekend and didn't "get" him. He seemed like a generic heel (except when Walter kicked his ass so badly he was basically a face by victimhood) with a great ring introduction. What do people love about him right now?
> 
> Not posting to troll. I want to change my mind.


I felt the same way I watched him the first time, but as I've watched more & more of his stuff, the bigger fan I've become. I highly recommend his wXw work - he's easily at his best there. In particular the match vs. WALTER from last November is a must see, as well as his 16 Carat finals match vs. Absolute Andy from this year. I think he's a pretty damn great babyface. What matches of his from the Mania weekend did you watch? I only saw the Quack one & loved it.

I think he's having one helluva year at the moment - he's #4 on my Wrestler of the Year list atm, just behind WALTER, ZSJ & Thatcher.


----------



## Corey

If Hero was 15, who the HELL are they saving for last!?


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/986344759101976577


----------



## MC

I'm stealing this suggest from someone else but fuck it. Hope the last pick is someone like HARASHIMA, some who is good but not well known.


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> If Hero was 15, who the HELL are they saving for last!?
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/986344759101976577


Riddle?


----------



## Corey

TD Stinger said:


> Riddle?


Yeah... that actually makes sense. :lol Totally forgot about him.

Wait why is WALTER not in this!?


----------



## Pizzamorg

There are quite a few glaring omissions from this, no WALTER, Riddle, Trent Seven, Will Ospreay, Jimmy Havoc etc yet they have absolute trash in there like Chuck Mambo and TK Cooper.


----------



## NastyYaffa

Corey said:


> Wait why is WALTER not in this!?


I think it's because he's already the number 1 contender for the PROGRESS title.


----------



## Corey

NastyYaffa said:


> I think it's because he's already the number 1 contender for the PROGRESS title.


Yeah that makes sense too.


----------



## Corey

Yeah this explains it:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/986673370031894529


----------



## RKing85

going to be great seeing Kassius Ohno working again without WWE restrictions placed on his in ring work.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So the final "entrant" for SSS16 is... The Grizzled Young Veterans? It feels like they got the Kassius Ohno deal to offset the sheer amount of glaring omissions from this year's event. Only problem is, Kassius Ohno surely isn't going to win unless WWE are willing to lend Ohno out to PROGRESS long term, but do we really see that happening? I guess we couldn't even imagine him being in this tournament in the first place, I suppose.

So the first of the two NOLA shows is on Demand PROGRESS now but apparently they have had technical problems with the commentary so right now there is none. So I guess that means that you either want to get in there ASAP to experience the show without commentary or it means you gotta wait even further.


----------



## MC

Currently one match in and the show is fine without commentary. Barely notice at times. The crowd embracing the UK chanting certainty helps.

*PROGRESS Chapter 66: Mardi Graps 06/04*

The opener was pretty good. Lots of fun with Zack Gibson being Zack Gibson and Moustache Mountain being awesome. When the crowd did the “If you hate……..stand up” chant, I was starting to tear up from all the laughing.* ***¼ *

Haskins vs Ospreay was a banger. They had some nice looking sequences including one where Ospreay did a somersault from the corner and Haskins caught him with an armbar. Awesome Haskins targeting on Ospreay’s are way great, loved how aggressive Haskins was. However, Ospreay’s didn’t really sell the arm for most of the match outside of his screaming. Shame.* ***½ *

David Starr & Keith Lee vs. Ringkampf was another good match. Stiff, physical, and enjoyable. Nice surprise that Keith Lee was the partner. Flat ending though which is a shame but good match nonetheless.* ****

Well, that Thunderbastard was so dull. Nothing memorable happened. It dragged so much which normally isn’t the case with Thunderbastard matches. Even the below standard Thunderbastard matches are good. Bad match. The worst one yet. ***

Jinny & Mercedes Martinez vs. Shazza McKenzie & Toni Storm was another dull, lifeless match. Nothing to this. This is where a better crowd (meaning the one from earlier) would’ve helped. ***

Riddle vs Havoc was a nicely worked match. Some nasty stuff by Havoc done to Riddle’s foot. ***¾ *

Fuck this crowd. You sing a place that’s not quite home properly NOW. Mark Andrews vs. Morgan Webster vs. Pete Dunne was a pretty good Triple Threat. *****

Man, Banks vs Strickland DRAGGED. Yet another dull and lifeless match. The crowd was so quiet. Pretty sure the podcast I was listening to was louder. Bad night for both. **¼ *

This show was so hit and miss. The crowd was great until the Thunderbastard then they died. Nothing from them and it harmed the show. The wrestling from then on wasn’t great, some was so boring, some was decent. Hit and miss show.


----------



## Rookie of the Year

Hey guys, Progress is in town doing co-promotional shows with the local companies in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Heading to the Sydney show tomorrow night and it should be a great time. Of the Progress talent booked, I know Dunne, Bate and Seven from the WWE UK Division, and Toni Storm from the Mae Young Classic, but can anyone help me out with a couple of good Travis Banks and Jimmy Havoc matches to get me acquainted with those two? Ones that I could watch on YouTube would be helpful. Thanks in advance


----------



## MC

Rookie of the Year said:


> Hey guys, Progress is in town doing co-promotional shows with the local companies in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Heading to the Sydney show tomorrow night and it should be a great time. Of the Progress talent booked, I know Dunne, Bate and Seven from the WWE UK Division, and Toni Storm from the Mae Young Classic, but can anyone help me out with a couple of good Travis Banks and Jimmy Havoc matches to get me acquainted with those two? Ones that I could watch on YouTube would be helpful. Thanks in advance


Good Travis Banks matches? Never heard of them  There was a Matt Riddle match few months ago, tbh I'm struggling to think of any.

Every Jmmy Havoc match. They are never bad, they are always fun to watch and has something to them. I would try and find his Mark Andrews match at Chapter 13 (Free on YT)


----------



## Pizzamorg

Rookie of the Year said:


> Hey guys, Progress is in town doing co-promotional shows with the local companies in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. Heading to the Sydney show tomorrow night and it should be a great time. Of the Progress talent booked, I know Dunne, Bate and Seven from the WWE UK Division, and Toni Storm from the Mae Young Classic, but can anyone help me out with a couple of good Travis Banks and Jimmy Havoc matches to get me acquainted with those two? Ones that I could watch on YouTube would be helpful. Thanks in advance


I think Travis Banks is one of the most overrated guys on the circuit right now and it pains me to say it as out of the ring Banks seems like one of the most lovely human beings in the industry. Nonetheless here is one of the few matches from Banks where I legitimately enjoyed his performance. 




Havoc is a harder find on YouTube. I personally don't think Havoc is really all that great a wrestler, but he has a lot of charisma and seems to always know his role in matches. If you take out a subscription on Demand PROGRESS then I fully recommend you watch the Havoc/Ospreay feud and also the match Havoc had against Paul Robinson from their early days. 

Also in regards to the latest chapter, I was thinking of waiting (I mean I have waited this long) as PROGRESS are one of the only promotions around where I actually enjoy their commentary but if it doesn't hurt the show to lose the commentary steering the ship I might as well dive in.

So the next NOLA show is now on Demand. Not sure what the commentary situation is like for that one but I am finding the first NOLA show really hard going. Sure the crowd get the BritWres chants down but they spend the matches in near complete silence and with no commentary to bridge the gap or steer the ship, it really hurts the matches. Especially as I have no real emotional investment in these shows going in, in the first place.


----------



## MC

*PROGRESS Chapter 67: Bourbon Is Also A Biscuit 07/04*

*Chris Brookes vs. Rey Horus*:

This was a fun opener which pops the crowd and did its job really well. *****

*Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Martinez:*

This was okay. Had some okay moments. Liked Storm's continuity with her arm work but that's really it. All for good mat work but make it interesting. This was very slow and boring at times. The crowd seemed into it though. ***¼* 

*Austin Theory & Jinny vs. Kay Lee Ray & Will Ospreay: *

Interesting enough for what it was. Would've preferred KLR vs Jinny myself but they have to get Ospreay on the card so I'm fine. The best parts was the women sections tbh. ***½ *

Skipped the 6 Man

*WALTER vs Zack Sabre Jr:*

Another excellent match between these two yet again. Loved Sabre’s attack on the arm of WALTER, kicking it, stamping on it, twisting it. Any thing and it was brutal. WALTER’s selling of it was great as well. Speaking of which, I don't normally like Sabre’s selling but he did a great job here, stumbling around, limping etc. Loved how when Sabre went straight for Walters leg as soon as Walter sold the first one. Great urgency. Only criticism of the match is Sabre really didn't do much to try and submit Walter, just odd but okay. *****¾ *

Missed the Tag Match as well. 


*Travis Banks vs Jeff Cobb:* 

This was a solid main event. Whilst Travis Banks is a heel now, I think and is doing Roman’s stuff for heat. He doesn’t wrestle like a heel at all, imo. Not much to say about the match other then that. ***¾ *


----------



## Rookie of the Year

PROGRESS x PWA 23/04/18

Damn, it was a good show! The Star Casino Event Center looked gorgeous, and both companies brought their best in this inter-promotional showdown. 

*Show Results:*

*WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne defeated Caveman Ugg*

Was shocked that this match opened the show, given that it was arguably the most anticipated match on the card. Was as hard-hitting as anyone familiar with these two would expect, but it was also surprisingly comedic, with Dunne at one stage biting Ugg's nipple and toe, and pulling some hilarious faces after doing so. Ugg got in a lot of offense too before ultimately falling to the Bitter End. Dunne appeared to be having a blast, smiling through a lot of it and pretending to snap an elderly lady's fingers after the match.

*4 Corner Tag: The Velo-Cities defeated Juan Direction, Four Nations and Conco and the Fudge*

Heavy on fast-paced athleticism here. Juan Direction performed a great choreographed dancing entrance that got over huge with everyone. Big Fudge was crazy over too, and Madison Eagles kicked serious ass, being bigger than most of the competitors in the match, especially the poor Velo-Cities. The cruiser team won when Paris De Silva nailed a Shooting Star Press.

*No DQ: Ricky South defeated Jimmy Havoc* 

Ricky South is a flamboyantly gay character, which was a great juxtaposition with Havoc. Was very violent, with chairs, tables and a stapler being used. South hit a piledriver from the second rope through a rainbow-painted table FTW. Great fun, with my only complaint being that the table was too thin- it noticeably buckled without any weight on it. I understand why given the spot, but it looked really cheap.

*Michael Spencer won an impromptu Over the top rope Battle Royale*

Not too much to say about this one. Spencer did a nice job playing the petulant jerk, whining about not being on the show, and the locker room cleared out to shut him up, including regular PWA announcer Diego (Jim Smallman handled duties for the night). There was also a wrestler that looked a lot like Kevin Owens, who I later found out was Rob Lynch, a former Progress Tag Champion.

*4 Nations: Jack Bonza and Mick Moretti defeated Moustache Mountain Tyler Bate and Trent Seven*

Great match. Moustache Mountain and Mick Moretti were beloved; Jack Bonza, not so much. Bate looked in insane shape and was the brightest performer of the 4. Was stunned to see Bonza and Moretti win, as their main role in recent months has been to job to the big names they've faced (Bullet Club, LIJ, Yuji Nagata). Good for them to finally get a W.

*Progress Women’s Champion Toni Storm detained her championship against Jessica Troy*

Dear Lord, Toni Storm is so attractive in person. Troy looked nervous as fuck- a bunch of women that appeared to be Troy's friends sat in front of me as this match started. Jess overcame the nerves and the ladies had a very good match, Toni won with the piledriver. Wish it went longer (maybe just so I could check out Toni longer), but seriously would have liked more from them. Great effort.

*SMS: Unsocial Jordan and SnapChad retained the PWA Tag Team Championships against the BABES: Carter Deams and Matty Wahlberg*

The BABES had the clear entrance of the night with cheerleaders and guns that sprayed money confetti. Great innovative action while it lasted, but way too short at under 5 minutes. A "Bullshit" chant started from the crowd for that one- and I agree! Wahlberg is a future major player in Aussie wrestling, and Carter Deams is headed to the NJPW Dojo, both deserved better.

*Progress World Champion: Travis Banks defeated PWA Heavyweight Champion: Robbie Eagles*

This was epic. Eagles is my favourite Aussie wrestler, and the whole crowd adored him too. Banks got a lot of heat, mostly for being a Kiwi. Easy MOTN, as I believe main events should be. Jim Smallman gave Eagles a hug post-match and put him over big time on the mic. I decided to start recording the awesomeness halfway through, so here's the second half of an excellent main event.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So I was restless last night and eventually gave up trying for sleep, using that to my advantage to finally finish the first NOLA show.

Maybe it is just tiredness, but honestly, in every regard, I expected the show to be better. 

We can blame the crowd for being one of the WORST crowds I have ever experienced, to which they were. While there was a lot of subpar wrestling on this show, it is still WrestleMania weekend, this is still the first PROGRESS Chapter show outside of the UK and with it it has brought PROGRESS specific matches like the Thunderbastard. This is a piece of history and so surely demands a crowd which isn't silent for the majority of the show, save for the odd handful in the crowd trying to replicate chants from the UK? 

But it is still undeniable just how subpar this show was for the majority of it. Maybe silence is an apt response to a special PROGRESS show that was anything but special. This was not what the occasion deserved, nor warranted. For some of these guys in that crowd, they might be going to dozens of wrestling shows over this weekend and so if all you serve them is average to below average match ups that can be found on shows any other weekend of the year, then you are going to get apathy back from the crowd.

In regards to that Thunderbastard match, I never really cared for this stipulation, but it was okay. The wrestling was a little sloppy in places, and there is an overarching focus on comedy throughout this show which is in place in this match too. I am not sure whether is intended for mass appeal or something but detracts from a lot of what this show as a whole could achieve and also stops individual matches hitting gears they could probably slip into quite easily otherwise. Still, this was an entirely serviceable platform for new and returning faces, the match did what PROGRESS do best in corner to corner non stop action, and the idea of Cobb vs WALTER or Banks are both delicious prospects (Cobb sure loves busting himself open hard way in matches doesn't he?). 

The best match on the card for me is an easy pick, that would be Haskins/Ospreay. Yeah, this one told a straightforward story, but it was really the only match on the entire card that told one and even without that fact, the story in this match for my money was tried and tested and told very well. Haskins and Ospreay have good chemistry, and they both seemed committed to this match. PROGRESS is currently really lacking on the babyface front, and this was a great babyface showcase for Ospreay. I really like this new routine where Ospreay is effectively Shibata if Shibata could move like Ricochet. 

The worst match on the card is a little more difficult for me to say, as if you take the women's match for example, well I am not gonna lie I skipped that all together. Riddle/Havoc, for instance, was pure, crushing, disappointment. A poorly worked, nothing of a match, that I don't think even managed ten minutes when you take entrances out. I also feel like it is probably unfair to say this given Keith Lee was in a car crash and the match was thrown together last minute due to Sexsmith having to pull out, but Ringkampf vs Starr and Lee was awful too. Well done for tossing something together but given the result... they may as well have not bothered. Especially as it only went about fifteen minutes with entrances so it wouldn't have been a considerable loss to the show to take this match out. And ESPECIALLY as all the talent still gets to appear at 67 anyway. 

Then the Main Event. While it wasn't a masterpiece or anything and meandered a little at times, I've seen Banks and Strickland wrestle some dogshit matches in the past and so by contrast I actually thought this might well be the best match they've ever had together. A bit of hardway colour always goes a long way for me, too I might add. Ironic then, given that I could barely concentrate on the match given the mass exodus in the crowds around them. Where the hell was everyone going? With every camera cut, there seemed to be more and more people walking around and more and more empty seats. It calmed down towards the end of the match but then that was just again replaced with silence and Banks really loses a lot when he can't feed off the crowd. 

Well, I just hope 67 is better than this...


----------



## TD Stinger

Got done watching Chapter 66 recently. Very good show. Just a lot of good wrestling all around. Not necessarily anything MOTY worthy but a lot of good ones in there including:

Ospreay vs. Haskins
Riddle vs. Havoc
Dunne vs. Andrews vs. Webster

Etc.


----------



## Corey

None of these first round matches really do anything for me tbh. Lee/Webster and Bate/Devlin are the only standouts. Fucking Sabre got stuck with CHUCK MAMBO. :lol Semi Final possibilities look really promising though. ZSJ/Lee and Ohno/Dunne unless they really throw a wrench in there and swerve us (Bate goes over Ohno since they're both WWE guys now?). No clue on who to pick for a winner.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/991060543267115008

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/991069066856140800

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/991069951241998336


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> None of these first round matches really do anything for me tbh. Lee/Webster and Bate/Devlin are the only standouts. Fucking Sabre got stuck with CHUCK MAMBO. :lol Semi Final possibilities look really promising though. ZSJ/Lee and Ohno/Dunne unless they really throw a wrench in there and swerve us (Bate goes over Ohno since they're both WWE guys now?). No clue on who to pick for a winner.


I'm gonna go with either Bate or Brookes (which sadly means Ohno would only last 1 match if I'm right).

I assume this will play out like last year and the winner will get a shot at their big September show, this time in Wembley. Travis Banks is a heel now and Brookes has a history with him. Plus Lykos seems like he'll be forever injured so they keep going with Brookes as a singles.

And with Bate, he's never been a Progress World Champion before and he seems like he should be the next guy in line to do so given his talent and exposure.


----------



## Death Rider

I can't see ohno losing round 1 but brookes going out seems weird.


----------



## Corey

Yeah I don't think they're gonna send Ohno over there for him to lose in the 1st round. WWE sent Apollo Crews over to PCW for the Road to Glory tournament earlier this year and he made it all the way to the finals so who knows.

I understand the story behind Banks & Brookes but I don't have any interest in that match and it doesn't seem big enough for Wembley imo but we'll see.


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Yeah I don't think they're gonna send Ohno over there for him to lose in the 1st round. WWE sent Apollo Crews over to PCW for the Road to Glory tournament earlier this year and he made it all the way to the finals so who knows.
> 
> I understand the story behind Banks & Brookes but I don't have any interest in that match and it doesn't seem big enough for Wembley imo but we'll see.


I man to be fair is there really anyone on the current Progress roster who is really big enough for Wembley. Maybe Dunne because of his WWE run, but if they're gonna keep running with Banks, I really wouldn't want to see a rematch of last year's big show.

I think Progress's agenda will be to stack this show with as much talent as possible to the point where it doesn't matter so much what the main event is, allowing them to tell whatever story they want.


----------



## Zatiel

Williams Vs. Dunne is the only match that appeals to me. One hopes that most of these match-ups are to allow unknowns to break out and impress.


----------



## Platt

I'm going for the wild prediction of Hero winning SSS and facing Walter for the title at Wembley. You can have Brookes & Cooper screw each other out of the first round and build to the big SPPT vs CCK blow off at Wembley.

I actually like most of the first round match up although I am pissed off ZSJ is stuck with Mambo since I'm only able to go to day 1.


----------



## Pizzamorg

The pool was thin in this years SSS16 and I feel like it is reflected in that bracket. Like others have said, the Brookes/Ohno match is an intriguing one as they've been giving Brookes a serious singles push which would suggest they wouldn't just feed him to a WWE guy in the first round but then surely they wouldn't get in a guy like Ohno in and then have him job in the first round either.

Angelico vs Mandrews seems weird too, as they are two very similar performers and will surely cancel one another out? 

Otherwise, I am intrigued by Lee vs Flash and while I don't really get the Drake/Gibson joint place in SSS16 thing, Gibson and Janela could have a good charisma off. Otherwise the bracket looks pretty shit, no idea why you'd waste one of the hottest wrestlers in the world right now in ZSJ on absolute dogshit like Chuck Mambo and I really hope Starr doesn't go out in the first round to bland as all fuck TK Cooper.


----------



## TD Stinger

OK I feel like I should finally ask this, who the fuck is Chuck Mambo?

I mean I don't pretend to know everything about independent wrestling but you would think I have at least heard of this guy, and I haven't.


----------



## Platt

Product of the Progress school who is pretty shit and that is reflected in the fact he is rarely on chapter shows. I honestly think they had someone else lined up for SSS who fell through so they had to put someone in.


----------



## Pizzamorg

TD Stinger said:


> OK I feel like I should finally ask this, who the fuck is Chuck Mambo?
> 
> I mean I don't pretend to know everything about independent wrestling but you would think I have at least heard of this guy, and I haven't.


Riptide feature him pretty prominently and it just further exposes how awful he is. He is basically a holiday camp gimmick which is fine in the right environment but in places like PROGRESS he really stands out in the wrong kind of way.


----------



## RKing85

love that Pete Dunne/Doug Williams first round match-up. Angelico/Andrews has a ton of high flying potential. 

I guarantee Chris Hero is under direct orders from HHH to scout every single person on the card, and who should the WWE be after.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I am a fan of Tuesday Night Jaw, for people who don't know this is Jim Smallman's podcast and he tends to share little bits of trivia about PROGRESS on there. I enjoy it a lot. I was listening to him talk about how fun he had with Chapter 67 while indirectly admitting that nothing really big or significant was attempted on this show. I get that Smallman always wants to present positivity on the podcast which is fine but don't you see the problem here? These are supposed to be your special first Chapters outside of the UK, and both shows will be forgotten long before the year is over. There is a time and a place for just fun and there is a time and a place to pull out all the stops. It just feels a massive shame and an enormous waste. 

I will admit that 67 is an improvement over Chapter 66 in the fact that the crowd actually seem to want to be here and I will also agree as well that ZSJ vs WALTER deserves all of the MOTY noms. ZSJ and WALTER are both in the best forms of their career, and that reflects in this match, and it is only elevated further by their fun dynamic, great chemistry and just the general commitment that both man seems to put into making this special. For the first time in two shows, I was thoroughly enjoying something. I also can't wait to see Banks and WALTER fucking murder each other in the name of the PROGRESS Title, that is going to be beautiful. I hope ZSJ gets a shot too though as he deserves it. 

Then, the Main Event. I wouldn't say this was a great match or anything, but I am really enjoying heel Travis Banks. His ludicrous pantomime acting was so great. Did Cobb get legit hurt here? I saw him walk off normally, but as he disappeared out of sight the ref suddenly bolted to where Cobb was, and you saw a glimpse of the ref hunched over something?


----------



## Corey

Day 1 SSS16 spoilers:



Spoiler: Bracket



Went about exactly I as expected


----------



## Zatiel

Looks like the right guys won most of these matches. The second round looks more promising than the first. Interesting that the left bracket is now so heavily NXT guys.

It's probably futile, but God damn do I hope we get Dunne Vs. ZSJ in the finals.


----------



## Corey

Day 2 results. Now things have gotten interesting...



Spoiler: bracket















YESSSSSSS :mark: I think a lot of you guys are gonna be VERY happy with the turn of events that led to the finals.



Spoiler: The winner!



So Bate apparently got hurt in the 2nd round match with Ohno. Idk how they went about it from there but Ohno vs. ZSJ was the final and...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/993571278966673409


----------



## Pizzamorg

DAMN. I found it easier to avoid spoilers for Infinity War than I did this. I already know who won, I already know the intended Final and then the replaced final, I mean fucks sake come on guys, I get that with stuff like PROGRESS that it is a live experience first but not all of us can get to the shows and I don't expect to just scroll through my Facebook feed and then see a massive spoiler without any warning at all. Have I got to stay off social media for a month until the shows actually get uploaded? I just hope the actual matches are good, as now I have no emotional investment to enjoy for any of this because I already know how it ends.


----------



## TJQ

Corey said:


> YESSSSSSS :mark: I think a lot of you guys are gonna be VERY happy with the turn of events that led to the finals.
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: The winner!
> 
> 
> 
> So Bate apparently got hurt in the 2nd round match with Ohno. Idk how they went about it from there but Ohno vs. ZSJ was the final and...
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/993571278966673409


We're living in a truly blessed timeline.


----------



## Corey

ZSJ vs. Chuck Mambo is getting legit high praise all over the web. I need these shows in my life immediately! :mark:


----------



## MC

At SS16, there was a Progress World Cup Announced. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/994277130644152320


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS have now uploaded the first day of this year's Super Strong Style – blimey, Jim has put on some weight, int'e? Those awful jeans he has on aren't helping things. 

Anyway, the show. This year's SSS16 crop of talent is surprisingly weak but other than the TK Cooper/Starr match I gave everything a chance. Thank God Cooper didn't advance, by the way. 

Here are my thoughts: 

– The GYV Joey Janela clusterfuck was awful. The low point of the entire show and I can't imagine there could be anything else worse for the rest of the weekend. 0/5

– Was Bate originally intended to win? I don't get why Ohno vs ZSJ wasn't the original final, why bring Ohno back and have him go out in the second round to someone who has zero momentum in PROGRESS? 

– Anyway, if Bate/Devlin had more time, his match against Devlin would have been potentially the match of the night. That finish came out of nowhere, and I was enjoying the story they were telling here so much. 3.5/5 

– Dunne/Williams was boring, and it felt like it ended just as it was beginning. 1/5

– Maybe it was because of the hype around it, but I was quite disappointed by Mambo/ZSJ. Sure we got to see a side out of Mambo I am not sure we have ever seen before but the match was still very sloppy at times, ZSJ was very much left to carry this and keep this alive as I expected he would. Luckily ZSJ is in the form of his life. 2.5/5

– I thought it was a weird choice to have two such similar wrestlers in Angelico and Mandrews have a match, and the result plainly shows why the two just cancelled each other out and Dennis dicking around outside ended up being the most exciting thing about it. 1/5 

– Keith Lee/Flash Morgan Webster was one of the only matches I was intrigued by going in and maybe because of my own hype the match disappointed me a bit. Not horrible by any stretch but if the match was tighter and more focused, it could have been an epic, instead it was just okay, not a bad thing but still a shame. 3/5

– Unsure about how I feel about the finish to Lee/Flash, either. How can Flash be conflicted to the point where it costs him matches already? I sort of get the idea around the story they are trying to tell here, but either have him go full heel or don't, don't just have him farting around the idea. 

– Then the main event, Chris versus his Hero, but will it be death by elbow or death by roll-up? This wasn't exactly the blockbuster firework show of a return from Ohno as one might expect. In fact, save for a few key sequences where Ohno kicked into overdrive, I feel like his performance was quite weak here. He seemed so sluggish and so gassed so early into the match, despite the fact that Brookes was the one steering the ship pretty much throughout. Props to Brookes though, he carried this, told a great story and as a result came out of this looking like a star despite the loss. The wonderful promo Ohno cut about Brookes at the end was just the icing on the cake, I had no idea the two had such a history. 4/5 

I hope Night Two is better; I see it has already done up on Demand in the time it took me to finish the other show and write this.


----------



## Death Rider

I heard a rumour that Tyler Bate was meant to win the whole thing which would explain KO losing in round 2.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Roy Mustang said:


> I heard a rumour that Tyler Bate was meant to win the whole thing which would explain KO losing in round 2.


Not sure if he was meant to win it but I know he was an odds on favourite to win but unfortunately he suffered an injury which meant he couldn't compete. After day 2 I would've bet my money that the final was going to Sabre Jr vs Tyler Bate.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Bate is a weird choice, he had arguably the year of his career last year, so it would have been the ideal time to strike the iron. ZSJ is one of the hottest wrestlers in the world right now so he feels like the perfect, albeit obvious, choice to win the whole thing this year. It is far more fitting than Bate who has zero momentum really anywhere right now, if he won it would have felt like a year too late. Although it would have made sense of why he lost that stipulation match with the tag titles. 

I wonder what this means moving forwards for PROGRESS though, generally the winner of SSS16 has the rest of the year's storylines built around them so to have their chosen central player have to bow out through injury will surely throw a spanner in the works. Unless they just give all the material they planned for Bate to ZSJ.


----------



## MC

But will Sabre be able to have that typical SS16 run if he is in the G1 this year?


----------



## Pizzamorg

Unless they do a Bate vs ZSJ with his Wembley Title shot on the line, if Bate has recovered in time. Although I still think ZSJ is the bigger name for this.


----------



## TJQ

Day 1 of SSS was harmless, but fairly underwhelming, all things considered.

Pete Dunne vs Doug Williams **¾
Zack Sabre Jr vs Chuck Mambo ***½
David Starr vs TK Cooper **½
Angelico vs Mark Andrews **¼
Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin ***¼
Zack Gibson vs Joey Janella ???
Keith Lee vs Flash morgan Webster ***
Kassius Ohno vs Chris Brookes ***


----------



## Daniel97

Progress really has gone downhill this year. First the dull NOLA show and now three days of alright to decent matches. No matches I'd say go out of your way to see. Very disappointing.


----------



## MC

Better Second night then the first. The opener was fun, so was Lee vs Angelico. David Starr vs ZSJ was pretty good but ZBJ's facials are really poor when taking offence and it was very noticeable. Ohno vs Bate was excellent. Some beautiful wrestling. Bate using the UFO was awesome, even if the first few attempts were awkwardly messed up. Average main event, the finished sucked and most of the wrestling wasn't any good. Not a bad match but just a match full of nothingness. 

Pete Dunne vs. Zack Gibson: ***1/2

Angelico vs. Keith Lee: ***1/4

David Starr vs. Zack Sabre Jr.: ***3/4

Kassius Ohno vs. Tyler Bate: ****

Travis Banks vs. WALTER: **1/2


----------



## Corey

Kind of annoying that PROGRESS is running _another_ show this weekend when everyone is trying to catch up on SSS16, but at least we won't have to worry about Sabre disappearing until Wembley. (Y)


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/996090330893246467
And I have no idea who to pick for this but we're gonna crown a new Atlas Champion. Joseph Conners though? Far from what I'd consider a big lad...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/994999368653602816


----------



## Pizzamorg

Looks like Demand PROGRESS is down.

I finally got around to finish Day Two of SSS16, the show was awful which is why it took me this long to actually motivate myself to finish it. 

I will say that three of the SSS16 quarter final matches were at least varying degrees of good. Both Ohno/Bate and Lee/Angelico were wars. I haven’t seen a better side of Bate outside of his NXT matches with Dunne and Ohno finally delivered the kind of performance we wanted from him from the start. Why he seemed to sort of sleepwalk through his match against Brookes, I don’t know, and why they planned to have Ohno bow out to Bate so cleanly after he dominated this match… I don’t know either. I guess if Bate was their intended SSS16 winner, a victory like this gives him something to at least make a gesture towards Bate’s complete lack of momentum. 

So what injury did Bate pick up here? Was it a concussion? He seemed physically fine but did look like he was a bit drunk after the match, I just figured it was selling. 

Then for Lee/Angelico, it wasn’t the crispest or tightest match in the world but it was a lot of fun. Had I not known the winner of SSS16 in advance (fuck everyone who spoils these shows for us who don’t attend live), I would probably be putting my bets on Lee going to the final after this as they really presented him like a star here. 

Then Starr gave arguably the standout individual performance of the whole tournament so far, the actual match wasn’t that great overall as ZSJ’s psychology and storytelling is still mostly awful, but man Starr looked like a true star here. Pun sorta intended. A talking point with hindsight for this match too, is that they have approached ZSJ.’s victory of SSS16 very differently to Travis Banks’, maybe in response to the backlash Banks received once he started defending his title (although for my money this heel Banks is the first time I have ever really consistently enjoyed his work). Instead of presenting ZSJ as the Champion of the people, they have basically positioned ZSJ in such a way that he has no choice but to get boo’d. Beating crowd favourites all the way through, while being given the freedom to tap into his Suzuki Gun persona. 

Then finally the Main Event. It is crazy the journey both man has gone on since PROGRESS were last in Ally Pally. I thought this was excellent, the action was great, the chemistry great and I really enjoy WALTER in the hero role and Banks in the villain role. The finish was bullshit but perfect for the story and keeping both man protected.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

I'm hoping Doug Williams wins the Atlas but predicting Conners. I'm not too thrilled with him but I will say he was pretty entertaining in person with some fun crowd interactions. I've never enjoyed him on tape though so I either just liked him that one time or he's not translating to film well.

I think the PROGRESS shows have been decent enough this year they're always a fun and easy watch but the booking has been lacking. British Strong Style are just... there. Same with Chris Brookes. The booking of Haskins, Havoc and Webster has been somewhat backward and the crowd clearly want to cheer them. For me the worst has been the use of TK Cooper. I don't think hes won a match all year and there was a real opportunity to have him stomp Travs head into the ground take his title and run around being a prick. But now he's a jobber in dungarees. Its not all bad, WALTER is over which is good ZSJ is over but not because of them Eddie Denis is great but hurt and Jack Sexsmith getting a title shot is fun. Although I have enjoyed the womens division so theres that.

Whatever the reasons it feels like too many of the wrestlers are treading water at a time when the company is experiencing growth. Hopefully things will start to click in the lead up to Wembley which is an exciting prospect in of itself.


----------



## Corey

FUCK :mark:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/996691802508939264
Also the first official announcement for Wembley, a Tag Team Thunderbastard Series:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/997189559518662656


----------



## Pizzamorg

-***** Italiano- said:


> Whatever the reasons it feels like too many of the wrestlers are treading water at a time when the company is experiencing growth. Hopefully things will start to click in the lead up to Wembley which is an exciting prospect in of itself.


I don't wanna come across like a hipster but I feel like PROGRESS has been in decline for the last few years, during their rise to prominence they established themselves from the pack by having well defined characters and long running storylines, it doesn't mean everything was roses, a lot of the earlier PROGRESS Chapters are pretty dogshit save for the odd match or two but there still seems to be so much more interesting stuff going on in those original rising years than what we have now. 

Most of 2016 and 2017 was just PROGRESS going through the motions, the quality of the wrestling and production has improved, but if you squint there wasn't much separating a 2015 show apart from a 2017 show. They had some issues with prominent guys getting called up to WWE or getting injured or whatever which forced them to actually be creative, but ultimately most of their booking was very much copy paste from what they've done in previous years. 

So far in 2018 we haven't even really got that. 

Haskins, Havoc and now Webster are just sorta... there, we have no idea why they got together in the first place really and they won the tag belts and held them for about five minutes and they have never really done anything else since. If they were designed to be this heel force, or some kind of anti-hero faction to rally behind, the booking has failed on both accounts as they have zero credibility or aura. What happened to Haskins coming back for his title he had to give up? That is far more interesting to me than him being lost in the middle of nothing tag matches. The heel turn for Webster is dogshit as well, in my favourite PROGRESS match this year when Webster challenged Banks for the title, he showed how much potential he had to be PROGRESS' Daniel Bryan then like a show later they threw that all away. 

Sure the Travis Banks heel stuff is great, but that again seems less like something of inspiration from PROGRESS and just something they did out of necessity because the crowd turned on him. If PROGRESS didn't book Banks in exactly the same match for nine months straight, if PROGRESS didn't have Banks win the title in an overbooked clusterfuck after losing every match for about 12 months straight then they probably could have continued on with Banks as the peoples Champion like they wanted. Instead PROGRESS were either too arrogant or narcissistic to realise the era of Hulk Hogan is over, having a Champion who wins every single match decisively with zero drama or sense they could ever lose is boring. And stupid given he just started winning matches against guys who annihilated him months earlier despite nothing changing. I know they take the piss out of the suggestion but they really did make exactly the same mistakes with Banks push as they did with Reigns. 

Then what else even is there? The Dennis/Mandrews feud which is like a poor man's Ciampa/Gargano. We got Tag Titles but no real tag team division and the Titles feel sorta meaningless because of it, especially given they tend to change hands at random and then immediately change back again. We have got the token women's title, for a promotion with no real women's division, where I think Toni Storm has been Champion for approximately seventy five thousand years and they still haven't presented her with a viable challenger. Storm is also a weird Champ for the division in the sense that she turns up every other show to defend her title but otherwise doesn't really seem to have any involvement in PROGRESS at all. She is like the bad parts of Brock Lesnar. And we have the Atlas Division which was once upon a time my favourite thing in PROGRESS, a Matt Riddle Atlas Title defence was usually always the best thing on every show but as much as I like WALTER when they started hot potatoing the title between themselves like Banks and Charlotte I just lost all interest.


----------



## MC

Pizzamorg said:


> I don't wanna come across like a hipster but I feel like PROGRESS has been in decline for the last few years, during their rise to prominence they established themselves from the pack by having well defined characters and long running storylines, it doesn't mean everything was roses, a lot of the earlier PROGRESS Chapters are pretty dogshit save for the odd match or two but there still seems to be so much more interesting stuff going on in those original rising years than what we have now.
> 
> Most of 2016 and 2017 was just PROGRESS going through the motions, the quality of the wrestling and production has improved, but if you squint there wasn't much separating a 2015 show apart from a 2017 show. They had some issues with prominent guys getting called up to WWE or getting injured or whatever which forced them to actually be creative, but ultimately most of their booking was very much copy paste from what they've done in previous years.
> 
> So far in 2018 we haven't even really got that.
> 
> Haskins, Havoc and now Webster are just sorta... there, we have no idea why they got together in the first place really and they won the tag belts and held them for about five minutes and they have never really done anything else since. If they were designed to be this heel force, or some kind of anti-hero faction to rally behind, the booking has failed on both accounts as they have zero credibility or aura. What happened to Haskins coming back for his title he had to give up? That is far more interesting to me than him being lost in the middle of nothing tag matches. The heel turn for Webster is dogshit as well, in my favourite PROGRESS match this year when Webster challenged Banks for the title, he showed how much potential he had to be PROGRESS' Daniel Bryan then like a show later they threw that all away.
> 
> Sure the Travis Banks heel stuff is great, but that again seems less like something of inspiration from PROGRESS and just something they did out of necessity because the crowd turned on him. If PROGRESS didn't book Banks in exactly the same match for nine months straight, if PROGRESS didn't have Banks win the title in an overbooked clusterfuck after losing every match for about 12 months straight then they probably could have continued on with Banks as the peoples Champion like they wanted. Instead PROGRESS were either too arrogant or narcissistic to realise the era of Hulk Hogan is over, having a Champion who wins every single match decisively with zero drama or sense they could ever lose is boring. And stupid given he just started winning matches against guys who annihilated him months earlier despite nothing changing. I know they take the piss out of the suggestion but they really did make exactly the same mistakes with Banks push as they did with Reigns.
> 
> Then what else even is there? The Dennis/Mandrews feud which is like a poor man's Ciampa/Gargano. We got Tag Titles but no real tag team division and the Titles feel sorta meaningless because of it, especially given they tend to change hands at random and then immediately change back again. We have got the token women's title, for a promotion with no real women's division, I think Toni Storm has been Champion for approximately seventy five thousand years and they still haven't presented her with a viable challenger. *Storm is also a weird Champ for the division in the sense that she turns up every other show to defend her title but otherwise doesn't really seem to have any involvement in PROGRESS at all. *She is like the bad parts of Brock Lesnar. And we have the Atlas Division which was once upon a time my favourite thing in PROGRESS, a Matt Riddle Atlas Title defence was usually always the best thing on every show but as much as I like WALTER when they started hot potatoing the title between themselves like Banks and Charlotte I just lost all interest.


Woah she turns up to every show for this title? Progress should consider themselves lucky that she is at every event.


----------



## Death Rider

MC 16 said:


> Pizzamorg said:
> 
> 
> 
> I don't wanna come across like a hipster but I feel like PROGRESS has been in decline for the last few years, during their rise to prominence they established themselves from the pack by having well defined characters and long running storylines, it doesn't mean everything was roses, a lot of the earlier PROGRESS Chapters are pretty dogshit save for the odd match or two but there still seems to be so much more interesting stuff going on in those original rising years than what we have now.
> 
> Most of 2016 and 2017 was just PROGRESS going through the motions, the quality of the wrestling and production has improved, but if you squint there wasn't much separating a 2015 show apart from a 2017 show. They had some issues with prominent guys getting called up to WWE or getting injured or whatever which forced them to actually be creative, but ultimately most of their booking was very much copy paste from what they've done in previous years.
> 
> So far in 2018 we haven't even really got that.
> 
> Haskins, Havoc and now Webster are just sorta... there, we have no idea why they got together in the first place really and they won the tag belts and held them for about five minutes and they have never really done anything else since. If they were designed to be this heel force, or some kind of anti-hero faction to rally behind, the booking has failed on both accounts as they have zero credibility or aura. What happened to Haskins coming back for his title he had to give up? That is far more interesting to me than him being lost in the middle of nothing tag matches. The heel turn for Webster is dogshit as well, in my favourite PROGRESS match this year when Webster challenged Banks for the title, he showed how much potential he had to be PROGRESS' Daniel Bryan then like a show later they threw that all away.
> 
> Sure the Travis Banks heel stuff is great, but that again seems less like something of inspiration from PROGRESS and just something they did out of necessity because the crowd turned on him. If PROGRESS didn't book Banks in exactly the same match for nine months straight, if PROGRESS didn't have Banks win the title in an overbooked clusterfuck after losing every match for about 12 months straight then they probably could have continued on with Banks as the peoples Champion like they wanted. Instead PROGRESS were either too arrogant or narcissistic to realise the era of Hulk Hogan is over, having a Champion who wins every single match decisively with zero drama or sense they could ever lose is boring. And stupid given he just started winning matches against guys who annihilated him months earlier despite nothing changing. I know they take the piss out of the suggestion but they really did make exactly the same mistakes with Banks push as they did with Reigns.
> 
> Then what else even is there? The Dennis/Mandrews feud which is like a poor man's Ciampa/Gargano. We got Tag Titles but no real tag team division and the Titles feel sorta meaningless because of it, especially given they tend to change hands at random and then immediately change back again. We have got the token women's title, for a promotion with no real women's division, I think Toni Storm has been Champion for approximately seventy five thousand years and they still haven't presented her with a viable challenger. *Storm is also a weird Champ for the division in the sense that she turns up every other show to defend her title but otherwise doesn't really seem to have any involvement in PROGRESS at all. *She is like the bad parts of Brock Lesnar. And we have the Atlas Division which was once upon a time my favourite thing in PROGRESS, a Matt Riddle Atlas Title defence was usually always the best thing on every show but as much as I like WALTER when they started hot potatoing the title between themselves like Banks and Charlotte I just lost all interest.
> 
> 
> 
> Woah she turns up to every show for this title? Progress should consider themselves lucky that she is at every event.
Click to expand...

Not every show. More like every other one. I love toni storm but yeah the women divison is pretty dull in progress. Jinny should win the title this weekend though i think


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> I don't wanna come across like a hipster but I feel like PROGRESS has been in decline for the last few years, during their rise to prominence they established themselves from the pack by having well defined characters and long running storylines, it doesn't mean everything was roses, a lot of the earlier PROGRESS Chapters are pretty dogshit save for the odd match or two but there still seems to be so much more interesting stuff going on in those original rising years than what we have now.
> 
> Most of 2016 and 2017 was just PROGRESS going through the motions, the quality of the wrestling and production has improved, but if you squint there wasn't much separating a 2015 show apart from a 2017 show. They had some issues with prominent guys getting called up to WWE or getting injured or whatever which forced them to actually be creative, but ultimately most of their booking was very much copy paste from what they've done in previous years.
> 
> So far in 2018 we haven't even really got that.
> 
> Haskins, Havoc and now Webster are just sorta... there, we have no idea why they got together in the first place really and they won the tag belts and held them for about five minutes and they have never really done anything else since. If they were designed to be this heel force, or some kind of anti-hero faction to rally behind, the booking has failed on both accounts as they have zero credibility or aura. What happened to Haskins coming back for his title he had to give up? That is far more interesting to me than him being lost in the middle of nothing tag matches. The heel turn for Webster is dogshit as well, in my favourite PROGRESS match this year when Webster challenged Banks for the title, he showed how much potential he had to be PROGRESS' Daniel Bryan then like a show later they threw that all away.
> 
> Sure the Travis Banks heel stuff is great, but that again seems less like something of inspiration from PROGRESS and just something they did out of necessity because the crowd turned on him. If PROGRESS didn't book Banks in exactly the same match for nine months straight, if PROGRESS didn't have Banks win the title in an overbooked clusterfuck after losing every match for about 12 months straight then they probably could have continued on with Banks as the peoples Champion like they wanted. Instead PROGRESS were either too arrogant or narcissistic to realise the era of Hulk Hogan is over, having a Champion who wins every single match decisively with zero drama or sense they could ever lose is boring. And stupid given he just started winning matches against guys who annihilated him months earlier despite nothing changing. I know they take the piss out of the suggestion but they really did make exactly the same mistakes with Banks push as they did with Reigns.
> 
> Then what else even is there? The Dennis/Mandrews feud which is like a poor man's Ciampa/Gargano. We got Tag Titles but no real tag team division and the Titles feel sorta meaningless because of it, especially given they tend to change hands at random and then immediately change back again. We have got the token women's title, for a promotion with no real women's division, where I think Toni Storm has been Champion for approximately seventy five thousand years and they still haven't presented her with a viable challenger. Storm is also a weird Champ for the division in the sense that she turns up every other show to defend her title but otherwise doesn't really seem to have any involvement in PROGRESS at all. She is like the bad parts of Brock Lesnar. And we have the Atlas Division which was once upon a time my favourite thing in PROGRESS, a Matt Riddle Atlas Title defence was usually always the best thing on every show but as much as I like WALTER when they started hot potatoing the title between themselves like Banks and Charlotte I just lost all interest.


Man I love Progress but everything you've said is spot on. Lately I've been watching some old shows of Progress (specifically Chapter 36) and man the reaction that Haskins got when he won the title compared to what he gets now is night and day. Fans love these guys an individuals but as a unit it just downright sucks and the fans don't care about it one bit. They want to see Havoc as that top heel that put Progress on the map. They want to see Haskins try and get back the title that he never lost and Webster makes a fantastic underdog babyface. As for their Atlas division, I loved it but when you look at who they've got outside of WALTER and Riddle, there really is no one to give a dam about (just look at that fatal 4 way at the next show, they have Joseph Connors for christ sake and he was on 205Live). Their Women's division is shit, it seems like its Jinny then everyone else because even their champion Toni Storm isn't there that oftenand it seems like Jinny is the only real full time star in that division. As for the tag team division, I love the GYV but they do need more full time tag teams. I won't get into Travis Banks and the Andrews/Dennis thing because you've said all that needs to be said but I still think Wembley will be a great show and I definitely had a blast going to SSS16 but I do hope Progress picks up in terms of storylines in time for Wembley.


----------



## Alright_Mate

Progress is the most overrated promotion in British Wrestling, like @Pizzamorg said past few years it's gone backwards, the odd good match here and there isn't enough to get my interest back into it.

I've tried twice and cancelled my subscription pretty quickly, watching a Progress show nowadays feels like a chore, you go from average match to average match and by the time you get to the middle, you are teetering on the edge of giving up and logging out.

How many matches this year can you class as being great? Maybe two? Thatcher vs Walter and ZSJ vs Bate. You look at the ratings that people have given the shows on Cagematch, between a 5-7/10, bang average. Even the Super Strong Style tournament which is usually the highlight of Progress's year was getting average reviews all over social media, when those three days end up being average then you know Progress is on a downward spiral, they will probably up their game again at some point but as of now there's much better British Promotions out there to watch.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Roy Mustang said:


> Not every show. More like every other one. I love toni storm but yeah the women divison is pretty dull in progress. Jinny should win the title this weekend though i think


I've actually like it. I feel like Toni is a strong champion and it's given the other girls room to grow under her. Although as a Stardom watcher I quite like seeing this kind of thing and my mind is drawing parallels between Io and Toni.

Wouldn't have a problem with Jinny winning though.


----------



## MC

Roy Mustang said:


> Not every show. More like every other one. I love toni storm but yeah the women divison is pretty dull in progress. Jinny should win the title this weekend though i think


Still, yeah I hope she loses the title as well. She isn't doing anything for me as champion.


----------



## Platt

Toni's reign hasn't been great but I don't think you can put all the fault at her not being on shows Progress have done very little with the division whether she's there or not. We've been in a holding pattern for months now waiting for Jinny to take the title.

I go to the Manchester shows mainly because it's a chance to hang out with mates I don't get to see that often but since none of them were interesting in Sundays show I was all ready to sell my ticket then they had to go and announce the ZSJ and Walter matches now I really want to go even though I know the rest of the card will be average to poor.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Alright_Mate said:


> How many matches this year can you class as being great? Maybe two?


My two would be Webster/Banks and ZSJ/WALTER. Although they have had other standouts this year like Mills/Mayhew at Live at the Dome, WALTER/Thatcher, BSS/Broducts.


----------



## Corey

*Semi Final:* ZSJ vs. Keith Lee - **** 1/2*
*Final:* ZSJ vs. Ohno - **** 1/4*

Keith Lee match was good but they kept it a tad short and their PWG outing was a lot better. Final really disappointed me. Finish was just way too out of nowhere. Oh well.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Day Three of SSS16. 

This was probably the worst show of the three, they deserve some credit due to Bate and Dunne forcing them to shuffle the card again but it doesn’t change the amount of completely forgettable and utterly skippable matches that dominated this show. Please stop asking Smallman to act, too. 

Probably the one match worth watching on this show before the main event was Lee/ZSJ, which really was excellent. I have never seen their Evolve series, so maybe I would have felt differently had I, but regardless I throughly enjoyed this. Only real downside of this match is the crowd were obviously a little burnt out by this point and their comparatively lacking energy fed back into the match. 4.5/5 Oh and I also thought the Ospreay/Havoc thing was a really cool moment too.

Then the Main Event. I thought this match was fantastic. Especially so if this wasn’t the intended final and was something Ohno and ZSJ threw together that morning. I appreciate this wasn’t their first match and the two are veterans of the business but we saw how rough Styles vs. Balor was last year in WWE for example and that was born from similar circumstances. but they had even more prep time. This match was filled with great spots, sequences and exchanges, it felt so fluid and polished, it had that big fight feel that a SSS16 final should have. I just really liked the dynamic in this match, too. I still think ZSJ’s psychology by and large sucks but his style gels so well with Ohno’s, Ohno coming into this like he is fired out of a cannon, trying to take this early with his hardest strikes while ZSJ weathers the storm, striking like a viper at any moment of vulnerability in between Ohno’s brutal offence. I know some people didn’t like the finish here, but ZSJ catching people off guard with the European Clutch is awesome as far as I am concerned, it fit perfectly with the story of the match and they planted the seeds for this in the match against Lee earlier. I feel like aside from his match against Bate, Ohno was pretty awful during SSS16 but he really saved the best for last here. Blimey. Not gonna lie, got a little emosh at the end too, don’t cry Ohno my heart can’t take it. 5/5

PROGRESS shit spoiler control has spoiled both the World and Women's title matches for me.


Spoiler: Spoilers



It is long overdue Storm drops that belt, I think Jinny is an awful awful wrestler but at least she is actually part of the PROGRESS fabric. A month or two ago I would have been begging Banks to drop the title to Sexsmith but actually now I sit down and think about it, Banks has never been better than when he turned heel and the momentum they were building behind Sexsmith last year seems to have completely fizzled out now. So I am happy for Banks to carry on holding that title, I do want to see him drop it at Wembley though, if he makes it that far.


----------



## MC

Spoiler: Progress Spoilers



Finally, Storm should've lost that title months ago. Jinny isn't great but she is better than Storm. 

Ughh, can't wait till Banks drops the title. He does nothing for me and neither does his heel turn.


----------



## TJQ

Bought my ticket for the Boston show, praying to whatever god will listen it's good :lol


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS Chapter 69. 

So PROGRESS are using proper music again then? That wasn’t just for SSS16? Did they get a huge pay out from WWE?

PROGRESS debut at the Victoria Warehouse really was just another show. There were some bad matches like the really boring WALTER/Starr match but otherwise everything else was just… fine. 

Talking points: 

– I am bored of M&M losing all the time. 

– Feeding into rumours that ZSJ was never the intended winner of SSS16 ZSJ’s first match off the back of that win is a heatless match against momentumless Mark Andrews. 

– PROGRESS bury Entropy by having them need to cheat to beat two momentumless guys in a match already skewed in their favour. 

– I have heard good things about Dragunov but his entrance was ridiculous. 

– The show has what they call a “Triple Main Event” and then put the PROGRESS title before the Atlas and Women’s titles, even despite WALTER well and truly burying the Atlas title. Gotta create that buzz though by putting the women on last. 

– Banks/Sexsmith was a disappointment. I figured there’d be shenans but Sexsmith had a platform that required him to deliver a once in the lifetime performance but honestly I’ve seen him wrestle much better matches elsewhere. 

– Did Connors have a boner during the Atlas match? A cool moment though making Williams their new Atlas Champ. I am looking forward to seeing how he rebuilds that title without really much of a division to defend it against. 

– They made the Women’s Match an overbooked clusterfuck to hide from the fact that Jinny can’t wrestle worth a damn. Not complaining about them getting the title off of Storm but with them already having a heel champion with matches full of shenanigans in Banks, they can’t protect Jinny like this moving forwards as well without stagnating the product even further.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

I'm going to see Pete Dunne vs Ilja Dragunov at Wembley. Everything is completely cool between me and Progress.

Although if they do some day go onto the network I'm screwed because theres a 0% chance I'm getting the WWE network again.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Finished watching Chapter 69. First half of the show was really good. I enjoyed Sabre Jr vs Andrews much more than I expected, David Starr vs WALTER was once again very good and its always a joy to hear Trent Seven on the mic. As for the second half, it wasn't bad, far from it, but it was about what I expected. Banks vs Sexsmith was fine but everyone and their mothers knew Jack wasn't winning and he really shouldn't as he isn't a good wrestler. The Atlas Chamionship match was a decent match and it had a good moment for Doug at the end and the main event, again what I expected. I think most knew that Jinny was winning this but with Storm rumoured to being WWE bound they knew they had to protect her as much as they could and I have no problems with Jinny having a run with the belt as she really was someone that really helped Progress get the division started and she has pretty much been focus point of the division for sometime (though the match wasn't very good). One final thing I have to say is this, I'm so happy they're bringing back some old themes for wrestlers like 'I know you suffer' and 'Love is Blindness' as they really did help the crowd come alive for a match and the new music just wasn't all that good.


----------



## MC

Half way through Chapter 69 and I've given up. The show has been fine so far. Walter/Starr was good but very disappointing due to the standards, the ZSJ was average and the Banks vs Sexsmith match is one of the worst matches I've ever seen. So shit. Jack Sexsmith Smith kicked out of FOUR!!!!!! Kiwi Krusher. One of which was from the top rope onto another of (I count that as two btw) and another, he kicked out at the one count. Then he tried to do the shitty pseudo fighting spirit crap that Davey did but only this time, it was way worse. Fuck this match, fuck Banks, fuck Sexsmith. I may watch the rest another day, I may not.


----------



## Corey

Chapter 69:

Sabre vs. Andrews - **** 1/2* (This was a joy. Sabre hasn't had the chance to work against many smaller cruiserweight guys so this felt really refreshing. Andrews got a great nearfall near the end too)

WALTER vs. Starr - **** 1/2* (Probably the weakest match I've ever seen from the two, but still quite good. Starr had the perfect gameplan and WALTER sold his leg really well, but... 0-10 for Davey now :lol)

Atlas 4-Way - *** 1/2* (Messy match, great end result)

Skimmed through the rest. BSS handicap match sucked. Storm/Jinny indeed looked like a clusterfuck. Never had any intention of watching Banks/Sexsmith but I caught the end.


----------



## TD Stinger

Finally got the time to start watching the latest Progress shows. Just got done with Day 2 of Super Strong Style 16. Got to say there are some great matches on this show with:

Angelico vs. Keith Lee
David Starr vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Kassius Ohno vs. Tyler Bate

All really good matches. Walter vs. Banks was pretty good as well.


----------



## terrydude

I bought my tickets for the August 6th show in Philly. What do you think the card will look like than? Any chance Toni Storm still be around?
What about Sabre Jr?


----------



## TD Stinger

terrydude said:


> I bought my tickets for the August 6th show in Philly. What do you think the card will look like than? Any chance Toni Storm still be around?
> What about Sabre Jr?


I think the Mae Young Classic II is being taped on August 7-8. So I would doubt Toni would be on a show a night before the MYC.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

terrydude said:


> I bought my tickets for the August 6th show in Philly. What do you think the card will look like than? Any chance Toni Storm still be around?
> What about Sabre Jr?


There's also a really good chance Zack will be involved in the G1 Climax this year so I doubt he'll be there if he's involved but just have to see.


----------



## TD Stinger

Finally got caught up with all of Progress by finishing Chapter 68 Day 3 and Chapter 69. Some interesting stuff heading to Wembley.

*ZSJ is challenging for the Progress Championship at Wembley:* ZSJ isn't the guy I wanted to see in that spot but he's one of the biggest stars from the UK so I can see why they did it. The can't do Banks vs. ZSJ though, right? Banks is a heel now and ZSJ isn't exactly a face. I wonder if Tyler Bate finds his way in there somehow. Plus Walter might find his way in there to after he vacated the Atlas Championship.

*Will Ospreay vs. Jimmy Havoc:* I'll be honest, I don't care much for Havoc's or really anyone else's death matches. Just not for me. But, I do like it when he has a promo and a story to work with. And I like the past history he and Ospreay brought to their promo. It got me excited for their match.

*Mark Andrews vs. Eddie Dennis:* I guess this isn't guaranteed for Wembley but I would think that is where the match would happen. I mean, it's nice that it will have been a year until this match happened and they've done a good job of building it. But I won't lie when I say it's hard to take Eddie Dennis seriously at times considering he looks more like a high school teacher than a wrestler. I'm not someone who thinks you have to have the look. But you gotta have a look, right?

*Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Draguov:* OK, full disclosure, I had and have no idea who Dragunov is. When he came out at Chapter 69 given his music I thought he would be some big monster but he's about Dunne's size. All I've found out since then is that he mainly works for WXW. I mean the crowd was hyped for him, so eventually I'll have to watch his work to see what they hype is about.


----------



## Corey

Interesting stip. Sexmith will probably eat the pin though. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1001888520259026944


----------



## Platt

I'm pretty sure Walter is pinning TK so he gets his rematch.


----------



## TD Stinger

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1002279835782275072
Nixon Newell is returning to Progress for a Women's Title Shot.


----------



## Platt

:mark had to buy a ticket as soon as I saw that.


----------



## Pizzamorg

So is PROGRESS the only British promotion who has benefited from the WWE partnership? This is the second WWE contracted wrestler in a matter of weeks PROGRESS have been allowed to borrow, PROGRESS seem to be booking bigger and bigger venues and they are no longer using that copy right free elevator music for entrance themes. Almost like they received a windfall to get all the companies off their backs complaining about copy rights. 

It is odd, as while the PROGRESS product is honestly kinda shite right now, for a promotion seemingly so deep in WWE's pocket, it doesn't seem to have really harmed them in any visible way. It is still the same boozy, sweary, hard hitting PROGRESS it has always been. The whole gimmick of TK Cooper and Banks playing on the Reigns push you would assume would offend overly sensitive WWE, who have unleashed their wrath on far less. But it seems like PROGRESS are defying all the odds and really feeding off of WWE in a very positive way.

So I just finished watching PROGRESS 1978 and it is arguably the best end to end show they have put out all year, at least in terms of pure entertainment. 

Sure, there are no real classics on the show, but the expectation of a weird gimmick show meant I was never expecting there to be, either. That is the difference with something like this and SSS16, the expectation. That expectation was what crippled SSS16 this year and the lack of that expectation (while basically the definition of faint praise) was what made this show so easy to just sit back and enjoy. 

It is a shame not everyone seemed to throw themselves into this as much as others and it is a shame everyone basically worked a modern match, but those who really embraced the gimmick, their joy was palpable and infectious. 

I will say it seems a weird choice to have stuff like the Natural Progression Series and the Thunderbastard Tag Tournament advanced here, since you would assume something like this would be non canon but I guess kayfabe is dead so who cares. Just nerds like me, apparently!

No chatter about the latest PROGRESS Chapter on here? I must admit, I am in two minds about watching it. I've become really burnt out on wrestling in general, but PROGRESS especially has had lots of great matches this year but not a lot of great shows and between how not good the card looks for this show and the complete lack of buzz... it just leaves me with zero interest.


----------



## Stetho

Completely lost my interest since they're so deep in WWE's hand tbh


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Pizzamorg said:


> No chatter about the latest PROGRESS Chapter on here? I must admit, I am in two minds about watching it. I've become really burnt out on wrestling in general, but PROGRESS especially has had lots of great matches this year but not a lot of great shows and between how not good the card looks for this show and the complete lack of buzz... it just leaves me with zero interest.


I was there and despite not being a strong card it was a pretty good show. Main event fell a bit flat but overall it was decent enough.


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS have uploaded their World Cup show, not really hard any buzz for this at all but I have heard a lot of buzz for the guys in this and for most of them I’ve never seen them wrestle so I might give this a go.

They’ve also reupped their NOLA shows with commentary. No real interest in slogging through the whole shows again but I might give the two matches on each show I enjoyed another watch to see if commentary adds or detracts from the matches.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

-***** Italiano- said:


> I was there and despite not being a strong card it was a pretty good show. Main event fell a bit flat but overall it was decent enough.


I was there aswell. Was a very fun show especially the NPS match, the hardcore match and the SPPT vs Walter & Sexsmith match but it did feel like the Women's match shouldn't of main evented as quite a few people where I was sitting just lost interest.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

ShadowSucks92 said:


> I was there aswell. Was a very fun show especially the NPS match, the hardcore match and the SPPT vs Walter & Sexsmith match but it did feel like the Women's match shouldn't of main evented as quite a few people where I was sitting just lost interest.


Yeah I always get annoyed when theres one title match on a show and it's not the main event. You really undercut the title that way and it's part if the reason WWE titles are worthless. So I applaud the decision even if it means you get an underwhelming main event sometimes.

NPS was very good. Those Dunkzilla chops are nearly as sick as WALTERS. I wish Brookes and Angelico had done a lot more though.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

-***** Italiano- said:


> Yeah I always get annoyed when theres one title match on a show and it's not the main event. You really undercut the title that way and it's part if the reason WWE titles are worthless. So I applaud the decision even if it means you get an underwhelming main event sometimes.
> 
> NPS was very good. Those Dunkzilla chops are nearly as sick as WALTERS. I wish Brookes and Angelico had done a lot more though.


That makes sense and it did end the evening with the crowd singing C'est La Vie so I can allow it. I honestly forgot Angelico vs Brookes happened but thats most probably because of what happened afterwards.


----------



## Corey

Full touring roster for the US shows. @TJQ;


----------



## TJQ

Corey said:


> Full touring roster for the US shows. @TJQ;


Walter and BSS kada


----------



## TD Stinger

Got caught up on Progress. I skipped Chapter 70. I appreciate a theme show as much as the next guy but considering all the wrestling there is to watch and it doesn't sound like there was anything of consequence that happened on this show.

But getting to Chapter 71. Not exactly the most star studded show but a fun one nonetheless.

I'm glad they seem to be moving Havoc away from Haskins and company. The 2 of them as a team never felt like it worked. Webster works a lot better with Haskins and Mrs. Haskins as the young kid who they have corrupted. And I'm enjoying the story with Havoc being a broken man who is in a slump. I had never heard of his opponent before I watched this show, but he did a great job of making me hate his guts, so good on him.

The match itself felt like standard Jimmy Havoc hardcore stuff. But, the story of Havoc not saying die until his body just couldn't go anymore was a nice one.

I usually skip the NPS matches but I watched this one. Fletcher is like a mini Walter, he was impressive. His opponent however was not. It seemed like he was working half speed the entire match.

The main event was pretty good. Disappointed we didn't get to see Newell wrestle but Kai was a good substitute. And the tag match with SPP vs. Walter and Sexsmith was good as well. I just don't know where they go with the Progress Title going into Wembley.

Sabre Jr. is the challenger for Wembley. Banks is the champion. And Walter is currently chasing the title. So no idea what they end up doing there.


----------



## Platt

I assume Walter wins the title before Wembley and faces Sabre since that is a much bigger match and removes the NJPW/WWE politics. Banks can do something with TK maybe a gimmick match with Moustache Mountain for the tag title #1 contenders since their 6 month ban will be up shortly after.


----------



## TD Stinger

Platt said:


> I assume Walter wins the title before Wembley and faces Sabre since that is a much bigger match and removes the NJPW/WWE politics. Banks can do something with TK maybe a gimmick match with Moustache Mountain for the tag title #1 contenders since their 6 month ban will be up shortly after.


Hm, good point. But to me it would almost feel like a waste for Banks to hold this title for like 9 months only to drop it right before their big show. And although Walter vs. ZSJ is no doubt a bigger match, it's not one that feels like it has a ton of heat to it either. The main story right now is the big monster chasing the heel who always seems to sneak away with his title.

I'm almost thinking at this point it should be a 3 Way with Banks vs. Walter vs. ZSJ. Bank and Walter have all the story going for them and ZSJ adds some star power. And in the end, Walter wins.


----------



## Platt

TD Stinger said:


> Hm, good point. But to me it would almost feel like a waste for Banks to hold this title for like 9 months only to drop it right before their big show. And although Walter vs. ZSJ is no doubt a bigger match, it's not one that feels like it has a ton of heat to it either. The main story right now is the big monster chasing the heel who always seems to sneak away with his title.
> 
> I'm almost thinking at this point it should be a 3 Way with Banks vs. Walter vs. ZSJ. Bank and Walter have all the story going for them and ZSJ adds some star power. And in the end, Walter wins.


That works as well, whatever happens I don't think we get Banks/Sabre singles. I can't see them putting the title on a New Japan guy and I hope they're not stupid enough to have Banks go over.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Yesterday I went to Progress but it was my first time at the electric ballroom (that place is loud). Match of the night was easily O'Spreay vs Devlin (seriously it was fantastic live) and the NPS final was good aswell. As for the Progress World Title, I just cannot see the main event of Wembley not involving Walter & Travis Banks. As for Zack, well I still believe this is a situation like back in 2016 where I believe Haskins was meant to win it that year but they switched it to Tommy End due to him getting injured and I do believe Tyler Bate was meant to win it but they switched it to Zack due to Bate getting injured.


----------



## Corey

Oh...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1012071917875056641


----------



## Pizzamorg

What happened to the whole Havoc Ospreay thing?


----------



## Death Rider

Pizzamorg said:


> What happened to the whole Havoc Ospreay thing?


Clashes with a date in NJPW that Ospreay only found out about recently. Match will still happen just not at Wembley.


----------



## Corey

The craziest part is that Ospreay casually says that New Japan is doing ANOTHER show in the L.A. area around that time, which is why he can't make it to Wembley. Wild.


----------



## TD Stinger

If this is all true, I 'm actually kind of pissed that Ospreay would have to miss Progress's biggest show ever just so NJPW could do ANOTHER US Show when he's not even champion right now. And if he ends up just being in an 8 man tag, that's bullshit.


----------



## Death Rider

Yeah i am uber salty over this. Was so hyped for this match. Will better have a big match that day


----------



## Platt

I just hope we don't lose Zack, they've posted he's still booked but that could change at any time if NJPW want him there.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I don’t actively follow New Japan anymore so wait, Ospreay isn’t even Champion? Then why are New Japan forcing him to bow out of a far more important show/match? Sounds like New Japan are just as bad as WWE for ring fencing talent.


----------



## TD Stinger

Platt said:


> I just hope we don't lose Zack, they've posted he's still booked but that could change at any time if NJPW want him there.


I don't care as much with Zack because if this goes the way I'm thinking, he'll just be another part of the main event. While Ospreay had a singles match in a match with history to it.

But this is a big show for the UK Scene. And these 2 are 2 of the biggest reasons why the UK Scene is getting the notoriety it is today. Both of them should be on this show.

I get it, it's business. But all I'm gonna say is that if these 2 get pulled from this show just to be cogs in an 8 or 10 man tag for NJPW, that is ridiculous.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I dunno I think it'd be just as bad if they lost ZSJ. He earned his Main Event slot at Wembley by winning SSS16. You just slot someone in his place, so he can go and tag with other lower card Suzuki Gun guys in a 10 man tag match over at New Japan, then how am I ever meant to take this tournament seriously again?


----------



## TD Stinger

Pizzamorg said:


> I dunno I think it'd be just as bad if they lost ZSJ. He earned his Main Event slot at Wembley by winning SSS16. You just slot someone in his place, so he can go and tag with other lower card Suzuki Gun guys in a 10 man tag match over at New Japan, then how am I ever meant to take this tournament seriously again?


I didn't say that I thought it wouldn't be as big of a deal. Just personally for me, it wouldn't be as big of a deal. But both men SHOULD be on the card. Like if Ospreay is going to be on that US show in September, he better be getting his rematch against Hiromu or something to justify missing Wembley.


----------



## Pizzamorg

New PROGRESS Chapter is up and again, damn, the card looks so weak. What is going on over at PROGRESS? M&M v CCK is about the only match on there that interests me but since my subscription expired I don't really wanna pay the fiver or whatever it is for that one match.


----------



## TJQ

The person that I mainly bought a ticket to the Boston show for won't be there, real depression hours. Walter pls

:Cry


----------



## MC

TJQ said:


> The person that I mainly bought a ticket to the Boston show for won't be there, real depression hours. Walter pls
> 
> :Cry


Don't worry. At least Travis Banks will be there


















:Cry


----------



## TJQ

MC 16 said:


> Don't worry. At least Travis Banks will be there
> 
> :Cry



Both the matches announced so far have been fucking garbage as well

:Cry

Imagine knowing that other people get these, and so far all I have is fucking TK Cooper vs Kid Lykos and Rickey Shane Page vs Eddie Dennis


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1017532855201796101

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1017542899540680705
:Cry


----------



## Corey

Yeah those Boston matches are fucking atrocious :lol

feelsbadman

Fingers crossed WALTER wins the belt.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1018947161361453056


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Fingers crossed WALTER wins the belt.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1018947161361453056


I figure he'll somehow get the title in Wembley. That's what I would do anyways. Keep having Banks escape until the big monster Walter finally beats him (and ZSJ) to win the belt.


----------



## MC

Banks vs Walter? :deandre I'll pass on that. 


I do hear great things about Ospreay vs Devlin, so I'm looking forward to watching that.


----------



## Platt

As feared Sabre is out of Wembley so that's another big match fucked.


----------



## Death Rider

Fucks sake . Concept at least sounds interesting regarding the 3 wins in a row but the fact that Ospreay and Sabre are not going to be on this show sucks


----------



## TD Stinger

It's sad that this milestone UK show isn't going to have 2 of the men most responsible for the UK Boom.

Look, it's a business and I get it. WWE would do the same thing. And they are NJPW guys first. All I'm saying is I will be salty if Ospreay and Sabre are just in "Special Tag" matches again.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Wouldn't PROGRESS already know in advance that this is a risk? I get that they had to scramble around because the supposed intended winner, Bate, got hurt during the tournament but why give SSS16, which is usually a huge part of the next year of story for PROGRESS, to someone they know could get pulled from their shows at any time due to New Japan's demands?

It is frustrating, sure, but this just seems to be more down to PROGRESS negligence and lack of due diligence here.


----------



## volde

TD Stinger said:


> Look, it's a business and I get it. WWE would do the same thing. And they are NJPW guys first. All I'm saying is I will be salty if Ospreay and Sabre are just in "Special Tag" matches again.


If Hiromu has to vacate the title then it would be reasonable to expect Ospreay to be in the mix for it. 

Zack, in theory, can beat Omega in G1 and this would have a lead-in tag match between Zack/X vs Omega/X. 

Thats lots of ifs, but there is some hope that they won't be missing this show for 5vs5 tag matches.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Another new PROGRESS Chapter, I still have zero interest really in the direction this company is going in. I feel like I've missed enough shows now though that I could renew my subscription and then just build a super show from the three shows I've missed by just watching the two or three matches of intrigue on each card.


----------



## jackjackson

How good is progress compared to other indy promotions?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1022177009613582339


----------



## Pizzamorg

Why did they come back in the first place?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> Why did they come back in the first place?


Jimmy Havoc brought back 'I Hope You Suffer' at SSS16 and BSS were once again using 'Love is Blindness' and Jack Sexsmith was using 'I Touch Myself'. Real shame because I always felt the music really added to the wrestlers and helped Progress a lot.


----------



## TD Stinger

ShadowSucks92 said:


> Jinny Havoc brought back 'I Hope You Suffer' at SSS16 and BSS were once again using 'Love is Blindness' and Jack Sexsmith was using 'I Touch Myself'. Real shame because I always felt the music really added to the wrestlers and helped Progress a lot.


That sucks because Havoc's "I Hope You Suffer" entrance is one of the best thing about him honestly.

Off topic but with the G1 and all I've fell behind on my PROGRESS viewing. Need to get caught up on that.


----------



## Corey

!!!!



Spoiler: a spoiler





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1022233115845165056


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> !!!!
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler: a spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1022233115845165056





Spoiler: Spoiler



Current PWG and now PROGRESS champion. Big man doing big things.


----------



## MC

Well that's a start. Now the rest of the promotion needs to get back on track. 




Spoiler: Stuff



How awful was that reign? :lol It's not the only thing but a big factor in me not watching regularly anymore. Other than Riddle, there was no good title defenses for Kiwi Davey. None (IMO). His heel run was..well difficult to watch. Don't get me started on that Sexsmith match. Alas it was a long title reign. Glad it's over and we're moving on to much, much better things.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Weird they've done the switch so close to Wembley, that show is sounding more and more like a complete train wreck. I do get the title switch though, they built Banks up for a year and shows suffered in the name of making the build for the eventual switch from Dunne to Banks work and then Banks eventually run was just a complete failure. The last two or so years of the companies history is likely to be time they'd rather forget.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

There were parts of his run that I did like (like his recent character work and some of the matches he had early into his reign were really good) but yeah his reign as champion wasn't all that great and honestly, I don't put much of the blame on him. He won the belt then there was really nowhere for him to go. Progress hadn't built up any new top heels for him to feud with and the only potential feuds he could've had (Havoc & Haskins) were put into a tag team that really no one wanted to see and then he goes on a streak of matches were you just never believed he would lose. Also they could've built up the CCK/SPPT so much more than how they did it. They did the right thing by turning him heel as his character work really improved, but his matches really suffered. When you're having good matches and beating the likes of Riddle, Lee, Bate, Dunne clean and then you need help to beat guys like Mambo and Sexsmith in 20 minute overbooked matches that weren't good, then you know your booking is shit.


----------



## Corey

They made another match for Wembley yesterday, btw. I think Trent's gonna win it if he's able to make enough dates to defend.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1022219176604303360


----------



## Platt

Travis dislocated his shoulder at Fight Club on Friday so is out of the US which would mean unless they change their no automatic rematches policy he's out of the Wembley main event as well.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Platt said:


> Travis dislocated his shoulder at Fight Club on Friday so is out of the US which would mean unless they change their no automatic rematches policy he's out of the Wembley main event as well.


PROGRESS would be fucking idiots if they put Banks in the Wembley main event irregardless.


----------



## TJQ

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1023685879045468162
kada


----------



## Corey

So what are we thinking for the Wembley main event, WALTER vs. Bate? Seems to be the biggest match left they can run and as far as my knowledge goes, it would be a first time affair.


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> So what are we thinking for the Wembley main event, WALTER vs. Bate? Seems to be the biggest match left they can run and as far as my knowledge goes, it would be a first time affair.


Bate feels like the only option. Ospreay and ZSJ are off the show (and I swear to God NJPW they better be doing something big on that US show, and I think they will), Banks is injured, and Bate's BSS teammates are both in different matches.

This seems like the perfect stage for Bate to step up into the main event of this show considering how much his stock has risen in the last year or so. It would work better if WALTER was a heel IMO, but just imagine Bate muscling up WALTER in his big power moves. That would be a site to see.

Also, I kind of hope that with their relationship with WWE, WWE sends some names over to help them out. Bring Gallagher over. Bring Ohno over. Hell, bring Aleister Black over. That would be a big name for them with a history in PROGRESS.


----------



## Corey

FUCK 3 title defenses in 4 days!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1023602847777214465


TJQ said:


> kada


Yeah so that and this tag match makes your show look a lot better on paper. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1023636857756766209


----------



## Pizzamorg

Obviously it sucks that Banks is injured but it seems only positive news that he got injured then. No chance they're gonna hot potato the title back onto him and fresh dynamics added to the honestly rather awful looking US shows with the inclusion of Riddle and making all of WALTER's matches title defences. Also LAX vs the Vets sounds wonderful.


----------



## TJQ

Corey said:


> FUCK 3 title defenses in 4 days!
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1023602847777214465
> 
> Yeah so that and this tag match makes your show look a lot better on paper.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1023636857756766209


I still wanna fucking die because I won't get to see Walter :allen


----------



## Corey

So it looks like all the cards are about finalized for the US tour. Tbh I don't know half the guys on the Seattle show but that looks like the most exciting and unique show based on WALTER/Havoc and the crazy BSS/Luchadors tag. I think the best match of the tour will happen in Boston though and that's Riddle vs. Bate.



Spoiler: Philly





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024399357104275456





Spoiler: Boston





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024404361106079744





Spoiler: NYC





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024409388814086144





Spoiler: Seattle





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024413175259836417





Spoiler: Chicago





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024418208361709569





Spoiler: Detroit





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1024423230176731136


----------



## TD Stinger

These are "spoilers" from PROGRESS's show from Philly last night. I put them in Spoilers just in case but they are from PROGRESS's own Twitter. So, I guess they're not really spoilers.



Spoiler: PROGRESS: Philly





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1025919256490332160

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1025966195344859136


----------



## TJQ

Show has been wonderful so far, became an instant fan of LAX. Even more to look forward to in the second half of the show.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1026328247020216320


----------



## TD Stinger

@TJQ you better believe we're expecting a full show review, lol.

And fucking hell, Lykos who just got back from injury got hurt again:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1026284278534086656


----------



## Pizzamorg

Fucking hell does Lykos get injured every time PROGRESS put the title on him? The kid is either made of glass or is fucking cursed. I swear they wrestled for years before PROGRESS and Lykos didn't get injured in every match, it is fucking ridiculous.


----------



## Corey

Replacement champion is > the original imo. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1026771220770041857


----------



## RKing85

hopefully hype for the big Progress arena show end of September picks up a bit after All In is over.


----------



## Corey

Let's see how long this reign will last. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1028489984855236608


----------



## Pizzamorg

PROGRESS really is in a bad place right now, huh? There are more empty seats in that tiny room than people.


----------



## Corey

Pizzamorg said:


> PROGRESS really is in a bad place right now, huh? There are more empty seats in that tiny room than people.


I'm not even really sure if they sold tickets for that side tbh. Here's a better angle of the other side of the venue:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1028448603050663936


----------



## Pizzamorg

Corey said:


> I'm not even really sure if they sold tickets for that side tbh. Here's a better angle of the other side of the venue:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1028448603050663936


Damn.

That first photo was just taken at a really bad angle it seems.


----------



## Death Rider

Pretty certain they lose the titles to the grizzled young vertrans tonight.


----------



## Corey

Damn, they actually kept the belts. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1028850707565359104


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Damn, they actually kept the belts.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1028850707565359104


Good. Guys like Bandido and Flamita will put on a better match than The Vets would at Wembley (assuming they hold them that long).

Also, I want Gibson as a singles guy.


----------



## RKing85

does anyone know how many tickets have been sold for Wembley?


----------



## Corey

WALTER vs. Bate seems very likely now. And more Wembley news.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1030193772481703936

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1030183713315991552

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1030171166558879744


----------



## Platt

So Riddle will have his final indy match at Wembley, no idea who they put him against, it's baffling that they didn't put him in a main.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Platt said:


> So Riddle will have his final indy match at Wembley, no idea who they put him against, it's baffling that they didn't put him in a main.


Especially given his storied history with WALTER in PROGRESS. It would be like the perfect end to his run.


----------



## TD Stinger

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1032371834958700546

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1032688928434749440

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1032705349793587200
Sounds great, but should have in Wembley. Thanks New Japan.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1032726796935081989
So either Havoc, Bate, or Haskins is going to the main event of Wembley. Gotta think Bate, though I suppose Havoc has an outside chance since he is The Franchise of Progress.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

If I had to guess how this would go. O'Spreay beats Havoc after Robinson screws Havoc so at Wembley it'll be Havoc vs Paul. Bate beats Haskins so at Wembley its WALTER vs Bate and Haskins faces Riddle.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Well since the rumours were that Bate was winning SSS16, you have to assume he'll be going to the main event of Wembley, right?

Renewed my subscription to Demand PROGRESS. Really lost interest in this promotion, the direction they chose to go in was not for me but with Wembley so close now I figured I needed to dive myself back in and get myself brought back up to speed. 

So, firstly, Chapter 71. 

The card is pretty shit for this show, this was a big issue with PROGRESS as a promotion always, they’d build up a roster of talent so well that all their talent would get pillaged and they’d have to start all over again. These Chapters definitely take place in one of those lull periods where a weak collection of mostly developmental talent is spread as thinly as physically possible. Something which is exasperated by various injuries and contractual problems which really seems to have thrown the promotion into disarray as they try desperately to get themselves back on track for Wembley with very little time left to do so. I guess I should chastise PROGRESS for not being better organised but in fairness to them they got some absolute clangers chucked at them that they could have never realistically planned for. 

Anyway, the show itself. 

I watched three matches from this card. The NPS Semi because I heard good things and the deathmatch as that is Havoc at his best against a guy who I genuinely feel is going to be a big part of the future of British Wrestling (and if you haven’t seen the Parker/Trivet no DQ from one of the Dome shows, you are missing out as it was one of the best in the companies history). If there is anything else worth watching on this card I’ll go back, just let me know. 

Speaking of the NPS Final First. I have hated the whole booking of this tournament so far really, the best matches from this tournament have been on the Live at the Dome shows and PROGRESS complete failure to capitalise and utilise the momentum of some of the fantastic matches done over there reminds me a lot of Main Roster WWE utterly failing to translate NXT across. The tournament on the main chapter shows has mostly gotten lost both literally on the cards but also lost in the sense that PROGRESS seems to have forgotten what the NPS is supposed to be about and the history the tournament has within the promotion which is weird. 

The match itself though was really sloppy and the finish was weak and came out of nowhere, I guess the two of them don’t have much in the way of chemistry. Duggan looked gassed as fuck within about five minutes in which didn’t help things, either as it dragged the whole pace of the match down. The right man won though and I know Davis will get a better match from Ridgeway. 1* 

The deathmatch was certainly better, Trivet has such charisma and I like how he makes almost all of his hardcore spots feel like an extension of his character and it is interesting what they are doing with Havoc’s character, even if I am not particularly invested in him myself. The actual match wasn’t like something from GCW or whatever, most of the spots were pretty lacklustre (I mean that finish, we know about the real world damage caused by unprotected chair shots which makes the ending a shock but at the same time because we know of the real danger Trivet clearly wasn’t hitting him very hard which made the spot look a little crappy), but from a perspective of using hardcore spots to tell a story and further characters then this was fun. 3*


----------



## TD Stinger

PROGRESS really has had bad luck going into their biggest show ever.

Ospreay and Sabre Jr. got pulled because of NJPW (mother fuckers). Banks got hurt. And now Toni Storm is hurt though we don't know how long she'll be out for or if she'll have to miss this show.

So yeah, I'm sure they'll still have something really good but this show isn't going to be as good as it should be.


----------



## TottiFan

Bate vs Walter
Dunne vs Dragunov 
Tag team titles shmoz 
Mandrews vs Eddie 
Trent Vs Dougie 
whatever the women’s match may be 

Is still a very good foundation for a card. Those 4 singles matches should be awesome and the top 2 in particular could be classic


----------



## Death Rider

I am curious what they do with Haskins. Him versus Riddle would be fun.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

I do think it'll be Haskins vs Riddle (I swear they better not put someone in like Chuck Mambo) and I do like the look of the card but I'll also agree that for Progress's biggest show, it does feel underwhelming. Obviously you have the big Dunne vs Dragunov match and Eddie vs Andrews is by far the best storied match going into this but apart from that, it just seems like it was all thrown together. Now I'm not blaming Progress entirely because they've had things like injuries and the NJPW show prevent them from having the matches they obviously wanted so with what's happened I do think they've done well and I'm still looking forward to seeing it but just wish the investment was there for the matches.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1036647583173750784

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1036686555434377216


----------



## TD Stinger

So:

Progress Championship: Tyler Bate vs. WALTER

Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Dragunov

Mark Andrews vs. Eddie Dennis

Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson

Atlas Championship: Trent Seven vs. Doug Williams

Tag Team Championship Special

Matt Riddle's Final Indy Appearance

Women's Championship: Jinny vs. ??? (I know it was supposed to be Toni but with her injury I don't know where that leaves us)


All in all, not the best card Progress could have had due to cancellations and injuries, but still a show with a lot to look forward to.


----------



## Corey

Tbh I like the sound of WALTER/Bate as a main event way better than WALTER/ZSJ. Mainly because it's completely fresh and ZSJ & WALTER have faced off like 3 times this year.

Still blows ZSJ had to pull out of the show though. Ospreay as well.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1036726808065003520


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037038883417022465

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037064060460781570


----------



## TD Stinger

ShadowSucks92 said:


> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037064060460781570


TLC? Sounds cool, but makes me wonder, if anything, what will be hanging above the ring.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Just watched the latest Progress Chapter show (Chapter 75) and even though I did enjoy it I think I should warn people that the O'Spreay vs Havoc is lllloooooonnnnnggggg. I think it went on for like an hour or something and it definitely didn't need that amount of time.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037403802276651008

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037416402192408577

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1037428942486032389
Think that's the rest of the card


----------



## Pizzamorg

Continuing with my catch up. 

PROGRESS Chapter 72 has a stronger (at least on paper) card than 71 but it is still undeniably a lopsided card with oddly placed talent. 

In terms of the matches I actually watched: 

First up – Devlin/Ospreay. This got a lot of buzz online at the time, no surprises there either, Cornett’ll probably have a meltdown but both guys were defying the laws of reality here and just hitting so much crazy awesome stuff, it is one of those matches where people are doing things so insane you cannot help but just throw your head back and laugh with pure glee. How are these men still alive?! Between this and the match against Bate in SSS16, I really do hope Devlin becomes a big part of PROGRESS moving forwards. I don’t feel it about a lot of the roster right now, but Devlin could be a future PROGRESS Champ in my mind. 5*

Next up – The BSS vanity project, it might have not been so bad but it just went on forever and then after going on and on the match was immediately forgotten about for Dunne’s Wembley “storyline” and so I just don’t get what the point of this whole thing was. Some good spots and funny moments, so not a complete write off, but the length and the booking really undermined this 2*

After that I watched #CCK/M&M. One of only about three matches Lykos wrestled before getting injured again. It is sad that Lykos is made out of glass because when CCK are firing on all cylinders there really is little else like it. It is a shame it again comes at the expense of M&M but they made themselves look as good as they could in a match that wasn’t really about them. It wasn’t even really a match, more just a celebration of CCK. It was serviceable in that regard. 3*

Then the Main Event, nice they gave it to the NPS and they even did them a little video package. Did the NPS always have a trophy or is this the first year? Either way, this is probably the first time this year’s NPS has felt important since that first M&M match on Live at the Dome all those months ago.

Sadly the match itself was a bit disappointing, really. The match had its moments, mostly in the finishing stretch where the intensity and big fight feel really amped up to make this feel as epic as it deserved to feel. These two certainly went to war for that NPS Trophy. However even though the match wasn’t particularly long… it could have probably been even shorter and better for it. I really didn’t need nearly ten minutes of Ridgeway and Davis basically doing nothing but slapping each other before the match really got going. I know I sung the praises of WALTER and Thatcher earlier in the year but that was original then, now PROGRESS are trying to capture the same lightning for at least the third time. 3*

Onwards the catch up. 

I decided to just do Chapter 73 and Chapter 74 on one post as both of them had awful on paper cards as far as I was concerned so I watched two matches from 73 and just one from 74, one I wouldn’t have probably even watched had I not known WALTER was winning it. If there is anything I am missing out on on these shows, let me know. 

73 first: 

Haskins/Webster v Sexy Starr match - Fucking hell the whole Haskins/Webster/Havoc storyline is such an absolute mess. I just have no clue what the hell PROGRESS were trying with this. You had Haskins return from injury red hot making that awesome declaration about coming back for his title, then PROGRESS forgot about that and put him in an endless feud with Jimmy Havoc for no real reason, then for even less reason Haskins turned heel and sided with Havoc as a team with his wife but the three of them never really did anything with it at all and now Havoc has broken off. Then Webster got added into the mix, again for zero reason at all, and then just as Webster seemed to be giving context to the whole thing… he betrayed Haskins and Haskins so…??????????????

Then, the main event. Again I have no real emotional investment in it but I like what they are doing with Havoc all the same. Parker has always been someone the British indie circuit has been really in love with but also someone I’ve never really got… until here. Through storytelling he made a fairly tame, by anything but WWE standards, no DQ match into something rather enjoyable. 3* 

74: 

The Main Event - It is always nice when they get a video package but again this video package just sums up the problematic storytelling in 2018 PROGRESS. Travis Banks run as PROGRESS Champ cannot be described as anything other than a complete failure after they put so much time and resources into it. Kudos to PROGRESS for the heel turn as it salvaged something at the end but otherwise this is an era of PROGRESS they are likely to want to forget. WALTER hasn’t come out of this unscathed either, sadly. Banks made one comment about how he feels WALTER shouldn’t be allowed title matches as he is already Atlas Champ, it is a dumb opinion and management never show that they side with this idea, but WALTER just immediately gives up the Atlas title anyway which completely devalues that belt in the process. This is all topped off by Jim’s ludicrous overacting. Let us just get the belt on WALTER and get this whole fucking shitstain behind us.

In terms of the match, much like with Ridgeway/Davis match from 72 it was too long for a match mostly made up of strikes but seeing WALTER murder Banks and basically counter everything Banks threw at him was very satisfying. The constant swerves away from bullshit and the satisfying sense of comeuppance for Banks in the finish too added some fun dynamics to this. If this is PROGRESS both acknowledging they fucked up and apologising for the fact, then I forgive them. That pop from the crowd too… damn. 4*

So, where do I go from here? Only three of the six US shows are on Demand as far as I can see but I know certainly storylines carry through from 74 through the US shows until 75 but 75 is already on Demand ready to go, so do I just skip the US shows until they are all on there?


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Pizzamorg said:


> So, where do I go from here? Only three of the six US shows are on Demand as far as I can see but I know certainly storylines carry through from 74 through the US shows until 75 but 75 is already on Demand ready to go, so do I just skip the US shows until they are all on there?


The only thing that really continues in the US shows is the whole 3 and in thing along with the clusterfuck Thunderbastard Tag Match. There are some good matches to be seen on them so they are worth watching but as for storyline wise, you'll probably not miss anything. Also agree 1000% on the Haskins/Havoc/Webster formation, was stupid from the get go and it really fucked with Haskins and Havocs momentum to the point where the crowd stopped caring for them. I do think they're starting to turn things round now though.


----------



## TD Stinger

ShadowSucks92 said:


> The only thing that really continues in the US shows is the whole 3 and in thing along with the clusterfuck Thunderbastard Tag Match. There are some good matches to be seen on them so they are worth watching but as for storyline wise, you'll probably not miss anything. Also agree 1000% on the Haskins/Havoc/Webster formation, was stupid from the get go and it really fucked with Haskins and Havocs momentum to the point where the crowd stopped caring for them. I do think they're starting to turn things round now though.


I never got the Haskins/Havoc/Webster thing either. So Haskins and Havoc kill each other in a Death Match last year in Alley Palace. Then they form a tag team afterwards.

And I can't say I watch every single second of PROGRESS, but I never remember hearing a good explanation as to why (that is until the following year, which I'll get too).

And then they add Webster to the mix. Alright, 2 veterans bringing and corrupting the youngster. That's an easy story tell. But then Havoc went off on his own with his feud with Ospreay, where he finally gave some explanation as to why he and Havoc joined forces. Which was basically the "we were held down story" which Havoc made work.

So then it's just Haskins and Webster and you think at least they could make a good tag team. But then Webster betrays Haskins and form his own team......Feels like you could have gotten her without all the weird booking along the way.

But, we did get Vicky Haskins as a regular after this, can't complain about that.

Just watched Chapter 75. Mostly a 2 match show, but some other notes as well:

*I laughed that every time Andrews attacked Eddie Dennis, it was because Eddi insulted his band, lol. I guess that's the trigger for Andrews. Not his career, or his friends, but his band. And finally, we get to see this match.

*The visual of Chris Brookes teaming with Thatcher is hilarious.

*Dragunov showing up at PROGRESS and taking out Dunne was a cool moment.

And now for the two big matches:

*Bate vs. Haskins didn't do too much for me as it felt kind of long and boring at times. But the ending stretch was pretty cool. And how awesome is it to see Bate in the main event of PROGRESS's biggest show ever.

*And now for Havoc vs. Ospreay. I got to say, I ended up loving this match. And yes, it is not perfect. It is LONG. There are some dead moments. Mainly, there is a stretch after the 1st fall where Ospreay is in control and it gets boring. And the ending sequence could have been cut down a bit.

But, to me, the good far outweighs the bad. This match had such a big time feel to it. The pop Havoc got when Smallman was introducing him was incredible. And any time Havoc was on offense in this match was great. His brand of sick and humorous violence is always entertaining to watch.

And some of the spot they pulled off looked so brutal:

*Havoc stomping Ospreay into thumbtacks.
*Havoc giving Ospreay a Burning Hammer onto a seated chair.
*Ospreay Suplexing Havoc through chairs.
*Ospreay diving out of the ceiling to deliver an Elbow Drop.
*Havoc hitting a fucking Essex Destroyer off one of the perches off a table. The fact that the table didn't break making them bounce off made it look even more brutal.

The ending was a bit overbooked and drawn out, though I did enjoy Havoc and Opsreay putting the other refs through tables. But the moments with Jim and Robinson felt natural given their histories with both men, which I've only learned recently.

Don't know much about Robinson as in ring guy but he looks to be in amazing shape and has a lot of history with Havoc. So even though this Havoc vs. Ospreay match should have happened in Wembley, I'm looking forward to Havoc vs. Robinson.

Again, not a perfect match and for a 43 minute match you could have shaved probably like 5-10 minutes off of it. But still awesome to me.


----------



## stevie888

Cannot wait for Hello Wembley!!!


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Still waiting on my ticket to be delivered which is frustrating but I'm super pumped for this insane card.

Seeing Toni Storm, Ilja Dragunov, Millie Mckenzie, Matt Riddle, David Starr, Tim Thatcher, Flamita and fucking Bandito for the first time all on the same night is a little overwhelming.


----------



## JP7

Hyped for Flamita and Bandito


----------



## TD Stinger

PROGRESS has released a couple of full shows lately:

*Chapter 36:*






Featuring one of the best returns I've ever seen @3:36:06.

*Chapter 55:*






To this point their biggest show ever.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

TD Stinger said:


> Featuring one of the best returns I've ever seen @3:36:06.


I was super new to PROGRESS watching that show and I barely knew who it was. Still popped like mad as it was incredible. One of the biggest pops I've heard.


----------



## TD Stinger

Spoiler: Wembley


----------



## Death Rider

Made a last minute decision to go to this :mark:


----------



## Stadhart02

Bought a ticket for this ages ago thinking it would be my first Progress show but now it has come round I don't think I can be bothered. Wembley is an absolute trek for me and I hate doing stuff on a Sunday when I have work the next day

will make my final decision Sunday morning but doubt I will bother


----------



## Platt

I know how you feel I should be really excited for the show and I'm just not, the matches themselves for the most part will probably be fine but the build has been terrible. If i didn't have a ticket and hotel booked I'd probably just head home after Fight Club tomorrow.


----------



## Death Rider

Show was a lot of fun but I had to leave early due to overrun and missing my coach. Every match was pretty fun minus the triple threat women's which was a bit of a dud


----------



## TD Stinger

Results from Hello Wembley. Spoilers:



Spoiler: Hello Wembley Results






> WALTER bt. Tyler Bate – Retains PROGRESS World Championship
> Oh. My. God.
> 
> That is the best match I think I have ever seen in my life.
> 
> I won’t spoil any spots for anyone who hasn’t seen it, because you have to find a way to watch this. This was unbelievable.
> 
> What a show. Holy S**T.
> 
> 
> Eddie Dennis bt. Mark Andrews
> WWE tables are better than PROGRESS tables, but only because they actually break when people fall on them.
> 
> One table in this match took at least five bumps and it did not break. The table was the most over thing all night.
> 
> Dennis and Andrews did their best to kill each other, mainly by jumping off ladders and attempting to put each other through tables.
> 
> The final moments of the match saw Dennis put Andrews through a table from a giant ladder, and then climb the ladder to collect the contract for a guaranteed title match.
> 
> Time for our main event. WALTER vs Tyler Bate. I’m not drooling you are.
> 
> 
> Pete Dunne bt. Ilja Dragunov
> England has beaten Germany/Russia in something that actually matters for the first time since 1966.
> 
> Pete Dunne and Ilja Dragunov beat the hell out of each other for the entirety of the match. Face stomps, finger breaks, triangle submissions and title belts to the face, this match had it all.
> 
> Dragunov and Dunne are two of the most intense wrestlers on the planet, and it took something special to win.
> 
> Dunne locked Dragunov in a triangle choke before snapping the Russian’s fingers, causing him to tap. Ouch.
> 
> The two men shook hands in the middle of the ring after the match, and I doubt I’ll be the only one hoping RingKampf vs BSS matches become a common occurrence.
> 
> 
> Aussie Open bt. Bandido & Flamita (c), The 198 (Flash Morgan Webster & ‘Wild Boar’ Mike Hitchman, CCKampf (Chris Brookes & Timothy Thatcher), Sexy Starr (David Starr & Jack Sexsmith), Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson), Anti Fun Police ( Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Junior), and Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championship in a Thunder Bastard Tag Team Match.
> Wow.
> 
> Spot after spot after spot.
> 
> Aussie Open are your new PROGRESS Tag Team Champions after pinning James Drake of the Grizzled Young Veterans.
> 
> Great match, but next up is arguably the biggest match of the night.
> 
> Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Dragunov. Corrrrrrrrr.
> 
> 
> Jimmy Havoc bt. Paul Robinson in a No DQ match
> Ouch.
> 
> Both men are covered in each others blood.
> 
> Thumb tacks, ironing boards, frying pans, doors, chairs, staple guns and fluorescent light tubes.
> 
> Holy S***.
> 
> Match finished with Havoc stomping Robinson’s head through a florescent light tube.
> 
> I’m in a lot of pain and I only watched it from the crowd. The ring canvas is being changed for obvious reasons.
> 
> Also, OUCH.
> 
> 
> Trent Seven bt. Doug Williams to win the PROGRESS Atlas Division Championship and Williams must retire
> Thank you Doug! Thank you Doug!
> 
> There are no words for how much Doug Williams has done for British Wrestling, and we have just seen his last ever match.
> 
> The match itself fades to insignificance in the face of what has happened.
> 
> For those who aren’t clued up on British Wrestling, Doug Williams is pretty much Ric Flair. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Trent said “I’m sorry, I love you” when the pinfall was counted.
> 
> The match finished about 10 minutes ago and everyone is still cheering. What a moment, and what a legend.
> 
> Thank you Doug.
> 
> Up next is Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson
> 
> 
> Jinny bt. Toni Storm and Millie McKenzie to retain PROGRESS Women’s Championship
> Jinny is still the PROGRESS Women’s Champion, but it’s safe to say she didn’t do it alone.
> 
> The trio traded blows, with Storm hitting both Jinny and McKenzie with pile-drivers and seemingly gaining the upper hand. After a brutal attack on Jinny, Storm was confronted by the House of Couture. Laura Di Matteo and Candy Floss then entered the ring, seemingly evening the odds, but Di Matteo turned on both Candy Floss and Storm to gift Jinny the win and join the House of Couture in the process.
> 
> But what’s this?
> 
> JORDYNNE GRACE IS HERE!
> 
> One of the most impressive female wrestlers on the planet is here to clear the ring and stand tall. What a huge moment from Grace and the PROGRESS women’s division.
> 
> Next up is Doug Williams vs Trent Seven, with Doug’s career on the line. It’s also for the PROGRESS Atlas Division Championship, but honestly, Doug’s career is what matters.
> 
> 
> Mark Haskins bt. Matt Riddle via pinfall
> Matt Riddle, in his last independent wrestling match before joining NXT full time, loses to Mark Haskins in a great opening bout.
> 
> The two men traded blows throughout, with neither able to claim they truly had the upper hand. Near falls were followed by submission attempts, with Riddle coming close with a modified tombstone.
> 
> Haskins eventually picked up the victory, and the two men embraced in the middle of the ring.
> 
> The crowd gave Riddle a great send off as he heads back to the States to embark on his NXT career, with dreams of facing Konnor from the Ascension on main event in 2019.
> 
> Next up is the PROGRESS Women’s Championship match between champion Jinny, Toni Storm and Millie McKenzie.
> 
> 
> Chuck Mambo wins the pre-show Battle Royale
> Chuck Mamboa, Truro’s finest, was the last man standing in the pre-show battle royale, outlasting all comers to a huge pop from the crowd.
> 
> If you’ve never seen Mambo before, then I can highly recommend it. Imagine a bleach blond mop that can go in the ring like nobody’s business.
> 
> Cracking start. Main show starts in a few minutes!






And some GIF's and Pic's (again, Spoilers):



Spoiler: Hello Wembley





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046420136964640773

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046412781115887617

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046439028134989824

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046440128598745089

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046453131025027074

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046484985560092672

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046500274699948032

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046516062597066753

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046508486467756032

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046506842342526976

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046498672119287808

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046498381378572290

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046491443408318466

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046490751226580992

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046481985068306437

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046480911389413382


----------



## Corey

Holy shit, attendance looks amazing. If anyone finds an official number, @ me in here. Love the way the show sounds and happy with just about all the results. Can't wait to watch!


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Holy shit, attendance looks amazing. If anyone finds an official number, @ me in here. Love the way the show sounds and happy with just about all the results. Can't wait to watch!




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046451951758712833
4,750 was the announced attendance.


----------



## Corey

Awesome! For a show to be billed as the biggest UK indy wrestling show ever and to not have Sabre, Ospreay, Scurll, and Banks? That's definitely impressive. (Y)


----------



## TD Stinger

Honestly the only guy I missed was Ospreay. I hate that Banks got hurt and ZSJ had to miss the show, especially since he's not doing anything that special at Fighting Spirit Unleashed. But them being gone did pave the way for Walter vs. Bate one on one. And Scurll, while a big UK star, just didn't feel like there was a good spot for him.

As much as I loved Ospreay vs. Havoc from Chapter 75, that match deserved to happen in Wembley.


----------



## RKing85

was hoping they would have gotten a bit more than that, but that is still an outstanding number. Good for them.


----------



## Death Rider

Yeah agreed on the above. I love Marty but not sure where he fits in. Plus Bate vs Walter from what I saw was epic. Need to see the finish when it is up but if you watch one match on this show watch that match.


----------



## Stadhart02

That attendance is pretty bad


----------



## Corey

Stadhart02 said:


> That attendance is pretty bad


What kinda number were you looking for?


----------



## Death Rider

Stadhart02 said:


> That attendance is pretty bad


What the biggest in 30 years is bad? :lmao


----------



## Corey

Awesome news here! And damn that crowd still looks amazing.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046738983554813953


----------



## Stadhart02

Roy Mustang said:


> What the biggest in 30 years is bad? :lmao


4750 is disappointing no matter how you dress it up


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Went to the show and it was fucking awesome.

Only negative was that Ilja Dragunov didn't get much reaction, for his entrance anyway people liked the match, it's clear that a lot of people haven't seen the WALTER match that got him over with so many people. PROGRESS have no choice but to book Ilja again and have WALTER kick the fuck out of him so everyone can see how awesome it is.


----------



## Death Rider

Stadhart02 said:


> Roy Mustang said:
> 
> 
> 
> What the biggest in 30 years is bad? <img src="http://www.wrestlingforum.com/images/smilies/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="" title="ROFLMAO" class="inlineimg" />
> 
> 
> 
> 4750 is disappointing no matter how you dress it up
Click to expand...

How is it? What standard are you calling is disappointing by? 4750 is a massive attendance for a British wrestling show. If you expecting something like 10k you are pretty delusional


----------



## Corey

Not wasting any time at all! :mark:



Spoiler: Chapter 77 Main Event





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1046823397005647872


----------



## Stetho

Roy Mustang said:


> What the biggest in 30 years is bad? :lmao


ICW was doing the same a couple of years ago.
There was a time when I thought PROGRESS in 2018 could have sold way more than this. This is of course a big number for an UK show, but we're far from the potential they had at some point.


----------



## Death Rider

Stetho said:


> Roy Mustang said:
> 
> 
> 
> What the biggest in 30 years is bad? <img src="http://www.wrestlingforum.com/images/smilies/roflmao.gif" border="0" alt="" title="ROFLMAO" class="inlineimg" />
> 
> 
> 
> ICW was doing the same a couple of years ago.
> There was a time when I thought PROGRESS in 2018 could have sold way more than this. This is of course a big number for an UK show, but we're far from the potential they had at some point.
Click to expand...

It is still a great number and acting like it is not is hilarious. Can you find the figures that show this please cause that is impressive as well. If you are expecting 10k you are expecting too high. Wrestling is still niche :draper2


----------



## Stetho

Roy Mustang said:


> It is still a great number and acting like it is not is hilarious. Can you find the figures that show this please cause that is impressive as well. If you are expecting 10k you are expecting too high. Wrestling is still niche :draper2


Not saying 10k but at least as much as Fear and Loathing. 
It's a fine number ofc, but PROGRESS was already one of the biggest non WWE fed in the world, 4k is not so amazing when you hype this as your biggest show ever.


----------



## Death Rider

Stetho said:


> Roy Mustang said:
> 
> 
> 
> It is still a great number and acting like it is not is hilarious. Can you find the figures that show this please cause that is impressive as well. If you are expecting 10k you are expecting too high. Wrestling is still niche <img src="http://i.imgur.com/7KU7Fqx.png" border="0" alt="" title="Draper" class="inlineimg" />
> 
> 
> 
> Not saying 10k but at least as much as Fear and Loathing.
> It's a fine number ofc, but PROGRESS was already one of the biggest non WWE fed in the world, 4k is not so amazing when you hype this as your biggest show ever.
Click to expand...

I think you are over hyping how big they are. What was their biggest attendance before? How much was fear and loathing attendance. If you don't think it is great fair enough but the person saying it was bad is ridiculous


----------



## GrapplingAddict

This was my first ever indie show and I loved it! The Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne matches were the two best of the night. 

And I discovered Eddie Dennis, who I saw on the regional news a few days later, talking about why he quit teaching to become a full-time wrestler. 

If this is the only indie I ever go to for the rest of my life, then I'll be happy. 

I'm glad I bought a last minute ticket.


----------



## Corey

Hogan & Andre! :mark:


----------



## Pizzamorg

So PROGRESS just dropped Hello Wembley and SSD has been awful. Off SSD goes, on comes Demand Progress.


----------



## TD Stinger

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1048514476977389569


----------



## Pizzamorg

So I just finished up Chapter 75 ready for Hello Wembley. I actually watched the majority of this show a long time ago but my Granddad died and seeing that Wembley has now dropped is the first time I’ve really remembered I needed to finish the show and go back to it. 

Just a heads up the rest of this post was written like a month or so ago when I watched the bulk of the show so if any of it reads strange at all that may be why. 

Any reason they brought back regular music back for like a month or so and then stopped again? 

I skipped the first hour of the show and jumped straight into the CCK/Aussie Open match. I probably would have skipped this but I wanted to see how Brookes worked with Thatcher. Have these guys been a tag team on the indies? It sounded like an odd couple to me but then they had really good chemistry and that was a big part of the fun. When the match got going it was pretty damn good. 4*

I sorta skimmed my way through the WALTER Williams/BSS match. Not really sure why this was on the card and again it was forgotten about immediately for Dunne’s Wembley “storyline”. This is the match where Williams had the health scare, right? The match really falls apart at that point but of course that is no one’s fault. Everyone is trying to be professional and stay in character and keep the match going while all worrying about Williams condition. Well except WALTER who just gets on with it. N/A* 

Next up Bate/Haskins. We all kinda knew that Bate was winning this going in with all the rumours about PROGRESS gearing up to give Bate a huge push through this year and into the next. It was all apparently meant to start with Bate winning SSS16 and then assumedly winning the title off of Banks at Wembley. Things didn’t go to plan of course, Bate’s injury meant ZSJ ended up winning SSS16 but then ZSJ’s schedule has meant that despite that accolade he has really done nothing in PROGRESS since and isn’t even at Wembley, so it seems a waste. Has ZSJ even taken the title shot he earned at SSS16 yet, has he even wrestled for PROGRESS since that event? Banks on the other hand of course turned up to be such an epic failure so he didn’t even make it to Wembley, awkward. 

Now they’ve sorta got things back on track, Bate is in a PROGRESS Title match in the Main Event of Wembley but one has to wonder what they do here. For a show this important there can’t really be any screwy finishes, there has to be definitive ends for everything so one man has to lose. But who? 

After everything, if Bate loses at Wembley, then that is the icing on the cake really for what a shit year PROGRESS have had from a storytelling perspective as it will be another year or so long storyline which has become completely redundant. But then if you have WALTER lose then that will seriously devalue him by making him effectively a transitional Champion, which WALTER should never ever be. Considering it wasn’t really hurting them from a business perspective if Bate is to win, you may as well have left the belt on Banks until they got to Wembley. PROGRESS 2018: Booking yourself into a corner. 

In terms of the match itself, it was nice to see Haskins in a high profile match for the first time since he fell into this weird Havoc/Haskins/Webster void thing he has been stuck in for what feels like an eternity. Haskins is also getting Riddle’s final indie match at Wembley too, so while I’d love to see him wrestle WALTER for the title, I am happy in how this all played out for him. Although have they set it up so Haskins walks into Wembley a face?

Haskins works a logical match, targeting Bate’s base to offset Bate’s power advantage. When Bate is required to take a match seriously, he is such a good storyteller for his young age, too. That is why I think it is a shame that the third match in his and Dunne’s NXT series has mostly been forgotten, as it was their best for me. That match on NXT TV took everything great about the TakeOver match and then Bate took his selling up to eleven for everything Dunne did on top of that. Bate knows how to emotionally invest the crowd and never veers into pantomime territory like a lot of wrestlers can do when selling. At least within the context of serious matches like this. I mean just look at that Meltzer 5* rated NXT Tag Title match, Bate really is a master of his craft already and while the booking is a mess, I think he could make an incredible PROGRESS Champion. 

Loved the finishing stretch and the finish itself, too.

This match was 5* to me. 

Then, the Main Event. 

I dunno about this one. 

I think the biggest issue with the match was the length, the match dragged serious ass at times, Havoc got that first fall too early into the match and Ospreay equalising out of nowhere later on was weak. Both guys would take some seriously rough looking bumps and kick out at an easy two yet they would both go down to such stupid falls instead, I guess that is part of the story they are trying to tell but it just doesn’t work for me. I recognise the physical feat for both men to go this long and that aspect was impressive but I would have personally preferred a shorter, tighter, match. Have less spots if you need, but make each one count, so many spots here were throwaway and lacked the bite and vinegar you would expect coming from these two, especially with Havoc’s extra motivation of Wembley, because I guess they were just filling time in this needless behemoth of a match. 

I also wasn’t a fan of the weird Robinson/Smallman shenans, it was just immersion breaking as he just sorta drew attention to the ridiculousness of pro wrestling rules in what is meant to be a very serious match. I also got the necessity for Wembley because NJPW screwed their plans but just… eh. There were also issues with the shoddy camerawork missing spots and the crowd were always seemingly trying to outsmart the storytelling in the ring which was frustrating and distracting. I hate hijacking crowds.

3*


----------



## TD Stinger

Between yesterday and today I watched Hello Wembley. Awesome show. Not perfect, but pretty damn awesome. Let's review this bitch:

*Riddle vs. Haskins:* Awesome opener. Both Riddle and Haskins are so good with submissions, striking, and transitions and they meshed amazingly well here.

*McKenzie vs. Storm vs. Jinny:* Fine Triple Threat. Did what it needed to. McKenzie I see is basically an 18 year old female Brock Lesnar. It'll be interesting to see her develop over the coming years. I'm not too familiar with the history of all these women so I guess I didn't know what was so shocking about DiMatteo siding with Jinny other than she was a babyface. The after match of Jordynne Grace coming out afterwards was a fun moment.

*Seven vs. Williams:* Overall a very well wrestled match. Finish was weird for me though. Like, this was basically Doug Williams retirement match, as far as I know. And I think back to Ric Flair's last match (in WWE) and HBK's last match, in both cases they were matches where the loser fought to the very end only to be put down.

In this match, after Chaos Theories and Piledrivers, Trent basically wins with a Standing Running Crossbody for a shock win. I don't know, just felt out of place. I mean not every moment like this has to be a "I'm sorry, I love you" kind of deal but again, felt out of place. But the moment afterward for Doug was very cool to see.

*Robinson vs. Havoc:* After Ospreay had to pull out, this match basically became "let's show how cool Jimmy Havoc is". And that's basically what this was. They gave him someone who he had a lot of history with, but for the most part this was the Jimmy Havoc show showing how much punishment he could take and give out. A fun little hardcore match.

*Thunderbastard Tag Team Match:* OK so I guess I was expecting this to be more like a Tag Team Turmoil match when it was really a Royal Rumble style match where a new team comes in every 2 minutes with Tornado Tag rules.

Now, you would think this would get too convoluted and too messy (and at times it did) but I had a blast with this. I can't even try to go over all the action so I won't attempt to, but man this was a lot of fun. And nice to see to Mark Davis get a title after I've been impressed with him for awhile.

*Dragunov vs. Dunne:* This one takes a bit of time to get going. But once it does, holy shit once it does it's amazing. The finishing sequence of this match is amazing. And for this being the 1st time I've really sat down to watch Dragunov, he was really fun to watch with his chaotic style.

*Andrews vs. Dennis:* These poor fuckers could not break those damn tables, lol. Although it was rather fitting that when the table finally did break, it was the finish of the match. A Neck Stop Driver from the top of a giant ladder through a table. Now that's a good finish. Rest of the match was kind of standard TLC stuff. Good effort by both men. But by the time this match started, after following Dunne vs. Dragunov, I was pretty ready to get to the main event. And speaking of......

*Bate vs. WALTER:* Holy shit what a match. If you saw Dunne and Seven in Bate's corner during this match, that was basically me during this match. This was an amazing example of David vs. Goliath, Boy vs. Man, whatever cliche you want to use.

This match went about 30 minutes, but unlike other matches that go this long, they built to everything. First 5 minutes was Walter kind of toying with Bate over powering him and both men dodging each other's big hits. And then the tide turns when Bate hits a Scoop Slam.

Even Walter's chops, which he's famous for, it took him 10 minutes before he hit one. It took about about halfway through for Bate to finally hit a Suplex on Walter. That is good pacing.

And by the time the finishing stretch came in, I was so into this with each men taking each other's best shot, to the point where Bate had Walter on his knees because Walter couldn't take the punishment. Awesome match. And now, the only guy I want to see take that title off of Walter is Bate. Even if Walter holds this thing for another year, there needs to be a rematch where Bate finally wins.

Again such an awesome match and a show worthy of being PROGRESS's biggest show ever.


----------



## Corey

PROGRESS is back today:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1056484490359517186


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> PROGRESS is back today:
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1056484490359517186


Yep, but no Bate though:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1056530745106329600
So no Bate vs. Thatcher then.


----------



## Obfuscation

Did WALTER vs Haskins get made official?

And I'm sitting here realizing how many times WALTER vs ZSJ happened this year alone. Already four matches deep now. How about that.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Obfuscation said:


> Did WALTER vs Haskins get made official?
> 
> And I'm sitting here realizing how many times WALTER vs ZSJ happened this year alone. Already four matches deep now. How about that.


Yep. It'll happen at the Manchester show on November 11th.


----------



## Obfuscation

Splendid. 

Another one for the WALTER world tour and Haskins keeps his big year going strong.


----------



## Death Rider

Walter vs Haskins :mark: :mark: :mark:


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Matches announced for Chapter 78:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1058072509885702145

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1056999187508838400

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1057369157572980736

Announced for Chapter 79:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1058093953134874631

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1058109018940624901


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

As a big fan of both Haskins and WALTER I'm super salty that their match is happening in Manchester and not Sheffield.


----------



## Obfuscation

Starr vs Dragunov the same night as WALTER vs Haskins :banderas

More Jordynne Grace is always a good thing. Unsure about the women's division talent pool within PROGRESS, but hey, maybe she can ascend upwards if things work out.


----------



## Donnie

Hearing that WALTER vs ZSJ was an absolute barnburner, lets find out.


----------



## Obfuscation

Expecting anything less would be the real surprise.


----------



## TD Stinger

Walter vs. ZSJ was pretty good stuff. It told the story of every ZSJ match where ZSJ uses his lankiness and his submission game to ground his larger opponent. And seeing Walter having to struggle and maneuver out of that was fun to watch. Not in PROGRESS's top matches of the year, but still good.

Glad Haskins is #1 Contender now. His promo after his win was pretty heartwarming. Don't remember the guy's name, but Trent's title defense was good mix of comedy and action. And the 3 Way tag, while a little too cute at times, was pretty fun as well.

Now if only Bate not got hurt this would have been a really good show.


----------



## TJQ

I have officially started Walter vs ZSJ, I'm ready for greatness.


----------



## ShadowSucks92

Can't help but to root for Haskins after watching this


----------



## Death Rider

Really rooting for Haskins to win even though I love Walter. I don't think he does win but if he does I will :mark:. Rest of the card I am not too interested in tbh minus seeing more of Dragunov as he was a lot of fun to watch against Dunne live


----------



## TD Stinger

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1060599122049359872
Full card for Chapter 78 this weekend.


----------



## TottiFan

That card is Fucking awesome! Speedball Mike Bailey is one of my favourite wrestlers, he’s absolutely awesome as the underdog who kill kick your face off, and Eddie Dennis is killing it as a heel now 

Dragunov is also one of my favourite wrestlers ever since he returned for 16 Carat Gold and has been having awesome matches since. David Starr is incredible when working with elite wrestlers like ZSJ and Walter, and I’d put Ilja in that category 

Lana is a decent talent from round my neck of the woods and it’s good to see her get more popular 

Devlin and Chris should be a hard hitting barn burner 

Haskins won’t win but it’s going to be awesome to see him try 

All in all, this is a bloody brilliant card


----------



## JP7

Come on Haskins!


----------



## Obfuscation

Speedball sighting. :mark:

This open challenge. Maybe it is right under my nose, but I'm unsure who's gonna answer it. Watch them make it Bate for a pop. (I know)


----------



## ShadowSucks92

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1065370400023085057
Not a fan of this card personally especially after their last Progress show and nothing feels like it could main event either.


----------



## Platt

PCO is on the country so my money is on him for the Atlas title match.

I’m just so down on Progress at the moment I haven’t even found the time to watch Wembley (or anything after it) I’m going to the next Manchester show so that may reignite my interest.


----------



## TD Stinger

Some quick thoughts from Chapter 78:

*Mike Bailey had a pretty good show against Dennis. It seems like Dennis is transitioning to being a face, which is fine because by the time the Andrews feud ended, it felt like more people wee cheering him than booing him.

*Devlin vs. Ridgeway was your typical hard strikes match and an example of doing a little too much in a match IMO.

*Seven and Gibson's promo exchange was super entertaining and made the 5 second win for Seven that much more satisfying.

*Walter vs. Haskins was really good and really had you pulling for Haskins even though you knew he wasn't going to win. But overall their styles meshed well.


----------



## Corey

First match announcement of the new year:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1080539293213487105


----------



## Obfuscation

It's gonna be a GRIND.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I've not seen any of the US tour shows, Wembley or anything beyond that. I don't really know what happened to be honest, I started falling out of love with PROGRESS and then once I missed a show or two suddenly I was literally dozens of shows behind and it seemed too daunting a task to catch myself up. Now it is a fresh year however, I am thinking about just jumping back into PROGRESS with a fresh start and resuming Chapters from here. So I am not completely lost though, can I get maybe like a top ten list from people for their favourite PROGRESS matches from the US tour through to Unboxing so I can give myself a rough idea as to where PROGRESS is at. I mean it looks like PROGRESS have been forced into a sort of hard reset anyway because of NXT UK apparently gating off talent even to them (which makes you wonder what that means for the future of PROGRESS) so I am hoping I won't be too lost.



Spoiler: review



Awkward no replies… 

I decided with Unboxing on Demand I’d just catch up on PROGRESS Chapter by Chapter. I don’t know whether there are any good matches on the German or US tours or anything that feeds into the story but I figured I could always go back once I finished the Chapters. 

I started with Hello Wembley I decided to just watch the Dragunov/Dunne match and the Main Event as I’ve already seen the Women’s and Riddle matches already and I don’t really care about anything else.

Dragunov/Dunne first: 

A weird match this. I get they wanted to protect both guys but the need to protect both guys actually hurt the match only for Dragunov to technically lose clean anyway and to quite a weak move? I dunno, the finish might have worked had the match been shorter and hadn’t had both guys kicking out of things which would end other matches, but then had they done that it might not have presented the two men quite so equally until that finish. I dunno. I guess at least it wasn’t as ludicrously overbooked as the Banks/Dunne match for the PROGRESS Title at Alexandra. Also intrigued by Dunne winning, I get that Wembley was quite a long time ago now, but I guess this must suggest that PROGRESS had no idea at this stage NXT UK would gate off guys like Dunne for the future? 

I will say that while it shows how much I’ve fallen behind on the indie wrestling curve as I’d never heard of Dragunov before this match I quite enjoyed my first taste of Dragunov. He hasn’t got the most interesting or polished moveset but his theatrical intensity and the way he uses his sinewy limbs makes him really fascinating to watch. 

Overall, it was not a horrible match but this “Battle for Europe” is unlikely to be a match I’ll particularly remember or seek out to watch again. 

The Wembley Main Event: 

Firstly. I am not usually a big fan of the PROGRESS video packages but I actually quite liked this one. Ive not seen a lot of either man on the mic and even less that was particularly good but both men came across really well here. It is a shame WALTER’s entrance was then spoiled by twats shouting Nakamura. 

In terms of the match, I love Bate, I love WALTER and I while I didn’t LOVE this match, it was very good. I feel like it went longer than needed and dragged in a few places but they still managed to tell a better story for me than in the Dunne/Dragunov match. WALTER and Bate didn’t need any ludicrous kick outs to lead them into a creative dead end of a finish to present both men as legitimate badasses. WALTER felt like the definitive Champion in the end but Bate came away looking like a hero by taking it to someone who has been protected enough to make it feel like a really big deal that Bate was able to take it to WALTER as much as he did. 

It doesn’t seem all that obvious on paper, at least to me, but I really enjoyed Bate and WALTER’s dynamic and they had great chemistry. Bate is talented beyond his years and WALTER just being a big bastard constantly trying to dominate Bate and rag him around, forcing Bate to fight from under with his supernatural feats of athleticism and strength just made this a joy to watch. 

And I thought having BSS and Thatcher at ringside was a surprisingly nice touch. They weren’t there in their ring gear to interfere in the match, they were just there in plain clothes for support. It felt genuine and having Seven and Dunne constantly in frame so perfectly capturing the emotion of every moment really added to the match.

One question though, are they trying to turn WALTER heel? Why? He was so over as a face. Are they scared of it going like Banks did?


----------



## Death Rider

Based on recent episodes he does not seem heel at all for me. I think it was just for the match him being the more heel like out of the two


----------



## Obfuscation

WALTER is basically WALTER. You can support him destroying people or not.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Moving on to Chapter 77. Apparently this card got shuffled around because Bate got injured? Weird how often this happens and impacts on PROGRESS yet never seems to impact on WWE…

I skipped to the last two matches as they were the only ones I was interested in. 

Three Way First: 

Given both the level of talent involved and the stakes for this one it was pretty rubbish. Best parts about this was Vicky’s outfit and the fact that Haskins is back in the title picture again. 

Main Event: 

Kinda random it is just on a Chapter show with no real build but I guess in some ways the atmosphere from a returning home crowd might actually be in some ways stronger than the SSE crowd. Plus I guess ZSJ vs WALTER for the PROGRESS Title is such a mouthwatering prospect it doesn’t really need build. 

When all was said and done this wasn’t a bad match but I feel like it could have benefited from being half as long. When we hit the portion where both guys were fucked and WALTER was just ragging ZSJ and hitting him with shit which would kill any normal human being but ZSJ came back for more with his wonderfully unique counters the match was pretty epic. But for a long ole time in the lead into that the match really dragged and meandered. The first half of the match felt really bitty, like it could find a rhythm and flow. I have to wonder if this match was either changed because of the Bate thing or thrown together last minute because of the Bate thing given Paz seemed to be giving both men a lot of instructions in that half. But that honestly feels inexcusable to be honest as this was the intended Main Event of their biggest show you think they'd have a masterpiece geared and ready to go.


----------



## TD Stinger

With everything going on in December and all the other wrestling shows, I basically left PROGRESS behind for the moment.

Sooner or later I'll get back in and binge watch the last few Chapter shows.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Chapter 78. 

Not a great show really but the Seven/Gibson “Atlas Title Open Challenge” was phenomenal and Starr vs. Dragunov was a five star match even without an ending. Maybe the lack of a finish would have soured the match had it been different but this was the perfect way to reintroduce Travis Banks and the perfect way to cement Starr and Dragunov as the future of this company. It is ironic that earlier they did something very similar with a Ridgeway/Devlin match and Paul Robinson yet somehow despite using effectively the same booking it just didn't work here at all. I guess we can just chalk off the Ridgeway mess as a dry run for Starr/Dragunov/Banks brilliance that came later in the show. 

Then, the Main Event: 

Firstly I just want to shout out at that video package. PROGRESS are starting to get pretty great at these. I had goosebumps watching this one. I mean the way this was all packaged, why didn't Haskins win here? The result baffles me. Especially with WALTER's NXT UK contract situation, this was the perfect opportunity to have the title change hands. I mean looking at the card for the next show Haskins goes from here to a match against Eddie Dennis? What are you doing PROGRESS?

In terms of the match itself, it took too long to really get going but once it got there WALTER and Haskins stuck a good dynamic. Haskins using his agility and technical acumen to overcome WALTER's raw power advantage. In the end though power beat speed, at least for now.


----------



## Alright_Mate

I see Progress have tweeted that Kid Lykos is injured again, that guy breaks easier than glass.


----------



## TD Stinger

Alright_Mate said:


> I see Progress have tweeted that Kid Lykos is injured again, that guy breaks easier than glass.


.....OK seriously, I was joking I said the Over/Under on his next injury was 2 months. Seriously?

Damn. Anyways, after a break I've been catching back up on Progress. On Chapter 80 now.


----------



## Pizzamorg

I am sorry but Lykos is a joke, he gets injured in every match he is in and he lets PROGRESS down with every match he does for them as a result.


----------



## Death Rider

Pizzamorg said:


> I am sorry but Lykos is a joke, he gets injured in every match he is in and he lets PROGRESS down with every match he does for them as a result.


I don't what happened to him because I don't think he used to be this bad injury wise. I think there may be a serious medical problem here


----------



## Pizzamorg

Roy Mustang said:


> I don't what happened to him because I don't think he used to be this bad injury wise. I think there may be a serious medical problem here


I think the first PROGRESS injury way back when caused the second injury because he rushed back into the ring and wasn't ready. I have to assume he either keeps making that mistake or has made that mistake enough times to cause irreparable damage to himself. Obviously it is sad when it affects someone so young, I have to wonder if he'll need to reinvent his style to a more grounded approach if he wants to keep wrestling but that would mean cutting out all of his most crowd pleasing moves which might not be much different from retiring.


----------



## Corey

Hope they don't take the belt off of WALTER immediately.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1090686215882526721


----------



## TD Stinger

Corey said:


> Hope they don't take the belt off of WALTER immediately.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1090686215882526721


I wouldn't think WALTER is a guy who has an NXT UK exclusive deal like a guy like Dunne has now. Could be wrong but I can't imagine he would have signed off for that.

Plus Ridgeway isn't someone who's too on top of the card yet to make this a scenario where WALTER could lose

Again, could be wrong but I don't see it yet.


----------



## sim8

*Progress*

Can someone please help recommend how to start with this promotion. I really want to start it but finding it difficult to just jump in. Any suggestions would be great. Cheers


----------



## TD Stinger

Got caught up on the last few Chapter shows.

The addition of Dragunov to the cards has been really good and I hope he sticks around even after signing with WWE. Starr has been really good. And so has WALTER when he's been around. His match vs. Haskins last year was really good. Eddie Dennis has also been fun to watch in this new phase where he's kind of being turned face by the crowd. Night and day difference from him and Progress and him in NXT UK.

I see they're doing this new "Do Not Resuscitate" stable of guys like Spike Trivet, Chuck Mambo, and others to go after the old guard of Progress like Haskins, Havoc, etc. Interesting idea but even if Spike can talk, you need a star as the center of the group to lead this thing. And none of these guys are what I call "stars."


----------



## Pizzamorg

Took me a few weeks to finish Chapter 79. The card was awful and I didn’t really have any motivation to watch this one. In the end I mostly just skim watched it so I could move on to hopefully a better show.

I did watch Devlin v Mandrews, Mandrews is basically the poor man’s Ospreay and unsurprisingly the Devlin/Ospreay version of this match was way better than this was. It had decent pace, some fun counter exchanges but felt overly choreographed. An issue that was also the case with the Havoc beatdown as well, which came later in the show. 

Seven’s Open Challenge was fun, it was something different in having Fletcher answer Seven’s Open Challenge, although are you seriously telling me Fletcher is twelve pounds heavier than Buddy Murphy? Get out. 

Really sad how far Haskins has fallen in like what… one show? 

Then finally the Main Event. This was the one match with any kind of intrigue on the whole show as it is the payoff to something from another show and I loved this in execution too. Starr and Banks had great chemistry hitting some awesome, slick, sequences here. Matches like this remind me why I love pro wrestling. I don’t remember Starr being such a phenomenal in ring worker but the dude can fucking go and I love heel Travis Banks in PROGRESS. This match was everything it should have been and more.


----------



## Corey

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1095036081190375425
Well, shit...


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1100839272972726275


----------



## Platt

It's about time it's was a very gimmicky belt that meant nothing outside of Riddle and Walters reigns. I just hope Trent doesn't win. If Walter is leaving or dropping the belt they better use the Eddie Dennis cash in.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Are PROGRESS planning on replacing the lost title after the unification or are they only going to run with the one men's singles title? Doesn't seem like enough to me.


----------



## SHIRLEY

RIP GOAT Atlas title


----------



## WackyWorldOWrestli

Get the feeling that Walter is going to become more and more prominent in NXT:UK, so i wouldnt; be suprised if he ends up dropping the belt to Trent Seven.


----------



## TD Stinger

Seven vs. Walter sounds fun.

But as much as I like Seven, it'll feel weird if Seven wins the Progress Championship before Tyler Bate, especially after that awesome Wembley Main event last year.


----------



## Obfuscation

Kind of comes with the territory these days for them to dissolve the midcard championship into the World, just to put a pin on the big singles matches not needing to be divided. I'd be fine with Seven as champion, but if there's nothing stopping WALTER from being on top, I'd keep that going. Although the thought of Seven vs Thatcher in a rematch for the biggest championship possible sounds GREAT.

I'd say the real coup is having Ospreay back with Robinson while on top with the tag championship. Progress having its stake firmly planted within WWE, then here's New Japan star Ospreay all in the mix. It's exactly what I want to see from a melting pot, not a monopoly.


----------



## TD Stinger

Been falling behind on my PROGRESS viewing. Plan on getting On Demand soon and binge watching the latest chapters.


----------



## LongPig666

BlackoutLAS said:


> I'm suprised of the so much little discussion about PROGRESS, I just subbed to their network and watched my first show (chapter 20) and I'm absolutely blown away. Jimmy Havoc is fucking amazing, Tommy End completely turned my opinion of him. I'm so glad this isn't like PWG which I was a little worried about.
> 
> Anyone else watch PROGRESS? If so, any recommended matches?


I was thinking of subscribing to their network. I cant remember which chapter it was but saw Sabre jr. v Tommaso Ciampa which really impressed me. 

Worth the sub yeah?


----------



## WackyWorldOWrestli

Hey friends, 
PROGRESS is a fantastic wrestling promotion; love the punk rock, underground kind of feel that the organisation has. And the wrestling is top notch.

I did a review of PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 85 on episode #5 of the Wacky World Of Wrestling Podcast! If you'd like to check the show out, please click the link below! And of course, subscribe if you enjoy my work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eUAnoYku3E

Cheers friends


----------



## Donnie

:lmao You were warned to sop shilling your shitty podcast. Enjoy the ban


----------



## TD Stinger

Got caught up on the last few PROGRESS shows. Some thoughts:

*The Swords of Essex vs. Aussie Open from Chapter 84 was a great match. Awesome tag team wrestling. And now I know there is a TLC match with these same teams coming up on Chapter 87. I can't wait for that one.

*The hardest story they continue to push in PROGRESS right now is this new Do Not Resuscitate stable that's trying to take out the old guard of PROGRESS of Haskins, Havoc, Dennis, etc. 

I like the idea of the stable. Spike Trivet is a good promo. And they have guys like Mambo to take big bumps. But this would work a lot better if they had some new young stud as the leader. Someone you could take seriously as a main eventer in PROGRESS. DNS doesn't have that. So while they can be entertaining, at times they just feel like cannon fodder for Havoc and Haskins.

*It's amazing how much more interesting Eddie Dennis is in PROGRESS than he is in NXT UK. In PROGRESS, he's still a dick but he's changed his ways enough and earned the fan's respect where he's become this interesting Anti Hero. In NXT UK he's a generic try hard heel. Again, amazing.

*WALTER vs. Ridgeway probably wasn't what they hoped it would be. I think Ridgeway's still a little too one note and needs more time to be taken seriously in that role.

*But WALTER vs. Seven for both belts? Now that's an interesting one. It's still weird for me to see Seven get this spot before a guy like Bate but obviously Bate has moved on (we still need that WALTER vs. Bate rematch damn it). And with both men in NXT UK, either man could really win here.

*Devlin continues to rise up the ranks in the wrestling world. Whether in PROGRESS, OTT, NXT UK, etc. he continues to impress me more and more.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Interesting cryptic post from Ospreay on his Instagram. Dunno how to read that, whether it means PROGRESS is on the way out (which could potentially make sense with the whole NXT UK thing) or whether it means Ospreay is letting himself be locked in some kind of exclusive contract. If it is a contract thing, that surely has to spark WWE rumours, right? As far as I am aware the other guys like NJPW or AEW don't do exclusive contracts do they? I know that NJPW make their talent very expensive to promotions not facilitated with them but I haven't heard of them gating guys off.


----------



## TD Stinger

Pizzamorg said:


> Interesting cryptic post from Ospreay on his Instagram. Dunno how to read that, whether it means PROGRESS is on the way out (which could potentially make sense with the whole NXT UK thing) or whether it means Ospreay is letting himself be locked in some kind of exclusive contract. If it is a contract thing, that surely has to spark WWE rumours, right? As far as I am aware the other guys like NJPW or AEW don't do exclusive contracts do they? I know that NJPW make their talent very expensive to promotions not facilitated with them but I haven't heard of them gating guys off.




__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1112443275246477314
Is this what you meant? I don't know, this just felt like a goodbye to PROGRESS as he'll be busy with NJPW. Like how Marty Scurll did last year after their 1st Alley Palace Show. I mean the fact they even had Ospreay back at all even for a short tag run was fairly surprising.

I don't know, I don't see him in WWE for a long, long time.


----------



## Donnie

Nah, this is just Ostrich saying goodbye because he's about to be a full time BIG BOI in NJPW.


----------



## Corey

!!!


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1113524067821215747


----------



## Donnie

NXTPROGRESS is wild. Rather it was Roddy


----------



## Obfuscation

More Roddy smashing people is always the best scenario, but O'Reilly has gotten so good per every year, I welcome more from him getting shine, too.


----------



## Donnie

Oh, KOR has really grown on me since he 2016'ish. He's good fun to watch, and him getting to show his goofy side is always quality. Plus, it looks like he'll be facing PR 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1113503925574017025
I just wanted 3 Roddy singles matches to make up for the lack of TV matches over the last few months.


----------



## december_blue

They've done a SMASH vs. PROGRESS show in the past, but it's awesome that they are finally doing a standalone show in Toronto. 


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1115328548233936897


----------



## Death Rider

Finally got around to watch that TLC match from chapter 87 :banderas. So fucking good. Thank you Ospreay roud


----------



## Pizzamorg

Lykos retired?


----------



## TD Stinger

Here's the bracket for SSS16:








I guess I'll go with Devlin to win.

Also saw the ladder match between Aussie Open and Swords of Essex from the last show. Honestly I think I liked their previous normal tag match better. They put supreme effort into the ladder match, but it did go way long to the point of self indulgence and some of the bumps they took were just stupid. Not good stupid. Just stupid. How Robinson was OK after missing that 450 off the stage is beyond me.


----------



## Obfuscation

If Darby vs O'Reilly gets to happen. :banderas


----------



## TD Stinger

SSS16 Spoilers:



Spoiler: Spoiler





__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1125157385557901314

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1125540447156359173

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1125478447483113472
Walter is the Double Champ. Starr wins SSS16. And Havoc says goodbye to Progress.


----------



## Obfuscation

Spoiler: tournament



Dammit, O'Reilly vs Darby didn't get to happen. I'm gonna be MAD for a bit.

Good for Starr. WALTER was a given.


----------



## LongPig666

Phenomenal 3 day event. Got a bit misty eyed with the Jimmy Havoc bit.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Been out of the loop with PROGRESS for probably about the last year but I figured I'd watch this year's SSS16 as its PROGRESS' biggest show of the year and if I do decide to get back into PROGRESS, SSS16 is usually like the beginning of a new season for the promotion. 

This year's SSS16 bracket is a strange one, I don't really know what has happened over the last twelve or so months but there are a lot of names missing from this tournament that I think of as synonymous with PROGRESS. Still, with the talent they have there are lots of intriguing match ups but it seems PROGRESS decided to make the first round out of the least obvious combinations you could think of, rather than necessarily the most interesting combinations. I guess potentially this could mean that PROGRESS strikes some surprise brilliance but since this is a single elimination tournament, it seems a shame to miss out on some potentially mouth watering combinations in the hope that throwing two opposites together will make some magic. I mean I had a look at Cagematch and this is the worst rated SSS16 ever and it looks like PROGRESS in general has been getting some pretty meh ratings for the last year or two on there too. It is a shame as this was my favourite promotion once upon a time but I just ended up not having enough free time to keep up with it and do everything else I need to do but if the quality has dipped as hard as this show suggests and as much as the Cagematch ratings suggest then I guess I made the right choice. 

Overall in terms of the show, I was going to do a match by match breakdown but honestly I was pretty meh on everything here. There is no actual bad match on this card necessarily but it really felt like PROGRESS was banging through these at pace so very few of the matches really left any real lasting impression. 

The only match thinking back on it that really stands out is the Spencer/Starr match, partially because Starr is one of the best wrestlers anywhere today but also because I'd never heard of Spencer before and he just looked like a total mess and the next thing I see he is flying around the ring and I was just like... holy shit. 

The other of course being the O'Reilly match but that was more for the novelty of him being in a PROGRESS ring. The air guitar battle was better than the actual match. I am also glad he isn't one and done, they had quite a lot of imports go out against PROGRESS regulars here which I guess makes sense but it seems a shame to see some of these guys get nothing but a ten minute long nothing match and then vanish. Especially given commentary gave quite a lot of the losers more compelling stories than the victors. 

I hope the quarters are better. We've seen it a few times in PROGRESS but Starr and Banks usually deliver the goods. Dragunov/Lee and O'Reilly/Robinson are both intriguing prospects although not really where I expected the tournament to go. The highest rated out of the four on cagematch is the one I am least interested in, Devlin v Fletcher. Everything else other than the WALTER Seven match I'll probably skip on Day 2.


----------



## Death Rider

I would give devlin vs fletcher a watch. Still not watched day 3 due to lack of time but I found fletcher vs devlin a lot of fun


----------



## LongPig666

SSS16 2019 Tournament results:



Spoiler: Full Tournament results













WINNER = *DAVID STARR*


----------



## Pizzamorg

SSS16 2019 - Day Two. 

I skimmed through this and most of what I watched here was pretty terrible I dunno what PROGRESS are trying to go for but the style of wrestling on this show for my money was horrid. It had this weird, worst of both worlds, hybrid of Main Roster WWE mixed with indie wrestling. The result were meandering, impactless, matches that peaked way too early and then bulked themselves with finisher kick out spam meaning the eventual finish feels like a wet fart. There was also a surprising amount of sloppiness in the matches which I wouldn't expect any way but especially not from a show like this. 

I will say I actually quite enjoyed the Robinson/O'Reilly match. It could have done with some serious tightening up as some of it felt so unnecessarily meandering but there was some beautiful wrestling here, these two men just seemed to gel together so well and I enjoyed the collision of charisma here a lot. Do you think O'Reilly won here when the match so clearly seemed to be in Robinson's favour because WWE said O'Reilly could only bow out of this tournament to a person already signed with WWE? So what is the deal with Robinson, I thought he retired? And was that a teased face turn before Havoc came in? 

So did Dragunov get hurt during day one or something? First he buried Trevor Lee and then a pretty great Banks and Starr match got transformed into an overbooked clusterfuck (filled with Smallman's terrible acting) to turn day three's semi into a triple threat instead. I mean surely this couldn't have been the original plan? It is a shame too as that triple threat sounds pretty great but if it is just there to protect Dragunov without having someone written out with an injury again like last year with Bate which clearly threw a lot of plans into disarray then I am assuming the match is just gonna be smoke and mirrors and mostly carried by Banks and Starr. 

Then, finally, the main event. Weird to see Seven in this position, when I was watching religiously Seven was generally the forgotten third wheel of BSS so to see him get to be a part of arguably one of the most important matches in PROGRESS history is pretty special as Seven is fantastic. So is there an explanation as to why the Atlas title is getting unified? 

In terms of the match itself, it was weirdly booked. WALTER couldn't beat Seven cleanly, so he just turned into a little bitch and tried to screw Seven. That failed but then Seven got screwed out of the match any way because the ref couldn't see his foot on the rope. Okay? I enjoyed Seven's performance here a lot though, I wonder if him getting screwed here will pay off with him winning the title down the line or something. I hope it does. 

Well apparently Day Three is the best of all three days, I mean it wouldn't be hard after these first two days but let us see.


----------



## LongPig666

Pizzamorg said:


> SSS16 2019 - Day Two.
> 
> I skimmed through this and most of what I watched here was pretty terrible I dunno what PROGRESS are trying to go for but the style of wrestling on this show for my money was horrid. It had this weird, worst of both worlds, hybrid of Main Roster WWE mixed with indie wrestling. The result were meandering, impactless, matches that peaked way too early and then bulked themselves with finisher kick out spam meaning the eventual finish feels like a wet fart. There was also a surprising amount of sloppiness in the matches which I wouldn't expect any way but especially not from a show like this.


I didn't think is was THAT bad but you have hit home on something the "Progress" faithful are aware of, and I was going to respond with a link of a fantastic promo by someone but until you watch day 3 I cant because it may spoil it for you. And I would feel bad!!

SO WATCH DAY 3!!


----------



## Pizzamorg

LongPig666 said:


> I didn't think is was THAT bad but you have hit home on something the "Progress" faithful are aware of, and I was going to respond with a link of a fantastic promo by someone but until you watch day 3 I cant because it may spoil it for you. And I would feel bad!!
> 
> SO WATCH DAY 3!!


You talking about the promo by Starr at the end? It is certainly an intriguing inversion of PROGRESS past. We had Screw Indy Wrestling, now we have a tease of a sort of Pro Indie Wrestling takeover instead. Taking PROGRESS back from WWE, to which PROGRESS partnership with has seemed to steal some of PROGRESS magic it once had when it was once an up and coming independent promotion with nothing to lose. How this can really work now Smallman and the gang are all employed by WWE and given PROGRESS is a WWE feeder now is anyone's guess. I mean the longer time goes on the harder it is to see what PROGRESS have ever gained by partnering with WWE. Yeah they can use guys like Ohno and O'Reilly on special occasions I suppose but the amount they seem to have lost to achieve that hardly seems worth it to me. PROGRESS, the punk rock sellouts. 

Anyway, SSS16 2019 - Day Three skim through. That video package to say goodbye to Jimmy was great. 

So Dragunov/Banks/Starr was a Three Way Dance not a Triple Threat? Nice. Also seems my theory about Dragunov wasn't the case, so I dunno what the deal with this was. The match still felt like a last minute bolt job with the two falls for Starr to win coming basically back to back and not in some story explained way, just in a way that felt really rushed. I will say the match was pretty good until the finish. 

When it settled in, I'd argue Devlin and O'Reilly delivered the first genuinely great match in this tournament for my money. There was some fantastic character work and psychology in this one, these guys went to war in a match that finally felt worthy of what SSS16 has become. It is a shame, and also weird, that everything in the ring is so quiet, I do love a good thigh slap on my strikes, but there were some really great looking strike exchanges in this one even if you couldn't really hear them for that tangible sense of impact and some really slick sequences between the two as well. Really enjoyed this, a fantastic way for O'Reilly to bow out without losing anything. 

Then, finally, the final. What a final this was, too. Best friends giving it their all to win this tournament, which really made the tournament feel like it means something. The psychology and character work here was great, both guys weren't afraid of using a little vinegar in the name of winning this match. Both guys sold their arses off. The exchanges were slick, high energy and in front of red hot crowd. This really hasn't been a good collection of shows, like at all, but this Final is what this is all about.


----------



## Donnie

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1146118885944582146
:fuckyeah INJECT THIS INTO ME


----------



## Genking48

Now that's a fucking match.


----------



## Corey




----------



## TD Stinger

I’m still catching up on Progress but I did see some of Chapter 91.

Dragunov vs. Devlin, while a kick out fest, was amazing. Primate vs. Robinson and Walter vs. Kingston were fun too.


----------



## LongPig666

Corey said:


>


So farewell then "Atlas Championship". But the "Proteus Championship" sounds really interesting on the basis that the holder chooses the rules on how to defend it; it could be anything, very protean!!



TD Stinger said:


> I’m still catching up on Progress but I did see some of Chapter 91.
> Dragunov vs. Devlin, while a kick out fest, was amazing. Primate vs. Robinson and Walter vs. Kingston were fun too.


Try and check out Chapter 92: Walter v Dragunov, it’s a treat!!


----------



## Genking48

Champions choice, alright. Every title defense is a 1 on 5 handicap match where the champ gets to pick 4 teammates.

I beat the system guys.


----------



## december_blue

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1157244372683055104


----------



## LongPig666

december_blue said:


> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1157244372683055104


He''ll end up in NXT UK in a similar position as Gabe Sapolsky at "Evolve".


----------



## Obfuscation

Falling out of the loop a touch and discovering that oh you know, there's a WALTER VS EDDIE KINGSTON match hanging out there.

Priorities need to be adjusted.


----------



## Donnie

:doh when you remember you told Nasty you'd watch it, but you forget. Off to XWT I go. 

Smallman is now free and clear to get paid even more to write a show 5 people watch. Good work if you can find it.


----------



## Obfuscation

As one of those five people who watch, I hope it gets better in specific aspects.


----------



## Donnie

If your dude Stevie Boy shows up to wreak the place, I'd be watching in a heartbeat.


----------



## Obfuscation

I'm already watching NXT UK just for the ICW roster, so this is a welcomed bit of Filth Life mayhem. :yoda


----------



## NastyYaffa

Donnie said:


> :doh when you remember you told Nasty you'd watch it, but you forget. Off to XWT I go.


Hey, it's only almost as bad as completely forgetting about the match happening & only remembering it now, reading this thread :redface


----------



## LongPig666

Donnie said:


> If your dude Stevie Boy shows up to wreak the place, I'd be watching in a heartbeat.


Yeah, they could do a "Seth & Becky" thing with him and Kay Lee Ray :/


----------



## Pizzamorg

Seems like the wheels are coming off the British scene a bit. Defiant have just closed shop, I have to wonder how long PROGRESS would last without Smallman as while he turned out to be a bit of a knob and a sell out, he basically IS PROGRESS. Lots of British promotions are being turned into WWE feeder machines (even if NXT UK is awful). It seems like that British boom period from about three or four years ago has just died on its arse with no real clear reason.


----------



## TD Stinger

Sad.

Now, I know Jim doesn't have a spotless record but a PROGRESS show without Jim doing the opening promo (long winded as they may be from time to time), doing the ring announcing, interacting with other stars on the roster honestly doesn't feel like a PROGRESS show. But best of luck to him in NXT UK.

Oh and for everyone talking about Walter vs. Kingston, I mean it was solid, but you're not missing much if decide to skip it.


----------



## Platt

Pizzamorg said:


> Seems like the wheels are coming off the British scene a bit. Defiant have just closed shop, I have to wonder how long PROGRESS would last without Smallman as while he turned out to be a bit of a knob and a sell out, he basically IS PROGRESS. Lots of British promotions are being turned into WWE feeder machines (even if NXT UK is awful). It seems like that British boom period from about three or four years ago has just died on its arse with no real clear reason.


The reason is very clear it's all down to WWE.


----------



## looper007

Pizzamorg said:


> Seems like the wheels are coming off the British scene a bit. Defiant have just closed shop, I have to wonder how long PROGRESS would last without Smallman as while he turned out to be a bit of a knob and a sell out, he basically IS PROGRESS. Lots of British promotions are being turned into WWE feeder machines (even if NXT UK is awful). It seems like that British boom period from about three or four years ago has just died on its arse with *no real clear reason*.


Well it's clear to see that most of the better men and women's talent have either been signed up by WWE, NJPW, Stardom, AEW and whoever else. You can't really paint them as the bad guys as talent happily signed on with these companies. It was always going to lead to a few indies in the UK taking a hard hit, as they couldn't promise talent would be at their shows if NXT end up pulling talent from shows. 

That three of the bigger companies from UK and Irish scene are in bed with WWE and NJPW to a certain extent. ICW, OTT and Progress. As much as Pete Dunne likes to say it's "A Good thing for the UK Indie scene" but it has led to a downturn on the scene and has turned fans away.


----------



## Pizzamorg

Yeah I suppose you are right. A lot of the upstart promotions and talent they nurtured got big enough to get noticed and then they just got absorbed by the big boys and disappear. The circle of life I suppose. A bit of a shame as I am English myself and it would have been nice to see the UK keep growing but I guess it wasn't to be. Japan and America have their dominance over this form of entertainment that I guess is unshakeable.


----------



## Stetho

Well, fuck you Triple H.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

But Progress told me that WWE just want to help the UK scene


----------



## LongPig666

Pizzamorg said:


> Seems like the wheels are coming off the British scene a bit. Defiant have just closed shop, I have to wonder how long PROGRESS would last without Smallman as while he turned out to be a bit of a knob and a sell out, he basically IS PROGRESS. Lots of British promotions are being turned into WWE feeder machines (even if NXT UK is awful). It seems like that British boom period from about three or four years ago has just died on its arse with no real clear reason.


It hasn't died, it's plateu'd. There is still a market out there, with people looking at a more localised promotion. 

Only Progress and ICW are feeders aren't they?


----------



## Pizzamorg

LongPig666 said:


> It hasn't died, it's plateu'd. There is still a market out there, with people looking at a more localised promotion.
> 
> Only Progress and ICW are feeders aren't they?


The other big one is WXW which I guess is more EuroWres but that promotion utilised a lot of European talent that was important and made a big part of the UK scene and is now also gated off in WWE.


----------



## TD Stinger

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1162727387274104832

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1160596799826092032

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1166771212065923073
I've been behind on my Progress viewing but there's the card for their big Ally Palace show.

Looks like a fun show.


----------



## Platt

I'm sure the show itself will be fine but it's really not a good look for the future of progress.


----------



## Obfuscation

Progress is def the promotion WWE has seemed to put their hooks in the most when it came to the overall roster. Nearly every match has someone who is signed, so it's just kind of at that point now.

Then there's David Starr out there in the main event. Huh.


----------



## LongPig666

TD Stinger said:


> Sad.
> 
> Now, I know Jim doesn't have a spotless record but a PROGRESS show without Jim doing the opening promo (long winded as they may be from time to time), doing the ring announcing, interacting with other stars on the roster honestly doesn't feel like a PROGRESS show. But best of luck to him in NXT UK.


_I just watched Chapter 94: Cheer Up Juice_

I thought it would be weird as well, but I really enjoyed Eddie Dennis intro and segments. He carried the show really well. 

In fact I enjoyed the entire show because it didn't feel like the usual NXT UK lite. I know Banks and Grizzled Vets were there but it had a rebuild/new feel. Thanks to Paul Robinson his fantastic promo made it feel like Progress again.

Card:

Travis Banks vs Rickey Shane Page
Do Not Resuscitate vs The NIC 
Jody Threat vs Dani Luna vs Gisele Shaw vs YUU
Paul Robinson vs Lucky Kid
CCK vs South Pacific Power Trip
Shigehiro Irie vs The O.J.M.O.
Aussie Open (c) vs Grizzled Young Veterans - Tag Team Titles Match

Jim not being there is something Progress fans are going to have to get used to after Chapter 100. I look forward to it!


----------



## Obfuscation

Paul Robinson is gonna have to support a lot at this rate, and I'm all for that.


----------



## LongPig666

First glimpse of the new 'Proteus' belt.


----------



## Platt

Seemed the obvious outcome but


Spoiler: Progress



Eddie Dennis cashed in his title shot during the main event and won the Progress Championship


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Nice of Progress to make their WWE talent feel at home by emulating their booking.


----------



## Donnie

NXTPROGRESS strikes again :mj2 

I swear these idiots could shoot themselves with an empty gun, they're that fucking moronic.


----------



## HyperDan

When will Starr win the big one? I love Dennis but come on, this was the _perfect_ time for Starr to finally:
1) Beat WALTER
2) Become World Champion

I even thought after his loss at Summer Sizzler, he'd be winning at Chapter 95, but apparently not.


----------



## -Sambo Italiano-

Progress had a chance to steal the climax to the Starr vs Walter feud. Although it's a feud almost completely built up by other companies like OTT and WXW so maybe.... maybe Starr and Walter didn't want to do this in Progress.

If Walter and Starr were willing to have their feud pay off at this show and Progress didn't take it then they're just idiots. Maybe politics tieds their hands. But instead of having the blow off to europes version of Omega vs Okada they've done a corny Wrestlemania 31 knock off and I think that says everything about Progress in 2019.


----------



## NastyYaffa

One of the best indy rivalries of the last 5 years :mark:

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1180817372732674048


----------



## LongPig666

Chapter 96




Spoiler: spoiler



Young Guns vs Pretty Deadly (winners)

Paul Robinson (c) (winner) vs Travis Banks - Proteus Title Match - TK Cooper pretends to comfort Travis but attacks instead. Which we all new was going to happen anyway.

Dani Luna (winner) vs Toni Storm – Jinny dressed as Jimmy Havoc (her trainer) comes out for some reason.

TK Cooper (winner) vs Roy Johnson – Travis Banks comes out after the knockout and chases Cooper out of the arena.

Ilja Dragunov (winner) vs Cara Noir - Not sure what this was about!

Jordan Devlin and Scotty Davis (winners) (c) vs Grizzled Young Veterans - Tag Team Titles Match – Pretty sure Zack Gibson is trolling Seth Rollins and other main roster WWE or WWE itself.


Sorry for being cynical but Progress needs to focus on getting the next generation of Sabre’s, Ospreay’s, Havoc’s and Scurll’s and not focus on a bunch of WWE NXT UK journeymen. 

Nearly 60% of this card really could have gone to better up and coming or established free-lance Indy wrestlers, maybe that way they could get their edge back again. Instead we got a very, very pedestrian chapter - AGAIN.


----------



## LongPig666

*Chapter 99: With a Flake Please...*

_Primate vs Mark Andrews
Grizzled Young Veterans vs Anti Fun Police
Ilja Dragunov vs Cara Noir - 2/3 Falls
Meiko Satomura (c) vs Jinny_

Fast forwarded the NXT UK nonsensical stuff, even Zack Gibson & Satomura were underwhelming.

Three matches worth watching:



Spoiler



*Paul Robinson (c) WINNER *vs Chris Ridgeway - Proteus Title Match - These two have had two brutal encounters before but not this match. Robinson stipulated (as holder) he wanted a knock out or submission so you expected a bloodbath. Ridgeway tried mat skills to submit but Robinson didn't seem to want to go out the ring to do what he does best - hardcore. Eventually Robinson won by knocking Ridgeway out. For a Robinson match this was pretty slow paced.

Kassius Ohno vs *Timothy Thatcher WINNER* - Was expecting some strong style mat skills here. Whilst Thatcher proved this, Ohno was asleep and didn't seem to want to be there. Very slow paced with sluggish moves.

*Eddie Dennis (c) WINNER* vs David Starr - Unified World Title Match - Really good brutal match with most of it outside the ring and the usual Eddie Dennis cheating which won him the match.


----------



## LongPig666

*Chapter 100: Unboxing Live IV: A New Hope*

_No wrestlers or matches announced in advance!_

No results (they didn’t matter) in the spoiler but didn’t want to give away the card!


Spoiler



*First Contest – Inter-gender tag team*

Jerry Bakewell & Mercedez Blaze v. Cassius & Ny-OH! - Just awful!

*Second Contest – Reverse Royal Rumble*

Roy Johnson? (yep, me too) comes out and issues a rap battle challenge! Ligero, Scotty Davis, Chris Ridgeway, Anti Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr), Gene Munny & Kid Lykos. – This was pretty cringe but it’s only purpose was to bring back some of the pre-chapter 10 guys and regular guys….

…BUT then Jim Smallman suddenly announces a “Reverse Royal Rumble”, where the losers are thrown into the ring!! Then “Sexy” Travis Banks comes out and makes Sunny Kiss look like Chuck Norris J Never thought I would see Travis like this but was fun. It did get better when they all conga lined to the entrance where they all started brawling and trying to throw each other into the ring.

*Third Contest*

Kyle Fletcher v Ilja Dragunov – Decent match with varied standard moves.

*PROGRESS Unified World Championship Match – *Eddie Dennis v The OJMO – Was OK but the pace was that of two large grappling wrestlers with limited hard hitting moves, neither of these two are that. It should have been faster paced with more complex and risky moves.

Jinny comes out and does a promo on how she is the best female wrestlerzzzzzzzz

*Fourth Contest – Four Way* between Paul Robinson, Connor Mills, Mark Haskins & Cara Noir - Huge pop for Haskins and rightly so. One thing I don’t get is why Cara Noir is so popular and is seen as the future. To me he is nothing special, his entrance is dull but people love it, he doesn’t exceed in any style of wrestling and is very light weight and samey. Really don’t get him!!

*Fifth Contest*

Moustache Mountain v Dan Maloney & Rampage Brown – Crowd went mental with all wrestlers but especially a mad pop for Brown. Proper wrestling match, had everything!

*Sixth Match*

Jimmy Havoc v David Starr – Wouldn’t have been the same without Havoc for the 100th Chapter. Brutal Death match!



I will probably cancel my subscription now as Progress just hasn't been that good or coherent for a long time now. There is no edge or innovation to it and it's just like watching NXT UK (which I got bored with very early on). Shame.


----------



## KlodKol

Tommy End is certainly cool, and in general I’m a fan, if you take on a large scale


----------



## Alright_Mate

Progress has a new World Champion, I might have to subscribe now.


----------



## TD Stinger

Alright_Mate said:


> Progress has a new World Champion, I might have to subscribe now.





Spoiler: Progress



I saw on Twitter yesterday that Dennis got hurt again (God this guy is made of glass) and that freaking Cara Noir is now champion. Damn, I'm for sure checking out that show when it's out.


----------



## Alright_Mate

TD Stinger said:


> Spoiler: Progress
> 
> 
> 
> I saw on Twitter yesterday that Dennis got hurt again (God this guy is made of glass) and that freaking Cara Noir is now champion. Damn, I'm for sure checking out that show when it's out.





Spoiler



Great decision to make Cara the new Champion. Saw him back in 2017 at numerous local shows, was only a matter of time before his breakout. Great entrance, great character, great wrestler.


----------



## TD Stinger

@Alright_Mate 

Saw Cara win the title. I don’t even know much about the guy, but even I could how much of an emotional moment it was. And in this new era of Progress that could use a shot in the arm, he’s the perfect guy to give the belt to. Talented and has his own distinct look.

Gotta say though Progress as a whole needs to improve. After losing so much talent to WWE, AEW, NJPW, etc. they’re left with a lot of unproven guys. Guys who are clearly trying but don’t have the skills to help carry the show yet.


----------



## Alright_Mate

TD Stinger said:


> @Alright_Mate
> 
> Saw Cara win the title. I don’t even know much about the guy, but even I could how much of an emotional moment it was. And in this new era of Progress that could use a shot in the arm, he’s the perfect guy to give the belt to. Talented and has his own distinct look.
> 
> Gotta say though Progress as a whole needs to improve. After losing so much talent to WWE, AEW, NJPW, etc. they’re left with a lot of unproven guys. Guys who are clearly trying but don’t have the skills to help carry the show yet.


As I said the other week he just stands out above everyone else, his look, his entrance, his character, three key components that make a Wrestler interesting and he ticks every single box.

I saw him at a local Indy show in 2017, Kip Sabian was on the same card along with a number of generic guys, probably a similar boring to bunch to what Progress has now. Cara then came out and he is an instant attention grabber, his entrance is spectacular, then he Wrestled and he had by far the best match on the show.

As you say, a lot have moved on elsewhere but shining lights like Cara Noir are just about keeping the UK Indy scene alive.


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