Progress Chapter 29: Practically Progress in Every Way is in some ways the biggest show they’ve ever put on. With two matches being shown on WWE.com as part of their Global Cruiserweight Tournament this show in part will be their most watched, bringing in a host of new fans to potentially go on and watch the entire show, some of whom may never have watched Independent Wrestling before. So in many ways I was like a nervous parent with this show, hoping it did everything in its power to appear good, and defy any stereotype a new fan might have in their mind about indie wrestling, that the production values are bad, the crowds are non-existent and the venues shitty. Tonight had to be the night.

The Electric Ballroom wouldn’t disappoint though, well lit and packed with a sold out very vocal audience when owner Jim Smallman came out to greet them, with mic very clear and crisp in contrast to the last show. Everything looked good and respectable, comparable with the intimacy of the NXT set up.

Jim hyped the crowd up with the promise of a good show and a request that everyone not be dicks. British crowds are regularly nominated for best wrestling crowds, along with the NXT audiences and PWG crowds, but this show highlighted something special. Jim was very nervous about having to ask the crowds not to swear during the Cruiserweight Qualifying matches and another audience might have sworn out of spite. The crowd however were more then happy to play along, continuing to be loud, creative and involved throughout the two WWE matches, but prepared to also show this consideration to help the product. It was a mark of the London wrestling communities superiority in my mind.

Mark Haskins would also come out during the opening speech, not booked but eager to remind people his desire to become Progress Wrestling Champion. He requested to be entered into Progress’ big tournament, the String Style 16 next month and Jim obliged without hesitation. Haskins has been a Progress stand out for nearly 2 years, coming back from injury with a new MMA influenced style mixed with standard Cruiserweight athleticism. However having lost three title shots it’s starting to kill his momentum and give him a bad reputation as the Arsenal of Progress, always a high ranking wrestler, but never an actual champion. If they are planning on giving him the title it needs to be soon.

Michael Dante vs. Damo O’Connor (Atlas Championship Tournament)

I still have misgivings about this Atlas championship, mostly cause that to qualify you have to be over 205lbs, which feels like too light, and can see a wrestler be a Heavyweight in Progress and a Cruiserweight in another company like TNA. But with the name Atlas, Progress is doing similar with what TNA did with the X-Division, making it more about wrestling styles then wrestling weight limits, and Dante and Damo are certainly heavyweights, weighing in at 231lbs and 295lbs respectively.

The match starts with a stiff exchange of forearms and shoulder tackles which can’t get each other down. Damo finally breaks the stalemate with a good dropkick for a big man, because an unwritten rule of the tournament is the big guys also have to be deceptively athletic, as such, Dante kips up to continue the fight. They brawl to the outside where they toss each other into the always cooperative crowd and eventually Dante gets tossed into the ring post. Back in the ring Damo is in control and looks like a monster with some big power moves on Dante, nearly ending the match with a big power-bomb and elbow drop combo. Damo has potential to be the next top giant of wrestling. Damo tries twice for an electric chair drop to finish, the second time Dante struggling free and hitting a sloppy looking full nelson suplex, to be expected with a man as big as Damo. Dante is able to finish the match by spearing Damo in the corner and then once again in the centre of the ring and get 2 points, putting him the lead of his table for the Atlas qualifying stages, and making it very difficult now for Damo to advance.

This was Dante’s first singles match since the Sumerian Death Squad broke up in Progress and I think most thought of him as the lesser member compared to Tommy End, certainly lacking Tommy’s kickboxing background and greater athleticism. At one point I even though Dante looked nervous at the prospect of a singles match without the Tommy End connection, though as the match progressed it became clear his default expression seems to be one of moderate concern. He didn’t exactly look like a truly great single star in this short match, but big men often don’t work their best matches against each other and Dante still looked credible, though I’d say Damo looked better. 6/10, average match but damn I was impressed by that kip up from Dante.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Flash Morgan Webster (WWE Global Cruiserweight Tournament Qualifying Match)

The next two matches were the cruiserweight qualifying matches. All the men seemed to tone down their move-set a little, perhaps wary they couldn’t go all out to unfamiliar audiences who haven’t seen enough of them to accept no-selling or finisher kick outs. In both cases the losers also seemed to get a better showing, showing off larger move-sets and talent, but this may have also been intentional on the wrestlers parts to give the losers the benefit of the match, the winners already getting matches in the WWE to further show off their fullest potential.

Zack Sabre Jr. against Flash Morgan Webster went first. Initial grapples ended in a stalemate but Sabre definitely showed off his fluid and fast transitioning between holds with Wesbster also no slouch. Sabre Jr. eventually got the advantage and stretched out Webster into some painful look holds, bending his arms awkwardly by the fingers, forcing him into a boston crab while he applied a head-scissors, and straight jacket against his knee which Morgan finally got out of with an arm drag which he repeated after that to success and hit one of his creaivly name signatures, the Special Brew, a backwards flipping senton. Webster has a creative flair and his gimmick of wrestling mod is legit. Webster would mount another comeback shortly afterwards with a crossbody, then get Sabre Jr. to the outside and hit a trifecta of dives, two suicide dives and a somersault plancha. Sabe Jr. would catch Morgan mid-running shooting star press into an arm triangle hold but Webster would save himself by turning it into a pinning predicament. As the match reached its climax, a tired Webster who played the uphill struggling babyface well, would hit a Death Valley Driver to his knee on Sabre Jr. and go up top for the 450 splash finish. Sabre Jr. got his knees up however and then followed up with a penalty kick to a prone Webster. Even though Webster was able to kick out at two, Sabre moved the kicking out Webster into a seated position for his finishing hold, sitting across the neck of Webster whilst grabbing both arms and pulling back on them, forcing a verbal submission. Sabre continues to have the most painful looking submissions in wrestling. Webster looked good in the match but ultimately Sabre appeared the veteran technician, not exactly a cruiserweight bar one drop-kick, but certainly someone who could use their lightweight and flexibility to provide some creative submission wrestling. The match was a solid 7/10.

Jake Gallagher vs. Pete Dunne (WWE Global Cruiserweight Tournament Qualifying Match)

Next up was The Extraordinary Gentleman Jake Gallagher against The Bruiserweight Pete Dunne, the second cruiserweight match and the one that the audience struggled most not to swear over, Pete Dunne a much disliked heel. “Top knot wanker” became “top knot loser” and “Shit hair no fans”, became “Bad Hair no fans”, as well as “We don’t like you.”. Gallagher wrestles an old school World of Sports grappling style so for the majority of the match didn’t do much conventional offence, grappling Dunne into holds or escaping out of Dunne’s holds, once with a headstand to the chants of “Easy!” from the crowd. Dunne was billed at 204lbs at the start of the match to an incredulous crowd and it showed, powering out of Gallagher’s holds to hit several power moves, such as a butterfly suplex and power-bomb. Mid-match Dunne would slow things down with some holds including a leg lock, taunting the crowd until Gallagher made the comeback with a series of dropkicks. I’ve already said on Twitter this was my favourite match of the night because in other matches I could guess the finish, this one I had no idea, neither wrestlers obviously the type WWE would want for the tournament, or succeeding enough in Progress to appear a favourite. The match therefore featured some perfect false finishes, the first when after being bitten on the hand by Dunne, Gallagher couldn’t properly apply his Boston-Crab finisher, seemingly setting up a defeat for him where he still looked credible. When Dunne shortly after rolled up Gallagher with his feet on the ropes the referee would wait until the last possible moment before noticing to a massive cheer from a relieved crowd. Finally at the end Dunne would push the referee in the way to halt Gallagher, then go for a kick to the groin as the ref moved out of the way, not looking at the match. Gallagher would catch the kick however and turn it into a leg lock which forced Dunne to submit to a rapturous crowd.

This wasn’t the best match of the night but the rollercoaster of emotions it forced just down to booking decisions made it my favourite for the experience, especially with the face win for Gallagher who will certainly bring more to the Cruiserweight Tournament then the standard flips. And with no swears being heard for the two matches the whole thing ended on a very triumphant note. 8/10 from me.

Pastor William Eaver vs. Damon Moser (Natural Progression Series Finals)

The finals of the Natural Progress Series, Progress’s tournament for up and coming wrestlers not featured prominently on the main shows, concluding with the massively over Jesus figure Pastor William Eaver and Damon Moser, a former tag team champ who’d fallen from notice in recent times. The pair started by trying to steal a quick win, going for their finishers or roll up attempts and all being stopped. The match progressed to the outside where the Pator dived onto Moser and barley missed several members of the audience with the flip. The forgivingness of the Progress crowd can never be understated with the amount of wrestlers they see tossed into their ranks and insults hurled their way by the heels. The Pastor would go for his finisher, the Clothesline from Heaven again on the outside but hit the ring post and Moser would leap from the apron with a diving knee, the Pastor making it back at a count of 9.9999999, then immediately take Moser’s finisher the knee trembler for a 2.9 count. The Pastor would finally hit his Clothesline when Moser went for another running knee strike but the injured arm slowed him in getting the cover and Moser rolls his should up un-emphatically before the 3 count. The pair exchanged some blows which will always look nice when two long haired wrestlers do it and the back and forth nature of the match continued when the Pastor hit a crucifix power-bomb and Moser reversed the pin before 3, forcing the Pastor to kick out. Moser hit a blue-thunderbomb and was looking to end it, taunting by yelling out “Rise Pastor rise” as the crowd had been chanting, but the Pastor would ride the momentum of the knee strike to spin around and hit his own Clothesline from Heaven to win the match.

Afterwards the Pastor spoke on the mic for the first time for me at least to reveal he sounded nothing like I’d envisaged, a very cockney manic voice that wasn’t afraid to swear or even use wrestling terms like gimmick. It was kind of surprising but Pastors come in all shapes and sizes I suppose and the crowd were digging it. The speech ended with him saying he would use his prized title shot when He willed it, alluding to either God, or more likely given this is wrestling, some higher power.

Both wrestlers are far from the best on the roster but they knew each other well which led to a simple but effective back and forth match. Once again neither was an obvious pick so there was tension, especially with multiple finisher kick outs, and the most over wrestler in the Pastor winning is always helpful with a match, so I’d say 6.5 out of 10.

Pollyanna and Jinny vs. Dahlia Black and Elizabeth

The Women of Progress have been on a roll lately, crowds are enthusiastic about them, the wrestling has been solid, storylines are present and at the top of the show Jim announced a Women’s title in the near future, it’s all looking bright.

The match is part of two feuds, firstly Pollyanna’s feud with Dahlia Black after Black’s boyfriend T.K. Copper (known affectionately to the Progress crowds as T.K. C**t) interfered to cost Pollyanna the match. At Chapter 27 TK and Black would face Pollyanna and Morgan Webster with Pollyanna and Webster coming out victorious, in this match the pair got to choose each other’s partners. Pollyanna who came out to a dub-step Game of Thrones theme got landed with enemy Jinny, while Dahlia ended up with Jinny’s former assistant Elizabeth, who attacked and left Jinny to great applause at the last chapter.

I hate Jinny. It’s totally because she’s a good heel, but I still hate her. Her arrogant fashion gimmick rubs me the wrong way, she has a bitchy stuck-up aurora about her and she’s booked very strongly, so I have to see her smug face when she wins. I hate Jinny. The match starts with Jinny arguing with Pollyanna and Dahlia kneeing Pollyanna into Jinny, then delivering a few more nice looking knee strikes in the corner. Jinny is still insistent that she ‘owns’ her former assistant Elizabeth ,and tells her not to tag in, after a pause that gets the crowd riled up wanting to see Elizabeth fight her, but the pause allows Pollyanna to hit a Suplex that allows her to tag in Jinny, and the two do a very uncooperative double team series of chops. Dahlia gets away while the two aren’t cooperating and TK returns to attack Pollyanna, only for Progress wrestler and Soho’s favourite pervert Jack Sexsmith to drive him off. A future feud seems to be set up between TK who likes to kiss Dahlia at length during his entrance and Sexsmith who likes to come to the ring with a gimp and dildo. There is potential.

The crowd erupts when Elizabeth is tagged in, though little has been seen of her wrestling, they want to see her fuck up Jinny, so do I, but to everyone’s frustration Elizabeth initially begins to lie down at Jinny’s demands. A defiant kick out at 2 though has the crowd roaring. Jinny tries a rainmaker but Elizabeth ducks it and gets the win with a backstabber on Jinny and once again the crowd finally get what they want. Fuck you Jinny! A brawl breaks out post-match between Jinny and Elizabeth and Pollyanna and Dalia to establish things are far from over, especially with a Women’s Title Tournament on the Horizon.

The women’s matches feature a lot of story moments, this one no exception, the wrestling pausing sometimes when Jinny and Elizabeth face off. The crowd love it and it just makes the actual wrestling more intense. The actual wrestling wasn’t complicated and a little short but it was solid, no one can accuse a women wrestling in Britain of doing it for the money or to further their modelling career. 6.5 out of 10, not pushing the bar wrestling wise but good story telling. Fuck you Jinny!

Joe Coffee vs. Rampage Brown (Atlas Championship Match)

Another match part of the Atlas Qualifier series. It ended in a 15 minute draw but felt longer, the two big men maybe not being ideal opponents to show off their full potential. The match began with a lengthy grappling sequence which saw some technical chain wrestling as part of the previously mentioned rule that all heavyweights in the tournament must be surprisingly agile, seen shortly after when Coffee hit a monkey flip which Rampage cartwheeled through and hit a drop kick. On the outside the two shoulder tackled each other as hard as they could and Coffee came out on top after leapfrogging a Rampage tackle and knocking him into the chairs at ringside. Progress drinking game, take a drink every time a wrestler goes into the audience. Back in the ring the pair exchanged blows including some vicious sounding chops but ultimately no one really gained the upper hand till towards the end when Coffee managed some a Boston Crab and later a giant swing. Coffee was denied victory though when his spinning lariat was dodged and Rampage landed a spinebuster, leaving the pair unable to get to their feet and the 15 minute time limit expired whilst the two exchanged on their knees. Both earn 1 point and in their group they are tied second behind Michael Dante on 2, Big Damo last with 0 points. All wrestlers have two matches left.

As I said before the match dragged at times and whilst the two did good grappling and strike exchanges, throwing their weight around whole heartedly, the whole thing felt lacking a bit. My misgivings about two heavyweight wrestling each other remains. 6/10.

The Origin (‘Liverpool’s #1’ Zack Gibson, ‘The Bastard’ Dave Mastiff, ‘Shit El Torito’ El Ligero and ‘Wank Stain’ Nathan Cruz) vs. F.S.U (TNA’s Mark Andrews and Eddie Dennis) and The London Riots (James Davis and Rob Lynch, no, I have not learned to tell them apart yet, I still struggle with the Young Bucks and it’s been over 2 years now)

The Origin are pretty much the biggest heels in the company now and get massive boos when only Ligero and Cruz come out to announce their partners couldn’t make it, but they’re willing to wrestle anyway on account of having already beaten both teams. Eddie is pissed and runs to the top of the stage to fight them, only for Mastiff to appear and blindside him with a forearm and then hit a rolling senton on the stage. Meanwhile Zack Gibson sneaked up behind to hit James Davies with his own cricket bat straight to the leg. Dennis and Davies are taken to the back turning the match to a 4-2 handicap match. Andrews takes control of the match against El Ligero, flipping out of a sunset flip attempt and landing a drop kick. The Riot/FSU pair briefly work over Ligero with frequent tags but Ligero manages to tag in Cruz who runs straight into a scoop slam from Davies. Finally the numbers game catches up with Andrews is blindsided by Ligero fighting Cruz and the 4 members of the Origin work him over, each tagging in to unique chants from the crowd, “You fat bastard” for Mastiff, “Shitty little horns” for El Ligero, “You’re a wank stain” for Cruz and a variety of Liverpool themed chants for Gibson, which given he had 96 on his trunks and the show happening just before the Hillsborough verdict, felt kind of awkward. Davies finally made the hot tag and powered through the 4 Origin members with a power slam, multiple corner charges and an exploder suplex, only for the numbers game to catch up when all 4 members struck one after the other, Ligero with a drop kick, Cruz with a back suplex, Gibson with a diving code-breaker and Dave Mastiff finishing with a German suplex. As things looked bleak, James Davies emerges from the back to be tagged in and begin another hot tag, forearming all members of the Origin again and throwing his partner out of the ring into a suicide dive, both members of the Riots would be perfect for the Atlas Tournament of deceptively agile big men. The hot tag is climaxed with a super-plex to the outside into all the other wrestlers. Eddie Dennis now re-appears and after a struggle hits Mastiff with a spinning sideslam and accidentally dives out of the ring into the Riots after the Origin move out the way. Once again the Origin hit a barrage of moves on legal man Davies, Cruz hitting a Samoa Driver with big boot-assist from Ligero, before Gibson penalty kicks Davies and Mastiff gets good height on a senton. The Origin have fine-tuned their tag teaming over the past few months to become Shield level good. When Davies kicks out at 2.5 the crowd goes wild and The Origin can’t believe it. Andrews returns to the match, ducking when the various members charge him sending them to the outside. Dennis and Andrews hit a crucifix power-bomb/head kick combination to the corner and this time dive successfully to the outside with planchas. Cruz is left on his own against The Riots and is catapulted into a spear for the three count and a big cheer from the crowds.

Having got the pin the Riots are now due a tag title shot, necessary as the only team of threat left in the tag division. With the Sumerian Death Squad broke up and the FSU having lost twice now to The Origin the whole tag division in Progress had been going stale but now there’s a new feud to pursue and probably crown new tag champs. The match got creative at the start with the ambush and the midmatch returns and a face win will always end things on a good note for a match, especially against a team as disliked as The Origin, who as I said before are becoming an excellent unit. Even if it could have gone a little longer and given the 8 wrestlers a little more time to do things, this was loads of fun, 7/10.

Marty Scurll (c) vs. Tommy End (Progress World Championship)

Jim hypes up the tiring crowd ahead of the Main Event, Marty Scurll versus Tommy End for the Progress World Title. End earned his shot after defeating Scurll in a non-title match at the previous show and the crowd were behind him 100% with Tommy Fucking End chants, though no majorly negative chants for Heel Champ Scurll, the crowd still appreciative of his work. Progress does a great job of establishing characters, just from the entrance alone End establishes himself as the morally grey warrior who dabbles in weird stuff, and Scurll as the larger than life villain figure. The match was a back and forth affair with a lot of strike exchanges, End’s kick boxing style meshing well with the physical style of Scurll, able to match End’s strikes with his own kicks and uppercuts. Scurll would also work End’s arm throughout the match to see up for the chicken wing corssface which he’s brought back into popularity with his RKO style of hitting from impressive situations. End is able to power through the submission attempts and use his own modified dragon sleeper pictured above, and also avoid Scurll’s signature finger snap. At the end of the previous match, End won when Marty loudly called for the Chicken Wing and End kicked Marty in the head before he could finish taunting, this time Scurll did a similar taunt but was ready to dodge the kick, only to run into a barrage of kicks immediately after, a call back that can now be afforded with Progress’s loyal following. End’s offence would finally be cut off when he missed a moonsault and Scurll kicked him in the face on the way down. Scurll delivered multiple superkicks but End refused to stay down, the crowd loving End’s near inhuman warrior persona, and when Scurll finally delivered his signature finger snap End would only use the pain as motivation to get into a strike exchange with Scurll, finishing with a brainbuster from End, who then followed up with his finishing diving foot stomp. The crowd were hyped as they realised End may have a shot at winning, and even as Scurll kicked out at two the atmosphere remained electric as End brought Scurll to his feet and hit the spin kick that won him the match last time, only for the lights to go out and the crowd to rise in excitement as to what was happening next. When the lights came on Mikey Whiplash would be in the ring with a chair, an ally of End’s from ICW. However when Whiplash struck Scurll with the chair causing a DQ win for him, the friendship was clearly over. After a brief brawl Whiplash left the ring to a hail of boos and shouts from commentary. Whiplash and commentary made it clear that after he pinned the then Progress Champion Jimmy Havoc in a non-title match Whiplash should have received a title-shot, however at the next show Will Ospreay would defeat Havoc to become new Champion, and go on to defend the belt against a number of other worthy contenders, leaving Whiplash lost in the shuffle. That night’s act was his personal vengeance, ruining a main event and potential title change, and earning Ends fury. “I’m gonna kill you next” End said as the show closed, making it clear he would be in the Strong Style 16 tournament at the next show along with Whiplash.

This was Scurll’s 4th successful defence, though obviously the DQ finish adds controversy, but it’s not something that has made him a paper champion, given he’s won his last 3 defences in relatively convincing fashion with minimum cheating beyond eye pokes and finger snaps. A Contender was starting to become less obvious but now End and Whiplash have decent claims as well as Pastor William Eaver following his Natural Progression win and another contender next month for whoever wins the Super Strong Style 16 tournament. Scurll appears to be settling in as Champ for the long haul, so now they’ve established him they’re adding decent controversy with the DQ loss to increase his heat, and creating a number of contenders to establish themselves so it’s going to be something to wait and see scenario for now, not a bad thing considering the talent of the players involved in the waiting game.

In Conclusion I want to give this one a 7.5 out of 10. I enjoyed the show a little more than the last NJPW show due to the matches being more consistent both in terms of quality and match importance, though also the British nature of the show also helps for me personally. No match was bad though no match was a real 5 star stand-out or offered a big meaningful moment, the matches existed to create or develop stories but while Progress is still being made that’s always good, and the solid production values and good crowd always make moments which may have been just okay at the least, a very enjoyable experience. Progress is continuing to go from strength to strength, WWE’s involvement one example today but also the continued use of various types of wrestlers who go all out to please the crowd and try and bring new things to the table, be it new moves or audience interactions or character developments, which in the end is always the makings of a good show. Progress continues to be a pace setter for all British wrestling and Independent wrestling as a whole, as well as proof that independent wrestling can tell stories as detailed as those in the WWE.