BRM Reviews PROGRESS Chapter 97: Sex Robots Will Eventually Be Capable of Murder (awesome!)

[Big Red Machine]

PROGRESS Chapter 97: Sex Robots Will Eventually Be Capable of Murder (10/27/2019)- London, UK


CONNOR MILLS vs. MARK ANDREWS (w/Eddie Dennis)- 7/10
An EXCELLENT ten-minute opener. The fans got 100% behind the young babyface Mills and were all over Andrews and Dennis for their big heel turn at Chapter 95: Still Chasing. Mills put up a great fight and actually got a visual pinfall on Andrews but Dennis had the referee distracted. Mills going over to help the referee deal with Dennis eventually allowed Andrews to win with a low blow and a roll-up, thus snapping Andrews’ big losing streak (he had lost nine straight singles matches) and justifying his heel turn even more in his own mind, but letting all of us know that Mills really had the match won, and the ability to beat a guy like Mark Andrews means that Mills is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- very good
Dennis is actually Mills’ trainer, and ordered Mills to show Andrews respect and shake his hand. Mills refused so he got beaten down. The OJMO, who is part of the Destination: Everywhere stable with Mills on the indies (and reminded us of that by wearing that shirt) came out to make the save but was beaten down as well. David Starr then came out to make the real save and cut a promo claiming that Dennis “can’t wrestle because your owners tell you that you can’t.” This obviously got a big gasp, but Dennis did wrestle on the last show, so I’m not really sure how true that is.
Starr took exception to a comment that Dennis made during his victory speech about people who only showed up in PROGRESS after things got good, which Starr took as a shot at him. He cut a great promo saying that people only seem to talk sh*t about him when he’s not here, and demanding a title match (as well as taking the expected shots about WWE trying to kill the indies). Dennis demanded that Starr earn a title shot like everyone else has to. He proposes a #1 contendership match in tonight’s main event pitting David Starr against… The OJMO, who Starr has put over on the mic relatively often here in PROGRESS and who the announcers tell us has been mentored by Starr. I get how we’re supposed to think that there is intrigue here, but unless one of these guys cheats (which I guess they could have The OJMO do to turn heel), I don’t see why they can’t just be normal people and have a clean match and stay friends afterwards.

JORDAN BREAKS & SID SCALA vs. PRETTY DEADLY (Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker)- 7/10
Great underdog babyfaces vs. mean heels match.

ILJA DRAGUNOV vs. CARA NOIR- 8.5/10
They had a face-off and crowd chanted for them to kiss. Because I guess that’s what these fans want to see in a wrestling match. Kissing, not fighting. How did it come to this?
A few of their spots (and one sequence in particular) got too cutesy for my tastes and made this feel more like a performance than sporting contest, but holy sh*t was this AWESOME. These guys have fantastic chemistry in the ring and their personalities and styles both work together so well. Throw in some nice callbacks to their first match, some very clever spots, and a FANTASTIC finish, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a match!

DO NOT RESUSCITATE (Danny Duggan & Chuck Mambo) vs. THE NIC (Oison Delaney & Charlie Carter)- no rating, meh segment
Spike Trivet showed up on the screen and announced that he’d hired some help for DNR tonight, which turned out to be Pretty Deadly. Pretty Deadly and DNR beat up the NIC, who are also part of Destination: Everywhere with Connor Mills & The OJMO. I’m not sure why Mills and OJMO didn’t come out to make the save here.

PROGRESS WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Meiko Satomura(c) vs. Dani Luna- 6.75/10
A good showing from Luna. I would have liked to see these two get more than ten minutes, though.

“ROBBO’S RULES MATCH FOR THE PROGRESS PROTEUS TITLE: Paul Robinson(c) vs. William Eaver- 8/10
After telling us that the Proteus Champion can’t modify the rules for his title reign once he has picked them, they now tell us about a new rule that Robinson made. It’s possible that they mentioned it on the last show and I missed it, but I don’t think so. Anyway, “Robbo’s rules” are that the match can only end via submission or knockout… or via a DQ for using the title belt as a weapon. I think that’s a nice way to show how much Robinson respects the title (his first singles title in PROGRESS).
All of DNR came out with Eaver, but he sent them to the back, promising them that he’d get the win on his own. Mambo would eventually come out to try to help Eaver but Robinson retained the title anyway. This was an absolutely BRUTAL fight.

PROGRESS UNIFIED WORLD TITLE #1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH: The OJMO vs. David Starr- 8.75/10
So yeah… this was pretty f*cking good. This was a fantastic wrestling match that turned into a crazy battle of wills, with both men refusing to stay down no matter what punishment they took. The last few minutes in particular was absolutely insane.

An awesome show from PROGRESS, with great wrestling up and down the card. PROGRESS is really rebounding well from the disappointment that was Chapter 95: Still Chasing.