PROGRESS Chapter 45: Galvanize
Jim Smallman - Business as usual, no important news. DON'T BE A DICK!
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
Holy Shit, this is the opener!? British Strong Style are debuting their new song, it's not bad, but it's not 'Love is Blindness", so it begins. Only British Strong Style could make SPPT a babyface team. This is a title match long time coming, SPPT has been waiting for 4 months for their title shot. Travis and a little British 14 yr-old start the match. TK Cooper took a piledriver early in the match that led him to be the babyface in peril for a long while, he took tons of ugly chops that the crowd started chanting his name. Banks had then a great hot tag. Not exactly near falls, but there were spots where you thought SPPT could had taken the titles. It was really heartbreaking to see SPPT lose their shot. There was what it looked like a miscalculated 450 that may have hit Bate on the head, knee first, but he didn't look injured or anything. Man, that was barely the opener.
Post-match - Jimmy Havoc comes out and decimates Seven and Bate with a chair, making sure they won't be good by the main event.
Ligero is celebrating St. Patrick's for this match, his entrance attire, you'd had to see it, the best thing is that he came out with an old Irish drinking song, that is STILL called Whisky in the Jar! So I guess Ligero is wresting drunk tonight. Ligero is awesome, but the more you watch Cruz and Gibson have to put up with the Banter Edition of the Origin, you kinda start feeling bad for them. At one point Ligero revealed he was wearing the mask of Generico (RIP), desecrating the memory of our favorite generic luchador. As you can imagine, it was 70% comedy, the rest wrestling, which was good, but it was too late and it was mostly Ligero on the offense. Nathan Cruz came out wearing a Ligero mask, the distraction was enough for Gibson to take out Ligero and pin him for the one-two-three.
Hopefully Drake can dislocate Sexsmith's jaw like he did with Moses last show. Match was surprisingly good, it was a lot of Drake just kicking Sexsmith's ass (which I enjoyed), then Sexsmith made a great underdog comeback. Eventually that stupid condom came out and I remembered why I hate this guy, but at least the wrestling was great. They did play out like Drake's forearm broke Sexsmith's jaw too, which was followed by the Head and Shoulders DDT for the win.
Jean-wearing, smug-face and pissed off EVIL OSPREAY! This was straight up babyface flier vs heel strong style flier. I've seen these two fight several times, but this had to be my favorite, Evil Ospreay brings a whole new thing to the table, it's stops being a flippy shit exhibition, and it becomes a fight. Mid-match, the top rope got loose after some hard running, after this, Andrews and Ospreay kept doing high spots and every time they did, the concern to not see someone die tonight was high. Andrews needed to win here if he is next to challenge for the title, but Ospreay losing his first match since turning heel and turning around that loss streak from 2016, seems like a bad move, makes turning heel pointless if you're still losing.
Post-Match - Jimmy Havoc comes out and also decimates Ospreay. Another guy he takes out to avoid problems during the main event. I'm liking this little touch.
Huge pop tonight for Ringkampf, surely won the fans last time. Hunter Brothers should be the new name of Bate and Seven, little Papa Hunter's favorites, even if these ones are keeping the Indie Ruthless Aggression Era alive. This match was really booked the wrong way, you have Ringkampf, who the fans definitely want to chant for, doing heel spots and putting down the super underdog high flyer Hunter brothers, so we see babyface fire, and the pop doesn't come out like when WALTER destroys some dudes. I think this should had been either Ringkampf vs either a less spotty team, or straight up, a super babyface team like F.S.U.
This match we're being told was a request by both men because they wanted to 'test each other,' which probably means that Webster is now gone from the main event stories. 'Match was competitive until Nathan 're-injured' Webster's arm/shoulder and the focused on it. The latter part of the match was great, after Webster made his comeback, it got competitive again, but with a bit better selling now, great near falls including a codebreaker from the top rope that looked sick. I don't remember Webster being so good before his injury.
Post-Match - Nathan Cruz 're-injures' Webster, or tries, he doesn't look that injured.
Natural Progression Series IV Semi Finals
Nice to see the women get the semi main event of the show, these two can definitely pull it off, but I gotta say, I totally saw these two at the finals. It's incredible how Jinny is, I just see her and wouldn't imagine she's as good, you look at her attire and you wouldn't imagine the hurricanrana master stiff brawler hidden within. I loved this match, these two went out there to kill each other, Nixon took some of the most sick looking shots from the night. It's really heartbreaking that one of them had to lose.
PROGRESS Championship No DQs Match
Pete Dunne attacked Havoc while he was doing his entrance and started brawling in the top of the stage. The brawl continued all over the O2 Ritz, I don't think they wrestled inside the ring until the 10-15 minute mark, and even then, they just got in there to hit each other with stuff. Among them, there was a staple gun and it got really sick, it didn't look worked and Havoc got his ear stapled against his head. Wait...this match just outdid itself, Jimmy Havoc brought a picture and gave Dunne paper cuts in between the fingers, proceeded to pour whisky on them. And now Dunne is getting his dick stapled and now this is a Taipei Death match, what the fuck is wrong with these two!? All of this is normal for Havoc, but mad props to Dunne, I had never seen him get this hardcore.
Will Ospreay came out and distracted Havoc, which didn't actually result in any dirty finishes or clear pins initially, Havoc actually had some good near falls. At the end, Ospreay did break up a pin, which was followed by Dunne finishing up Havoc. There was a nice nod between Dunne and Ospreay at the end.
Post-Match - Ospreay hits Havoc with a Rainmaker of his own, destroys Havoc.
Up and down show, started really strong (style), then we had some not so good matches, but the second part of the show really turned it around. If this was the blowout of Havoc vs Dunne, it was definitely worthy. Unfortunate that SPPT and Newell didn't get their wins tonight, but I can't blame it either giving the win to BSS and Jinny, they're heel heat machines. Now that this show is in the can, Dunne vs Andrews, Ospreay vs Havoc, and Origin vs Origin is in the plate.
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
South Pacific Power Trip w/Dahlia Black vs British Strong Style (C) - 8.5/10
Holy Shit, this is the opener!? British Strong Style are debuting their new song, it's not bad, but it's not 'Love is Blindness", so it begins. Only British Strong Style could make SPPT a babyface team. This is a title match long time coming, SPPT has been waiting for 4 months for their title shot. Travis and a little British 14 yr-old start the match. TK Cooper took a piledriver early in the match that led him to be the babyface in peril for a long while, he took tons of ugly chops that the crowd started chanting his name. Banks had then a great hot tag. Not exactly near falls, but there were spots where you thought SPPT could had taken the titles. It was really heartbreaking to see SPPT lose their shot. There was what it looked like a miscalculated 450 that may have hit Bate on the head, knee first, but he didn't look injured or anything. Man, that was barely the opener.
Post-match - Jimmy Havoc comes out and decimates Seven and Bate with a chair, making sure they won't be good by the main event.
Zack Gibson vs "Drunken" El Ligero - 6/10
Ligero is celebrating St. Patrick's for this match, his entrance attire, you'd had to see it, the best thing is that he came out with an old Irish drinking song, that is STILL called Whisky in the Jar! So I guess Ligero is wresting drunk tonight. Ligero is awesome, but the more you watch Cruz and Gibson have to put up with the Banter Edition of the Origin, you kinda start feeling bad for them. At one point Ligero revealed he was wearing the mask of Generico (RIP), desecrating the memory of our favorite generic luchador. As you can imagine, it was 70% comedy, the rest wrestling, which was good, but it was too late and it was mostly Ligero on the offense. Nathan Cruz came out wearing a Ligero mask, the distraction was enough for Gibson to take out Ligero and pin him for the one-two-three.
James Drake vs Jack Sexsmith - 6.5/10
Hopefully Drake can dislocate Sexsmith's jaw like he did with Moses last show. Match was surprisingly good, it was a lot of Drake just kicking Sexsmith's ass (which I enjoyed), then Sexsmith made a great underdog comeback. Eventually that stupid condom came out and I remembered why I hate this guy, but at least the wrestling was great. They did play out like Drake's forearm broke Sexsmith's jaw too, which was followed by the Head and Shoulders DDT for the win.
"The Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay vs Mark Andrews - 7.5/10
Jean-wearing, smug-face and pissed off EVIL OSPREAY! This was straight up babyface flier vs heel strong style flier. I've seen these two fight several times, but this had to be my favorite, Evil Ospreay brings a whole new thing to the table, it's stops being a flippy shit exhibition, and it becomes a fight. Mid-match, the top rope got loose after some hard running, after this, Andrews and Ospreay kept doing high spots and every time they did, the concern to not see someone die tonight was high. Andrews needed to win here if he is next to challenge for the title, but Ospreay losing his first match since turning heel and turning around that loss streak from 2016, seems like a bad move, makes turning heel pointless if you're still losing.
Post-Match - Jimmy Havoc comes out and also decimates Ospreay. Another guy he takes out to avoid problems during the main event. I'm liking this little touch.
Ringkampf vs The Hunter Brothers - 7/10
Huge pop tonight for Ringkampf, surely won the fans last time. Hunter Brothers should be the new name of Bate and Seven, little Papa Hunter's favorites, even if these ones are keeping the Indie Ruthless Aggression Era alive. This match was really booked the wrong way, you have Ringkampf, who the fans definitely want to chant for, doing heel spots and putting down the super underdog high flyer Hunter brothers, so we see babyface fire, and the pop doesn't come out like when WALTER destroys some dudes. I think this should had been either Ringkampf vs either a less spotty team, or straight up, a super babyface team like F.S.U.
Nathan Cruz vs "Flash" Morgan Webster - 8/10
This match we're being told was a request by both men because they wanted to 'test each other,' which probably means that Webster is now gone from the main event stories. 'Match was competitive until Nathan 're-injured' Webster's arm/shoulder and the focused on it. The latter part of the match was great, after Webster made his comeback, it got competitive again, but with a bit better selling now, great near falls including a codebreaker from the top rope that looked sick. I don't remember Webster being so good before his injury.
Post-Match - Nathan Cruz 're-injures' Webster, or tries, he doesn't look that injured.
Natural Progression Series IV Semi Finals
Jinny vs Nixon Newell - 8.5/10
Nice to see the women get the semi main event of the show, these two can definitely pull it off, but I gotta say, I totally saw these two at the finals. It's incredible how Jinny is, I just see her and wouldn't imagine she's as good, you look at her attire and you wouldn't imagine the hurricanrana master stiff brawler hidden within. I loved this match, these two went out there to kill each other, Nixon took some of the most sick looking shots from the night. It's really heartbreaking that one of them had to lose.
PROGRESS Championship No DQs Match
Jimmy Havoc vs Pete Dunne (C) - 9/10
Pete Dunne attacked Havoc while he was doing his entrance and started brawling in the top of the stage. The brawl continued all over the O2 Ritz, I don't think they wrestled inside the ring until the 10-15 minute mark, and even then, they just got in there to hit each other with stuff. Among them, there was a staple gun and it got really sick, it didn't look worked and Havoc got his ear stapled against his head. Wait...this match just outdid itself, Jimmy Havoc brought a picture and gave Dunne paper cuts in between the fingers, proceeded to pour whisky on them. And now Dunne is getting his dick stapled and now this is a Taipei Death match, what the fuck is wrong with these two!? All of this is normal for Havoc, but mad props to Dunne, I had never seen him get this hardcore.
Will Ospreay came out and distracted Havoc, which didn't actually result in any dirty finishes or clear pins initially, Havoc actually had some good near falls. At the end, Ospreay did break up a pin, which was followed by Dunne finishing up Havoc. There was a nice nod between Dunne and Ospreay at the end.
Post-Match - Ospreay hits Havoc with a Rainmaker of his own, destroys Havoc.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Up and down show, started really strong (style), then we had some not so good matches, but the second part of the show really turned it around. If this was the blowout of Havoc vs Dunne, it was definitely worthy. Unfortunate that SPPT and Newell didn't get their wins tonight, but I can't blame it either giving the win to BSS and Jinny, they're heel heat machines. Now that this show is in the can, Dunne vs Andrews, Ospreay vs Havoc, and Origin vs Origin is in the plate.