PROGRESS Chapter 49: Super Strong Style 16, Day 2

PROGRESS Chapter 49: Super Strong Style 16, Day 2PROGRESS Chapter 49: Super Strong Style 16, Day 2

By GARZA
From May 28, 2017
Discussion

We got a recap video from last night's matches. I take it tonight's card will be a bit of unboxing since they couldn't just announce the losers beforehand.

Jim Smallman Intro - Day 2: Tired. This was long, but hey, DON'T BE A DICK!

London Riots vs Mark Andrews & 'Flash' Morgan Webster - 7/10


Small guy team that move really fast vs big lad tag team that also moves really quick. Both are faces, so we skipped all the babyface in peril stuff and after a little bit of one-on-one wrestling, they went straight for the chaotic part of the match. Rob Lynch seems to have injured himself. Andrews and Webster take the win after a setup from Webster into Andrews' SSP.

SSS16 Quarter Final
Mark Haskins vs Tyler Bate - 8.5/10


Awesome match between a strong cocky heel and...well, Mark Haskins. They mostly worked each other's legs and most of the match was submission work, no flying, no brawling on the outside. There were some great near falls where both men would had believably won at any point. At one point Haskins had the match almost won, but Dunne pulled the ref. Havoc (who was on commentary) confronted him, but among the chaos, Seven slipped in from behind, took out Haskins, and Bate covered him. The match was going so good that Bate could had won clean and no one would have mattered.

SSS16 Quarter Final
Zack Sabre Jr vs Jack Sexsmith - 2/10


Sexsmith makes his entrance and reveals that he was an injured left arm from last night's match, he is all bandaged up, are they trying to turn Sabre heel? or do they honestly need an excuse for Sexsmith to lose to Sabre? Sexsmith goes for the cheap swerve saying he is not cleared to wrestle, but he's doing anything. It took like 5 minutes for Zack to make Sexsmith tap out and it was a half-crab. If this would had been a full match, it would had quickly gone into the negative numbers just for how insulting would had been to make Sabre sell to a one arm Sexsmith. I honestly hope the injury was legit to warrant booking this shit.

SSS16 Quarter Final
"Mr. Athletic" Jeff Cobb vs "King of Bros" Matt Riddle - 9.5/10


Fucking hell this match was awesome! It was like those matches when two tag partners want to one up each other without the match becoming a heel/face dynamic. We had what it felt like 10 minutes of shoot wrestling, then the slapping started, then they started to throw each other around. Second half of the match was mostly Riddle dominating, but whatever he did, he couldn't put Cobb down, no the Bro to Sleep, not the Tombstone, not the Fisherman Suplex, nothing! As Riddle is starting to lose his mind, he finally manages to put Cobb down with the same knee that got him this far. This match you gotta see. They were 1-1 in EVOLVE at this point, but this match was better than both those matches in my opinion.

SSS16 Quarter Final
Travis Banks vs Flamita - 8.5/10


It speaks wonders from Flamita that one day he worked a high flyer match, and the next he's working a strong style match. They had a good match, they didn't do much other than kick and elbow each other, which tends to happen when there's a slight language barrier or not enough time to plan. Towards the end of the match, even though you know in the back of your head that this HAD to be Bank's win, there were some near falls, Flamita got waay close to that win.

David Starr & Pastor William Eaver vs British Strong Style - 8/10


Eaver was billed as 'The King of the Jews", "King of Jew Style", among others. I really hope Starr doesn't betray the Pastor at the end, leaving him to be sacrificed. Everyone is chanting 'six' at BSS for Trent's loss last night, the match that lasted 6 seconds, consequentially, Smallman introduced him by his new name Trent Six. This match took forever to start, and when it did, it almost took 5 seconds to end if it wasn't for Dunne.

Match had a lot of comedy at first, all involving Seven, but then Dunne got in and things got serious and kinda disturbing just how Eaver was getting his ass kicked. Match quickly went into chaos, where Dunne and Starr got the most offense of the four. Tons of 6 repetition spots, as in 6 tags, 6 suicide dives, etc. Finish saw Seven destroy Starr for the pin after Dunne had killed the Pastor.

I felt a bit of dissension between Dunne and Seven, so if Bate wins tomorrow, you can bet your ass BSS is imploding.

Natural Progression Series IV Finals
PROGRESS Women's Championship Match
Jinny vs Toni Storm vs Laura Di Matteo - 9/10


This is literally months in the making, it does kinda feel like a big deal by now. We have Toni Storm that is the strongest of the three, Di Matteo the most agil, and Jinny the smarters, in a Ric Flair smarts kinda of way. Story of the match is that Di Matteo and Jinny are fixated with each other, and here comes Toni Storm beating both their ass when they forget this is a three way.

Match was all over the place, they brawled around the crowd, they brawled at the entrance ramp. There were a LOT of pin stealing spots and pin reversal spots, at the very start of the match, one of those pin attempts was botched by Storm who didn't get there fast enough and the ref kinda stopped and Di Matteo had to improvise a quick reversal of her own. Storm hit her piledriver on each woman at least twice by the end of the bout, Storm herself however, took Jinny's facebuster and was locked in Di Matteo's submission for a while. Finish saw Storm hit a piledriver one last time on Jinny for the win.

OVERALL THOUGHTS


I feel like the quality per match was better last night, especially because tonight we had stuff like the Sexsmith fiasco and London Riots in nothing matches, yet overall, this show felt a lot more important because of the quarter final match ups and the first PROGRESS women being crowned, and regardless, almost every match tonight was awesome, making it a must watch show. Tomorrow we're getting Banks vs Sabre and Riddle vs Bate in tournament matches. Bate vs Banks being the most logical final in my opinion, but also the most dangerous, because I'll die if Bate wins the whole thing. Enough BSS already!

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