PROGRESS: New York City
Jim Smallman Intro - Sold out crowd, loud crowd, but the place looks like shit compared to the UK venues. Nothing was really said other 'wow, big crowds'. It's funny how they all chant "Don't be a dick" and then they start chanting over Smallman.
Pete Dunne Segment - It's likely the heat, but Dunne looks like shit, his hair looks like shit, his shirt and pants make him look like shit, and he needs to shave. He's not cleared to wrestled due to injury tonight.He talks a lot about how he owns everything. Suddenly a skinny corporate wimp comes out.
Fans chant 'Welcome Back' at Jack Gallagher, as if these fans had been in the other chapters since he left PROGRESS, nor this is a chapter at all. Anyway, Gallagher says some shit about Dunne not being on TV last Monday and the fans chant 'holy shit'. I'm gonna hate this show, this fans sucks, would it kill them to put some thought into their chants?. Also, Dunne in one match has actually had a better WWE career than Gallagher's whole Mary Poppins run. Gallagher said that maybe they can do this in the future (as in their scheduled match). Now a true superstar comes out. Zack Gibson challenges Gallagher to a match. This was all painful to watch. Gibson said it best, they can have their PROGRESS merch on, but this crowd is just a parody of a UK crowd.
After a million hours of pain, Jack Gallagher finally cheap shots Gibson to start the match. This was more of the old Gallagher and not the umbrella shit he does in WWE, he did win tho. OK match, good opener for this crowd. At one point towards the end, Gibson slipped on the rope and the fans chanted 'You Fucked Up', seriously, you people JUST chanted 'Don't be a dick' less than 30 minutes ago.
Jinny as always looking fashionably spot on. It's weird seeing Black on the babyface side of things. Evie's song sucks. Match started with the babyfaces going wild for a while, mostly on Purazzo. Jinny and Purazzo targeted Black's formerly broken leg and got the heat on her for a while. When Dakota Kai finally got the tag in, they did a bunch of spots and ended with Purazzo pinning Kai, which surprised me since she's another WWE talent.
PROGRESS Atlas Championship No 1 Contendership Match
Didn't like Hathaway coming out with Thatcher, TT in PROGRESS represents Ringkampf, not the Dreamteam. TT in PROGRESS is a babyface, and now he's getting booed. You can see WALTER and Riddle watching the match from behind the curtain. If they weren't in a feud and watching together, I'd say this was a great visual since they're both fighting for the title tonight. And while I'm at it, why is this match taking place if Jon Davis hasn't cashed in his title shot from Chapter 53?
Anyway, match was Thatcher working on submission with his precision styled wrestling, focused on the arm; on the other hand, Dijak did his usual 'Look at me, i'm incredibly huge and incredibly flippy' shtick. Finish saw Thatcher tap Banana Hands when Stokely offered a distraction
Post-match - Hathaway says that Thatcher will get his title shot at Ally Pally, which is awesome, except he made Thatcher come off as a heel when the Ally Pally match will be between two stablemates.
No DQs Match
Ugh, they couldn't get Kavinsky's theme for Janela. I understand that 'The Fuck?' is what went through Havoc's mind when he saw Janela's intro. About the start of the match, after the dives to the outside, Havoc tries to get some water from a fan that won't let the bottle go. Don't Be A Dick. Anyway, this was the usual Janela spot match with tons of garbage wrestling, with a few Havoc spots.
Match started off on all cylinders. In the first minutes we had seen dives by both dudes, a table make an appearance, and Havoc and Janela brawling outside. Inside the ring, they brought tons of weapons, Janela did his monkey flip with a chair spot he's been doing. The match later on slowed down, but they started to escalate the weaponry by using cinder-blocks, a door, and that table from the start. Finish saw Havoc take Janela's shoes off, drop him on tacks, german into cinder-blocks, and the Acid Rainmaker for the win. As a hardcore match, I wasn't a fan of the spots.
We had another marriage proposal. Is this fucking becoming a gimmick?
Since Gibson was originally supposed to be in this match but rather fought in the opener, we now have Theory to replace him, and fuck it, they made this a four way with the biggest name in the independents right now, Keith Lee. Match was an all out fight, tons of spots, where the closes to a story was all smaller boys having to gang up on Lee in orther to take him out of the equation, but this didn't last long as later on Lee was weakened enough. There was a great spot with Lee powerbombing Theory while Theory had Andrews on a stalled vertical suplex. Everyone was awesome. Finish saw Haskings submit Theory with the sharpshooter.
PROGRESS World Tag Team Championship Match
Sucks that the very first SPPT match back has to be in this shitty gym and lacking Dahlia Black, and obviously fans chanting and cheering for BSS. This match started and it was really lacking the heat that this feud deserved, this match is months in the making, it really sucks that they have it here...
So at one point TK went for a Tornillo dive from the top rope, he seemed to have fallen badly and broken his ankle. The feed went off and when it came back we saw tons of wrestlers helping TK out of the arena.
Sucks for TK, but for the sake of SPPT vs BSS, this may have been a blessing in disguise since it may now happen in the UK later on. I'm also not getting TK at BOLA and that sucks. Travis Banks insists to make it a handicap match and fuck it...
Handicap Match (non-title)
Glen went to the back leaving Lenny alone, he fucked up some names, he apologized. This weirdly enough saves the tag title match if there is ever another chance, but it also helps escalate the Banks vs Dunne feud towards Ally Pally. What was left of this was short, Travis started strong, got taken over by the numbers game, made a comeback, and just as he is about to win, Dunne pulls the ref from the ring, and this ref send Dunne to the back, this is NOT how you treat a champion.
Back in the ring, BSS tried to take advantage of the ref's distraction hitting a pedigree, from which Banks kicked out at one. Takes out Seven and wins the match. Pretty decent for an impromptu match and the short time it had left.
PROGRESS Atlas Championship Match
Good match to close the NYC show, but not nearly as good as the Chapter 51 match when WALTER won the title. Story of the match was that Riddle won the title back the same way he lost it at that one match I just mentioned. He fought fire with fire and it worked out for him. I'm not a fan of the title change at a random show and making WALTER's big win feel meaningless just to feed something to the US crowd.
Wrestling was great, but as Katey Harvey would say "That is not PROGRESS'. Really disappointing show, but glad it's not a canon chapter, except for that unnecessary title change.
Pete Dunne Segment - It's likely the heat, but Dunne looks like shit, his hair looks like shit, his shirt and pants make him look like shit, and he needs to shave. He's not cleared to wrestled due to injury tonight.He talks a lot about how he owns everything. Suddenly a skinny corporate wimp comes out.
Fans chant 'Welcome Back' at Jack Gallagher, as if these fans had been in the other chapters since he left PROGRESS, nor this is a chapter at all. Anyway, Gallagher says some shit about Dunne not being on TV last Monday and the fans chant 'holy shit'. I'm gonna hate this show, this fans sucks, would it kill them to put some thought into their chants?. Also, Dunne in one match has actually had a better WWE career than Gallagher's whole Mary Poppins run. Gallagher said that maybe they can do this in the future (as in their scheduled match). Now a true superstar comes out. Zack Gibson challenges Gallagher to a match. This was all painful to watch. Gibson said it best, they can have their PROGRESS merch on, but this crowd is just a parody of a UK crowd.
"Gentleman" Jack Gallagher vs Zack Gibson - 6/10
After a million hours of pain, Jack Gallagher finally cheap shots Gibson to start the match. This was more of the old Gallagher and not the umbrella shit he does in WWE, he did win tho. OK match, good opener for this crowd. At one point towards the end, Gibson slipped on the rope and the fans chanted 'You Fucked Up', seriously, you people JUST chanted 'Don't be a dick' less than 30 minutes ago.
Jinny & Deonna Purazzo vs Dakota Kai & Dahlia Black - 7/10
Jinny as always looking fashionably spot on. It's weird seeing Black on the babyface side of things. Evie's song sucks. Match started with the babyfaces going wild for a while, mostly on Purazzo. Jinny and Purazzo targeted Black's formerly broken leg and got the heat on her for a while. When Dakota Kai finally got the tag in, they did a bunch of spots and ended with Purazzo pinning Kai, which surprised me since she's another WWE talent.
PROGRESS Atlas Championship No 1 Contendership Match
Donovan Dijak vs Timothy Thatcher w/Stokely Hathaway - 7/10
Didn't like Hathaway coming out with Thatcher, TT in PROGRESS represents Ringkampf, not the Dreamteam. TT in PROGRESS is a babyface, and now he's getting booed. You can see WALTER and Riddle watching the match from behind the curtain. If they weren't in a feud and watching together, I'd say this was a great visual since they're both fighting for the title tonight. And while I'm at it, why is this match taking place if Jon Davis hasn't cashed in his title shot from Chapter 53?
Anyway, match was Thatcher working on submission with his precision styled wrestling, focused on the arm; on the other hand, Dijak did his usual 'Look at me, i'm incredibly huge and incredibly flippy' shtick. Finish saw Thatcher tap Banana Hands when Stokely offered a distraction
Post-match - Hathaway says that Thatcher will get his title shot at Ally Pally, which is awesome, except he made Thatcher come off as a heel when the Ally Pally match will be between two stablemates.
No DQs Match
"King of the Goths" Jimmy Havoc vs "Bad Boy" Joey Janela - 7/10
Ugh, they couldn't get Kavinsky's theme for Janela. I understand that 'The Fuck?' is what went through Havoc's mind when he saw Janela's intro. About the start of the match, after the dives to the outside, Havoc tries to get some water from a fan that won't let the bottle go. Don't Be A Dick. Anyway, this was the usual Janela spot match with tons of garbage wrestling, with a few Havoc spots.
Match started off on all cylinders. In the first minutes we had seen dives by both dudes, a table make an appearance, and Havoc and Janela brawling outside. Inside the ring, they brought tons of weapons, Janela did his monkey flip with a chair spot he's been doing. The match later on slowed down, but they started to escalate the weaponry by using cinder-blocks, a door, and that table from the start. Finish saw Havoc take Janela's shoes off, drop him on tacks, german into cinder-blocks, and the Acid Rainmaker for the win. As a hardcore match, I wasn't a fan of the spots.
We had another marriage proposal. Is this fucking becoming a gimmick?
Mark Andrews vs Mark Haskins vs Austin Theory vs Keith Lee - 8/10
Since Gibson was originally supposed to be in this match but rather fought in the opener, we now have Theory to replace him, and fuck it, they made this a four way with the biggest name in the independents right now, Keith Lee. Match was an all out fight, tons of spots, where the closes to a story was all smaller boys having to gang up on Lee in orther to take him out of the equation, but this didn't last long as later on Lee was weakened enough. There was a great spot with Lee powerbombing Theory while Theory had Andrews on a stalled vertical suplex. Everyone was awesome. Finish saw Haskings submit Theory with the sharpshooter.
PROGRESS World Tag Team Championship Match
South Pacific Power Trip vs British Strong Style (C) w/Pete Dunne - No Contest
Sucks that the very first SPPT match back has to be in this shitty gym and lacking Dahlia Black, and obviously fans chanting and cheering for BSS. This match started and it was really lacking the heat that this feud deserved, this match is months in the making, it really sucks that they have it here...
So at one point TK went for a Tornillo dive from the top rope, he seemed to have fallen badly and broken his ankle. The feed went off and when it came back we saw tons of wrestlers helping TK out of the arena.
Sucks for TK, but for the sake of SPPT vs BSS, this may have been a blessing in disguise since it may now happen in the UK later on. I'm also not getting TK at BOLA and that sucks. Travis Banks insists to make it a handicap match and fuck it...
Handicap Match (non-title)
British Strong Style w/Pete Dunne vs Travis Banks - 6/10
Glen went to the back leaving Lenny alone, he fucked up some names, he apologized. This weirdly enough saves the tag title match if there is ever another chance, but it also helps escalate the Banks vs Dunne feud towards Ally Pally. What was left of this was short, Travis started strong, got taken over by the numbers game, made a comeback, and just as he is about to win, Dunne pulls the ref from the ring, and this ref send Dunne to the back, this is NOT how you treat a champion.
Back in the ring, BSS tried to take advantage of the ref's distraction hitting a pedigree, from which Banks kicked out at one. Takes out Seven and wins the match. Pretty decent for an impromptu match and the short time it had left.
PROGRESS Atlas Championship Match
WALTER (C) vs "King of Bros" Matt Riddle - 7.5/10
Good match to close the NYC show, but not nearly as good as the Chapter 51 match when WALTER won the title. Story of the match was that Riddle won the title back the same way he lost it at that one match I just mentioned. He fought fire with fire and it worked out for him. I'm not a fan of the title change at a random show and making WALTER's big win feel meaningless just to feed something to the US crowd.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Wrestling was great, but as Katey Harvey would say "That is not PROGRESS'. Really disappointing show, but glad it's not a canon chapter, except for that unnecessary title change.