PROGRESS Chapter 83: Remove Child Before Ironing

ILJA DRAGUNOV vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER - 8/10

I always love starting out the year with an awesome match, and PROGRESS did just that right here. This was a WAR… and yet all kept within the confines of what is legal in a professional wrestling match. The emotion here was fantastic, the fighting spirit perfectly timed, and it all built up to a great finish. This was one of those matches that really makes you think about how hard both men fought and how disappointed the loser is going to be to have fought so hard and lost.

NINA SAMUELS vs. LAURA DI MATTEO (w/Jinny) - 6.5/10

Di Matteo worked over Nina's head but also got a lot of help from Jinny making a nuisance of herself at ringside. They told their story well (maybe a little too well, as it strained credulity that Jinny didn't get ejected from ringside when the referee clearly saw her pulling the rope away from Nina and she ignored his command to let the rope go for several seconds) had an exciting eight-and-a-half-minute match with one heck of a great finishing sequence.

DO NOT RESUSCITATE (Drew Parker & Spike Trivet) vs. EDDIE DENNIS & MARK HASKINS (w/Vicky Haskins) - 8/10

Haskins dived onto DNR while they were making their entrance, which got a HUGE pop. This was the beginning of an AWESOME brawl. The ref got bumped pretty early on so they could bring weapons into it and go wherever they wanted, and they took full advantage of that. The crowd was really into it, and DNR were such despicable heels that Vicky Haskins getting involved and making it an unfair fight (even when her husband wasn't in immediate danger) still managed to feel like a babyface thing to do because these heels NEEDED to get their asses kicked, dammit!

JODY FLEISCH vs. ANGELICO - 6.75/10

A good clean match full of proverbial haymakers, with a nice show of respect afterwards.

#1 CONTENDERSHIP MATCH:
Aussie Open vs. DO NOT RESUSCITATE (Chuck Mambo & William Eaver) - 7.5/10

DNR jumped Aussie Open on their way to the ring and beat them up with weapons. They proceeded to have a great, fast-paced tag team match with the babyfaces overcoming it all and prevailing in the end.

CHRIS RIDGEWAY vs. SHIGEHIRO IRIE - 8/10

My two picks for 2019's breakout star are proving me right.

CHRIS RIDGEWAY PROMO - "Give me WALTER." OHHHHHHHH SH*T! I hereby predict that Chris Ridgeway will be your next PROGRESS World Champion (I mean… he probably won't, but if he is I'll look like a genius)!

PROGRESS TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH:
The Swords of Essex(c) vs. CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) - 7.5/10

The Swords of Essex had this long snappy band of fabric that they were snapping at the babyfaces, including hitting Lykos in the head with it. It's a foreign object and therefore should have been a DQ.

The match was pretty darn great, but they got too cutesy at times. It also would have been nice to have some semblance of this actually being a tag team match rather than all four guys in the ring at the same time.

PAUL ROBINSON PROMO - Great! He tells us that this Swords of Essex reunion and tag title reign are not going to be a short-term thing, and made fun of CCK.

Final Thoughts
An AWESOME show from PROGRESS, full of awesome wrestling with a very hot crowd. QUALITY stuff all up and down the card and some nice storyline advancement. An excellent way to start off the year (and especially on a show without any of your singles champions, plus other key players like Jimmy Havoc, GYV, and Travis Banks).