Cero Reviews WWN Supershow Mercury Rising Evolve vs Progress

[cero2k]

WWN Presents Mercury Rising: Evolve vs Progress
April 1st, 2017
Fern Park, Florida

Drew Galloway Promo - He says he built EVOLVE and brought eyes to the company, he actually has an argument. He says that he now needs to save WWN from itself. Less than 24 hrs later, he'll sign with WWE. Riddle comes out and they brawl and piledrives Riddle. Catch-Point comes out to save Riddle. As Galloway keeps talking, Keith Lee comes out and kinda shuts Galloway up, Drew tries to recruit him. Lee manhandles Galloway like if he was 205.

Keith Lee then cuts a promo saying the world belongs to him and he is going to dethrone the king and claim his kingdom. Good promo. This whole thing went out too long. Lee at the end called out for his opponents...

Keith Lee vs Jason Kincaid vs Austin Theory vs Blaster McMassive - 5/10
Before the match starts, Stokely comes out and says that Thatcher is not a curtain jerker and he has negotiated adding Thatcher to the main event instead. Replacing him tonight is Darby Allin instead, Darby shouldn't talk, he's not that good at it. Before he can enter the match Page attacks him. Jesus, can we start the fucking match already! Ok, so the 4th man is Blaster McMassive. There's also a goth chick roaming around the ring. Match was ok, nothing special, I couldn't hear the commentary, room is super dark. Some of Lee's spots were good, but at the end, it felt like nothing happened, like Kincaid missed half of the match . Goth chick never did anything.

Post-Match - Lee cuts the same promo again and welcomes KOR, I had forgotten he was coming to EVOLVE, kinda makes it seem second rate coming from NJPW to EVOLVE.

SHINE Championship Match
LuFisto (C) vs Toni Storm - 6/10
LuFisto here for a funeral or something. LuFisto cuts a promo on Su Yung who apparently no showed tonight, then she does the 'no one can beat' me schtick, and so Toni fucking Storm jumps the rail and they just started fighting, do we not have officials to make this legit? is this still a title match? I need some clarification! Match was just tons of slaps and punches and stomps, the indicator that this was put on the last minute and these ladies have never worked together. Match got better towards the end, but that was like 2-3 minutes of good action.

Jim Smallman and Trevin Adams - Smallman makes Adams look like a dork. Jim just pretty much said thanks for the opportunity, and he tells the US crowd that there is only one rule in PROGRESS and that rule is DON'T.BE.A.DICK! Not sure if the US crowd can keep that rule.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
"All Ego" Ethan Page w/One Gatekeeper vs "King of the Goths" Jimmy Havoc - 7/10
Really? The other Gatekeeper was too injured to come out? Crowd not singing "i face destruction with you" what is this!? Ok, some 5 people started singing afterwards. Smallman completely killed Adams in the introduction departments. Hearing these fans try to sing PROGRESS chants was sad. They brawled around the place, the fighting was good outside, ref never really tried to even start counting. Once inside the ring, the wrestling was pretty good, eventually the other Gatekeeper came out, who distracted Havoc and Page takes the win. Of all the PROGRESS guys, they couldn't put Havoc over, facepalm.

Post-Match - Page cuts a promo saying he he wants in the title match, PROGRESS can kiss his ass, blah blah. Darby Allin comes out and attacks them, him and Havoc join forces and take them out. meh. You could tell they were gonna get these two guys together eventually.

WWN should have really brought RJ to do commentary here, all commentary about the PROGRESS wrestlers has been quite sub-par. Also, crowd sounds pretty dead, not sure if usual, but we can blame the audio on it.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
South Pacific Power Trip w/Dahlia Black vs Jaka and Chris Dickinson - 7.5/10
The team of the hour! Camera angle didn't do them justice, but oh well. Travis Banks is usually the small guy in the room, Jaka and Dickinson makes him look huge, never realized how small they were. TK Cooper was the babyface in peril almost from the start of the match, TK took a good beating before being able to make the tag on Banks, who went all Kiwi Dragon on the Catch Point guys. Second part of the match was good, some good spots, not sure why Dickinson and Jaka had to do 'fighting spirit' spots, but at least at the end the right team took the win. SPPT offer the hand shake at the end, Catch Point takes it. I'd love to see this rematch in PROGRESS one day.

Commentary tonight is draining my life force, am I in a conference or something? Crowd's life force is also being drained, they're dead too. Also noticed that Smallman is at ringside watching all his guys wrestle. Class act.

At this point Galloway was announced as injured AKA signed to fucking WWE.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
PROGRESS Championship Match
ACH vs "Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne (C) - 6/10
Dunne went for the finger snap early in the match, ACH never sold it. Match was a lot of mat wrestling and hold-by-hold wrestling, at one point it seemed like it could become more technical vs aerial, but Dunne quickly brought it back to the mat again, who had a really good showing on how to torture someone. Match was somewhat boring at times, it could be the life draining or just ACH, but it never felt like momentum was building, and when it did, it was kinda meh. ACH kinda came off looking like a geek in this match, he's tapping Dunne in the dick and he still couldn't get close to winning; Dunne didn't even need to hit his finisher to win, and talking about low blows, ACH no selling the low blow was stupid.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
EVOLVE Championship Match
Mark Haskins vs Zack Sabre Jr (C) - 8.5/10
For matches doing tons of hold-by-hold wrestling and submission work, this did a whole lot better job than the previous match. Both men worked each other's arms, Haskins working towards the Star Armbar, and Sabre likely towards the armbar or Octopus hold or one of the other 60 submission finishers he knows. They later proceeded to work each other's legs, and then head, and I guess at the end, just trying to target anything that can make a snap sound when put under stress. There were some great sequences towards the end of the match, one were Sabre countered the Star Armbar into an Octupus, which Haskins countered to a Stretch Muffler and so on.

There was a 'let's go Haskins' vs "Sabre Jr" chant battle between like 4-5 people. It was underwhelming, but probably the loudest chant til now. God bless those 4 fans that were excited.

Post-Match - Cuts a promo saying that wrestling is for everyone. Ok I guess.

Andrew Lazarchik with some Candy girl present the new Championship - This is why you don't allow wrestling fans inside the ring, it's awkward and no fashion sense.

WWN Title 6-Way Elimination Match
Timothy Thatcher w/Stokely Hathaway vs Parrow w/Drennen vs Jon Davis vs Matt Riddle vs Fred Yehi vs Tracy Williams - 7/10
I fucking hate what they've done with Thatchers song, I hope the story is that Stokely is brainwashing him into bad matches and terrible music sense. Parrow reminds me of the territory days when the territory just sends off their biggest guy regardless of the wrestling proficiency. Yehi didn't bring the FIP title with him, then again Parrow didn't bring his title either, and Riddle's PROGRESS title wasn't even mentioned.

FINALLY! Two men in the commentary booth, and the audio is finally fixed.

Riddle took a piledriver early on and only sold it for one minute. Thatcher eliminated Parrow via choke out, kinda dumb to allow Catch Point to gain numbers on you and Davis. Case to Point, Catch Point join up and eliminate Thatcher next. Numbers game gangs up on Davis and is eliminated next, it really looked like a gang beating up an innocent civilian, really heelish from Catch Point. And now the expected 3-way between the Catch Point guys, Williams makes Yehi join him (tag champs after all) and they now gang up on Riddle. They beat the shit out of Riddle and you have to imagine that Riddle HAS to leave Catch Point after this, but Williams betrays Yehi and rolls him up for the elimination. Williams and Riddle go at it, Riddle recovers from the beating and goes toe-to-toe with Williams, Tracy says that this is personal. Riddle at the end did a nice thing by breaking up his own bridge pin because he can't hold the weight on his neck, that some Kawada/Misawa selling right there, and then he kept kicking out of piledrivers and kept fighting. At the end Riddle locks in the Bromission for the win and the neck ain't hurting that much anymore.

The overall match was great, some of the booking felt really off because the Riddle turn (was it even a turn?) wasn't all that well executed once Williams and Yehi betrayed him. The Riddle vs Williams stuff at the end was good, but they really overdid the neck injury.

Post-Match - Good babyface promo, except he's not leaving Catch Point and they're still his 'boys'. Cool to have a friend who you can try to break his neck and he's still cool with you.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Not a fan of this show, crowd and commentary really sucked the fun out of this show, like seriously, at least play with a beach ball or something, you can tell that these fans are just the leftovers who didn't get WWE/ROH tickets and had nothing else to do. They sold this show as PROGRESS vs EVOLVE, and PROGRESS wasn't taken seriously here, just as a quick midcard spectacle. The wrestling was good, so I hope we get to see those 'dream matches' somewhere else, because this show sucked.

[Big Red Machine]

WWN Presents Mercury Rising: Evolve vs Progress
April 1st, 2017
Fern Park, Florida

Drew Galloway Promo - He says he built EVOLVE and brought eyes to the company, he actually has an argument. He says that he now needs to save WWN from itself. Less than 24 hrs later, he'll sign with WWE. Riddle comes out and they brawl and piledrives Riddle. Catch-Point comes out to save Riddle. As Galloway keeps talking, Keith Lee comes out and kinda shuts Galloway up, Drew tries to recruit him. Lee manhandles Galloway like if he was 205.

Keith Lee then cuts a promo saying the world belongs to him and he is going to dethrone the king and claim his kingdom. Good promo. This whole thing went out too long. Lee at the end called out for his opponents...
It went long because it was, like, three different things, not just one, and it set multiple thing up for the main event and established Lee as a big force for the future.

Keith Lee vs Jason Kincaid vs Austin Theory vs Blaster McMassive - 5/10
Before the match starts, Stokely comes out and says that Thatcher is not a curtain jerker and he has negotiated adding Thatcher to the main event instead. Replacing him tonight is Darby Allin instead, Darby shouldn't talk, he's not that good at it. Before he can enter the match Page attacks him. Jesus, can we start the fucking match already! Ok, so the 4th man is Blaster McMassive. There's also a goth chick roaming around the ring. Match was ok, nothing special, I couldn't hear the commentary, room is super dark. Some of Lee's spots were good, but at the end, it felt like nothing happened, like Kincaid missed half of the match . Goth chick never did anything.
Kincaid got injured during the match, I believe.

Post-Match - Lee cuts the same promo again and welcomes KOR, I had forgotten he was coming to EVOLVE, kinda makes it seem second rate coming from NJPW to EVOLVE.
Just the opposite. What does it say about EVOLVE (from a kayfabe perspective) that Kyle is willing to leave New Japan (and ROH) to come here?

SHINE Championship Match
LuFisto (C) vs Toni Storm - 6/10
LuFisto here for a funeral or something. LuFisto cuts a promo on Su Yung who apparently no showed tonight, then she does the 'no one can beat' me schtick, and so Toni fucking Storm jumps the rail and they just started fighting, do we not have officials to make this legit? is this still a title match? I need some clarification! Match was just tons of slaps and punches and stomps, the indicator that this was put on the last minute and these ladies have never worked together. Match got better towards the end, but that was like 2-3 minutes of good action.

Jim Smallman and Trevin Adams - Smallman makes Adams look like a dork. Jim just pretty much said thanks for the opportunity, and he tells the US crowd that there is only one rule in PROGRESS and that rule is DON'T.BE.A.DICK! Not sure if the US crowd can keep that rule.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
"All Ego" Ethan Page w/One Gatekeeper vs "King of the Goths" Jimmy Havoc - 7/10
Really? The other Gatekeeper was too injured to come out? Crowd not singing "i face destruction with you" what is this!? Ok, some 5 people started singing afterwards. Smallman completely killed Adams in the introduction departments. Hearing these fans try to sing PROGRESS chants was sad. They brawled around the place, the fighting was good outside, ref never really tried to even start counting. Once inside the ring, the wrestling was pretty good, eventually the other Gatekeeper came out, who distracted Havoc and Page takes the win. Of all the PROGRESS guys, they couldn't put Havoc over, facepalm.
Because the goal of this match wasn't to put Jimmy Havoc over. It was to get over Page being angry and being out of the title picture, and his selfishness in trying to destroy EVOLVE'S relationship with their new partner by injuring one of their top wrestlers in an attempt to blackmail WWN officials into giving him that title shot.

Post-Match - Page cuts a promo saying he he wants in the title match, PROGRESS can kiss his ass, blah blah. Darby Allin comes out and attacks them, him and Havoc join forces and take them out. meh. You could tell they were gonna get these two guys together eventually.

WWN should have really brought RJ to do commentary here, all commentary about the PROGRESS wrestlers has been quite sub-par. Also, crowd sounds pretty dead, not sure if usual, but we can blame the audio on it.

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
South Pacific Power Trip w/Dahlia Black vs Jaka and Chris Dickinson - 7.5/10
The team of the hour! Camera angle didn't do them justice, but oh well. Travis Banks is usually the small guy in the room, Jaka and Dickinson makes him look huge, never realized how small they were. TK Cooper was the babyface in peril almost from the start of the match, TK took a good beating before being able to make the tag on Banks, who went all Kiwi Dragon on the Catch Point guys. Second part of the match was good, some good spots, not sure why Dickinson and Jaka had to do 'fighting spirit' spots, but at least at the end the right team took the win. SPPT offer the hand shake at the end, Catch Point takes it. I'd love to see this rematch in PROGRESS one day.
You have to remember that Jaka was pushed as a "big" guy, but the place he was pushed as such was CHIKARA. Dickinson isn't tall, but he is definitely wide and thick.

Commentary tonight is draining my life force, am I in a conference or something? Crowd's life force is also being drained, they're dead too. Also noticed that Smallman is at ringside watching all his guys wrestle. Class act.

At this point Galloway was announced as injured AKA signed to fucking WWE.
Right, but done in such a way where he can get to where he needs to be for WWE tonight while also setting up a match between him and Lee for his final weekend, while also building to his match with Riddle because Drew can say "you're not the rightful champion because you never beat me and I was supposed to be in that match."

PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
PROGRESS Championship Match
ACH vs "Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne (C) - 6/10
Dunne went for the finger snap early in the match, ACH never sold it. Match was a lot of mat wrestling and hold-by-hold wrestling, at one point it seemed like it could become more technical vs aerial, but Dunne quickly brought it back to the mat again, who had a really good showing on how to torture someone. Match was somewhat boring at times, it could be the life draining or just ACH, but it never felt like momentum was building, and when it did, it was kinda meh. ACH kinda came off looking like a geek in this match, he's tapping Dunne in the dick and he still couldn't get close to winning; Dunne didn't even need to hit his finisher to win, and talking about low blows, ACH no selling the low blow was stupid.


PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
EVOLVE Championship Match
Mark Haskins vs Zack Sabre Jr (C) - 8.5/10
For matches doing tons of hold-by-hold wrestling and submission work, this did a whole lot better job than the previous match. Both men worked each other's arms, Haskins working towards the Star Armbar, and Sabre likely towards the armbar or Octopus hold or one of the other 60 submission finishers he knows. They later proceeded to work each other's legs, and then head, and I guess at the end, just trying to target anything that can make a snap sound when put under stress. There were some great sequences towards the end of the match, one were Sabre countered the Star Armbar into an Octupus, which Haskins countered to a Stretch Muffler and so on.

There was a 'let's go Haskins' vs "Sabre Jr" chant battle between like 4-5 people. It was underwhelming, but probably the loudest chant til now. God bless those 4 fans that were excited.

Post-Match - Cuts a promo saying that wrestling is for everyone. Ok I guess.

Andrew Lazarchik with some Candy girl present the new Championship - This is why you don't allow wrestling fans inside the ring, it's awkward and no fashion sense.

WWN Title 6-Way Elimination Match
Timothy Thatcher w/Stokely Hathaway vs Parrow w/Drennen vs Jon Davis vs Matt Riddle vs Fred Yehi vs Tracy Williams - 7/10
I fucking hate what they've done with Thatchers song, I hope the story is that Stokely is brainwashing him into bad matches and terrible music sense. Parrow reminds me of the territory days when the territory just sends off their biggest guy regardless of the wrestling proficiency. Yehi didn't bring the FIP title with him, then again Parrow didn't bring his title either, and Riddle's PROGRESS title wasn't even mentioned.
The idea is that Thatcher doesn't care about his music because all he is focused on is his wrestling. He has hired Stokely to concentrate on all of that other stuff for him.
The idea with no one bringing their belts out (Parrow didn't have the ACW belt, either) was to put over the new title


FINALLY! Two men in the commentary booth, and the audio is finally fixed.

Riddle took a piledriver early on and only sold it for one minute. Thatcher eliminated Parrow via choke out, kinda dumb to allow Catch Point to gain numbers on you and Davis. Case to Point, Catch Point join up and eliminate Thatcher next. Numbers game gangs up on Davis and is eliminated next, it really looked like a gang beating up an innocent civilian, really heelish from Catch Point. And now the expected 3-way between the Catch Point guys, Williams makes Yehi join him (tag champs after all) and they now gang up on Riddle. They beat the shit out of Riddle and you have to imagine that Riddle HAS to leave Catch Point after this, but Williams betrays Yehi and rolls him up for the elimination. Williams and Riddle go at it, Riddle recovers from the beating and goes toe-to-toe with Williams, Tracy says that this is personal. Riddle at the end did a nice thing by breaking up his own bridge pin because he can't hold the weight on his neck, that some Kawada/Misawa selling right there, and then he kept kicking out of piledrivers and kept fighting. At the end Riddle locks in the Bromission for the win and the neck ain't hurting that much anymore.

The overall match was great, some of the booking felt really off because the Riddle turn (was it even a turn?) wasn't all that well executed once Williams and Yehi betrayed him. The Riddle vs Williams stuff at the end was good, but they really overdid the neck injury.

Post-Match - Good babyface promo, except he's not leaving Catch Point and they're still his 'boys'. Cool to have a friend who you can try to break his neck and he's still cool with you.
I don't think you get the Catchpoint gimmick. It's not betrayal to them. It is, as Gulak would often say "all about competition." If you see an opportunity, you take it. They didn't break any rules. The neck injury thing was also playing back to two nights ago when Drew gave Riddle a piledriver through a table. I don't see how you can criticize this selling but love Young Bucks matches. Guys fight back from pilvedrivers all the time. If you accept it from Cole or whoever, why can't you accept it here?


OVERALL THOUGHTS
Not a fan of this show, crowd and commentary really sucked the fun out of this show, like seriously, at least play with a beach ball or something, you can tell that these fans are just the leftovers who didn't get WWE/ROH tickets and had nothing else to do. They sold this show as PROGRESS vs EVOLVE, and PROGRESS wasn't taken seriously here, just as a quick midcard spectacle. The wrestling was good, so I hope we get to see those 'dream matches' somewhere else, because this show sucked.

PROGRESS was taken perfectly seriously here. They were presented as very skilled competitors. They're partners, not enemies, so there is no reason for them to be portrayed as anything else.
I'm not sure what you want out of your commentary. Lenny Leonard called the action in a professional way and caught you up on the storylines. What more could you want?
As for the crowd... yeah, they were quieter than most indy shows, but that's because every third move wasn't a superkick or dive or a flippy-do.

[cero2k]

Keith Lee then cuts a promo saying the world belongs to him and he is going to dethrone the king and claim his kingdom. Good promo. This whole thing went out too long. Lee at the end called out for his opponents...
It went long because it was, like, three different things, not just one, and it set multiple thing up for the main event and established Lee as a big force for the future.
I'm not saying it was useless, but incredibly long, and to a certain point, unnecessary, nothing that was done here couldn't have been achieved in their respective matches, only the Galloway thing was 'necessary'. Keith Lee pretty much had to cut the same promo twice.
All of it was necessary and all of it involved Galloway. They built to the Riddle vs. Galloway match at the next weekend while setting up the story of Riddle’s injured neck for the main event, then came up with a way to write Galloway out for tonight (probably setting up for Riddle vs. Galloway to be a title match) while putting Lee over huge.

Post-Match - Lee cuts the same promo again and welcomes KOR, I had forgotten he was coming to EVOLVE, kinda makes it seem second rate coming from NJPW to EVOLVE.
Just the opposite. What does it say about EVOLVE (from a kayfabe perspective) that Kyle is willing to leave New Japan (and ROH) to come here?
Kayfabe? that he is weak for losing the title to Adam Cole and couldn't live up to the standards of ROH and NJPW, he didn't even try to reclaim the title, he just gave up like the little reLizard that he is.
Or that the EVOLVE and WWN Titles are more prestigious/the competition is more challenging. Cole did cheat to beat Kyle, remember, so it’s not like Kyle looked particularly weak in defeat


PROGRESS vs EVOLVE
"All Ego" Ethan Page w/One Gatekeeper vs "King of the Goths" Jimmy Havoc - 7/10
Really? The other Gatekeeper was too injured to come out? Crowd not singing "i face destruction with you" what is this!? Ok, some 5 people started singing afterwards. Smallman completely killed Adams in the introduction departments. Hearing these fans try to sing PROGRESS chants was sad. They brawled around the place, the fighting was good outside, ref never really tried to even start counting. Once inside the ring, the wrestling was pretty good, eventually the other Gatekeeper came out, who distracted Havoc and Page takes the win. Of all the PROGRESS guys, they couldn't put Havoc over, facepalm.
Because the goal of this match wasn't to put Jimmy Havoc over. It was to get over Page being angry and being out of the title picture, and his selfishness in trying to destroy EVOLVE'S relationship with their new partner by injuring one of their top wrestlers in an attempt to blackmail WWN officials into giving him that title shot.
Angry doesn't win a match with a pin, angry gives Havoc a DQ win because Page and co are trying to take out Havoc to make a statement
But the whole idea is that he wants to be in the title picture. Winning helps him do that. Getting DQed on purpose doesn’t. And trying to injure Havoc wasn’t about “making a statement” by taking someone out. It was purposely trying to hurt the relationship between EVOLVE and PROGRESS by injuring one of PROGRESS’s guys- not in the confines of a match, but afterwards, where such a thing isn’t supposed to happen because it’s unsporting. The only way for Page to accomplish these two goals simultaneously was to win the match, then try to take Havoc out afterwards.

WWN Title 6-Way Elimination Match
Timothy Thatcher w/Stokely Hathaway vs Parrow w/Drennen vs Jon Davis vs Matt Riddle vs Fred Yehi vs Tracy Williams - 7/10
I fucking hate what they've done with Thatchers song, I hope the story is that Stokely is brainwashing him into bad matches and terrible music sense. Parrow reminds me of the territory days when the territory just sends off their biggest guy regardless of the wrestling proficiency. Yehi didn't bring the FIP title with him, then again Parrow didn't bring his title either, and Riddle's PROGRESS title wasn't even mentioned.
The idea is that Thatcher doesn't care about his music because all he is focused on is his wrestling. He has hired Stokely to concentrate on all of that other stuff for him.
The idea with no one bringing their belts out (Parrow didn't have the ACW belt, either) was to put over the new title
i get that from Thatcher, but I think at some point he needs to realize that Stokely is not working out for him after all.
[color=#FF0000]On the show the night before this one Thatcher flat-out told Stokely that if Stokely couldn’t get him into the WWN Title match he would fire Stokely, so Stokely is working out for Thatcher thus far. Jeff Cobb also pushed that “you don’t need Stokely” button during the Evolve 76/77 weekend.

I like the idea of not bringing the titles or referencing them, except (1) most of them made it to the match BECAUSE of those titles that they hold, and (2) Yehi (tag title) and Riddle (atlas) actually had their titles with them, it's just the inconsistency
Because those are singles titles. The tag champs brought their tag belts because it’s a different division.


Post-Match - Good babyface promo, except he's not leaving Catch Point and they're still his 'boys'. Cool to have a friend who you can try to break his neck and he's still cool with you.
I don't think you get the Catchpoint gimmick. It's not betrayal to them. It is, as Gulak would often say "all about competition." If you see an opportunity, you take it. They didn't break any rules. The neck injury thing was also playing back to two nights ago when Drew gave Riddle a piledriver through a table. I don't see how you can criticize this selling but love Young Bucks matches. Guys fight back from pilvedrivers all the time. If you accept it from Cole or whoever, why can't you accept it here?
Because the whole story is that he has an injured neck, he took a piledriver at the start of the show, and one at the start of the match, if that is the whole underdog story, then sell it more.
I thought he sold it fine.

as for catchpoint, i totally get the gimmick, if it's competition (1) you target the neck, but not try to break it, you lock in a submission and that's it, (2) you don't roll up your other team mate, if it's competition, you face them straight forward, and (3) Williams straight up said it was 'personal'
The roll-up falls into the category of “seizing the opportunity,” which is another Catchpoint thing. As for the neck thing- if it’s competition you do what you have to do within the boundaries of the rules in order to win. He wasn’t trying to break Riddle’s neck. He was trying to hit a move that he thought would end the match the quickest with him as the victory.

And I’m almost certain that what Williams said to Yehi was “it’s not personal.”


OVERALL THOUGHTS
Not a fan of this show, crowd and commentary really sucked the fun out of this show, like seriously, at least play with a beach ball or something, you can tell that these fans are just the leftovers who didn't get WWE/ROH tickets and had nothing else to do. They sold this show as PROGRESS vs EVOLVE, and PROGRESS wasn't taken seriously here, just as a quick midcard spectacle. The wrestling was good, so I hope we get to see those 'dream matches' somewhere else, because this show sucked.

PROGRESS was taken perfectly seriously here. They were presented as very skilled competitors. They're partners, not enemies, so there is no reason for them to be portrayed as anything else.
I'm not sure what you want out of your commentary. Lenny Leonard called the action in a professional way and caught you up on the storylines. What more could you want?
As for the crowd... yeah, they were quieter than most indy shows, but that's because every third move wasn't a superkick or dive or a flippy-do.

seriously as a serious promotion, but they were no more than just a guest, this wasn't WWN and PROGRESS co-promoting, this was we have our show, you wanna hang out? They were a special attraction at most.
Which is exactly what it was supposed to be. This wasn’t “WWN & PROGRESS PRESENT A SUPERSHOW.” It was a “WWN LIVE SUPERSHOW” with the draw being the idea of PROGRESS vs. WWN’s top promotion. There was also a SHINE match on the show and dudes in the main event who only compete in ACW and FIP, one of whom got to that match by winning a Style Battle.

Commentary was dull, yeah, all info was there, but it was a monotone delivery all show, and like i mentioned, when talking about PROGRESS people, completely underwhelming and sometimes kinda off. I like Lenny, but he definitely needs a color commentator.
I don’t see how you can say that Lenny Leonard was monotonous. Yeah, he doesn’t scream and shout most of the time, but he does a great job of expressing excitement, shock, incredulity, outrage and other emotions without the screaming. He’s like Joey Styles but without the “OH MY G-D!” and not as witty.

As for a color commentator… maybe for the bigger matches. The guy I’d like to see him paired with the most right now is Silas Young, but that obviously won’t happen. Quackenbush might be a good fit for him.

Crowd wasn't just quiet, they were not even paying attention, tons of shots of them on their cellphones, and it's not about superkicks and flippy shit, because only works on shitty shows like ROH or WWE[/color]
The crowd was fine. Some people might have been on their phones, but that always happens (and especially on a night when both Supercard of Honor and Takeover are running at the same time).
[color=#FF0000]
Superkicks and flippy sh*t works everywhere, not just places that use it as a lazy substitute for trying to actually tell stories well (and we can throw both PWG and the past decade of the X-Division in that category as well). It gets over in places like EVOLVE and CHIKARA and New Japan just as well as it does in the most indy-ish indy their is.