Cero Reviews PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 36: We're Gonna Need A Bigger Room

[cero2k]

PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 36: We're Gonna Need A Bigger Room
September 25, 2016
O2 Academy, Brixton, England

Show started with a video of the history of PROGRESS, awesome footage, but unfortunately, it had fucking Drake music, ugh.

Jim Smallman: Look, it's a huge place, I agree, but Jim gets amazed quite easily. In their first show they sold around 300+ tickets, that is a HUGE turnout to the first show of any indie promotion, there are promotions that have been running for 15 or more years and still do less than 300, so yeah, I'm not amazed you've grown in the last 4 yrs. They made the official reveal of the new Atlas Championship for the "Big Lads's Division". Anyway, Don't Be A Dick!

PROGRESS Atlats Championship Tournament Finals
Rampage Brown vs Joe Coffey - 7/10
Two huge dudes kicking the shit out of each other, what else could you ask for? This is a rematch from the Time Limit Draw they had previously in the tournament, this time we're definitely getting a winner. Biggest story of the match was that Brown took a powerslam in the outside in the beginning of the match and had to work through the pain. Match was for the most part back and forward, but Brown's offense was more like comebacks. These guys kicked out of each others finishers and the whole thing, it took two Rampage Piledrivers to finally put Coffey down.

Dahlia Black, Alex Windsor, & Jinny vs Nixon Newell, Laura Di Matteo, & Pollyanna - 7/10
One side has Windsor, the other Newell, my heart it torn in the middle. This match is really exposing not only Black's level, but also the lack of tag team experience, or better said, the chemistry between them, tons of double team spots really felt awkward. The Jinny vs Di Matteo par/ts were most definitely the best parts, I mean, Di Matteo kicked out of a freaking Styles Clash. Towards the end of the match, all chaos broke out with a bunch of spots and it got awesome, Di Matteo got dropped on her head over and over with DDTs. I think Pollyanna may have been injured here because she disappeared for a while there.

PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
London Riots (C) vs British Strong Style - 8/10
Riot Style vs British Strong Style. Seems like both Seven and Lynch have fucked up eyes this match. This match was half an brawl on the outside, half a brawl in the inside, I don't think I ever saw a tag, so I'm just assuming it was a Tornado Rules match. There were a bunch of tag synchronized spots, but they actually looked great. BSS kept working on Lynch's eye throughout the match, which eventually led to him giving them an opening for the kick/piledriver combination for the win. Great valiant fighting from the Riots. Awesome match.

Paul Robinson Segment - Jim Smallman is doing his usual shtick, when Paul Robinson interrupts. He pretty much says that he wants a fight and is not leaving until he gets one, so Jim gives him...

Paul Robinson vs Chuck Mambo - 6/10
This had to be a rib. This was the utter dominance of Robinson and destruction of Mambo. Mambo hit like 3 or 4 moves at most, the rest was Robinson beating the shit out of Mambo. One thing I do have to say, can wrestlers stop spitting on other wrestlers? it's disgusting

Sabre Jr vs Ciampa Build Up Video - Video recaps their previous fights and the angle when Ciampa attacked Sabre for taking his spot in PWG's Battle of Los Angeles, and consequent challenge to 'one final match'. Awesome build up video.

2-out-3 Falls Match
Zack Sabre Jr vs Tommaso Ciampa - 9/10
is Ciampa the biggest contrast between entrance song and wrestler? I mean, Talking Heads sing about Psycho Killer, but I've always found that song kinda happy and nice. This was a battle of styles if you've ever seen one, every time the match got technical, Sabre dominated, every time the match went into striking, Ciampa was dominating, Sabre can usually hold his own in that department, but not against a master of strikes like Ciampa. Sabre worked Ciampa's arms while Ciampa kept going for the head strikes and back. They did a really interesting thing in this match, this is a two falls to win match, so instead of just trading falls, they did a double pin (four shoulders on the mat), and they gave a fall to each guy, so it really just became a one fall to the finish match, the double pin came up around the 15-20 minute mark, so it wasn't like just trying to get it out of the way. The last fall of the match got a bit more intense, tons of exchange of their stronger arsenal, including Project Ciampa from the second rope that made me fringe for Sabre's spine. Awesome finish, Sabre took his submission game to another level. It may be because of the story, but it really feels like this was the best match of the series.

Post-Match - Ciampa and Sabre embrace at the end, this was Ciampa's final PROGRESS match.

If The Origin loses, they HAVE to disband
The Origin vs F.S.U., Damon Moser, & Jack Gallagher - 7/10
This Damon Moser guy, total geek, if he were to miss the next 10 chapters, I totally forget about him and assume he was making his debut. The heel heat that Gibson carries with him is something to behold, he may be over Whitmer's heel heat, so much toilet paper gets wasted because of guys like these. This looks like a Toilet Paper Death Match. Match was really chaotic with tons of comedy as you would imagine, it was another match that I just assume it was Tornado Tag rules. Gibson took the win on Gallagher after Mastiff hit him with a car stereo, where did he find a car stereo in a match? I have no idea, don't ask. Entertaining match, good break in between the Ciampa/Sabre match and the main event. Standing ovation for Gallagher, also his last PROGRESS match before becoming a gimmick.

Haskins/End/Scurll Build Up Video - Fucking Awesome! Beautiful perspective on each of the participants and their motivations coming in to the match.

3-way PROGRESS Championship Match
"The Villain" Marty Scurll (C) vs Mark Haskins vs "The Anti-Hero" Tommy End - 9.5/10
End brought his S.D.Q. facepaint, Scurll brought a lot of lady villains to the ring to dance, not sure if that's what he's going for, but I got the big 007 villain feel. Big fight feel in the air tonight. This triangle match consisted of End, who was the hard hitting kicker, pissed off and strongest of the three; Haskins, the never give up, fast paced, all heart guy; and Scurll, the villain who is always a step ahead of the rest. Match saw a lot of 3-way fighting and little one-on-one segments between the three of them, each combination quite unique. As the match went on, frustration started to build up a lot, Scurll brought a bunch of umbrellas to the match, End set up a table, which Haskins eventually went through. Frustration kept building and Scurll started hitting End with his umbrellas and hitting Gotch Piledrivers, which End kept kicking out of because End will never die. This made Scurll start beating the shit out of referees, staff, and he is about to beat up Jim Smallman.....JIMMY FUCKING HAVOC RETURNS!! Havoc takes out Scurll with an Acid Rainmaker and leaves him for dead. So all three guys eventually make it up to their feet and go for the final flurry of offense, Scurll takes out End, leaving Haskins an opening to lock in the sharpshooter for the win.

At first I was thinking that Havoc's involvement was gonna shit on the balance of the match, but when I gave it more minutes, it actually balanced everything out. Haskins went through a table, End took Umbrellas and piledrivers over and over again, and Scurll to an Acid Rainmaker, and since no one went for the sneak pin, then it never felt like Scurll lost because of interference.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:
This was an amazing show top to bottom for PROGRESS, definitely their biggest show and one of the best cards I've seen for the promotion. The worst match was Robinson vs Mambo, and that was more of a segment really. Three new champs, got to see Newell and Windsor, there's nothing I could ask that this show didn't deliver. Also, this i'd say is the perfect starting poing show if you're barely trying to get into PROGRESS.