PROGRESS Chapter 48: Bang The Drum

[cero2k]

PROGRESS Chapter 48: Bang The Drum
May 14, 2017
The O2 Ritz, Manchester, Eng

Jim Smallman Intro - IRS, Hogan, British Bulldog, Stone Cold, and Sting are all on attendance today. Not really. DON'T BE A DICK!

SSS16 Qualifier Match
James Drake vs "Flash" Morgan Webster - 7/10
Getting payback from the sneak attack last week, Webster starts the brawl early during Drake's entrance. Drake was working Webster's jaw all match, the man has a jawbreaker forearm and he wants another victim tonight. Webster's hope spots were short and not many, but they were all big enough that it felt like it was balancing out Drake to him. Finish saw Drake try to use the tights to pin Webster, but ref saw it, while Drake argues with the ref, Webster connects with the knee and Slice Bread for the win. This is James Drake's first loss.

Jinny vs Session Moth Martina - 6.5/10
Jinny tonight has the chance to get some momentum for the Natural Progression Series IV finals. Martina obviously with her super over entrance, if only her wrestling was at par, different song tonight though, so that kinda sucks. Martina instead of streamer treatment, got a glowstick treatment. I can't imagine a better feud other than Moth vs Jinny. Match started with a series of pin attempts while Martina had a beer, no drop was wasted.

Match was mostly Jinny dominating, with Martina having some great comebacks here and there, her style is really fun to watch sometimes, but at the end, Jinny decimated Martina. At one point Jinny choked Martina with a plastic bag, which was a great visual and heat magnet. This ended up being a fun match after all.

London Riots vs Sweet Jesus - 6.5/10
A bit of a boring match personally, everything with Mambo felt like a drag, his comedy is stupid, and his wrestling subpar, a bunch of his moves look terrible. Eaver's parts however were all great, we haven't seen much of him since the Sebastian battle, so fans were hyped about them. Match got good towards the end, but finish was a bit lackluster and it seems like they'll build Sweet Jesus towards a title shot. Davis took off after match without Lynch, but I'm not gonna read too much into that.

Travis Banks vs Trent Seven - 8.5/10
It's just not the same hearing that song without TK Cooper coming out and making out with a picture of Dahlia Black, but hey, it's time for the Kiwi Dragon to breakout! These guys went through a long brawl outside the ring that once they made it to the ring, I had totally forgotten the match hadn't officially started. Banks schooled Seven on what it means to be known as Buzzsaw, and Seven finally lived up to his stable's name, simply said, these guys went in to beat each other out, and oh god, was it amazing! Unfortunately, the finish sucked bad, I have to believe they rematch at SSS16, potentially at the semis.

SSS16 Qualifier Match
"The Professional" Nathan Cruz vs "Rockstar" Spud -
You think we can get another PROGRESS logo in Spud's attire? Or maybe some other company to sponsor his entrance song, because this new one kinda sucks. This is a Spud match, with the exception of his wars with Swoggle, there is only one formula for Spud matches, that is getting his ass kicked for most of the match, some flurries of hope spread around, and one final babyface fire dance that may or may not get him a win. In this particular case, that was a nay, Cruz killed Spud with the reverse showstolen , but to Spud's defense, he was battling injured ribs that he injured, also worth mentioning that Spud kicked out of several showstolens before finally failing to kick out again.

Match was actually great, formula or not, Spud is a great babyface underdog.

Tyler Bate vs "King of Bros" Matt Riddle - 9/10
Double champ vs double champ tonight, and none of the titles is on the line. WWE UK title got booed at the mention of it, then they did a yay vs boo between Atlas and WWE UK titles. Match started with Riddle dominating Bate like a kid until Bate hit a tope suicida after dodging Riddle, but after that small heat segment, it was all back and forward between them. I don't know what they were trying to achieve here, Tyler Bate, the heel, kicked out of all the babyface's signature moves, to the point where he had that 'He can't believe it' look in his face, the one you usually leave for the heels. I question the planning of this match, but that aside, the wrestling was amazing. Finished sucked because Trent Seven ran in for the DQ and we never saw Riddle kick out of any of Bate's moves. Expect Chosen Bros vs British Strong Style soon.

Tyler Bate is a great little cocky heel, but a lot of his wrestling stuff is really babyface-ish, specially considering his size, he's starting to reach Young Bucks heat with half of the fans cheering for you, and the other half hoping you die.

PROGRESS Championship 3-way Match
Mark Haskins vs Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne (C) - 9.5/10
Talking about song changes that suck but I'll end up getting accustomed to, Mark Haskins song change sucked. So we have two guys that want to kill Dunne and take his title, but the rivalry between them to see who should get a chance to do it, has risen so much that the intensity between then has reached Dunne hate levels.

Match started at 100 mph. It started mostly with one on one pairings, but later on transitioned into a full out 3-way dance inside the ring. Match saw many many 2-on-1 spots, 1-on-2 spots, dives, and submissions. For a second time in a row, finish saw BSS come out to interfere, this time they distracted the ref enough for Haskins to drop the double submission he had on, making an opening for Dunne to low blow him and make enough time for him to hit the Pumphandle Slam on Andrews for the win. Tons of heat.

Post-match - BSS celebrate in the ring when Matt Riddle comes out to fight them all, but is easily defeated. Dunne says that everything belongs to him and there is no one left that can take on BSS, then suddenly...CC Fucking K! Mondai Lykos and Chris Brookes AKA CCK come out and take out BSS making them run away. Huge Pop!

OVERALL THOUGHTS
It was a good show overall, the bad matches were at least entertaining, and the good matches were amazing. Something I do have to say is that the booking of BSS tonight was really annoying, sure it's heat and all, but three big matches were BSS screwed the top babyfaces of PROGRESS, it really wears you down. Banks was coming in tonight for the first time as his own man, this really needed to be a night where he stood tall, but they went for the screw finish. It better be opposite momentum and he better win SSS16.