Cero Reviews PROGRESS Chapter 59: Whatever People Say We Are, That's What We're Not

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Cero Reviews PROGRESS Chapter 59: Whatever People Say We Are, That's What We're Not

Post by cero2k » Jan 10th, '18, 10:16

PROGRESS Chapter 59: Whatever People Say We Are, That's What We're Not
December 10th, 2017
The O2 Academy, Sheffield, Eng

Jim Smallman Intro - Jim says that tonight's show had some problems because several of the scheduled wrestlers were pulled or couldn't make it and thus there will be some changes tonight, particularly, we're not getting British Strong Style (Dunne vs Conners, MM vs GYV) nor Andrews (Cross vs Brookes vs Andrews) tonight. Those changes could had been perfect for next show being Unboxing Live, but you work with what you have. Don't Be A Dick.

Doug Williams Open Challenge
Doug Williams vs Rampage Brown - 7/10
As we saw some shows back, Doug Williams is going through his mid-life crisis and is not sure if he should hang the boots or not, and unfortunately for him, of all people, the one answering is the returning former inaugural Atlas Champion, Rampage Fucking Brown! He got a huge pop, but we couldn't hear it because they dubbed the audio with a new song over the original that played in the venue.

Rampage definitely had the speed and power advantage over Doug, but not the experience, which Doug used to cut off Rampage and hurt him, so it was a back and forward dance with Doug cutting off Rampage with technique, and Rampage cutting off Doug with mere strength. Lots of tossing around and clotheslines, big lad's wrestling in all it's galore. Finish saw Rampage drop Doug with a piledriver out of nowhere for the pin. Great opener.

Chris Ridgeway vs Adam Chase - 7/10
One of the matches that had to be changed as Webster didn't make it in, and we got Chase instead making his debut. Chase is a newcomer from Spain starting to make noise after he participated in the CHIKARA King of Trios weekend, so in a way, he's pretty leveled up with Ridgeway's experience.

Match was fast paced, back and forward, with TONS of kicks. Chase has a more speed balanced moveset with cutters, moonsaults, and knee strikes, but Ridgeway has that "Student of Tommy End" style with strike-based offense. Finish saw Ridgeway suplex Chase INTO a chokehold for the quick tap out. Match was solid and what it had to be, RIdgeway has potential to be a big name in PROGRESS soon.

Winner Earns a Championship Match
Chief Deputy Dunne vs Pastor William Eaver vs Spike Trivet vs Gabriel Kidd vs Saxon Huxley vs Amir Jordan vs PRIMATE vs Jack Sexsmith - 4/10
The Pastor IS BACK! This match is missing Chuck Mambo, Mark Davis, and Kyle Fletcher from the original card announced. I can't really say I miss any of them. Also, this match was booked as getting a 'title shot' but no word on what title they'd be getting the shot, so I guess it openes it up to the chance of Primate winning and challenging for the Atlas Championship. I also need to mention that Huxley's nickname is 'The Muscle Cat'.

The match started and went straight to crazyness. Everyone started brawling on the outside while inside the ring we had Jungle Jesus (Muscle Cat) vs Actual Jesus (Bill Eaver). Within a minute we had some guys start doing flips to the outside, AND another minute later they're not taking turns on hitting their signature moves. The whole match was just taking turns on hitting spots and moves until Sexsmith got the win on Dunne. Gabriel Kidd and Primate were probably the most over guys. I guess with all his loses, this is a way to get a title shot on Sexsmith, but considering the champ is Banks, he could have easily given him the shot just by asking. I do hope I get to see Primate vs WALTER soon.

Joseph Conners cuts a promo on Pete Dunne not being here defending his UK Championship tonight, and since Dunne ain't here tonight, we get...

Joseph Conners vs Chuck Mambo - 6/10
In hindsight, I wish they had just left Mambo in the 8-way and have someone like Gabriel Kidd that actually has potential to debut against Conners and give us a competitive match instead of a joke wrestler, even if the commentary table are trying to tell me this is a new more focused Chuck Mambo, it's gonna take several matches for me to see that. This match was unfortunately way to balanced and back and forward, how am I to believe that Conners has a chance against the former champion if someone like Mambo took him to the limit. Conners eventually took the win.

Chris Brookes w/Kid Lykos vs Matt Cross - 6.5/10
What the fuck is happening, Kid Lykos keeps interfering, even the fans are at this point "chanting Shitty Little Wolf. The match was a lot slower than I expected, but it did improve a lot as it progressed and Lykos stopped trying to interfere. Brookes won with a roll up in a really underwhelming match considering the talent involved.

PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
Grizzled Young Vets (C) vs Aussie Open - 7.5/10
Fletcher and Davis were supposed to be in the 8-man, but I'm glad they got a shot here, even if it makes it a predictable outcome, this way, they get to shine a lot more as a tag team than two random guys in an 8-way clusterfuck. GYV got the old toilet paper treatment tonight, and as Gibson said, half of the roster didn't show up and this is what THEY get?

First half of the match saw the Vets get heat on Fletcher until Davis got the hot tag and ran wild, they went tornado tag for second half, both teams having some great near falls, one of them where even though I knew Aussie Open was not winning, I totally thought they had the match won. Vets win with the Ticket To Mayhem. This was one of the better Vets matches I've seen, Gibson was great. At one point Davis (built like a super heavyweight) trying to go for something like a Starship Pain to the outside and completely botched it landing neck first into the ring corner.

PROGRESS Championship Match
Travis Banks (C) vs Eddie Dennis - 9/10
HOLY SHIT! Dennis enters first and is doing his rounds pissing off fans around the ring, he does a whole loop during his entrance and is messing around with some fan close to the stage, suddenly Banks makes his intro and straight up does a stage dive onto Dennis! Having started brawling outside, they did some spots before officially starting the match. including Travis fending off chairs spot. During that brawl, Eddie got the upper hand on Travis, so once inside the ring, Dennis kept control of Banks and kept the heat for a while working Banks' back.

Banks made his comeback and they started going more back and forward, but with a slight edge favoring Banks; however, as Glenn put it, the anger inside Eddie Dennis is driving him to keep kicking out. Eddie dropped Banks with his top moves but Banks also kept kicking out. Banks wins with the Lion's Clutch making Eddie tap out, just like he made Andrews tap out. Great match, probably the best I've seen of Eddie Dennis.

Post-match - Eddie Dennis submits his application to Suzuki-Gun by beating up all the PROGRESS staff.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was an interesting show since half of the card had to be changed on the spot and we got to see a lot of newer talent, who really had to step up to the occasion and deliver if they had any hopes of returning to PROGRESS. The show did have some downs, but I blame those on how the final card had to be left as and having to rely on some jobbers in order to fill in the card and give us competitive matches.
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