Cero Reviews PROGRESS Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16, Day 2

[cero2k]

PROGRESS Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16, Day 2
May 6th, 2018
Alexandra Palace, London, Eng.

Jim Smallman Intro - Tons of people that were not here yesterday. Chapter 78 may or may not be called 'My Pillow is a Whooper". Don't be a Dick.

SSS16 Quarter Finals Match
Zack Gibson w/James Drake vs "Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne - 6/10
Gibson cuts his usual promo saying that Dunne has had the easiest free ride in WWE and that he barely even defends that title, yet everyone hypes him up as a WWE superstar and thus he steals bookings from the working man. Dunne attacked him with a show.

Match was a lot of Drake getting involved while Gibson would distract the ref. GYVs worked over Dunne's arm towards Gibson's submission, but they just couldn't seal the deal. Dunne mostly worked GIbson's head and torse, tons of striking, and kinda going for the Bitter End, but never really hitting it either. Match was really getting good when Havoc, Haskins, other Haskins, and Webster came out and tried to attack Dunne, but Dunne was able to fend them off and grab the chair out of Havoc. Dunne was about to take out the cocky Vicky Haskins, but Webster stopped him, and among the commotion and frustration, he hit Gibson and got himself DQ. Seems like the bad booking of yesterday will creep in to this show too. Glenn mentioned that this was the first DQ in a SSS16 match, and there's probably a reason for that, right? Why book a WWE champion that can't lose to a tournament where he needs to lose? I never get this, they could have easily asked WWE for Dunne to defend the title during the weekend and that would had been good enough and you can still do the H&H angle with Bate.

Post-match - Gibson and Drake left. H&H kept attacking Dunne and wanted Webster to take the final shot with a barbwire bat, but Webster was hesitant. This stall gave Tyler Bate to come out for the save.

Jordan Devlin vs TK Cooper vs Chuck Mambo - 7/10
Devlin became the biggest babyface in the building during Mambo's entrance, when he grabbed one of the beach balls, did a full rotation moonsault chilena on the ball. Match was all action, tons of 3-men spots. Devlin was the MVP of the match, just going all over the place with great spots. Mambo showed a lot more than usual, like I said yesterday, I really hope he gets that 'never give up' push and we start seeing him turn into a more serious competitor. TK was just there, but he was good at what he did. Finish came when Mambo took out Cooper, but Devlin came in, dropped Mambo with a Package Piledriver for the win.

Chris Brookes, Mark Andrews, & Joey Janela vs Haskins, Havoc, & Webster w/ Vicky Haskins - 7.5/10
Brookes came out with a new song, I actually liked it. Am i turning on Brookes? Is it the lack of Lykos that is doing it? The new union of HHW have their own little video now.

There are two small stories going on here between Webster and Andrews since they have a long going history, but also some situations in the latest shows when Webster won the Thunderbastard. We also have the thing with Janela and Havoc having a rivalry since last year and so they're antagonizing each other. And I guess there is something here with Haskins and Havoc being super pushy on Webster, but that's been going on for several shows now. I really love the dynamic so far.

Match was the heel team work over Janela for a long while, Brookes coming in with the hot tag, and from there, all hell broke loose. They started doing crazy spots in the apron with people flying over everyone, you'd believe the babyfaces had been teaming for a while. At the end, we finally got Janela and Havoc going at it, but it didn't last long as everyone started hitting their finishers, but at the end, it was a low blow by Havoc on Janela that made the opening for the Acid Rainmaker Kick combo for the win. Great action packed match. I love this heel team.

Post-match - Janela says that for the last two nights, he's been fucked over, and so he challenges Jimmy Havoc to a deathmatch for SSS16 Night 3.

SSS16 Quarter Finals Match
"Limitless" Keith Lee vs Angelico - 7/10
This was your usual fast guy vs strong guy, but with the strong guy also being really athletic, and the fast guy pushing and pissing off such strong guy. There was a story building up to Keith Lee's first overhand chop, and from there one, Lee just started tossing around Angelico left and right. Angelico made some comebacks via kicking Lee in the face, but Lee kept stopping Angelico. Finals minutes of the match were more balanced with Angelico bringing Lee down to his knees, Lee dropped him with a Spirit Bomb, and went for a moonsault that Angelico stopped and was going for the Crucifix Bomb that Lee got out of and killed Angelico with Fireman's Carry Slam for the win. Good match, but I wasn't a big fan of the finish, I think they could have stopped at the Spirit Bomb.

THIS.IS.PROGRESS Documentary Trailer - Great! I've been waiting for this since the kickstarter was announced, I'm excited to watch it.

Jack Sexsmith Promo - He just talks about his impeding title shot at chapter 69 and while he's no looking forward to facing WALTER, he's ready for anyone. Then he introduces his tag team partner and so we get...

SSS16 Quarter Finals Match
David Starr vs Zack Sabre Jr - 9/10
Last year, Sabre knocked out Starr out of Super Strong Style 16, now Starr is one of the favorites to win the tournament, but Sabre is THE favorite.

Sabre started the match being his usual cocky way and it really quickly pushed Starr to fuck the sportsmanship out the door and start striking Sabre in order to keep Sabre at bay and avoid submissions, except, you know, Sabre can strike too. The match built up to Sabre and Starr just going into a crazy striking exchange with chops, lariats, kicks, everything. The story at the end of the match was that Sabre had worked so much on Starr's legs, that even though Starr was dropping Sabre with all his finishers, he wasn't able to capitalize fast enough. After surviving tons of sick looking Stan Hansen Lariats, Sabre finally locked in Starr with the same leg submission he used on Tanahashi at the New Japan Cup, and Sabre advances to the semi-finals. Awesome match.

Millie McKenzie, Sierra Loxton, & Laura Di Matteo vs House of Couture - 7/10
FINALLY Laura gets a chance to get her hands on Jinny, which was a far better feud than Jinny vs Storm or vs Black. HoC worked over Loxton for a while, Di Matteo and McKenzie were competing with each other to see who hated Jinny the most. The match got chaotic after the hot tag when Laura got her hands on Jinny. Finish saw Di Matteo tap out Chakara. Di Matteo and McKenzie were really over.

SSS16 Quarter Finals Match
Tyler Bate vs Kassius Ohno - 8.5/10
They told the big man vs smaller man story really well, mainly because even though Bate is super strong and Ohno is super athletic, they didn't do the whole 'I can do that too' thing that we tend to see with guys like Lee or Ricochet. This story actually used those things to build to the point when Bate finally dominated Ohno strength-wise.

Ohno initially had control of the match with a lot of kicks and power moves with only a few Bate hope spots, but Bate slowly and slowly got more offense in when he would find moves to dodge away from Ohno. Match turned when Ohno missed a moonsault and Bate finally hit a german on him. Climax of the match was when Bate got Ohno on for the Airplane Spin and consequent Tyler Driver '98 for the win. One of the better matches of the night.

Banks vs WALTER Build Up Video - Production was kinda tacky, not their best work, but I liked the comparison they did between both reigns.

PROGRESS Championship Match
"Kiwi Buzzsaw" Travis Banks (C) vs "Ring General" WALTER - 7/10
Travis Banks has one of the most babyfaces songs at least in PROGRESS, so now that he's heel and people boo him, that songs just feels wrong.

Banks jumped WALTER during ring introductions with a flying kick among streamers, so if anyone took a picture of the moment, that may be one for the ages. First half of the match, they brawled a lot outside the ring, they would go in to the ring for a few stuff, but once again go out, mostly with WALTER under control with chops and strikes. Banks made what I'd considered a huge babyface comeback towards the dominating WALTER, he stupidly tried to go chop to chop with WALTER, just to be killed yet never give up. Banks offense was focused on the head since he was working towards the Lion's Clutch, WALTER, regardless of his dominance, was going for a choke or a Boston Crab towards the end.

At one point, TK Cooper came out to help Banks, but WALTER killed him and threw him to the staff, but the distraction gave Banks an opening to hit Slice from Heaven for a near fall. We got some more near falls and at the end, WALTER and Banks were outside the ring, WALTER makes it to the ring in time, but Banks instead of getting in, grabs his title and walks away for the countout. Yeap. I was liking the match, it was kinda backwards, but I was liking it, but the finish was sour at the end, even if I think it made good sense and it was for the best. Maybe not have Cooper out or have Banks kinda faking not making it to the ring but then reveal he was good.

Post-match - WALTER, pissed off, yells at Banks that he is a disgrace to this company and that this is not over until he gets the world championship. Banks ran away, but WALTER killed Cooper instead.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
It took me 3 days to finish this show, not for lack of trying, I would just reach points were my interest was at the bottom and I just could sit through another match. The show itself wasn't bad per say, but some of the early booking and night 1 jaded me enough that if I was going to enjoy Sabre or WALTER, I really needed to take the break.

If anything else, go watch the second half of the show.

[Big Red Machine]

At one point, TK Cooper came out to help Banks, but WALTER killed him and threw him to the staff, but the distraction gave Banks an opening to hit Slice from Heaven for a near fall. We got some more near falls and at the end, WALTER and Banks were outside the ring, WALTER makes it to the ring in time, but Banks instead of getting in, grabs his title and walks away for the countout. Yeap. I was liking the match, it was kinda backwards, but I was liking it, but the finish was sour at the end, even if I think it made good sense and it was for the best. Maybe not have Cooper out or have Banks kinda faking not making it to the ring but then reveal he was good.

Post-match - WALTER, pissed off, yells at Banks that he is a disgrace to this company and that this is not over until he gets the world championship. Banks ran away, but WALTER killed Cooper instead.

I think their thinking was that they needed WALTER to be extra angry in order to justify what he does the next night, and they thought Banks faking an injury wouldn't have been anywhere near as aggravating to WALTER as Banks being clearly okay and teasing that he was going to find his spine and actually keep fighting but only run back to get the belt instead.