Cero Reviews PROGRESS Chapter 51: Screaming for PROGRESS

[cero2k]

PROGRESS Chapter 51: Screaming for PROGRESS
O2 Academy, Burmingham, Eng
July 9th, 2017

Jim Smallman Intro - Tons of stuff that I couldn't properly listen, but it was someone's birthday. Don't Be a Dick.

Mark Haskins vs Joe Bird - 7/10
Great opener, back an forward hard hitting match with Bird building his name in PROGRESS, and a clean decisive win for Haskins. Finish saw Bird tap out to the Sharpshooter.

Post-match - Great promo, he vows that he's coming to get his title back.

"Hipstar" Ashmore vs Eddie Dennis - 7/10
Ok match, nothing special wrestling wise. This is Eddie Dennis big return since he is now supposed to be a full time wrestler, so he says he's coming in strong, serious, and straight for the title. Match was mostly dominated by Dennis with so many forearms to the face that his own forearm started to hurt. I personally thought that Ashmore looked better in this match, and more worthy of a push than Dennis, but fans love him, so there's that.

"King of the Goths" Jimmy Havoc vs Jigsaw - 7.5/10
Jigsaw making his PROGRESS debut. So much red and black leather between the two of them, they could be a good tag team. Jigsaw is bringing out the spirit of the Wrestle Factory, pulling out some Quack submissions, which Havoc tries to keep up with, but the School of Quack is just to much for Havoc and his Tournament of Death trophy, so Havoc just decides to stop the chikarany and progress the match into strong style.

The match would be back and forward for the most part, but at the end, it never really felt like Jigsaw had a chance. The finishing sequence saw Havoc destroy Saw before hitting the Acid Rainmaker for the 1-2-3. After the match, before Jigsaw can get the usual 'Please come back' chant, Havoc takes the mic and steals his moment.

Post-match - As an answer to Haskins' promo, Havoc cuts an also good promo saying that HE is the one that has gone through hell to make PROGRESS what it is, blood, sweat, and tears, just kidding, Havoc don't cry. HE is the one coming for the title. This rivalry is coming close to exploding.

London Riots vs War Machine - 9.5/10
Well, this was a hell of a match. Ray Rowe does the same shtick as the G1 Special and call to throw the rule book out and make this a No DQs match, and while there was zero weapon shots, the Tornado Tag Rule and No Countouts helped this tons more. Nothing against the likes of the Bucks or GoD, but this was the best War Machine match I've seen this year.

PROGRESS Atlas Championship
WALTER vs "King of Bros" Matt Riddle (C) - 9/10
so, he IS beatable! These guys came in to this match with the purpose to see who could get their opponents chest reddest. Two fan favorites that came in to prove who deserve the Atlas Championship and they hit each other with everything they had. Match felt shorter than their previous bout, but a lot more fast paced. At the end, WALTER made Riddle tap!

'Flash' Morgan Webster vs Chief Deputy Dunne - 6.5
Dunne's thing is that he is a cop against fun, this is the type of shit that I hate WWE for. I'm ok with make believe cops, it's the 'fun' hating cops that I hate. Anyway, it was a well wrestled dull match with Dunne having the upper hand most of the first half, then Webster making a comeback and coming close to the win, until an accidental ref bump leads Dunne to hit Webster with a low blow and consequent finish. This should had been an opener.

Before the main event officially started, Trent Seven interrupts the introductions and talks CCK into putting the Tag Titles on the line, with the offer that if CCK retains, neither Seven nor Bate would challenge for the titles again while CCK was champion. I figured specifically saying Seven and Bate would mean that Dunne would regain them later, but I was wrong. And thus....

PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
British Strong Style (Trent Seven, Tyler Bate, & Pete Dunne) vs CCK (Travis Banks, Mondai Lykos, & Chris Brookes) - 9.5/10
They did a quick run of a babyface in peril with Lykos, it lasted about 10% of the match, then all hell broke lose. I can't even try to describe the things they did in this match, it was just waay to much stuff, I could steal that joke that if the Young Bucks saw this match, they'd say that these guys need to slow down.

There wasn't much of a story here either until the end. About 1/4 of the match left, there was a ref bump, that did not exactly happened to have clear pins or anything, but at that point, all 6 guys just figured the match had turned No DQs and kept going at it. At one point Dunne brought out a sledgehammer like Papa Hunter, CCK spoiled the hammer for a while, but at the end, a sledgehammer to the head of Lykos gave BSS the titles back. There were many near falls throughout the match, the main one being when Lykos hits the BRAINBUSTAHH on Bate, but it's broken up.

Travis and Dunne did interact a lot in this match, both trading the upper hand, some spots made Dunne look stronger than Banks, and some others it would be vice versa. Their build towards Alexandria Palace in September is going quite nicely.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Another awesome show for PROGRESS. The main event scene is heating up, we don't only have this war between CCK and BSS, but we know that somewhere in the future, Haskins and Havoc will unleash a feud that will be bloody and violent, and who ever wins will surely want that title from either Banks or Dunne. I'm not really sure where the Atlas title goes from here, I worry that taking the title off Riddle means he won't be booked as often, just like it happened with Rampage.