PROGRESS Chapter 40: Intercepted Angel
Jim Smallman Intro - Between loud talking, Jim's accent, and shitty mics, I have no idea what he said, but surely it was something like 'we're sold out', 'who is here for the first time?', and 'don't be a dick!'
The Rios are debuting music and attire tonight. Within the very first minutes there was a really clear pin for the ref, but instead of counting, he focused on getting Rob Lynch out of the ring, he even walked right next to the pin. Rob Lynch is still wearing a protective mask, and it's really cool for a babyface to fire up and take it off to do a Takayama/Frye spot, but then he goes and does a flying headbutt from the top rope and suddenly he just looks stupid jeopardizing his face again. Good opener, nothing special, match was typical heel/babyface tag match.
Natural Progression Series IV, First Round Match
What is it with Australia that it's full of hot chicks that are great wrestlers. As with typical PROGRESS women's matches, this is probably going to be the only match tonight with mat wrestling and full of submissions, like rolling Kimuras level of submissions. Bea is working the arm and using some of Ospreay's spots; Toni in the other hand is mostly working the head and back. Great Match.
Atlas Championship Open Challenge
Mastiff is dressed as Santa Claus and he looks legit, better than Foley, Rampage looks impressed inside the ring. "Fuck 'em Up Santa, Fuck 'em Up" chants ensure. Brown started working the hand and everything was looking nice, then Mastiff got the heat for a while, and by the time Brown was in the offense again, Mastiff's hand was healed I guess. Good 'Big Lads' match, Mastiff was great, Rampage is good, but I just can't get myself cheering for him.
No DQ, No 1 Contendership Match For the PROGRESS Championship
Scurll brought his trusty umbrella to the match, Havok brought his even trusty-er Ax! Ring crew took the ax away, but Havok beat them up. Huge brawl all over the arena, bunch of weapons. The brawl went so far that the camera's cable got disconnected and we lost feed for a minute. This was a really violent match, poor Scurll just wanted to mat wrestle and do chicken wings, and here comes fucking Havok with staple guns and thumbtacks. I really wonder if this will be the end of the feud. Why wasn't this the main event!?
There were hints in the Mastiff match that Nathan Cruz is getting tired of Ligero and Mastiff's comedy antics, don't be surprised if someone soon will 'hate [Ligero's] fucking guts'. This was 50% comedy, 30% high flying, and 20% Nathan Cruz. The match itself was really good and the comedy worked perfectly for the Origin's internal problems. Great opportunity for F.S.U. to get higher in the tag division rankings.
Post-match - Ligero and Mastiff try to make it up to Cruz with candy, Cruz throws it in Dave's face and they get in each other's face. Ligero kinda calms them down and Cruz walks out.
Bullet Club vs CHAOS, seriously, this feud exists in all promotions. Awesome match, I liked it more than the NJPW match since this one had the embedded story that Ospreay is one show from closing 2016 without a single win since he lost the title to Scurll. Ospreay had a lot of fire towards the end and you just felt, this is the one, he lost all year, but this is the one, but he still couldn't do it.
British Strong Style promo - What the fuck is Tyler looking at? is he worried people are after him? Pete cuts a promo saying that the PROGRESS titles are their ticket out of PROGRESS and that they're just the table on which they sign their contracts. They have all the titles and they're leaving PROGRESS with them. This works amazingly since all three of them got booked in WWE's British intent of a promotion, and their first show is on the same night as PROGRESS, so rightfully, the PROGRESS Champ and tag champs won't be on PROGRESS because they'll be at WWE.
PROGRESS Championship Match
These guys are each other's face from the start. Tyler got involved within the first minutes and got evicted from the match. Well, this seems to be a Sabre Jr clinic on how to make people cringe by twisting your opponent's limbs; Pete however, is just hoping to rip Sabre's head off via elbows and forearms. This was overall a beautiful display of wrestling and submission work that kept escalating in violence minute by minute, a perfect way to elevate and cement Pete Dunne as the new PROGRESS Champ and to make sure people don't wonder if his win at Chapter 39 was a fluke. I'm really glad that neither Bate nor Seven ever came out to interfere, this was Dunne 100%.
Inside the ring this was an amazing match, now I understand why Havok vs Scurll didn't get the main event spot. Storyline wise, we did get some advancement from the main feuds and angles and surely next show will be quite interesting with everything revolving the title holders.
London Riots vs The New Nation - 6/10
The Rios are debuting music and attire tonight. Within the very first minutes there was a really clear pin for the ref, but instead of counting, he focused on getting Rob Lynch out of the ring, he even walked right next to the pin. Rob Lynch is still wearing a protective mask, and it's really cool for a babyface to fire up and take it off to do a Takayama/Frye spot, but then he goes and does a flying headbutt from the top rope and suddenly he just looks stupid jeopardizing his face again. Good opener, nothing special, match was typical heel/babyface tag match.
Natural Progression Series IV, First Round Match
Toni Storm vs Bea Priestley - 7.5/10
What is it with Australia that it's full of hot chicks that are great wrestlers. As with typical PROGRESS women's matches, this is probably going to be the only match tonight with mat wrestling and full of submissions, like rolling Kimuras level of submissions. Bea is working the arm and using some of Ospreay's spots; Toni in the other hand is mostly working the head and back. Great Match.
Atlas Championship Open Challenge
Rampage Brown (C) vs Dave Mastiff - 7/10
Mastiff is dressed as Santa Claus and he looks legit, better than Foley, Rampage looks impressed inside the ring. "Fuck 'em Up Santa, Fuck 'em Up" chants ensure. Brown started working the hand and everything was looking nice, then Mastiff got the heat for a while, and by the time Brown was in the offense again, Mastiff's hand was healed I guess. Good 'Big Lads' match, Mastiff was great, Rampage is good, but I just can't get myself cheering for him.
No DQ, No 1 Contendership Match For the PROGRESS Championship
Marty Scurll vs Jimmy Havok - 9/10
Scurll brought his trusty umbrella to the match, Havok brought his even trusty-er Ax! Ring crew took the ax away, but Havok beat them up. Huge brawl all over the arena, bunch of weapons. The brawl went so far that the camera's cable got disconnected and we lost feed for a minute. This was a really violent match, poor Scurll just wanted to mat wrestle and do chicken wings, and here comes fucking Havok with staple guns and thumbtacks. I really wonder if this will be the end of the feud. Why wasn't this the main event!?
F.S.U. vs The Origin w/Dave Mastiff - 8.5/10
There were hints in the Mastiff match that Nathan Cruz is getting tired of Ligero and Mastiff's comedy antics, don't be surprised if someone soon will 'hate [Ligero's] fucking guts'. This was 50% comedy, 30% high flying, and 20% Nathan Cruz. The match itself was really good and the comedy worked perfectly for the Origin's internal problems. Great opportunity for F.S.U. to get higher in the tag division rankings.
Post-match - Ligero and Mastiff try to make it up to Cruz with candy, Cruz throws it in Dave's face and they get in each other's face. Ligero kinda calms them down and Cruz walks out.
"The Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay vs Adam Cole BAYBAY! - 9/10
Bullet Club vs CHAOS, seriously, this feud exists in all promotions. Awesome match, I liked it more than the NJPW match since this one had the embedded story that Ospreay is one show from closing 2016 without a single win since he lost the title to Scurll. Ospreay had a lot of fire towards the end and you just felt, this is the one, he lost all year, but this is the one, but he still couldn't do it.
British Strong Style promo - What the fuck is Tyler looking at? is he worried people are after him? Pete cuts a promo saying that the PROGRESS titles are their ticket out of PROGRESS and that they're just the table on which they sign their contracts. They have all the titles and they're leaving PROGRESS with them. This works amazingly since all three of them got booked in WWE's British intent of a promotion, and their first show is on the same night as PROGRESS, so rightfully, the PROGRESS Champ and tag champs won't be on PROGRESS because they'll be at WWE.
PROGRESS Championship Match
Pete Dunne (C) w/Tyler Bate vs Zack Sabre Jr - 9.5/10
These guys are each other's face from the start. Tyler got involved within the first minutes and got evicted from the match. Well, this seems to be a Sabre Jr clinic on how to make people cringe by twisting your opponent's limbs; Pete however, is just hoping to rip Sabre's head off via elbows and forearms. This was overall a beautiful display of wrestling and submission work that kept escalating in violence minute by minute, a perfect way to elevate and cement Pete Dunne as the new PROGRESS Champ and to make sure people don't wonder if his win at Chapter 39 was a fluke. I'm really glad that neither Bate nor Seven ever came out to interfere, this was Dunne 100%.
OVERALL THOUGHTS:
Inside the ring this was an amazing match, now I understand why Havok vs Scurll didn't get the main event spot. Storyline wise, we did get some advancement from the main feuds and angles and surely next show will be quite interesting with everything revolving the title holders.