PROGRESS Chapter 50: I Give It Six Months
Jim Smallman Intro - It's been 50 Chapters. and talking about DON'T BE A DICK....
Pete Dunne Is A Dick - Dunne comes out, throws the PROGRESS title on the mat and steps on it while holding that meaningless WWE UK belt. Gets the mic, says that if Banks is getting the shot at Alexandria Palace, he will STILL be the champ, but quite frankly, he doesn't think he should defend the title until then since no one deserves a title shot. As Dunne is leaving, Jim Smallman cuts him up and tells little Petah will be fighting up until the Alexandria Palace show, and while he won't need to defend the title, if ANYONE beats him until then, those people will get title shots.
PROGRESS Women's Championship Match
Good opener, crowd was divided between the two. Several submission near falls in the first part of the match, then they started hitting each other with every big move possible. Highlights were KLR doing a huge jump to the outside landing on Toni and staff members. Toni Storm hitting KLR with some piledrivers, including a top rope piledriver for the win.
Due to the copyright situation, Origin doesn't have entrance music anymore, so Mastiff came out and asked the fans to please sing their entrance song, which the fans completely failed at. First five minutes were all about making jokes of Mastiff's weight, until he came out with a huricanrana to shut everyone up. Match was mostly comedy, several jokes of Ligero thinking he's stronger than he really is, going for the Batista Bomb and stuff. Riots were mostly dominant and took the win after a series of spears. Seems like The Riots are back towards title contendership.
Match started with Webster just wrestling circles all over Sexsmith, it was like not taking him seriously, but not going easy on him at all. In what felt like a babyface thing, Webster was helping Sexsmith get on his feet when down in the corner and ha gave him space and all, but maybe he was just Jack build a certain level of false security before Webster started going strong on him. It was the usual Sexsmith match, where he gets punished for 90% of the match and then makes a comeback to earn the respect of their opponent. There was a really weird spot where they did the usual forearm exchange, but Sexsmith's response to the forearms were striked kisses.
At one point when Sexsmith was going for the Cock-O, lights went out and suddenly, Chief Deputy Damian Dunne returned. Took out Webster costing Sexsmith the match, then attacked Sexsmith in his injured arm. He cuts a promo on Sexsmith saying he's here to kill the fun. Match was going ok, but shit finish, but mostly because Dunne was shitty here.
After Dunne leaves, Webster helps Sexsmith up and to the back.
Donovan Dijak was announced as a surprise, some people popped, some of us sat in our chairs wondering what's for dinner. First thing Heidenreich, I mean Dijak, did was get his flippy side over with a standing moonsault and an Asai Moonsault to the outside. It really didn't take long for Dunne to take control over Banana Hands, Dunne actually looking great being able to dominate this dude with so much ease. They exchanged a bunch of kicks and punches until Dunne hits the Bitter End for the win. Dunne looked like a killer tonight against the much bigger Ivan Drago. I guess there is something good about Dijak, as him getting his ass kicked, makes the little dudes look great. Captain Charisma Void also has one of the most obvious looking leg slaps when superkicking.
Jimmy Havoc coming off from winning the 2017 CZW Tournament of Death and Haskins celebrating his birthday. Mrs. Haskins brought out party hats for Mark and Jimmy, you may say this is totally against who Havoc is, but I totally think that a party hat in Jimmy Havoc's hands becomes a deadly weapon. Gibson cut his usual shtick before the match mainly shitting on Haskins and Havoc.
I figured this would be an all out brawl, but they actually got back to the ring quite fast. Origin worked on Havoc for a while, focusing on his shoulder's skin since it is still all scarred from the TOD. Once Haskins took the hot tag, Havoc and Haskins just completely dominated the Origin, up to the point where their level of violence got out of hand and accidentally took out the ref when he was trying to separate them. Havoc gave Haskins a chair for his birthday, but before he could use it, Gibson cut them off with low blows for each. Finish saw Haskins accidentally hit Havoc with a chair and Gibson rolled up Haskins for the win. The rift between Haskins and Havoc continues, they play it cool, but these accidents keep happening.
There was awesome swerve with Gibson trying to do an Eddie, giving the chair to Havoc and falling on his back looking for the DQ, but the ref was still out and Havoc just destroyed Gibson with the chair for a near fall when Cruz made the save. Really great match.
This was a hell of a stiff fight, it was 90% strikes, and 99% of those were stiff looking. Drake is coming off from his first loss after his undefeated streak, but he is still credible enough to believe that he could take the DQ win somehow.
CCK vs British Strong Style Promo Video - Awesome stuff, included CCK's challenge and BSS's response. Shut Up, Lykos.
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
I'd like to see Lykos vs Cheeseburger or Excalibur one day, but I don't think he's in neither's weight division. Anyway, both teams make their entrances, BSS takes forever to finish theirs, so CCK just fly through the sky and get this match going, well, not match, but brawl, they start brawling all around, but since the bell hasn't rang, BSS introduce chairs to the mix now while it's safe. Many many chairs were sacrificed during this match. By the time the match started, both teams were beat.
Once inside the ring, first thing that BSS tried was low blowing CCK to get DQed, but the ref flips them off and says he'll let the match proceed. Everything after this was like a huge single spot, it was all non-stop carnage inside and outside the ring, may as well been booked as a Tornado match. At one point, Seven called out Dunne for the assist, but before he could do anything, Travis Banks cuts him off and they fight off to the back.
Back inside the ring, CCK and BSS trade off tons more moves, piledrivers and whatnot. Tons of near falls because CCK came in with a buzz, but no one believed it until they saw it, but surely it came after Lykos hits the Brainbustaahhh on Bate and pins him to become the new PROGRESS tag champs in their in-ring debut.
Look, it was an awesome show top to bottom, but somewhere in my head, seeing the big 50 in the title made me get higher expectations that usual, kinda feels like Dunne should have defended too, not against Banana Hands though. Riddle too maybe. Nonetheless, it was a great show, and now on to the next 50.
Pete Dunne Is A Dick - Dunne comes out, throws the PROGRESS title on the mat and steps on it while holding that meaningless WWE UK belt. Gets the mic, says that if Banks is getting the shot at Alexandria Palace, he will STILL be the champ, but quite frankly, he doesn't think he should defend the title until then since no one deserves a title shot. As Dunne is leaving, Jim Smallman cuts him up and tells little Petah will be fighting up until the Alexandria Palace show, and while he won't need to defend the title, if ANYONE beats him until then, those people will get title shots.
PROGRESS Women's Championship Match
Kay Lee Ray vs Toni Storm (C) - 6.5/10
Good opener, crowd was divided between the two. Several submission near falls in the first part of the match, then they started hitting each other with every big move possible. Highlights were KLR doing a huge jump to the outside landing on Toni and staff members. Toni Storm hitting KLR with some piledrivers, including a top rope piledriver for the win.
London Riots vs Origin: Banter Edition - 6/10
Due to the copyright situation, Origin doesn't have entrance music anymore, so Mastiff came out and asked the fans to please sing their entrance song, which the fans completely failed at. First five minutes were all about making jokes of Mastiff's weight, until he came out with a huricanrana to shut everyone up. Match was mostly comedy, several jokes of Ligero thinking he's stronger than he really is, going for the Batista Bomb and stuff. Riots were mostly dominant and took the win after a series of spears. Seems like The Riots are back towards title contendership.
'Flash' Morgan Webster vs Jack Sexsmith - 6.5/10
Match started with Webster just wrestling circles all over Sexsmith, it was like not taking him seriously, but not going easy on him at all. In what felt like a babyface thing, Webster was helping Sexsmith get on his feet when down in the corner and ha gave him space and all, but maybe he was just Jack build a certain level of false security before Webster started going strong on him. It was the usual Sexsmith match, where he gets punished for 90% of the match and then makes a comeback to earn the respect of their opponent. There was a really weird spot where they did the usual forearm exchange, but Sexsmith's response to the forearms were striked kisses.
At one point when Sexsmith was going for the Cock-O, lights went out and suddenly, Chief Deputy Damian Dunne returned. Took out Webster costing Sexsmith the match, then attacked Sexsmith in his injured arm. He cuts a promo on Sexsmith saying he's here to kill the fun. Match was going ok, but shit finish, but mostly because Dunne was shitty here.
After Dunne leaves, Webster helps Sexsmith up and to the back.
Pete Dunne vs Donovan Dijak - 7/10
Donovan Dijak was announced as a surprise, some people popped, some of us sat in our chairs wondering what's for dinner. First thing Heidenreich, I mean Dijak, did was get his flippy side over with a standing moonsault and an Asai Moonsault to the outside. It really didn't take long for Dunne to take control over Banana Hands, Dunne actually looking great being able to dominate this dude with so much ease. They exchanged a bunch of kicks and punches until Dunne hits the Bitter End for the win. Dunne looked like a killer tonight against the much bigger Ivan Drago. I guess there is something good about Dijak, as him getting his ass kicked, makes the little dudes look great. Captain Charisma Void also has one of the most obvious looking leg slaps when superkicking.
The Origin vs Jimmy Havoc & Mark Haskins - 8/10
Jimmy Havoc coming off from winning the 2017 CZW Tournament of Death and Haskins celebrating his birthday. Mrs. Haskins brought out party hats for Mark and Jimmy, you may say this is totally against who Havoc is, but I totally think that a party hat in Jimmy Havoc's hands becomes a deadly weapon. Gibson cut his usual shtick before the match mainly shitting on Haskins and Havoc.
I figured this would be an all out brawl, but they actually got back to the ring quite fast. Origin worked on Havoc for a while, focusing on his shoulder's skin since it is still all scarred from the TOD. Once Haskins took the hot tag, Havoc and Haskins just completely dominated the Origin, up to the point where their level of violence got out of hand and accidentally took out the ref when he was trying to separate them. Havoc gave Haskins a chair for his birthday, but before he could use it, Gibson cut them off with low blows for each. Finish saw Haskins accidentally hit Havoc with a chair and Gibson rolled up Haskins for the win. The rift between Haskins and Havoc continues, they play it cool, but these accidents keep happening.
There was awesome swerve with Gibson trying to do an Eddie, giving the chair to Havoc and falling on his back looking for the DQ, but the ref was still out and Havoc just destroyed Gibson with the chair for a near fall when Cruz made the save. Really great match.
Travis Banks vs James Drake - 8.5/10
This was a hell of a stiff fight, it was 90% strikes, and 99% of those were stiff looking. Drake is coming off from his first loss after his undefeated streak, but he is still credible enough to believe that he could take the DQ win somehow.
CCK vs British Strong Style Promo Video - Awesome stuff, included CCK's challenge and BSS's response. Shut Up, Lykos.
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match
CCK vs British Strong Style (C) - 9/10
I'd like to see Lykos vs Cheeseburger or Excalibur one day, but I don't think he's in neither's weight division. Anyway, both teams make their entrances, BSS takes forever to finish theirs, so CCK just fly through the sky and get this match going, well, not match, but brawl, they start brawling all around, but since the bell hasn't rang, BSS introduce chairs to the mix now while it's safe. Many many chairs were sacrificed during this match. By the time the match started, both teams were beat.
Once inside the ring, first thing that BSS tried was low blowing CCK to get DQed, but the ref flips them off and says he'll let the match proceed. Everything after this was like a huge single spot, it was all non-stop carnage inside and outside the ring, may as well been booked as a Tornado match. At one point, Seven called out Dunne for the assist, but before he could do anything, Travis Banks cuts him off and they fight off to the back.
Back inside the ring, CCK and BSS trade off tons more moves, piledrivers and whatnot. Tons of near falls because CCK came in with a buzz, but no one believed it until they saw it, but surely it came after Lykos hits the Brainbustaahhh on Bate and pins him to become the new PROGRESS tag champs in their in-ring debut.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Look, it was an awesome show top to bottom, but somewhere in my head, seeing the big 50 in the title made me get higher expectations that usual, kinda feels like Dunne should have defended too, not against Banana Hands though. Riddle too maybe. Nonetheless, it was a great show, and now on to the next 50.