Perry’s Perspective: PROGRESS Chapter 22 (10.18.15)

PROGRESS Chapter 22: Trust, Encouragement, Reward, Loyalty, Satisfaction
October 18, 2015

PROGRESS is an independent UK promotion that began back in March 2012. I did not discover them until May of this year when they held their first Strong Style Tournament. The show caught my eye with American talents I knew such as Roderick Strong and Tomasso Ciampa. Along with those two gentlemen there was Zack Sabre Jr. and Tommy End who I had seen popping up on EVOLVE and PWG events stateside. Upon watch the first show I have been quite hooked and have made attempts to emerge myself in more British wrestling. PROGRESS and RevPro are about as far as I have got with that goal, along with PCW’s join shows with ROH. There are lots of phenomenal talents that are overseas competing and thanks to current online technology it is easier than ever to check these promotions out.

Dave Mastiff vs Jack Gallagher:
Mastiff is a very large ginger bearded man (think of the father from Brave) who is quite athletic. Gallagher is a small man with the build and look of Simon Gotch that has a Crash Holly complex going on. The match was pretty sloppy and had very little flow, going back and forth from wrestling to comedy. The lowlight of the match was MAstiff attempting to lock in a sharpshooter that made The Rock’s worst efforts look like Bret Hart. Zack Gibson comes out and interrupts the match on the mic, talking for over a minute while both wrestlers just stare at him. Gibson offers the winner a spot in The Origin. Mastiff connects with a headbut to Gallagher and ends it. Mastiff cuts a promo after the match, running down the fans and telling them that this company was built around people like Mastiff. Mastiff leaves the ring with Gibson to The Origin’s music.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Dave Mastiff by pinfall @ 8:18 (*½)

Natural Progression Series III Quarterfinal Match – Pastor William Eaver vs Tyler Bate:
I have only seen Eaver work on the last 2 PROGRESS show but he instantly has become one of my favorites because of his gimmick. Eaver comes to the ring dressed as a real pastor to “My Own Personal Jesus” and absolutely owns his gimmick to a tee, complete with a pre-match prayer in the corner while his opponents come to the ring. This is the PROGRESS debut of Tyler Bate and the first I have seen of him. These two wrestled a very competitive back and forth match. One of the nicest looking spots was when Bate had Eaver in a bulldog move but ran up the center of the ropes and flipped over him. Eaver was able to deliver a brutal lariat to Bate to end the very competitive match and advance to the semifinals of the tournament, that I am still not quite sure what it’s for? The amazing thing about this match, Tyler Bate is ONLY 18 years old, and certainly has a huge upside.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Pastor William Eaver by pinfall@ 8:54 (***)

Lord Jonathan Windsor & Rampage Brown vs The GZRS: The GZRS are made up of Sebastian & Tom Irvin who are extremely entertaining (but thus far I have not had the pleasure of seeing them team up on any of these shows) and were in a parody of “The Office” at the start of this show. Irvin comes to the wing in a costume that makes it appear as if he is riding an emu, before the match he approaches Windsor (wearing a King’s cape) and asks “what the fuck are you wearing?” This gets a big pop from the crowd who lets Windsor know that he looks stupid. It appears that Irvin is actually going to wrestle in his costume and this may turn out to be the greatest thing I have ever seen. The announcers inform me that this is an actual gag from the British version of “The Office”, which as an American who has never seen the show appreciate. It takes Irvin until the 4 minutes mark to get into the ring but he finally does as Windsor’s trunks are almost all the way down his buttocks.

Once in the match Irvin the emo lets loose on Windsor. Because of this the referee demands the emo leave the match, keeping it from being a handicap match. I really can not do justice to how entertaining this match is, not just from the wrestlers actions but the British commentary that comes with it. It took nearly 12 minutes for Brown to be tagged into the match for the first time, and this was so Windsor could escape the Slip ‘N’ Slide. However the tag was aggressive and the Windsor tried to tag himself back in after Brown did damage for about a minute. Brown was not pleased and knocked out Windsor. The GZRS set up the Slip “N” Slide in the ring, watered it down and then had Brown send Irvin head first into the “crown jewels”. Superkick and stunner and the GZRS pin Windsor. Your enjoyment of this match is going to all depend on how much you enjoy comedy wrestling. This is one of the best examples of a great comedy match I have seen in quite some time, and no surprise that it would come from across the pond. My snowflake rating below does not indicate my personal enjoyment level which was more an 8 or 9 out of 10.

OFFICIAL RESULT: The GZRS by pinfall @ 14:12 (***)

Mark Haskins vs Tommaso Ciampa:
This is the only contest on the card that I would have any anticipation of US wrestling fans would be familiar with both wrestlers. Ciampa has of course been a star in ROH for some years now, and received a lot of notoriety from his recent tryout stint in NXT. Haskins had a cup of tea run with TNA a few years back. After leading the crown in a wave Ciampa informs them that he works for “World Wrestling Entertainment”, thus beginning the rumors that would surface after this event regarding Ciampa’s employment. On the outside Ciampa had Haskins in a vertical suplex position, however instead of dropping him on the floor, Ciampa slammed Haskins body against the ringpost. They run a spot at the end of the match with Ciampa driving Haskins had into the ringpost via big boot, however very poor camera work shows us that there was a good 6-9 inches between Haskins ead and the ring post. Ciampa continued to brutalize Haskins by dropping him onto an open steel folding chair on the outside. This would lead into a fantastic chop vs kick sequence between the two that I thought for sure was leading to the finish. The finish would come in another spectacular finishing sequence minutes later with Haskins getting Ciampa to tap out in a brutal arm submission. This match is worth your time to check out as soon as possible. Ciampa has been on a roll having great matches in NXT, AAW and PROGRESS since leaving Ring of Honor. Haskins slightly topped himself from his match against Will Ospreay from PROGRESS 21 and continues to impress me the more I watch him. Ciampa cuts a match post-match telling the crowd that he has signed with WWE, Ciampa would take to Twitter later in the week and claim that he had not signed.

OFFICIAL RESULT: Mark Haskins by submission @ 26:16 (****¼)

Marty Scurll vs Morgan Webster:
This will be the first time I have seen Webster in singles action, the only other time I have seen the young man was nights 1 and 3 of CHIKARA King of Trios this year. Scurll on the other hand has become one of my favorites on the British scene at a rapid rate this year, and judging by the reviews many gave his PWG BOLA matches I would have to assume that I am not the only one feeling this way. Commentary tells me that Webser won the last Natural Progression Series Tournament and has a future title shot because of it. They wrestled a match with a lot of crowd involvement, giving a lot of heat to Scurll. Scurll was using every tactic he could to win the match, and eventually did with his feet on the ropes. This is Webster’s first loss in a PROGRESS ring. This is one of those matches that you watch and it is enjoyable but it just doesn’t stand out. After the match Marty Scurll cuts a promo running down the fans, when he mentions NXT Tomasso Ciampa comes out. At PROGRESS 23 we will see Ciampa vs Scurll, in a farewell match?

OFFICIAL RESULT: Marty Scurll by pinfall @ 12:42 (***)

The Origin (Dave Mastiff, El Ligero, Nathan Cruz & Zack Gibson) vs James Davis, Michael Dante, Rob Lynch & Tommy End:
Remember that Mastiff joined The Origin after being recruited by Gibson during the opening match of the evening. The Origin comes out to Metallica’s “Turn the Page”, which is a kick ass wrestling entrance music choice. Lynch & Davis make up The London Riots, End & Dante are a tag team by the name of The Sumerian Death Squad. The action in this one started right away and things quickly became an all out, around the arena brawl between the eight men. A few minutes into the match Rob Lynch was laid out in the ring and had appeared to have re-injured his neck. Medical staff and referees attended to Lynch in the ring for around 5 minutes before attempting to make their way to the back with him before being stopped by El Ligero. Lynch recovers to toss Ligero off the platform stage onto his Origin brethren and the crowd erupted. The SDS and London Riots get in an argument which allows Mastiff to roll up End for the pinfall victory. The match was an all-out crazy brawl and for the most part was very entertaining.

OFFICIAL RESULT: The Origin by pinfall @ 16:05 (***)

PROGRESS Championship – Will Ospreay (c) vs Paul Robinson:
One of the things that PROGRESS does so well is there video production and this is illustrated perfectly here. As someone who has only been watching the company for five shows I appreciate things like video packages explaining to me why this is a big deal. A video of Ospreay in a room airs while highlights of the feud show. In the package I learned that Robinson served as a mentor to Will about entering wrestling and that Robinson turned on Ospreay in a tag match. Ospreay won the title at PROGRESS 20, ending Jimmy Havoc’s 2 year title run in an absolute MOTYC. This was a good match, but nothing on the level of what I have come to expect from PROGRESS main events over my short time watching them. Personally I never bought that Robinson had a chance of winning the title from the man who has become the face of the company, but that does not typically hinder my enjoyment of a match. At the end of the match when I went to write the recap I realized that I really had no idea what to say about it, as it is truly just there and would have worked just fine on the undercard. The two did do a job at telling a nice story and it was enjoyable. In the end Ospreay is able to roll Robinson up into a cradle and retained his belt, or as Michael Cole would say “Ospreay stole one!” After the match Robinson beats down Ospreay, a returning Mark Andrews (Mandrews to you TNA faithful) makes the save! At PROGRESS 23 we will have Will Ospreay vs Mark Andrews for the PROGRESS Title!

OFFICIAL RESULT: Will Ospreay by pinfall @ 21:52 (***¼)

If this sounds like a promotion you would like to see more of than I have some good news for you. PROGRESS has a VOD service for just $7.50 a month with all of their shows. You can also purchase this and all their previous shows digitally for $12.99. For more information head on over to PROGRESS.

Visit me on Twitter (I talk about wrestling a lot) at @cpgoat.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

This was a good show from PROGRESS but not nearly the caliber editions 20 & 21 were. Ciampa vs Haskins is worth getting a subscription to check out, however I would recommend checking out #20 and 21 before these to help your impressions a little more. The lack of former champion Jimmy Havoc was certainly noticed. The GZRS finally had a chance to bring their act to the main show and it was very entertaining. Based off the two matches announced for PROGRESS 23 I am very excited to review it already.