Kevin’s PROGRESS Chapter 75: These Violent Delights Violent Ends Review

PROGRESS Chapter 75: These Violent Delights Violent Ends
August 27th, 2018 | Electric Ballroom in Camden, Greater London | Attendance: 700

PROGRESS recently embarked on a US tour. I’m making my way through those shows but am too busy to do full reviews. For now, I’ll just post my ratings for the shows I’ve seen in full. I’ve still got a ways to go to get through the US shows and their Germany tour.

Philly
Haskins/Webster – ***
Toni, Grace & Vox/Jinny, Markova & Darling – ***¼
Andrews/Theory – **¾
CCK/GYV – ***¼
Dennis/Dunne – ***
Mustache/Strickland & Cooper – ***½
Havoc/RSP – ***½

Boston
Lykos/Cooper – ***
LAX/GYV – ***½
Dennis/RSP – **¾
BSS/Calamari Catch Kings – ***½
Andrews/Haskins – ***¼
Grace/Darling – ***
Flash/Havoc – **¾
Riddle/Bate – ***¾

New York
Dennis/Cooper – ***
Flash/Haskins – ***¼
Calamari Catch Kings/LAX – ****½
GYV/Sexy Starr – ***¼
Andrews/Riddle – ***½
BSS/Three Kings – ***¾ 

Anyway, PROGRESS officially returned to chapter form here.

Thunderbastard Tag Team Series: Grizzled Young Vets vs. M&M
The Grizzled Young Vets are in a worse mood than usual because they lost their titles during the US Tours. Currently, the titles are on Bandido and Flamita, who were now entered into the Thunderbastard match at Wembley. Since they aren’t in the series, they must enter first. Part of the reason GYV lost the titles was because they’ve suffered some communication issues in recent matches. Here, they worked better together and M&M did a lot of surviving big offense. I get the idea behind it, but it happened a bit too much here. I know they’re resilient underdogs, but there’s a limit. They did a good job teasing more GYV issues, as they miscommunicated on more than one occasion. However, they made it through and won with the Motor City Destroyer (?) in 9:51. Solid at best. There were some timing issues and this went overkill on the kickout stuff at times. [**½]

Next up was supposed to be a House of Couture tag against several babyfaces. However, Nina Samuels and Toni Storm were both dealing with injuries. Jim Smallman brought out the women who were ready in the back. When they were all out, he announced they’d compete in a five-way match with the winner getting a Women’s Title shot at Wembley. Jinny, one of the women out there, was not happy.

Number One Contender’s Match: Candyfloss vs. Chakara vs. Charlie Morgan vs. Laura Di Matteo vs. Millie McKenzie
With Jim Smallman announcing this as a “Scramble” the girls seemed to take it literally. They just threw everything at one another for the duration of the match. There was constantly something happening both in and out of the ring. Some was bad and some was alright. I liked the sequence of each woman hitting a dive. Millie getting to go last shows how much of a big deal she is. On the flip side, Di Matteo was at the top of a Tower of Doom spot and took a nasty fall on her head. You could tell that many of these women weren’t used to this kind of scramble environment and the match suffered because of it. Millie shined and went nuts in the closing stretch. She hit a series of Germans and suplex variations on Morgan to win in 8:56. This was PROGRESS doing the best they could with a rough situation. It didn’t come off cleanly and felt like a disappointment, but the right woman won as Millie feels like the next star in the division. [*¾]

Mark Andrews came out and demanded Eddie Dennis get out there and make their match official. Dennis said Andrews made him wait for a year, so he doesn’t need it to go down in Wembley. Maybe he’ll make Mark wait. Andrews responded by attacking him to set up a fight right now. Security pulled them apart. Andrews ran him down for quitting wrestling to work a 9-5 job. Dennis called Mark a user, saying he used Eddie to get over, Pete Dunne to get in with the WWE, his parents for free rent, and pro wrestling to get his shitty band over. Wow. Mark attacked and they were separated again. Dennis finally agreed to have the match in Wembley, but on the condition that he end him in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. Another remark about Andrews’ band caused him to somersault onto Dennis to spark another brawl. A great segment for a great feud.

Thunderbastard Tag Team Series: Aussie Open vs. Chris Brookes and Timothy Thatcher
With Kid Lykos hurt again, Brookes has been forced to find new partners. Thatcher was his choice this time around. Thatcher’s first Electric Ballroom appearance in five months. He and Brookes made for a fun oddball pairing. Their personalities are incredibly different and that usually makes for a good tandem. There was literally a point where Tim got pissed at Brookes and told him off, so Brookes told him to shut up and got chased out of the ring. Fun stuff. Another spot saw Brookes get Tim on his shoulders for a “sick tag move.” Instead, Tim just got off and slapped Kyle Fletcher. The match was filled with great little moments like that, allowing it to stand out in this series. We got some great near falls late, with Thatcher surviving some big offense. In the end, Fletcher tapped to the Kondo Clutch at 18:54. A really fun tag that surprised the hell out of me. Brookes and Thatcher were a great oddball pairing, while Aussie Open continue to be great. [***¾]

PROGRESS Atlas Champion Doug Williams and PROGRESS World Champion WALTER vs. WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne and Trent Seven
Part of this was here to build Seven/Williams for the Wembley show. WALTER was WAY over. Like, even more so than Dunne. British Strong Style sold the sheer presence of WALTER brilliantly. For example, when WALTER dropped Seven with a single chop, Dunne threw in the towel. Excellent. I like how we got a taste of Dunne vs. WALTER, but not a lot. As if they were holding back on a potential huge PROGRESS match down the line. Doug delivered a Chaos Theory, but went down afterwards with a bad neck. That made it a handicap match for a while. WALTER can more than hold his own, though. He eventually put Seven in a choke that led to an awkward finish at 11:19. A fun match that took a hit because of Doug’s injury. [***¼]

BSS helped Doug up. WALTER left alone because he’s all business. Seven helped Doug to the back, leaving Dunne alone. Christian Michael Jakobi came out to talk trash but Dunne grabbed him and brought him to the ring. Before he can do anything, Ilja Dragunov hit the ring. The two traded blows and thanks to a CMJ distraction, Dragunov knocked him out with the Torpedo Moscow.

Three And In Finale: Mark Haskins w/ Vicky Haskins vs. Tyler Bate
With NJPW pulling Zack Sabre Jr. from the Wembley show, a new World Title contender had to be set up for that show. PROGRESS put on a “Three and In” series, where someone had to win three straight matches to get in. These were the only two left with a chance, so the winner faces WALTER in Wembley. Bate came in with a bad leg and that’s the story of the match. He’s been on a tear since 2017, but the injury has held him back, giving Haskins an opening. Being the technical master he is, Haskins wisely went after the leg. Bate sold it beautifully. His one-legged kip up was wonderful. It’s the little things and Tyler gets them. Usually, leg work in a match gets forgotten about but these guys went all in on it. Even with Bate as the clear favorite, the injury was handled in a way that made you believe he might not get it done. The big spots came later, including a Haskins Destroyer and Bate doing all he could to get an Airplane Spin going. The Sharpshooter counter from that move makes for a great moment. Bate survived the hold and delivered the Tyler Driver ’97 to win in 19:14. Fantastic match. PROGRESS needs more of these this year. Top notch wrestling, from the psychology to the selling to the late drama. All of it worked. [****¼]

Two Out Of Three Falls No Disqualifications Match: Jimmy Havoc vs. Will Ospreay
These two have a major rivalry in PROGRESS history. The video package for it was fantastic. This was originally scheduled for the Wembley show, but NJPW pulled Will from that night so he could work Marty Scurll in their millionth match. As the entrances began, there were about 55 minutes left on the show. Oh, boy. Paul Robinson, who has been involved in the feud, was special referee. I’ve been vocal about how much I dislike Will Ospreay. This match felt like a case of my biggest issue with him. He often doesn’t just let his ability to the talking. He tries to go way overboard with a lot of his stuff. They opened the match with the big fight you want. Robinson stepped in when things got too wild, like Havoc attempting to cut Will’s ear off. Havoc took the 1-0 lead with the Acid Rainmaker in what was ultimately a fine but underwhelming first fall. Ospreay went on to tie it with a backslide that saw a pretty fast count. At this point, the match felt long, but it was only getting started in terms of going overboard. The last fall saw the ref get taken out, a second being brought in, Smallman being asked to officiate and a TON of moments that should’ve ended this. Instead, it just went on and on. It tried to be about seven different matches at once and never felt like one cohesive battle. Robinson eventually officially turned on Havoc and Ospreay won via Storm Breaker after a ridiculous 43:22. This was two guys going out and trying way too hard to have an epic. They did a bunch of violent things, yet it never even sniffed the level of Haskins/Havoc last year or even the Weapons Match between Will and Havoc last year. And they did all this just to set up a smaller Havoc/Robinson feud. Yuck. [**¼]

Post-match, Robinson said the idea that they made PROGRESS was laughable and he was always the “beast.” He challenged Havoc to a match at Wembley. Whatever.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

It’s not often that PROGRESS ends a show and leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. Yet, that’s where we sit after that overly long main event. Most of the show works other than that match and the multi-woman match. There’s some very good tags, build for Wembley, a great angle between Andrews & Dennis, and a banger between Bate and Haskins. A strong show, but one that ends with a whimper.