Kevin’s PROGRESS Chapter 78: 24 Hour PROGRESS People Review

PROGRESS Chapter 78: 24 Hour PROGRESS People
November 11th, 2018 | O2 Ritz Manchester in Manchester, England

With life being so busy lately, I’ve fallen behind on PROGRESS. As I went to review this chapter, the next one was already uploaded to the website. WALTER has a pretty big title defense, Ilja Dragunov returns, Trent Seven has an Atlas Title open challenge, and more.

Jim Smallman opened with about ten minutes of banter with the crowd.

Eddie Dennis vs. Mike Bailey
I haven’t seen “Speedball” Mike Bailey since the Battle of Los Angeles a few years ago. This was his PROGRESS debut. Due to his small frame, it made the layout of this match pretty obvious. Dennis played the role of the bully. He threw Bailey around with reckless abandon. Despite that, Bailey managed to the upper hand quite often due to quickness and taking risks. Every once in a while, his risk would backfire and Dennis got in the driver’s seat. Bailey missed a knee drop on the apron and was in clear pain. That didn’t stop him as he missed the Shooting Star Double Knees. His reaction of pain was comically bad, but the idea was well executed. The place erupted when he kicked out of the Next Stop Driver. Dennis added a second to win in 12:39. I didn’t come in too high on Bailey, but this was a good showing. He and Dennis played well off each other and had a smart match. [***½]

Isla Dawn vs. Lana Austin
The PROGRESS debut of Lana Austin. Thanks to this show being in her hometown of Manchester, she played the de facto babyface. The only issue was that Isla didn’t seem to heel it up enough. I get that she’s not a straight heel in PROGRESS but it would’ve helped the match. Austin brought a lot of energy and seems like a wrestler who is a good time whenever she’s out there. She even got the new referee, James Greenwood, to dance. Isla won with an Ocean Cyclone Suplex in 5:46. Short and to the point. [**]

Chris Ridgeway vs. Jordan Devlin
All sorts of potential with this one. Ridgeway has been on a solid role, while Devlin has had one hell of a 2018. The latter made me enjoy a Will Ospreay match. That’s like, Hiromu Takahashi levels of good. The atmosphere for this was insane. Clearly, though neither guy is at the top of the card, the crowd loves them. They opened this by just kicking the hell out of each other. Devlin realized that was a mistake because he doesn’t have the advantage there. Once they moved away from that, it became a battle of two guys throwing bombs. You felt like you were watching two men trying to steal the show and leave their mark. Ridgeway’s Brainbuster roll through into a submission was outstanding. The match ended with a fantastic closing stretch of counters. Devlin won with the Package Piledriver at 10:15. A tremendous sprint between two guys who feel like they’re a major part of the future. [****¼]

Paul Robinson came out and objected to Ridgeway being considered “hard as fuck.” Basically, he called him a pretty boy and said he didn’t deserve that nickname. There was a challenge laid down for the Manchester return next month.

David Starr vs. Ilja Dragunov
Our first look at Ilja after his loss to Pete Dunne in Wembley. These two have met in many tag matches in wXw, so they know each other quire well. Ilja was irked from the start, seemingly upset at Starr’s excessive introductions. Despite the smug attitude of Starr, he always brings the fight. He did it against WALTER earlier this year and again here. He just threw himself at Dragunov and of course, paid a hefty price for it. Like the previous match, it felt like they were out to steal the show. Unfortunately, they fell short thanks to this going overboard. The close calls and big moves down the stretch were overdone and led to diminishing returns. I did like some of the little things, like Starr showing his grittiness by drinking some of Ilja’s blood. Yea, it was weird, but I was still okay with it. After Dragunov hit his finisher, Travis Banks’ music hit and he made his return. He entered to attack both men and the referee for a no contest at 16:33. With a real finish and a bit less on the wild stuff late, this could’ve been special. Instead, it settles for being a very good battle. [***¾]

PROGRESS Tag Team Championship: Aussie Open [c] vs. Calamari Thatch Kings 
For those unaware, the Calamari Thatch Kings are Chris Brookes and Timothy Thatcher. They teamed up during one of Kid Lykos’ many recent injuries. Brookes worked a lot with the Aussie Open boys and early on, their chemistry was clear. Kyle Fletcher came in with a busted leg and that was the majority of the story in this one. Thatcher was like a shark smelling blood as he went after it. He’s a good choice to do that. Of course, that set up the usual trend of Fletcher taking the heat and big Mark Davis doing the hot tag stuff. Again, he’s an ideal choice for that role. Eventually, as with most tag matches these days, this broke down into what we’ve come to expect from a #CCK style match. A furious ending wrapped with Fletcher hitting Death by Rollup to retain in 17:38. A very good tag team match. However, it never quite reached the levels of the special ones we’ve seen at various points of the year. [***¾]

PROGRESS Atlas Championship: Trent Seven [c] vs. Zack Gibson w/ James Drake
Okay, so this was another open challenge by Seven. We were treated to an outstanding promo battle from two of the best. Seven mocked Gibson’s tired “SOON TO BE” promo. Gibson called Seven a hot commodity for promoters who can’t book Tyler Bate or Pete Dunne. He won the war of words by saying while the British Strong Style guys were in WWE 2K19, Seven couldn’t even be downloaded. Seven sold it with his usual body-binded bump. Anyway, as soon as the bell rang, Seven hit a cross body and won in 0:05. The crowd loved it and it was perfect because one of Gibson’s insults was that Seven’s most notable moment was losing in six seconds to Matt Riddle. [NR]

PROGRESS World Championship: WALTER [c] vs. Mark Haskins w/ Vicky Haskins
The pre-match video package that showed Mark Haskins win the PROGRESS Title in 2016, only to give it up due to injury was well done. He’s here for redemption but WALTER is no pushover. Haskins found himself in serious trouble. Speed and athleticism didn’t help and even just one of WALTER’s chops sent him reeling. Bully WALTER is outstanding and he does such a great job that he draws some boos. It wasn’t like Travis Banks levels or because they don’t like WALTER, but because they like Mark so much. Finally, Haskins went the old “chop the tree down” route and kicked the champion’s legs. It neutralized him a bit and helped to set up the Sharpshooter. Haskins got going and threw everything in his arsenal at WALTER, hoping something would truly stick. I dug the little things, like Haskins trying so hard on the Sharpshooter that he leaned too far back and got caught in a choke. That counter eventually led WALTER to victory, though Haskins did get a great late kick out. It was punctuated by Vicky flipping off WALTER when it happened. Alas, a Fire Thunder Driver kept Haskins down after 23:16. A great main event that showed Haskins still had the heart that led him to the title the first time around. He just ran into the brick wall that is WALTER. Another banger by WALTER, who is the best champion not named Pete Dunne in all of wrestling. [****]

9.5

The final score: review Amazing

The 411

Where did this come from? PROGRESS has been solid all year long, but they haven’t reached the great levels of 2017. This was easily their best event of 2018 and a show of the year contender. The worst match (Dawn/Austin) is still at least decent and everything else came in at over three stars. While Gibson/Seven wasn’t a true match, the segment was wildly entertaining. You get a very good Tag Team Title match, a great main event, Starr & Dragunov trying to kill each other, Dennis vs. Bailey surprising, and Ridgeway vs. Devlin being fantastic.