As we’re all spending more time inside, we’re back with another list of suggestions on shows to pass the time.
This time around, we’re going to dive into another VOD service – and it’s one that we’d wager a lot of you either subscribe to, or have done at some point: Demand PROGRESS. Across at demand-progress.com, the Pivotshare-powered site hosts (virtually) everything PROGRESS has done, along with content from a variety of other promotions for $6.99 a month.
A few weeks back we looked at the “glory years” of PROGRESS’ output… so here’s the more recent stuff for those who’ve joined in really recently…
Chapter 61: Don’t Touch Me… Don’t… Don’t Touch Me – 2018 for PROGRESS started out in Birmingham with a WWE UK title match between Pete Dunne and Joseph Conners. As weird a fit as that was, the match was pretty good… Chris Brookes challenged Travis Banks for the PROGRESS title in a match that continued the conflict between Travis’ tag team partners… Adam Brooks vs. Will Ospreay stole the show though, with a performance from the Aussie that a lot of people looked back fondly on.
Chapter 62: Fear No More, Come To Dust – WALTER. Timothy Thatcher. You know it’ll be good.
Chapter 63: Take Me Underground – Tyler Bate vs. Zack Sabre Jr. had a technical masterclass that some may see as a bit of a milestone in terms of “look where they went next” in terms of their careers. For fans of the harder hitting stuff, Mark Davis and WALTER belted seven shades of the brown stuff out of each other over the Atlas title, while Travis Banks’ involvement with TK Cooper and Chris Brookes closed out the show.
Chapter 64: Thunderbastards Are Go – a rare UK tour for Jonah Rock (now Bronson Reed) saw him swing by the Ballroom for a cracker against Zack Sabre Jr… while Matt Riddle and Travis Banks had a hot main event for the PROGRESS title.
Chapter 65: Have Some Faith In The Sound – The feud between Chris Brookes and TK Cooper peaks with a bloody no-DQ match that saw the use of handcuffs as Brookes went all dentist on TK…
Chapter 66: Mardi Graps – Mark Haskins and Will Ospreay get the New Orleans shows off to a great start… continuing with WALTER & Timothy Thatcher vs. David Starr & Keith Lee. Not the planned match, but still bloody great.
Chapter 67: Bourbon Is Also A Biscuit – WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr. Do I need to say much more?
Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16 – Night One – Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin threw us back to the WWE UK title tournament a year or so earlier, with better results… while Chris Brookes’ main event with Kassius Ohno was a bit of a bucket list item for him, and a solid match to boot.
Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16 – Night Two – David Starr vs. ZSJ and Kassius Ohno vs. Tyler Bate would prove to be the end of the weekend for the tournament favourite… and would continue to build a body of work for the man who’d go on to win.
Chapter 68: Super Strong Style 16 – Night Three – ZSJ vs. Kassius Ohno and ZSJ vs. Keith Lee made this a very ZSJ-heavy tournament…
Chapter 69: Be Here Now – PROGRESS’ first “big show in Manchester”’ has David Starr vs. WALTER. Don’t look so shocked. Mark Andrews vs. ZSJ…
Chapter 71: F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.P.R.O.G.R.E.S.S. – WALTER & Jack Sexsmith vs. Travis Banks and TK Cooper was a fun match that got us to a rematch after the wonky SSS16 finish…
Chapter 72: Got Got Need – Jordan Devlin vs. Will Ospreay. At this time in Devlin’s UK career, he was just beginning to escape the shackles of Finn Balor-related chants. This match broke those shackles loose… and don’t sleep on Chris Ridgeway vs. Mark Davis either!
Chapter 74: Mid Week Matters – The delayed coronation of WALTER was also the first midweek Chapter from PROGRESS, which soured a lot of travelling fans. Still, his title win over Travis Banks was worth going out of your way to see…
Coast to Coast: Philadelphia – Pete Dunne vs. Eddie Dennis went a little under-rated, as did a lot of this US tour thanks to it being drip-fed onto the VOD… while Shane Strickland & TK Cooper vs. Trent & Tyler was a fun makeshift tag team match…
Coast to Coast: Boston – Matt Riddle vs. Tyler Bate and British Strong Style vs. CCK stand out as PROGRESS began a day from hell…
Coast to Coast: New York – LAX vs. CCK built a feud on this match, while a heel Flash Morgan Webster played a good foil in a submissions match against an aggressive Mark Haskins. Chuck in Matt Riddle vs. Mark Andrews too, as the Three-and-In series to find a Wembley opponent for WALTER rolled on.
Coast to Coast: Seattle – TK Cooper frustrating Eddie Dennis’ dreams of a title shot at Wembley was a fun opener… while the British Strong Style lucha trios with Bandido, Flamita and Rey Horus was entertaining as Seattle went nuts. CCK vs. Sexy Starr steals the show as the Tag Team Thunderbastard stumbled on to close one of PROGRESS’ better end-to-end shows of this period.
Coast to Coast: Chicago – Stick another Pete Dunne match onto your virtual playlists as his WWE UK title defence against Flash Morgan Webster was a good little outing… the latest random tag team partner for Chris Brookes sees AR Fox join up for not-CCK in a surprising tag title match that changed the look of Wembley…
Chapter 75: These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends – Mark Haskins vs. Tyler Bate’s eliminator to get that Wembley spot wasn’t balls to the wall, but suitably epic given what was on the line.
PROGRESS Frankfurt – sadly, not much leaps off from the Germany tour, but the Anti-Fun Police vs. Brookes & Thatcher match was what folks in the north of England would call “canny”. As was the gag afterwards.
Chapter 76: Hello Wembley – Tyler Bate vs. WALTER… they took the long way around here as Bate was meant to win SSS16, but injury meant that he was forced out during the tournament. When we got to this match, it was good, but opinions varied wildly over just how great it was, not helped by the show running long… elsewhere, Matt Riddle’s farewell match against Mark Haskins leaps off the page, as did the tag team Thunderbastard match…
Chapter 77: Pumpkin Spice PROGRESS – ZSJ vs. WALTER is the banger you expect, while Aussie Open’s first title defence against the 198 and the Grizzled Young Veterans was a good ‘un…
Chapter 78: 24 Hour PROGRESS People – if you go by our “match of the year contenders” lists, Chris Ridgeway vs. Jordan Devlin and Aussie Open vs. Chris Brookes & Timothy Thatcher are the standouts, but don’t skip Eddie Dennis vs. Mike Bailey… or David Starr vs. Ilja Dragunov…
Chapter 79: One Big Neck With Sausage Hands – not sure who that’s a description of, but get on Trent Seven’s Atlas title defence against Kyle Fletcher… while Eddie Dennis’ resurgence against Mark Haskins and Travis Banks vs. David Starr is also worth your time.
Chapter 80: Gods & Monsters – Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne roll back the clock by a couple of years to subvert expectations in the midcard… while Tyler Bate vs. Ilja Dragunov and CCK vs. LAX battled for the proverbial match-of-the-night honours.
Chapter 81: Pour Some PROGRESS On Me – a trip to Sheffield gives Ilja Dragunov vs. Travis Banks. You can guess how good it is by those names alone. Aussie Open and LAX add more strings to both teams bows as well…
Chapter 82: Unboxing Live 3 – Aussie Open’s appearance on the mystery show led to the return of Will Ospreay as the Swords of Essex began a thrilling series for the tag titles…
Chapter 83: Remove Child Before Ironing – Ilja Dragunov vs. Timothy Thatcher is your opener. Yikes. Swords of Essex vs. CCK closes out the show as we’re bookmarked with some good stuff to get a “new era” underway…
Chapter 84: Eskeewd Beef! – More Aussie Open vs. Swords of Essex stealing the show as Chris Ridgeway and WALTER slugged it out for the PROGRESS title…
Chapter 87: Breadknife – Aussie Open vs. Swords of Essex in a TLC match ends the three-month mini-feud… and was PROGRESS’ match of 2019!
Chapter 88: Super Strong Style 16 – Night One – Lucky Kid vs. Jordan Devlin was the first of a long run of great Devlin matches this weekend…
Chapter 88: Super Strong Style 16 – Night Two – Jordan Devlin keeps that run going against Kyle Fletcher, while the unification match between WALTER & Trent Seven was good going, even if you weren’t a fan of a finish that didn’t quite work in a big room.
Chapter 88: Super Strong Style 16 – Night Three – Jordan Devlin completes his set with crackers against Kyle O’Reilly and David Starr…
Chapter 90: The Lonesome Death of the One-Man Cabaret Act – David Starr & The OJMO vs. WALTER & Shigehiro Irie is the spotlight match as they were building up Starr vs. WALTER for the PROGRESS title…
Chapter 91: Prog On The Tyne – PROGRESS’ Newcastle debut is remembered for Ilja Dragunov vs. Jordan Devlin,
Chapter 92: Entertaining Friends – Up in Manchester, WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov knocked it out of the park. I’m sure you’re all shocked!
Chapter 93: Cheer Up Juice – Shigehiro Irie bumps The OJMO around the Ballroom as the OJMO continued to find his feet in PROGRESS… while Aussie Open and the Grizzled Young Veterans clash again for the PROGRESS tag titles…
PROGRESS Toronto – Jordan Devlin vs. Travis Banks is a flash back to a feud that keeps rumbling on in NXT UK…
Natural PROGRESSion Series 6 – the tournament moved to a one-night format and created some new stars… Cara Noir vs. Scotty Davis taking match-of-the-night honours on a show that wrapped up the long CCK vs. LAX feud.
Chapter 95: Still Chasing – it’s back to Alexandra Palace as the rise of Cara Noir continued when he answered Pete Dunne’s open challenge… the Proteus Rumble was a fun match as battle royals are want to be, while opinion’ll be split over the WALTER/Starr main event, primarily because the match spun off…
Chapter 96: True Friends Stab You In The Front – another trip to Manchester starts the mini-series between Cara Noir and Ilja Dragunov, while the Grizzled Young Veterans had another crack at the tag titles, going up against new champions Scotty Davis and Jordan Devlin.
Chapter 97: Sex Robots Will Eventually Be Capable of Murder – Ilja Dragunov vs. Cara Noir continue the good stuff, but the “over-theatric” stuff creeps in…
Chapter 98: May I Play Devil’s Advocate For A Minute – no, it’s not a game of pinball, but another tag title defence as Davis and Devlin take on NXT/205 Live’s Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch keeps sharpening the Irish champions…
Chapter 99: With A Flake, Please – Ilja vs. Cara 3 in a best-of-three falls match was perhaps the weakest of the lot because of the theatrics but still bloody good stuff that I wish they’d been able to stretch out over a longer period.
Chapter 100: A New Hope – Ilja Dragunov keeps the hot streak going with a banger against a re-made Kyle Fletcher…
Chapter 101: Dalmations – Another “new era” for PROGRESS sees them crown a new champion with a four-way main event… Ilja Dragunov vs. Cara Noir vs. Paul Robinson vs. Kyle Fletcher
Chapter 103: Beer Snake City – PROGRESS’ final show before the weirdness had some good stuff, although the planned tag title defence was scrapped because of injury to Jordan Devlin. Instead, it’s Scotty Davis & Eddie Kingston against Anthony Henry and JD Drake in a match that underscores how under-rated the Work Horsemen were as a tandem by some.
So, if you’re looking to recap the best of recent PROGRESS, there it is… and there’s one last list for us to work on – the very early days of PROGRESS, that a lot of fans may have skipped over.