Held in late June 2014, the second half of PROGRESS’ double-header featured a rare “non-chapter” event, in the form of the inaugural PROGRESS World Cup.
With a month to go before the debut of the Thunderbastard match (on the eponymous Chapter 14), PROGRESS held a warm-up for their three shows at the Sonisphere music festival with a tournament that might have just borrowed a little bit from a tournament that was going on in Brazil at the same time.
The concept was simple: eight wrestlers in a single-elimination tournament, with the winner getting a shot at the PROGRESS title.
The show started with a video of Glen Joseph acknowledging that this was a “farewell” show to the Garage in Islington (since the company had moved on to Camden’s Electric Ballroom, and would only use their original home for some ENDVR shows going forward). He’s going to do the World Cup draw, but there’s no Chris Kamara to help, so instead they’re going to go low rent!
We see a sped-up version of the draw, so here’s our matches:
Eddie Dennis (Wales) vs. Tommy End (Netherlands); Rampage Brown (England) vs. Paul Synnot (Canada); Darrell Allen (Jamaica) vs. RJ Singh (India); Noam Dar (Israel) vs. Grado (Scotland)
They’ve got a cool graphic for the tournament brackets, with everyone having Panini sticker album-esque artwork. Kudos to whomever came up with that concept for the show’s art!
We’re then taken backstage to Jimmy Havoc, the London Riots and Isaac Zercher. Apparently this was filmed at a Future ENDVR show with IPW:UK earlier in the month, where Regression had won a ten-man tag. Havoc’s unhappy at not being booked on the last show in the Garage, so he’s going to be there to defend his title, whether he’s got an opponent or not.
PROGRESS World Cup Quarter Final: Eddie Dennis vs. Tommy End
Eddie looks extremely odd clean shaven… they start with a Newton’s cradle of shoulder blocks, going back and forth, finally ending as Tommy bumped. Dennis avoids one kick but takes a second, before the Welshman got cornered with a bunch of shoulder charges and kicks.
Dennis fires back with a rolling elbow for a near-fall, but quickly runs into a top rope double-kneedrop from End, before ducking some kicks and throwing End across the ring in an Exploder suplex. End’s caught in a Cloverleaf, but he makes the ropes and then leaps over a dropkick from Dennis and connects with a double stomp on the way down.
Dennis takes End from corner-to-corner with a crucifix buckle bomb, then drops End with a backbreaker uranage and a lariat. Another pump kick from End and a roundhouse staggers Dennis, before a reverse kick gets a near-fall for the Dutchman. From there, End gets a roll-up then another kick to the chest, before he finishes off the Welshman with a double stomp off the top rope. Perfectly acceptable opener, with as heated an atmosphere as you’d get for a face vs. face match. ***¼
PROGRESS World Cup Quarter Final: Paul Synnot vs. Rampage Brown
Synnot is the former Paul Ryker, and he’s decided to wear what I can only call a bib with the Canadian flag on it. Which gets him chants of “USA”. In London. Synnot’s accompanied by Laura Cruz for the sake of having a second. He gets “what?” chants, as he demands the Canadian national anthem be played, and so we get “O Canada”.
Rampage is fed up of this, as the crowd chants “boring”, and do you know what, we actually get the full anthem. Without an attack. I thought this was pro wrestling?! Rampage demands “his” anthem, but instead we get the Sex Pistol’s “God Save The Queen”. Fair enough!
We start with some big lads wrestling, as Rampage grabs a headlock, which Synnot inexplicably reverses by pulling the hair on Rampage’s shaven head. Synnot throws Rampage to the mat head-first as the crowd chants “are you French in disguise” at the Canadian. Another rolling snapmare follows, but Rampage popped up with a dropkick and went back to work on Synnot.
Synnot makes a brief comeback, and takes down Rampage with a double axehandle off the top to the floor, but the former PROGRESS champ mounts a comeback as the South Park references start coming in. Rampage gets drilled into the apron, then is slammed into the ringpost, but Synnot still can only get a near-fall.
Synnot crotches Rampage in the ringpost, before he connects with a legdrop across Rampage on the apron. Finally Rampage fires back again, but he’s taken down with a clothesline for a two-count before Synnot places him on the top turnbuckle. A superplex attempt fails as Rampage shoves him down, before getting a near-fall with a suplex in the ring.
The end finally comes when Synnot takes a clothesline, before a piledriver gets the win for Rampage. And that’s the last you’ll ever hear of Paul Ryker/Synnot in PROGRESS… Decent big lad’s match, but not much more to it. ***
PROGRESS World Cup Quarter Final: Noam Dar vs. Grado
Yep, it’s still 2014 and Grado is still on the crest of a wave. A wave that’d end with a cruel reality check when TNA came into the picture…
Everyone gets chants for them as we have a lot of stalling, before Grado takes Dar into the corner for a couple of high-tens. Grado does Zangief’s spinning clothesline, and proves that video games don’t always work in the real world, before Grado struggled to roll forward and kip up away from a wristlock.
Dar’s taken down with a wristlock as these guys get the maximum juice out of one hold. They change things up as Grado went for a chokeslam, but Dar got out of it, before they caught the other’s kicks and ended up with a stand-off again.
A sunset flip nearly gets the win for Grado as we get a load of reversing one-counts… even if a lot of them were one counts for one of Grado’s shoulders as he didn’t roll back all the way. After another stand-off, both men went up to the bar for a drink – well, why not? After a pint of water (which we don’t see them drink), they finally head back to the ring, where Grado tried for a Rock Bottom, which Grado slapped his way out of.
That angered the big Scotsman, who went up into the corner for the Old School rope walk, albeit with the help of the referee. Dar eventually crotches Grado on the top rope, which sparked a comeback in the form of a Dusty punch, before Dar poked him in the eye. There’s a receipt, as they ended up “blindly” attacking empty corners. Finally some more Dusty punches connect, before Dar kicks Grado in the shin to take him down.
A big boot from Grado leads to a Bionic elbow for a near-fall, before Dar bites out of a chokeslam and again takes a big boot from Grado. Third time was lucky for a chokeslam, but Dar eventually sits up a la Undertaker… and hits a chokeslam of his own for a near-fall. More offence leads to an attempted Stunner, which somehow ends with the referee and Dar getting kicked low. Dar returns the favour, and all three men are down like they’ve taken a football to the groin.
Grado grabs a chair from the crowd, and teases it using it on Dar… but we get the Eddie Guerrero sell… and again from Dar. Okay, this is getting funny, especially as both men argued behind the ref’s back. Grado spits a mouthful of water and Triple H’s up, before selling a knee injury and getting a two-count from a Pedigree.
After both men got back to their feet once more, Grado sunk down to a knee and begged to be pinned so he could finish. Dar refused, as Grado begged to be hit once more. We finally get the Khali brain chop, and that’s the win. Absolute trash as a match – especially at almost 20 minutes in length – but as a comedy/spectacle… pretty good. **
PROGRESS World Cup Quarter Final: RJ Singh vs. Darrell Allen
“The Bhangra Knights Explode” – yep, the random draw for the PROGRESS World Cup pitted tag partners against each other.
Some fun stuff early as Allen tried for a couple of roll-ups, before missing his Razzle Dazzle kick. An attempted dive was cut-off by a forearm, then an apron dropkick from Singh, with Allen cutting off a springboard with an enziguiri and then a tope into the front row.
A kneedrop gets Allen a two-count, before a springboard enziguiri off the ropes saw Singh get a near-fall of his own, as they went briefly into a rear-chinlock. Allen fights free but the pair clatter into each other with a crossbody at the same time. They get back to their feet to trade more shots, blocking each other’s superkicks, and then getting tied up with their own superkicks. That looked amazing.
Singh surprised Allen with a Flatliner, before calling for the Ethnic Submission, but Allen rolled him up for some near-falls, before connecting with the Razzle Dazzle kick for another two-count. They go back and forth, with Singh finally pulling off a reverse suplex, before Singh’s leapfrog is caught and turned into a sit-out powerbomb for a near-fall.
Allen misses a frog splash, before taking a big boot in the corner from Singh, then a Falcon arrow for a near-fall. A Singh-ton Bomb also fails as Allen gets the knees up, before the Dazzler Twist (spinning brainbuster) gets the win. A good, short match – which is what they had to do given that this was a one-night tournament, I guess… ***
PROGRESS World Cup Semi Final: Tommy End vs. Rampage Brown
Rampage jumps End at the bell, and they quickly end up outside where End kicks off Rampage’s head. Okay, not literally…
They brawled for a while in the crowd and around ringside, before a headbutt knocked End deeper into the crowd. The crowd had to absorb a hiptoss from Rampage onto End, as a few people suddenly found themselves with a Dutchman in their laps. Finally returning to the ring, Brown gets a near-fall on End, and finally the bell rings as referee Marc Parry realised that he’d made a count without the match “officially” starting.
Rampage hurls End into the turnbuckles and gets a near-fall after some choking, before running over into a grounded waistlock. End tries to elbow out of a headlock, but gets charged into the corner, before a sunset-flip style roll-up earns the Dutchman a two-count… then a big boot.
End drills Rampage with a forearm, then a knee strike for a near-fall, before missing a double stomp off the top rope. Rampage gets a lariat for a one-count, as End popped back up for a series of roundhouse kicks. Those get shrugged off for another lariat, this time getting Rampage a two-count.
End slips out of a piledriver attempt and returned fire with a knee strike, but he took too long to follow-up as he fell into a powerbomb, then a piledriver as Rampage made it to the finals. A really good, hard-hitting affair – and at eight minutes, really swift as well. A sleeper hit! ***¾
PROGRESS World Cup Semi-Final: Darrell Allen vs. Noam Dar
After some early grappling, neither man was able to sustain any advantage in a wrestling-heavy opening. Dar started to work over Allen’s knee, and turned him over into an Indian deathlock, but Allen was too close to the ropes for it to be held.
Allen manages to land a dropkick before going into a headlock, which Dar reverses out of and into a Tequila Sunrise. With some added biting! Some body scissors from Dar lead to some pinfall attempts, but again, neither man was able to maintain the upper hand over the other. After Dar had log rolled himself across the ring, he took down Allen with a dropkick, before they exchanged a bunch of side headlocks.
We get the indy-riffic back-and-forth pinfalls from a sunset flip, ending with a jack-knife pin that gets Allen a two-count, before he misses the Razzle Dazzle and gets a leg sweep for his efforts. Dar gets a near-fall from a German suplex towards the corner, but he finally takes the Razzle Dazzle kick, and kicks out at two.
After trying a springboard, Allen gets dropkicked in mid-air by Dar, before Dar trapped the Jamaican’s leg in the ropes and stomped on the knee, acting as a set-up for the Champagne Super-Knee-Bar that forced the submission. We’ve got Dar vs. Rampage in the final – and whilst this match wasn’t bad, it did little for me. **¾
Remember earlier in the show, how Jimmy Havoc had his open challenge? That’s getting answered now… we’re back in the ring as Havoc, the London Riots, Isaac Zercher and Paul Robinson are getting heckled. Havoc says that there’s nobody there to answer his open challenge, so he’s hand-picking the “most deserving person” for the title shot. It’s Paul Robinson.
PROGRESS Championship: Jimmy Havoc (c) vs. Paul Robinson
One-second tap-out. Robinson taps like a drunk man at a bar as soon as Havoc grabbed a wristlock… hell, the camera almost missed this. No rating, for the obvious reasons!
Havoc celebrated with his staff as some people chanted “refund!”, before Jim Smallman interrupted. The rest of REGRESSION went to the back as Smallman “had a little chant”, before asking trainee Mark Hendry to lock the door. He’s going to burn them down?!
Smallman reveals that they did have an opponent for Havoc, and it’s a no-DQ match too. The lights go out… and all of a sudden, 300 people in The Garage lose their mind. That might just have been because Prince Devitt’s New Japan theme played, followed by the arrival of Devitt himself dressed as Hannibal Lecter.
PROGRESS Championship: Jimmy Havoc (c) vs. Prince Devitt
Devitt sidesteps Havoc’s attempt of a dropkick in the corner, and then hits a shotgun dropkick – all whilst still being tied up in a strait-jacket! Devitt hits the double stomp off the top, but Havoc kicks out as we start fast and furious!
Devitt bites at Havoc’s nose, before going under the ring for some chairs… and then a bottle of Chianti. Devitt sits on a chair, sipping the wine, and sidesteps again as Havoc cannonballs himself into the chair. Lovely stuff from Hannibal!
Havoc gets chopped in the corner many, many times, before he’s caught outside by Devitt… who bites his forehead once more. Havoc gets knocked off the chair courtesy of a running dropkick, and then again as the defending PROGRESS champion is getting his rear end handed to him.
They wander back up to the bar, where we just about see Devitt connecting with a double stomp off the bar. Back in the ring, a double stomp to the back of Havoc’s head gets a two-count, before the champion almost countered a Bloody Sunday with an Acid Rainmaker. That got blocked as Devitt landed an inverted Bloody Sunday for a two-count. Out of nowhere, Havoc grabs a sleeperhold, but gets charged back into the corner… only to keep the hold on.
A rolling elbow from Havoc leads to another sleeper as Devitt’s dropped, and that leads to the usual arm dropping for a submission. Devitt fires back, but takes an Acid Rainmaker for a near-fall, before Havoc goes outside again. We get some more chairs thrown into the ring, then a table, which Havoc ends up being chopped onto… and you can probably guess what’s next….
A double stomp cracks the table, but the table doesn’t break, and neither does Havoc as he kicks out at two, before the Bloody Sunday gets another two-count as Paul Robinson somehow beat through the locked door to interrupt the referee’s count. A roundhouse kick from Robinson sends Devitt into the corner, but the future Finn Balor would overcome both men.
Devitt tries for a chair-assisted double stomp, but Havoc rolls out and throws the chair at him. More roll-ups get a near-fall for Devitt, before a third Acid Rainmaker gets the win for Jimmy Havoc. You could hear the air deflating out of the room with that result following a brutal (not in the bad sense) outing. This was Devitt’s final match before going to WWE, and a fine sign-off it was too. ***¾
After the match, Havoc grabbed the microphone and recapped his and Devitt’s history… before telling him to “fuck off to America”, which earned him a Bloody Sunday. Quite literally.
PROGRESS World Cup Final: Rampage Brown vs. Noam Dar
The winner gets a shot at the PROGRESS title at chapter 14: Thunderbastard! They also billed this as the last PROGRESS match at The Garage, which I guess is true as long as you don’t count ENDVR events…
We had a slow start with a side-headlock from Rampage, who then worked over Dar in the corners, before an attempt at a Boston crab almost saw Dar steal an early win with a roll-up. Dar kept up the pressure with a dropkick in the corner for a near-fall, and then a dropkick to the knee after he’d tied him up.
Dar keeps working on the knee of Rampage, with a dropkick into the ringpost that only got him a one-count, before Dar ducked a leaping knee strike that saw Rampage spill out of the ring and onto the apron. A leg sweep takes Rampage down to the floor, and in position for a tope from Dar, getting him an eventual two-count back in the ring.
Dar tries to crawl under Rampage’s legs after bounding out of the corner, but he’s caught and powerbombed for a near-fall following that mis-step. Rampage kept up the offence, but Dar sidesteps a kick as Rampage got tied up in the ropes, and in position for a stomp onto the knee… but Rampage rolled to the outside to avoid an immediate submission attempt.
They fight through the crowd – this time without any video footage at first – before we finally catch them by the bar. Dar and Rampage actually fight on the bar, and that ends badly for young Noam, as he takes a piledriver onto the bar!
Eventually, Dar pulls himself back to his feet, and back to the ring, before taking a clothesline from Rampage for a near-fall. Dar kept fighting, and ended up trapping Rampage in the Champagne Super-Knee-Bar after Brown had teased using a chair. Rampage grabs the ropes, but gets dragged back into the ring for another knee-bar, and this time punches his way free. Just as Rampage went back to his feet, he walked into a small package… and just like that, Noam Dar snatches the win! ***¼
A fairly unremarkable end to the final, with Dar’s small package getting him the win, but sadly, no mocked up trophy. Dar got a “next world champ” chant, before he shook hands with Rampage. Jim Smallman kept Rampage back in the ring, so he could offer the defeated finalist a deal: ditch “Screw Indy Wrestling”, and get a match with Samoa Joe! Rampage accepted the deal, and there’s another headline match for Thunderbastard!
Oh, what do you mean, we’ve already covered it?
As a standalone show, the World Cup was a good concept, even if it has since been usurped by the Super Strong Style 16 tournament. It created some unusual matches, and even brought back an unusual name from the past to give Canada an unexpected appearance. Aside from Prince Devitt’s final match before WWE, there isn’t much to grab you and force you to watch – but nevertheless, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable two-hours-or-so.