Our second live show of the weekend was our first visit to the Electric Ballroom of 2017… and yet again, PROGRESS delivered.
The usual 700-capacity crowd in the Electric Ballroom was more insane than usual – largely due to the balcony being closed due a leak… which means that the usual folks who queued to get the aerial view had to pile in with everyone else. It certainly made for a cosy atmosphere…
Spoilers follow beyond here, so stop reading if that bothers you – we’ll have our full report after next weekend when the show drops on demand.
The opening match saw the debuting Kings of the North – Bonesaw and Damien Corvin – lose to the London Riots in a fun match that saw plenty of Michael Jackson-inspired shots at Bonesaw’s red gloved hand. Rob Lynch pulled out a black glove early on and pulled a page out of Detective Homer Simpson’s playbook… and that’s the end of that chapter! The pop-up spear eventually put paid to the Kings, who responded to the “please come back” chants with red middle fingers…
The fourth Natural PROGRESSion series continued as Chakara took on Laura Di Matteo – and Chakara (whose name really confuses indy fans’ auto corrects…) played the bad guy after this week’s Freedom’s Road saw her end Pollyanna’s second chance in the tournament, and eventually lead to her retirement from the business. This was another fun outing, with Laura throwing her all behind some topes to Chakara, before an out-of-nowhere submission brought this to an end.
Its worth noting that Jim Smallman added an extra touch to the introductions tonight, with the “foreign contingent” getting announced in their mother tongues, including Di Matteo.
Someone else who got their native language used for their ring introduction was “Massive” Jurn Simmons, who gave his all in a six-plus minute long entrance that saw his music (“Those Shoes” by Slickfist) loop as he gyrated and air-guitared all over the Ballroom. His match against Roy Johnson led to a 50-50 crowd as the fans who were massively into Jurn after wXw the prior night traded off with chants with the home-town fans. A piledriver saw Jurn win, and he too got “please come back” chants…
Going into the interval, we had an early contender for match of the year: RINGKAMPF – Axel Dieter Jr and WALTER – took on the undefeated South Pacific Power Trip in a hard-hitting show-stealer. This is a match that few would have pegged as “anything more than a match”, but it left plenty of jaws dropped and chests bruised… the latter from WALTER’s chops! The longer the match drew on, the more the South Pacific Power Trip cheated, and in the end they took scored the pin as Travis Banks beat Axel Dieter Jr with the Ultimate Warrior/Rick Rude finish, as TK Cooper played Bobby Heenan. If you’re not going to watch this whole show… at least watch this tag match!
The second half of the show started with the Thunderbastard – basically Royal Rumble-style introductions with pinfall and submission eliminations. Mark Andrews and Marty Scurll started… with Trent Seven, Jack Sexsmith, Sebastian (we’ll get to that), Zack Gibson, Nathan Cruz and Dave Mastiff being the order of entry. Paul Robinson was advertised when the Thunderbastard line-up was revealed on Thursday, but pulled out injured. Jim Smallman/Jon Briley added Pastor William Eaver in as a replacement, after the Pastor was working ring crew tonight for some reason, but his spot was “stolen” by Sebastian…
Anyway, when Sebastian emerged, the crowd launched into their usual “fuck off Sebastian” chants… so the three men in the ring at the time, Andrews, Scurll and Seven. Did. That left Sebastian enraged at that trio, until Jack Sexsmith rolled him up for the surprise elimination… and then of course, Sebastian hit back with his spinning unprettier to take Jack out for a bit. Plenty of fun spots, including Dave Mastiff turning on the rest of the Origin a la Batista (or “Bantista”, as the crowd coined); but the crowd favourite (Sexsmith) ended up being the penultimate man out, as Mark Andrews ended up getting the surprise win over a gobby Zack Gibson. So… are we getting Andrews vs. Havoc, or a replay of the fantastic Andrews vs. Dunne matches?
Well… it’d be the latter. Pete Dunne retained his title via DQ thanks to interference from Trent Seven in a match that went all over the building. No seat was safe, and I somehow had Trent sneaking into a seat nearby after Havoc was sent into the bar-side of the Ballroom… in a little under 15 minutes, Seven breaks up a pin as Havoc had the match won… and then came the chants of “bullshit”. Whether it was aimed at the cheap finish, or for referee Chris Roberts calling that a DQ despite the earlier crowd brawling getting nothing…
Trent and Pete looked set to tear into Havoc with chairs from the crowd, and as they looked to drop Havoc with a piledriver on a pile of chairs, a song we’ve not heard for a long while played. The opening chords of The Jam’s “In The City” got everyone’s attention, as Flash Morgan Webster made his PROGRESS return… but instead of storming the ring, he paused and waved out someone else… Mark Haskins is BACK! They hit the ring and chased away the British Strong Style pairing, before taking the microphone and announcing their loyalty to PROGRESS… and that they had been cleared to wrestle! A huge feel-good ending as two unexpected returns sent the crowd home happy.
Considering the speculation going in, this was two shows in a row where rumours of an unsteady show were blasted out of the water. Despite the uncertainty over the use of certain performers, PROGRESS look to be firing on all cylinders, and with Super Strong Style 16 on the horizon (a tournament with just 16 wrestlers… less is more, and all that), I can’t see PROGRESS slowing down anytime soon!