It’s a one-match show as the Punk Pro Secret Show returned after a week off…
You can watch this week’s episode on the Punk Pro YouTube channel.
Quick Result
Jon Davis submitted Zachary Cooper in 23:30 (***¼)
We’re at Gulf View Event Center in Port Richey, with Zac Romero and Christian Override on commentary.
Fully Gimmicked Championship: Zachary Cooper vs. Jon Davis (c)
Apparently this is a first-time meeting, but neither man is in a rush to get going here.
After an aborted lock-up, Cooper comes in with a Cooper Clutch… but Davis counters by rolling backwards to force a pin as the challenger broke the hold to avoid the match ending inside a minute. Davis goes for the arm, but Cooper gets to the rope, then comes back in with a shoulder tackle that had no effect on the champion.
Davis tries one of his own, with similar results, before Cooper leapfrogs over Davis… and popped up from a rebound German suplex. Cooper dishes out one of his own as Davis gets right back up before the pair cracked each other with rolling elbows. From the restart, Davis works over Cooper’s arm, but a wristlock’s reversed as the pair end up in the corner.
A clean break allows Davis to charge down Cooper as he instead goes for the leg, but Cooper tries to counter with a rear naked choke as Davis escaped through the ropes. Back in the ring, Davis takes Cooper to the corner for a clean break, before he got tripped as Cooper found a way in with a leg lock… which Davis kicked away. Another restart sees Davis go back to the arm, before he elbowed Cooper in the jaw as he sensed a counter was being thought of.
Cooper composes himself in the corner and responds with a big boot and a diving European uppercut off the middle rope… but he can’t follow up as Cooper got clobbered with clotheslines in the corner. Another big boot drops Davis though, with Cooper following in with some ground and pound before he played to the no-crowd. Davis comes back in with a series of slams, throwing in a kick to the back for good measure, but Cooper’s able to throw in a Saito suplex in response as he drew just a one-count by the ropes. More back-and-forth led to Davis pulling down a big boot from Cooper as he threw him to the mat by the limb, before taking Cooper to the ropes so he could kick his leg out of his leg.
Cooper finds a second wind with a bunch of forearms, but Davis just sweeps the leg on the road to a deadlift German suplex. More kicks to Cooper’s leg keep the Canadian on the mat, forcing him to drag himself into the corner… where he’s able to muster up another comeback, throwing forearms before some instinctive boots worked against him as Davis countered back with a Dragon Screw. A knee breaker follows, before Cooper countered out of a second into an eventual jawbreaker, before Davis just hit right back with a ripcord clothesline for a near-fall.
Clubbing shots follow as they began to trade chops, before headbutts ultimately decked both men. Back to his feet, Cooper hits a Death Valley driver for a near-fall, but he struggled to get Davis back up… as Davis played possum and hit him with Three Seconds Around The World for a near-fall of his own. Davis gets back up as the pair trade forearms, but it’s the veteran who stays ahead as he cornered Cooper with a big boot, before a pop-up powerbomb was countered into a ‘rana by Cooper, who quickly followed up with a belly-to-belly into the corner. Cooper tries to add to things, but he takes an age to climb the ropes as a leaping Pele kick from Davis knocked him down…
Somehow, Cooper’s able to retaliate, but a spinning roundhouse caused enough problems for both men as Zachary couldn’t quite make the cover quick enough, and only got a two-count from it all. Cooper again heads up top, but whiffs on a Coast to Coast before a wonky small package was somehow counted. It doesn’t get the pin though, as Davis kicks out and locks in a half crab right by the ropes… and Cooper taps! This felt way too long for the empty-arena setting – and quite honestly, had they gone for the sprint rather than the proverbial epic storytelling match, this could have grabbed a lot of attention. Still, pretty good for what it was – limitations and all. ***¼
We get a promo from Davis afterwards, who noted that when he first saw Cooper he looked “a lot like that Austrian dude.” Cheers to that guy who had to give away the punchline. Davis proceeds to put over Cooper and gave him the proverbial spotlight as the show went off the air.
For a one-match show, this felt like a much more focused episode of the Secret Show – but I do feel like this particular episode could have benefited from something (promos, video packages?) to at least give us context as to how we got to this match.