WALTER looked to stretch his lead to 10-0 over David Starr in singles matches, as their feud stayed in PROGRESS.
In PROGRESS canon, WALTER had vacated their Atlas title so he could chase for Travis Banks’ world title – following a rather screwy finish to their match at Alexandra Palace just two weeks earlier…
May 20, 2018 – PROGRESS Chapter 69 Be Here Now: David Starr vs. WALTER
We’ve been here plenty of times before, and with the same result. In one-on-one action, WALTER’s won every time, with the nearest thing to a loss being when he was eliminated in the No Regrets rumble at Defiant last month. Despite vacating the Atlas belt, WALTER is still out with gold, in the form of the PWG strap. Just to rub it in a little bit more for David…We’ve got the usual laser-focused approach from Starr here, pacing back and forth as his list o’ nicknames were read out, while WALTER didn’t seem fazed at all. Heck, when you’re 9-0 up in singles matches, it’s almost risking complacency at this point…
From the bell, WALTER takes Starr into the corner, but it’s quickly reversed as they scrappily broke up. Next time around, Starr grabs WALTER’s arm and tries to headbutt the upper arm… but WALTER drops him and tries to go for a Boston crab, except they’re way too close to the ropes. A knuckle lock from WALTER’s escaped as Starr tries a hammerlock, but it’s easily flipped out of as WALTER puts the boots to Starr in a methodical manner, before he looked for his first chop.
That’s ducked by Starr, but WALTER’s quickly back in with a shoulder tackle as Starr decided to take a page out of the Ilja Dragunov playbook and try and prevent those chops. Throwing one of his own perhaps wasn’t so smart, as he took WALTER outside for a dive… but despite being caught, Starr shook free and throws a caught kick from the Austrian into the ring post. Starr keeps up on the leg, wrapping it around the post, before grapevining the legs as the strategy looked to be to keep WALTER off his legs, but then, the inevitable happened. CHOP!
Yep, David’s had plenty of those, but he’s right back on the ankle of WALTER, who’s instantly in the ropes… which WALTER uses to wrap around the ankle… but even after all that, WALTER’s able to propel him out of the ring from a kick-out! Back inside, WALTER grabs a Gojira clutch, but Starr kicks the leg and gets free… only to run into a spinebuster-like takedown as WALTER seamlessly floats over into a STF as the Product was forced into the ropes. The leg work had had an effect as WALTER’s boots were having a slight effect on him, before he decided to go back to the chops before sending Starr crashing into the turnbuckles with a shotgun dropkick! If those turnbuckles weren’t there, Starr may well still be airborne…
We’re back to chops as Starr kicks out WALTER’s leg, but he’s again caught with a Gojira clutch before escaping a RINGKAMPF German. A Han Stansen’s absorbed by WALTER as the butterfly suplex drew a near-fall, before throwing Starr onto the apron… where the Product suckers him in for a Cherry Mint DDT, only to get wiped out by another pair of lariats. So brutal, such ow. Somehow, Starr’s up at two, and manages to hit back with a thrust kick and a Figure Four, trapping the big man in the middle of the new, larger PROGRESS ring… except WALTER’s able to roll into the ropes for freedom. Undeterred, Starr keeps up on the ankle, stomping on it in the ropes, before teasing a German suplex off the ropes. WALTER forces out and exchanges lariats before a Han Stansen knocked him down for a near-fall.
Right from the kick-out, Starr’s back to the ankle, before he just jars the knee into the canvas as he looked for a Sharpshooter… but that just gave WALTER the opening he needed for an inside cradle, and that’s enough for the win. This is the closest Starr had ever gotten to getting that win, but WALTER being able to eke out a win with a small package just shows his dominance. Not their best, but still really, really good, as the WALTER streak extended to 10-0. ****¼
We’re nowhere near done yet… and it’s a relatively short hop over the Irish sea for the next chapter here as this feud fed into the start of one of the European scene’s hottest storylines in the current era. It’s off to OTT…