Stretching out to three days of the late May Bank Holiday, PROGRESS\u2019 third Super Strong Style 16 kicked off in style with a Saturday show that set things up nicely for a memorable weekend!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Day one\u2019s matches were all tournament bouts, as all sixteen wrestlers were in action to set up Sunday\u2019s quarter-finals. But first, we have Jim Smallman, whose caption noted that his mood as Day 1: Relaxed. I wonder if Day 3 will be \u201czombified\u201d? Before his usual spiel welcomed a litany of travelling fans – which took a lot longer than usual because this weekend was insanely popular – there\u2019s a touching moment where the crowd rose as one to applaud for three fans who\u2019d been caught up in the Manchester attack earlier in the week.<\/p>\n
Callum Leslie and Matt Richards are on commentary for day one.<\/p>\n
Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Nathan Cruz vs. Jeff Cobb<\/strong> As you\u2019d expect, Cobb manhandled Cruz, lifting him with ease as the former Showstealer was resorting to taking cheapshots and using his quickness to evade Cobb. Sadly, he thought to try going airborne, as a crossbody off the top nearly ended Nathan\u2019s night early. Cruz manages to catch Cobb with a tornado DDT on the outside as he tried to keep the Hawaiian at bay, but Cobb popped up and calmly slid back into the ring as he started throwing around Nathan for fun. A one-handed stalling suplex got the crowd going, as did some chops, before he missed a Stinger splash as Cruz again tried to get into things.<\/p>\n The Bossman leaping knee onto Cobb in the ropes kept the bigger man at bay, but Cruz got pulled off the top rope into a belly-to-back suplex as Cobb snapped back into form. Cruz raked the eyes after shoving away referee Marc Parry, but Cobb shrugged that off and delivered a standing moonsault, then a standing shooting star headbutt as the Electric Ballroom saw a big man flying in ways that are surely unnatural.<\/p>\n Again, Cruz came back, launching Cobb with a slingshot back suplex a la Tully Blanchard, before he tried for a sunset flip that led to his doom\u2026 by way of rolling German suplexes! Cruz threw in a mule kick and a Codebreaker after grabbing hold of the ref, but Cobb quickly reverted to type with his throws, ending things with the Tour of the Islands as the first PROGRESS champ fell at the first hurdle. A nice little match to get the crowd familiar with Cobb, who\u2019ll face either Trent Seven or Matt Riddle in the quarters! ***\u00bc<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Flash Morgan Webster vs. Mark Haskins<\/strong> These two returned from injury at the same time at the end of Tropic Thunderbastard, and fate drew them together against each other in the first round. Haskins makes a point of going after Webster\u2019s legs early, whilst he flips for what could have been a phantom armdrag as Webster\u2019s Special Brew Flip earned him an early near-fall.<\/p>\n Haskins kicks away Webster\u2019s leg as he looked to springboard out of the corner, and the focus shifted back onto that left leg and ankle as he tried to force a submission out of the Modfather. Webster leapt over a non-existent charge from Haskins, who just went back to torquing away at that ankle. A diving clothesline gets Webster back in it, but he was virtually on one leg as he followed up with a bicycle knee strike and a missile dropkick, before eventually heading outside and into the path of a tope from Haskins.<\/p>\n Webster responded with a tope con hilo, before his moonsault back in the ring missed and left him in place for a Star Armbar from Haskins. After evading a Brit Pop Drop, Haskins kicks away Webster\u2019s leg once more, only to get caught in the Strangler guillotine for a brief moment as Webster took him too close to the ropes.<\/p>\n Webster thought he\u2019d gotten ahead with the \u201chand\u2019s up\u201d headbutt, but he collapsed to the mat after delivering it, putting himself in perfect place for Haskins\u2019 roll-up death valley driver. That gets a near-fall, before Webster elbows free of a Made in Japan (pumphandle driver) and almost got the win with a crucifix\u2026 only for Haskins to roll through into the Sharpshooter and quickly sink back in as all that work on Webster\u2019s ankle forced the submission. A fine, but bizarrely flat babyface match, but I liked the hints of Haskins being more vicious bell-to-bell, and the response of the non-plussed Webster after the match. ***<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Jimmy Havoc vs. Travis Banks<\/strong> The atmosphere for this one was electric, with two crowd favourites producing an entirely different reaction to what we saw in the prior outing. Dueling chants gave way to Banks trying to outwrestle Havoc, before a kick took Havoc to the outside as the longest-reigning champ tried to bait the Kiwi to the outside. That didn\u2019t work, as Havoc had to return to the ring to beat the count, only to get thrown out for a tope as they brawled around the front row\u2026 and into the crowd too, as Banks threw Havoc into the third row.<\/p>\n Jimmy grabs some of those vacated chairs and throws them at Banks\u2026 who nonchalantly swatted them away with his forearm. A third one\u2019s caught and thrown back\u2026 but Havoc just headbutts that away and throws Banks into the crowd again as they finally decided to make use of the ring. A diving \u2018rana gives us a glimpse of Lucha Havoc, as did a Panama Sunrise (front-flip Destroyer), but Banks kept fighting back and nearly won it with a cannonball into the corner.<\/p>\n Another \u2018rana off the top rope gets Havoc a near-fall as we continued to see another side of Jimmy, but Banks seemed to hit a little bit harder, knocking down Havoc with a diving knee. A Slice of Heaven misses as Havoc countered with a pumphandle into a Blue Thunder Bomb, then a half-nelson suplex and a death valley driver, but Travis just wouldn\u2019t stay down!<\/p>\n Banks\u2019 Blue Thunder Bomb\u2019s good for a two-count, before he decided to counter some Rainmakers with repeated kicks to the head as a Kiwi Krusher (spinning Fisherman driver) booked Travis\u2019 place in the quarters. That was quite the outing, all hard-hitting with very little downtime\u2026 a really satisfying match to watch, as commentary really pushed that Banks had beaten the longest reigning PROGRESS champion. Spoilers? ***\u00bd<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: David Starr vs. Zack Sabre Jr.<\/strong> It\u2019s worth noting that David Starr got a new nickname for this weekend – although I doubt \u201ccircumcised saviour\u201d would fly in some markets!<\/p>\n Sabre was the massive babyface here, although just about anyone wearing a Jeremy Corbyn t-shirt and wearing Labour red this close to the election would have gotten the same reaction. That it was someone as good at wrestling as Zack just helped! After trying to out-grapple Sabre, Starr tried his hand with chops, after having some politics explained to him by ref Joel Allen. References!<\/p>\n Starr comes close with the reverse gutwrench suplex as the crowd started to warm to him\u2026 just as he made Sabre \u201clook at it\u201d. After coming too close to David\u2019s Starr, Zack snapped in with an armbar as he stomped away at Starr\u2019s left arm, viciously taking the \u201cJewish Cannon\u201d into the ropes. I love it when Zack snaps like that!<\/p>\n Heavily-torqued wristlocks draw chants of \u201cfuck the Tory party\u201d as the crowd were seemingly content on letting the wrestling match become window dressing to the party political stuff. The pair exchange forearms for a spell as Starr tried to escape another armbar, before snapping in with the \u201cProduct Recall\u201d – a clothesline into the ropes with a Flatliner coming out of it. That gets a near-fall as Sabre clamped in a guillotine out of nowhere, before pulling down Starr by the ankle so he could try and kick his head off.<\/p>\n Another PK almost wins it, before Sabre runs into a knee strike from Starr as the pair were trying to decapitate each other. Starr countered a triangle armbar into a backbreaker for a two-count, before his attempt at a Product Placement ended in a bridge for a near-fall. An apron DDT nearly ends it, as does a discus forearm to the back of Zack, then a Blackheart Buster, but Sabre keeps on kicking!<\/p>\n In the end though, Sabre countered out of a Product Placement and just slapped the hell out of Starr, but Starr finally landed it\u2026 only for Sabre to kick out and transition into a double armbar with kicks to the head for the eventual submission. Holy hell that was awesome! Heated from start to finish, with both men looking like they were a good shout to make it through. Can we have this match again?! ****<\/p>\n Sabre made a beeline for the back afterwards, but not before throwing his t-shirt at Starr to solidify him as a good guy.<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Zack Gibson vs. Jack Sexsmith<\/strong> During the interval, the front row was handed out with a plethora of rainbow pride flags for Jack – who was visibly moved by the unifying sight of those flags. At February\u2019s \u201cOld Man Yells At Cloud\u201d, Sexsmith lost to Gibson via count-out, and he\u2019d need to get that proverbial monkey off his back if he were to make it to the quarter-finals. Speaking of Zack, his pre-match promo had him swearing like a sailor, which would make you wonder if his no-cursing ITV contract is still valid.<\/p>\n Gibson laid into Sexsmith for \u201cnot belonging\u201d, but before he could say he had \u201cno talent\u201d, Jack flew into him with a dropkick as he tore into the Scouser. Once the bell rang, Gibson took Jack into the corner for the Ticket to Ride as he looked to snuff out any chance that Jack had, throwing him to the outside with a loud thud. Gibson threw Sexsmith arm-first into the ringpost – which perhaps caused the bicep injury that\u2019d derail things later – before continuing the beatdown in the ring, eventually prompting Jack to hulk up and throw him into the corner with a release Exploder suplex! A series of forearms gave Jack some hope, as did a Sliced Bread #2, but Gibson quickly dropped him for the Shankly Gates after escaping the LGBDT.<\/p>\n Again, Jack hit back with a flying tornado DDT for a near-fall, but Zack went back to the arm as he torqued it in preparation for another trip to the Shankly Gates. A Ticket to Ride variation gets another near-fall as the heart of Jack started to show through, refusing to go down as the Scouser laid into him some more, sparking some windmilling punches like he were Paul Robinson of all people!<\/p>\n Out of nowhere, Zack cuts off Jack with another Ticket to Ride, but yet again Jack kicked out at two as the crowd roared behind him, singing his old theme song as he replied with his own Ticket to Ride! Mr Cocko makes an appearance, and after Jack escaped a Helter Skelter, the Crippler Cockface was applied\u2026 until Zack\u2019s foot made the ropes.<\/p>\n With Gibson on the outside, Zack tied up Dillon D\u2019Angelo – who was working as a member of the ring crew\u2026 and just happened to be there to take a flip dive off the top rope. From there, Jack rolled Zack in, and went up top once more for a push-down double stomp onto the shoulders for yet another near-fall! I\u2019ve never seen a stomp that high up on a man! Jack threw away Cocko, then went for another dive, but his tope was caught and turned into a Helter Skelter on the floor, as we had echoes of Gibson\u2019s count-out win back in February.<\/p>\n This time though, the crowd rallied behind Sexsmith. Literally! A section of the crowd pulled Jack up to his feet and rolled him back in, despite Gibson\u2019s protests. So Zack kicks the arm again, then goes for the Shankly Gates, but it\u2019s turned into a roll-up for a near-fall, before Jack countered a Helter Skelter into a small package for the win! This was PROGRESS\u2019 story-telling at its best: they told a fine story with Jack in this match alone – getting a win over someone he\u2019d lost to recently (echoing a similar story from Fight Club: Pro), through to ditching the \u201ccomedy\u201d aspect of the character with Jack symbolically binning off \u201cMr Cocko\u201d… the only part I couldn\u2019t get on with was the crowd pulling Jack back into it, but that\u2019s just my take. I\u2019m sure we won\u2019t see en masse repeats like we did back in the day when \u201crandom fans hit the ring\u201d! ***\u00bd<\/p>\n Before the next match, Tyler Bate\u2019s entrance video flashed up on the projection wall in the Electric Ballroom. Cue chants of \u201cSpoiler Bate\u201d. At least Jon took it in good spirit!<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Tyler Bate vs. Pastor William Eaver<\/strong> Out of all the first-round matches, this was second to Cobb\/Cruz in terms of having a result that was nailed on. Here, the sentiment seemed to be that Tyler was either going to the final, or falling early on\u2026<\/p>\n A lot of this felt so simple for Tyler, who took down the Pastor with a drop toe hold as the pair just seemed to be \u201cthere\u201d as the crowd\u2019s chants overwhelmed things. Bate offered a handshake, but instead forced the Pastor to pray at his altar, before he took a uranage backbreaker, then a Fisherman\u2019s suplex as Eaver pushed back.<\/p>\n A Pastor plancha sees him actually go airborne, but Bate smashed back into him with a corner uppercut, then with a diving uppercut out of the corner as he put the Pastor back in his place. Eaver countered a Tyler Driver with a roll-up, but he fell to a Koppo Kick then a Tyler Driver \u201897 for the win. Take away the crowd chants, and this was the closest we\u2019ll get to an extended TV squash match in PROGRESS\u2026 not bad, but not memorable outside of the result. **\u00bc<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Mark Andrews vs. Flamita<\/strong> I\u2019m not sure how much Spanish Mark Andrews knows, but these two had a pretty good match in spite of the language and chemistry barriers that many expected. As is the usual way with matches that people expect to start out a million miles an hour, both men started with some grappling, with multiple leg sweeps for pinning attempts before the dual kips-ups led to a standing ovation. Heck, it even had the crowd chanting for Chris Roberts to do a flip\u2026 and he obliged after being bullied into a forward roll! Ebbw Vale Lucha!<\/p>\n Determined not to be outshone by a ref, Flamita kicked it into gear with some flying lucha armdrags, before Andrews swerved away from a diving dropkick and caught Flamita with the Stomp 182 for a near-fall. Flamita rolled to the outside only to get chopped as Andrews tried to take over with an Octopus stretch back in the ring. Not the usual kind of stuff from Andrews, but it sort-of worked, as he slipped out of that into a belly-to-back suplex for a near-fall.<\/p>\n Flamita came back with a missile shotgun dropkick, then a tope con hilo into the aisle, before taking a \u2018rana off the top as Andrews tried to go flip-for flip, finishing with a standing moonsault for a near-fall. An attempted headscissors takedown out of the corner\u2019s thwarted as Flamita knees Andrews and hits an Angel\u2019s Wings into a backbreaker for a near-fall, only for his handspring to get caught into a neckbreaker by Andrews, who followed with a moonsault to the floor.<\/p>\n Andrews returns with a standing shooting star press, but he takes too long going up top as Flamita catches him with a top rope \u2018rana\u2026 that Andrews flipped out of! Mark couldn\u2019t avoid a muscle buster jawbreaker though, as Flamita smashed him with a frog splash and a 450 Splash for another near-fall!<\/p>\n An attempt at the Flam Fly (standing Spanish Fly) is blocked by Andrews, who countered with a uranage before heading up top for a shooting star press into the knees. A Stundog Millionaire keeps Mark in it, but only for a few more seconds as the Flam Fly gets Flamita the win! If you came into this expecting Flamita to do a million different insane flips, then I can see why you\u2019d have left disappointed. A solid performance, but given that he\u2019d be wrestling in at least one more tournament match, against someone else he\u2019s not familiar with, I can see why he didn\u2019t go balls to the wall. ***\u00bd<\/p>\n Ahead of the main event, Trent Seven came out with his tag title belt – the polar opposite of what Tyler had done earlier in the night. He then insisted on taking the microphone to credit Riddle for his \u201cfluke\u201d win in Orlando, before berating Matt for having the audacity to \u201cwant to retire Brock Lesnar\u201d. Inspired by his \u201ccolleague\u201d, Trent brought along a mouthpiece…<\/p>\n Super Strong Style 16 – First Round: Trent Seven vs. Matt Riddle<\/strong> Well, the crowd popped huge for that as Matt Riddle\u2019s shortest match yet kept everyone extremely happy\u2026 except for British Strong Style, as Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate emerged to drag the fallen Trent to the back, as his weekend of six-y fun looked to continue tomorrow.<\/p>\n All told, this was a strong show to kick off the tournament – eight matches, all of them good in their own ways, setting up for an intriguing set of quarter-finals\u2026 even if plans had to be changed\u2026<\/p>\n Going into day two, the quarter-finals set were Tyler Bate vs. Mark Haskins; Jack Sexsmith vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Travis Banks vs. Flamita, and Matt Riddle vs. Jeff Cobb. On paper, there\u2019s not a bad match there, and it more than delivered, as we\u2019ll see!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Stretching out to three days of the late May Bank Holiday, PROGRESS\u2019 third Super Strong Style 16 kicked off in style with a Saturday show that set things up nicely for a memorable weekend!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"PROGRESS Chapter 49: Super Strong Style 16 (2017) Day 1 (May 27, 2017) - featuring all of the first round tournament matches, and a blink-and-you'll-miss-it main event!","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[690,687,6],"tags":[2067,1212,2068,193,1034,948,975,1026,951,1287,1046,1564,326,2099,610,962,1231,1107,704,521],"class_list":["post-3760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-european-indies","category-progress","category-reviews","tag-chapter-49","tag-david-starr","tag-flamita","tag-jack-sexsmith","tag-jeff-cobb","tag-jimmy-havoc","tag-mark-andrews","tag-mark-haskins","tag-matt-riddle","tag-morgan-webster","tag-nathan-cruz","tag-pastor-william-eaver","tag-progress","tag-sss16-2017","tag-super-strong-style-16","tag-travis-banks","tag-trent-seven","tag-tyler-bate","tag-zack-gibson","tag-zack-sabre-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73vbt-YE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/progress-sss16-2017n1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3760"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3763,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3760\/revisions\/3763"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNathan Cruz qualified by beating Rockstar Spud in Manchester a few weeks earlier\u2026 and his reward is almost-certain death against Jeff Cobb. His new music fits the heel-ish, \u201cprofessional\u201d character that Cruz has slipped into after the Origin dissolved, whilst Jeff Cobb\u2019s track befits the sense of impending doom that he brings to the ring – and it\u2019s a \u201creal\u201d song too, in the form of the Alder Kings\u2019 2013 track, \u201cIt\u2019s Alive\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nWell, Mark Haskins losing Crobot – and replacing it with the Acid Nymph\u2019s \u201cStitches\u201d – is going to take a little getting used to. Certainly, it didn\u2019t generate the same reaction as he stormed to the ring.<\/p>\n
\nTwo new songs here for those who are counting, and they\u2019re both \u201creal\u201d tracks – Jimmy Havoc lost AFI for a song by Silent Descent called \u201cPsychotic Euphoric\u201d. It\u2019s the song he\u2019s used in ICW\u2026 meanwhile, Travis has kept one line from \u201cKeep It 100\u201d before seguing to a song from Massive Wagons called \u201cNails\u201d.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019re back to new song territory, but the debut David Starr probably shouldn\u2019t count – unless you were expecting him to come out to Joan Jett! The Wood Burning Savages\u2019 \u201cWe Love You\u201d was the Product\u2019s song today, and yes, we\u2019re doing fairly well for \u201cstuff that\u2019s on Spotify\u201d. Meanwhile, Zack Sabre Jr. came out with a massive statement in the form of the Jeremy Corbyn t-shirt\u2026 and a song that was vaguely in the same universe as his Rev Pro song. Without the cringey lyrics.<\/p>\n
\nNew music time again! Zack Gibson got a rather generic song called \u201cDead To Some\u201d, whilst Jack couldn\u2019t touch himself anymore, with the Divinyls giving way to a catchy new song that brought back memories of some Rosebuds.<\/p>\n
\nThe Pastor\u2019s new music has more than a passing resemblance to \u201cPersonal Jesus\u201d… enough so that the crowd could sing the first two lines of it ad nauseum. Speaking of ad nauseum, \u201cwhere\u2019s your title gone?\u201d was repeatedly thrown at Bate, and the crowd weren\u2019t on about his tag title belt!<\/p>\n
\n\u201cOriginal themes\u201d rule here, as Andrews came out to his usual beloved Junior song, whilst Flamita\u2019s \u201cFlam Fly\u201d song from Mexico also made the cut. It\u2019s not exactly a secret, but Flamita\u2019s booking came on the back of a recommendation made by Arnold Furious in one of his \u201cBig Arn\u2019s Puroresu Adventure\u201d books\u2026 and no doubt the words \u201cplease don\u2019t fuck up\u201d were never far from his mind throughout the weekend!<\/p>\n
\n…which was promptly knocked out! A running knee strike wiped out Trent, who was pinned after SIX SECONDS! SPLAT!<\/p>\n