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The PROGRESS Wrestling Thread


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That was good. Bit long considering a majority of stuff was epic or important or brutal. By third match my mate was pondering if they'd picked the order out of a hat. And the much promised 8.30 finish didn't materialize so a fair few travelling fans - including all three mates of mine - had to miss the main event to catch their train or (lol) megabus.

Good.matches, some curious booking. Especially the part in Dennis/Andrews where instead of taking down the contract Eddie foolishly climbed back down to do more damage to Andrews, and instead of regretting that later, he still won. So as well as your babyface looking a coward in the start of the story, the end of the story is, they had a ladder match and on the night the heel was tougher, and won. Err.. boo?

LDM getting chance to explain her turn would have been nice too. Oh well, at least there will still be four in House of Couture when Charlie turns.

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Had a great time. It was a shame that a bunch of people started to leave and miss most of the main event due to the show over-running.

That main event was fantastic and told a great story, but ‘Big Strong Boi’ is a shite nickname for Bate.

Dunne v Draganov was a decent match, but in seeing Draganov for the first he didn’t do much to differentiate from what we’ve seen a bunch of other people do when they’ve faced Dunne. It’s wasnt bad by any stretch, but maybe not the “biggest match in European Wrestling” that they’d pushed it as.

Havoc v Robinson was a brutal affair but seemed way too short. It seemed like they were going to knock it up another gear and then it ended, I reckon you could have got another 6-7 minutes out of them easily.

Thr crowd seemed very quiet at certain points, particularly during the TLC Match which considering that had a one year build must have been unsettling. Maybe it was just down to the acoustics of the large arena/being away from the Electric Ballroom.

Had a great time though, and would not be shocked if they plan to run there again in the future 

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51 minutes ago, air_raid said:

That was good. Bit long considering a majority of stuff was epic or important or brutal. By third match my mate was pondering if they'd picked the order out of a hat. And the much promised 8.30 finish didn't materialize so a fair few travelling fans - including all three mates of mine - had to miss the main event to catch their train or (lol) megabus.

Good.matches, some curious booking. Especially the part in Dennis/Andrews where instead of taking down the contract Eddie foolishly climbed back down to do more damage to Andrews, and instead of regretting that later, he still won. So as well as your babyface looking a coward in the start of the story, the end of the story is, they had a ladder match and on the night the heel was tougher, and won. Err.. boo?

LDM getting chance to explain her turn would have been nice too. Oh well, at least there will still be four in House of Couture when Charlie turns.

I don't even know why Fishkake left when we did. I told him to stick around for the main event. It was a shame. If they'd managed to clean up from the death match quicker and maybe trim a video package they'd have been in under time. If they also hadn't spent much of the build talking about how they would be done for half 8 I'd have probably had tonight in a hotel and come home tomorrow instead. 

That aside it was a solid show. Maybe it was because of the amount of emotion involved but Doug Vs Trent was a great match. I Doubt there was a dry eye in the house. 

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Great show. First time at Progress and thoroughly enjoyed. The Doug Williams retirement was moment of the night for me. Executed to perfection. Everybody knew it was coming but still had us in the palm of their hands. Had a feeling Jinny would retain too which was what won me the prediction pot for the evening. Happy days. Hopefully Charlie Morgan now breaks away from the heel group and chases Jinny for the belt. Main event was decent. Shame the place slowly emptied as it went on. Dragunov impressed me. Would like to see more of him in Progress. Enjoyed seeing Mad Man Manson make an appearance in the battle royal too.

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11 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

 

Dunne v Draganov was a decent match, but in seeing Draganov for the first he didn’t do much to differentiate from what we’ve seen a bunch of other people do when they’ve faced Dunne. It’s wasnt bad by any stretch, but maybe not the “biggest match in European Wrestling” that they’d pushed it as.

Thr crowd seemed very quiet at certain points, particularly during the TLC Match which considering that had a one year build must have been unsettling. Maybe it was just down to the acoustics of the large arena/being away from the Electric Ballroom.

The build to these matches was weird and ineffective. PROGRESS did next to nothing to build up Draganov and really tell the audience who he was, they just assumed that everyone was watching WXW. Some live reports were saying that Draganoc got little-to-no reaction for his entrance, which doesn't surprise me.

It's quite clear that a big portion of the PROGRESS fan base don't really follow much independent wrestling elsewhere; loads of people were asking who CCK are when they debuted and Ospreay's surprise return with his new NJPW music and entrance gear didn't trigger a pop until he unveiled his face.

So aye, poor build for that match. Draganov is massively over in WXW and is something of an internet darling so it could be considering as the 'biggest match in Europe' if they bothered to build it up properly.

Eddie/Andrews was the victim of a long, drawn-out feud (if this were EWR, we'd get reports saying the feud is losing heat on weekly basis) and an awful stipulation. Should've been a street fight or no-holds barred affair, instead we get a match where you have to climb a ladder to win. Doesn't really put across the supposed hatred in the feud when you're fighting for a contract on a ladder.

I'll wait for the show to drop before I really side with these viewpoints but from what I've seen on Twitter and now here, it looks like PROGRESS really need to reevaluate their storytelling techniques considering that's what really separated them from the rest of the pack in the first place.

Edited by Accident Prone
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I see that the Progress ultras or whatever they're called are dispelling the myth about them being total apologists for the company regarding the running time and are very sympathetic to the unfortunate ones who had to miss the end of the show to catch their transport home.

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12 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

 

That main event was fantastic and told a great story, but ‘Big Strong Boi’ is a shite nickname for Bate.

 

I really enjoyed it at the NXT:UK taping because Woods seemed to have said it very tongue in cheek and the Brum crowd felt like they were doing it for laughs and in a "our boy" manner for the home region lad. But it definitely doesn't suit in Progress when you're having a serious match with a beast and when he used it multiple times in the build video I thought "Oooh no, not here mate."

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

 loads of people were asking who CCK are when they debuted 

Were they? I was at the Ritz when they debuted and the building shook. We knew who they were.

1 hour ago, Accident Prone said:

it looks like PROGRESS really need to reevaluate their storytelling techniques considering that's what really separated them from the rest of the pack in the first place.

It's true. This was not a show that felt a year in the making, with stories coming to their climactic end. Yes, injuries and New Japan blighted what they wanted to put on but there was so much wrong with the thought process and execution of the contingency plans.

I say contingency, but the thought process around the ThunderBastard series was flawed from the beginning and came across as a bloated convoluted mess. "Lots of matches" instead of telling stories to interlink the teams is just lazy. No, they couldn't have helped Lykos getting injured, but they made their own bed with the first title switch. If the plan was GYV dropping the fall for Aussie Open, they should have just stayed champions. Ultimately I was pleased Flamita and Bandido were involved as part of the fix, they're great, but it was a mess. Mills and Mayhew should be nowhere near a tag title match, David Starr should be nowhere near Jack Sexsmith unless it's to beat him up, and don't get me started on "The 198" showing up last as a consequence of points they didn't win, because that was all kinds of bullshit.

Haskins removal from that clusterfuck presumably because they didnt have a better opponent for Matt Riddle? OK.

The TLC match build had its flaws as I mentioned above but it HAD a build and belonged on the biggest show of the year, at least.

Digging up Robinson as soon as they realized Ospreay was out, I was not a fan of. "Havoc has a past here" is fine but it seemed something a bit out of nowhere for, again, the biggest show of the year.

The Progress title match was a great match on the night but it didn't scream "main event of the big show" because like any main event at any level, it's not going to feel special with three weeks fucking build. Adding "three and in" to a build that already featured the contrived tag team bollocks was a terrible choice. I'm not particularly sold on Walter anyway, he delivers a good match but I never feel inclined to cheer for him, although I seem in the minority there. Anyway, main event took place in front of a split crowd and booking wise its babyface vs babyface which from a storytelling point of view is tough. So obviously, the babyface I decide to cheer for gets beaten and the evening ends flat for me anyway, but the show would have benefited from a main with a strong face/heel dynamic.

It's easy to think about what they would have had with Havoc v Ospreay, Travis v Sabre and a tag title match with CCK going for the belts and think "they did their best with what they had" but the mix of REALLY thrown together (Havoc/Robinson) and convoluted really had me questioning if they did. Compare to last year's Dunne/Banks, CCK/Mountain and Havoc/Haskins storylines and it's night and day.

I got into Progress for Ospreay v Havoc, Rampage, The Villain and The Origin. My interest peaked while British Strong Style were my baddies and CCK were my heroes. The promotion feels like it's lost its identity at the moment.

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5 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Were they? I was at the Ritz when they debuted and the building shook. We knew who they were.

I remember a lot of questions over on aforementioned fan page and on Twitter after the show asking who they and if they were '"any good". I also remember a slew of posts on the PROGRESS Reddit asking who they were, some quite derogatory to their look and how they came across, which got a lot of upvotes. I'm not into gate keeping so i'm not having a go on at them for not knowing who they are, but PROGRESS should be booking debuts and returns as if the entire audience is oblivious. 

It sure was a massive pop and will go down as one of the best moments in PROGRESS history (at least for me) but I put that down to enough people in the building that day knowing who they are. It was in Manchester too, so the CCK lads were all ready well established in that scene. I'm quite gutted I missed it.

19 minutes ago, air_raid said:

I got into Progress for Ospreay v Havoc, Rampage, The Villain and The Origin. My interest peaked while British Strong Style were my baddies and CCK were my heroes. The promotion feels like it's lost its identity at the moment.

Absolutely this, 100%.

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2 hours ago, Keith Houchen said:

I see that the Progress ultras or whatever they're called are dispelling the myth about them being total apologists for the company regarding the running time and are very sympathetic to the unfortunate ones who had to miss the end of the show to catch their transport home.

 

2 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

Just had a peak on Twitter and the dreaded PROGRESS fans Facebook page. Oh my fucking days. 

Links to these? I’ve not got Facebook so if a log-in is needed, just the general gist will do

Edited by WyattSheepMask
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23 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Links to these? I’ve not got Facebook so if a log-in is needed, just the general gist will do

It's easier to link to Twitter so here's a few threads that are compiling the madness (spoiler for size);

 

Also, PROGRESS have just announced that they'll be releasing the Tyler Bate/WALTER match for free once it's been through the editing process, but I can almost guarantee that thread will include some right hum-dingers too.

Edited by Accident Prone
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Good on them giving away the match for free, but hardly surprising there are some absolute melts arguing that there was nothing bad about them over-running. Aside from the fact that PROGRESS (and many other promotions) have fans that will defend every single decision they make, some people just struggle to have any empathy about things like this.

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Cheers @Accident Prone. I’m in two minds about it myself, and I don’t want to come across as defending Progress, you can apply this to pretty much anything. The overrun didn’t affect me personally because I’d booked a hotel for the night and in other instances can drive to & from shows so I’m lucky enough in that sense. Having said that, if you’re reliant on public transport and have to leave at a certain time, then that’s the risk you take with potential overruns.

However, no-one attending a show should getting any shit from anyone for leaving to have to get home if they have been given a finish time. If a promoter (for any show/event, this isn’t exclusive to wrestling) has said the show will finish at X time, then it’s down to those running the show to get the show finished at that time or as close to it as possible. I think the show itself finished around 9:15, so overrunning by 45minutes is massive. Could they have just cut the preshow Battle Royale and started at 3:30? Possibly, but hindsight is a beautiful thing.

It sucks for anybody that had to leave before the main event, but unless you can control your own travel, that is the risk you take.

Edited by WyattSheepMask
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