The PROGRESS Wrestling Thread

[Big Benny HG]

.

Edited September 7, 2015 by Big Benny HG

[Chris Brooker]

Jesus wept... What a show. It really and truly felt like it had it all. Nothing lagged, nothing felt out of place, every match delivered. There were twists, turns and a few surprises along the way. If this is the beginning of Progress' next phase then I can't wait to see where it goes next. Absolutely essential viewing and well worth signing up to their on-demand for. I have. 

[LaGoosh]

It was a great show overall. My thoughts (bear in mind the only BritWres I've seen is 4 PROGRESS shows):

 

The Faceless vs London Riots - Not the best opener. The first half was quite dull and took a long time to get going. In the second half El Ligero started bumping like a maniac and it picked up a bit. El Ligero is a great heel. Nathan Cruz on the other hand has not impressed me at all. In fact, from what I've seen he is fairly shit. Completely unimpressive in the ring, lacking any real charisma and the most generic heel I've seen in ages.

 

The Pastor vs Jack Gallagher - This is was bloody good and probably should have been the opener. Pastor's gimmick is loads of fun and Gallagher is seriously impressive. A hell of an athlete. I'd like to see a lot more of him. 

 

Eddie Dennis vs Zack Gibson - I'm a big fan of Dennis (I'd compare him to a Welsh Dusty Rhodes) but this match seemed uneven and sloppy. Gibson is great as a comedic heel but I don't buy this alliance with the Faceless at all. This probably should have been more of a comedy/crowd interaction based match than the standard unimpressive contest it turned out to be.

 

Jimmy Havoc vs Paul Robinson - Jesus Christ what can be said? Probably the craziest shit I've seen in my entire life and utterly amazing. Havoc just got the absolute shit beaten out of him and went from most hated heel to most loved in one match. Paul Robinson is a brilliant heel. Just a nasty looking shit you want to slap. Both men were spectacular.

 

Marty Scurll vs Kris Travis - Travis's return, as I'm new to BritWres probably didn't mean as much to be as everyone else, was a heart warming moment. Good on anyone who can come back from something like that. Really good match. Scurll is the complete package and really knows what he's going. Looking forward to his heel run following this.

 

SDS vs Strong/Cole - After Havoc/Robinson this was the highlight of the night. I was expecting Rampage Brown, Dave Mastiff or someone but two fly ins? Amazing! And all four tore it up. I fucking love SDS. Kicks, elbows and forearms flying all over the place and hitting hard.

 

Ospreay vs Haskins - A strong match to end the night. Plus after all the craziness it was nice to end on a basic competitive athletic match. Haskins is a hell of a wrestler, with a stronger character he'd make serious waves.

 

So apart from two hiccups in the first half it was a fantastic night. I'm looking forward to what appears to be the stories going forward: The GEEZRS journey to the tag titles, Ospreay having to defend his title with fresh bastard heels like Robinson and Scurll coming for him and the redemption of Jimmy Havoc. Love it!

[gadge]

So Chapter 22: Trust, Encouragement, Reward, Loyalty, Satisfaction - much like last night -  just sold out in 18 minutes. No matches are announced.

 

I have some ideas, but first: You Know We Don’t Like To Use The Sit Down Gun.

 

A bit like Benny alluded to on the previous page, I felt the show could perhaps be a bit of a struggle after the big storyline conclusion to the Jimmy Havoc title reign at Chapter 20. Will Ospreay was defending his newly won PROGRESS Championship against Mark Haskins, Sumerian Death Squad had no opponents announced, and the rest of the card was just kinda there. While under promising, the show over delivered in a big way for me. If tickets are selling like hot cakes, and continue to do so, that strategy will continue to bear rewards for the faithful fans.

 

The first three matches, admittedly, were good without being great.

 

The Origin have almost had to start again after the big reveal of Cruz and Ligero as the Faceless also saw them boot Danny Garnell and Damon Moser from the group, THEN immediately change the name of the faction AND THEN lose the tag shields. The London Riots are also starting again in a way, as Jimmy Havoc no longer holding the PROGRESS title completes the mission they were brought back for. Therefore, it made sense to do a match that told the beginning of the story, and relied on the natural heat for everyone to tell a good guys vs bad guys story with stalling early on, etc. Admittedly, El Ligero taking a powerbomb into several rows of chairs just before the end was mental. That massive distraction allowed Zack Gibson to come to ringside and hand Nathan Cruz a weapon (possibly a fork) and he hit JD of the Riots with it for the pin. Gibson was on Chapter One: In The Beginning in a 3-way match and not seen again until Chapter 12, so his reasons for joining the Origin are easy to fill in.

 

I really like Pastor William Eaver, and his new Blessed In The World t-shirt is absolutely genius, but I love Jack Gallagher, so his win by submission heartened me immensely as I don't get to see him as much as I'd like. Cool little match.

 

That led to Zack Gibson, who was accompanied by Nathan Cruz (Boooo! You're A Wankstain, clap clap clapclapclap) but not El Ligero (who was already heading to Aldershot and another booking) vs the ever popular Eddie Dennis. Cruz and Gibson are both guys who in recent months have done a lot of work in TV-style matches, and when Eddie wrestled Marty Scurll in the SSS16 in May, Marty outclassed him a bit in those stakes. I thought Eddie did a much improved job here, but could probably use a break after this loss and a slightly more serious attitude if he's going to move up the card. I hope Eddie can do that, as he's a super cool guy. Another bunch of bad guy cheating got the Origin their second win of the night and finally some momentum.

 

Just as it appeared we were going to the interval, Jimmy Havoc's music hit. The way everyone collectively went "holy shit" was quite a moment, and the stipulations were set that for Havoc to get a title shot (as there are no automatic rematches in PROGRESS) he had to beat his Regression underling Paul Robinson in a no-DQ match, and if either man laid down for the other, both would be fired. Regression enforcer "Omega" Isaac Zercher (formerly of this very forum) washed his hands of the whole matter, and Havoc and Robinson promptly went to ridiculous death match levels of insanity. You could argue that Havoc hitting Robinson with a piledriver through a table after 2 minutes was excessive, but they only went much, much further. Robinson stomping Havoc's face through several light tubes for the pin was both vile, and a real shocker of a result, and actually Havoc's third straight pinfall loss on the main chapter shows.

 

After the break (so they could clean up) everyone then welcomed Kris Travis back to PROGRESS competition in super fashion. Marty Scurll was on absolutely top form here, and Travis, while at times looked like he's still not quite running on instinct, carried his end of the bout in a way that really warmed the cockles. His inside cradle for the win (at literally a 3.1 count) surprised me a bit, but set up a super angle afterwards where Marty, who has often been more of a fan favourite in PROGRESS despite being the Villain, turned on him and repeatedly put Trav in the Chickenwing. Marty being more on the dark side here much more closely ties him to his role over in Rev Pro. I'm all for that. Bring it on,

 

That left just the two title matches. I was hoping for Rampage Brown and T-Bone, who up in PCW are long term tag champions as Team Single, as the opponents of the SDS. I never expected anything like Roderick Strong and Adam Cole as unannounced challengers, and they had a blinding encounter with Tommy End and Michael Dante. Eight or ten years ago, crazy independent tag team wrestling was what everyone looked to ROH etc for. Nowadays, it's right here in London. Just great stuff. I wonder who's next?!?

 

Somehow, Will Ospreay vs Mark Haskins then went and had an absolutely great main event that absolutely deserved to go on last. Ospreay has had so many blinders this year, with AJ Styles and especially 2/3 falls vs Matt Sydal at York Hall for Rev Pro, vs Marty Scurll on the Rev Pro YouTube show and reportedly vs John Morrison up in PCW as well. This was right up there for me. I could watch that style of wrestling steal the show at any time, thank you please.

 

So, that was Chapter 21. I came out feeling absolutely blown away. Roll on Chapter 22, I'll be in the front row. Again.

[air_raid]

Chapter 22: Trust, Encouragement, Reward, Loyalty, Satisfaction

 

Is the first wrestling show ever named after a quote from The Office? I'd imagine so.

[Big Benny HG]

“Under-promised and over-delivered” is absolutely right.  For a card that had so little pre-show anticipation and excitement, this turned out to be an awesome event – one of the best one-off shows PROGRESS have ever presented.

 

It was true, I’d previously mentioned, that NOTHING on the announced show had any kind of history, backstory or grudge going in, mainly since the only real storyline still happening in PROGRESS (the almost perfectly-booked simultaneous ‘Rise and Fall of Jimmy Havoc’ and ‘Fall and Rise of Will Ospreay’) seemed to have come to a more-than-satisfactory conclusion at the last Chapter.  While there are other promotions around the UK that match or surpass PROGRESS in terms of in-ring action, characters and crowd atmosphere, what PROGRESS undeniably does better than any of them is those big, epic, emotional, dramatic story-driven main event grudge matches, where everyone knows the history and meaning behind it, and loses themselves completely in what they are seeing.  Without one of those, this show did admittedly look ‘weak’ coming in, as the main strength and selling point of the promotion wasn’t there.

 

I was wrong.

 

The first half of the show wasn’t anything special, but was still an absolutely fine, decent collection of matches..... but then from the precise moment Jimmy Havoc came out, the rest of the show became an incredible thrill-ride.  The unadvertised appearances of Roderick Strong, Adam Cole and a Jimmy Havoc/Paul Robinson implosion and deathmatch were fantastic surprises that would have had nowhere near the impact if they had been revealed beforehand.  By doing the surprise gimmick, they’ve also created great word-of-mouth for people to have to check the show out on DVD or Demand PROGRESS, and terrific goodwill and loyalty amongst the existing fanbase.  Much like the "Raw after WrestleMania" that I thought it would be, the ‘reset’ button was pressed and a good few new, interesting scenarios started to emerge.  The end of the Regression storyline had left PROGRESS very light on the headline heel department, but now, with the Origin expanding their numbers and Paul Robinson and Marty Scurll immediately positioning themselves in top positions we have the balance back and a whole load of new, fresh matches and situations to watch unfold.

 

In brief:

 

Owner/MC Jim Smallman opened the show as usual, though this time accompanied by the GZRS (Tom Irvin & Sebastian) out as Stormtroopers, for reasons I’m not quite clear on, aside from plugging their new ugly-ass t-shirts.  I still don’t ‘get’ the GZRS.  Everything about them is presented as loud, brash, annoying and arrogant, and they're great at it which would actually make them great antagonists, but for some reason everyone seems to love them.  Maybe I’m out of touch with teh yoofs...

 

The Origin (Nathan Cruz & El Ligero) beat The London Riots (Rob Lynch & James Davis) when Zack Gibson appeared, gave Cruz a FORK, and Cruz used it for the win.  A fine tag match, with the highlight being El Ligero continuing to be massively fun as a bad guy.  I think I’ve said it before, but when channelling past incarnations of his ‘darker side’ he’s always become a more mysterious, silent, brooding character, whereas this latest version sees him being a lot more animated and cocky, getting into it with the audience etc.  It’s smashing.  Just before the end, the Riots gave Ligero what was effectively the District Line outside the ring, powerbombing him 4 rows into the audience’s chairs.  **3/4.

 

‘The Extraordinary’ Jack Gallagher beat Pastor William Eaver by submission with a roll-through Boston crab.  Not a lot to say about it, but another fine contest.  Eaver, who is a capable performer, will always be popular with this audience as the first PROGRESS-born wrestler to make it as a regular on the main shows.  He’s got a new ‘Blessed In The World’ t-shirt, which is pretty damn clever.  Gallagher made a great impression on this crowd back in May, and that carried through here.  I could easily see him catching on as a cult favourite.  This time he thankfully used the theme he now uses in FutureShock (which is also the Paddy Power ad theme), that had everyone singing along.  Fully established and familiar to the PROGRESS audience now, I can see him having great matches with the bigger names on the roster.  This also marked the end of the Pastor’s little win streak. **1/2

 

Zack Gibson beat Eddie Dennis via WWE-style Distraction/Low-blow/Roll-up FinishTM.  This was what it was, mainly played to set things up.  Following what we saw in the opener, Gibson was accompanied by Nathan Cruz, who interfered for the win.  This seemingly officially confirms Gibson’s place in The Origin, which is a great step.  Gibson is a fantastic in-ring performer, but had done all he could meaningfully do in PROGRESS without a storyline or direction.  Similarly, despite the grand arrival, The Faceless/Origin have so far been nothing more than ‘just another ordinary pro wrestling villain tag team’, and this finally moves them along to something more threatening and interesting.  Dennis, however, desperately needs something more interesting and meaningful to stay relevant here.  I think he’s great, and he has infectious enthusiasm which carries over, but without direction he’s starting to fall down almost into the role of comedy midcard jobber.  I’m hoping he will be one of the PROGRESS good guys now battling with the expanding Origin (and Dennis was great in the similar PROGRESS vs. Regression feud).  **1/4

 

As people thought it was time for the interval, dethroned former champion Jimmy Havoc’s music hit and everyone went “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!”.  Sure enough, Havoc and remnants of Regression Paul Robinson & ‘The Omega’ Isaac Zercher came out, with Havoc demanding Smallman grant him a title rematch.  Smallman said he would grant the request... if Havoc won a contenders’ match... against underling Paul Robinson... with No-DQ rules.  Crowd went absolutely nuts.  There was an obvious ‘gap’ in the card Havoc, thinking he had the easy answer, ordered Robinson to lay down for him, and Robbo was about to comply, until Smallman said if they did anything like that they’d both be fired.  Havoc and Robinson started exchanging words and shoves, with Zercher initially in the middle, but then basically threw his hands up, walked out and left them to it.  And so it was on...

 

Paul Robinson beat Jimmy Havoc in a No-Disqualification match after a curb-stomp through lighttubes.  Just an insane spectacle, with a ridiculously red-hot audience absolutely with them and the story they were telling.  The whole match was set-out around getting Jimmy over as a massive, massive babyface, with Robinson beating down on Havoc for long periods and Havoc being put in the usual good-guys spots and showing the huge heroic bravery.  It worked big-time: as the match wore on, gradually people got more and more behind Jimmy until just about everyone was 100% passionately supporting him, relishing the opportunity to finally get behind one of by PROGRESS’ most iconic characters.  The bout itself was bonkers.  There was a piledriver through a ringside table within the first couple of minutes, there was a bag-full of drawing pins scattered all over the ring, there were chairs, there was a staplegun and finally there were the lighttubes, but most of all, more than any of that, there was DRAMA.  After the decision, which came to most as an upset, Havoc got a massive heartfelt standing ovation and even a handshake of acknowledgement from Jim Smallman, as he seemingly said goodbye.  Super.  (Where to begin rating this?  I will say a hefty **** as a match, but as a MOMENT it was off the charts).

 

After the real interval to allow everyone to get their shit together:

 

Kris Travis beat ‘The Villain’ Marty Scurll via pinfall.  This was Travis’ first match in PROGRESS since his comeback, and he naturally received a genuine emotional reception.  The pair then went on to have a clean, fair, athletic sporting contest, full of fast action, smooth wrestling and quick counters.  It was all good stuff.  The win via inside cradle came out of nowhere, leading to Scurll and Travis hugging in the ring, then Scurll attacking Trav and putting him in the “CHIIIIICKENWIIIING!”.  A whole host of people ran out to pull him off, but then Scurll locked it on again before finally being prised off and sent to the back.  Villain by name, and all that.  Though he is ‘The Villain’, Marty’s character in PROGRESS has essentially been a babyface with a ‘pro wrestling bad guy’ gimmick.  Sounds like the shittest thing in the world, but it actually worked really well.  Now, well, I guess he’s an out-and-out bad guy.  As I mentioned during my introduction, I’m all in favour of this move.  ***1/4.

 

Sumerian Death Squad (Tommy End & Michael Dante) beat Adam Cole & Roderick Strong to retain the PROGRESS Tag Team Championship with the assisted-Diamond Dust.  This was SDS’ ‘open challenge’, with the best guesses most people could come up with being British names unannounced for the show.  No-one could have guessed at two of the undoubtedly best unsigned US performers at this moment turning up unadvertised, so we had the fabulous moment of Roddy getting the massive ‘Holy Shit’ moment surprise moment when he was revealed, only for the reaction to increase when Cole joined him seconds later.  The match was an awesome thrillfest, jam packed from start to finish with non-stop breathless action typical of the modern indie tag team sprint style, pulled-off magnificently.  SDS have mainly just been beating various random British  teams so far, but this definitely raised their stock and announced their arrival as potential (not PTNTL) genuine PROGRESS headliners.  ****1/4.

 

Will Ospreay beat Mark Haskins with the 630 senton to retain the PROGRESS Championship.  An excellent main event to end a fantastic night.  While it was a change from usual for a PROGRESS main event in that there was no feud, grudge or animosity between the pair, the issue between them really was wanting the BELT, wanting to be CHAMPION, wanting to prove they are THE BEST and wanting to BEAT the other guy to make that happen.  Sometimes, in the end, that’s all you need.  A very ‘RevPro-like’ headliner, then, with both men putting in great shifts and putting on a supremely exciting, perfectly executed and wonderfully enjoyable headline attraction.  All this match really had to do was cement Will as the undisputed top guy in PROGRESS, and it did that perfectly.  ****.

 

And that was that.  I went from going in thinking it might potentially be my last regular PROGRESS Chapter for a while (the financial cost of coming down to these shows, added to the increased frequency of events in 2016, and all the hassle with the queuing, rush to buy tickets, etc. made me think, while I enjoy the shows, this might be a good ‘jumping off point’ now the main story was done) to rushing home, going through the teeth-biting drama of buying tickets all over again and locking-up some Gold tickets for the next show.  That one comes on Sunday 18 October and while I’ve given up trying to remember the show names and numbers, is already something I’m looking forward to greatly.

[gadge]

One quick thing on the new evil El Ligero in PROGRESS : as if we didn't know that guy's been hanging around Martin Kirby too long, this was the confirmation. While not an out and out copy, there were definitely similarities, and that's not a bad thing at all.

[Big Benny HG]

Ha.

 

I purposefully didn't read "gadge's" review until I'd done my own... and now I've done so it amuses me to note that we've pretty much written THE EXACT SAME THING.

 

EDIT: stupid double-post.

Edited September 11, 2015 by Big Benny HG

[Big Benny HG]

Much like PCW and a few others, PROGRESS are now offering London 2016 Season tickets~!

 

By fan request. we we’ll be selling SEASON TICKETS for our Electric Ballroom shows for 2016.

This will guarantee you a ticket for ALL ELEVEN shows at the Electric Ballroom next year (CLICK HERE FOR SHOW DATES).

Here’s how it’ll work:

 

At 10pm on MONDAY NOVEMBER 16th, we’ll put HALF of our entire ticket allocation for 2016 on sale as season tickets. That means half of all tickets from each price band, from front row to standing.

 

Note: AT LEAST HALF of our tickets will still go on general sale for each show as usual. We understand not everyone can afford a season ticket – so don’t panic if you can’t get one!

 

Season tickets will ONLY BE ON SALE UNTIL 6pm ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 30th. This is so we can then put tickets for Chapter 25 on general sale at 10pm that night as usual.

 

This means that YOU ONLY HAVE A TWO WEEK WINDOW TO GET YOUR SEASON TICKET. We’re giving you plenty of warning so you can save up, or ask for yours as a Christmas present!

 

Prices will be as follows:

 

FRONT ROW SEASON TICKET: £264

GOLD BAND SEASON TICKET (Rows 2/3): £242

SILVER BAND SEASON TICKET (Rows 4/5): £220

REGULAR SEAT SEASON TICKET (Row 6 back): £198

STANDING SEASON TICKET: £154

All season ticket holders will receive their own physical season ticket, and will use this to gain entrance to the shows. They can also use it to get 10% discount on purchases of PROGRESS merchandise during shows.

 

Just so you know, a season ticket guarantees you a place in the area that you have bought it for, but DOES NOT guarantee a specific seat. It does mean no more panicking at 10pm the Monday after a show though…

10pm. Monday 16th November.

[Big Benny HG]

Well, it seems to have come around quickly (mainly because it has – for the rest of 2015 the main shows come every 6 weeks instead of every 2 months) but this Sunday is PROGRESS Wrestling’s next main ‘Chapter’ show:

 

 

PROGRESS Champion WILL OSPREAY will defend his title against the bloodthirsty, reborn PAUL ROBINSON.

 

 

There’s a huge MULTI-MAN TAG TEAM MATCH as THE SUMERIAN DEATH SQUAD and THE LONDON RIOTS take on THE ORIGIN – but will it be the original three men, or have they built the army that they promised?

 

 

TOMMASO CIAMPA returns to PROGRESS to take on Thunderbastard winner MARK HASKINS.

 

 

NPS 2 winner FLASH MORGAN WEBSTER goes up against the newly-snapped MARTY SCURLL.

 

 

We have our second NPS 3 quarter final with PASTOR WILLIAM EAVER taking on the debuting TYLER BATE.

 

 

Two stand-out British talents face off with DAVE MASTIFF vs JACK GALLAGHER.

 

 

And there’s a rematch from ENDVR 12 as RAMPAGE BROWN and MARTIN KIRBY try to avenge their shock defeat at the hands of THE GZRS!

Just like last month it isn’t a line-up that looks particularly extraordinary on paper, but if that last Chapter is any kind of lesson it should be not to judge in advance since last month’s turned out to be an absolute cracker on the night.  Following that event it looks as though we have Robinson, Scurll and The Origin established as our top antagonists in the post-Jimmy era, and is it their three matches that look the most interesting here.

 

Ospreay vs. Robinson in a battle of the former Swords of Essex has already been done as a singles match a few months back in PROGRESS, but that was before Willy Willy Willy became Mr. PROGRESS in winning the belt and before Robinson announced his arrival as a top-line star in beating former long-time champ and PROGRESS icon Havoc at the last show.  So, it’s renewed hostilities between refreshed personalities with plenty on the line.  I’m expecting it to be exciting and heated.

 

Flash vs. Marty is an interesting match too, since you feel these two are just bubbling under that title scene at the moment.  You feel Marty is being built up as the top singles bad guy, but Flash also needs credibility since his PROGRESS Title shot for winning the Natural Progression Series is coming due.  That said, if you go with the booking idea that an eventual Money In The Bank-style ‘cash-in’ (together with possible associated heel turn) would instantly reset Morgan from any recent losses, Marty should have his hand raised here to begin some momentum.

 

You know... I am starting to think there’s a strong possibility we could even see the Flash ‘cash-in’ right here on this event, taking advantage of Ospreay and Robinson potentially beating the hell out of each other...

 

The 8-man tag, pitting 2 wildly popular PROGRESS tag teams against The Origin could well be your trademark wild, crazy Ballroom-wrecking brawl, but the main attraction is discovering the identity of Origin’s mystery fourth (and possibly fifth or even more) guy.  The popular and logical guess seems to be Noam Dar.  There aren’t that many more people you could say fit the apparent mould of the group (so far it’s all people who appeared on the very first PROGRESS show, hence ‘Origin’), and he made sure to  make a point of reminding everyone he’s been here since Day One as part of his last appearance back in July.  There is an ICW show the same night in Sheffield, but I don’t know that Dar is actually on that show (and even if he is, Sheffield to London isn’t entirely beyond the possible for double duty).  If Dar sounds a little too obvious and they go with the swerve, my prediction is actually that one of the London Riots, probably Rob Lynch, turns during the match to make it 4-on-3 and kick-starting a violent singles feud between the former Riots... or given the SDS are in desperate need of credible tag challengers, BOTH Riots turn on them to join The Origin in a big 5-on-2 beatdown.  We will see...

 

... and it’s speculation on possibilities like this, given PROGRESS’ penchant for big storylines and surprises, that makes these three matches so intriguing.

 

There’s decent-looking support down the rest of the card, as I can’t see Ciampa vs. HASKINS being anything other than extremely good and Mastiff vs. Gallagher is, as far as I can tell, a first time ever meeting between two established stars I’ve enjoyed around the scene for, well, a decade now.  In addition to this you’ve got the debut of Tyler Bate, who people have been rightfully calling for as a part of PROGRESS for ages now, and he should go down tremendously well in this environment.

[Chris Brooker]

Dave Mastiff beat Jack Gallagher with a guillotine choke after Zack Gibson made an appearance and The Bastard took full advantage. Mastiff was subsequently recruited into The Origin and cut a promo on the fans.

 

Pastor William Raver pinned Tyler Bates after a lariat in a Natural Progression Series quarter final match.

 

The GZRS defeated Rampage Brown and Lord Jonathan Windsor in a tag match that defies description. Slip and slide!

 

Mark Haskins beat Thomasso Ciampa by submission in a match that started in a slightly light hearted fashion but turned into an all out war. After the match Ciampa thanked the Progress fans and said his farewells.

 

Marty Scurll pinned 'Flash' Morgan Webster with a rope assisted pin after a low blow. 'The Villain' then told the Electric Ballroom that he was responsible for ending Kris Travis' career and said he'd go wherever he wanted, PWG, ROH or NXT. This brought out Thomasso Ciampa who had a quick word with Jim Smallman. Jim had made a call to a friend of his from Blackpool and arranged for Champs to face Scurll at Chapter 23 on November 29th.

 

The Origin team of Nathan Cruz, El Lucero, Zack Gibson and Dave Mastiff defeated The Sumerian Death Squad and The London Riots in a wild brawl. Rob Lynch of the Riots took a huge German suplex from Mastiff early on and appeared to aggravate the injury he suffered at ENDVR. Initially carted out he fought back. Mastiff rolled up Tommy End after he was distracted by Lynch on the apron. Tempers flared between the SDS and The Riots afterwards.

 

In the main event Will Ospreay successfully defended the Progress Championship against Paul Robinson by pinfall. Robinson attacked after the decision but was chased off by the returning Mark Andrews. Andrews then challenged Ospreay for his title and the champ accepted. Jim Smallman made it official and the main event of Chapter 23 will be Will Osprey verses Mark Andrews.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Chris Brooker

[Big Benny HG]

A fun show on Sunday.  Nowhere near the level of the September show, and if you didn’t make it to this one you probably didn’t miss anything essential, but it was all still very enjoyable.  I’ve mentioned it before, but you do get the sense that, with the ‘Rise & Fall of Jimmy Havoc’ and ‘Fall & Rise of Will Ospreay’ intersecting story-arcs now done, PROGRESS is in a stage where the new storylines and directions are only just starting to bed in, which will presumably eventually pay off in a similar big, rewarding way down the line.

 

In headlines:

 

- Will Ospreay beat former Swords of Essex partner Paul Robinson in the main event, making the second defence of the PROGRESS Championship he won in July.  The big story came afterwards, though, when Robinson continued the assault only to be run off by a surprise appearance from Mark Andrews.  Andrews then made the respectful challenge to Ospreay, and so that’s the title match main for the November show.  I do like this, in that it was the Andrews vs. Ospreay matches in PROGRESS’ first year that not only made Will a standout name, they really were the start of the Ospreay story (Will losing to Andrews in the first Natural Progression Series... then losing his PROGRESS job when Andrews beat him again in his second chance... only for Andrews to bring Ospreay back to PROGRESS when he won the tournament), so it’s like it’s come full circle.  Ospreay is now ‘the man’ in PROGRESS, but he’s still never beaten Mandrews here.  He’s achieved so much since those early crushing defeats, but has Andrews still got his number?  And then there’s the presence of Flash Morgan Webster lurking in the shadows, waiting to use his guaranteed title shot.  Will he use it during Ospreay vs. Andrews, turning the match into an impromptu triple-threat a la Seth Rollins?  Webster himself was defeated by Marty Scurll earlier in the night, which hints to me that his title shot is coming soon, probably with a change in attitude.

 

- Dave Mastiff was revealed as the fourth member of The Origin.  His match against Jack Gallagher never really got going, as Gallagher’s regular opponent from numerous other places Zack Gibson turned up to do a talky (and I loved that he started with his “Ey!  Ey!” over the mic before he even emerged through the curtain, as they knew everyone would know who it was) and Mastiff used the distraction to lock in a choke for the quick win.  Mastiff therefore teamed with fellow Rosebuds Gibson and Nathan Cruz, as well as El Ligero, to beat the Sumerian Death Squad and the London Riots in the 8-man tag later on.  This was the chair-scattering brawl everyone expected it to be, and they played-off Rob Lynch’s recent injury scare from the ENDVR show.  In the end, miscommunication between the two babyface pairings allowed The Origin to score a cheeky roll-up pin.  It’s an obvious yet logical direction given that, Origin aside, the SDS and Riots are pretty much the only two regular tag teams on the entire roster and haven’t yet had a programme.

 

- The best match on offer here was Tommaso Ciampa vs. Mark Haskins, which started slow but developed into a brilliant, high intensity, high impact contest.  Haskins was the darling of the south-east based indies 5-8 years ago, but lost that momentum when he was basically on the shelf under TNA contract, and promotions have more recently been building around the likes of Ospreay and Scurll.  His performances more recently though would suggest he is ready, willing and able to be right amongst the very top in the UK scene once again.  As for Ciampa, you can tell how much he loves working here, as given his heartfelt farewells after the match you’d think he was a long-established home favourite, not a guy who was only making his second Chapter appearance.  He isn’t going away just yet, though, as Jim Smallman announced him against Marty Scurll at the November show.  I can’t see that being anything other than fantastic.

 

So that’s Ospreay vs. Andrews and Ciampa vs. Scurll for the next show.  That one went on sale last night and, as it the norm, it is already sold out.  It did take around an hour for all the tickets to go this time, though, rather than the sub-20 minute sell-outs they’ve seen in recent times.  I saw people on Facebook suggesting it might be due to the lack of Jimmy Havoc on the shows, or Christmas coming up, or the fact it is only a week apart from the PROGRESS Manchester debut (for which the tickets went on sale months ago), or the increased schedule of shows from now on meaning people can’t afford to do them all any more.  I think it is just a case that regular PROGRESS fans have now who would normally be a part of that mad10pm rush on the on-sale date have now realised they can pretty much pick up any tickets they want via the resale Twickets process, so if they don’t secure, say, front row or gold when they first go on sale, there’s no longer that crazy panic just to get any ticket you can for fear of missing out, since you know you can now just hold off and the tickets you want will become available later (since people tend to buy tickets before they know if they can come or not, then just sell on). And let’s face it, they still sold out over 700 tickets in 1 hour, which is amazing by any standard.

 

I’m not bothering with the next Chapter myself, since it is the same day as Show 4 of the PCW/ROH ‘Supershow of Honor II’ in Preston that I’ve already got a weekend ticket for.  I know some people with the same tickets are sacking off the last day of PCW in order to come down to Preston, but I personally felt with already going to the Manchester show the following week anyway, I wasn’t going to fear missing my PROGRESS fix.  I’ve still got a code for a free month of their Demand Progress service to sign up with at some point, so I will probably do so to catch that one.  I’m probably likely to start scaling back on attending the London Chapter shows next year anyway, since they are moving to monthly events and with train tickets coming in at around £100 each time for me to get there (and you can’t really get the cheap advance train tickets, since they’ll have long sold out by the time you know whether you have a show ticket or not) it will start being an expensive do.  When it only costs around £25 to get to Manchester for the 6 shows they have planned there, I think it will be those events that will become my priority for this promotion in 2016.

[ThisIsProgress]

A reminder that season tickets for 2016's Camden shows go on sale this coming Monday at 10pm.

Show dates and full details are at www.progresswrestling.com/seasontickets.

[Linus]

PROGRESS just put half their tickets for 2016 on sale as season tickets. The front row - £264 a throw - sold out in THIRTY ONE seconds.

[gadge]

..and they've sold some 200 season tickets in 20 minutes. Front row baby!