By Haydn Gleed
Dot Net Members are listening to my full audio review of Progress Wrestling Chapter 48 along with past Progress Wrestling events.
Progress Wrestling “Bang The Drum” Hits
Pete Dunne vs Mark Haskins vs Mark Andrews for the Progress Wrestling Championship: A world class match from three guys who belong on the bigger stages of the wrestling world. I had high expectations going into this match and not only did the reach those expectations they surpassed them. Some might argue that this is the type of match that Randy Orton was complaining about with spot after spot, but I would also argue that these three put on a great display of athleticism and the two Marks showed how much they wanted to win the title. Haskins had his best match in Progress since returning from his injury late in 2016 and Dunne showed why people are willing to pay to love to hate him with his heel antics before and after the match. The ending of the match was somewhat predictable but it built on the heat that they have built up with all three men of The British Strong Style that I believe they will pay off at their biggest show of the year coming up in September.
Trent Seven vs Travis Banks: Travis Banks is in the conversation of being one of the top 10 of independent wrestling in the world at the moment and another great outing against the man from Mustache Mountain demonstrated the reason why I believe that. They continued the story of Trent along with the other members of British Strong Style giving Travis’s former Kiwi partners an embarrassing exit from the company at the last chapter and because of the more serious tone I came away more impressed by Seven’s wrestling ability than I had before. The heel winning by pulling the trunks is simple wrestling 101, but it worked here, as did Trent grabbing his belt and running into the crowd immediately after the match.
Matt Riddle vs Tyler Bate: Another strong outing from MMA fighter turned pro wrestler Riddle and opponent Bate, who showed again why he’s so highly thought of. It’s hard to remember that Bate is only 20 when you see him consistently having great matches with top class opponents wrestling different styles. Facing a high flyer? He’ll pull out the high risk moves. Facing a mat wrestler? He’ll adjust his style and so and so forth. When you take a step back and realize this is a 20 year old facing a man only in his second year as a professional wrestler, the quality of the match is even more impressive.
Jinny vs Session Moth Martina: A minor Hit. Session Moth is not a wrestler who will ever be considered a world class worker, but the crowd really gets behind her and enjoys her character and being part of the act. I’ve always been rather harsh on Jinny as it felt that Progress was pushing her as someone better than people with more experience and at the time more ability, however her character work here was outstanding. Her snobbish persona worked well as she looked down at the “common” Session Moth. More importantly, Jinny’s aggressive, angry offense showed what a threat she is in the upcoming Triple Threat between herself, Laura Di Matteo and Toni Storm at the next chapter. It was extremely enjoyable and entertaining 15 minute match, but also an important one in the development of Jinny.
Progress Wrestling “Bang The Drum” Misses
The Riots vs Sweet Jesus: When former Dot Net staffer Darren Gutteridge and I reviewed Progress Wrestling, we loved the Pastor William Eaver character. However, after a ho-hum program with Sebastian and a visual during their blowoff match that made me sick to my stomach, I lost my passion for the character and this match did nothing to help that. Chuck Mumbo is an indie wrestler who has some flashy moves. It’s not that he can’t be entertaining, but the majority of the time such as during this match, I don’t see anything that wows me. The Riots are a stale act in Progress but with the commentators playing up the fact that they haven’t won a match in Progress in 2017, I smell an overdue heel turn on the horizon. Because of the apathy to the characters and the styles of the two team not being particularly well matched, this led to the only real ho-hum match of Chapter 48.
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