By Haydn Gleed
Progress Chapter 53: Fate Loves The Fearless
July 30, 2017 in London, England at The Electric Ballroom
Available via at Demandprogress.pivotshare.com
The Results
CCK defeated Extra Talented
Deputy Chief Dunne defeated Chuck Mambo
Zack Gibson & James Drake defeated Never Say Die
James Davis defeated Rob Lynch to become the Atlas title No 1 contender
Pete Dunne defeated Jack Sexsmith in a non-title match
Toni Storm defeated Candice LeRae
“British Strong Style” Trent Seven & Tyler Bate defeated Mark Haskins & Jimmy Havoc to retain the Tag Team Titles
Keith Lee defeated Travis Banks
The Positives
Travis Banks vs. Keith Lee…..and what happened afterwards….: Ok, the quality of the main event wasn’t a must see match in the context of in-ring action, but the story of the match and what happened subsequently had so many layers and was Progress at it’s very best. It was decent and Lee was used in an Andre The Giant style position where he wasn’t moving quickly, everything he did was slow but incredibly impactful, and it was used to show the resilience and the heart of Banks, who had to work hard to not only get on top but to even knock the big man down. When Pete Dunne came charging down ringside with the sledgehammer for the distraction, Banks was on the verge of winning, which made the build up to it have all the more impact. Okay, he lost the match, but they are continuing the story of Dunne being inside the Kiwi Buzzsaw’s head.
In a moment the likes I haven’t witnessed on this level of wrestling, when all three British Strong Style members had dispatched the babyface CCK team and were about to put a sledgehammer killer blow to the back of Banks, Keep It 100 played over the loud speakers. TK Cooper and Dahlia Black appeared on the stage and it sparked scenes of pure joy and chaos in the audience. Now to explain why that happened is hard to tell the story in the written form, but the short version is Cooper and Black, like Banks, are from New Zealand and came over the UK to train and improve themselves. They went through the Progress system and the Progress audience had a connection to all three as if they were homegrown UK talent. TK Cooper and Dahlia’s visa’s ran out back in earlier in 2017 and they legitimately could no longer stay in the UK so they cut a heartfelt, tear jerking promo on their final chapter before an angle with British Strong Style where Bate held Cooper’s real life girlfriend Black on the mat and forced her to watch Cooper get his ankle broken by the heels. Hence the reaction this received. This was just a wonderful moment and another layer to the main event for Chapter 55.
Rob Lynch vs. James Davis in a No. 1 contenders match for the Atlas Championship: Where do I even start with this? For those who don’t understand the significance of this match just by the listing, Lynch and Davis have been the London Riots essentially since 2009 and are like brothers. The story of this match was the two looking for a new challenge i.e. going after the Atlas belt, and they were having a match to see who would get that shot. The match itself was great as you would expect from two seasoned pros who know each other inside and out. You had the decent in-ring action, the brawling on the outside and high flying moves that shouldn’t be performed by guys of their size. The end of the match was great from a storytelling standpoint where Lynch missed a top rope move and appeared to injure his shoulder. After some hesitation, Davis locked in a submission on the shoulder to end the match with the commentators playing it up that it was a mercy moment of Davis trying to put the overall gutsy Lynch down for his own good.
This led to some masterful storytelling which I think Progress excel at. Lynch grabbed a microphone and gave an emotional speech about how his body is broken just like his life so this was his last match. The emotion pouring out of him was great as was the emotion from his tag team partner. The crowd stood on their feet to applaud the moment and the man. As Lynch bent down to kiss the Progress symbol on the mat, Davis broke the cricket bat, essentially a symbol of The London Riots, over Lynch’s back. He then proceeded to cut a scathing promo about Lynch being a loser who lost everything – his finance, his father, his house, and now he’s lost him too. WOW, just wow. I love when promos and actions like this feel real and I get totally lost in the moment. The way Lynch cut his promo I was holding back the tears and when Davis symbolically broke the cricket bat over his back and cut that promo I was just completely and totally sold on the moment, and that’s hard to do with someone like me who’s watched wrestling for 25-plus years. Good to great match, but a top notch angle/retirement afterwards. Whether Lynch is truly retiring I don’t know. He mentioned the fact he’s got bookings through to October but that’ll be it, and with the biggest show of the year in September……who knows?
British Strong Style (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) vs. Mark Haskins and Jimmy Havoc for the Tag Team Championships: Excellent all round on multiple levels. The match was a lot of fun with the brawling all over the Electric Ballroom and when the action was in the ring it was as good as you would imagine it should be between four of the premium wrestlers in the UK. The finish of the match was BSS once again sneaking out an unlikely victory which puts heat on them and further makes them vulnerable champions, which was accomplished by Pete Dunne coming out dragging Mark Haskins real life wife, Vicky Haskins, to ringside by her hair distracting Mark while Jimmy got rolled up in the ring. This was followed up by Havoc confronting Haskins and asking where was he when the roll up happened. With the two men getting increasingly heated, Vicky stepped between them and Jimmy pushed her away which led to a great brawl between the two which involved Progress babyfaces Never Say Day, Chuck Mambo, and even Flash Morgan Webster coming to the ring to stop the chaos that was ensuing. This is not something you see in Progress, so it meant a lot more. Presumably, this is another feud being built up in time for the big show in September and did a good job of once again making the crowd want to see BSS lose the titles but also wetted the appetite for a grudge match between Havoc and Haskins.
Pete Dunne vs. Jack Sexsmith in a non title match: I thoroughly enjoyed this. The only thing that would have made this better is hearing Sexsmith’s real music Divinyls – I Touch Myself (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, listen to some early Progress Wrestling members audio reviews with me and Darren Gutteridge). Dunne was made to look like a psychotic beast even before the bell rang with a cheap shop and throwing Sexsmith 6-8 rows into the crowd on two occasions and also attacking the ring crew. The match itself followed a similar formula to a lot of Sexsmith matches, which by the way is not a bad thing, where the heel beats on him and beats on him with Jack showing heart kicking out and then making comebacks. The symbolism of Sexsmith, who is open about his sexuality, hanging with a guy who is contracted to WWE and is a multiple World Champion shows how….uh…..progressive Progress is. At one point, Dunne was so desperate to win he was begging the ref to count Sexsmith out cause he felt he couldn’t beat him. Twenty years….hell even ten years ago this would wrongly have not have been as accepted as it now. I’ve been critical of Sexsmith of being too comedic in the past, but in this match he was all business and it’s great to know that with the genuine lovely fun loving side of Jack he knows when to turn it on and off. Another great step pushing Dunne towards the big show down with Travis Banks at Alexander Palace.
CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) vs. Extra Talented (Aaron Solow & Ricky Starks): If you read my Chapter 52 review, you would know that I was critical about the blown finish but the promo before this match addressed it. Although the explanation didn’t make a lot of sense I appreciated the effort to address it. The match itself was good starting off as a traditional tag match with tags and everything (I know shock horror!), and a real sense of who the heels and babyfaces were before breaking down into the usual no rules, balls to the wall, four men scrapping type of match. Not the best tag match you’ll ever see, but certainly an eye opener for me who hasn’t really understood the appeal of CCK.
Toni Storm vs. Candice LeRae for the Progress Women’s Championship: Good action from start to finish. The women’s division in Progress is still in it’s infancy and I would go as far as to say that based on in-ring action this was at least in the top three maybe in the discussion as the best women’s match in Progress so far. Two world class workers, who had just returned from filming the Mae Young Classic by the way, and they showed why they are highly regarded. This was Candice LeRae’s Progress debut and she didn’t disappoint. For those who don’t know, she is married to Johnny Gargano, so she would have been told about the Progress atmosphere (Gargano’s match against Mark Haskins in the mid-30 chapters is still one of my favorite Progress matches so far). A decent showing by two top workers and a match that makes me want to see more from both ladies so mission accomplished.
Zack Gibson & James Drake vs. Never Say Die: Minor hit more for the significance of the match and the promo beforehand. Zack Gibson might as well call himself the heat magnet as he’s just magnificent at being the dick that everyone hates, but one critique I used to have was his schtick was always similar and eventually it could get style. Here he was antagonizing the crowd masterfully by telling them he used to not be able to hear himself over the boos but the crowd have gone soft. The comments about Nathan Cruz (his former Origin team mate) taking his ball and going home were interesting. I would like to think that’s setting something up down the line so keep an eye for that. Never Say Die were making their main roster debut’s after training and working in the Progress youth system and showed a hell of a lot of charisma here. They also drew a lot of sympathy for themselves and put heat on the heels by the way they were selling, which played into the purpose of the match – making a new heel tag team. When I sat and thought about it, I realiezd there was a distinct lack of heel tag teams outside of British Strong Style on the Progress card so this created a new one and they were set up in a great way with this match.
The Negatives
None: There wasn’t a single thing that I didn’t enjoy on this show or felt was out of place. Nitpicks here and there but this was a great chapter at their home base in London that pushes them closer to their biggest show ever in September.
In The Middle
Chief Deputy Dunne vs. Chuck Mambo: I’ll hold my hands up and say that I’ve been rather harsh on both of these constantly calling them indie-riffic in a derogatory sense. Thankfully, a friend of mine opened my eyes. These two are not positioned as main eventers, they have a spot to fill on the card, which is the entertaining match in the first half of the show and for that they do it really, really well. I’m starting to get a kick out of Chief Deputy Dunne’s catchphrase of “no more funnnnaaaaaaaa” and I thought the match was decent enough for what it was.
Overall Show
Considering I had no major dislikes, I think it’s safe to say that this in my eyes was a great chapter of Progress. I like that Progress take the show all around the UK, especially because I end up at the Birmingham shows but they really step it up when they are at home in London. This was the perfect show to go into an unofficial break while Progress was in the United States and built incredibly well towards Alexander Palace. The London Riots exploding and the way that was done would have been enough for this show to be rated highly in my eyes, but the second half of the show was just spectacular on multiple levels.
Recommendation: In the words of Daniel Bryan, Yes! Yes! Yes! I’ve spoken about shows that you should watch where you will not only see what Progress is all about but understand what many of the staff at Prowrestling.net have been talking about for a while, and this is one of those shows for you to jump onboard and watch. You will understand instantly the story the feuds are trying to tell while at the same time be entertained by some good action. Find it legally, of course, and don’t be a dick!
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