(Photo credit: Progress Wrestling and Head Drop)
Match of the Night
Mark Davis defeated Danny Duggan to progress to the final of the Natural Progression Series where he will face Chris Ridgeway. This was a brutal contest with a lot of chops and strikes throughout as Davis continues his reputation as one of the hardest hitting guys in the business. Duggans chest was pretty battered by the end and I would personally love to see Davis take on WALTER again in a battle of the chops.
This was Duggans best performance in a Progress ring so far. Using his speed to counteract the power of his bigger opponent, he came close to winning several times before Davis delivered a big right hand for the win. A great match here and easily match of the night for me. A breakthrough match for Duggan and I hope to see him return to progress sometime soon.
Havoc continues to his journey to find the real Jimmy Havoc
With a match against Wil Ospreay approaching at Wembley in September, Jimmy Havoc continues his almost road to redemption story. Where he tries to find the real Jimmy Havoc and breakout of the slump he has been in over the last year. The story itself is very good but I’m still not sure why this match warranted being a deathmatch. A match I prefer to be used as an end to a heated rivalry as opposed to just being an excuse to see Havoc land on some thumbtacks. From what I’m aware, him and Trivet have no story in Progress and Trivet is actually very seldom seen in the company, yet here they were in a deathmatch. Plus, I find it hard to take the whole Havoc redemption story serious when he was just faffing around in a comedy match at Chapter 70.
Anyway, that’s enough ranting from me. Trivet cut a promo before the match. Telling havoc he was a broken mess of a man, and since it was a year since Havoc won the CZW Tournament of Death he should really move on and stop riding those coattails. Like any other deathmatch, there were chairs, staples, baking trays and blood. I was a little surprised that Trivet got as much offence as he did, almost controlling the majority of the match. Especially since he very rarely seen on Chapter shows and is pretty low down the card.
I’m a fan of Trivet, his smarmy rich kid gimmick gets tremendous heat from a mostly liberal Progress crowd and I would love to see more of him, but I fail to see how a guy who has never been presented as a threat before is suddenly holding his own with the king of the deathmatches. Trivet picked up the surprise win with a chair shot to the head and I imagine he will now fadeaway again not to be seen for another few months while Havoc continues to have random deathmatches leading up to his match Ospreay.
WALTER becomes the number one contender
In a heavily stipulated tag match, WALTER and Jack Sexsmith faced Travis Banks and TK Cooper. With the stipulation being that if WALTER and Sexsmith win, whoever gets the pinfall will become the number one contender. While if Banks gets the pin, neither WALTER or Sexsmith can get another title shot, and if Cooper gets the pin then he gets an Atlas division match. It’s quite confusing but I think I got that right.
The story here was Banks trying to stay away from WALTER, teasing that he was going to leave several times, much like he did during their title match at Super Strong Style 16. Both Banks and Cooper turned their attention to Sexsmith, trying to stop the pansexual phenomenon from tagging in his monster partner.
This was a really fun match with a great story told throughout. Jack Sexsmith took one for the team and allowed WALTER get pin on Cooper, giving him a kiss of approval in the process. WALTER is almost on another planet right now in Progress. His performances in the Atlas division have elevated him to the untouchable monster and it will surely be a big mistake if they don’t put the title on him to end Banks rather unspectacular reign. The already popular Sexsmith gets over even more by letting WALTER get the pin, and if WALTER does become the champ, I would love to see a match between the two for the title.
Elsewhere
Former Progress and current NXT wrestler Nixon Newell had to pull out of her scheduled women's title match with Jinny after picking up an injury at NXT’s show at Download festival. She apologised to the crowd and told them that she did have a replacement, which brought out fellow NXT star Dakota Kai. Kai then faced Jinny in the main event, with repeated interference from Chakara helping Jinny get the victory after hitting an acid rainmaker. After the match Nixon told Jinny that she wanted to face her, anytime and anywhere for the title.
Mark Haskins and Flash Morgan Webster defeated The Anti-Fun Police in the Thunder Bastard Tag Team series. The normally heel team of Haskins and Webster came out to f**k the police and were dressed in orange jumpsuits, playing up to the crowd. Bit weird and completely breaking away from what is supposed to be a pretty dark and sadistic gimmick. Ahh well. The jump suit boys won the match after Haskins rolled up Federales for the win.
Chris Brookes has been in the wrestling news of late after turning down a WWE UK contract to remain in the indies, something I would love to see more guys do. Here he faced the returning Angelico, a guy who impressed greatly in his debut at Super Strong Style and the two very tall competitors put on really good technical match here. Brookes won after hitting the Praying Mantis Bomb. After the match he took to the mic to address the CCK situation regarding the Thunder Bastard match in Wembley. Haskins and Webster attacked Brookes from behind (hang on, I thought they were faces earlier?). This led to Kid Lykos making his return from injury to make the save for his partner and confirm that he will be available for the Thunder Bastard,
The show also saw two tag team specialists return to compete in the Atlas division. With Michael Dante facing Damien Corvin in a number one contender match for the Atlas Championship. Corvin, usually a member of the Kings of the North tagteam made his singles debut in Progress as he faced off against a former tagteam champion in Progress. Dante has not been seen in Progress since his days of teaming with Tommy End and it was good to see him back in a Progress ring. This was a classic big lads wrestling match, with lots of strikes and high impact stuff with Dante picking up the win with a spear. The Dutchman will now go on to face Doug Williams for the Atlas title.
Quick Results
Michael Dante def Damien Corvin
Mark Haskins & Flash Morgan Webster w/Vikki Haskins def The Anti-Fun Police (Damian Dunne & Los Federales)
Mark Davis Def Danny Duggan in the NPS Series Semi-final
Spike Trivet def Jimmy Havoc in a deathmatch
Chris Brookes def Angelico
WALTER & Jack Sexsmith def Travis Banks & TK Cooper
Jinny w/Chakara def Dakota Kai w/Nixon Newell to retain the Progress Womens Championship
What did you think of Chapter 71 weekend? Let us know in the comments below!
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