Revelations of Divine Love
Date: October 2, 2017
Location: The Dome, London, England
Announcers: Glen Joseph, Matt Richards, Dahlia Black, and Vicky Haskins
In their first outing since Alexandra Palace, Progress hosted an eight-woman tournament to determine a number one contender to Toni Storm and the Progress Women’s Championship. The field is an interesting one, as five women in the field are making their Progress debuts. Only two women (Chakara, Jinny) have been on a proper Chapter show. It’s really cool to see Progress open up the women’s division again after the Natural Progression Series. After this show, I can see most (if not all) of the debutantes’ sticking around in Progress, opening up fresh matches for the entire division.
Quarterfinals: Jinny def. Candyfloss
Jinny was not originally in the tournament, but a last-minute injury to Alex Windsor opened up a spot for her. Candyfloss is a regular on the Freedom’s Road shows on Demand Progress.
This is my first time seeing Candyfloss, and she was impressive. Both women went after the other woman’s arm. Candyfloss based most of her moves around Jinny’s arm, including rolling her into a cross armbreaker that Jinny gets to the ropes to break. Candyfloss went to the top rope, but Jinny cut her off and hit her X-Factor out of the corner to move on. A very good opener. Candyfloss impressed, and I would like to see her get to a chapter show soon. Jinny is not only a heat magnet, but she gets the crowd behind the other person very easily. Having her in tournaments like this against unestablished names in Progress is a really smart move, even if that wasn’t the original plan. ***1/4
Quarterfinals: Millie McKenzie def. Sierra Loxton
This was the Progress debut for both women.
If you have been reading my Progress reviews for a while, first of all, thank you! Secondly, you’ll know my issue when a match has two people debuting at the same time. Naturally, there is a tendency for one person to outshine the other, regardless of the talent of either person. First impressions are incredibly important, especially in pro wrestling, and double debuts tend to dull the first impression of one of the competitors. This match defied that thought, as both women had a fantastic showing here.
Millie McKenzie, who is SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD, already has the babyface fire that I love in my good guys. She’s got a real pitbull attitude in the ring, where if she’s getting disrespected, she’ll comeback with two or three really hard shots. Loxton was like a freight train in this match. She ran over McKenzie several times, including hitting her with three vicious running ass attacks that got a 2 count. The crowd was hot for this match, but that spot set them on fire. Loxton went for another ass attack, but McKenzie slid out of the way and hit a high-angle German suplex. A swinging neckbreaker got McKenzie the win. Both women were awesome here, I hope to see more of these two in Progress, and McKenzie/Jinny was a match I was hoping to see from jump street. ***3/4
Quarterfinal: Chakara def. Zoe Lucas
This is Lucas’s Progress debut. This is Chakara’s first Progress appearance since her loss to Laura Di Matteo in the Natural Progression Series.
This match was technically fine, but nothing special. I’m fairly sure I’ve said that about most of the Chakara matches I’ve reviewed on here, but she is also SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD, so she deserves a little leeway. Lucas didn’t do much of note either other than scream-sell. Chakara won with the Widow’s Peak. **1/2
Quarterfinal: Charli Evans def. Charlie Morgan
They just couldn’t resist, huh? Anyway, this was the Progress debut for both Charli(e)’s.
This was another match that was technically fine but didn’t leave much to talk about. The crowd had a lot of fun with both women’s names. Evans won with a Stroke. This was Morgan’s first match coming off of a shoulder injury, so hopefully she gets another shot to impress in Progress. **1/2
Semifinal: Charli Evans def. Chakara
This was a little better than both their opening round matches, but not by much. Again, it was technically fine, but it was missing something to make it really good. They reversed out of each other’s finishers before Evans hit a nasty-looking Stroke for the win. Of the four women on this side of the bracket, I had only seen Chakara, so I have no qualms with Evans making the final. **3/4
Semifinal: Jinny def. Millie McKenzie
This was an awesome sprint. The crowd was really hot, and they were so against Jinny. I wouldn’t call Jinny the best wrestler on the women’s side of the roster, but she may be the best of anyone in Progress at evoking such hatred from the crowd. She had such a great opponent here to showcase that, as Millie kept fighting back after Jinny would badmouth her. These two beat the hell out of each other, with Jinny punching Millie as hard as she could, and Millie dropping Jinny on her head with suplexes. Jinny would end up getting the win with a Style Clash. A fantastic night for Millie McKenzie, as she almost certainly carved out a spot for herself in Progress. ***1/2
Four Way Match: David Francisco def. The OJMO, Mauro Chavez, Charlie Carter
This was a fine buffer match. Carter came off the best of the four, with Francisco coming in next. OJMO is very charismatic, but he was very sloppy here. It’s like he doesn’t know how tall he is or how long his limbs are, so everything looks a little off. That’s something that more ring time should take care of though. Chavez is a vegan, so he came out with a bag of kale and tried to use it in his offense because subtlety is overrated. Francisco won with a nasty curb stomp. **1/4
Final: Charli Evans def. Jinny
I could go a long time without seeing a 5-minute crowd brawl again. There was absolutely nothing that they did on the outside that couldn’t have been done in the ring, other than getting thrown through chairs. Now I say that, but the brawling did get the crowd really hot for this one. Jinny was particularly full of piss and vinegar, with her strikes looking particularly vicious. They got in the ring, and the match was very solid with Jinny in firm control.
Jinny brought Evans to the stage and laid her out with a Rainmaker before getting in guest commentator Dahlia Black’s face. Black responded by hitting Jinny with a chair while the ref was tending to Evans. I know a few people who had an issue with this, and I’m not keen on interference in my main events either. I’m less grumpy about this one because the interference didn’t directly lead to the finish of the match. It helped that Dahlia actually got physically involved instead of standing on stage and “distracting” Jinny. After that, Evans and Jinny went a few more minutes before Evans hit the Stroke to win the match and the tournament.
The match was very good despite having the main event tropes that I hate (crowd brawling, interference). It not only continued the Jinny/Dahlia Black feud, but it also established Charli Evans as a new player in the Progress women’s division. As for Evans, I think she did very well on this show, and her upcoming match with Toni Storm for the title should be really good. ***1/2
MATCH OF THE NIGHT: Millie McKenzie vs. Sierra Loxton
FINAL THOUGHTS: This show was a breeze. Clocking in at just over 2 hours, with nothing that bad on it, I’d easily recommend this show for anyone with a little time.