For the second year in a row, Progress puts on a mystery show with no matches or talent announced. Who will show up? What will happen? It’s Progress Chapter 60: Unboxing Live 2 – Unbox Harder!
Progress Chapter 60: Unboxing Live 2 – Unbox Harder
Filmed on December 30th, 2017 From The Electric Ballroom in London, England
Commentary Done By Matt Richards and Callum Leslie
Available To Watch On Demand Progress
Mustache Mountain, Aussie Open, Chris Brookes and inflatable Kid Lykos, and the Grizzled Young Veterans come out. After Gibson’s standard promo, Jim Smallman announces that this match is a four-on-four elimination tag team match, with the Grizzled Young Vets as opposing captains. However, they refuse, so Jim allows Mustache Mountain to be captains.
Trent’s Seven Nation Army (Trent Seven, Zack Gibson, Kyle Fletcher, “Kid Lykos”) vs. Tyler’s Textbook Team (Tyler Bate, Chris Brookes, Mark Davis, James Drake)
I made the names because I miss Survivor Series teams having real names. Look, there’s an inflatable in this match, I don’t exactly know what you expect me to say about it. This was a ridiculously fun match. The eliminations were as follows:
- Drake and Gibson eliminated each other after all the teams ganged up on them and had them cover each other
- Bate was eliminated after being rolled up by Fletcher and Lykos
- Fletcher was eliminated after tapping to a Brookes octopus hold
- Lykos was eliminated after a piledriver from Davis
- Davis was eliminated after a Seven Stars lariat
- Seven was the last eliminated after Death By Roll-Up from Brookes
There was a fall off of the balcony, but it was inflatable Lykos so Progress won’t get kicked out of the Ballroom. Probably. There was also a point where Davis started hitting Brookes, forgetting that they were on the same team. After all that, Brookes got the win with Death By Roll-Up. I don’t have a clue how to rate this. Just watch it. N/R
Winner: Tyler’s Textbook Team (sole survivor: Chris Brookes)
Jack Sexsmith vs. Joe Coffey
This was a nothing match. It was a bit more back and forth than Sexsmith matches usually are, which I think takes away from Sexsmith’s strengths as a Mikey Whipwreck-esque babyface. It also didn’t help that people like Coffey as well, so it was a bit of an odd match all around. Sexsmith did win with the Crossface, but in an interesting character point, he discarded of Mr. Cocko beforehand. I can see that Progress want people to take him more seriously with his upcoming title shot, and this was the first step in that process. **1/4
Winner: Jack Sexsmith
Chakara vs. Candyfloss vs. Charlie Morgan (chapter debut) vs. Sierra Loxton (chapter debut) vs. Charli Evans vs. Millie McKenzie (chapter debut)
This was a fun scramble with the women from the Revelations of Divine Love tournament (which I reviewed here). There were moves, people dived, it was fun. Millie got the win in the end with a neckbreaker on Morgan. It’s good to see all these women here, and hopefully we see more of them. **1/2
Winner: Millie McKenzie
12 Days of Christmas Hardcore Match: Jimmy Havoc & Mark Haskins vs. Clint Margera (Progress debut) & Drew Parker (Progress debut)
The Fight Club Pro regulars Margera and Parker made their debuts here. Margera teams with Havoc in FCP as the Callous Hearts. Parker got a huge reaction when he came out. While I do appreciate a good deathmatch, I always skew toward the ones with a build to them. This was a standard fare hardcore match. This was my first time seeing either Margera or Parker, and I thought they didn’t leave much of an impression. They weren’t bad at all, they were more just unimpressive. Havoc and Haskins got the win over Parker with a barbed wire bat assisted Rainmaker. **3/4
Winners: Havoc & Haskins
Flash Morgan Webster vs. Rampage Brown
This was Rampage’s return to the Ballroom after his recent sabbatical from Progress. Now, I love the Progress crowd in the Ballroom. Generally, loud crowds are better than quiet crowds when it comes to wrestling. But every now and again, there will be a match or two where they get to be a little much. This was one of those matches. The crowd was happy to see Rampage, and they decided to sing a 12 Days of Christmas song for Rampage. The whole song. For the whole match. It really hampered this match, as the crowd were either singing, or booing the people who were singing.
The match going on behind it looked pretty good, as Webster fought from underneath against the bigger Rampage. In the end, Rampage got the win with an avalanche powerbomb and a piledriver. After the match, Flash gave a speech where he said he had to walk away from Progress for the time being to figure out how to be at his best again. That is pretty intriguing, as I can’t imagine Flash will be away for long. As for the crowd, I like the atmosphere that they give Progress, so I can handle them being a little too much for a few matches a year. ***1/4
Winner: Rampage Brown
PROGRESS World Championship: Will Ospreay vs. Travis Banks (c)
Banks won the title at Chapter 55. This is his fifth defense. This is Ospreay’s return to Progress after the Loser Leaves Progress match (lol) at Chapter 46.
Goddamn, this match was EXCELLENT. This was fast-paced, full throttle, balls to the wall action. Highlights include Banks countering an Oscutter attempt with a mid-air Slice of Heaven, followed by Ospreay countering a Slice of Heaven with a mid-air Oscutter. Banks would end up retaining with the Lion’s Clutch. This was an excellent title defense from Banks, and Ospreay is a welcome return. A late contender for Progress MOTY. ****1/4
Winner: STILL PROGRESS World Champion, Travis Banks
After the match, Travis took the mic and said that in 2018, he would continue to take on any and all challengers. This brought out the uninjured TK Cooper! TK took the mic and said that while he wasn’t cleared yet, he would be in 2018 and wanted a title shot in the future. Travis accepted and they hugged it out. Great to see TK back healthy, and I’m sure these guys are going to knock it out of the park.
WWE United Kingdom Championship: “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher vs. Pete Dunne (c)
Dunne won the UK Title at NXT Takeover: Chicago in May. This is his fifth defense. This match was originally scheduled for Progress: New York in the summer, but Dunne was taken out of the match due to injury.
Gallagher came out with his 205 Live music and gear. I think it would’ve been much preferred if he came out as Progress Jack with his old music instead of sticking to his WWE gear. If I’m putting the show together, I think I put the Progress Title match on as the main event. This match wasn’t a bummer by any means, it was a fine main event. But with the returns of Ospreay and Cooper, along with the belter that the match was, the Progress title match felt like much more of a main event than this did.
This was a serviceable main event though, as Gallagher and Dunne brought the fight to each other here. Gallagher was much grittier and wilder than he used to be, throwing Dunne into the crowd on several occasions. Dunne brought his usual level of intensity as well, which made for a fun mesh of styles. The 205 influence on Jack was still prevalent, as he tried to win with the Bully Choke, his tag partner Brian Kendrick’s submission move of choice. But in the end, Dunne would retain with the Bitter End. A fun match, but nothing on the Progress Title match that preceded it. ***1/2
WINNER: STILL WWE United Kingdom Champion, Pete Dunne
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was, as expected, a fun little show to close out the year. While most of the show was just fun matches, they did stick story points in there with Sexsmith getting serious and the returns of Ospreay and Cooper. Ospreay/Banks is an absolute banger, so if you haven’t seen it, check it out.
And that concludes Progress Wrestling for 2017. If you want to hear in-depth analysis on the year that was for Progress, check out the Year-In-Review podcast I did with Richard Benson from The Indy Corner and POST Wrestling. It was a lot of fun to look back. What did you think of Unboxing Live? Leave a comment down below or let me know on Twitter, @SuitWilliams.