WALTER gets one more chance to dethrone Travis Banks in a no-countout match for the World Title! It’s Progress Chapter 74: Mid-Week Matters!
I’ve been very busy these past couple months. I just couldn’t carve out the time to review the last few chapter shows, and I apologize for that. Here’s a quick recap of the big news items from those shows.
Chapter 72: Got Got Need
- Will Ospreay and Jordan Devlin had a ****1/2 star, must watch match. Seek it out immediately if you haven’t.
- Eddie Dennis returned and announced that he was cleared to compete.
- In a shocking upset, Travis Banks retained the title against Chuck Mambo.
- Mark Davis beat Chris Ridgeway to win Natural Progression Series V. He chose to put Danny Duggan into NPS VI.
Chapter 73: Fourth Shade of Green
- Travis Banks got himself counted out against Tyler Bate, forcing Progress to put a no-countout stipulation on his match against WALTER on this show.
- Flash Morgan Webster turned on Mark Haskins after they beat Sexy Starr, with the help of “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman. Webster then replaced Haskins with Wild Boar in the Thunderbastard Tag League, because…contracts? I guess.
- Jimmy Havoc lost another deathmatch, this time to Drew Parker.
Also, Zack Sabre Jr. had to pull out of the Wembley main event due to New Japan’s US show on the same date in September. To replace him, Progress is running a concept called “Three-And-In”. Reminiscent of Chikara’s method of finding title challengers, anyone not already booked at Wembley who can win three consecutive matches between this show and Chapter 75 (which includes the US Tour) will enter the Wembley main event. I’ve been a bit critical of Progress’s booking as of late, but I do think this is a fine method to find a new challenger. It also gives some much-needed juice to the US tour as well, so a thumbs-up all around.
PROGRESS WRESTLING
CHAPTER 74: MID-WEEK MATTERS
JULY 25TH, 2018 (MY BIRTHDAY!) AT THE ELECTRIC BALLROOM IN LONDON
WATCH: DEMAND PROGRESS
THUNDERBASTARD SERIES: THE 198 (8) DEF. AUSSIE OPEN (2)
Progress lost their battle for licensed music again, and now these guys can’t even come out to the Hot Tag Media beeps and boops. The crowd can’t even sing licensed songs without getting muted. And it cannot be overstated how generic this music is. At this point, just cut the entrances. I skip them anyway, and I don’t think anyone is yearning to see guys coming out to Music 11 from Smackdown vs Raw 2009.
Flash and Wild Boar worked together well, which isn’t surprising if you’ve seen them team elsewhere. It’s good to have some clarity in this whole Mark Haskins/Flash deal, as now Flash is firmly the heel against Haskins. This was a good match, but when the Thunderbastard Tag Series logo is slapped on top of it, it just makes me not care. All the Tag Series has amounted to is a couple of good tag matches that ultimately mean nothing, as the best outcome is the last spot of a gauntlet match. Maybe if this was for to challenge the champs at Wembley, then it would have a better impact. But as it stands now, this series really means nothing.
The 198 got the win when Boar hit Fletcher with the Trapper Keeper piledriver. The 198 keep the points that Haskins and Flash earned, and are leading the table. Speaking of, Mark Haskins shows up to run off Flash and hits Flash’s helmet with Vicky’s baseball bat. Nothing happened. I don’t really know what Mark expected to happen. I mean, it’s a helmet. ***1/4
WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP: JINNY (W/ THE HOUSE OF COUTURE) (2ND DEFENSE) DEF. MILLIE MCKENZIE (W/ CANDYFLOSS)
Millie McKenzie was given this title shot after reminding Progress that she was due a title shot in January before getting injured and missing the show.
Progress have made Jinny’s reign all about the House of Couture’s interference, and that has really affected Jinny’s matches. This was no exception, as Nina Samuels, Chakara, and Charlie Morgan all got involved here. It’s disappointing to see, because Jinny is a capable wrestler. We’ve seen Jinny go up against women like Toni Storm and Dahlia Black by herself and hold her own, and her having the House of Couture constantly getting involved really undermines her talent.
And maybe I wouldn’t have a problem with the interference if it was limited to the end of a match where Jinny was in trouble. But the interference was ridiculous, as two minutes couldn’t pass before the House got involved. Candyfloss’s presence didn’t do much to stop the House, leaving Millie outnumbered and outgunned. Jinny got the win with a leglock in a short, disappointing affair. *1/2
PETE DUNNE DEF. EDDIE DENNIS, CHRIS RIDGEWAY, MARK HASKINS (W/ VICKY HASKINS)
This match counts for Dennis and Haskins in the aforementioned three-and-in series. Ridgeway wasn’t booked for the US tour, and Dunne is already booked against Ilja Dragunov for Wembley.
Dennis wasn’t involved much here, which plays off of his story from Chapter 73 of not wanting to fight anyone except Mark Andrews. Ridgeway got a promising amount of offense here, coming off of his loss in the NPS final. Haskins and Dunne got their stuff in as well, resulting in a fun four-way battle. Haskins had the Sharpshooter on and was close to winning before Flash Morgan Webster came out and took Vicky hostage. Wild Boar then took Haskins out on the floor, leaving the other three in the ring. Dunne and Ridgeway took out Dennis, leaving Dunne to hit Ridgeway with a Better End (pumphandle tombstone) for the win. ***1/2
TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS/THUNDERBASTARD SERIES: GRIZZLED YOUNG VETERANS (6TH DEFENSE) (4) DEF. ANTI-FUN POLICE (2)
The Anti-Fun Police were the good guys here, as the crowd loves them some Santos. This was fine, but I couldn’t get into it personally. Both my malaise with the Thunderbastard Series, and the knowledge that the Anti-Fun Police were certainly not winning the tag titles just kept me from getting emotionally invested. This was still very solid work, as all four guys worked well to have a good showing. The Vets retained with the Ticket To Mayhem on No Fun Dunne. ***1/4
ATLAS CHAMPIONSHIP: DOUG WILLIAMS (2ND DEFENSE) DEF. TK COOPER
Actual heavyweight TK Cooper earned this shot by beating Rob Lynch at Chapter 73. I hesitate to say this because I like both of these guys, but this match was boring as sin. The first five or so minutes were a loop TK throwing Doug out of the ring, Doug walking around for a second, and TK going out and getting him. Headlocks and grappling followed, before Doug had his comeback that was about as hot as a Alaskan summer. The match finally got some juice when TK hit a top rope Spanish Fly for a two count. There was a little back-and-forth before Doug got the win with the Chaos Theory.
I don’t know what to tell you, other than this was a match between an old man and Travis Banks’s fall guy. I have no emotional connection to this Williams story because before winning the title, he was just an old loser that I used to watch in TNA. I had no faith that TK was going to win because he’s also had a poor run as of late. Progress have done a really poor job of making people matter as of late, and I can’t say that these guys helped themselves with this snoozer. **
After the match, Trent Seven came out and told a story about how he wanted to train at Hammerlock UK but couldn’t make it. He wondered how different his career would be if he had trained with Doug Williams, and if he would’ve gotten his big break sooner. He gets around to asking for an Atlas Title match at Wembley, and Doug accepts. Trent leaves with this little jab: “Your fire has been dwindling for a fair few years now Douglas, and maybe it’s me that puts it out for good, yeah?” Very good segment to set up the Atlas Title match at Wembley.
#1 CONTENDER FOR THE WOMEN’S TITLE: TONI STORM DEF. LAURA DI MATTEO
This was a rematch from Chapter 52, where Toni beat Di Matteo to retain the Women’s Title in one of Laura’s best matches in Progress. This was another good performance from Di Matteo, but Storm just looked to be a level higher than her here. Her strikes landed harder, her moves had more impact, and she was just better than Di Matteo on this night. Di Matteo did get to kick out of the Strong Zero, which surprised me as that is usually an instant kill. But Storm just got up and hit another one for the win a rematch against Jinny, presumably for Wembley. ***
NO COUNTOUT MATCH FOR THE PROGRESS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: WALTER DEF. TRAVIS BANKS (18TH DEFENSE) TO WIN THE TITLE
After a year that felt like a decade, Travis Banks is no longer the Progress Wrestling World Champion. On his second attempt, WALTER defeated Banks to become the twelfth World Champion in Progress history. The match itself was very simple, with WALTER dominating until Banks could find an opening with a chair to WALTER’s knee. Banks kept going after the leg, but WALTER kept getting his big strikes in to stay in the match.
It was chugging along fine until we got the Progress MAIN EVENT NONSENSE™! The ref got laid out, and TK Cooper tried to get WALTER disqualified, but it didn’t work. Banks hit a low blow, but only got a two count off of a roll up. Banks then grabbed the title belt, but Tyler Bate came out and took the belt away from him. This lead to a WALTER powerbomb and a Rikishi Driver for the win and the title to a massive pop. The crowd absolutely lost their minds here, and despite the false start at Super Strong Style, the people were still glad to see the big man win the title. ***1/2
Now I’ll take a deeper look at Travis Banks’s record-breaking World Title run. Banks held the belt for 318 days, which is the second longest reign in company history (behind Jimmy Havoc’s 609 day reign). He successfully defended the title an astounding SEVENTEEN times, which blows away Pete Dunne’s record of 11 defenses. Despite the impressive statistics, I can’t call this reign anything more than a dud.
When Travis Banks won Super Strong Style 16 last year, there was no questioning his ability or his star status in the UK. He was a made man. The title reign didn’t get off to a running start, with Banks dropping falls left and right before winning the title. After that, Banks never had a heel to feud with over the title. He defended the title against beloved imports at the start of his reign, then went into a quickly blown over feud against tag partners Chris Brookes and TK Cooper. Then he turned heel, which stunted him even more as his best qualities are as a fiery babyface. Banks’s reign petered to an end against challengers like Chuck Mambo and Jack Sexsmith, who while likable enough characters, are nowhere near World Title status.
The worst part about this run is that none of the fault lies on Travis Banks himself. He hasn’t lost the ability to have great matches, just look at his run in the WWE UK Title Tournament this past June if you need proof. He played both the valiant hero and the pompous coward very well. Travis Banks can still be an asset to Progress if they need him to be. Personally, I think it was a combination of rough booking and a lack of a real foil that kept Travis Banks’s run from achieving the promise it had at the start.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite the major news at the end of the show, this was still your run of the mill Progress show. Nothing particularly stood out as must-see, but I would have to recommend the Banks/WALTER main event if only for the reaction at the finish. Otherwise, nothing to see here.