We have quite the hot night of wrestling here at Chapter Seven. A title match, a war for number one contendership, careers on the line and a visit from a legend all happen here.
Once again at The Garage with the card of:
El Ligero vs Noam Dar
Darrell Allen vs Joey Lakeside vs Xander Cooper vs Eddie Dennis (Natural Progression Series)
London Riots vs Project Ego
Jimmy Havoc v Zack Sabre Jr (special guest referee Nigel McGuinness)
Will Ospreay vs Mark Andrews
RJ Singh vs Danny Garnell
Screw Indy Wrestling vs Marty Scurll, Paul Robinson and Rampage Brown
1. Wait What?
Sooooo, remember how two Chapters ago I talked about how the Progress Championship match happening in the mid-card felt off? Well, that’s kind of blown out of the water with the Championship match here being the curtain jerker match with Noam Dar, winning the number one contendership last time and being impatient and wanting to wave the Progress title around like a lightsaber. Better than a Nazi staff, I guess?
As for the match itself: it’s real good. Similar to how he fought Mastiff, Dar’s goal is to work down Ligero’s legs, cut the speed away from the champion. A lot of strikes to the legs and ground-based submissions ar implemented, but Ligero won’t give in, countering or straight up evading a good degree of Dar’s offense. Both manage to trade superplexes from the top ropes, only for each to kick out. The two have a straight up superkick exchange, just straight up kicking each other in the head over and over real loud, it’s a bit cringy. The crowd is hot for both wrestlers, dueling chants of “El Li-Ger-Ro!” and “No-am Dar!” all throughout this match. There’s a moment where Ligero delivers a massive death valley driver on the ring apron, Dar sprawling outside and the Scottish wrestler barely, and I mean barely makes it back in at a nine-and-a-half count. The match concludes with Ligero having to use two C4L DDT’s to retain, but in no way does Dar look weak in defeat. A fiery opening to the Chapter.
2. Riot Control
So. The London Riots may have finally pushed their luck a bit too hard.
They’ve been on a winning streak in Progress when they enter their match against the team of Martin Kirby and the late Kris Travis. However, they’ve also been brutal, almost savage assholes throughout their matches and show a clear disregard for anyone. It finally comes to a head here when they arrive with the IPW:UK tag team belts and in a promo declare themselves the Progress Tag Team Champions since Progress didn’t have the grace to have Tag Team Championships (yet) for them.
The match between the Riots and Project Ego is a good one. Both teams are experts at tag team wrestling and continue to show their expertise here. A great spot is where Kirby delivers a superplex to Davis over Rob Lynch. However, the major part of this segment is about story. After the end of the match, the Riots are not done. After taunting both Project Ego and the fans they turn their attention to Jim Smallman, who is clearly have had enough. Bringing someone else’s belts into his company was the last straw. Jim let’s the crowd know that in their contract, the Riots’ last match is at Chapter Eight, and him, Glen Joseph and Jon Briley (the other two co-owners) are going to come up with something real special for these two, before throwing Davis and Lynch some money and -in no small words- tells the two to fuck off, despite both these two clearly capable of killing Smallman. The collision of the Riots and the rest of Progress has been a slow boil, but it looks like we’re reaching the apex.
3. Torchpassing
Wow. What. A. Match.
A match between two incredibly gifted talents (ironically, neither had singles wins in Progress up to this point) being special refereed by the retired Nigel McGuinness? Oh absolutely! This wasn’t a match between two bitter enemies, nor was it even a match between two rivals. This was a match between two great friends who knew each other’s game back-to-front. It is, admittedly, a slow start, and people who don’t really care for Zack Sabre Jr. I understand why it’s not their cup of tea. Both Havoc and ZSJ twist and turn around each other, transitioning from hold to hold, strike to strike (one moment where ZSJ had Havoc in a wristlock where a fan yelled “Not the wanking arm!” to which Jimmy yelled “I can use both!” got a laugh from me, because I’m still fifteen and an idiot) before transitioning to crazier moves, such as when Havoc double-stomped onto ZSJ outside on a bunch of chairs.
Continued belowResilience becomes the name of the game the long the match goes, with ZSJ kicks to Havoc’s head being wickedly hard and ZSJ kicking out of Havoc’s Go Home Driver finisher. Havoc manages to wiggle out of an armbar and transition into locking in a crossface, only for ZSJ to twist over into a pin, only for Havoc to transition again back into a crossface! It finally comes to a head when ZSJ gets Havoc in an armbar, only for Havoc to go for a pin while still being in an armbar, only for ZSJ to transition out of that into a double armbar, while kicking Havoc in the back, which eventually gets Havoc to submit.
Both competitors get a standing ovation and “That Was Awesome!” chants after the match as McGuinness gets on the microphone. After declaring Zack the winner he turns to Jimmy. Nigel was hesitant to ref the match because of Havoc’s history as a hardcore specialist and Nigel’s staunch opposition to such matches. But after watching this match, Nigel tells Jimmy he doesn’t need hardcore to be a true wrestler. He also puts over Zack and his tag partner Marty Scurll’s accolades and as such, Nigel can feel safe in retiring with how bright the future is for the British wrestling scene. It’s a truly heartwarming moment and shows a good light for Jimmy and Zack.
4. Career vs Placement
In Chapter Four, Mark Andrews and Will Ospreay fought like hell against each other. Although Ospreay lost (and was subsequently out of the Natural Progression Series tournament), both competitors looked like stars. Now Ospreay is back for a rematch with a proposition: if Ospreay wins, he takes Andrews spot in the tournament. If Andrews wins, Ospreay will leave Progress for good. I won’t lie: watching this match in retrospect does have the wind taken slightly from its sails because… well… both of them would continue to work in Progress.
With that said, this is still a fabulous match. Andrews and Ospreay have fantastic chemistry together, even if at times it seems like Moves for the sake of Moves. There was something I noticed here, which feels like a staple with Ospreay now, in particular his New Japan matches: he can be a very “Shouty Seller.” What I mean by that is that when he’s in a submission or having a body part worked over, he sells it by shouting very loud in pain. It sounds very weird to describe because to anyone outside of wrestling yelling that your in pain is normal, but it’s kind of become almost a meme with young William.
5. Main Event Clusterfuck
This was certainly an odd main event. It is a six-man tag team match but with a stipulation that is going to throw a wrench in everything: whoever gets the pinfall is the new number one contender for the Progress Championship. On one side, the team of Marty Scurll, Paul Robinson and Rampage Brown. On the other, the team of Screw Indy Wrestling… who is just Nathan Cruz (with his bodyguard, who immediately told by Smallman to go to the back) and Mark Haskins. But who is the third man? Who could it possibly be?
Surprise! It’s Rampage! The “Boos!” rain down from the crowd that were welcoming Rampage back as Screw Indy Wrestling lay down the pain on Scurll and Robinson. But out from the crowd comes “our favorite bastard” Dave Mastiff to even the odds as the match starts. It starts well enough, each wrestler getting a little bit in, and that stipulation adds a bit of spice to it (such as Scurll trying to steal a pin from Robinson’s work). We have a Big Man face-off between Mastiff and Rampage and then the awesome sight of Scurll tossing Robinson at all of Screw Indy Wrestling on the outside and then Mastiff tossing Scurll at the mess!
Perhaps the stipulation was a benefit and a detriment, since it added a layer of depth to a six-man tag, but it also left it crammed with so much that it felt a bit bloated, bringing with it an end that felt just a bit meh with Scurll interrupting Mastiff’s pin attempt only for Mastiff to fall into a piledriver by Rampage who scores the pin and the right to challenge El Ligero for the Championship. This wasn’t a bad match; it was fun. But when you compare it to Ligero/Dar, Havoc/ZSJ, and Andrews/Ospreay, those matches felt a bit more tight.
