We enter Chapter Five with a new champion as El Ligero has his first defense and the continuing of the National Progression Series and an important debut. How does this chapter fair? Let’s take a look.
Back at The Garage. The Card:
Danny Garnell vs Stixx
Lord Jonathan Windsor vs Wild Boar Mike Hitchman (National Progression Series)
Rampage Brown vs Nathan Cruz
El Ligero vs Dave Mastiff
RJ Singh’s Open Challenge
LDRS Of The New School (Sabre Jr / Scurll) vs London Riots
1. Natural Progression
Last time in the Natural Progression Series we had Mark Andrews vs Will Ospreay. This time we had…this…
This match felt like it was already off to a bad start with the announcement of the first wrestler: Lord Jonathan Windsor. You can guess by that name his gimmick is a plummer. No, obviously it’s a cocky member of the royal family, complete with a velvety purple and white cape. I’m no monarchist, but it’s just a very… generic gimmick. It obviously drew cheap heat from this crowd, but when it came to the actual wrestling, this was a very plodding match. It never really felt like it got out of second gear. What didn’t help was debuting referee Mark Parry’s botches such as falling for the crowd’s “count one higher” chant when trying to count the wrestlers out (not the last time we won’t be talking about the crowd) but the real clincher was the ending. Windsor sat on Boar and pulled the legs up for the three count… when it was very obvious that Boar kicked out at two-and-a-half. That was enough to get the entire crowd in a frenzy and it certainly wasn’t a great way to keep this tournament going.
2. Rampage
Chapter Five would see the debut of another wrestler who would be an on-and-off part of the Progress World going forward: Rampage Brown. Putting him up against Nathan Cruz (who’s hired himself a bodyguard to keep Marty Scurll away from him) was a good way to immediately get the crowd on Rampage’s size and the two put on a decent match. It was a battle between Rampage’s athleticism against Cruz’s cunning. Physically, Cruz would stand little chance against the 240lbs Rampage, who’s also real quick for his size. So Cruz would implement tactics like attacking the eyes and multiple pin attempts simultaneously.
On the other side, Rampage’s fetes of physicality, such as straight up headbutting Cruz when he tries to start a chop off, delivering a power bomb transitioning into a sit-down power bomb and countering a flying Cruz into a crossface (the crowd not chanting “We Miss Benoit,” thank God) all got massive cheers from the crowd. It was in vain, however, as Cruz managed to slip out and get the roll-up win (including holding the tights and the rope) over Rampage. It certainly provides a potential story going forward, especially how at the end this match was decent, but felt like a lot was left out of the tank.
3. Mid-Card Main Event
So, having your first Championship Title Defense in the middle of the show. That’s not great, right? Look, I’m not going to be one that says every show the Big Title should be the main event… I am going to be the one that says it should main event most of the time because having it here doesn’t create the best optics. Won’t isn’t helping is the continuing “Nazi Staff! Nazi Staff!” chants about your out-of-the-ordinary title. And I’m going to give you a spoiler for the rest of the retrospective: By Chapter Twenty, that staff is going to be gone and rightly so because even by Chapter Five, this was going to be a problem.
If Cruz/Rampage was a battle between power and cunning, then Ligero/Mastiff is that on steroids, with Mastiff having a good 120 lbs over the Champion. Ligero starts the match hot by immediately delving a dropkick to Mastiff that sends him through the ropes before Jim Smallman can even finish announcing him. It’s all about outlasting the bigger man, such as Ligero tries to bury the man in chairs outside the ring or constantly attempting to apply that guillotine submission that he used to beat Cruz.
Continued belowThe match is alright, if a bit long, with Ligero finally able to lock in that guillotine enough to get Mastiff to fade off for the referee to call the match. But I do want to address something, and it something that did hit me because this crowd had turned on Ligero really quickly. Look, I like Progress Wrestling (wouldn’t be doing a twenty-one week retrospective if I didn’t) but if there is one thing they suck at is that they are not great at booking a babyface champion. I’m not a booker, and I can’t imagine the difficulty in it, but you learn the deeper you go into this promotion’s work that there is a much quicker turn-over of babyface champions than heels and the crowd responses here probably helped solidify that.
4. One, Two! Whoop, Whoop!
While I had gripes with the Championship not being the main event, I really cannot complain about what we got instead. London Riots, who are at this point undefeated in Progress facing the Leaders of the New School, the two who had the best match in Chapter One, Zack Sabre Jr and Marty Scurll. Based on all that has come from the start, it does have that “Big Match” feel.
The Riots have pure power on their side and have shown they can work together incredibly well. They’re going to need it because ZSJ and Scurll almost feel telekinetic at times. They flow so well from move to move, combination to combination to overwhelm members of the Riots on their own. However, when the Riots work together, Lynch and Davis take ZSJ to task, with Marty practically begging to get the tag. The tables turn when Lynch attempts a german suplex, only for Zack to land on his feet and kick Lynch in the face (breaking Lynch’s nose).
The place explodes when Marty finally gets the tag in to give Zack a reprieve and the match turns into pure anarchy. Back in forth both teams go until it reaches the point that Zack gets Lynch in an armbar and Marty attempts a choke hold on Davis. It seems like the LDRS have the win, but Davis escapes the choke hold and breaks up the other two. At this point the crowd’s in a frenzy. It really seems to be anyone’s match until Marty holds up Davis for Zack to kick him, only for Davis to duck and Zack kicks Marty right in the head. The Riots use the famed Doomsday Device move on Zack. One. Two. Kickout! But it’s a fleeting hope spot before the Riots use their sit-out power bomb to score the victory.
If there’s one match to watch on this card, it would be the main event. On top of being fun and tense, it really did feel like a statement. The London Riots were able to take out this legendary tag team, who took them to the brink. Who is going to be able to stop them now? We’ll see in the coming weeks, but it also served as a great showcase for the Leaders of the New School, who would more and more be making their way into singles careers.
5. They Can’t All Be Good, Right?
Having said all of that, the main event match really was the only thing that made this show worthwhile. Having the championship in the mid-card felt very awkward and the follow ups to the beginnings of the Natural Progression Series was not up to snuff. On top of that, we had referee botches and the crowd perhaps getting a bit too obnoxious at times. This is the worst Chapter we’ve taken a look at so far and realistically doesn’t feel like much would be missed if you skipped it.
