7/31 PROGRESS 33 in London Results – NXT GM William Regal appears, new Progress champion, Ospreay vs. Mark Haskins, War Machine

PROGRESS Wrestling Results
“Chapter 33: Malice in Wonderland”
July 31, 2016
Camden, London, U.K. at the Electric Ballroom
Report by David Green, PWTorch U.K. correspondent

To say that Chapter 33 kicked off with a bang would be an understatement. Jim Smallman did his usual brilliant job of starting the show, introduced his colleague Jon Briley in the sound booth, as well as lamenting the fact that Glen Joseph was not in attendance due to recovering from his injury at the hands of Marty Scurll.

After introducing Callum Leslie and R.J. Singh at the commentary desk, Jim said he had another friend to introduce. WILLIAM REGAL’S music hit to a huge ovation and the man himself came out to say hello and state that the show was not about him, but the wrestlers in the back. He stayed in the crowd for the show watching very intently. ( Video at TalkSport.com )

(1) The Dunne Brothers (Pete & Damian) vs. Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) went to a double count-out. This was a fun opener with the crowd coming alive for the very popular tandem of Bate and Seven, who impressed everyone by holding Damian in a vertical suplex for a solid minute while passing him to each other. The Dunnes kept Bate in their half of the ring for an extended beat down, with every near hot tag interrupted in increasingly frustrating ways. Bate managed to catch both Dunnes in his trademark Giant Swing/Airplane Spin combo.

Later, Bate managed to lift both Dunnes up in a double suplex before making the tag to Seven. Trent and Pete squared up to each other, but strangely didn’t come to blows. Instead, Trent turned around and levelled Tyler with a vicious forearm! If that weren’t enough of a shock, Damian questioned his brother as to what was going on, which resulted in Pete punting Damian in the family jewels! Trent and Pete surveyed the damage and both left the ring and stayed on the stage, where they were both counted out resulting in a draw for the teams. The new team shook hands to seal the deal, whilst Tyler and Damian sold confusion as to what had just happened.

Tyler Bate left the ring to a huge ovation after a star-making performance.

Match 2 – Jack Gallagher beat Zack Gibson via submission. This re-match from Super Strong Style Day 2 was preceded by the crowd not giving Gibson a chance to do his pre match promo by booing him vociferously. He made Smallman do the promo for him, but took over himself.

In attempted revenge for the last match at the ballroom, Gibson attempted to tie Gallagher up in a ball, but to no avail as Gallagher escaped and tied Gibson up once again. Gibson attempted the Shankly Gates submission, but Gallagher reversed it into a heel hook. Later Gibson went for a second rope lung blower, which Gallagher rolled into a modified ankle lock for the tap out. Top notch match from both as usual, with Gibson perhaps losing a little momentum in his quest to be recognised as the ” Weeeeerld’s number one.”

Following on was the Wasteman Challange from “Body Guy” Roy Johnson. Accepting the challenge on this evening was the very popular “Sexually Frivolent, Morally Ambiguous” Jack Sexsmith. After Johnson cut a very funny rap on Jack, Jack attempted to rebut by singing a romantic ballad, which was quickly cut off by Johnson. Sexsmith went on to cut a diss rap, but not on Johnson, rather on the trio that screwed him over at the last chapter, Travis Banks, T.K. Cooper, and Dahlia Black. After some less than pleasant remarks towards Black, the trio came out to confront Sexsmith. Johnson left the ring claiming it wasn’t his beef, leaving Sexsmith to take a beating, but he quickly turned around and chased the trio away. An impromptu tag team match was immediately made (playa).

(3) T.K. Cooper & Travis Banks beat Jack Sexsmith & Roy Johnson by pinfall. A basic but fun tag match that saw the New Zealanders keep control of Sexsmith for the most part. Johnson got the hot tag and ran roughshod on the villains. Dahlia Black caused a lot of distractions at ringside, causing Johnson to be knocked off the top to the floor at one point. While the referee was attending to Johnson, Black hit Sexsmith with a low blow, Banks with a spinning torture rack neck breaker and finally Cooper once again knocking out Sexsmith with his big right hand for the tainted win.
A good match to establish the new tag team that could be title contenders sooner rather than later.

(4) Mark Andrews beat El Ligero via pinfall. A match that I personally was very much looking forward to, with Ligero getting a lot of hate from the crowd. It was quite strange to see Ligero by himself without his Origin stablemates. There was a lot of back and forth high flying action, with Andrews hitting a tornado DDT on the floor late in the match. Andrews attempted a shooting star, but Ligero caught him with his knees. Feeling he had the win in his sights, Ligero set up for a suplex, with Andrews countering with an inside cradle for the out of nowhere win. A very good match that could have gone longer without out staying its welcome.

(5) Mark Haskins beat Will Ospreay by submission. The second half kicked off with the undoubted match of the night. This was the third time these two had squared off in Progress, with Ospreay coming out on top in both previous occasions. This was also Ospreay’s first appearance for Progress since March.

Ospreay came into the match nursing a shoulder injury, but after a great bunch of feeling out sequences, Ospreay was the aggressor in the match for the most part, even being slightly cocky at times. Any description I could give would not do the match justice. It was very back and forth in the latter stages, with Haskins kicking out Ospreay’s arm as he attempted a springboard. Despite having his arm worked over, Ospreay still managed to treat us to his “no hands” handspring kick (which he famously performed against Kushida in his New Japan debut). Some incredible counter wrestling and high spots came to an end when Haskins locked in the Star Armbar for the tap out and the No1 contendership to the Progress title.

After the match, the crowd called for Regal to sign both men up. Ospreay retorted, “He can’t sign me up, but if he signs anyone it better be you (Haskins).” Haskins was left with the mic to express how desperate he was to win the Progress Title, but in past occurrences he had been to quick to challenge and not prepared enough. He announced that he was cashing in his title shot against whoever the champion was at Chapter 36 in Brixton in front of the biggest crowd in Progress history.

(6) The London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch) beat War Machine (Ray Rowe & Hanson) to retain the Progress tag team championship. The match of hosses started out relatively tamely, with some typical big man moments, but nothing majorly engrossing. That is until the hot tag was made to Rob Lynch and the match turned around in a big way. Lynch threw Rowe and Hanson around like cruiserweights with German and belly to belly suplexes, before hitting a spear through the ropes to Rowe.

Hanson took both men out with a massive suicide dive, followed by Davis hitting a flip dive from a raised section of the ballroom. Back in the ring, War Machine hit both Riots with some incredible double team moves, but couldn’t put the champs away. They went for their Fallout finishing move, but Hanson was knocked from the top rope and Rowe was rolled up by Davis for the win. There may have been a cheeky handful of tights, but War Machine stilled adhered to the Code of Honor and shook the Riots’s hands.

(7) “The Villain” Marty Scurll beat “Pastor” William Eavor to regain the Progress World Championship. Eavor’s second defence of the title (after a successful defence recently in Ireland) was against a vengeful Villain, who immediately struck the champion with his umbrella and beat him down to get an early advantage. Scurll looked to get an immediate win, much like Eavor had done to him at the previous chapter, but Eavor fought back. This match was a big test for Eavor being his first main event with a lot of expectation, but he made a great accounting of himself.

Despite succumbing to much of Scurll’s trademark offence, Eavor rallied to catch Scurll with the Last Supper powerbomb followed by the Clothesline from Heaven, the momentum of which sadly knocked Scurll to the outside. At this point, a familiar voice was heard addressing the Pastor. From the stage emerged Sebastian, formerly of the Geezers tag team, returning to the company for the first time since November. He approached ringside stating Eavor was not all that he seemed and that he knew a secret about the Pastor. This distraction allowed Scurll to lock in the chicken wing. I couldn’t see if the Pastor gave up or it was a referee call, but the bell sounded for the submission, with Scurll becoming the first-ever two-time Progress champion.

A good show once again from Progress which, while maybe not as eventful as the last chapter, started setting up stories to be told for the huge show in September, with the likely main event being Mark Haskins challenging Marty Scurll should he make it to Brixton with the title. With the new stories of the new Pete Dunne/Trent Seven union, the fall-out from Eavor-Sebastian, and the continuing open challenge of the London Riots taking on anyone, anywhere, any time, the next few months will be very interesting in the world of Progress.

Chapter 34 will take place in two weeks in Manchester with the Atlas tournament rounds concluding, with the semi-finalists being set for Chapter 35.

FYI: This show should be up on demand-progress.com by Friday, with the Haskins vs. Ospreay match being a must-see. You can catch me on Twitter @dagreeno.