5/6 Progress Wrestling “Super Strong Styles 16 – Night 2”: Tyler Bate, Keith Lee, Sabre Jr., Dunne, Gibson, Andrews, Janela, Havoc, Haskins

PROGRESS WRESTLING SUPER STRONG STYLE 16, DAY 2
MAY 6, 2018
LONDON, ENGLAND AT ALEXANDRA PLACE
REPORT BY DAVE GREEN (@dagreeno), PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

Day 2 of the annual tournament saw four quarter final matches and a big title match between two undefeated champions.

(1) Pete Dunne vs. Zack Gibson (w/James Drake) – SSS16 quarter final. This saw plenty of shenanigans involving Dunne throwing shoes and Drake attempting to interfere. Dunne set up for the finish, when suddenly   Jimmy Havoc and Mark Haskins appeared at ringside. Both attempted to attack Dunne, but he took both men out with chair shots. Vicky Haskins then entered the ring, daring Dunne to hit her. When he reared back, Flash Morgan Webster stood in front of her to talk Dunne out of it. Gibson attempted to attack from behind,  but Dunne instinctively hit him with the chair. Despite the repeated attempts at interference against him, Dunne was the only one caught doing an illegal move, thus he was disqualified and Zack Gibson took the victory to move on to the semi finals.  After the match, Havoc and Haskins beat down the UK champ. They held in place for Webster, who was handed Vicky’s barbed wire bat. He hesitated, still not wanting to commit to doing anything dastardly. Tyler Bate took this opportunity to run everyone off, saving his stablemate.

(2) Jordan Devlin vs. TK Cooper vs. Chuck Mambo. A very fun triple threat match. This weekend has certainly been Devlin’s coming out party, as those unfamiliar with him in the crowd have reacted to him more and more loudly for his performances. Mambo hit his frog splash to Cooper, only to get caught in Devlin’s package piledriver to give Jordan the win.

(3) Mark Andrews & Chris Brookes & Joey Janela vs. Mark Haskins & Jimmy Havoc & Flash Morgan Webster (w/Vicky Haskins). A nice trios match to keep the crowd entertained. The story for the most part was the continued attempt by Havoc and Haskins to make Webster more aggressive and take short cuts. Webster constantly seemed conflicted. Big move highlight was when Janela held Haskins in a fireman’s carry on the apron, while Andrews vaulted over the pair onto everyone else on the floor with a topé, with Janela hitting a DVD straight after. Janela and Havoc finally found themselves one on one, for the first time since their epic no dq match at PROGRESS: New York last August. It didn’t last long as Webster accidentally fell into the referee after being hit, a distraction that Havoc took advantage of with a low blow. Haskins assisted with a Rainmaker to get the pinfall on Janela.

Joey got on the mic and stated he was fed up with being screwed over this weekend. Referencing the aforementioned match with Havoc, he challenged Jimmy to take him on on Day 3 in a Death Match.

(4) Keith Lee vs. Angelico – SSS16 Quarter Final. This was a very clash of styles. Lee worked up to his dishing out of chops in fine style, popping the crowd with the sound of them. Angelico came close to victory throughout with some vicious knee strikes, and even teased hitting Fall of the Angels, but Lee proved too much as he hit a huge pounce followed by Ground Zero to advance to the semis.

After the break, Jack Sexsmith came out to address the participants of the main event, one of whom he will be taking on in Manchester on May 20th. He very confidently predicted he would walk out of the match PROGRESS World Champion whoever he faced. He then introduced David Starr to the ring.

(5) David Starr vs. Zack Sabre Jr – SSS16 Quarter Final. This was the first instance of two participants facing each other in two different SSS16 tournaments, as these men had an incredible match in the first round of last year’s event. This was another tremendous encounter in their series of bouts. Starr constantly hit hard lariats and chops, while Sabre kept working on the legs of Starr to weaken him. After a lot of different submission holds, ZSJ finally locked in Orienteering with Napalm Death to get the tap out. This is a must see match.

(6) House of Couture (Jinny & Chakara & Nina Samuels) vs. Millie McKenzie & Sierra Loxton & Laura Di Matteo. This trios match saw Di Matteo as a surprise return and she received a nice reaction. Her long standing feud with Jinny was revisited, as Jinny made her entrance with her stable absolutely fuming that Laura was back. LDM hit her suicide dive to all three while they stood on the outside. This was a fine match, with the end seeing Jinny thrown roughly onto Loxton and Samuels on the outside, while LDM finished Chakara off swiftly with her seated octopus submission.

(7) Tyler Bate vs. Kassius Ohno. This was my personal dream quarter final and it was every bit as good as I’d expected. Ohno’s strikes are insanely good to watch live. Both men went hold for hold in the technical stretches, but Ohno dominated with his strikes. Bate kept coming back and actually lifted Ohno up on his shoulders for a UFO, shades of Ohno’s former partner Cesaro. After dumping Ohno down, he hit the Tyler Driver for the impressive win.

This makes the semi finals Tyler Bate vs Zack Gibson and Zack Sabre Jr vs Keith Lee.

(8) PROGRESS World Title match – Travis Banks (c) vs. PROGRESS Atlas Champion WALTER. This clash was made a few chapters back after Banks became a delusional champion, claiming PROGRESS was his “yard” and that he was unbeatable. Walter approached the ring to challenge, and so tonight’s match was made. Both men are unbeaten since Chapter 55 when they won their respective titles.

Banks started strong, hitting a shotgun drop kick as Walter was being introduced through a cascade of streamers, which made quite the visual. Walter took over with forearms and, of course, chops. Both men controlled long portions of the match, brutalising each other. After Walter nearly got a tap out with a Boston Crab and STF, TK Cooper entered the ring. Trying to stop any chops being administered, Cooper was wearing a Reigns-Style flak jacket. One big boot put Cooper down and out. Banks hit a Slice of Heaven for a close count. Walter locked in the Gojira Clutch, but both men tumbled out of the ring. Walter made it in at 7, but Banks started walking to the back. As the count wound down, banks ran back to the ring, but only to grab his title belt and take the cheap count out loss. So Walter wins the match, but not the title.

Walter was furious as Banks, calling him a disgrace to the company, and informed him that although the match was over, he was not done with him and that he would be World Champion. He rounded out his statement by dragging TK back into the ring and delivering a massive powerbomb.

All in all, a really good show. The first and last matches may have had finishes that will be not to everyone’s taste, but they were what they were in order for the villains to gain the reactions they want. The atmosphere tonight was the best I’ve heard it at Alexandra Palace and hopefully Day 3 will build on that.

Announced for Day 3 are a Wasteman Challange Hangover Scramble Match, TK Cooper vs Walter, the semi finals and a women’s championship match between champion Toni Storm and Charlie Morgan. Also, Mark Andrews has challenged Eddie Dennis to turn up at the show after Dennis attacked one of Andrews’ band mates in Junior after the band played a show for PROGRESS fans on night 2.

NOW CHECK OUT THE PREVIOUS NIGHT’S REPORT: 5/5 Progress Wrestling “Super Strong Style 16 – Night 1”: Zack Sabre Jr., Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Mark Andrews, Joey Janela, Keith Lee, Kassius Ohno