10/18 PROGRESS in London: Ciampa teaser, Ospreay, more

PROGRESS Wrestling presented “Chapter 22: Trust, Encouragement, Reward, Loyalty, Satisfaction” from the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London this past Sunday, October 18.

When the show kicked off, we were treated to a pair of a great videos on the big screen. First was an anti-piracy spoof involving members of the roster to try and convince people to stop filming the show on their phones. The second was a parody of “The Office” (the British version of course) with a scene featuring the Geezers and co-owner Glen Joseph. Both were very funny and well appreciated from the crowd. After Jim Smallman gave his usual awesome show introduction, the opening match got underway.

(1) Dave Mastiff beat Jack Gallagher.

Mastiff was making his return to the promotion after a short absence and Gallagher was well received after reprising his circus strongman gimmick introduced at the last chapter. A great and fun grappling match was interrupted by Liverpool’s No. 1 Zack Gibson, who came out to recruit the pair to the Origin stable, saying they were performing in front of an audience that didn’t appreciate them. Gallagher was having none of Gibson’s chatter, but Mastiff suddenly head butted Jack from behind, knocking him out and leaving him vulnerable for a guillotine choke out, giving Mastiff the win. Dave got on the mic and ran down the crowd, saying Gibson was right and that he hated coming to London to perform in front of us and despised the fact that the audience forgot that he too is a Progress original. With that, he joined the Origin’s army to a chorus of boos.

(2) Pastor William Eavor beat Tyler Bate in a first round match in the Natural Progression Series.

Eavor is getting his second go in the NPS, having been selected to be reinstated for it by last year’s winner. Bare was making his PROGRESS debut and was well received by those that knew of him from other promotions. This was a sound outing from both men, with Eavor evading a top rope moonsault and nailing Bate with the Clothesline from Heaven for the win. The match got a standing ovation and Bate was put over strong by Jim Smallman, so I’m hopeful we will this 18-year-old back in the Ballroom again.

(3) The GZRS (Tom Irvin & Sebastian) beat Lord Jonathan Windsor & Rampage Brown.

Windsor was a late replacement for Martin Kirby. Windsor and Rampage were dubbed with the crowd as “Royal Rampage,” though they did not form a great team, with the story of the match being Windsor refusing to tag Brown in. The Geezers were their usual funny selves, with Irvin dressed as he was in the Office parody video in a shirt & tie plus fake legs and Ostrich/Emu costume. He actually wrestled a portion of the match in this gear, but was told by the ref that the emu was a foreign object and would to be removed. The crowd was dismayed at this and started a chant of “Save…The Emu!” As you can probably tell, this was a purely comedy match, with Rampage genuinely falling about laughing at the antics of the GZRS and at the crowd chants towards his tag partner. When the GZRS brought a Slip & Slide into the ring, Windsor finally tagged Rampage in, who set Irvin up for the piledriver and was immediately blind tagged by Windsor. Rampage finally clotheslined Windsor and then launched Irvin head first down the Slip & Slide into Windsor’s nether regions. After Rampage left (a very easy night for him!), Irvin hit the Stunner on Windsor for the pin.

(4) Mark Haskins beat Tomasso Ciampa via submission.

This match started with a bit of humour, with Ciampa comically grabbing the ropes for breaks at every opportunity and starting a Mexican wave. He then turned it all around by stating he works for World Wrestling Entertainment (really accentuating the entertainment part), to which Haskins responded that he worked for PROGRESS Wrestling (accentuating the wrestling). Ciampa then took over and partially turned on the crowd, playing the role of the man that was above Haskins and the company. Both men worked very snug and Ciampa decimated Haskins with his knife edge chops. Eventually Haskins managed to get a lot of damage to Ciampa’s arm. Ciampa hit Project Ciampa but Haskins kicked out. Not long after, Haskins trapped Ciampa in a trio of Star Armbars, the third being the charm and getting the submission.

Post-match, Ciampa extended his hand, to which Haskins told him angrily to never disrespect him, this company and these fans again, but then accepted the handshake. Here comes the point that generated a lot of buzz. Ciampa then got on the mic to thank the fans, but he had to do what was best for his family. He said this might be the last time he performed for us, but he would always call this place home. It was a big teaser for leaving the independents for WWE, but he has not signed at this point.

(5) “The Villain” Marty Scurll pinned “Flash” Morgan Webster.

Scurll came to this show fresh from his horrible actions against the now retired Kris Travis at the last chapter and was looking to end the undefeated streak of Webster. A more negative reaction for him, though he still had his fans in the crowd. A good match ended with Scurll distracting the referee and delivering two low blows to Flash and pinning him with his feet on the ropes for leverage. Scurll cut a promo stating that we didn’t accept him as “Party Marty” and that “The Villain” was not just a gimmick, it was the real him. He referred to retiring Travis and said he would do what he wanted – including returning to PWG, signing with ROH, going to New Japan, and just maybe, in December, he’d go to beat up everyone in NXT. This brought out Tomasso Ciampa! He simply whispered something to Jim Smallman, who informed Scurll that during the interval, a call was made to a friend of his that happened to be from Blackpool (referring of course to William Regal, who legitimately is good friends with Smallman) and said at Chapter 23, November 29, Scurll would take on Ciampa.

(6) The Origin (Nathan Cruz & El Ligero & Zack Gibson & the newly recruited Dave Mastiff) beatThe London Riots (James Davis & Rob Lynch) & PROGRESS Tag champions the Sumerian Death Squad (Michael Dante & Tommy End) in an eight-man tag match.

This was an insane brawl that went ’round the whole building. No tags made and some nice combo moves when the combatants were in the ring, which was rare. My section was destroyed when El Ligero was suplexed into a load of chairs. As the brawled continued, Rob Lynch was suplexed on his head and was being tended to by security and medical staff. At a recent show, Lynch legitimately suffered an injury from a similar move and the staff attempted to get him backstage. Various Origin members kept trying to get to him, before Lynch eventually broke out from the pack of security and press slammed Ligero from the stage onto everyone that was brawling in my seating section. Two insane bumps from Ligero on this night. When everything settled back in the ring, there was some kind of mix-up between the Riots and the SDS, who then argued, resulting in Mastiff rolling up End for the pin. A rather blah ending to a great brawl and setting up an eventual title clash presumably between SDS and the Riots.

(7) In the main event, Will Ospreay beat Paul Robinson to retain the PROGRESS Championship.

These two have been feuding on and off for well over a year, having been tag team partners before as the Swords of Essex. After Robinson defeated former champion Jimmy Havoc in a bloody war at the last chapter, he was named the number one contender. They know each other so well and there were a lot of big moves in this one, including Ospreay hitting an insane running Shooting Star Press off of the apron. A curb stomp from Robinson wasn’t enough to keep the champ down, but neither was an Essex Destroyer from the champ to the challenger. Even though he wasn’t able to connect with a top rope move, Ospreay countered another Curb Stomp attempt into a perfect victory roll for the title retaining pin.

After the match, Robinson attached and tied Ospreay in the ropes, looking to do some real damage, but some familiar music hit. Out came Mark Andrews to a thunderous reaction, making his return to PROGRESS after being absent since January for his TNA endeavours. He chased off Robinson and put over Ospreay’s accomplishments while he’d been gone. However he also pointed out his own accomplishments in PROGRESS and pointed out that Ospreay has never beaten him in PROGRESS. So the challenge was made and accepted – Ospreay vs. Andrews III for the title at Chapter 23 on November 29.

That show has already sold out (as usual), but this show will be available to view on Demand-Progress from next week. I urge readers that haven’t done so to check out PROGRESS as they are arguably the best wrestling company in the U.K.