This past Saturday, Demand Progress released Chapter 103 Beer Snake City. The event was held Sunday the 23rd of February at the home of Progress wrestling, the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London. This card seemed to be cursed with the dreaded ‘card subject to change’ plague, first on the list was Travis Banks as he was originally meant to be teaming with the Anti-Fun Police but due to injury he had to pull out of the event. Banks was replaced by Walter. Unfortunately next to drop out within a short time period was Charli Evans of Medusa Complex, who was ruled out of her scheduled match up. Then Jordan Devlin, who was supposed to be defending the progress world tag team titles also pulled out of the event but more on this later. Despite these issues the show must go on and it was good show, headlining the Event was Cara Noir defending the progress world title against Mark Andrews and we also had Paul Robinson putting his belt on the line against Kyle Fletcher. The Commentary team for the event was Glenn Joseph and Fraser Thomas and the show was hosted by Matt Richards.
The Work Horsemen Vs Scotty Davis and Mystery Partner
The show kicks off with The Work Horsemen, JD Drake and Anthony Henry coming out to the ring. They were originally scheduled to face the Progress Tag Team Champions, Scotty Davis and Jordan Devlin for their title, but due to injury Jordan Devlin had to be pulled from the card, but we are yet to know his replacement. Scotty Davis makes his way to the ring with the crowd cheering loudly... but who will his partner be? The music hits and out walks the Mad King Eddie Kingston, the crowd erupts with chants of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie F*****g Kingston”.
The Match Kicks off with Anthony Henry and Scotty Davis squaring up, Henry is trained in MMA and Davis is the Supreme Suplex Machine, he also has a legitimate back ground in wrestling and kick boxing. It looked like they had agreed on an actual shoot to start the match, both showing excellent grappling skills, amazing transitions and great counters. In step Eddie Kingston and JD Drake and well, the offence turns ugly no more beautiful world of sport wrestling, but rather big man wrestling, hard hitting and bruising. The Work Horsemen are eventually able to isolate Davis as they work as heels throughout. They work him over till we get a hot tag to Eddie to make a come back. The Match then begins to break down with chaos ensuing as they start to back and forth, in the end Davis manages to get the pin on henry with his Fisherman brain buster. After the match Davis shakes hands with Drake and Henry, this causes Eddie Kingston to walk out on him.
This was a good tag match, but no offence to Eddie Kingston, he is not Jordan Devlin. Devlin is currently one of best workers in the business and I do feel the match would’ve been even better had it been our scheduled match up. Davis is easily one of hottest young talents currently after winning the natural progression series last year. And he has been having great matches, match after match, he just gets better every time. This is the first time I have seen the Work Horsemen in action as I do not follow the American independent scene as closely. I had seen JD Drake before but not Anthony Henry. I was impressed, JD Drake is good big man, with his old school approach yet he is still athletic despite his larger frame. Henry was tremendously impressive, it seems that more and more people trained in MMA transitioning to Pro Wrestling now, Henry has done great job of transitioning his MMA skills to the squared circle, he looks phenomenal I am sure bright things will come his way sooner rather than later.
3 and Half Stars
Gisele Shaw Vs Chakara
Gisele makes her way to the ring, but something is different, usually she comes out all bubbly and reacting positively to the Progress Ultras. But she is much more serious this week, straight to the ring with a stern look on her face. Obviously still angry with what went down at the last chapter, where she lost out on chance to win the Progress Women's title in a triple threat match, despite not being pinned. Chakara heads out to the ring, a main stay on the London Independent scene and this is her first time back at Progress Electric Ballroom since August last year.
As the match kicks off, it is easy to see something is definitely off with Gisele, normally the quintessential diva dazzles the progress audiences with her arial agility, but this match she mainly stays grounded bullying Chakara. Chakara keeps fighting back and the normally jeered Chakara is earning the crowds respect as those jeers turn to cheers. It is unfortunately to no avail as Gisele is able to overcome Chakara easily whilst taunting the crowd, as she looks earn herself a one on one title shot against Jinny down the line. Gisele is able to get a submission victory over Chakara, after working on her arm throughout the match, leading to an arm-bar.
This was a solid match, I am used to seeing Gisele use her high-flying finesse so it was nice to see her use a much more technical style during the match, her gimmick of the quintessential diva suits her so well, being nearly 6ft tall, long legs and blonde. I’m surprised she's not been signed by the WWE on that basis alone, with either her high-flying style or technical ground game she is great as either a face or heel. Chakara looked better here than any other time I have seen before fighting from underneath as an underdog face seemed to suit her better than a heel persona and the Progress Ultras did get right behind her.
3 and Half Stars
More Than Hype Vs The Anti-Fun Police with Walter
It’s a 6 Man Tag match next, first out are More Than Hype. LJ Cleary, Darren Kearney and Nathan Martin try to live up to their name ‘more than hype’ with their entrance but you can see they’re slightly off. Next out are the Anti-Fun Police, first Chief Deputy Dunne and Los Federales Santos Jr, they await their partner on ramp, the NXT UK champion Walter. Los Federales Santos Jr is mimicking playing a violin as Walters music plays, Walter gives him one look and Santos stops, there will be no fun and games in this match. LJ Cleary, Darren Kearney and Nathan Martin look absolutely terrified, knowing they have to face Walter and the crowd does not help chanting “Please don’t Die” whilst also chanting “Walters gonna kill you”.
Early on in the match Walter makes it clear to Santos that he will not put up with his usual indie wrestling shenanigans and he will make sure they live up to the name Anti-Fun police, at least for this match. It would also seem that Walter has some sort of respect for Santos as he almost takes him under his wing, showing him the right way to do things. More Than Hype put up fight and they really do try to fight back, mainly when Dunne is in the ring, even against Santos and Walter. However, the Anti-Fun police with Walter are just too much for the young Irish team as Dunne picks up the win for his team following a double team move.
Dunne is easily one the most underrated talents on the British scene for his ability to work and he kept showing that here. Santos was great fun as always and his routine with Walter was very entertaining. More Than Hype were impressive and despite having to go against Walter they really had great outing once again but if they want to start picking up victories they may need to adopt a much more serious approach, however if they did this they may loose their unique charm.
3 Stars
Proteus Championship Match
Champion Paul Robinson Vs Kyle Fletcher
Kyle Fletcher comes out to the ring first with a brand new entrance track to go with his new look and attitude as of late. Robinson enters to some cheers from the crowd. As the first Proteus champion, he has had some great matches that have endeared him to the Progress Ultras, who used to love booing him. As this match is for the Proteus championship the match will be contested under the rules stated by the champion when they win the belt. In Paul Robinson’s case, this means the match can only be won via KO or Submission.
As the match gets underway, it is Fletcher who is able to gain to the advantage early on, mainly due to his size and reach advantage, as well as significant strength. After all, Fletcher is a heavyweight, Paul Robinson is not. Fletcher is able to keep his distance from Robbo, and when Robbo does close the distance, Fletcher is able to pick him up and throw him across the ring. It is when the match inevitability spills to outside the ring, that Robbo is able to start fighting back, as good as Robbo is, at fighting in the ring, his street fighting skills are what he is known for. Eventually the match is stopped when the referee steps in-between Robbo and Fletcher, as Robbo has him pinned into the corner landing unanswered shots to his face, the crowd does not react well to this. Following the match Robbo gets on the mic and delivers a promo to the crowd for booing the stoppage, saying in any MMA or boxing match the referee would step in as he did in this match.
I was really looking forward to this match, Fletcher and Robbo worked brilliantly together in their tag matches between the Aussie Open and the Swords of Essex, where they stole the show on three occasions. This match however was never able to recapture any of that and I think it had to do with the match stipulation. Having a match that is won by either submission or KO, like a true fight can be difficult to fix, and Fletcher’s style does not quite lean to that type of match, he is a heavyweight high flyer he does not have a legitimate fighting background. With regards to the finish and the Promo both were right, in a real fight a referee would stop fight after a certain number of unanswered shots to face, but this is wrestling and fans expect the fights to finish in a more entertaining fashion.
2 and Half Star (I may be being a bit harsh, I was just expecting the match to be better)
Millie McKenzie Vs Toni Storm
Women’ s Championship No. 1 Contender Match
Originally scheduled as tag team match between the Medusa Complex, Millie McKenzie and Charli Evans Vs Jinny and Toni Storm, following a recent assault on Jinny by the Medusa Complex at Chapter 101. Charli Evans however had to withdraw due to injury so it was decided that Millie will take on Toni for a title shot. Toni Storm heads out first to a great ovation from the crowd. She is a long time favourite of the Progress Ultras, as the first Progress women’s champion. The Medusa Complex music plays and out comes Charli Evans on crutches and leg brace as Toni looks down the ramp awaiting Millie, she sneaks in and attacks Toni from behind.
Millie continues the assault as bell the rings to start the contest, she is quickly able to gain the advantage over the Aussie favourite. Toni has to fight from underneath from the start but Millie cannot do enough to put her opponent away, eventually Toni is able to fight her away on top and looks set to beat Millie when out comes Charli Evans. As Charli heads down to the ring it is clear that her injury was just a ruse, and using the Leg brace as weapon she lays out Toni while the Ref is distracted and Millie steals the victory. The Medusa Complex continue the assault after the bell, until Jinny is able to run them off.
I am big fan of Millie McKenzie she is very technically sufficient for a young age and when you see her delivering suplexes its no wonder she has the nick name Suplex Millie, there are still a few things she needs work on and this will come with time. I am not a big fan of Toni Storm which is not to say she is not talented she is extremely so, I just cannot get into her, still this was another good performance by the young veteran.
3 and Half Star
Ilja Draganov Vs Malik
Malik makes his entrance first as he heads down to the ring, the crowd are in full support of the newcomer making his first appearance, since his first round exit in the Natural Progression tournament when he was beaten by eventual finalist Danny Duggan, despite the defeat he earned the respect of the crowd. Ilja then makes his entrance, the progress ultras have always loved the NXT UK performer for his intense in ring style.
This Match up was intense and hard hitting as pair battered each other with chops, clotheslines and kicks, I honestly think the only actual wrestling moves used during the match was Gotch style German suplex from Ilja and traditional German suplex from Malik. Although the eventual winner was Ilja using his torpedo Moscow, Malik once again won the hearts and minds of fans, as he fought tooth nail against Ilja. After the match, Eddie Kingston jumps into the ring knocking Malik down before unleashing 3 DDT’s on Ilja, all whilst delivering a promo about creating stars such as LAX. He also lays into what he considers as ‘sell outs’ in NXT such as Ilja, who are just performers and actors and not wrestlers like himself.
This was a great match there were very few holds or manoeuvrers, they just laid into each other with heavy hits and intensity, the crowd really got into it with rousing applause after the match, prior to Eddie coming out. The promo Eddie dropped after the match was good and it would be interesting to see what comes of this as Eddie did bring NXT and uncle Paul up during the promo, so how far will the WWE let them go with this will be interesting, and I have already seen a match advertised between Ilja and Eddie on an upcoming chapter.
4 Stars
Main Event
Progress World Title
Champion Cara Noir Vs Mark Andrews
Mark Andrews comes out the ring first and of course he is not alone, he is joined by his FSU team mate and former Champion Eddie Dennis, Eddie claims to be the real world champion as he never truly lost the title. The Champion enters last as it should always be, if you have not seen Cara Noir make his entrance, it is a spectacle, when you first see it, it catches you off guard, your like “what the hell is this” but your opinion will change when he competes, he almost the UK version of Velveteen Dream but darker.
Andrews tries to jump Cara before he has chance to enter the ring, but this backfires angering Cara, as he starts to take it straight to Andrews, he dominates the early portion of the match. Eventually thanks to Eddie on the outside constantly interfering Andrews begins to take control. All of Eddie’s constant interference sees him kicked out of ring side by the Ref eventually. Cara begins to make his come back now that Eddie has been kicked out, but once the referee takes a hit, Eddie comes back out to the ring, he is eventually chased off by Cara, despite constant interference Cara is able to get the win and retain his championship with his Blackout Sleeper.
This was a good match, Cara Noir is incredible, his theatrics and the way he works in the ring is great, I truly believe he will be the next break out star from the UK independent scene. I like Mark Andrews, but I do not buy Andrews as a main event guy, whether he is a face or the heel, I just feel he's not a main eventer, Eddie Dennis on the other hand is someone who could main event and I am sure we will finally get the Cara Noir vs Eddie Dennis soon enough.
3 and half stars
Final Thoughts
This was a good show, not a great show but agood show, I feel this event lacked that little extra that would’ve made it a great show. I cannot help but wonder what the event would have been like without all the match substitutions. Such as the Anti-Fun Police would've been more fun with Travis Banks and Jordan Devlin is one of best in ring competitors currently, so no doubt the opening match with Devlin could’ve stolen the show. As I say despite this progress managed to give the fans a great night of wrestling. The Ilja Draganov vs Malik was definitely match of night. I hope the Work Horsemen come back to face Scotty Davis and Jordan Devlin, as that should be a great match. There are plenty of programmes moving forward from this event such as Ilja Vs Kingston and Dennis vs Cara noir. I am not going to lie I think Matt Richards does make a better host than Jim Smallman but I will cover more on this, in my 28 Days of Progress article so keep an eye out for that.
3 and Half Stars overall
Andrew More
Comments