REVIEW: PROGRESS Wrestling, Deadly Viper Tour, Codename: Copperhead

PROGRESS Wrestling - The Deadly Viper Tour, Codename: Copperhead (Chapter 137)
The O2 Academy, Sheffield
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Reviewer: David South (@DavidSouth1980)

Sheffield’s O2 Academy was one of the earliest venues that PROGRESS went to outside of London, so it’s a fitting location to start the Deadly Viper Tour.

We have been rather spoiled here over the years; Aussie Open vs. LAX, British Strong Style vs. CCK and who could forget the two out of three falls match between Cara Noir and Ilja Dragunov from the last time we were here.

This show had a lot to live up to but, man alive, did it deliver.

The Greedy Souls (Brendan White and Danny Jones vs Sunshine Machine (Chuck Mambo and TK Cooper) - Progress Tag Team Championship Match

We started with a title match, which saw The Greedy Souls go on the attack from the moment Simon Miller had finished the introductions.

They isolated Mambo after Danny Jones was able to kick the top rope, causing him to slip and fall and nearly claimed victory with a Suplex backbreaker double team move.

After a desperation Frankensteiner, Mambo made it to his partner and Cooper released his frustration on the pair, diving onto them on the floor.

The end came with a moment of high risk for TK. With Mambo holding Jones on the Apron, Cooper jumped from the top turnbuckle and flipped off Jones back to land on White.

As White was recovering from that, Cooper hit a scissor kick to his head and Sunshine Machine retained.

Maggot vs Gene Munny

Hailing from “about 15 minutes in that direction” local hero and “Gene Munny champion” Gene Munny was popular with the Sheffield crowd.

Some matches start with a lock up, some with a slap, this one started with Maggot ripping off Gene’s nipple tape. Pretty early in this one, the referee Scott Bell was wiped out.

The pair called a truce and tried to help him up, but, alas, he soon crumpled again and was then not able to count a pin fall for Maggot after a spear, or for Gene after a Spinebuster.

Gene hit a top rope cutter and second ref Laura-Kate Ashley hit the ring but Maggot kicked out at two. From there, more unfortunate times for the black and white stripes as Ashley caught a stray finger in the eye and was blinded.

This time Maggot decided to cheat and fetched the prestigious Gene Munny title belt. But rather than hit Gene with it, he attempted the classic Eddie Guerrero move and threw the belt to Gene and collapsed in agony.

Unfortunately, referee Ashley was still blinded and didn’t see any of it, nor did she see Gene attempt exactly the same move moments later.

When she did recover, Gene threw the belt to her and both he and Maggot went down – this was just in time for the initial Referee to recover.

Staggered to see that Laura-Kate had levelled both participants he sent her to the back. In the confusion, Gene hit the Ainsley Lariat and pinned Maggot to retain the Gene Munny Championship . . . I suppose. It was never entirely clear whether it was on the line or not. One thing was for sure though, he definitely deserved it.

Raven Creed vs Eliza Alexander vs Lana Austin

The video package prior to the match explains the back story, that Lana is doing her upmost to dodge the one on one encounter with Raven Creed.

She has used both Max the Impaler and now Eliza Alexander to try and avoid her and is very happy in this one to hide on the outside whilst the other two fight.

Creed though has other ideas and chases Austin around the ringside only to get caught by Alexander and dragged, by her arm, headfirst into the ringpost several times.

With Austin as a cheerleader Eliza is in full control, figuratively and literally walking all over her opponent. In fact, overconfidence is the only thing that would work against Alexander, as she called Austin in to hold Creed up, only for her to duck and for Austin to get smacked in the face.

Creed would then attempt to spear Eliza in the corner, but she moved and Creed struck the ring post yet again. Alexander then brutally kicked her head against the post and hit a running knee.

Victory for Eliza seemed assured, but Austin would take this opportunity to sneak in the ring, hit her with a spinning elbow and steal the victory for herself.

Eliza was, as you might imagine, not impressed by this and smacked Austin before taking her leave.

From there, Simon Miller invited Spike Trivet to the ring, and after the typical welcome you’d expect from a Yorkshire crowd, Miller showed Trivet a video.

Drew Parker is coming home and hasn’t forgotten what Spike was like last time her was here. He challenges Spike to a deathmatch, which was later confirmed for Chapter 141, back at the Ballroom, in September.

Leon Slater vs Konosuke Takeshita

I don’t flatter myself that anyone might be reading these reviews for my opinion, which is why I try to recap the events of the matches rather than whether I thought they were good.

So, I hope you’ll indulge me this one time to tell you that this was staggeringly brilliant. Slater announced himself as the star he is, against the most ‘over’ wrestler on the planet right now.

It was a rapid start, as the pair battled for wrist and then head control. Takeshita would take control, brilliantly turning Slater’s attempted escape from a leg lock into a DDT and then dragging him down to the floor.

He sat him on the seat on the front row of my section, and then, with us having cleared out, hit a running kick that sent Slater reeling through the chairs behind him.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic though, as Slater would hit a beautiful handspring elbow and then gain near falls with a brainbuster and a Spanish Fly.

Slater would kick out at one from a heavy clothesline and, fired up by this, would dive over the ring post onto Takeshita on the floor again. From there, both men would climb to the top rope and, after some grappling, Takeshita hit a big lariat and then a knockout running knee for the victory.

After a congratulatory embrace, Takeshita left the ring to allow the crowd to show Slater their appreciation. He was joined by Dan Moloney and Dereiss who helped lead the applause.

Man Like Dereiss vs Mark Davis vs Luke Jacobs - Atlas Championship Match

Often triple threat matches quickly remove one participant to allow a pairing to battle, but this wasn’t the case here as all three remained in the ring, ducking or reversing each other’s offence.

Dereiss would be the one to gain control first though, he gave up mass to the other two, but was quicker because of it. He would then be knocked to the outside so Davis and Jacobs could knock lumps out of each other.

Dunkzilla would hit double clotheslines on both opponents, before getting Dereiss up in a spinning torture wrack, which Jacobs would then break up.

He applied an ankle lock and a sleeper hold to Davis, that Dereiss would break up with a 450 splash. Dereiss would attempt the move again though this time he found nothing but the mat.

Luke Jacobs would hit him with a ‘clothesline from hell’ style lariat and then retain the Atlas title when Davis couldn’t quite make it in time to break up the pin.

Dean Allmark vs HAYATA

Hayata refused a pre-match handshake, but Allmark soon had hold of his hand, wrist and arm and was tying up his NOAH opponent, who needed the ropes to escape several times.

Dean’s first near fall came following a standing flip, but Hayata was able to kick out at two. Allmark continue the assault though, applying a barrage of arm and shoulder submission moves.

Hayata’s first real offense would coming from a step-up kick, but again the near falls would go Allmark’s way, from the “Allmark Cutter” and again from a double underhook piledriver but neither could finish Hayata off.

Indeed, it would prove costly as from there Hayata hit a handspring elbow, then a DDT and then his “Headache” Frankensteiner finish to win the match.

Though not successful, Allmark had apparently done enough to earn Hayata’s respect, as the pair bowed to each other after the match.

Laura Di Matteo vs Kanji - Progress Women’s Championship

No match on the card had more bad blood than this one, as post-match attacks in previous encounters had soured their relationship.

Laura Di Matteo offers her hand, somewhat sarcastically which Kanji refuses. It’s a fairly even start with Kanji getting her first near fall from a step up legdrop and Di Matteo hers from an Alabama Slam.

Kanji seems in the ascendency, getting another 2-count following a drop kick and a 619. Maybe because of this Laura started to take shortcuts, pulling Kanji’s hair and gouging her eyes before a near fall of her own from a rope assisted DDT.

Di Matteo left the ring and came back with a chair, she wrapped it around Kanji’s arm, which already had quite a bit of protection on it. She thought about stomping on the chair and potentially breaking that arm but thought better of it.

Kanji got to her feet, with the chair trapped on her arm still, caught up in that protective support. She inadvertently hit Di Matteo with the chair and the Referee had no choice but to disqualify Kanji and award the match, but not the title, to her opponent.

Di Matteo was incensed, and the brawl continued, eventually being separated by the ring crew. This feud will continue.

Big Damo vs. Chris Ridgeway - Progress Heavyweight Championship

Ridgeway struggled in the opening section here, perhaps more than I’ve ever seen him struggle before. Though he jumped straight back up every time Damo knocked him down, his offence wasn’t having much effect.

He decided to slow things down, heading to the outside but he was chased down by Damo and the pair fought on the floor. Damo would sit Ridgeway on the front row and then hit a running cannonball senton wiping them both out.

Back in the ring, Damo would get caught between the ropes and Ridgeway spied his way into the bout. Having wrenched his leg, he began volleying his thighs has hard as he could, stopping only to apply a submission move and the occasional violent kick to the back whenever Damo tried to get up.

Damo would rally though, hoisting Ridgeway up from the floor in an armbar into a powerbomb then converting a sleeper hold into a press slam, senton and splash off the ropes combo, but he was unable to capitalise any further due to the damage to his leg.

Ridgeway continued with slaps and stomps and hit an impressive brainbuster before, perhaps as a sign of desperation, uncharacteristically heading to the top rope for a stomp.

The slaps continued, but Damo was in the ascendancy now and hit a running dropkick driving Ridgeway hard into the turnbuckles, he then hit another splash to the back of the prone champion and covered him for a three count to become the new Progress Heavyweight Champion in front of a surprised but delighted crowd.

He celebrated with a Steve Austin style Guinness drinking session. A new Champion, a new star born and another great Sheffield show. This is Progress.

REVIEW: PROGRESS Wrestling, Deadly Viper Tour, Codename: Copperhead

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