REVIEW: PROGRESS Wrestling - SSS16 Weekend

PROGRESS Wrestling: Super Strong Style 16 2022
The Electric Ballroom, London
Friday, June 4 - Sunday, June 6
Reviewers: Mark Roffey (@ther0ff), Dave Sewell (@davesewell04), Iwan Mackenzie (@iwanmack)

Day One by Mark Roffey (@ther0ff)

On a weekend celebrating British history that won’t be matched for centuries to come, Progress Wrestling were making history of their own. It was the first Super Strong Style 16 tournament in three years, the first at the Electric Ballroom since 2017 and for the first time ever, the tournament’s winner would receive the Progress World Championship.

There are a lot of things at play, but I won’t ramble on about it here.

Charles Crowley vs. Charlie Dempsey - Super Strong Style First Round Match

Well, look who’s moving on up in the world. We kick things off for the weekend with a man (sorry, a twat) who has been getting accustomed to Albert Square as of late.

Charles Crowley comes out to a good reaction sporting gear referencing his BDSM partner, Clementine, and cuts a promo proclaiming himself as the ‘King of Twats’.

Charlie Dempsey also gets a good reaction to the ring and a chant of ‘Dempsey’s gonna kill you’. His purple pants inevitably starts a ‘Purple Pants’ chant to the tune of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’.

It also didn’t take too long for the crowd to sing the EastEnders theme with every note being replaced by ‘twat’. Even writing this part of the review, it’s still stuck in my head.

It’s easy to see why Charlie Dempsey was signed by WWE as his technical skills were really impressive to see, not just on Day One but across the whole weekend. You could say he’s got Regal blood in him.

I have to note that this is where things started getting a bit awkward. There was a particularly bad Zig Zag by Crowley and there were some rough spots shortly afterwards.

Then Elijah came from the stage to try and support Crowley. That ended up doing more harm than I think even Elijah anticipated.

The finish came when Dempsey put Crowley in a variation of the Regal Stretch for the submission win.

Afterwards, Elijah and Crowley were arguing over the result and basically fell out. Decent match to start the weekend off. Charles Crowley’s weekend would only get crazier from here.

Malik vs. Callum Newman - Super Strong Style First Round Match

CPF had to make a choice as to who to send to Super Strong Style 16. Any one of them would likely have been the right call, but on this occasion they went with Callum Newman.

Malik, on the other hand, is someone who could have a very bright future on the independent scene. Malik’s manager, Kosta Konstantino, was nowhere to be found on Day One, sparking chants of ‘Where’s your Kosta gone?’

This was also a pretty decent match with Malik showing an aggressive attitude and Callum Newman showing off an impressive variety of moves including a Blue Thunder Bomb.

There were a couple of other notable spots. Malik landed a Poisonrana, only for Newman to land a Bomaye Bomb to the back of Malik’s head.

Malik would get the win after countering a sunset flip from the ropes into a Jig N Tonic.

Kid Lykos vs. Maggot - Super Strong Style First Round Match

It was Lykos who would have the edge before the match even began as he initiated a beatdown. When the bell did ring, it would be Maggot who would start as the aggressor, going on to take out Lykos II on the outside.

Lykos would eventually take control, placing him on the top turnbuckle. He teased a Brain Buster (shut up, Lykos) but would be countered and be the victim of a crossbody.

Maggot would find himself on the wrong end of a package piledriver to the knee, followed up by a crossface. He would fight back with a running kick.

But the antics of Lykos Gym would win out as following the use of a resistance band (of course, behind the ref’s back), Lykos would apply a unique submission hold to book his place in the quarter-final.

It was a good match that got the necessary things done, mainly that Kid Lykos wasn’t just there to make up the numbers.

After that match, we found out who had their flight booked from the USA that had been teased on Social Media. It was Anthony Agogo who confirmed he would be around on Day Three.

Aramis vs. Robbie X - Super Strong Style First Round Match

This was honestly a fantastic display of Lucha action on the part of both wrestlers. The only problem for me writing this part of the review is that the match is so hard to keep up with that I could barely take any notes.

The particular highlights that I could keep up with included an Aramis dive to the outside and Robbie hitting a moonsault on the outside before then connecting with a twisting senton.

Aramis would score the win with a UFO into a Blue Thunder Bomb. Both men really impressed me in this match, Aramis even more so considering I’d never seen him live before. It was easily my match of the night.

Chris Ridgeway vs. Dean Allmark - Super Strong Style First Round Match

This was always expected to be a technical banger. This was that and a fair bit more. The match started off with some shoot wrestling which was all very good.

The intensity picked up when Dean slapped Chris whilst in a technical hold. The two would exchange pinfall attempts, one of them from Ridgeway would get a dubious two-count.

This match would start a process lasting the whole weekend, as you’ll read later, where Ridgeway would systematically and brutally pick apart his opponents.

Unfortunately for Dean, this process involved ankle locks on both sides, German suplexes, a high knee, a brutal headkick and finally a Brain Buster for the three-count.

Warren Banks vs. Big Damo - Super Strong Style First Round Match

There were doubts as to whether Warren Banks would even be able to compete in this tournament due to a shoulder injury. The visual signs were very clear as he headed down to the ring for this first round match with a shoulder strap on.

There was a nice running exchange which led to a Big Damo splash. Damo would also land a pounce nearly sending Banks out of the ring.

The action then spilled onto the outside which led to Damo hitting a rolling senton and taking out a fan’s seat in the process.

Banks would seize control by catching Damo’s senton into a foot lock, causing him to have to reach the ropes. He then tried a ripcord knee but was lifted for a sort of pop-up powerbomb.

Damo would be put down after a German suplex from the middle rope which was followed up by a closing spear.

Post-match, Big Damo ripped off Banks’ shoulder strap as if he was going to beat him up. Instead, Damo would tell Banks that he doesn’t need that strap and respectfully shook hands with him.

This match was good, if only with an unnecessary spot or two.

Gene Munny vs. Rickey Shane Page - Super Strong Style First Round Match

How far can dreams go? That was the question on the mind of Gene Munny. After campaigning for two years, he was finally in Super Strong Style 16. Now came the real test. First up was Rickey Shane Page.

Like Warren Banks, Gene was also sporting a shoulder strap. That definitely wouldn’t be used against him at some stage this weekend (wink, wink).

The big thing here in this match was Gene proving that he could face the big challenges that lay ahead of him, even if that challenge did decide to mess with him, or for that matter his nip tape.

I felt that both of them managed to show a good amount of offense. Rickey most notably challenged the damn, dirty dog by hitting a back body drop with a kick at the end, a superplex, a frog splash and his Death Valley Driver.

Gene would meet that challenge by getting in the uranage and a huge spinebuster. Gene would score the win with his Ainsley Lariat to overcome the first challenge of the weekend.

These two never fail to impress me and that was clear to see in this match. I don’t do ratings but if I did, I’d give it a woof/10.

Jack Evans vs. Johnny PROGRESS - Super Strong Style First Round Match

For the purposes of this part of the review, I shall be referring to Johnny PROGRESS as John Morrison. Not a fan of all these promotion-based names.

This was a fairly big deal for me personally as I hadn’t seen John Morrison wrestle in-person in 14 years. It was the April 2008 ECW show in London teaming with The Miz to take on the Brothers of Destruction, if you were curious.

Morrison’s opponent, Jack Evans has quite a fair bit of history with him in Lucha Underground as part of the Worldwide Underground stable, something that was referenced in the match.

Here’s a really good way to get a cheap heel turn in England, praise the city of Liverpool. That’s exactly what Jack Evans did. Naturally, this sparked chants referencing a certain Gerrard slip and one asking for a car’s stereo; Standard stuff.

There was a brawl on the outside which had the typical ‘toss into chairs’ spot.

Morrison then used a chair in clear view of the referee, yet no DQ was given. He teased a second swing but kicked him instead.

When the action came back inside, the two didn’t show too many signs of slowing down as Evans would use a spider suplex in the corner followed by a spinning kick.

The finish would come after Evans hit a destroyer and got set up for the 630 Splash, only for Morrison to move out of the way. Only one thing for it: Starship Pain, except Morrison would land on his back instead of his front like he usually does.

This was a cool match, I just felt a bit empty about the botched Starship pain as that was the last move of the show. Thankfully, both of them went at the same sort of pace, which made the match work.

Just before we left, we were told that Big Damo would face Dean Allmark on Day Two.

I do have to say that the attendance for Day One was noticeably low, around 200-250 fans. It would get better as the weekend went on but Day One of SSS16 was usually packed out before the pandemic.

Personally, I enjoyed many of the matches on Day One and I thought it set a good tone for how they would perform for the rest of the weekend. Those who amazed me here would continue to do so for the whole weekend. But I will tell you the obvious thing that the best was yet to come…

Day Two by Iwan Mackenzie (@iwanmack)

There was about 550 Strong in the Electric Ballroom which was an upgrade from the day before, with more seats being filled and busier downstairs for standing - plus the atmosphere was largely improved as well.

Sunshine Machine (TK Cooper & Chuck Mambo) vs The 0121 (Dan Moloney & Man Like Dereiss) vs Smokin’ Aces (Charlie Sterling & Nick Riley) - Ladder Match, PROGRESS Tag Team Championships

I could not believe this was the opener but made plenty of sense logically and logistically once it settled in. Sunshine Machine and The 0121 were mega over here and felt like stars to this audience.

This match started crazy from the off with them all retrieving ladders, except for TK and Mambo who tried to employ their usual Handstand Trick but Mambo found himself caught between Ladders by the 0121 and Aces.

From there everyone took turns in using some crazy offence with and without ladders, it was so fast that I couldn’t keep up, the crowd turned on the Aces but Sterling and Riley played into it and started acting more heelish.

The man of this match was TK Cooper, he was like the Duracell Bunny at times, even taking out all his opponents and then delivering a Shooting Star Press onto Dereiss who was on a Ladder at the time.

Sunshine Machine pulled out a surfboard to use, Dereiss went for a Moonsault off of it but some if it gave way but thankfully Dereiss was safe. But, the surfboard did come into effect at the end as Sunshine Machine delivered Designated Driver through the surfboard off the Ladder as they climbed the Ladder after this and finally grabbed the Tag Team Championships.

An excellent opener of a match and a brilliant ladder match. I’m pretty sick of Ladder Matches in the main but watching them live does have a quality effect as they become these big stunt shows that your popping at.

A well deserved win for Sunshine Machine who have been a highlight of shows since shows returned and, on a personal level, two cracking blokes.

Big Damo vs Dean Allmark

A good match to follow up the pure insanity of the opener, thankfully with these two on board you knew you was going to get a solid match at the very least.

Main story here was Damo overpowering the smaller Deano, who used more technical moves to wear down Damo’s leg to ground him and get a chance of victory.

They did go to the outside where Damo obliterated a few rows of chairs that Deano took the brunt of at first but it didn’t affect Deano too much as climbed back into the ring and dove onto Damo in spectacular fashion.

Unfortunately for Deano, it was Damo who got the win here with the Vader Bomb.

Gene Munny vs Malik - Super Strong Style 16 Quarter Final Match

This was our first of four Quarter-Finals in the main tournament itself, with the ever popular Gene set to battle the man the fans called “Shitta”...

This was another good entertaining match, mostly built on the heel/face dynamic that really benefitted Malik in particular who I felt really found his groove as a main heel here as his beatdown and shit talking of Gene was very good and helped the match flow very well.

Plus this didn’t outstay its welcome either. We had Gene win this with the Burning Ainsley Lariat.

Luke Jacobs vs Big Guns Joe

Luke was originally slated to face Jonathan Gresham but he was out here due to personal reasons but the match was still taking place with one of BritWres most hard working men in Joe taking the spot of Gresham.

This was an entertaining match with Joe clearly putting in a lot to make Luke look really good and also fair play to him for stepping up to this match, plus Luke looked like a beast at times with his mental chops and also Death Valley Driving Joe through the chairs.

The main thought in my head through this is that this match felt a bit pointless really, especially considering we had nine matches already on this card, you could have saved this for another time.

We had Luke win this via big Lariat, he complimented Joe and said he’d batter him again on Monday for Catch. He looked into the camera ready to call out Axel Tischer but the Axeman appeared on the stage and was there to confront Luke in person.

Chris Ridgeway vs Charlie Dempsey - Super Strong Style 16 Quarter-Final Match

Back into the Tournament now with a match that many had pegged in their brackets beforehand. Now, I don’t watch NXT UK because of most of the allegations coming out after Speaking Out, plus the actual product isn’t for me, but I did watch a couple of Dempsey matches in preparation of seeing him and I know he gets a lot of praise.

For me, he is good to very good but not as great as people make him out to be; he is very much Tim Thatcher-Lite at the moment which isn’t a bad thing but I’d like to see something a bit more unique really.

I have to say that is was really good, lots of really good roll arounds at the beginning with both men trying to figure each other out and get the advantage both physically and mentally, with big strikes coming afterwards.

What I loved about this was the fact that Ridgeway wasn’t putting up with any of Dempsey’s shit and just kicked him with any chance he had, which in turn made Dempsey angry and the match actually benefited from this.

In the end we had Ridgeway wear down Dempsey before hitting the Brain Buster on him to win and advance. As mentioned, this was tremendous plus no stupid chants from the crowd, everyone was focused in on this and I’ve got to praise Ridgeway who seems to have a real focus again after his recent NOAH excursion.

CPF (Danny Black, Joe Lando, Maverick Mayhew & Callum Newman) vs Maggot, Robbie X, Rickey Shane Page & Jack Evans

No offence to the lads in the match, but at this point, myself and a lot of others needed a break but fair play to all eight of them, they actually got me back on board and I had a really good time watching this match.

They kicked off with a dance off, with Evans busting out some breakdancing but Danny was able to respond with some body popping and the Worm (shoutout to Scotty 2 Hotty).

This did break down pretty soon after though with the dives coming thick and fast with RSP launching Maggot onto everyone, RSP hitting a Suicide Dive, Robbie X’s Asai Moonsault and Jack Evans doing Jack Evans things, with the CPF responding with the Diving Stunner, Mayhew diving onto everyone, Callum’s step up Sommersault and Lando’s Shooting Star Press.

A lot of crazy shit back inside in the ring with RSP being a great base for CPF’s offence and also delivery some pretty good big man moves, but my highlights was Robbie X interacting with these lads, normally I never see them on the same shows so it was a pleasure here to him mix it up and create a lot of moments that's wanting me to see the eventual match.

We had CPF win this after a crazy visual of Lando and Black diving off with Moonsaults to the Outside whilst Callum inside hit a wonderful Phoenix Splash to get the win for CPF with the Post-Match Kiss also taking place.

Alex Windsor vs Raven Creed vs Eliza Alexander

This was a pretty good match, I really did enjoy the aggression that all three showed but unfortunately the crowd found it hard to react, as seems to be the case with most women's matches in PROGRESS - even though all three of them were working bloody hard here.

We had a surprise Lana Austin showing up, she attacked Raven and tied her back into a straight jacket, which was weird and didn’t affect Raven at all as she was able to give her a Headbutt and fought off both Windsor and Alexander by herself until she was freed and Windsor gave her the Liberty Driver to get the win.

Lana tried to make friends with Windsor after the match but was met with a forearm for her troubles,

Warren Banks vs Kid Lykos - Super Strong Style 16 Quarter-Final Match

Warren had lost the Shoulder Strap from the day before and had Tape on his shoulder instead. He looked laser focused on his opponent, one of the men that cost him the PROGRESS World Championship.

Warren took out Lykos II immediately with a Knee Strike as he wanted the other wolf to himself without distractions. This match was definitely a sprint which benefited all parties involved including the crowd, although it did take a while for them to really get into it and I did feel that this match dipped in the middle.

Lykos finally hit some bloody Brain Busters and looked to have the match won but Warren kicked out and hit three spears in a row in different positions of the venue and ring to get the win and head through to the next round.

Johnny PROGRESS vs Aramis - Super Strong Style 16 Quarter-Final Match

Now unlike many writers in British Wrestling, I’m not overly positive and I’m being honest with these reviews and that's why I have to say that this is one of the worst matches I’ve seen this year.

This was very sloppy with them trying to maintain a fast pace throughout but these two were complete strangers to one another, I will say that Aramis was good but unfortunately he felt swallowed by this and I felt dragged down but Johnny who felt like a waste of an import for PROGRESS here.

He didn’t show up at all and a lot of this looked very staged (Which I know Wrestling is already) and it really affected my enjoyment of the match.

I’d say my only favourite spot of the match was this Reverse Spanish Fly into a Crossface by Aramis that looked spectacular. We had Johnny win this match to face Warren Banks the next day.

Spike Trivet vs Cara Noir - Loser Leaves PROGRESS, I Quit Match

This was it, one of the biggest matches that PROGRESS could present in this current climate as the feud that has also engulfed RIPTIDE and Resurgence came to a head here after many months of a build.

These two felt like massive stars with their characters and looks completely down, Spike was met with “F*ck You Spike” signs gifted by Cara Noir.

The fight was on from the get go with them going immediately hitting each other with massive strikes and Spike going after Cara’s feet. The plunder came out soon after, with a chair being the first instrument of destruction, as Spike drilled Cara’s feet with it to further damage the Black Swan.

Cara showed a lot of fire before diving onto Spike with a Dropkick into Spike’s face that busted him open. He then slipped on a pair of rather fetching blue jeans as he signalled in his own way that this was a brawl now.

Cara suplexed Spike onto a chair, they went brawling into the bar, Noir returned to the ring to grab a weapon but Spike smashed a bottle over his head to knock him out for a while.

Spike tore off the Jeans and dragged Noir to the Stage to deliver a Piledriver, worth noting at this point that despite having been asked a few times by the Ref, neither is ready to give up.

Noir disappeared and reappeared like the Terminator brandishing many chairs and a busted head, he threw the chairs into the ring with real vengeance and wanted to destroy Trivet more and more,

Trivet used this against him and trapped Noir with the chairs on all for of his limbs and stamped him but Noir still wouldn’t quit.

Tables had been brought out by this point, and Spike had tried to put Cara through but Cara hit the Swan Neckbreaker on the apron itself. Spike decided to expose the wood underneath the ring mat but he was hit by the Final Curtain by Noir on top of the wood.

Thumbtacks were brought out alongside lemon juice, Noir would lock in the Blackout but Spike dropped him onto the Tacks. Noir rose back up to reapply it although Trivet's out this time was the lemon juice to the back, which was sold really well.

One of the greatest spots of this match was a trampoline being brought out by Noir who attempted to put Trivet through the tables but instead did this Spectacular Dive through the Tables with nobody there.

Trivet was so frustrated that Noir wouldn’t quit that he went into the crowd to grabbed Noir’s partner Claire by the hair, Claire slapped Trivet around the face but Trivet threatened to beat her with a chair until Cara finally uttered his first words in PROGRESS as he said “No, I Quit, Just Don’t Hurt Her!”

As Cara’s PROGRESS career came to an end the ring filled with rubbish, plastic cups and liquids as Spike stood there and took it all as Cara and Claire took their exit through the backdoor.

The show ended with just chants of “Thank you Cara” and “Cara Fucking Noir”.

This was a truly exceptional match, both men need to be commended for how much thought and effort was put into this match, both from a work rate point of view and a character point of view,

It maintained the grit of the story throughout and did feel at times like the classic territory brawls with a few bells and whistles added in that didn't drag it down into the dreaded melodrama.

This will be on my Live Matches of the Year list for sure come the end of the year, I loved this.

This was the right idea in the end, the last few months of Cara’s PROGRESS run have felt like “This is your Life” with him finally defending the belt in front of fans again, losing it, facing Ilja one last time, and having this great feud with Spike that has set Spike up to be the top heel in all of PROGRESS.

Overall, Day 2 was an exceptional show, with a ton of variety in wrestling styles, storylines being progressed forwards plus plenty of great moments, plus the Atmosphere was pretty great throughout the show.

Main complaint though is that at ten matches you could have cut this show down by a lot because at times I could feel the length of this show, especially when you start at 14:30 and end the show at 19:00.

Thanks for Reading, you can find me on Instagram @IwanMack

Day Three by Dave Sewell (@davesewell04)

Back for day two and as usual Simon Miller was our host again. Firstly, a shoutout to PROGRESS owner Lee McAteer; I was making notes ahead of the show starting, until my pen ran out. Lee walked passed and I told him I was reviewing the show and asked if I could borrow a pen.

One thing led to another and we started talking about the belts, he then asked if I wanted to take a picture with the World Title and one in the ring. I was chuffed! However, we champions have to defend belts and due to a shoulder injury I’ve decided to vacate the belt. Still I was interim Proggy chant for a whole 15 minutes (which isn’t even the shortest reign). A huge thanks to Lee for that opportunity!

Team Damo (Big Damo, Jody Fleisch, Callum Newman, Maggot) vs Team RSP (Rickey Shane Page, Charlie Dempsey, Dean Allmark, Charles Crowley

This was played out entirely like a five-a-side (in this case four-a-side) football match in the playground, with the two captains picking teams. Ref Tom Scarborough even came out with a football and the Champions League theme played beforehand (Crowley was so confused).

We started with Allmark and Fleisch showing off the old school British style moves, counters and reversals. which always goes down well.

The story was basically Crowley annoying everyone throughout the match, at one point he went to make a tag and all his teammates jumped off the apron and left him to suffer.

This is the sort of match where everyone has a good showing and hits a signature move at some point. Jody hit the 720 DDT on RSP, that was the pick of the bunch.

The end of the match came when, with most wrestlers on the outside being taken out by a Fleisch Moonsault. RSP hit a chokeslam where he let go early and kicked Newman in the spine before he landed. Crowley then hit a springboard drop kick on RSP so he could get the pin.

The bell rang and Crowley legged in out the ring, his teammates in hot pursuit. To complete the football theme, Newman was named Man of the Match but personally I’d have given it to Crowley, he made a fan out of me this weekend.

Johnny PROGRESS vs Warren Banks - Super Strong Style 16 Semi Final

I’m going to be honest here, I was expecting more from Johnny over this weekend. His matches were okay, it just seemed that he was either too good for everyone to keep up or that he’d lost a few steps in the ring - if that makes sense.

Banks came out with his shoulder heavily taped up, so this match became about him having his power negated.

At one point Warren was chopped the hell out of Johnny and renamed him Johnny Chopfest, which of course started a chant.

The best exchange was Banks hitting a Jawbreaker, countered by a Johnny Super Kick. The end of the match was a little ugly as Johnny tried a top rope Spanish Fly but slipped, they worked around it and moved to the other corner to try again.

This time both men went over but it looked like they may have landed on their heads, I may be wrong. This was followed by a Banks Spear for the win, but the ending seemed a bit sped up, maybe due to the Spanish Fly incident.

Gene Munny vs Chris Ridgeway - Super Strong Style 16 Semi Final

Gene had broken a knuckle in his match on the Friday, so the question was would this play into the match? The answer, yes!

The early going was a lock up followed by a blistering set of kicks from Riddy. I’ve got to say. Gene showed some great fight in this contest but Ridgeway was relentless one he got into his stride.

At one point Chris had Gene is a leg lock and was kicking him in the head relentlessly at the same time, before Gene got a rope break.

The match looked like it would turn when Gene hit an Ainslie Lariat out of nowhere. but once Riddy kicked out the writing was on the wall for how this would end.

The match ended with a referee stoppage after a consecutive run of penalty kicks to the chest and a brainbuster, Riddy added insult to injury by putting a leg lock in while Munny was out on the canvas.

Gisele Shaw vs Kanji - Two Out Of Three Falls, PROGRESS Women’s Title

This one started fast and furious with Gisele hitting a spear and gaining a tap out within just a couple of minutes, it was clearly a tactical tap by Kanji to prevent further injury.

Every time Kanji looked to be getting the upper hand Gisele managed to stop her momentum in its tracks, even taking time out to talk shit to the crowd.

Kanji took a trip into a wall, a rope hung DDT, was pulled off the ropes and punted in the face but wouldn’t give up. She reversed what looked like a Dragon Sleeper attempt into a pinfall to tie the scores.

Gisele seemed a bit shaken by this but the beating continued as she hit a Springboard Cutter on Kanji, followed by a picture perfect Tonillo off the top rope for a very close fall.

Then came the ending, which I personally thought didn’t make much sense. Gisele had Kanji in position for a Fujiwara Arm Bar on Kanji’s bad arm, but then she started ripping off her strapping. Suddenly every member of the ring crew came to the ring and the ref implored her to stop, why?

She’s a ruthless champ going for the win, it’s not in her character to suddenly let go on the move. A short time later Kanji had her in a submission of her own, despite not working the limb at all throughout the match.

Gisele powerbombed her way out, only to fall into the same hold where she ended up tapping out.

As I said, there was no lead up to this submission, even Gisele charging into the ring post would have given it some explanation.

It was always going to be Kanji who took Gisele’s title and I like Kanji, I just felt it would have worked better with a different finish - a springboard stunner or even a roll up.

It was Kanji’s first match back and you could tell, she looks like she’s lost a bit of ring conditioning. On a positive note, Gisele did get a richly deserved standing ovation on her way out.

Spike Trivet Promo

Back from the interval and Spike Trivet absolutely ate up all the boos sent his way as he made his entrance. He talks about Cara Noir in a great promo, speaking about how he’d vowed to get rid of Cara - which he did.

He then called out Tom Dawkins, the man commonly known as Cara Noir, for a proposition - with the stipulation that if Tom attacks him the offer is off the table.

Tom makes his way to the ring and Spike tells him that he can return to PROGRESS as Black Belt Tom Dawkins or Thomas Dawkins (two previous ring names he has had) but never again as Cara Noir in PROGRESS.

He adds that Tom must also move down the match card and can never use the Package Piledriver or Madame Guillotine or Rude Awakening or Swan Woo - these moves now belong to Spike, for him to use as he sees fit.

After a long pause for thought Tom nods in agreement, Spike tells him ‘No! You speak, Tom’. Tom replies with a calm ‘yeah, okay’ but there’s more to come. Spike pulls a pair of tatty black wrestling boots out of a back and drops them at Tom’s feet - he looks heartbroken. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos and Kid Lykos II) vs Jack Evans and Aramis

This was a good little filler match with some great heel work by the wolves, especially as they wanted to start the match with a dance off. Jack Evans obliged and started, then Lykos Gym attacked him.

There was plenty of high flying and shennanigans and Aramis stacked the Wolves up with a Blue Thunder Bomb for the win.

Anthony Ogogo vs Tate Mayfairs

Next up we had the ‘greatest professional wrestler to ever walk the Earth’ Tate Mayfairs, who to be honest impressed me a lot. It’s the first time I’ve properly seen him in action and I thought he was going to get sparked out in a pretty short time.

However, after being chucked all over the ring early on he did get some good offence in - even hitting a Coast to Coast elbow.

But Ogogo was not to be denied a win and he would close the match out with a heavy Olympic Slam.

Tate then got on the mic and called it a ‘fluke’ so Ogogo came back and beat him up. Tate also took a pop at Ogogo, saying he may have finished second best in their match but it was still better than Ogogo’s Olympic bronze - Ogogo then took him out again.

Luke Jacobs vs Axel Tischer - Atlas Championship

Going into this weekend, due to only having seen Axel as Alexander Wolfe on NXT UK where he bored me to tears, I had no real interest in this match. That was until the Saturday, where the promo segment mentioned by Iwan got me intrigued.

The match started off with an intense staredown, followed by Axel taking not one but two trips intoo the chairs.

Axel has a very European style of wrestling, with plenty of Euro Uppercuts, and his style lends itself very well to this type of match - big men hitting each other.

The action never let up for a second and big spots involved an Xplex from Axel, followed by a Diving Euro Uppercut and then Luke hitting a Saito Suplex and Sit Down Powerbomb on Axel.

Luke finished the contest with a big piledriver, which Axel kicked out of, followed by a massive Lariat for the 1-2-3.

This was an absolutely fantastic match, sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

Warren Banks vs Chris Ridgeway - Super Strong Style 16 Final, PROGRESS World Championship

Before this match I bumped into Mercedez Blaze, when I explained what I was doing I gave her my pen and asked if she wanted to contribute - she continued to write throughout the entire match.

So, introducing the special co-reviewer for this match, Mercedez Blaze - I may hire her full time as her writing is much better than mind.

Anyway onto the action…

Before the match Ridgeway clobbered Banks (whose shoulder and neck seemed to be tapped up even more) with his GHC tag team belt.

He followed this up by stretching Banks out this way and that with various submission holds. Banks’ first really big move was a hesitation Drop Kick into the corner.

Eventually the match spilled out of the ring, where Ridgeway hut a Sheer Drop Brain Buster on the stage.

Back inside the ring and Ridgeway continued to dominate the action, starting to focus on the injured shoulder of Banks.

Banks then came into the match with a reversed Brain Buster, Shinign Wizard and a Driver, which got a two count.

There was a brilliant sequence of duelling big kicks which led to Ridgeway regaining control after six big roundhouse kicks - never try and match Riddy in a kicking contest.

Riddy also hit a slap which echoed across the Ballroom and three penalty kicks, each of which brought a two count from the ref.

Riddy then took it to another level by choking Banks with the wrist tape, leading to loud boos from the crowd who were firmly behind Banks.

The punishment didn’t stop there as Ridgeway stomped on Banks’ head on the mat, leading to a wince and some colourful language from both myself and Mercedez.

He then hit a Sheer Drop Brainbuster, the way he’d won his previous three matches, but Banks refused to quit.

More Penalty Kicks to the head of Warren finally put him away and Ridgeway made his exit as a double champion and NEW PROGRESS World Champion.

Gene Munny came out afterwards to console his former student, who got an excellent reaction from the crowd.

My final thoughts; it was a fantastic tournament and weekend and saw the crowning of a worthy champion in Ridgeway. He’s always been good but he has noticeably gone up several levels and was ruthless in his dismantling of his opponents throughout SSS16.

I’ve always thought of Riddy as the nearly man who falls short of the top title but now he’s proving that wrong and I can’t see anyone beating him anytime soon. That is how you book someone billed ‘hard as fuck’.

Spike Trivet intrigues me as he did say he hasn’t forgotten about Strong Style and just wanted to take care of business. He deserves a title shot but would you book a heel vs heel title match?

The crowds got bigger as the tournament went on but there were still a few spare seats on day three.

It’s the second time I’ve been to PROGRESS since they returned. They have owners who clearly care about the product and the fans just keep up the good work.

I know this was a long review but I really wanted to do it justice, thanks for reading!

REVIEW: PROGRESS Wrestling - SSS16 Weekend

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