There is PROGRESS in Wrestling

I been watching wrestling a loooong time,  and I must admit to sometimes becoming blase about wrestling ....Sometimes I have been to shows where the blokes in the ring didnt belong in the audience and on the opposite, I been to shows where I m thinking "how come these blokes aint on tv".

The internet sure has helped me in getting my  wrestling fix, hell I even got the WWE Network...I have found many full shows by indy organisations on You Tube and for the most part, there pretty damn good, I found Chikara clips, ICW shows , New Japan events...BUT then, just when I think my wrestling fix is sated, when I think ive found all the best wrestling on the planet earth..... I find a organisation that re, re-energises my wrestling bug, and to that point, one day while looking around you tube I had the great good fortune to stumble across a UK company that, I have to say, has leaped up to near the top of my favourite ( PWG is still top of the heap) indie wrestling companies.
Progress Wrestling (stylized as PROGRESS) is a British professional wrestling promotion that was established in 2011 by comedian Jim Smallman and events and comedy promoter Jon Briley, later to be joined by actor Glen Joseph.

The company was conceived by Jim Smallman and Jon Briley in 2011, who were both massive wrestling fans. Smallman is a big fan of "strong-style" wrestling, Japanese in particular, and Briley was Smallman's agent.  I always thought London would have multiple shows on any given weekend but Smallman and Briley decided to put on a wrestling show in London, as not many shows were being put on in the capital itself, featuring the type of wrestling that they would both like to watch. The pair then spent seven months putting their first show together. 

The pair decided to emphasize the fact that it would be a London-based promotion with a punk rock vibe. They also were keen not be import-heavy, like other promotions, but to promote British talent. The pair eventually settled on The Garage in Islington for the venue, because of the size and also having a great reputation as a music venue. The Garage were also very supportive of what Smallman and Briley wanted to do, and the pair ran their first show on March 25, 2012.

Got myself the shirt and the dvd of  CHAPTER 14: THUNDERBASTARD

After eleven consecutive sell out shows at the Garage, with the later shows drawing 350 fans, the promotion moved to the 700-capacity Electric Ballroom in Camden from Chapter Twelve in March 2014 for their second anniversary show where the sell outs have continued. To date PROGRESS has sold out all seventeen main shows up to and including January 2015 and two ENDVR shows. 
The promotion have been reluctant to use "imports" (talent for which the UK is not their home or one of their homes). Colt Cabana was the first such talent to be included on a show as part of the debut show, Chapter One, in a losing effort to Loco Mike Mason. Ricochet has appeared twice for the promotion, losing to El Ligero at Chapter Six and in a triple threat with Mark Haskins and Zack Sabre Jr at Chapter Eleven. Adam Cole was the first non-European wrestler to register a win in PROGRESS, defeating Mark Haskins at Chapter Ten.

 Prince Devitt also appeared twice for the promotion, defeating Zack Sabre Jr at Chapter Thirteen and losing to Jimmy Havoc at the PROGRESS World Cup, his final match in the UK before signing with the WWE.
One of the best things about PROGRESS is the interaction with the crowd, you can tell they been to a football game or two in their time, some of the chants are absolutely brilliant...the best one would be about the current champ Jimmy Havoc, its goes something like "Jimmy your a c**t, Jimmy, Jimmy your a c**t"...very tasteful and highly accurate

Jimmy Havoc & Regression
Probably my favourite guy in the company would be Jimmy Havoc, yeah, I like a competent heel, so sue me, I saw him cut a promo after taping a bloke to a chair and threatened him with a switchblade, he had me convinced .......Havoc debuted for PROGRESS on Chapter Two in May 2012 and went on to lose six matches without registering a victory, Jimmy became very popular with the PROGRESS fans as an underdog babyface. At Chapter Nine in November 2013 Havoc attacked promoter Jim Smallman and aligned himself with the London Riots, turning heel in the process. Havoc would then use an open contract given to him by Smallman to defeat PROGRESS champion Mark Andrews (who had just wrestled both Paul Robinson and Rampage Brown in consecutive matches) to become champion and pick up his first victory in PROGRESS. 
In his first title defence at Chapter Eleven, Havoc defeated Zack Sabre Jr with the help of his newest associate, PROGRESS trainee 'The Omega' Isaac Zercher. Havoc was joined at Chapter Thirteen by Paul Robinson, and the group later christened themselves 'Regression' as a play on the name of the company and to symbolise their hatred of PROGRESS Wrestling, they got a big match upcoming at Chapter 15, were we might see the beginning of the end of Regression

Unlike conventional wrestling championships which are generally represented by a belt, the PROGRESS championship was initially represented by a large staff with an eagle head piece. The eagle represented the promotion's logo, but was affectionately referred to as the "Nazi staff" by fans. Promoter Jim Smallman was never afraid to defend the accidental likeness of the championship during shows, by occasionally declaring "It's not Nazi, it's regal" whenever a "Nazi staff" chant was started by the fans in attendance. 

It was announced at Chapter Nine that beginning in November 2013 there would begin a series of matches to determine the first PROGRESS Tag Team champions. The champions were crowned at Chapter Twelve, the second anniversary show, in March 2014. As with the PROGRESS championship not being a conventional belt, the Tag Team championship is represented by a shield with the PROGRESS eagle on the front. The shield splits into two, one for each championship holder. the current holders are Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis
PROGRESS World Cup

The PROGRESS World Cup was a one-night tournament held on June 29, 2014 at The Garage in Islington to crown a new number one contender for the PROGRESS Championship. Each competitor represented a different nation, and the tournament was won by Noam Dar. Dar subsequently challenged for the PROGRESS Championship at Chapter Fourteen at The Electric Ballroom in Camden, but was defeated by Jimmy Havoc. The tournament show also served as a farewell show to The Garage as PROGRESS' original venue.
A LIST LIST OF MY FAVOURITE WORKERS IVE SEEN ON A PROGRESS SHOW.

"Paster" William Eavers -  his got a religious schtick going on, and he dont mind diving out of balconys

Zack Sabre Jnr - seen him on PWG and various clips, brilliant worker, could very well be the next Devitt ( or first Sabre)

Eddie Dennis - or Eddie Misterio Jnr, the master of the 6 1 knee..Wales tallest luchador

Rampage Brown - seen him a few times on various clips, then I saw him go around with Samoa Joe at Thunderbastard, tough as nails

Mark Andrews - Eddies tag champ partner, a gravity defying fella in the PAC mold

Will Osperay - first saw him in The Swords of Essex tag team, no idea what that name means, then 10 minutes later his partner turned on him and hooked up with Havoc & co...been after his former off sider ever since

Noam Dar - Glasgows favourite wrestler, his match with havoc at Thunderbastard was the grouse

El Ligero - some have suggested his the UK version of El generico, high praise indeed, none the less an outstanding worker

GRADO - the master of the "Wee Boot",  been a big Grado fan since I saw his doco and seen him on a ICW show

Tommy End - the greatest wrestler in Holland, and by that I mean his damn good, sort of a cross between Bryan Danielson and Nigel McGuiness, seen him on a WxW show, won me over

Michael Gilbert  - The artist formerly know as Mikey Whiplash,saw him the first time at the ICW show "Insane in the Membrane" vs Jack Jester for the ICW title...since then he dropped the Raven/Adrian Street look and adpted a no gimmicks ..gimmick..excellent worker.

Chuck Mambo - quite possibly the rookie of the year...the crowd dig him "lets Go MAMBO"
and finallY

 THE LONDON DIETS...er umm, I mean Riots...Havoc backup muscle, picture two potential Kevin Steens and your half way to figuring them out

THE WEBSITE

Progress Wrestling

This Is Progress

A LESSON IN WRESTLING MATH

How good was the NXT Revolution .?...yeah, yeah, I know I took my time, but i had to watch it a time or six, just to confirm that it was as good as it looked

Its fairly safe to say that the BEST wrestling talent in the WWE currently is going to Full Sail Uni...sure they have all worked elsewhere all over the world , but for most of the WWE Universe this is the first time they have seen the future of the company before ....unlike us lucky people who have been watching a goodly percentage of the event participants for many a year.

To be fair WWE have been producing talent from NXT for a while now ...like The Shield for instance, weve all see Ambrose and Rollins in their other secret identities at other promotions,  even Punk and Bryan were in "developmental" their for a bit....cause they had to "learn" the WWE way, what ever that is, I still havent figured out what that is, if I had to guess, its probably something about projecting to a bigger crowd 

A mate tweeted me when the talent started showing up on NXT and said something along the lines of .."this is just like Vince in the days before WM1 going cherry picking the various territorys"...and I can see his point, it is like it in some resepects.

All the hot talent on NXT (apart from Charlotte and Baron Corbin) have come from the indies, not that I have a problem with that, HELL, everybody had to start somewhere, right?

Just some of the  feds they have come from are ROH/PWG, Dragon Gate, Shimmer, New Japan and even NSW Australias own PWA , with the signing of Emma to the NXT roster.

Compare and contrast, if you will, the recent shows NXT Takeover Revolution and WWE Tables, Ladders, Chairs & Stairs...

.judging by what I saw and mates I talked to, you cant compare them, TLC had two great matches, one of which was totally f**ked up by a ridiculous exploding plasma monitor, while NXT was top heavy with brilliance, even those goofs in the Assencion pulled a great match out of themselves, of course that might of had something to do with their opponents..one Hideo Itami and Fin Balor ( Kenta and Prince Devitt for those who dont know)

The workrate and story telling on NXT is astounding, an unusual thing to say in the WWE nowadays, I'm no expert, but RAW and Smackdown have become tedious, its like everyone is decided to cruise since they cant do anything shocking due to the PG rating, well, except for Ziggler, he seems to have decided to grab the brass ring, shine it up real nice and stick that sumbitch up Vinny Macs buttocks

 NXT has got a few of the gang up to the main roster, The Shield, Big E Langston and the currently amazing Damien "Mizdow" Sandow ...Bo Dallas has had a couple of spots but I cant say his done too much for me, The Wyatts have made a bit of a splash, why they broke them up, or the Sheild for that matter,..eludes me.....surely they could of held off for a another couple of months ....although, I can see all six of the boys getting a guernsey at Wrestlemania 31, who it will be against is up to the soapy writers at Titan Towers....Oh and then there is Adam Rose, who started wrestling in South Africa in 1995 as a 16 year old...I liked the Leo Kruger gimmick...but his Russell Brand like Adam Rose is more suited to him...it will be interesting to see where it goes, at the moment, it seems they are using Rose to reform "The Age of the Fall" from ROH...;)

I must say, when Paige showed up on NXT , then WWE tv, I was happy that AJ finally had someone to work with other than Mrs Cena or Mrs Bryan...and maybe Mrs Uso too...Paige is from a long line of well trained wrestlers, her mum and dad are still going in the UK...so, to see where they go with her over the long run will be interesting.

Speaking of Divas ( I hate that name by the way) how good is Charlotte, the Nature Girl, for she is Ric Flairs daughter,  is an excellent talent, who knew, I think she has a long term future, once again as long as the writers dont f*8k it up.

I have to admit that Tyler Breeze shits me, the selfie taking numbnut, THEN, I realised his doing exactly what he is supposed to do...job well done, his come a long way from his early days in the Canadian indies as Mathias Wld

Then there is Baron Corbin, who is a bit of a flashback, he comes to NXT with nil pro wrestling experience, his a football player learning his craft, sort of like Wahoo and Ernie Ladd did back in the day....His is the current King of the Squash match, which I thoiught were a thing of the past, he has run roughshod over everyone, and looked pretty good doing it...and no one has mentioned the word streak once...how refreshing.

The only thing I'm concerned about is when the current group  on NXT get "promoted" and the half arsed excuse for creative f**k htem up with rickoculous (thanks Jericho) gimmicks or strory lines...BUT...I guess we will just have to wait and see

FINGERS CROSSED

HEAT...a lost art form...sort of

I'm fairly certain we have all heard of the term  used in wrestling called "HEAT" ...a term that a good majority of modern"creative" have no clue about (or at least very little) 

Now, you would have to agree with the theory that the bigger wrestling companies (WWE, TNA) are hog tied into a PG mode by advertisers....I mean the closest I ve seen to heat on  RAW or Smackdown is Rusev waiving his russian flag, which is stupid, cause i didnt know the cold war was still on, or Seth Rollins curb stomping all and assundry, the biggest potential heat magnet on RAW is Bray Wyatt, his potential for white hot heat is unmeasurable, but sadly, the writers that the WWE hired from daytime soap land have no f**king idea about heat.

Heat, ideally, the heel has to be thoroughly convincing that he is doing what his doing for all the right reasons ( in his mind anyway)....I heard Bill Dundee say about heat once, "kids today dont about heat, they have never had their tyres slashed or sugar in the petrol tanks, hell, I've been cut 2 or 3 times cause I had them white hot"

Like I said, I been watching wrestling a looong time..just coming up to 46 years actually....and, as I may have mentioned before, I had the great fortune to be around and going to shows in the midst of what I still consider to be the greatest angle in wrestling history, well, Australian wrestling history anyway...THE WAR.

Probably around 1972, Mark Lewin got the book in Australia and constructed the angle that was the one that got me hooked into wrestling.....Luckily, he had the ideal heel, one, William Goodman,who donned the chrome germanic helmet and became the General of the Army BIG BAD JOHN...His army of heels included Abdullah the Butcher, Waldo von Erich, Bulldog Brower, Mr Fuji, Hiro and Hito Tojo, Don Fargo, Blackjack Slade and Tiger Jeet Singh....John was one of the greatest promos I ever heard, because he was thoroughly convincing that he started the war because he was sick of Mark Lewin and his mates "taking all the gravy" out of Australia and not sharing it....a fine example of making the people believe what his character believed.

One of the best heat getters have been the "turn" to the darkside, now, these dont always work, but when they do its brilliant, unless your the Road Warriors spiking Dusty in the eye, they were getting cheered....Hell, even Mario  Milano joined up with Gary Hart in Australia, I tell you, that stunned more people than the bombing on Number 96.

MODERN HEAT [or the resemblence there of]

Like I said modern wrestlers in the "bigger" companies, for the most part have been hog tied by PG rating forced upon them by advertisers or tv channels...for instance, Imagine if Bray Wyatt had the PG rating removed, he could become the next Kevin Steen, who I will get to shortly, because the character of Bray Wyatt appears to firmly believe in what he says in his promos, can you imagine if he had cart blance to go for it...I think he would be off the charts.

Imagine if Bray was around when Randy Orton was punting people left and right  BUT Wyatt was doing it instead of Orton, fans would still be talking about it (in my humble opinion}

Recently, ROH had a crack at some heat by getting Adam Cole to cut a promo on Papa Brisco, then kick him in the skull, this led to a Fight Without Honor at Final Battle 2014, some would say that was cheap heat, but in the modern era, it was as well done as any other piece of business.

Did someone mention Kevin Steen...NOW, Im s Steen fan without question, got the shirt and the dvds...and even me after all this time was stunned when he turned on Generico, a thoughjt of "what a prick" even crossed my mind....Steen along with Corino, Cabana and Generico snuck this brilliant piece of business under the noses of the booking team at ROH and it has since become one of the greatest angles in ROH history...

Can you tell me what else was happening in ROH at the time withoiut checking dvds?...I cant, but I can tell you about chain matches and run ins etc relating to the angle....All of Steens promos including the letter he posted on the ROH website was brilliantly constructed, can you imagine if he did that during the 70s, he would need a bodyguard to get to his hotel.....this led to the SCUM angle where Steen goaded Cornette into getting his job back after losing to Generico AND getting a title match against Davey Richards, where he won the title and raised nine kinds of hell until his turn where he further increased his popularity with wrestling fans.

Both Steen and Generico or Owens and Zayn, if you like have signed with WWE and are in the NXT section of the company...someone in NXT creative has been watching ROH because when Zayn won the NXT title the first guy in the ring to hug the new champ was his best friend Kevin Owens...who as soon as the ring cleared came back down and powerbombed the new champ on the edge of the ring...AND ITS OFF TO THE RACES WE GO...again.

Speaking of modern heat getters...I recently discovered a wrestling company in the U.K called PROGRESS and two of their heels stood out in particular, the first was Michael Gilbert, who recently adopted a "no gimmicks" state of mind, he used to look like a cross between Dee Snider and Raven, but not now and like all good heels, he believes his way is the right way, for him anyway....and then their is the current champion, bloke named Jimmy Havoc quite possibly is one of the best heels I've ever seen...

.there was a 4 team tag at the Chapter 13 show, one of the teams The Swords of Essex split up mid match and at the end of the match, The London Riots and Jimmy Havoc duct taped Will Osperay to a chair and Jimmy said to Will, and I paraphrase, " Will, this has got nothing to do with you, its all the promoters fault your in this situation" then he whipped out a switchblade...and threatend to torture the kid, until the promotion stopped booking him in crazy matches trying to make him lose the title, then there was mass run in by the good guys...apparently Jimmy feels hard done by by the powers that be and seems certainly determined to hang onto his title by fair means or foul...probably more foul.

Will we ever go back to those days of white hot heat...definately not, we are way past the point of even considering it...thank the wrestling gods for DVD'S and blogs huh?

A DVD REVIEW: THE GREATEST WRESTLER ON GODS GREEN EARTH

THE LINK TO HIGHSPOTS

Ordered this the other day off Highspots after watching Ronnie Miller and Harley go to a draw on aussie tele (again)....Race has always been a favourite of mine, well, maybe not so much that "King" crap, but everybody deserves to earn a quid...he was the second NWA champ I ever saw and the first I saw live in person at the Hordern Pavillion in Sydney .....

I'd heard of Harley through the Apter mags....then sometime in '78, I heard he had won the NWA belt, which was the recognised world champ for Jim Barnetts Australia promotion, Jack Brisco had already been downunder, but i'd missed him, so I was determined to see Harley work his magic, then I saw him on channel 9 in a angle with Ronnie Miller, they had gone back and forth promoing each other...then Ronnie rolled Harley up for a time limit draw on the show...and geve Race a gob full ...this led to Ronnie getting the rub from Harley and if memory serves a standing ovation..OUTSTANDING

The next time I saw Harley was the lead up to Ric Flair and "The Flare for the Gold" cage match and the angle leading up to that with Dick Slater and Bob orton Jnr "crippling" Flair for a bounty, so Harley wouldnt lose the belt...the promos leading up to that match was brilliant.

Harley dropped the belt to Naitch and faded out of my view for a bit until he showed up dressed as a king in the WWF, cant honestly say it was my favourite incarnation of Harley, but, like I said everybody has to earn a buck.....I didnt know about the accident that finished Race in the WWF, but what a shame, he sure deserved a better exit.

Finally I saw Harley managuing Vader in WCW and his interacting with Vader was definately beliveable..if Harley said VCader was gonna crush you, you took it as dinkum....I have the WWE Hall of Fame where Race got inducted..couldnt happen to a nicer bloke.

The DVD is an outstanding telling of the Race tale from his carny days to drivin g Happy Humphrey around right through to his running of his wrestling school today.... 

 and on the dvd, available only at Highspots,  is the following

Harley Race: The Greatest Wrestler on God’s Green Earth takes a look at one of wrestling’s biggest attractions of the 70’s and 80’s. In the world of professional wrestling there is no one else like Harley Race he is truly a one of a kind. When people talk about Harley Race they talk about respect and toughness.

On this 2 disc DVD set you will hear from Harley Race like you never have before as he opens up about his life and career. From his beginnings on the carnival circuit, to teaming with Larry Henning, the 8 NWA World Title reigns, passing the torch to Ric Flair at Starrcade 83, what it was like working for Vince McMahon, and so much more. Also you will hear from all the key figures throughout Harley’s career, the people who helped and witnessed his success.

When people put a list of all time great wrestler’s together Harley Race is at the top of most of them because he is The Greatest Wrestler On God’s Green Earth. 

Disc 1 - Full Documentary - 1 hour 40 minutes, total run time disc 1 is 1 hr 51 minutes 
Chapter 1: Early Life 
Chapter 2: Happy Humphrey 
Chapter 3: Jack Long 
Chapter 4: Pretty Handsome 
Chapter 5: 1st World Title 
Chapter 6: The Champ 
Chapter 7: Starrcade 83 
Chapter 8: War With Vince 
Chapter 9: The King 
Chapter 10: WCW 
Chapter 11: Training School 
Chapter 12: Legacy 
Chapter 13: Harley Race v. Ric Flair (All Star Wrestling courtesy of Harley Race)

Disc 2 - Bonus Footage - Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes 
Chapter 1: Harley Race v. David Von Erich (courtesy of Larry Matysik) 
Chapter 2: "The Doublecross" as told by Jim Cornette and Harley Race 
Chapter 3: Harley Race v Ted Dibiase (8 MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner 
Chapter 4: "Great Times" told by Terry Funk 
Chapter 5: Harley Race v. Ric Flair (8 MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner) 
Chapter 6: "His Hands" as told by Vader 
Chapter 7: Harley Race v. Dick Murdoch (8 MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner) 
Chapter 8: "Bruno folklore" as told by Larry Matysik 
Chapter 9: Harley v. Tommy Martin (8MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner) 
Chapter 10: "New Zealand" as told by Ric Flair/Jim Cornette 
Chapter 11:Harley Race v. Pierre Lefeber (8 MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner) 
Chapter 12: "Outlaws" - Les Thatcher 
Chapter 13: Harley Race v. Spike Huber (courtesy of Larry Matysik) 
Chapter 14: "Vader" - Magnum TA 
Chapter 15: Harley Race v. Dory Funk Jr (courtesy of Harley Race) 
Chapter 16: US Title - William Murdock 
Chapter 17: Harley Race v. David Von Erich (8MM footage courtesy of Mike Gratchner) 
Chapter 18: "Driving Harley" featuring George South 
Chapter 19: Harley Race v. Ron Sexton (courtesy of Larry Matysik) 
Chapter 20: "Broadway" featuring Larry Matysik 
Chapter 21: Harley Race v. Omar Atlas (courtesy of Larry Matysik)

So there you go...grab it, its the goods
Recky