Tag: walter

PROGRESS Hello Wembley results: WALTER vs. Tyler Bate

Posted on by F4W Editors

PROGRESS Wrestling presented its biggest-ever show as the promotion came to the SSE Wembley Arena on Sunday, September 30.

Chuck Mambo won a pre-show battle royal

Mambo won by last eliminating Spike Trivett. Both of the finalists are two of the hottest prospects in British pro wrestling, especially as their characters are more colorful than the average indie wrestler. Mambo is a surfer whose entrance sees fans throw beach balls into the ring. Meanwhile, Trivett plays a blueblood advocate for Britain’s Conservative Party, down to talking about wrestling a “Strong and Stable Style” in a riff on an old political slogan.

Big T. Justice, Chris Ridgeway, Damon Moser, Danny Duggan, Danny Jones, Darrell Allen, David Francisco, Drew Parker, Mad Man Manson, Rickey Shane Page, RJ Singh, Roy Johnson, Sid Scala, Stixx, The OJMO, TK Cooper, and William Eaver were the other participants. 

Unlike the main card, the battle royal is available to watch now.

Mark Haskins defeated Matt Riddle

Haskins won a very good opener between babyfaces whose styles meshed well. They are apparently good friends outside the ring, and there were plenty of spots where they would anticipate and evade each other’s strikes.

It’s worth noting that Riddle has new entrance music and already looks a fair bit bigger but is still wrestling without boots on.

PROGRESS Women’s Champion Jinny defeated Toni Storm and Millie McKenzie in a triple threat match to retain her title

This was originally going to be Jinny vs. Storm before Storm’s recent injury led to them crowning a new number one contender as a contingency plan. So late was the switch to the triple threat that the advertisement in the latest Fighting Spirit Magazine still had the match listed without McKenzie’s participation.

Despite being a late addition, McKenzie was clearly the crowd favorite. The match was the weakest on the show, which to be frank, is unfortunately typical of PROGRESS’ women’s division. They had a fairly standard triple threat where they took turns to leave the ring and the other two wrestled. Only when McKenzie started hitting suplexes would all three be in the ring for a prolonged period of time. It was a bit cliched, but probably necessary to avoid the heel champion being outnumbered by her babyface challengers.

Throughout the match, Jinny’s House of Couture henchwomen would try to interfere, drawing Candyfloss and Laura Di Matteo out to even the score. However, Di Matteo attacked Storm — helping her former mentor Jinny win the match.

The strengthened House of Couture were then sent fleeing by the debuting Jordynne Grace.

Trent Seven defeated Doug Williams to win the PROGRESS Atlas Championship

For the uninitiated, the Atlas Championship is reserved for wrestlers who weigh more than 205 lbs. Since he won the vacant title in May, Williams has promised to retire from pro wrestling as soon as he lost it. That final match would come here, with Seven winning a fun match with a crossbody.

This match had a little bit of everything, with the challenger playing the subtle heel throughout. Despite Williams having telegraphed his impending retirement with numerous final appearances across the UK, the fans bought into several of his near falls, especially the second time he hit Chaos Theory.

Williams and Seven embraced after the result, and then the roster came out onto the stage to applaud Williams.

Jimmy Havoc defeated Paul Robinson in a no DQ match

This was originally scheduled to be Havoc vs. Will Ospreay, but the latter’s New Japan commitments meant he was unavailable, something that he made his unhappiness about clear on social media.

Robinson is Ospreay’s former tag team partner and had been working as a road agent for PROGRESS. After interactions with both Ospreay and Havoc, he was appointed the special guest referee of their two-out-of-three falls match in August. He attacked Havoc at the end, costing him the third fall and setting up this match.

In a sign of what was to come, Havoc deliberately came out wearing white trousers and with his face and torso covered in white body paint. This was a bloody battle that had the intensity that high-profile death matches in non-specialist promotions sometimes lack. They did relatively little walk and brawl, instead preferring to attack each other with weapons in or near the ring.

The most noteworthy of the spots involved fluorescent light tubes, which were used liberally as the match neared its end. Both wrestlers were sent back-first into them, with Robinson’s back being left a bloody mess. The end came when Havoc curbed stomped Robinson’s face through two light tubes, before hitting the Rainmaker.

A wild match, that astonishingly, may have been only Havoc’s second most violent match of the weekend.

Intermission

After the intermission, Jim Smallman revealed that the official attendance was 4,750. That’s a number which manages to be both an astonishing achievement and something of a disappointment. When the show was announced, it was billed as the biggest UK indie show in the past 30 years, which clearly set the target of beating the 6,193 that ICW’s Fear and Loathing 9 achieved. The failure to do so has necessitated an awkward late shift to talking about it being the biggest English indie show in the past 30 years.

Still, considering that with the half-exception of Riddle they brought in no imports who aren’t a regular part of the British scene (even Bandido and Flamita have wrestled extensively for other promotions this month), whereas ICW used former WWE legends to draw casual fans, it’s a very impressive number.

While there was no announcement of a return to SSE Wembley (indeed in his opening remarks Smallman said that this may be the biggest show they ever do), they did announce that Super Strong Style 16 would return to Alexandra Palace for the second year in a row. Former PROGRESS Champion Travis Banks then came out to confirm that he would be a competitor in that tournament.

Perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of the segment was that it confirmed that the promotion would not use Banks’ recent injury as a way to return him back to the babyface ranks after his botched title reign, with him turning the crowd with an arrogant promo.

Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated Bandido & Flamita, Chris Brookes & Timothy Thatcher, Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew, David Starr & Jack Sexsmith, Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson), The 198 (Flash Morgan Webster & Wild Boar), and The Anti-Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr.) in a Thunderbastard match to win the PROGRESS Tag Team titles

A Thunderbastard match has basically the same rules as Lucha Underground’s Aztec Warfare matches — it’s a Royal Rumble with pinfalls, submissions, and disqualifications replacing over the top rope eliminations. Bandido & Flamita were the champions heading into the match.

This had a wealth of talent, sometimes too much for the crowd to properly concentrate on the action inside the ring, especially after Gibson got the fans riled up with his usual promo. Perhaps the highlight of the match was when all competitors took turns to dive over the top rope, culminating in the superheavyweight Los Federales Santos Jr. launching himself through the ropes.

The finish came when Aussie Open defeated former champions Grizzled Young Veterans when they hit the Fidget Spinner on Drake to win their first titles since moving to Britain last year.

One note of caution is that it seemed Davis injured his arm, with him being sidelined for a prolonged period of time and asking the referees to bring him ice to apply to his arm immediately after the match finished.

Pete Dunne defeated Ilja Dragunov

Before the match began, we got a very good video package and a promo from wXw’s Dragunov. That decision would prove controversial later. Dunne had not performed at the weekend for Fight Club: PRO, even being pulled from an announced match against CIMA, which naturally led to rumors that he was carrying an injury. With the one exception of limping while going to the top rope, he seemed to be moving fine.

This was a very good match that built in intensity as it went on. The point it hit high gear was when Dunne held Dragunov’s arm and started repeatedly kicking him in the head, attempting to force the referee to stop the match. Dragunov responded by trying to do the same with Jon Jones-style elbows to the face. They then traded headbutts, with the welts on each of their foreheads telling you where they were connecting. It was a match that epitomized strong style.

For the finish, Dunne trapped Dragunov’s arm and then began manipulating his hand to force the submission. They warily shook hands afterwards.

Eddie Dennis defeated Mark Andrews in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for a future shot at the PROGRESS World Championship

We were treated to another video package before the match. This would prove problematic as the show crashed through the 8:30 p.m. finish time that PROGRESS had advertised, meaning that some fans who were relying on public transport to get home had to leave before the main event. It was, however, a very good video package.

This was a clash between former tag team partners that was a year in the making. If Williams vs. Seven echoed Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels, this feud was clearly inspired by Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart, with Andrews refusing to fight his former tag team partner for several months — until the provocations became too much.

They had a fun match that never quite captured the right tone for what was meant to be a bitter grudge match. The key issue was that not only did the standard TLC spots detract from the sense of realism, but the tables supplied by PROGRESS repeatedly refused to break. There were several spots where that happened, with one table managing to withstand someone being thrown into it three times. That unfortunately made the match seem a bit silly, with fans at one point chanting “Table is our champion.”

Still, the action was great with notable spots including Andrews doing a swanton from a ladder on the outside that was a clear tribute to Jeff Hardy at WrestleMania 2000. Likewise, Dennis put Andrews through a table from a ladder with a super Death Valley Driver. Dennis would ultimately secure the contract to earn himself a future title shot.

PROGRESS World Champion WALTER defeated Tyler Bate to retain his title

This was originally scheduled to be WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr., but Sabre’s very important New Japan commitments in Long Beach stopped him from headlining the biggest English independent show in 30 years.

That said, there was always a suspicion that Bate had been the original plan, with an injury having forced him to withdraw from the Super Strong Style tournament that crowned the number one contender. Bate earned the title shot by being the only person to win three consecutive singles matches during August.

Two violin players played extracts of WALTER’s music before the match, inspired by NXT having done similar entrances for Shinsuke Nakamura. The Ringkampf theme doesn’t quite suit the presentation.

This was a fantastic match that by the end had turned a partisan crowd into one loudly cheering for Bate. As one would expect, the large size difference between the two men was a key story of the match, although it would instead provide the opportunity for Bate to show his freakish strength. Perhaps the most impressive moves were him successfully deadlift suplexing WALTER, completing two airplane spins, and hitting the Tyler Driver ’97.

The finish saw WALTER increasingly focus on wearing down Bate with repeated submission attempts, including multiple applications of his sleeper. Bate finally separated himself from WALTER, only for the champion to counter with a piledriver for the three count. A somewhat surprising finish to what was an instant classic that will hopefully be a springboard to Bate being pushed more strongly as a singles wrestler in PROGRESS.

PROGRESS Wrestling’s Hello Wembley will shortly be available to watch on video on demand through Demand PROGRESS.

PWG BOLA night one results: Ringkampf vs. Dragunov & Takagi

Posted on by F4W Staff

Image: Rob Naylor. Report submitted by Brian Reznick.

– Night one of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles is in the books, and it was a very good show. Without looking back to verify, I think it was a little behind night one last year and 2016, but it was in no way disappointing. The crowd was great and seemed to enjoy the show throughout.

– Rey Horus defeated Adam Brooks in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

This was a fun opener. Brooks has never grabbed me in the way that he has others, but he had a good showing here. I like Horus a lot and thought that he looked great.

Brooks played the heel throughout the match. Horus hit a big dive over the corner post that looked great, and Brooks hit a Fosbury flop to the outside. They had a nice sequence late where Brooks hit a Canadian Destroyer, only to have Horus pop up immediately and hit a standing Spanish Fly and both guys collapsed for the “This is awesome” spot (There were no “This is awesome” chants all night, but the crowd did cheer).

Brooks got a great near fall late when he reversed an attempt at a top rope rana into a powerbomb and followed with an Aoi Shoudou. Horus won with a super victory roll. Good pop for the finish and a bit of money thrown in the ring.

– Flamita defeated Puma King in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

A great showcase for lucha libre and a nice intro to PWG for Puma King. They did a great series of counters and reversals to a stalemate early. Flamita hit a series of topes to the outside. Puma King got a near fall with a reverse rana, spring board crossbody splash, and a diving double stomp. Flamita also got a near fall with a top rope 450, and it looked like he landed on Puma King hard.

The finish came when Flamita reversed a top rope rana into a powerbomb, followed up with a superkick, and then hit a Phoenix Splash.

This match was a sprint and was great. There were cheers for Puma King afterwards (the crowd might have wanted him to win more than Flamita), followed by “Please come back” chants and money thrown into the ring.

– CIMA defeated Jody Fleisch in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

Another well-worked match. There was plenty of flying, but these guys were smart to recognize that they couldn’t match the rest of the card — so they worked some comedy and other clever spots.

They had a series of reversals that led to a stalemate early. Here’s a benefit of having agents on a show, each of the first three matches had similar early sequences of reversals capped by both guys doing a dropkick and then rolling kip-ups so that they were facing each other. It’s a cool sequence, but it probably shouldn’t happen in three straight matches.

After the stalemate, Fleisch and CIMA worked some comedy when Fleisch said he could get the crowd to cheer louder for him. He went to two corners on one side in succession and got a decent response. CIMA then did the same to the other two corners and did better. Fleisch wanted to repeat, and they got the same result.

Fleisch then offered a handshake, noting that “we’re both babyfaces” to entice the reluctant CIMA. After a successful shake with the right, Fleisch said they should shake with the left. They did so, but CIMA pulled the double cross. The match spilled outside with Fleisch hitting an Asai moonsault.

They eventually ended up back in the ring and did two great sequences where they rolled around, each trying for pins, but only getting a one count each time. They ended the sequence and then went into a similar sequence with the same results before both collapsing. This was great and got a strong reaction from the crowd. Fleisch hit a step-up rana to take CIMA off the corner turnbuckle and hit a springboard tornado DDT for a near fall.

Fleisch missed a Shooting Star Splash. CIMA hit a White Noise and a great looking diving double knees off the top turnbuckle to win. Nice reaction for Fleisch after the match, though not quite as big as the one for Puma King. There was a decent amount of “Please come back” chants.

– Bandido defeated T-Hawk in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

Outstanding match. Bandido is so over as a baby face with this crowd. It sounded like WALTER and Bandido got the biggest pops of the night to me, though Brody King and PCO were close. T-Hawk was great here playing heel. Everything he did looked crisp and his facials and crowd work were top notch.

T-Hawk got the heat early with some stiff chops and worked the crowd well. The match went outside and Bandido hit a moonsault from the second turnbuckle to the floor. T-Hawk came back in the ring with hard slaps and two chops to the throat. He then flexed his pecs for the crowd as the boos rained down — really well done.

T-Hawk hit some vicious strikes into a reverse powerslam, but Bandido popped up right away and hit a big boot, then both collapsed. The crowd loved this. They had a long Hiromu Takahashi vs. Dragon Lee type sequence of chopping the hell out of each other, and the crowd went nuts for it after they had gone for awhile. They then slowed down and suddenly sped back up to a bigger pop.

The end came when Bandido hit his backflip fallaway slam off the top turnbuckle. Great move, great finish, and great match. Everyone went nuts and threw money in the ring. This was 4.5 stars for me. Great post-match reaction for T-Hawk — I really hope he is back.

– Joey Janela defeated David Starr in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

This match was an intense, brutal affair. They have great chemistry together, but this was one of those matches where, in my opinion, they had a few spots that were too dangerous that subtracted from the match. I still liked the match a lot, but I think these guys are good enough that they didn’t need to do everything that they did.

Early on, it was a stiff well-worked match. Starr worked heel well and Janela took a stiff chop and bumped over the ropes to the floor. They worked outside a bit. After coming back in, Janela hit a top rope rana and followed with a top rope elbow drop for a near fall. They brawled for a bit and Janela eventually hit a spot where he knocked Starr down while Starr was on the turnbuckle. Janela pulled Starr so he was flat on his back across the buckle and then jumped down to the floor so Starr landed on the back of his head on the apron.

This looked so brutal. I had a good line of sight and it looked like the back of Starr’s head smashed on the apron. Starr came back and hit Janela with a DDT on the apron.

Starr then hit a Canadian Destroyer, but Janela popped up right away and hit a superkick before they both collapsed. A version of this appeared in every match, and it always worked. They went back to clubbing the hell out of each other, then Starr put on a submission that looked like a half Sharpshooter and half Liontamer, with Starr wrenching Janela at a high angle and grabbing his left arm. Janela wouldn’t tap and eventually made the ropes.

They went back outside and exchanged a series of four topes: Starr hit one, Janela popped right up, slid in the ring, and hit a tope, Starr popped up and did the same — and then hit another for good measure. Janela hit a top rope Swanton Bomb to the floor and then a package piledriver back in the ring for two. 

They had another brutal sequence where Starr took Janela off the top turnbuckle and dropped him on the back of his head on the ropes, then hit a crushing clothesline and a painful looking Last Shot for a near fall. Starr then landed a superkick for a near fall. Starr went for his half Sharpshooter/Liontamer submission, but Janela rolled him into a small package for a two count. As soon as Starr kicked out, Janela popped up and hit a superkick for the win. The crowd loved this.

– Brody King defeated PCO in a Battle of Los Angeles tournament first round match

This match was sort of a disaster. It had elements of a Tomohiro Ishii vs. Togi Makabe NEVER Openweight title match. It also wanted to be Keith Lee vs. Donovan Dijak from last year, but it felt like both guys almost died in the process. The crowd loved this match, but there were a few bad botches and a ton of danger — so I have no idea how to rate this.

They did good big man stuff early: a long collar-and-elbow tie up, running the ropes for shoulder tackles where no one budged, chops, etc. They ended up outside, and PCO hit a tope suicida. King then went for a tope con hilo, but he didn’t go as far as PCO expected, so King landed hard on the floor. 

Back in the ring, PCO hit a rana to take Brody off the top turnbuckle. King then tried to answer with a standing rana of his own, but it was a mess. It was slow and PCO had trouble going over for it. King hit a disgusting looking cannonball onto PCO’s back while PCO was laying prone over the ropes (like he was setting up to take the 619 but instead had someone do a rolling splash onto his upper back). King hit another cannonball into the corner and a second rope moonsault for a near fall.

King then hit a springboard crossbody and a piledriver, but PCO kicked out at one for a big pop. PCO hit a pop-up powerbomb and then a stiff knee.

Now for the total madness: PCO set King up so he was laying in the ring with his upper body under the ropes on the apron. PCO then climbed to the top turnbuckle and hit a somersault senton. PCO climbed the ropes again, this time with his back to King, who was still laying in the ring with his upper body on the apron. PCO tried some sort of splash where he turned in mid-air to, presumably, land chest first on King. But PCO entirely miscalculated and landed chest first on the top rope and then fell off to the floor.

PCO somehow got up. They returned to the ring, where PCO eventually went for a top rope moonsault onto King in the center of the ring. PCO sort of made it over, but it looked like he landed on a lot of head and neck. Not as bad as the Brock Lesnar Shooting Star Press landing, but it also wasn’t a lot better.

PCO went for another moonsault, but King stopped him while he was still on the turnbuckle. He lifted PCO onto his shoulders like a reverse fireman’s carry, then turned him and piledrove him for the victory. PCO got up, eventually, to huge cheers. 

I love both guys and they worked really hard, but their reach exceeded their grasp here, and it was way too dangerous for me.

– Ringkampf (PWG World Champion WALTER & Timothy Thatcher) defeated Ilja Dragunov & Shingo Takagi in a non-tournament match

This was just awesome and the best match of the night for me — 4.75 stars easily. Great chemistry between all four wrestlers and everyone got time together. Dragunov and Takagi were outstanding.

Thatcher and Dragunov started and battled to a stalemate before tagging in their respective partners. Takagi and WALTER were great together — I felt like that was the singles match that the fans wanted most for the future. WALTER built great heat by continually attacking
Takagi while he was on the apron. It was like every time WALTER was in, he’d beat up Dragunov and then explode over to the corner and hit Takagi with a running boot to the face. He did this to Dragunov as well.

Dragunov’s overall charisma and fire are unbelievable live — he should be a superstar. There were many great striking and transition sequences. Everything made sense and everyone was on. Dragunov was setting up for a top rope move on Thatcher, but WALTER broke it up by slugging Dragunov. He then picked up Takagi into a powerbomb and hurled him into Thatcher doing a European uppercut. Thatcher went for the cover, and Dragunov jumped off the top rope and over WALTER to break it up.

Thatcher was setting up a German suplex on Dragunov in the corner. Dragunov grabbed the ropes, but WALTER came over and grabbed Thatcher in the German suplex position and German’d both guys. Takagi came in to attack Thatcher, but WALTER hit him with a John Woo dropkick.

Dragunov got up and fought with WALTER out of the ring. Takagi hit some strikes on Thatcher, but Thatcher grabbed a Fujiwara armbar. As Takagi fought the armbar, Thatcher rolled him over into a pin for the win. I feel like I didn’t do this match justice, it was so great.

After it was over, Thatcher and WALTER wanted to shake hands with their opponents. Dragunov did, but Takagi would not. He wouldn’t shake anyone’s hand and walked out on Dragunov. Thatcher then wanted to shake WALTER’s hand. WALTER was reluctant, repeatedly saying something about how he was champion and talking about how they had to wrestle each other on night two. WALTER eventually shook his hand.

RevPro Summer Sizzler results: Tomohiro Ishii vs. WALTER

Posted on by F4W Staff

Submitted by Matt Dagnall

– Promoter Andy Quildan opened the show at a nearly sold out York Hall to advertise the upcoming Revolution Pro Wrestling television tapings in September at the venue, announcing KUSHIDA and Jushin Thunder Liger in addition to the already advertised Zack Sabre Jr. and Roppongi 3K.

– Josh Bodom defeated Dan Magee

This grudge match was a very hot opener with the crowd clearly invested in their ongoing and well-crafted blood feud. Magee, a RevPro trainee, was making his York Hall debut and got over very well with the crowd as an excellent babyface in peril.

The match was hard hitting from start to finish. There were numerous near falls, and both men played their respective roles to perfection, ensuring the crowd was very engaged. Bodom won with a penalty kick before the two bitter rivals shook hands after.

– The Great-O-Kharn defeated Shane Strickland

Great-O-Kharn (Tomoyuki Oka) has a Mongolian gimmick that struggled to get over in his United Kingdom debut at Strong Style Evolved UK, and it only fared a bit better here. He is clearly improving, but the match was incredibly slow.

O-Kharn took 80 percent of the match, with Strickland barely getting anything in early on. It got better later when Strickland finally came into his own, but he was often cut off immediately by O-Kharn when making a comeback. O-Kharn won with an impressive reserve exploder suplex.

This was a criminal misuse of Strickland, with the EVOLVE Champion getting essentially jobbed out to a trainee. It would have been fine had O-Kharn not taken almost all the match.

– KUSHIDA defeated Adam Brooks

KUSHIDA was massively over with the crowd, and Brooks was playing a jerk as per usual and working the audience. The story was that Brooks wants to face Will Ospreay, so he was fighting one of Ospreay’s greatest foes.

As with the previous match, the heel took around 80 percent of the offense — with any comeback from KUSHIDA being scouted by Brooks. Finally, the match picked up the pace as KUSHIDA got in some offense and won very quickly with Back to the Future in about 12 minutes.

This was disappointing as this match definitely had the potential to be as good as Brooks’ classics with Strickland and Ryan Smile at previous York Hall shows.

– Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) defeated CCK (Jonathan Gresham & Chris Brookes)

This started comedically, with Gresham being noticeably smaller than all of the other competitors in the match. He chopped away at Fletcher, who didn’t even flinch. And whenever the bigger Davis came near, he fled up the ramp. This was perfect comedy wrestling and the crowd was in fits — Gresham played his role perfectly.

Then Brookes came in and the match got serious. Brookes and Aussie Open know each other so well that this was bound to be a clinic — and it was. When Gresham finally got back in, it was even better. The match built to an effective crescendo at around the 15-minute mark with everyone going 100 percent. They continued in top gear for another 10 minutes with an insane amount of near falls over that time. This was incredible stuff and the crowd lapped it up willingly, cheering all involved.

After another crazy series of near falls, Aussie Open finally won with Close Your Eyes, and this 25-minute match was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Gresham was the real star of the show, blurring the lines between comedy and incredible talent perfectly. Despite being a change to the card due to Davey Boy Smith Jr. not being able to come, this was easily the match of the night. The teams got a standing ovation and hugged it out.

– Titan defeated El Soberano Jr.

They had a very different style of match to what York Hall is used to, but it worked very well. Early on, both wrestlers showed off their high-flying ability and were seemingly equal to each other. To heavy boos from the crowd, Titan tried to get the better of Soberano by taking off his mask — and Soberano attempted the same in response. There was no clear face/heel dynamic here — it was just two wrestlers seeing who was better. The crowd was loud and enjoyed the change in style to the rest of the show and cheered for both guys.

After some effective near falls, Titan won with a roll-up. Both embraced after. I’d expect to see them back.

– Lance Archer defeated Jurn Simmons

This match suffered from its placement on the card. And with both guys making their York Hall debut, it was never going to steal the show. The two big men worked a slow but stiff match that was fine. Archer did all he could to be hated by the crowd, while Simmons was the hero, getting a strong reaction by the end of the match.

Archer won this, but Simmons was the star, with the crowd chanting “please come back” as he left. With a different opponent and a different placement on the card, Simmons could be a key player at RevPro.

– Undisputed British Cruiserweight Champion David Starr defeated El Phantasmo to retain his title

Starr cut his standard promo at the start about the conspiracy against him in RevPro, and he had his standard independent official to officiate the match. There were loud dueling chants for both wrestlers throughout. Starr tried to walk out with the title, but Phantasmo stopped the official counting to 10. And for some reason, Starr came back down.

They brawled on the ramp and stage (with no count from the official). El Phantasmo was thrown off the stage but made it back in for the eventual count. What followed was a solid match, but it was way too long given that the shtick before it was long as well. Starr was aggressive as ever, with Phantasmo using his aerial ability to equal him.

The official was knocked down. Phantasmo got the visual pin, but Starr was able to give him a low blow and a shot with the title to retain the belt.

The match was impressive as both men were clearly giving their all, but it would have been better kept to 15 minutes instead of 20. It felt very WWE-esque with all the shenanigans, ref bumps, and over-dramaticism. Keeping the belt on Starr was the right call.

– Tomohiro Ishii defeated WALTER to become the number one contender to Minoru Suzuki’s Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship

The crowd was mostly behind Ishii. WALTER even got a handful of boos, which surprised me. This started slow, but Ishii soon woke up and started fighting WALTER back despite being constantly knocked down. They had the hard-hitting heavyweight bout one would expect, with them exchanging chops, suplexes, and shoulder tackles.

Ishii finally gained the upper hand after no-selling WALTER’s offense and won with a single brainbuster.

This was very good but not at all on the level of the series of matches Ishii had with Keith Lee. For all of WALTER’S strengths, he doesn’t have the same charisma as Lee, has a more limited move set, and the match was only 15 minutes as opposed to the usual 25-minute York Hall main event.

PWG Threemendous V live results: Two title matches

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Image: Dave Doyle

Here are notes from last night’s PWG Threemendous V show at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles. There were no matches of the year, but aside from the opener, every match was very good to great:

– Dalton Castle defeated David Starr with a crossface submission.

Castle is very limited in what he can do due to all his injuries. It was never boring but probably went too long. Starr did a scary tope spot. Castle was nowhere near him and the plan was to do a tope into either the chairs a few rows deep or the floor. And that’s what he did.

– Rey Horus defeated Penta 0M with a rana off the top rope.

Excellent match. Fans threw a lot of money in when it was over. This was high-level Lucha done with the modern United States indie style worked in.

– Jeff Cobb defeated Joey Janela with the Tour of the Islands.

As expected, Janela did crazy bumps and Cobb did insane power moves. Cobb did a superplex off the middle rope where he had Janela up, keeping him at a nearly 90 degree angle rather than vertical in a way where the laws of physics looked like there’s no way he could have gotten him back up. He did.

– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) defeated The Young Bucks to retain their titles

This started as total comedy. The Young Bucks started out almost doing a Drew Gulak gimmick of anti-high spots, coming out with the “How Psychology Works” book that Kenny Omega gave them on Being the Elite this week. So whenever Nick Jackson would want to do high spots early on, Matt Jackson would spot him. Xavier and Wentz did all kinds of high flying.

The Young Bucks opened up late and it turned into the best match on the show. Everyone thought it was over when they gave Xavier a Meltzer Driver on top of the psychology book, but Wentz made the save. They set up More Bang for Your Buck, but Matt got pinned with a crucifix. They all raised each others’ hands after.

– Rey Fenix defeated Trevor Lee with a Fenix Driver.

One thing very different is the perception of Impact Wrestling. Lee always comes out and says he’s from Impact and he’s making money doing that gimmick, and it usually gets a lot of heat. Here, almost nobody booed him even playing it up as a heel, so it appears the indie crowd hating Impact days are over.

Fans threw money here as well.

– Matt Riddle defeated Marty Scurll

Two great pros. The match was short but excellent. Instead of breaking Riddle’s fingers, Scurll broke his toes and then stomped on the other foot. Riddle powered out of a chicken wing and used a tombstone piledriver followed by the Twister submission.

– PWG World Champion WALTER defeated Brody King to retain his title

This was advertised as non-title, but King asked WALTER to put the belt up and he agreed. The story was that King kept ducking and escaping WALTER’s chops while chopping the hell out of WALTER. WALTER’s chest was all bruised. The chops were exploding.

Walter finally started hitting chops in the end. This was one of those matches that was probably better live because of the impact of them.

PWG rounds out lineup for 2018 Battle of Los Angeles

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Rounding out the lineup for the tournament, 14 more wrestlers have been added to this year’s PWG Battle of Los Angles, including some big international names.

Some of the biggest names announced are CIMA, T-Hawk and Shingo Takagi. While T-Hawk has wrestled in the United States in the last year, CIMA and Takagaki haven’t wrestled in the US since 2013 and 2010, respectively. Travis Banks, just coming off of the finals of the WWE UK tournament, was also announced.

PWG regulars coming in for the tournament include PWG champion WALTER, Adam Brooks, Jeff Cobb, Flamita, Jonah Rock, Timothy Thatcher, Matt Riddle and Bandido. Impact’s DJZ and independent wrestler Darby Allin round out the 14 names announced over the last few days. Names previously announced include the likes of Ilja Dragunov of wXw, Puma King, Jody Fleisch and Pierre Carl Ouellet.

Here are the full list of participants for this year’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament, which will take place over three days from September 14-16:

  • PCO
  • Brody King
  • Jody Fleisch
  • Ilja Dragunov
  • Robbie Eagles
  • Joey Janela
  • Puma King
  • David Starr
  • Rey Horus
  • Chris Brookes
  • Matthew Riddle
  • Darby Allin
  • Adam Brooks
  • Flamita
  • Jonah Rock
  • DJZ
  • Timothy Thatcher
  • T-Hawk
  • CIMA
  • Jeff Cobb
  • Travis Banks
  • Bandido
  • WALTER
  • Shingo Takagi

EVOLVE 107 results: Adam Cole vs. WALTER title match

Posted on by JJ Williams

Headlined by Adam Cole defending the NXT North American Championship against WALTER in a match that didn’t air on the iPPV broadcast, EVOLVE 107 took place in Melrose, Massachusetts on Sunday night.

– Josh Briggs defeated Dominic Garrini (w/ Stokely Hathaway)

Briggs countered a guillotine and hit his chokeslam onto the knees for the impressive win. Hathaway offered Briggs a Catch Point contract after the match, which Briggs took before storming off.

– Adrian Alanis (w/ AR Fox and The Skulk) defeated BSHP Kng

The fire alarm went off as The Skulk were making their way to the ring, which caused a “Burn it Down” chant before it finally stopped. The crowd erupted when the noise stopped. Once Kng made his way to the ring, he yelled that he pulled the alarm to get a rise out of everyone.

Alanis was able to avoid a swanton and scored the win with a roll-up.

– Darby Allin defeated Jarek 1:20 (w/ Candy Cartwright)

These two have had issues for months now and finally settled it in the ring. The fire alarm went off again during the match, prompting the crowd to chant “Use Your Magic” to Jarek.

Allin hit a pair of Coffin Drops for the victory.

– Anthony Henry defeated Timothy Thatcher

Incredibly physical match here with Henry targeting the leg of the larger man. Thatcher was all over Henry but was caught in an ankle lock on his already damaged leg and forced to tap out.

WALTER was checking on his tag partner after the match, and Thatcher took a cheap shot at Henry before leaving.

– FIP Champion Austin Theory (w/ Priscilla Kelly) defeated DJZ and Joey Janela (w/ Penelope Ford) to retain his title

This was scheduled as a one-on-one match before Janela made his way to the ring and said he wanted a chance to win two titles from Theory this weekend, referencing how he won the WWN Championship from him in Brooklyn on Saturday.

The crowd loved the action. DJZ attempted to pin both men at once with an impressive combination. Janela hit the super brainbuster that had defeated Theory on Saturday on DJZ, but Theory stole the pin for himself to retain the FIP title.

– Saieve Al Sabah defeated Jaka, Bad Bones, and Jon Davis in a four-way freestyle match

This was the EVOLVE debut of Al Sabah, who’s been elevated from ACW to FIP and now the flagship of the WWN promotions. Davis imposed his will early with his power before Al Sabah showed what he was capable of with a snap suplex with a kip up and a corkscrew dive to the outside to get the crowd going. All four men showed their strengths in this one.

– Chris Dickinson (w/ Stokely Hathaway) defeated Tracy Williams by DQ in a Catch Point rules match

Punches were illegal — and Williams punched Dickinson right away for the disqualification. Williams got his hands on Hathaway but wasn’t able to punish him before the rest of Catch Point joined in.

Briggs made the save for Williams, who still has a lot to settle.with his former crew.

– EVOLVE Champion Matthew Riddle defeated AR Fox (w/ The Skulk) to retain his title

Great match here between the first-ever EVOLVE Champion (Fox) and the current top guy in the promotion (Riddle). Fox went barefoot and was wearing shorts for this match to be competitive with the MMA style of Riddle and it didn’t slow him down one bit.

Fox countered a Bro to Sleep into a cutter and transitioned to a submission. Later, Fox hit a flurry of huge moves, including The Fox Catcher that had never been kicked out of before. Riddle was able to survive the onslaught and roll to the outside before regrouping to mount his own flurry of offense, including a powerbomb and multiple successive knee strikes before a mount and referee stoppage.

Before Riddle could celebrate, Austin Theory attacked him and proclaimed himself as the champion in EVOLVE. Fox’s students The Skulk helped run him off before celebrating with Riddle themselves to close the show.

Dark match main event —

– NXT North American Champion Adam Cole defeated WALTER to retain his title

This was for the live crowd only — and they were very hot for it. Cole avoided WALTER’s chops and worked over his hand to further prevent the chops, though they still came later. Cole was able to retain his title after a barrage of moves and kicks.

Following the match, the two shook hands and Cole celebrated with the crowd to send everyone home happy.

Adam Cole vs. WALTER title match set for EVOLVE 107

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Adam Cole has an opponent for his NXT North American Championship defense at EVOLVE 107.

After announcing last week that Cole would be appearing at their June 24th show in Melrose, Massachusetts, EVOLVE revealed today that WALTER will be challenging for his title. This will be the first time the North American Championship has been defended outside of WWE and the first time Cole and WALTER have faced each other.

“This is a landmark announcement for EVOLVE,” Gabe Sapolsky wrote. “WWE has been growing this relationship with EVOLVE for a few years. We are ecstatic that the next step is this historic match on June 24th. This is all about giving the fans in the Boston area something special. Our deepest thanks to Mr. Levesque for making this happen.”

Whether Cole vs. WALTER will be airing on the iPPV broadcast for EVOLVE 107 or not is to be determined. Matt Riddle vs. DJZ, Chris Dickinson vs. Tracy Williams, and Darby Allin vs. Jarek 1:20 are set for the show, with Austin Theory, Jaka, AR Fox, Timothy Thatcher, Anthony Henry, Josh Briggs, and Bad Bones also advertised.

PWG Bask In His Glory results: Keith Lee’s farewell

Posted on by F4W Staff

Report by Brian Reznick

If this was the final PWG show in Reseda, they went out with a very good show that really picked up as it went on. This was not an all-time classic PWG show or anything, but it was very good.

Before the first match, Excalibur did his normal intro. He said that they are in the same position they were last month: they don’t know if this is their final show in Reseda, but it could be. Some fans cheered the chance of coming back, and booed when he mentioned the Globe, but they were in the minority.

– Tyler Bateman defeated Adam Brown

Brown was a late replacement for Trevor Lee. Pre-show, Excalibur mentioned Lee was hurt and wished he could be here but that he hated each and every one of us.

Bateman and Brown did a decent to good match, but I’d say that it’s below PWG standards. The crowd popped early for Brown. The reaction for Bateman was interesting, he was much more over for ASW. He got some boos, but also got more silence than I expected. They had some good striking and Brown did a good dive.

Bateman has some good forearms and elbows, but he threw a punching sequence late that did not look good. This lost the crowd a bit, Bateman won with a spinning tombstone. People did “please come back” for Brown, but not as much as I’ve heard before.

– Rey Horus defeated Jake Atlas

Atlas had quite a bit of heat, which I did not expect. The match was good, lots of fun lucha liver sequences. Atlas did a springboard to the floor, that looked kind of like a twisted bliss, where he might have landed really hard, but I couldn’t see the actual landing. Horus looked great, winning with a really great looking DDT off the ropes.

– Bandido defeated Robbie Eagles 

This was a great match. I liked Bandido-Horus better, but people around me liked this one better. I am not going to do the high flying spots justice in this. Tons of dives and high spots. Bandido is over huge. 

He won with a crazy spot out of the corner. Not sure how to describe this. He sat on the buckle, got Eagles in the torture rack position, and then gave him an inverted Michinoku driver into the ring for the pin. Crowd went nuts for both guys, throwing enough money into the ring to fill two pitchers and a baseball hat.

– Adam Brooks defeated Keith Lee

Really good match. Keith Lee is so great and works a big guy vs little guy match really well.  Early story of the match was Lee no selling Brooks offense and overpowering him. Brooks did an eye gouge out of a test of strength spot where he faked going for the
test of strength, got a little bit of heat, but quickly got flattened by a great shoulder tackle from Lee.

Brooks came back with quick offense and cheap heel stuff. Crowd reacted well to Brooks. Finish came when Lee tried to get Brooks up for his jackhammer/powerslam, Brooks grabbed Justin (to crazy heat), low blowed Lee when Justin got turned around, and hit a swanton off the top.

Lee gave a nice promo into intermission.

– Jonah Rock defeated Timothy Thatcher

Tons of heat for Jonah. Thatcher got good reactions, but Jonah being the big heel was the story of the crowd responses. Lots of hard strikes and good submission spots from Thatcher. They brawled in the crowd in an area that I couldn’t see and Thatcher must have gotten murdered by a chair shot, because his back looked gross later.

The most memorable sequence for me was a great fight over a superplex. Thatcher had Jonah on the turnbuckle and kept fighting for the superplex. Jonah would knock him back down to the mat, and Thatcher kept jumping up from the mat and fighting for the superplex.

Third time ended up being the charm and he Jonah up and over for a great near fall. Jonah ended up winning with a frog splash to a chorus of boos.

– Matt Riddle defeated David Starr

Great technical match. This is one of those where every move and reversal made sense and built on top of each other. Great showing for Starr working heel, his matches in PWG have gotten better and better, and Riddle is always great. Riddle’s chest started bleeding from chops midway through.

Riddle hit his tombstone for a near fall. He ended up winning with a Gotch style tombstone off the second turnbuckle. Great reaction for both guys after the match. 

– WALTER defeated Sammy Guevara to retain the PWG title

I loved the hell out of this match. This was my favorite match, but I’m guessing other people like Bandido-Eagles most.

Here’s the story of this match: WALTER wants to chop Sammy, Sammy wants to kick WALTER in the knee, and WALTER succeeded most so he won. Such a simple idea and so well told. Sammy avoided chops for a little while before finally getting flattened by won. Then he kicked WALTER in the knee as WALTER tried to chase him out of the ring. WALTER had an ugly bruise on his knee and Sammy’s chest was a disaster. 

WALTER chopped him all around the outside of the ring. Sammy got the edge back by working the knee and hit some great high flying offense. Match ended when WALTER got Sammy by one wrist and flattened him with a chop. WALTER held onto the wrist, repeatedly struck him down then pulled him up one more time and killed him with a huge clothesline for the win. 

After the match, WALTER tried to shake Sammy’s hand, but Sammy flipped him off and walked out.

PWG ASW night two results: Triple threat World title match

Posted on by F4W Staff

Image: SoCal Uncensored. Report submitted by Brian Reznick.

– Trevor Lee defeated Flash Morgan Webster

Great opener. Lee did great heel work, attacking Webster before the bell and then grabbing the mic and introducing himself as he beat up Webster. The crowd was hot all match and we saw as close to a babyface vs. heel dynamic as we get from this crowd.

– Joey Janela defeated Robbie Eagles

Very strong follow-up match. Eagles got over well with the fans during it. It really was two big spots near the end that got the crowd really on his side. Janela tombstoned Eagles on the apron and then picked him up and immediately tombstoned him again onto the seat of a chair. The referee got to 19 before Eagles rolled into the ring — only to get piledriven again, but Eagles kicked out at two.

Eagles then fired up an mounted a comeback, and the crowd was with him the rest of the way. Janela eventually won with a top rope brainbuster.

– Sammy Guevara defeated Taiji Ishimori

This match was a bit weird. Guevara had huge heat. Ishimori got a good reaction, but not as strong as he did on night one. They were building momentum on the match, but Ishimori slipped trying to do a springboard dropkick and had an awkward fall into the
ring. Guevara covered for him by immediately attempting a pinfall, then started beating on him.

Ishimori got up and was moving weird and looked out of it, but they moved quickly to a spot where Guevara took Ishimori outside, went back in the ring, and did a ridiculous dive over the post onto Ishimori. Guevara is really unbelievable. He won with a Shooting Star Press.

Guevara refused to leave the ring until he got the microphone. The boos rained down, and he eventually got the mic and cut a promo about how great he is and how we all know that he always comes to the show and gives it everything he has. And for what reason? So that everyone can talk about how he had match of the night? So Dave Meltzer can write him up? He said he wouldn’t come back to PWG unless he got a World title shot.

The crowd, who were booing him the whole time, then switched to singing the goodbye song.

– PWG Tag Team Champions The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Dezmond Xavier) defeated Violence Unlimited (Brody King & Tyler Bateman) to retain their titles

Violence Unlimited were so over. King remained as over as he was on night one, but there was a huge response for Bateman. The match was great and fast moving, and everyone looked good. The story of the match was what it should be: VU overpowering The Rascalz and The Rascalz using their speed and incredible tandem offensive combinations to come back.

Xavier did a reverse hurricanrana to King and looked like he landed right on his head. He said he was okay after the match. The Rascalz won with an assisted Shooting Star Press onto Bateman. The crowd loved this match.

– Bandido defeated Rey Horus

Apart from the main event, this match was clearly the most beloved of the night. Each guy looked great, but Bandido was a little sharper and super over. There were a million great spots, including each guy hitting dives to the outside. Bandido did the Fosbury Flop and looked amazing.

The finish was unreal and hard to describe, with Bandido doing Trevor Lee’s reverse flipping powerslam where he catches an opponent and uses their momentum to flip over in mid-air — but Bandido did it from the top turnbuckle. The place came unglued for that, and rightly so.

The fans threw money into the ring after the match. They filled two pitchers with money, and then needed another pitcher, which resulted in a chant for a pitcher until one arrived. 

– Matt Riddle defeated Timothy Thatcher

Riddle submitted him with the Bromission. This was a solid technical bout, but it suffered a little from having to follow Bandido-Horus. The crowd got into this by the end, with it being a really well put together match where each guy had multiple holds and submission attempts that flowed really well and logically followed what came before.

– WALTER defeated Keith Lee and Jonah Rock in a three-way match to win the PWG World Championship

This was the meanest “mean guy match” of all time. Rock got the heat early by attacking both WALTER and Lee. Lee and WALTER had a great early sequence where Lee ran the ropes and kept evading WALTER’s chops. They did a great job of making a few minutes pass before WALTER finally landed a chop, but then the floodgates opened.

Both Rock and Lee tried to exchange chops with WALTER but were chopped down. Lee eventually knocked WALTER outside and was setting up a dive when Rock cut him off to huge boos from the crowd. Rock hit a tope suicida, then Lee hit a tope con hilo onto both. There were a bunch of great hard-hitting sequences, getting everyone on their feet multiple times. Lee hit a huge powerbomb on WALTER for a great two count. He also hit the jackhammer on Rock, but Rock kicked out.

The finish came when Rock laid Lee out to set up a splash, but WALTER came in, knocked Rock to the floor outside, and hit the top rope splash on Lee — only to have him kick out at one. The crowd was going nuts, but WALTER got up, hit Lee with a huge clothesline, and pinned him. Everyone went nuts for the title change.

Lee cut a great promo after, referencing the last show where he won the title at the Globe Theatre and that he failed in his promise to Chuck Taylor to elevate the championship. Lee said that he meant what he said at the last show about how much his year in PWG meant to him. He told WALTER to keep the title after the promotion leaves Reseda and to elevate it and the company for the fans.

Guevara came back out afterwards and got in WALTER’s face — only to get hit by a huge chop, which got a big pop.

Dave Meltzer’s top-rated matches of 2017: WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Editor’s Note: Every day this week, we’ll take you back to one of Dave Meltzer’s top-rated matches of the past year, starting with No. 10. What follows is an edited version of Dave’s writeup of that match from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

WALTER vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
PWG All-Star Weekend | October 21st
*****

The match of the weekend by far was Walter vs. Zack Sabre Jr. I’ve given five stars to two PWG matches so far that both of which, by coincidence, ended with “five star match” chants. This one had no such chants, but I still had people coming up to me individually saying that live it was five stars as it reminded me of being there live for the 1989 Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat classic in Chicago except WALTER’S chops were much stiffer.

Flair-Steamboat did have an element of artistry and the feel of a historic match between the two best guys around battling for a real world title that this one couldn’t touch. But, this was more physical and far more heated. Still, the key to the match were the chops and physical matches always translate better live than on television or later viewing, so I don’t think people viewing this later would rate it the same. It was a better version of the WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov match in wXw earlier in the year that I didn’t see live and gave ****3/4, but people who were there live thought was the best match they’d ever seen and were consistent that it was five stars. Zabre is better than Dragunov and WALTER is the same WALTER so this match felt better to me, but, at that level, they’re all great.

WALTER beat Zack Sabre Jr. (20:02)

WALTER highlighted this match with some of the hardest chops you’ll ever see thrown. It was amazing live because they’d go into the crowd and would throw chops that sounded like a shotgun was fired. They played up the size difference. WALTER threw some great suplexes and when it was time to sell, he was great there too. I’m really not sure why he isn’t more on the international stage given his size and how well he works. His body is soft, but he comes across like a “Big” Bill Miller-sized guy and is far better than Miller ever was, and Miller was a great star. I’m not sure how his personality when it comes to talking would hold up but as far as the ability to work and get a match over and come across like a tough big guy while not destroying his opponent, he’s incredible.

Sabre went for a cradle and Walter got behind him for a choke for the submission. There were people who said this was the best PWG match ever. I wouldn’t go that far, but it was an incredible live spectacle.

*****

Subscribers can listen to Dave and Bryan’s November interview with WALTER now.

The aforementioned WALTER-Dragunov match can be seen below for a limited time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoWyWAo4Ci4

PROGRESS-EVOLVE NYC results: TK Cooper suffers an injury

Posted on by F4W Staff

Image: WhatCulture

Submitted by reader Sidney Pullar III from the Elmcor Center in Queens, NY

EVOLVE 91

– ACH vs. Ethan Page

Since these two are affectionately being known as The Troll Boyz, they came out together even though they were wrestling each other to their Troll Boyz theme in the tune of Bad Boyz. This was a pure and simple comedy match trolling on different types of wrestling from catch to highflying to strong style. The finish came on a Drizzle-maker where Page went for the Rainmaker and ACH fell before he even landed it for the win. Not for everyone but funny overall.

– Timothy Thatcher (w/Stokely Hathaway) vs. Darby Allin

Nice match with strength and submissions vs highflying daredevil style. Allin pulled out the win with a leg lock into a pin combination. After the match, Thatcher and Hathaway had a discussion and staredown which ended with them hugging and Stokely begging Thatcher not to go.

– EVOLVE Tag Team Champions Anthony Henry & James Drake vs. Fred Yehi & Jason Kincaid

Good back and forth match. A little sloppy at times, but a lot of high risk offense and double team maneuvers throughout. The Troll Boyz joined commentary, possibly teasing them going after the tag titles. The story was about Yehi & Kincaid being less experienced as a team than Henry & Drake which winded up costing them. The highlight spot featured a struggle on the top between Drake & Kincaid which ended with Kincaid hitting a sunset flip powerbomb on Drake to the floor onto both Henry & Yehi. Henry got the win with a huge moonsault on Kincaid. After the match, Kincaid and Yehi had a heated staredown which ended with them shaking hands.

– Austin Theory (w/Priscilla Kelly) vs. Mark Haskins

Huge pop for the UK’s own Haskins. Kelly got involved a lot, but in the end Haskins got the win by submission tapping Theory out.

– Catch Point (Jaka and Chris Dinkinson) vs South Pacific Power Trip (Travis Banks and T.K. Cooper) w/Dahlia Black

This is a rematch from Mercury Rising 2017 which started a lot of the buzz around these two teams. Great back and forth tag team contest with many cool spots, reversals and counters from both teams throughout. Jaka and Dinkinson won the match after hitting their finisher, The Death Trap. 

– Fatal 4 Way Match for the WWN Championship: Matt Riddle (c) vs Tracy Williams w/Stokely Hathaway vs PROGRESS Atlas Champion WALTER vs Keith Lee

This started with a staredown with the Big Lads, WALTER and Keith Lee which was broken up by Williams and Riddle. Williams played the a-hole who tried to pick the scraps and sneak out a win. WALTER played the role of destroyer, brutalizing the other 3 with chops and throws around the ring. Lee was his usual amazing self, showing off his charisma, strength and athleticism including the spot of the match in which WALTER attempted a German suplex on Riddle where Lee came behind WALTER and gave both men a German that almost flipped Riddle out of the ring.

Riddle was the never say die face in this match, taking punishment from all and never backing down until it came down to him and Williams in which he reversed a crossface into the Bromission for the win. Overall a great display from all four men and match of the night. Post match, Lee teased a heel turn as he once again hesitated to give Riddle a fist bump. Riddle also offered WALTER a fist bump which he walked away from previewing their match later at PROGRESS.

There was about 150-200 people for the EVOLVE portion of the show, but an hour later, it was standing room only (1500 or so) with no a/c which made for tough conditions.

PROGRESS

Jim Smallman came out to kick off the show to a huge pop and loud “This Is PROGRESS” chants. After welcoming us, the crowd started a “Please Come Back” chant which Jim responded that it was first time he heard that two minutes into the show. He then introduced the WWE UK and PROGRESS Champion Pete Dunne who came out for a promo informing us of his injury and being off tonight’s show. He cut a fantastic heel promo claiming to own PROGRESS, the WWE and NYC.

This brought out 205 Live’s own “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher who was supposed to fight Dunne tonight. He wanted to shake Dunne’s hand and do their match at a future date but Dunne left after smacking Jack’s hand away. Zach Gibson came out to interrupt Gallagher to huge heat and very loud “Zach is Crap” chants. His promo led into the first match:

– “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher vs Zach Gibson

Good match with excellent psychology throughout. Jack got the win with his corner dropkick followed by a top rope elbow drop.

– Deonna Purazzo & Jinny vs Dahlia Black & Dakota Kai

This was a auality ladies tag match with some good heat for Jinny and a helluva pop for the duo of Black & Kai. Very good match with Purazzo getting the win with a hanging neckbreaker.

– PROGRESS Atlas Division #1 Contenders Match: Donovan Dijak vs Timothy Thatcher (w/Stokely Hathaway)

Good technical affair with Dijak as the standout, showing off his amazing athleticism. Thatcher focused on the arm for the match and after a Hathaway distraction got the win with Fujiuwa Armbar.

– No DQ Match: Joey Janela vs Jimmy Havoc

This was probably the match that had the crowd most invested in it. It was hardcore wrestling at its best with chairs, tables, thumbtacks and even cinder blocks. A great spot saw Jimmy set up Joey in the corner sitting in a metal folding chair, Havoc then ran and tried a monkey flip which Janela flipped with the chair and landed sitting down with his legs crossed. The finish saw Havoc take off Janela’s boots, bite his toes, then drop him feet first onto the thumbtacks which then led into a German suplex into the cinder blocks followed by the Acid Rainmaker for the win. Insane spectacle.

Intermission to get some air. The building has to be in the 90 degree territory. Even with the heat, the place packed right back up for the second half of the show

– Fatal 4 Way Match: Mark Andrews vs Mark Haskins vs Austin Theory vs Keith Lee

Theory makes his PROGRESS debut in this match replacing Gibson who was supposed to be in this match as a 3 way with Haskins and Andrews until the Dunne injury changed the card. This was a really good match here with each man getting the spotlight, but based on skill and reaction Keith Lee was the star. Haskins got the win on his Evolve opponent Theory, once again tapping him out.

– PROGRESS Tag Team Titles Match: British Strong Style (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) w vs South Pacific Power Trip (Travis Banks & T.K Cooper) w/Dahlia Black

Five minutes into the match, Banks did a suicide dive onto Seven & Bate at ringside and then Cooper got on top while Banks held BSS and did a crazy twisting shooting star. He landed directly down on the floor feet first between all 3 men as no one really broke the fall for him. When Cooper landed, his right foot was twisted to the left in an image eerily reminiscent of Sid at WCW Souled Out 2001. Once Dahlia saw his ankle, she was visibly distraught. The crowd got silent as staff and medical attendants looked after T.K. Jim asked that we all show support for Cooper which led to a loud “T.K.” chant. One of the best displays of support from a wrestling crowd that I have ever seen for an injury especially here in New York City. Cooper was carried out by EMTs and some wrestlers. Afterward, Banks took the mic from Jim and requested a handicap match against British Strong Style.

Travis Banks vs British Strong Style in a handicap match

High energy and frenetic pace from Banks in this. You can tell that he was reeling and using the emotion of seeing his friend get hurt. Banks got the win on Seven to set up his big PROGRESS Title Match against Pete Dunne in September.

– PROGRESS Atlas Champion WALTER vs Matt Riddle

This was the match of the day from either company and a very worthy main event for such a high energy, engaging show. This was a hard hitting fight with some of the hardest chops of the entire year. WALTER impressed the New York crowd with some hard hitting chops that landed with vicious thuds. But, it was Riddle with some amazing fighting spirit, selling and his innovative offense who put WALTER away with the Bromission to win his second PROGRESS Atlas Championship.

PWG announces first four Battle of Los Angeles 2017 entrants

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced the first four entrants in this year’s Battle of Los Angeles. Three of the competitors will be making their PWG debut, and all four will be appearing in their first BOLA tournament.

Flamita, Keith Lee, WALTER, and Travis Banks were the first four entrants announced via PWG’s Twitter account. Flamita, WALTER, and Banks will be wrestling in PWG for the first time. In recent years, the tournament has totaled 24 participants.

Flamita is an independent wrestler in Mexico who also works for Dragon Gate. He wrestled in AAA for a number of years as well before departing last year amid controversy over him using the Octagon name.

The Austrian-born WALTER wrestles for the wXw promotion in Germany, and gained some more recognition earlier this year through his performances in their annual 16 Carat Gold tournament. 

Lee, who has been a regular for EVOLVE after leaving ROH, has been gaining notoriety on the independent scene this year with a number of amazing performances against the likes of Ricochet and Donovan Dijak. Banks (who is from New Zealand) has been rising similarly fast and has become one of the top stars on the UK indie scene. 

This year’s Battle of Los Angeles is slated to take place on September 1-3 in Reseda, California.

My Favorite Wrestler (This Week): Daniels, Styles, Ibushi, WALTER, more

Posted on by Zach Dominello

With ROH’s 15th Anniversary show, wXw’s 16 Carat Gold, and the opening stages of the New Japan Cup, as well as the usual 1,000 hours of WWE programming, there’s been no shortage of great wrestling over the past seven days. Our team picked their favorite wrestler of the week. Who’s yours?

This week’s panel —

Tomohiro Ishii

By Zach Dominello

Ishii is literally the best. He’s so good that he’s Nakamura’s favorite wrestler. He’s so good he once actually pulled a watchable match out of Yujiro Takahashi. More recently, he had the best match of the New Japan Cup so far when he got the upset win over Kenny Omega in the first round.

And that’s what Ishii does best. When put in a position to shine, Ishii never fails. It’s not often that Tomohiro Ishii gets to main event shows for New Japan, though it does happen from time to time. But it should happen more, because when he’s not in the main event, he’s probably outshining it, like he did in his five star match against Okada in the 2016 G-1.

Ishii is an enigma, and not the Jeff Hardy kind. He’s an actual enigma. He’s short, his physique’s not great, he’s over forty, but his mind for designing matches and his selling is beyond reproach. For those not too familiar with his body of work, go back and look at his series of matches with Naito and Honma, and his singles matches with Okada, Nakamura, Shibata, and Tanahashi.

Yes, those are all amazing wrestlers in their own right, but the common factor in many of their best matches is Tomohiro Ishii, and that’s why he’s my favorite wrestler this week, and always.

Austin Aries

By Jeremy Peeples

Austin Aries went from being a commentator who shined brightly on Raw by actually having a personality — and an impressive package of innuendo each week — to the lead face of the cruiserweight division.

While 205 Live is seemingly doomed, Aries remains one of the few cruiserweight acts on Raw who feels like he has some genuine upward momentum out of the division if they so choose. He could easily mix it up in the United States title picture later this year, and he’s already shown that he can get a move over as a killer quickly by shifting from the Last Chancery to the rolling elbow on the main roster. It’s a more visually-impressive move anyway, and gives him the feel of someone who can be a physical threat.

Christopher Daniels

By Ryan Frederick

Christopher Daniels has had a long and entertaining career spanning over 20 years and throughout a plethora of promotions, most notably TNA and Ring of Honor. He’s held several championships in several promotions, but one thing had eluded him during his career. He had never been a World Champion in a major promotion.

That changed this past weekend when he won the ROH World Championship by defeating Adam Cole at the ROH 15th Anniversary pay-per-view. It came full circle for Daniels, who competed on the first-ever ROH event, and now 15 years later, he has his first World title at 47 years old. For that, I salute you Mr. Daniels. You’re my favorite wrestler this week.

AJ Styles

By Mike DellaCamera

In all honesty, AJ Styles could, and maybe should, be my pick every single week. But this week he did something I never thought was possible. He made me excited about a Shane McMahon match at WrestleMania.

Granted I’m not over the moon about seeing Shane throw his corny, child-like body punches at the best wrestler on the planet, but I am fascinated to see how we get there. When I first heard about the proposed match, my eyes rolled so hard my neighbors across the street heard it. Now? Consider me actually excited.

I’m excited after SmackDown this week, where AJ became probably the most fleshed out, well rounded, and fully realized character on either brand. AJ’s attack on Shane and confrontation with Daniel Bryan completed the transformation from someone who was unhappy with management, to someone that’s been pushed past their breaking point and snapped.

The only question with AJ pre-WWE was if his mic/character work can hold up — and that question has been asked and answered. The next few weeks should be great, and I have the feeling I’ll be struggling to write up a non-AJ Styles piece between now and WrestleMania.

Kota Ibushi

Image: Robyn Goding

By Alan Boon

My favorite wrestler this week is Kota Ibushi. Since his dual contract with New Japan and DDT ran out, he’s spent the last year and a half doing pretty much exactly what he wants, which has so far included taking part in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic, flying to Texas to fight Kaiju Big Battel’s Dr. Cube, piledriving a man into a toilet, and opening the mysterious — and possibly fictional — Ibushi Wrestling Research Institute.

This past weekend saw him come to the UK for the first time, to be hosted by the XWA, and he brought his best friend — and fellow DDT oddball — Gota Ihashi with him. They fought each other on Saturday night, on a family-friendly show in Colchester, and wowed the mostly unfamiliar crowd with a spectacle that included a bicycle (which was eventually driven into Ihashi’s face), an impromptu boxing match, and an array of dazzling aerial moves.

The next day, the pair moved on to the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, where they teamed to take on the equally-unhinged Jimmy Havoc & Cara Noir, in a fight that spilled out of the tiny venue and onto the streets of east London, involving Havoc’s car and some fireworks. That’s actual fireworks, which Ibushi aimed at his enemies, his pal, the fans, the sky, a passing train, and lastly himself, before moonsaulting off the car onto Havoc and Noir.

With contract offers on the table from New Japan and WWE pretty much whenever he wants them, Ibushi is instead pushing the boundaries of wrestling, becoming the physical embodiment of wrestling research, his own institute. We don’t deserve him.

“DER RING GENERAL” WALTER

By Alan Counihan

My God……MY GOD!!!!!!

Two Match of the Year candidates, two other GREAT tournament matches and the best two-minute shoot style match that wasn’t Vader vs. Nakano from UWFI. All in a weekend’s work for WALTER.

Not only that, but while WALTER the wrestler is absolutely tearing the house down in the ring, Walter the man is a major part of running one of the most successful weekends of European wrestling ever. And he took it all in his stride. The guy was so calm and relaxed at 16 Carat, but every time he got into the ring, he TORE THE HOUSE DOWN!!!

The final against Ilja Dragunov is the greatest live experience of my life (wrestling or any other form of entertainment) and I was lucky enough to call the action from the best seat in the house. WALTER was an absolute savage in it and the story they told was perfect. I wrote more about the match in this week’s F4W, so check that out if you can.

David Starr, Marius Al Ani, Jeff Cobb, Matt Riddle, and Ilja Dragunov all stood opposite “Der Ring General” in Oberhausen last week, and they all came out of their matches looking incredible. WALTER makes guys look fantastic, but boy does he make them earn it! Ilja’s chest at the end of their match was a sight to behold.

WALTER’s performance last weekend was every bit as special as Kenny Omega’s on G1 finals weekend last year. He was THAT good.