PROGRESS Super Strong Style Tournament: Night 1 Review

Hey guys, it is Josh Masterson, the internet’s resident TNA and EVOLVE freak. PROGRESS recently held their Super Strong Style Tournament and I haven’t done a review in a couple weeks so I was like why not? I’ve been watching PROGRESS for a few months now but I generally only watch the matches I care about, not the full shows, so this should be interesting.

Pete Dunne vs Mark Haskins

I love Mark Haskins but going into this hadn’t really seen much of Pete Dunne, and what I had seen was pretty disappointing. Haskins has been one of my favorite wrestlers from outside of America to watch this year, putting on great matches with Marty Scurll and Flash Morgan Webster. This can be added to that list. Dunne played his heel role very well, being naturally unlikeable from start to finish, and Haskins did great as usual. This was a very enjoyable opener that did a great job at showing the talent of both men. I’m still not one hundred percent sold on Dunne but this was definitely an improvement from the other matches of his that I have seen.  ***1/2

Mikey Wiplash vs Damien Moser

I had no idea what to expect here and it sucked. A lot of reviewers like to sugarcoat things and maybe I’m being a little bit harsh but this was straight up bad, I felt like I was watching two teenagers on YouTube attempting to have a match like they see on TV. There was no flow to the match or anything good about it. Well, at least it was short. Yikes. 1/4*

Zack Gibson vs Kenny Williams

Another match that I didn’t know what to expect and another one that wasn’t very good. Both had unique and unorthodox movesets but I don’t really think it worked. *1/2

Jack Gallagher vs TK Cooper

I went into this match having never seen TK Cooper. Gallagher I’ve seen a couple times and have mostly enjoyed him but the only match of his I’ve really cared for is the match he had with Timothy Thatcher earlier this year. Gallagher did well here and looked good but the other guy seemed very bland. Pretty dull match. *1/2

Dave Mastiff vs Big Daddy Walter

I didn’t know what to expect going into this as I hadn’t really seen either of these guys. I ended up being surprised, liking the match a lot. They beat eachother up a ton and it was a lot of fun. Very hard hitting match that made me want to see more of these two. The crowd was very much invested in the match and so was I by the end. Since watching this match I’ve gone back and watched other matches Walter has had and he seems to be pretty good. ***1/2

Chris Hero vs Mark Andrews

I was very excited for this match as Mark Andrews is pretty good and Chris Hero is the best wrestler in the world. Hero did great in his role as the cocky veteran and Andrews had a lot of believable comebacks. It felt like something was missing early on to me but it was a great bully match. Mark Andrews could be a top wrestler in TNA’s X-Division, but like most of the wrestlers in that division he is criminally underused. Both men worked hard and looked great coming out of the match. ***3/4

Sami Callihan vs Matt Cross

This was an improvement from a lot of the matches on this show so far. Matt Cross did very well, I definitely wish he wrestled for more promotions I watch. Sami on the other hand I haven’t cared for at all since his return to the indies. There was some good stuff here and it was obviously better than some of the other matches on this show but nothing special at all. **1/4

Tommy End vs Rampage Brown

I went into this having never seen Rampage Brown. I have seen Tommy End a few times, my favorite match of his definitely being the match him and Chris Hero had at PWG Don’t Sweat The Technique last year. However, this never clicked and was just two guys doing moves to eachother and then kicking out. The crowd at this point didn’t really care about the show anymore it seemed and neither did I. Not horrible but not a very good match at all. **

The Origin vs London Riots

I’ve seen The Origin and they’ve bored me but I haven’t seen London Riots. I actually enjoyed a decent amount of the match when the London Riots were in control but it ended up being an overbooked mess. Honestly by the end of the match I was more confused than anything. This was disappointing because I was actually liking it earlier on but the overbooking killed it. **

Final Thoughts: There were three really good to great matches on this show (Walter vs Mastiff, Hero vs Andrews, and Haskins vs Dunne) but other than that it did a good job at reminding me why I typically only watch 2 or 3 matches from each PROGRESS show. I’m glad PROGRESS has a streaming service because if they were DVD based like a lot of the indy companies I follow I would very rarely get their shows as I feel shows need to be well rounded for them to be worth money and thats far from how I would describe this promotion. They produce quite a few very good to great matches but a lot of the shows are majorly skippable. I do recommend the show because of the three matches I mentioned but most of it was skippable.

Final Rating: 6.5/10.