PROGRESS Super Strong Style 16 - Day 1
Doug Williams vs. Pete Dunne
What a lovely way to kick off the tournament! Starts off w/ some nice back & forth technical work, in which Williams gets the upperhand. Williams continues to borderline dominate Dunne with his technical savvy, but eventually Dunne gets sick of it & starts being less respectful & starts being more like the PETER we all know & love by biting his way out of submission holds & manipulating Williams' fingers. Great technical master veteran vs. young superstar match. An absolutely awesome time from start to finish. ****
Chuck Mambo vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
I have never seen or heard about Chuck Mambo before, so I had no idea what to expect, but he was going against a man who can have a good match with pretty much anyone & one of my favorite wrestlers in the world, so I was very curious to see what the end result would be & it sure was one damn fun match! Mambo gets to shine in the early stages of the match w/ his highflying move-set, but it's when he goes for the Surfboard that he pisses off the best technical wrestler in the world, which results in ZSJ escaping that said Surfboard in very cool fashion & delivering a nasty, vintage ZSJ-style beating to the lad. Vicious strikes, especially those stomps + nasty submissions. Mambo gets a couple of big comebacks in, which are good, but it's ZSJ's pretty damn tremendous bumping that are the best part about them & the way he countered Mambo's springboard Frog Splash was awesome. A fantastic, very giving (to say the least) performance by Zack - he certainly made Chuck Mambo look like million bucks in this one. ***3/4
David Starr vs. TK Cooper
This started off well w/ TK jumping Starr during the introductions & Starr then just kicking his ass w/ some very good looking offense, but once TK no sold a German Suplex, this match went all downhill. Typical indy 50/50 action from that point on w/ the only saving grace of it being that David Starr does indeed have some very good looking offense. It was not a bad match overall, because they didn't go too long & the first half or so was very enjoyable, but it certainly wasn't good either. **
Angelico vs. Mark Andrews
Not interesting at all. Mandrews can be very good fighting from underneath, but when the work on top is as dull as it was here, it can't save a match. *
Jordan Devlin vs. Tyler Bate
A disappointment. Devlin was quite good with his work over Bate, good work on the arm & solid all around heeling, sadly though other than the fantastic moment where he blocked those kicks w/ his shoulder (great, great visual), Bate's babyface performance disappointed me greatly. Spotty selling & it felt like he was on a comedy mode for most of it. At least his new theme (the first time I've heard him use it, at least) is 5.5 stars. SLEDGEHAMMER~! *1/2
Joey Janela vs. Zack Gibson
Not gonna give this one a rating, because the official time for it was about 15 seconds, but I thought it was a well done segment from start to finish. Very fun promo work by Gibson.
Keith Lee vs. Morgan Webster
These two had a very fun match in November & this was even better than that one. Very good David vs. Goliath action w/ Flash jumping big Keith right from the get go & getting to run wild on him for a while - that doesn't last for very long though, as soon Keith gets back into things, and then it becomes more like a typical Keith Lee match. Keith throws Flash around & hammers him with those clobberin' blows of his, it was very enjoyable & so were Webster's hope spots. This little 2-match series between these 2 fellas was quite fun. ***1/2
Chris Brookes vs. Kassius Ohno
Kassius Ohno in a indy setting again sounds absolutely fantastic & I was very much looking forward to it. Not too hyped about his opponent, though. Chris Brookes is a guy (alongside his tag partner, Kid Lykos) who I just haven't "got" at all, so far. I thought he was looking very good in the early stages of this match though, controlling Ohno w/ his technical work, keeping him grounded by the wrist & all. Very good stuff. Eventually the match molds more into the 50/50 offense trading, but I still enjoyed it a lot - can't say I enjoyed Brookes during that, but I am such a huge Ohno fan that I still had a blast watching it. I mean, I could watch him elbow & boot fools every day of the week and not get tired of it. ***
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