5/5 Progress Wrestling “Super Strong Style 16 – Night 1”: Zack Sabre Jr., Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Mark Andrews, Joey Janela, Keith Lee, Kassius Ohno

PROGRESS WRESTLING SUPER STRONG STYLE – NIGHT 16, NIGHT 1
MAY 5, 2018
LONDON, ENGLAND AT ALEXANDRA PLACE
REPORT BY DAVE GREEN (@dagreeno), PWTORCH CORRESPONDENT

The fourth annual Super Strong Style 16 tournament took place before its largest single audience at Alexandra Palace, with the first day being all tournament matches.

(1) Pete Dunne vs. Doug Williams. The veteran Williams had his latest test against the younger crop of talent, against which he has been unsuccessful, this time versus the WWE UK Champion. While a technical exchange saw Williams often outwit the Bruiserweight, Dunne took over when the action got more intense. After Williams scored close falls with both the Bombscare Knee Drop and the Chaos Theory, Dunne rolled through on a second attempt and scored the pin. The crowd gave Williams a standing ovation for his latest effort, which seemingly is leading to a possible farewell down the line.

(2) Zack Sabre Jr vs. Chuck Mambo. Mambo has been on a slight winning streak as of late and was given a tournament spot due to his recent efforts. His early offence was easily countered by ZSJ, but he ploughed on, catching ZSJ hard with a big dive to the outside. Sabre’s technical skill was too much for Mambo, who was bloodied quite early on, however Mambo scored many near falls, including a very close one with a very Sabre-esque roll up. However Zack caught him in a tortuous dragon sleeper to get the tap out. Mambo had a career performance here, which hopefully will see him gain momentum in his career.

(3) David Starr vs. TK Cooper. Cooper attacked Starr during his introduction, gaining a slight advantage to begin. What followed was a back and forth contest which saw Starr hit the Blackheart Buster for the win.

(4) Mark Andrews vs. Angelico. After a nice exchange between the high flyers, Eddie Dennis wandered to ringside to watch the match, causing a constant distraction to Andrews. After a lovely back and forth match, Andrews went to hit the Shooting Star Press. Dennis got up from his seat looking like he was about to attack Andrews, but revealed his phone was ringing. This resulted in Andrews missing the move and Angelico hitting the Fall of the Angels to advance.

Dennis taunted Andrews, but Mark still refuses to fight him. Surely his breaking point will be discovered soon.

(5) Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin. Devlin received a mixed reaction from the crowd, with respect for his work in OTT combining chants about his “massive head”. This pair combined for a thrilling exchange, with both countering each other’s signature manoeuvres before Bate hit the Tyler Driver to advance.

(6) The Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Joey Janela. The tag champs of Zack Gibson and James Drake were not happy about not being included in the tournament, so PROGRESS allowed them the last spot and that they were to choose which of them would wrestle. While the traditional Gibson promo was met with the traditional boos, they avoided stating which of them would wrestle, as they each attempted to attack Janela. Was followed was essentially a handicap match, with Janela throwing the tag champs around the building, despite the fact the bell had not yet rung. Eventually GYV grounded Janela and then Drake stated that Gibson would taking the tournament spot. Janela rolled up Gibson for a close fall, superkicked Drake, but got rolled up by Gibson for the win, it was an official match time of around ten seconds. The prelude was insane fun, which just made the tag champs that more hated.

(7) Keith Lee vs. Flash Morgan Webster (w/Vicky Haskins). Webster displayed his new aggression by attacking Lee during his entrance. Webster’s early plan was moving fast and applying The Strangler whenever he could. Lee recovered with a magnificent Spirit Bomb, which propelled Webster out of the ring. Lee slowed the pace with his power moves. Morgan made a comeback and nearly scored the win on a few occasions. Getting desperate, Vicky Haskins distracted the referee while Webster grabbed his motorcycle helmet. He went to hit Lee with it, but paused, seemingly not wanting to win that way. He discarded the helmet, only to turn around into a Ground Zero for the win for Lee.

(8) Kassius Ohno vs. Chris Brookes. I can’t give a rundown of this match as I had to leave for the Pro Wrestling Eve show running elsewhere. I do have it on good authority that the match was excellent, with Ohno getting the win with an elbow to the back of the head of Brookes.

NOW CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS REPORT: 5/4 WWE in Fukuoka, Japan: Okada vs. Tanahashi and Ospreay vs. Kushida are two must-match MOTY contenders, plus big surprise return angle