Tag Archives: Semi Finals

Purpose Wrestling – Lightspeed 10/06/22 – 2.5⭐

First time seeing a Purpose show live, and it was pretty great. A small crowd in the middle of a library is just a crazy and amazing place for some wrestling.

Teens with Attitude Vs Cali Gray & Harry Sefton – 2⭐

The opener was a fun tag match that told the classic story of heel Vs baby-face. TWA came out with a lot of energy and that lifted the crowd for the entire show.

Gray and Sefton took most of the offence for this (Gray’s look was pretty cool too) as they built for the faces hot tag. They was a nice suicide dive sequence and the finish came when TWA hit a top rope crossbody, with the other on his hands and knees behind, similar to the school yard push over position.

The match had its clunky moments but all 4 guys are great and I can see them having more and bigger matches in the future. I’m not sure if Seftons face was injured or the Cody Rhodes-esque mask was a gimmick, but this definitely got a “meme” reaction from the fans.

Skye Smitson Vs Laura Dimatteo – 2.5⭐

First impressions of Smitson, loved her look and she had an awesome move set. Dimatteo is also a fantastic baby-face.

The two worked a fun match, as the crowd was easily split 50/50. Smitson hit an awesome gutwrench powerbomb style move. There was a great springboard reversal by her too, as Laura hopped onto the middle rope, Smitson kicked the top rope throwing her balance off.

After a few comebacks by Laura, she locked in her submission and got the win. A fun match that got the crowd more into the show.

Armstrong & Lynch Vs Easy City Sovereigns – Losing team must disband – 3⭐

High stakes for this match, and good heel work from both Saeed and Singh made this match feel big. As Armstrong and Lynch made their entrance, the Sovereigns attacked them from behind.

There was an injury angle as JJ’s knee was taken out, leaving a 2 on 1 as it was building to the inevitable return. When Rex finally made the tag, the pace picked up.

There were some great near falls from both teams, the ending came when Rex was held in the corner, and JJ was hit by a DDT and pinned. This was a good match with big stakes, the end I felt took a while to get too and the momentum was drained. Also JJ’s leg should’ve been sold a bit more whilst doing some moves, to really put over why he couldn’t be there at the start.

Connor Mills Vs Nino Bryant – Championship Semi Final – 3⭐

This was my first time seeing a heel Mills, and it worked very well. Also seeing Nino for the first time, and he was awesome. The match started slow and Mills took the majority of the offence.

The match picked up when Nino had Mills down for a pin, for Oku to run out and put a leg on the rope, keeping him safe. Again, first time seeing a fully heel Oku and I think it worked well.

After a ref bump and a couple low blows, Mills managed to get the cheap victory and advance to the final. They both started attacking Nino which led to a lights out reveal for Solomon Lamb.

Nino chased Mills off and the Last Man Standing match began.

Michael Oku Vs Solomon Lamb – Last Man Standing – 3.5⭐

This match started off very sports entertainment, with empty drink cans being used, Oku ran out with a big soft play thing, library books to the heads. They moved round the ring and fought to the stage, Lamb threw Oku into a box on wheels and pushed him into the ring post. It then went from 0-100 real quick.

After Oku hit a springboard moonsault onto a empty chair (sat up), Lamb went to the back and brought out a 2×4 piece of wood, with barbed wire wrapped round. BARBIE!!!

A couple shots with that to Oku, and this match shifted gear dramatically. Lamb took barbed wire to the head and busted him open. Oku climbed one of the book shelves to jump into Solomon’s arm wrapped in barbed wire.

Then the thumbtacks came out. Oku took a huge bump off the top rope onto them, Lamb then took a bulldog head first into them. The match began to come to an end as Oku grabbed something from under the ring, and hit Lamb in the face with his Rev Pro Cruiserweight belt.

Oku hit a huge frog splash whilst wearing the belt, onto Lamb with a chair lying on him. The ref began the count and Oku rolled out the ring to get to his feet on the count of 9.

An unexpectedly violent match, but a great one. Last man standing matches for me always seem to have the full periods while waiting for the ref to count, but I feel these two work around this well. After the match Lamb stood up and yelled at Oku “I’m still standing”. Hopefully suggesting another match between the two down the line.

David Francisco Vs Jordon Breaks – Championship Semi Final – 3⭐

After the ring got cleaned up, it was time for the main event, semi final match. It was always going to be tough to follow that match, but after a quiet and slow start, both men worked the crowd back into the match.

Throughout the match they had some good back and forth, with hard slaps and nice reversals. Breaks worked on Francisco’s left arm and fingers during it, putting his Kimora style finisher on multiple times.

Francisco hit a Gotch piledriver for Banks to kick out at 2.9, as he managed to lock his submission on Francisco again to make him tap out. Banks will face Mills in the final in August.

A good main event with high stakes and kept the crowd guessing the outcome.

Progress – Super Strong Style 16 (Day 3) 05/06/2022 – 3⭐

This was my first Progress Wrestling show live, and I had a great time. There was a real party atmosphere, which was guided along by Simon Miller’s interactions in-between each match.

Team Damo Vs Team RSP – 2⭐

This was great, silly, sports entertainment. From the football being introduced to all the picks everything was well done. Crowley coming out first and waiting to be picked also added that extra comedy. This was my first time seeing Crowley and his entrance and look was awesome!

After Damo picked Jody Fleisch, Maggot and Callum Newman and Rickey Shane Page chose Dean Allmark, Charlie Dempsey and finally, forced to take Crowley, the teams had a photo op with the champions League music playing.

The match began with each team’s opposite styles facing off. Once Crowley got in, and beaten up, his team left him for dead for a while.

I’d never seen Dempsey before either and he was awesome, really quick and technical ability. After a few high spots from Newman, RSP was about to get the pin when Crowley tagged in and dropkicked him out of the ring, and stole the win. He was then chased off by his team.

Warren Banks Vs Johnny Progress – 2.5⭐

The mood then shifted as the first semi final for the Super Strong Style tournament and Progress World Championship began. The match stakes and star power of Johnny Progress really made this a big match feel.

The match began with a good feeling out process and nice slow build. They kept the fun party feel of the night with Johnny hiding under the ring, leading the crowd to chant “Johnny Missing”.

Sadly the finish fell a bit flat for me, and the two botch a top rope Spanish fly from Johnny to Banks which I think would’ve led into the finish. They got back up and did the spot in the opposite corner. Banks picked up the win shortly after but the momentum was halted.

Gene Munny Vs Chris Ridgeway – 3.5⭐

The second semi final was next, and these are two more guys I’ve not seen before. Gene’s gimmick, I won’t lie, didn’t get it at the start. But as the match progressed I got more and more behind him to win.

Ridgeway’s look is really cool, a proper badass technician. And his kicks are awesome. He worked over Genes padded and taped up knee for the match. Ridgeway then took off the boot and all support on Munny’s knee, putting on a figure four.

Gene had some good comeback moments and played a great baby-face in peril. He had some great near fall kick outs, but after a punt kick to the head, brainbuster then a knee bar locked in from Ridgeway, Gene passed out. And the final will be Chris Ridgeway Vs Warren Banks.

Kanji Vs Giselle Shaw (c) – 2 out of 3 falls Progress Women’s Championship – 3.5⭐

The promo before this match was awesome. Telling the story of Shaw targeting Kanji’s injured arm in their last match. This led into this match with multiple angles and story beats.

The first fall was almost immediate, with Shaw locking in an arm bar on the injured arm for Kanji to tap instantly.

The match then didn’t slow down from here, with Shaw taking most of the offence and Kanji having some nice comeback moments. After Giselle threw Kanji into the chairs (Kanji FLEW!), some massive strikes and a lovely top rope corkscrew followed by a very near fall, Kanji rolled Shaw up for the second fall.

The final fall came after Shaw teased the arm bar again, after taking all the tape and padding off (a theme for the night apparently). Officials and crew rushed to ringside to try to stop her. The distraction and taunting allowed Kanji to put the triangle choke on and tap Giselle Shaw out.

A really great match to crown a new champion, and one of my favourite women’s matches I’ve seen live. I’m not sure why Shaw didn’t just lock in the arm bar with everyone ringside, but it did add some realism to the match.

Spike Trivet Promo

Spike then came out too a very hostile reaction. Chants and Boos echoed around the electric ballroom. He paid the crew to protect him (this was odd but fine) and called out Tom Dawkins.

Dawkins came out, and Spike offered him the proposal that he can still wrestle in Progress, after losing their “Loser leaves Progress – I Quit” Match, but without the Cara Noir gimmick.

Tom Dawkins replied “yeah fine”. This did exactly what it set out to, Spike is a HUGE heel, and it progressed the next story beat for these two.

Lykos Gym Vs Jack Evans & Aramis – 3⭐

I love Lykos Gym, great look, awesome music and very good funny heels. It was also nice seeing Jack Evans live, I always thought he was great in AEW.

This was a good place for this match after the serious promo before, it started with Lykos asking for a dance off. The music began, Evans started dancing and Lykos attacked both him and Aramis. A very fun start which got good heat from the crowd.

The match featured lots of fun high spots and great heel work from both Lykos’. A highlight being Evans jumping off the turnbuckle, onto a lykos who was on Aramis’ shoulders, and jumping off lykos to do a corkscrew on the second lykos on the floor.

Aramis then got both Lykos’ onto his shoulders, did an aeroplane spin into a bomb. Picking up the pin, a very fun high flying match.

Tate Mayfair Vs Anthony Ogogo – 2.5⭐

This match began with Mayfair interrupting Simon Miller, to say Ogogo has no showed. This led to Ogogo’s music to hit and the match followed the format of Mayfair being a coward heel occasionally getting some offence in.

Mayfair hit a huge coast to coast elbow drop on Ogogo who was in the tree of woe. He then continued to work Ogogos left arm, causing him to not hit some moves.

This match’s purpose felt like a way to showcase Ogogo’s moveset and boost his stat power, which it did very well and Mayfair was a near perfect opponent for this.

After Ogogo picked up the win, Mayfair kept talking smack, leading him to get beat up twice more, and the GB and Progress flags placed over him.

Luke Jacobs Vs Axel Tischer – Atlas Championship – 4⭐

This lived up to the Super Strong Style name. These boys slapped and chopped the life out of one another. Another theme from the night was front row chair spots, and we got two in this match. Jacobs threw Axel into two different blocks of chairs.

The two hit some huge power moves on each other and the crowd was hot for it all. They had great sequences together and lovely reversal spots, which led to multiple near falls (which I bought a few of them).

The finish came after Jacobs hit a massive lariat on Axel and got the 3 count. A show of respect after, and Luke Jacobs gets better and better each time I see him I feel.

Warren Banks Vs Chris Ridgeway – Progress World Championship – 4⭐

The final of Super Strong Style 16, and world championship match. There was a big match feel for this one, which elevated after Banks walked out second, stood on the stage and threw his ice pack off his shoulder.

Chris Ridgeway attacked Banks behind his back to start the main event and he kept the momentum for almost the whole match. We got some more chair spots, as the two worked their way to the main stage.

Ridgeway hit a thudding suplex onto Banks on the stage, and just kept working him over. Banks got some brief comeback moments but this felt like a dominating performance.

There was a lovely flurry of kicks from Ridgeway, then a massive slap to Banks face which echoed round the room. At this moment I, and I think most of the crowd, suspected Banks to have a huge comeback to be crowned the new champ.

At one point Ridgeway took his wrist tape off and used it to choke Banks, it was supposed to be out of the refs vision but I’m pretty sure he saw and just didn’t DQ. This was the beginning of the end, as Banks laid on the floor he took 3 huge punt kicks to the head, Chris Ridgeway rolled him over for the pin and got the win.

The crowd was stunned and almost silent for a few seconds, the whole match felt like it was building up to a big baby face comeback for a feel good moment to end the show. This was brilliantly done though and really got over how vicious Ridgeway is.

The post match saw Gene Munny come out on a crutch to embrace Banks, who was still laying in a streamer filled ring. Bringing the show to close on an emotional moment for those two.