The first show since PROGRESS Hello Wembley comes after a much-needed break for the PROGRESS crew, who had a busy summer leading up to the biggest show in company history. Zack Sabre Jr. finally cashes in his title shot to give us a huge main event. The women’s division is wide open after Jinny retained her title. The tag team division has a new spark with new champions on top and it looks like PROGRESS may have finally refound the spark that many felt it was missing for most of 2018.
Match 1: Paul Robinson vs. Mark Andrews
Two very different men step into the ring together for the first time in two years. Four years ago, these two contested the first ever Natural Progression Series Final which saw Andrews emerge victorious. For that meeting, Andrews was still a raw, young talent and Robinson was actually a promising high flying babyface. Since then they have taken two very different paths. Robinson succumbed to the darkness and joined Jimmy Havoc, a man who threatened to set Andrews on fire, and has since become more of a brawler/death match style wrestler and completely left behind any shred of likability he used to have. Andrews, on the other hand, has excelled as a high flier and lives to have fun and try his best to put on the best matches he can. Good vs Evil, brawler vs High Flier, a rematch four years in the making, as both men look to bounce back after suffering defeat at Hello Wembley.
Match 2: Isla Dawn vs Millie McKenzie
Isla Dawn is a new name to the PROGRESS women’s division, having only debuted back in May at their gimmicked 1970’s show. With the division being wide open, a win over someone like Millie would immediately put Dawn in the upper echelon of the division and put her in the conversation for a title shot. For “Suplex Millie”, this is a chance to bounce back after her disappointing defeat in the women’s title match at Hello Wembley. High stakes for both women in this women’s division clash.
Match 3: Trent Seven Atlas Championship Open Challenge
Fresh off retiring the legendary Doug Williams to capture the Atlas title, Trent Seven has issued an open challenge for the title. With Mark Davis booked in another match, there is no clear challenger to emerge. We could see the return of Rampage or Joe Coffey, but a new challenger may emerge in the division which is currently without a clear direction.
Match 4: PROGRESS Tag Team Championships: Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) (c) vs The 198 (Wild Boar & Flash Morgan Webster) vs Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson)
New champions Aussie Open defend their titles for the first time, after their shocking win at Hello Wembley. Davis and Fletcher have been one of the best tag teams in the UK this year and have become big names in companies like Fight Club: Pro and Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling and now PROGRESS. The tag division in PROGRESS was hurt in the lead up to Wembley, thanks to the injuries to CCK, but a strong run from the talented Aussies could help stabilize the division. To even reach defence number one, they will have to take down two very strong teams. The 198 were favourites heading into the Thunderbastard match at Wembley as they went unbeaten in the league leading up to the match. Webster and Boar were unsuccessful at Wembley, but remain a team to beat in the tag divisiom. Grizzled Young Vets have at times carried this division through the various injuries and are multi time champions so you can never rule them out in a title match.
Match 5: Tyler Bate vs Timothy Thatcher
Tyler lost to Thatcher’s partner WALTER in the main event of the Wembley show. For Bate, it is a chance to gain some measure of retribution against Ringkampf and maybe get himself back into title contention. Timothy Thatcher is fueled by competition and a chance to face a former WWE UK champion and an extremely talented Tyler Bate will drive him to do his best to win this match. A big strong boi vs a very hard lad in what will be an epic match.
Match 6: PROGRESS World Championship: WALTER (c) vs Zack Sabre Jr.
These two are no strangers to one another. They have shared a ring over 30 times in their career, be it against one another or teaming for a short time in 2015 in westside Xtreme wrestling (wXw), and in recent times it is WALTER that has emerged victorious more often than not. Even in PROGRESS, he defeated ZSJ in April of this year to become number one contender for the title he now holds. Every match between these two ring generals is a human game of chess as ZSJ uses his technical abilities to latch onto WALTER and try to chop him down while avoiding the big hits and impactful offence of WALTER. Can WALTER continue to build his winning record against Zack or will the technical wizard chop down the giant?
