soup23

Really awesome resource you have been building here Cheapshot.

Listening through and I would throw up Jumbo's match vs. Mil in 1982 as him carrying a subpar worker. Also, Dick Slator is someone I would classify as serviceable but the Carny 80 match is by far my favorite match of his that I have been in.

It was Ligero/Cruz. Mastiff seconded them but got ejected after the early going.

Have a day off from work so I decided to check out Progress based on Shoe recommendations and the twitter hype of their latest show. I was going to watch the Strong Style Tourney but decided to abort it after two matches and go straight to the latest show. Big Daddy Walter vs. Rampage Brown I thought this was an odd choice as an opener but it was a good hoss style battle. My favorite moment was when the rope broke on an Irish whip from Walter. This created a neat organic moment that really got over the size of the competitors. The guys improvised well and utilized some spots based off the broken rope. Fun opener. **3/4 Shen Woo vs. Damon Moser vs. Jack SexSmith Generic comedy stuff with the most part with a prolonged spot of Smith having his bare ass on screen and getting a dildo stuck in it. The only clever spot to me was when Moser was in a submission move by Woo and Smith tapped resulting in Woo thinking he had won. The rest was stuff that I didn't enjoy. * Paul Robinson vs. Mark Haskins I really liked this match. THis was my first time seeing Robinson and he is pretty deplorable as a character spitting, rubbing his man region and whiping it on the back of Haskins and doing other dickish stuff on top. I liked the storyline of the match of Haskins going for his tricked out submissions and Robinson having a counter for each. The finish was especially awesome and really played off the storyline beforehand. ***1/2 Tommaso Ciampa vs. Marty Scurll Ciampa doing the Windy City Classic and this show on consecutive days is pretty nuts. I have seen Scurll a few times now and while he is fine, there is something about his whole moniker as the villain that doesn't work for me. He is fine in the role but paled in comparison to someone like Robinson in the match before. This was worked with more of a hard hitting style and felt too drawn out. The finish was a nice bit of work with Scurll utilizing the situation that Ciampa caused and going back to Chicken Wing for the submission victory. **3/4 Sumerian Death Squad vs. The London Riots vs. The Origin The tag "belts" Progress uses is pretty neat and definitely unique. I liked the openings of this with Origin having a sound gameplan of slowing things down and out cardio'ing their opponents. I also liked Tommy End kicking the match in a high gear by calling out their strategy as boring. The brawl and mayhem that resulted afterwards had some stuff that took too long to set up and some stuff that was cool. Origin getting the sneaky win to claim the titles surprised me and the Riots vs. Death Squad feud feels like one that Progress will build around for many months to come. *** Zack Gibson vs. Flash Morgan Webster "Turn the Page" as entrance music two matches in a row? I guess it is the Orgin stable song. This match suffered from card placement as both competitors felt like third rate versions of either spunky highflyers in Webster's case or devious heels in Gibson. Some of the arm work Gibson went for was interesting but it was too inconsistent overall. ** Mark Andrews vs. WIll Ospreay This was certainly a well executed spotfest and the limb work in the opening wasn't too egregious that I was rolling my eyes on that facet in the end. Still, when working this stuff, I didn't feel any connection at all and was more mesmerized that most of these spectacular moves were executed correctly. Was it fun? sure. Do I think some people will really enjoy it? Absolutely. For me, it was a well done spotfest in 2015. ***1/4 Overall this was a good show and I think gave me a good vibe of what Progress can bring to the table overall with their pros/cons.

I listened to some of the Mania stuff. I think they got better as they went along with less laughing and literally every comment they would make. However, I will say that while I certainly don't mind long shows, seeing some of the run times for their podcasts can be a barrier of entry for me.

Me either. I need to rectify that.

Just watched 88 last week and think it is really overfluffed. No flow, full of flubs, way too much Nikolai, and the nonsensical turn to boot.

I don't think this quite reaches the visceral hatred level of Tully vs. Magnum or Sheiks vs. Funks (in your eyes) hence why I have it at ****3/4 vs. *****, but I do think this was such an incredible match in the landscape of indy wrestling at the time. The main threads of indy wrestlings up to that point where exposure, apathetic contests and a return to wrestling with strong style, Japanese high spots thrown in. Danielson vs. Low - KI and Punk vs. Joe both personified this. Even blood feuds like Raven vs. Punk and Joe vs. Homicide had some interesting angle moments but I don't think they were able to ever combine the best brawling aspects from the 80's into a more modern perspective. This match does it and is a match that has resonated with non-fans tremendously. It doesn't overstay its welcome and it blends together death match style spots with the prevailing theme still remaining that I don't like this guy and want to beat him up. A truly great spectacle match.

Will be interested to watch this in full too as the talent for this type of match isn't awful. I did like TOny being shocked that Shockmaster didn't slip coming into the ring. That guy never had a chance. The finish was anticlimactic as Shockmaster fires off some punches to Vader, slaps the bearhug on Booker T and that is a wrap. Tony and Jesse awkwardly fill a couple of minutes before the PPV goes off the air.

Another match I'm interested to see in full and man are the heels getting over on the faces tonight with the title changes. Ric does get his big move off the top to the floor in a nice spot but succumbs to the brass knuckles of Rude.

The Lost in Cleveland stuff wasn't as terrible to me watching in the confines of weekly episodic stuff but when it is spliced all together like this, yeah it is pretty shitty. Jack does a promo at the end that is fine but this kind of shows that WCW had good pieces of talent in 1993, just couldn't fit them all together. In a lot of ways, it honestly feels like 2015 WWE to me in that regard.

I guess this being in Houston is why the crowd is kind of mute. Never thought of Houston as a WCW mainstay at all. ANyway, I liked what we got of this again and while Roma hasn't gotten a good crowd reaction, his hot tag here was really well done execution wise and the missile dropkick looked really good. Finish was fine too as he hits the swan dive, but Sags comes off with an elbow and Knobbs pins Roma before Arn is able to realize what is happening. Missy's leopard suit doesn't look to be containing the two big, beautiful...... eyes very well.

Agree that the tv matches were good so I guess I will see where the full match is at when we revisit for WTBBP. The finish here was well done with Steamboat doing a nice comeback with a variety of offense. I thought the finish was really good at showing how opportunistic Regal and Sir William are as Dundee cracked him with umbrella quickly and Regal followed up with a German to win the tv title.

We miss some key spots like the Headhunters going through the wall. Styles is concerned about his Armani suit even though they are a 100 feet away when he wails it on commentary. Another match that was good but I didn't really get a visceral hate or chaotic feel that happens in some brawls to elevate them up. This was a collection of spots and wicked shots that was effective but yet left me hollow. **3/4

Good brawl but Abby is someone that by this point looked like an old man not really able to do much of anything and not someone with a scary presence he had in his earlier days. I guess this is the ECW arena? When did it change it's look as the walls look different with the sheetrock here. Styles again screams to no end. You can't do that in every match and make it have any impact. Gilbert running in was nice since this is right around the turmoil of him vs. Paul E. **1/2

Joey Styles proves to be annoying right out of the gate as in the post match beatdown he is screaming for help and for someone to call 911 as Patriot gives a mundane beating to Smith. The bump Smith took off the scaffold looked like a torn ACL waiting to happen.

Nothing match with Pritchard interfering for a nearfall followed up by Morton coming in and hitting a double dropkick allowing Robert to win the $1,000 as Cornette loses it on commentary.

Bam Bam's figure always did the moonsault much more gracefully than Bam Bam would pull it off.

Patrick is good at this point. You know the end game, but he still plays it up effectively. The stuff with Dibiase talking to someone outside created some good mystery as to what the night will entail.

This was great with Arn and Flair bringing up some great points about Sting's whereabouts. Arn carries such a great presence in regards to this stuff and actually outshines Flair here.

A great package showing that the dying days of USWA can still produce something nice. This has been a long, winding angle that has remained entertaining. This video was effective in giving a snapshot of that.

Don't care that this was on as we get a look at Funaki but it wasn't that boring to me. Bas Rutten has a weird charisma to him that works but I do agree that other shoot style stuff has been more entertaining overall.

One of the few times I can correct Between the Sheets thanks to this clip as we have Piper on television. Everything else feels like your normal WWF PR piece.

This was fine but didn't really inspire a whole lot to me and kind of shows how as bad as the booking with modern day WWE is now, they at least crank out multiple matches at this level every week. Austin showing his technical side has been a nice look as he is slowly gaining some momentum. **

Complete lost classic for me. I don't see how watching this, you don't see some progression for Kobashi. He always will be an emotional worker but Hansen was that one bully that was roughing him up from the beginning and therefore him defeating him was important in establishing his dominance as champion. Hansen also for his part knows his best days are clearly behind him and this is his last shot at singles glory. This really felt like a climatic western shootout scene and was an absolute joy to watch. ****3/4