The first day of a tournament is rarely going to set the world alight with wrestlers naturally having to save themselves for a weekend of matches that will tend to escalate in scale and intensity. However, you can definitely have a bad show of wrestling, so nobody gets a free pass. Thankfully, Super Strong Style 16 kicked things off with a series of eight matches that at least engaged, if never fully kicked into the highest of gears.
The first match on the show split the crowd immediately as Ilja Dragunov met Chris Brookes. This was my first chance to see Dragunov live and he just radiates intensity at every moment. Duelling chants were the order of the day, whilst Brookes almost won the match by hitting a praying mantis bomb at ringside. Dragunov beat the count at nine, before some kneeling slaps roused the crowd once more. A great sequence of reversals initially saw Brookes avoid the Torpedo Moscow only for Dragunov to hit it out of nowhere for the three count. It isn’t the most amazing finisher, but within this contest of quick switches and changes, it worked really well.
With a number of new wrestlers on the card, it was interesting to see how the audience took to them and how they managed to present themselves in general. The first in the ring was Daga, taking on Kyle Fletcher, and things weren’t looking so good after a dive to the outside saw him come up a little short (a post-match interview with him confirmed he was a little dinged up). This led to a slightly disjointed affair, though as Daga cleared his head, he was able to show some impressive offense with a gutwrench sitout powerbomb and a pop-up German suplex. Kyle’s big step up senton to the outside landed without a problem and it’d be the young Aussie who went through with a solo fidget spinner.
The ring gear, the music, the entrance, the horn – DJ Z was over immediately with the London crowd. Travis Banks divided the fans as almost as many wanted to cheer him as boo him, and he gave Z a lot to really sell the idea that Z’s speed was causing him all sorts of problems. Z hit a unique suicide dive that saw him go diagonally from apron to apron, whilst a Slice of Heaven attempt by Banks was halted by a Codebreaker. Even though he had struggled throughout the contest, Banks showed his championship nous by working his way back into the contest, nailing the Kiwi Krusher at the first conceivable opportunity for the win. A fun match and DJ Z should be a good addition to anything else this weekend.
Jordan Devlin versus Lucky Kid was the first half main event, but the crowd was definitely unsure how to act or respond to Kid, which was a shame. However, he was able to win the majority over with a good match that saw Devlin primarily bully him about the ring after Kid showcased his aerial ability with a huge dive over the top rope. Devlin battered Kid with strikes and submissions before a teased countout finish, though this only served to fire Kid up as he fired back with his handspring back elbow and came close to ending the contest with his armbar finisher. Devlin managed to get the ropes eventually, before a blocked Spanish fly attempt saw him improvise with a nasty looking top rope stunner! A Devlinslide put Devlin through to the next round; perhaps a Schadenfruede/#CCBLAAAH reunion awaits for Kid.
I’ve seen some people complain about Trevor Lee’s ‘I’m a big WWE star’ gimmick as apparently he did something similar in Impact, whilst PROGRESS is tangentially linked to WWE as well. Not having seen this before, it didn’t bother me too much and I enjoyed some very simple, old school heeling. Similar to Banks/Z, Lee struggled to combat the speed of Aerostar, but did manage to slow things down when in control. A springboard Codebreaker led to a wild tope con hilo through the middle ropes that threatened to wipe out the front three rows! The finish saw the ref attempt to stop Lee blocking a backslide with his foot on the ropes; Lee swung at the referee, low-blowed Aerostar in the confusion and picked up the tainted victory.
The biggest reaction of the show was reserved for David Starr as he got a standing ovation before he even stepped into the ring. His opponent, Artemis Spencer, had an unenviable position to be in, but to credit him, he showcased an impressive athleticism throughout the contest, including an over the top rope 619. A clothesline into an STO variation by Starr planted Spencer hard, but he fought back with an interesting senton whilst Starr was perched across the top rope. Still, the winner was rarely in doubt as Starr drilled Spencer with the Han Stansen and hit his powerbomb backbreaker for the win. Could this be Starr’s weekend? It’d be hard to bet against him.
One of the potential sleeper matches of the first round followed as Darby Allin (in his first non-North American match according to Jim Smallman) took on Paul Robinson. A wild Allin dive set the tone as the two men brawled around ringside before the match officially started. For the most part, Robinson was his usual vicious self, battering Allin, though moves like a Code Red showed how quickly Allin could switch the momentum. In a gruesome spot, Allin bit through his own lip (according to the PROGRESS twitter) and spat the blood at Robinson! Some more wild action followed as a leap of faith to the outside by Allin wiped out the ring crew, but as he got back into the ring, he was greeted with a double foot stomp to leave him laying for the three count. Allin is another one whose potential for the rest of the weekend is as intriguing as anything he might have done in the tournament proper.
The main event between Chris Ridgeway and Kyle O’Reilly was exactly what you’d have expected a match between the two technical strikers to be. After some early feeling out and grappling on the canvas, some spinkick trading led to a double head kick double KO. O’Reilly’s technique on some floatover butterflies was immaculate, whilst Ridgeway was equally as good with a legtrap German suplex. The submission trading continued as a Ridgeway anklelock was turned into a sharpshooter by O’Reilly, though Ridgeway made the ropes to break the hold. After some more hard hitting action, a kick to the face looked like it almost knocked O’Reilly’s teeth out, but it was only good enough for a two. O’Reilly was brilliant at selling exhaustion, crumpling on an attempted forearm strike, yet moments later a leg trip and an ankle lock earned O’Reilly a hard-fought victory.
In the post-match, Ridgeway and O’Reilly not only shook hands, but we also got some dual air guitar in a moment that sent the crowd home (or outside the Ally Pally to queue for Kaiju Big Battel) happy. There was a numbing inevitability to O’Reilly going through perhaps, but he is a WWE import that ticks a lot of the boxes to be accepted by the more cynical PROGRESS fans – success in Japan and on the Independent scene prior to his arrival in WWE/NXT a particular boon. There were no real shocks in the first round of the tournament, but there didn’t necessarily need to be. Sometimes, moving the obvious pieces into position for what lies ahead is all that matters. Things are nicely bubbling up with the ‘Starr versus the WWE’-style angle that is being cultivated (primarily by Starr more so than anyone) and the potential for some absolute standout matches over the next two days is clearly there. A good show that builds intrigue for what is to come? You can’t complain about that.
