Following on the heels of the announcement that Progress Wrestling in the U.K. would host qualifying matches for the WWE’s summer Global cruiserweight tournament, it was confirmed the same deal is in place with Revolution Pro Wrestling.
Revolution Pro, based out of Portsmouth, England and headed by Andy Quildan, announced the deal today on its web site and said that the dates and matches would be announced shortly.
“What we can say right now is that it’s an honour to have been selected as one of the global partners for this tournament and we are very excited for the opportunity to share our product with fans across the globe.”
It is believed Revolution Pro will host one qualifying match.
Progress and Revolution Pro join Evolve in promotions that WWE is working with when it comes to a tournament that will start on the WWE Network on 7/13 and last for ten weeks, airing on Wednesday nights, and taped in Orlando at Full Sail University.
The promotion in the past had provided footage to WWE for a video feature on the network on the career of Finn Balor.
At a conference call several months ago, Paul Levesque specifically brought up Evolve, Revolution Pro and Progress as companies that they could be working with.
Progress founder Jim Smallman made the announcement of the partnership on Sunday afternoon at the company’s show at the Electric Ballroom in north London. His announcement confirmed a report on the Gorilla Position podcast and talkSPORT that Progress was the leading contender to have matches in the tournament.
While no names were mentioned as participating, a story on the show listed Kent-born regular Zack Sabre Jr., Will Ospreay and Marty Scurll who are three of the top stars with the group, although noted Ospreay, who debuts in two weeks for New Japan Pro Wrestling, may not be politically able to participate while keeping his New Japan commitments.
– AJ Styles defeated Tyler Breeze with the Phenomenal Forearm
Good match, crowd was into AJ.
– Hype Bros defeated The Ascension with the Hype Ryder.
Mojo Rawley is from Virginia so he had lots of support, including what appeared to be a pretty large friends and family section. Nice that he was able to work this show.
– The Miz defeated Jack Swagger after an eyepoke and the Skull Crushing Finale
Fun match, much better received as a house show match than it likely would have been at a TV taping. Miz called us all sweathogs and then did the Rick Rude gyrations to disrobe. Swagger responded with JYD mannerisms. Fun stuff. Saw rumors of a Miz injury but he didn’t appear hurt.
– Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks defeated Team B.A.D. with a stereo Banks Statement/Dis-Armer tapout
All four women were pretty well over, I’d say Becky probably the most so. Becky and Sasha spent a good amount of time with the fans at ringside afterward.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kington & Xavier Woods) defeated the Dudley Boyz and The Usos in a Triple Threat Match to retain
Usos were the most over of the group, but New Day was pretty popular as well. New Day pretty much played heel here, with a running gag of Xavier getting slapped in the back repeatedly for the first part of the match. Finish came when Kofi stole the pin after an Uso hit the top rope splash on a Dudley (I believe D-Von).
– WWE Divas Champion Charlotte defeated Natalya in a non-title match via rollup
Finish was a little sloppy, Natalya slapped Ric Flair on the apron and Charlotte rolled her up for the win. The crowd really liked Natalya and gave her a really nice response after the match.
– Sami Zayn defeated I-C Champion Kevin Owens by DQ
Best match of the night (surprise), even if it started a bit slow. Owens had Sami in the Tree of Woe and was DQed for not breaking on the five count while attacking him. Post-match Owens got on the mic and reminded everyone that he made his main roster debut in Richmond, and wanted to ruin Sami’s first Richmond appearance. He went for the pop-up powerbomb but Sami hit a dropkick and the Helluva Kick.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose defeated Sheamus & King Barrett when Reigns speared Barrett
Reigns was VERY over here, I’d say the crowd was 90-10 in favor of him, if that bad. Standard house show main event tag, but everyone got to hit their spots, and the crowd was happy to see Reigns & Ambrose win. Both men spent plenty of time with fans and ringside on the way out, with Reigns being the last guy through the curtain.
Very fun house show overall, good atmosphere. I feel like our show got a significantly better deal on star power than the show in Trenton.
The crowd was into this match more than you would think, considering how poorly these two are treated on TV week in and week out. Maybe the crowd was just excited for the show to finally get going? Either way, the crowd chanted “Cody” and “Lucha Lucha” a couple times throughout. Sin Cara pinned Stardust after a pretty basic back and forth match.
Mark Henry vs. Braun Strowman
Strowman was originally advertised for a tag team match with Luke Harper against Kane and Ryback. The match was just two big guys shoving into each other, headlock, bearhug, and shoving into each other some more. Strowman eventually won when Henry passed out to Strowman’s standing triangle choke. That move never looked all that great to begin with, but it’s even worse when Strowman does it on someone as big as Henry who he can’t lift high into the air.
Bo Dallas vs. Goldust
All four Social Outcasts came out and did their basic spiel about how they’re not rejects or losers, but Trenton and the people in the audience were. Ouch. Goldust came out and the match was mostly Bo running from Goldust, and Bo and the other Outcasts would distract the referee and attack Goldust then. Goldust eventually pinned Bo, but the other Outcasts ganged up on Goldust and attacked him immediately.
R-Truth came out to make the save and he and Goldust cleaned house. Then R-Truth got the mic and asked the audience if the audience thought the two of them should be a tag team, which got a surprisingly loud and positive response considering how dead this angle seems on TV. R-Truth even asked what the team should be called, and again, a majority of the people yelled “Golden Truth.” R-Truth did his rap and he and Goldust danced for what seemed like forever. Maybe they had to kill some time.
U.S. Champion Kalisto vs Rusev
Alberto Del Rio was originally advertised to face Kalisto. Instead, Rusev and Lana came out waving the Bulgarian Flag with Rusev’s face on it. Lana told the audience to “shu-tup” as she always does and said Rusev was going to be the United States Champion once again. She also said she wanted to sing a song for her fiancee. It was “You are my Sunshine” except she replaced the word “sunshine” with the word “monster.” That’s not exactly complimentary, but Lana looked great as usual, so I doubt Rusev cared.
Kalisto came out to what might have been the biggest pop of the night. (Either him or Big Show) Rusev started off by stealing the title, but Kalisto stole it back. The match itself was basically Kalisto getting in a few of his spots, and then Rusev overpowering Kalisto because of the size difference. Kalisto tried to body slam Rusev once, but Rusev stopped him. Kalisto eventually did slam Rusev later in the match, and it got a great pop. The match ended when Rusev ran at Kalisto in the corner but Kalisto jumped and Rusev hit an exposed turnbuckle, which Kalisto then turned into the Solida del Sol.
There were many “Lucha Lucha” and “USA USA” (even though they’re both foreigners) chants throughout the match. This was probably the match the crowd was hottest for from start to finish during the whole night.
Summer Rae vs. Alicia Fox
Once Summer and Alica were both out, Summer starts getting in Alicia’s face, then yelling at the audience a bit, getting in Alica’s face again, and then yelling at the audience some more. During that time Alica gets the win with a surprise roll up. I’m being completely honesty when I say I think it took longer for their entrances than it did for this “match.” It was a comedy segment, the crowd laughed, and I didn’t have to watch these two attempt an actual match, so I think we were all winners here.
Ryback vs. Fandango
Like I said above, Ryback was originally advertised for a tag team match with Kane against Luke Harper and Braun Strowman, so this was another change due to Luke Harper’s knee. Ryback came out and cut a promo, but the mic and sound system weren’t that great, and he doesn’t have the best enunciation to begin with, so I have no idea what he said.
I do know that the crowd didn’t really cheer for it, so either I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t understand him, or what he said was close to what he’s been saying on TV lately – which means it was some confusing promo that wasn’t really face or heel. Once the match got going it seemed like Ryback couldn’t decide whether he wanted to work as a face or heel. He worked over Fandango, dominating and tossing him around a bunch, and the crowd would cheer if Fandango managed to pull off a flip or kick.
However, Ryback kept doing all his babyface taunts to get his “Feed me More” chants, which the crowd chanted loudly. Then Ryback won with the Shellshock (minus the stomping around before hitting the move) and the crowd cheered the win, so I don’t know what was going on. After the win Ryback walked to the back, and then as Fandango walked to the back there was a CM Punk chant starting, and Fandango’s music came back on briefly which stopped the chant. He was the only person all night to lose their match but have their music play again as they walked to the back.
Big Show and Kane vs. Bray Wyatt and Erick Rowan
Bray came out with Rowan and Strowman, Big Show and Kane came out separately. Like I said before, Big Show got what might have been the biggest pop of the night. The match itself was average. Bray and Rowan got the heat on Kane, and Bray would pretty much only tag in when Kane was already hurt or on the ground. What a heel. The crowd was silent during most of the match, except they would really come alive the few times when Big Show would clap or stomp the steps to give Kane encouragement.
The match ended when Big Show choke-slammed Rowan and got the pin. Crowd popped. Strowman then got in the ring to attack Kane and Big Show, but Kane and Big Show worked together to give Strowman a double chokeslam. Crowd popped again. (It was a bit jarring to see Strowman flat on his back, as they’ve been very careful for the most part to keep him on his feet on TV.)
After that the action was done the crowd was quick to scurry out of the building. The crowd seemed happy afterward, and all in all I enjoyed it more than I thought I would considering what the card was.
Editor’s note: This was the show that was scheduled to be Daniel Bryan Appreciation Night, but was changed last minuted because of Bryan “asking for time off”.
Submitted by Mike Omansky
– Dolph Ziggler def. The Miz
Superkick and pin, in a fast paced back and forth opener.
– U.S. Champion Kalisto def. Rusev (w/Lana)
The finish was Rusev taking padding off the turnbuckle, throwing Kalisto into it, who then jumped up to use the Salido Del Sol finisher for the win.
After the match, Ryback came out and attacked Kalisto. Sin Cara ran in to make the save. Ryback returned to grab the microphone, and said that Kalisto and Sin Cara need to understand that a big man beats a little man every time and wanted a match with Sin Cara right now.
– Ryback def. Sin Cara
ShellShock and pin in under 3 minutes. No offense by Sin Cara.
– Becky Lynch & Sasha Banks def. Naomi and Tamina
Banks beat Naomi with a back stabber followed by the Banks Statement submission. Standard divas fare.
– Big Show & Kane def. Erick Rowan & Bray Wyatt (w/Braun Strowman)
Show uses knockout punch on Rowan. Kane, the legal man, used a chokeslam to get the pin. Fans were into the match. Wyatt looked good, and had strong offense on Show. Strowman interfered a few times along the way.
– Divas Champion Charlotte (with Ric Flair) def. Natalya in a non-title match
Charlotte rolled her up after a distraction on the apron from Ric.
– After this match, a special ring announcer for the next match was introduced: former WWE broadcaster and current ESPN on-air talent Jonathan Coachman.
Coachman said that he was asked to come back to WWE, and wanted to do it at MSG. He then wanted to introduce his friends, the Dudleyz. Dudleyz came to the ring, and Coachman said a number of fans had a question for them: “Where are the tables?” Bubba Ray became incensed, threatened Coachman; and out came the Usos.
– WWE Tag Team Champions The New Day (Xavier Woods & Big E) w/Kofi def. The Dudley Boyz and The Usos in a triple threat to retain the titles.
After all six were involved at the end, Xavier came off the top rope onto Devon for the pin. Long match, but pretty good. Fans were into New Day who got a face pop coming in and leaving. After the match, Coachman jumped back into the ring with New Day, took off his shirt to reveal a New Day shirt underneath, and danced with them.
– I-C Champion Kevin Owens def. AJ Styles to retain.
Finish was a pop-up power bomb and pin after an excellent wrestling clinic. Styles was well received, as was Owens. Match was full of good moves and counter moves. Crowd was getting tired, but still clearly into the match. Loads of classic Styles moves. Best match of the night. After the match, Owens wanted to attack Styles again, who of course tossed him around, Styles then took the mic to thank the fans and say that the Madison Square Garden atmosphere is everything that he has always heard about it.
– Roman Reigns & Dean Ambrose def. WWE Champion HHH & Sheamus
Reigns pinned Sheamus with a sphere for the win. He got a mixed reaction coming in, although a little more cheers than boos. During the match, he was cheered once at a hot tag, but booed heavily hitting Sheamus, and another sequence against HHH. Ambrose got a huge reaction coming in. HHH also got a face reaction coming in. HHH at first didn’t want to face Reigns, but did come in when tagged to attack him. Good match overall.
Notes:
– The show lasted 3:30 including intermission. The crowd began tiring out by last two matches. However, they were still into them both.
– Return date: Saturday, July 16th – Tickets on sale after show at box office, and via Ticketmaster. Ticketmaster presale code: WWE GARDEN
OK opener. Wolfe didn’t do much besides a basic assortment of strikes of chinlocks, but it looked good. Woods got a decent pop for being from Florida.
– King Constantine def. Blake (w/Murphy)
Comedy squash with comedy provided mostly from B&M. Blake had Murphy with him, no Alexa Bliss. Constantine dominated, no-selling most of the way, and finished with a chokeslam into a back breaker.
– Patrick Clark & Kenneth Crawford vs. Dhinsa and Selmani
Sorry for not having names, but the female ring announcer butchered them all and I don’t recognize any of them from TV. Hopefully another report will help identify them.
– Alex Riley defeated Elias Sampson with a roll up
Sampson ran down the local crowd to draw heat, but the fans that reacted were still 50/50 on him. Not much to this, with lots of resting. Faces for the night are batting 4 for 4.
– Carmella defeated Emma in an OK match
Carmella’s ring entrance and mic skills are great, but her offense is terrible, especially the punches. Emma worked the crowd a lot by doing lots of hair pulls.
– Apollo Crews pinned Riddick Moss
Another average match. Moss spent most of the match bickering with the crowd and doing this goofy power walk. Crews won with his signature power bomb.
– Asuka defeated Billy Kay
Physical match. Nothing great, but Asuka’s strikes looked good, and BK had some decent, if unspectacular, offense.
– NXT Champion Finn Balor and the Hype Bros def. The Vaudevillains and Tye Dillinger
First few minutes was Mojo running around crazy, and then each face took turns beating down the heels. Zack Ryder played the face-in-peril before making the hot tag to Balor, and after a hot sequence with Riley and Mojo hitting their signature spots, he finished Tye with the 1916. Really good match to end the show.
– WWE.com promoted Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin, Bayley, Enzo and Cass, and all of them were nowhere to be seen tonight. The only advertised names that appeared were Balor, Crews, and Carmella.
Officially announcing what has been known for more about a year, WWE announced Friday that TMDK (The Mighty Don’t Kneel), a popular tag team from Japan, has signed with the company.
The team is made up of Michael Nicholls (Mikey Nicholls) and Shane Veryzer (Shane Haste), the top foreign tag team in Pro Wrestling NOAH until the arrival of the Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) from New Japan as part of the Suzuki-gun invasion in early 2015.
The two had reached an agreement last year to leave NOAH for WWE in 2015, but in working out their contract with NOAH, Haste suffered a knee injury that required surgery which put everything on hold. Nicholls & Haste returned to NOAH earlier this month for their farewell tour earlier this month.
The team was named Best Tag Team in Japan in 2013, a very difficult honor for a foreign team to win. They twice held the GHC tag team championship, and had a super hot series of matches for the titles with Masato Tanaka & Takashi Sugiura, the Dangan Yankees.
Both originally came from Perth, Western Australia and wrestled for years on the Australian independent scene before starting as regulars in Japan after passing a tryout in 2011.
I’m on site at NXT Largo tonight, expecting a sell out of approximately 300.
– Alex Reyes welcomed us to the show and introduced us to NXT’s newest ring announcer Andrea DiMarco (aka Andrea Ocampo) who was the on-air reporter for the NHL’s Florida Panthers.
– Carmella and Liv Morgan beat Emma and Billie Kay
Very impressive showing by Carmella tonight, countering holds, escaping moves, and taking the hot tag. After Morgan was being worked over by the heels, there was a miscommunication where Emma was knocked off the apron which allowed Carmella to hit a superkick, bronco buster, and her submission leg scissor for the win over Billie Kay.
– Riddick Moss beat Alex Riley
Hard-hitting match with Riley hitting a spinebuster and a big top rope elbow drop for nearfalls. Riddick got his feet on the ropes for a roll-through dirty pin.
– American Alpha beat Sawyer Fulton and Alexander Wolfe
This was a showcase match for Alpha. The heels worked over Gable leading to the big hot tag for Jordan: suplex, spear, straps down, assisted German for the win.
– Dylan Miley beat Patrick Clark
Almost all Miley here. He worked the arm, slams, and hit a big diving headbutt off the top for the win.
– The Hype Bros beat The Vaudevillains
There were a lot of silly antics by the Vauds to try and get under Mojo’s skin. Zack wanted nothing to do with any of their nonsense. Vauds worked over Ryder to get to Mojo’s hot tag. Ran wild with shoulderblocks, but he Vauds almost cut him off. Ryder hit the Hype Ryder for the win.
– NXT Women’s Champion Bayley beat Aliyah
Good match here, Aliyah worked over Bayley’s arm, kept her grounded most of the match. Bayley fired up after being hit in to the turnbuckles pads then ran wild, big suplex, back elbow, and finally a Belly to Bayley for the win.
– In ring promo with Dhinsa and Selmani, they vow to destroy all other tag teams.
– No Way Jose FKA Levis Valenzuela beat Manny Andrade
New music and officially billed as “No Way Jose” tonight, good action between the two, Andrade is excellent and did some flashy moves such as a moonsault then a standing moonsault for a near fall and some crisp arm drags early in the match. The finish saw NWJ hit the big punch for the win.
– Enzo, Big Cass & Apollo Crews beat NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival & Baron Corbin
Crowd was all over Baron and The Revival tonight, the heels worked over Enzo and Apollo mostly during this match, good action all around and always seemed like the brink of chaos. The finish saw Big Cass take the hot tag, run wild and bring Zo back in for the rocketlauncher finish.
The WWE announced today that The New Day would be inducting The Freebirds into the WWE Hall of Fame on 4/2 in Dallas.
The connection is that The New Day as a three-man tag team championship team, where any two men can defend the titles, was taken from The Freebirds, of Michael Hayes & Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts, who may have been the first team to do so with their Freebird rules.
The Freebirds scheduled for induction are Hayes, currently a WWE producer, Jimmy Garvin, Gordy and Roberts. The latter two, who have passed away, will be represented by their sons who became pro wrestlers, Ray Gordy, who worked for WWE as Jesse, and Buddy Roberts Jr., an independent wrestler in Illinois.
Yesterday the company announced that Vader would be inducting Stan Hansen. Vader and Hansen had a memorable match at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 where Vader’s eye came out of its socket. It was a dream match at the time, as Vader was the foreign monster for New Japan Pro Wrestling, while Hansen had a similar spot with All Japan.
Sasha Banks beat Charlotte in a non-title match with a roll-up. Becky Lynch attacked Charlotte after the match.
Sheamus beat Kofi Kingston with the Brogue kick.
The Usos beat The Ascension
Sami Zayn & Dolph Ziggler beat The Miz & Kevin Owens. After the match, everyone from the ladder match got in a brawl, which naturally included ladders. Zack Ryder climbed to the top of the ladder.
Roman Reigns no contest Bubba Ray Dudley. The crowd cheered Reigns, believe it or not.
A.J. Styles beat Tyler Breeze
Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman were out doing an interview. The Wyatt Family came out. Lesnar & Dean Ambrose worked together in fighting The Wyatt Family. Lesnar and Ambrose went at it after and the show ended with Lesnar leaving Ambrose laying.
Another key note is that during Main Event, in a Naomi vs. Paige match, Tamina, Lana, Natalya, Fox, Summer Rae and Emma all got involved. Summer Rae and Emma were both on the heel side. So it would appear there will be a 5th babyface to be announced and a ten person match with Brie Bella on the face side and another person.
