Mark Andrews vs Pete Dunne
The first bout on the disc is from AIW in the US, where the
crowd don’t know either guy. Thus, the match is almost like a sampler of what
both guys can do. This means it also works well as an opening match on this
comp, giving a flavour of what to expect from the following matches. Pete heels
it up, giving the crowd the finger early on, and as the bigger guy he bullies
Andrews a bit, hitting some nice suplexes and grounding Andrews by working over
the arm. I liked the way he did some nasty joint manipulation, showcasing his
nastier side. Andrews pops the crowd with a lovely standing 630 senton. Dunne
hits his pumphandle DDT for two, before Andrews busts out a lovely flip dive
and a springboard rana for two. A reverse rana is followed by a shooting star
press for the win. The crowd is totally won over by the end, giving both guys a
standing ovation. Really fun match.
Mark Andrews vs Zack Sabre Jr
From Triple X Wrestling. Regular readers (ha!) might remember this was top of the
leaderboard in my "Top 10 Matches of 2013" list. However, there is always a
disconnect of watching a match in person and watching it on DVD, so I was
curious to see how it would hold up. In all honesty, I actually like it more on
second viewing. At the time, I’d never seen Andrews wrestle before, but now,
having seen him plenty of times, I can really appreciate the little things that
he changed up specifically for this match. It starts with Sabre Jr totally
schooling Andrews on the mat, viciously working over the arm and even hanging
onto the arm from an Andrews armdrag to retain control. Zack throws in some
nasty little touches, such as grinding his elbow into Andrews’ eye during a
chinlock. Andrews is a great underdog and, after Sabre kicks his legs out
during a brief offensive flurry, he realises he has to react as quickly as
possible to any opening. Thus when he gets Zack outside the ring, he
immediately follows with a big flip dive. Normally, Andrews plays to the crowd before
hitting a standing moonsault, but here he just doesn’t have the time, so hits
it straight away and follows it with a swift double stomp. Sabre viciously
kicks out Andrews legs on a springboard attempt and hits a vicious kick to the
chest. Andrews tries a few kicks of his own, but this just seems to rile Sabre,
who decks him with some nasty slaps to the face. 2 Dragon suplexes only get a
two count on Andrews. Andrews downs Sabre and tries to put him away quickly
with a 450, but Sabre is able to move and ties up both of Andrews’ arm to get
the tapout victory. Absolutely love this match. Sabre, as the former champ and
longtime ace of the promotion, dominated, but Andrews made the most of his
openings and looked tough as nails in surviving the onslaught.
Mark Andrews vs Will Ospreay
This is a first round match from the Progress Natural
Progression Series. Both guys are really crisp high-flyers, and pretty evenly
match. I dug the initial matwork, before they start to speed things up. Ospreay
hits a great dive, sliding under the ropes to barrel Andrews into the crowd. He
hits a standing shooting star, before going back to the mat, trying to wear Andrews
down. I loved the insane backflip into a tornado DDT by Andrews, really looked
like a move that would catch the opponent totally by surprise. Both of them
hits nice sequences of moves which flow nicely together, meaning they hit a few
big moves in succession for more realistic pinfalls. Ospreay gets a really
close fall off a top rope reverse rana, but, even though he lands on his feet
on a missed 450, he gets caught by a beautiful springboard rana for the win.
Mark Andrews vs Jonathan Gresham
Another Triple X bout. I’ve never seen Gresham before, so I was looking forward to
this. Though shorter than Andrews, he’s stockier and here plays subtle heel.
This lets Andrews work as underdog, which is where he really excels. Gresham
takes an early powder from the ring after an Andrews onslaught, and has a noticeably
more vicious streak when he comes back in. He whips Andrews into the
turnbuckles with real velocity, hits a nasty elbow to Andrews’ face and really
snaps him to the mat with a back suplex. Andrews buys himself a little time
with a Bubba Bomb, and hits a really cool looking forward roll enzuigiri. They
exchange pinfalls, which Gresham ends with a “Fuck you” and a big kick to the
head. Andrews fires back with a tornado DDT, which he hits from a totally
different angle to the Ospreay match, which gives it a real “from out of
nowhere” vibe. Andrews nails the 450 splash, but is too hurt to cover straight
away, only getting a two. Gresham plants Andrews with two German suplexes, then
hits a deadlift straightjacket version for the pin. Really nicely worked match, really enjoyed Gresham’s vicious
streak.
Mark Andrews vs Paul Robinson
This is the final of the Progress Natural Progression
Series. I really liked the fun matwork at the start, as they rolls through a
series of armbar reversals. Robinson hit a great spinning headscissors with two
full rotations. The commentary mentions Robinson has a kickboxing background to
go with his highflying, and he’s got some really nice looking kicks. Robinson
shows a more vicious side, clawing at Andrews’ face and hitting an elbow to the
spine immediately as Andrews forces a submission break by grabbing the ropes.
Nice dive to the outside by Andrews. I really love the fact Andrews has a few
moves he hits standing variations of, as it creates a sense of mystery as he
builds up to it- in earlier matches we’ve seen a 630 senton, but here he hits a
great corkscrew moonsault from the same position. Robinson misses a top rope
legdrop, which he gets insane elevation on, but he hits a great twisting top
rope rana and spinning kick to the kidneys. Robinson misses a shooting star
press, and Andrews hits this awesome top rope moonsault belly-to-belly suplex
for the win.
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