Progress SSS16 Night one is in the books, and Fightful contributor Parker Holland was there to see it unfold. Check out the full results below!
Alexandra Palace, London
Day 1 - Round 1 of the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament
Chris Brookes vs Ilja Dragunov
Ilja wins with a torpedo headbutt
A nice back and forth with a lot of hard hitting on both sides. Brooke’s has Ilja in trouble with some creative submission hold transitions and pinning combinations, but Ilja was able to pull out the victory with a quick counter into the Torpedo Headbutt.
Daga vs Kyle Fletcher
Fletcher wins with a cradle driver.
Somehow, Daga busts open Fletcher early with a chop to the chest.
A great debut in Progress for Daga, even if he did come up short. Lots of reversals into pins.
DJZ vs Travis Banks
Banks wins with a reversal into a duplex driver
Much more of a mat based match than anything else so far.
Banks takes the mic post match and says he beat Pete Dunne in this building, he thwarted Walter in this building, and he will become the 1st ever two time SSS16 winner.
Jordan Devlin vs Lucky Kid
Devlin wins with a ripcord belly to back suplex
Lucky was in control for the back half of the match and had Devlin in trouble with a cross face submission. After three different counters Devlin was finally able to escape and then pick up the win.
Trevor Lee vs Aerostar
Lee wins after a low blow kick behind the refs back, followed by a roll up.
Lee takes the mic from Smallman during the introductions and tells the crowd he is a Dubba U, Dubba U, Eeeeee SUPERstar, from the U...S...A. He insults Aerostar saying why couldn’t progress at least have gotten Fenix, or Pentagon.
Aerostar has had enough and attack’s Lee to start the match.
Aerostar confuses Lee with his flying most of the match, but Lee uses some underhanded tactics to finish the match.
David Starr vs Artemis Spencer
Starr wins with a powerbomb onto his knee
Spencer made a lot of fans with his performance. Smallman introduces this as his first match outside of the US or Canada.
Spencer got a lot of high flying spots in, but Starr was able to regain control at the end.
Paul Robinson vs Darby Allin
Robinson wins with a two foot curb stomp/butt drop onto Darby’s head.
Darby attacks Paul before the bell and they brawl outside for awhile.
Once in the ring the match begins and they trade death defying dives.
Kyle O'reilly vs Chris Ridgeway
O’Reilly wins with a knee bar
This is the closest thing I’ve seen to a worked jiu jitsu and Muay Thai fight done right. The first half was almost all ground work, then it turned into a stand up striking fight. After it seemed like Kyle was spent he pulled out a knee bar for the win.
Post match they had an air guitar battle. O’Reilly times setting his air guitar on fire with the “Boom” on his music
