A Look At The Competitors For Progress Wrestling Thuderbastard Match This Saturday – Chapter 105 Bring The Thunder
Saturday saw the return of one of the UK’s premiere independent wrestling promotions Progress, returning to action with the Natural Progression series and they’re back next Saturday the 27th with Chapter 105 bring the Thunder, which will feature the first ever women’s Thuderbastard match.
All 7 women were revealed on Chapter 104, each competitor was given their own promo video, competitors include; Millie McKenzie, Mecedez Blaze, Lana Austin, Alexxis Falcon, Taonga, Kanji and Giselse Shaw. The Thunderbastard match starts with two competitors in the ring with a new competitor entering the match every two minutes, similar to Royal Rumble however competitors can only be eliminated via pin fall, submission or disqualification.
So before this Saturday’s big match I thought we should have look at each competitor and I will give my prediction at the end.
Millie McKenzie
Millie is most likely to be the most well known competitor to the Progress faithful having appeared for Progress Wrestling on several occasions as solo competitor and as part of a team as the Medusa Complex with Charlie Evans. Millie also recently signed with the WWE for NXT UK and has appeared on NXT UK during the early days of the brand competing in the tournament to crown the first ever NXT UK women’s champion, She was knocked out in the first round by current Progress Women’s Champion Jinny. Despite only being 20 years of age Millie is well seasoned, competing for several of the UK’s top independent promotions and she has even spent time in Japan competing for Meiko Satomura’s Sendai girls promotion.
Mercedez Blaze
Mercedez Blaze competed against Millie McKenzie at this past Saturday’s show and despite loosing, looked good throughout the match dominating for long periods. Blaze has made a few appearances for Progress wrestling prior to this, she has also competed for one of Europe’s top women’s promotions Pro Wrestling Eve even teaming with Jinny as part of the tag team Diamond Vouge Collective. Blaze has also competed for Wrestling Resurgence in Nottingham
Lana Austin
Lana has made her impression in the North of East England, becoming the champion for such promotions as TNT Extreme and Future Shock Wrestling in Manchester. Austin has also held championships for Grand Pro Wrestling, Southside Wrestling Entertainment and Tidal Championship wrestling. Lana is the most experienced competitor in this match having been competing since 2013 she has made appearances for Rev Pro, ROH, WWE, Tokyo Joshi Pro and wXw Germany.
Alexxis Falcon
At 23 years of age Falcon has only been competing for 4 years, in this time she has managed to capture the Future Shock Women’s Championship and the Alpha Omega Wrestling (AOW) Women’s championship. Having established her name in Manchester, Falcon will be a girl in demand having already been confirmed as part of Wrestle Carnival and Odyssey Pro Wrestling roster and now she will be part of Progress Thunderbastard match, She was scheduled to face Lizzy Evo for the TNT Extreme Women’s Championship at a cancelled TNT show earlier this year.
Taonga
Taonga will be well known to Alexxis Falcon having faced each other already in a variety of matches, she is a product of the Future Shock Wrestling Academy along with Alexxis, she is also been confirmed as part of Odyssey Wrestling. Taonga had break out year in 2019 unfortunately the global pandemic put a halt to that last year, she we will be hoping to pick right back up from where she left off. Taonga has mainly competed Future Shock Pro Wrestling, she also competed for Fierce Females and Tidal Championship wrestling.
Kanji
Kanji may only be a 4 year pro but she has done well to get her name out there, appearing for almost 20 separate promotions in 2019, including appearing for WWE NXT UK during a battle royal at Download festival. Kanji won the Defiant Women’s championship in her first ever match and she is also currently the Southside Women’s Champion recently defending the title at Rev Pro Epic Encounters 8 against Bobbi Tyler. Having recently had a competitive match for Rev Pro recently she may have slight edge over those that have not competed in a ring for almost a year.
Gisele Shaw
Gisele Shaw is the former Rev Pro Women’s champion having only just lost the title after holding it for nearly a year, defending the title on 4 separate occasions, she will have the advantage of being in ring condition after being very active during Rev Pro’s Epic Encounters series. Having been trained by Lance Storm, Gisele is extremely adept at both high flying and technical wrestling, she has taken the British Independent scene by storm since arriving on our shores in 2019. In 2019 Gisele also made appearances for over 20 promotions across the Brit Wres scene including, Pro Wrestling Eve, OTT, ATTACK!! Pro Wrestling, Dragon Gate Pro, Kamikaze Pro and many more.
All 7 of these women are truly amazing, they are the best and brightest young stars on the British Wrestling scene today. Included in the line up we have 3 girls making their debut for Progress Wrestling, they have an awesome opportunity to make an impact on viewers from around the world watching on the WWE Network.
As for a prediction I believe it will come down to Gisele Shaw and Millie McKenzie, I am picking McKenzie but I think I am slightly biased in my decision making, although I can see her going on to win the Progress Championship and debuting on NXT UK with the Progress Championship in hand.
You can catch Progress Wrestling Chapter 105 this Saturday the 27th of February at 8pm GMT on WWE Network and on Progress’ streaming service Demand Progress.
You can Follow Andrew More on Twitter @GBOtaku82
Check out our official store at PRO WRESTLING TEES, show us your support and buy a shirt. You can visit our store by clicking here.
Make sure to follow us on Twitter @BodySlamNet and on Instagram @BodySlamDotNet
Also check us out on Facebook and give us a like and share by clicking HERE.</pue
