#AndNew: Championship Changes Hands At PROGRESS Chapter 99

PROGRESS Wrestling’s Chapter 99 is in the books and it certainly was an eventful show. Three championships were on the line, as well as featuring the conclusion to the excellent feud between Cara Noir and Ilja Dragunov. If you don’t wish to be spoiled as to what happened before the show is added to Demand PROGRESS, click out of this piece right now. A championship changes hands at PROGRESS Chapter 99

championship changes hands at PROGRESS Chapter 99
Photo / @JesusofGazareth

We have a new PROGRESS Women’s champion as Jinny unseated Meiko Satomura to claim the title for a second time. It’s just shy of one year since the belt was last in Jinny’s possession when she dropped it to Jordynne Grace at Unboxing III. A hard-fought match, it looked as though there was no way that Satomura would be dropping the belt for the first half. She battered the Queen of the Goths with her trademark stiff strikes and submission holds.

Satomura effectively wrestled the match as a heel, lifting Jinny’s shoulders off the mat at a two count when she surely had the win in the bag.

It turned out to be a case of going to the well one too many times in the end, as Jinny reversed a second DVD attempt into the winning crucifix pin. Satomura was fuming after the decision and slapped Jinny’s hand away when offered a handshake. It would appear as though this one is far from over.

Photo / @JesusofGazareth

No other titles changed hands, although the action in both matches was excellent. Paul Robinson retained the Proteus title via referee stoppage over Chris Ridgeway early on. A curb stomp onto two steel chairs on the outside followed by some plain old stomps to the head resulted in a victory by knockout. Robinson has a few of those under his belt with his Proteus reign thus far. Who can possibly unseat him?

Photo / @JesusofGazareth
In the main event, Eddie Dennis successfully defended the PROGRESS Unified World Title for the first time.

He faced off against David Starr in a grudge match stemming from the Welshman’s title win at Starr’s expense at Chapter 95. Featuring an epic running time, both men left it all in the ring as they had an instant classic. Starr had the visual win on two occasions, once via TapouT and once via pin, but referee Paz was distracted by Dennis’s compadre Mark Andrews.

championship changes hands at PROGRESS Chapter 99
Photo / @JesusofGazareth

Indeed, FSU proved quite the formidable double act as they used yet another referee distraction to get the win for Dennis. As Paz recovered from a bump, Mandrews hit a shooting star and threw his boy on top of Mr. Independent for the win. I’ve got a feeling those two are going to cause a lot of bother.

A fun-filled, eventful show at Chapter 99 then as we barrel towards Chapter 100, which marks Jim Smallman’s final show for PROGRESS. We have a new Women’s Champion in Jinny, and seemingly a heel Meiko Satomura out to avenge her surprise title loss. We’ll see how that plays out in two weeks and beyond. A championship changed hands at PROGRESS Chapter 99 in Jinny.