Progress: United States #5

LOCATION: Tampa, Florida
ARENA: Amalie Arena
ANNOUNCERS: Mauro Renallo & Renee Young






PREVIOUSLY ON PROGRESS USA ....

- Roman Reigns returned to confront Brian Cage after Cage viciously attacked him the previous week ....

- Kenny King defeated his former partner Darren Young, making the statement that he is ready to shine as a singles star ....

- AJ Styles returned for the first time since Progress USA #1, confronting the Miz and saving Austin Theory from a post match beat-down ....

- In the main event, Charlotte Flair defeated Molly Holly prior to their upcoming Wrestlemania 10 match where Charlotte’s Universal title was on the line ....


Mauro Renallo & Renee Young are at the announce table to start this weeks show .... Tonight we will see the in-ring return of AJ Styles, Kenny King will be in action, plus the Progress tag team title tournament begins!  The main event will see Roman Reigns and Brian Cage finally go one on one!  Will the ring even be able to contain these two????


Match 1: Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa - def - The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder) to advance in the Progress tag team title tournament

Gargano forces Wilder to tap out to the GargaNO-ESCAPE as Ciampa prevents Dawson from making the save ....


IN THE BACK:

Miz confronts Austin Theory behind the scenes .... Miz puts himself over first, but then says he sees a lot of himself in Austin Theory .... he was impressed last week .... Miz knows what it takes to make a Star and he wants to help guide Theory’s career .... Theory turns him down and says that he scared the Miz last week .... Miz took him lightly and he pushed him and now the Miz is scared.  Theory wants another match for the title!  Miz gets pissed and walks off ....


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Redragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilley - def - The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) to advance in the Progress tag team title tournament

Fish & O’Reilley take out Dawkins with the total elimination, then Ford runs wild on them but gets caught in the Chasing the Dragon for the pin ....


The Miz comes out to the ring for the next segment .... Miz calls Austin Theory an ungrateful brat because he turned down him mentoring him, and says Theory is starting to believe his own hype .... Miz then puts himself over as being on another level than everyone else in Progress until he is interrupted by Johnny Gargano!

HUGE chants of ‘Johnny Wrestling!’ as Miz tries to speak .... Gargano is out here to challenge the Miz for the US title!  Miz laughs it off, saying the names ‘The Miz’ and ‘Johnny Gargano’ do not belong in the same sentence because Gargano is beneath him ....

Johnny says that he‘s proven what these people chant .... he’s proven that he’s ‘Johnny Freakin Wrestling!’ .... he says that they saw it in the Gauntlet for the Gold, and the people are ready for a change .... Miz & Gargano stand off and then Miz tries to attack but Gargano fights him off at first .... Miz cuts Gargano off with a knee lift and tosses him to the floor .... Gargano immediately back to the apron and Miz goes after him but Gargano scores with an enziguri .... SLINGSHOT DDT!  Gargano picks up the US title and stands tall as the crowd chants  “you deserve it” chants.


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IN THE BACK -

Backstage, Miz is furious and says he’s going to take care of the ‘Johnny Gargano problem’ .... If Johnny wants to be the US champion so bad, then he challenges him to a match at Progress: UNIFIED!  MVP interrupts and says Gargano already has a match at UNIFIED, he’s in the tag team tournament .... Miz says ‘exactly!’ and that Gargano is a tag team wrestler and doesn’t deserve a title shot .... but Miz will face him there and if he wants the title shot bad enough he will take the match otherwise he will go sit at home and not defend the title for 30 days ....


’Pretty Boy Pitbull’ Kenny King - def - Lio Rush

King continues his impressive singles run, pinning Rush after hitting the Coronation ....


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AJ Styles - def - Kid Kash

AJ is back, getting the win after the Styles Clash ....


After the match, Kenny King makes his way out on the stage .... King says his coming out party was last week, but that’s also the week that AJ Styles, the ‘great white hope’ decided to come back .... King accuses AJ of stealing his moment .... People were supposed to be talking about King but instead they were talking about AJ ....

They are both interrupted as Austin Aries makes his way out .... Aries says King is MVP’s new boy so he’s getting opportunity to shine on tv, and apparently AJ gets a free pass from everyone .... meanwhile, the greatest man that ever lived is sitting on the sidelines for the 2nd week in a row .... Aries says he guesses the only way he can get on tv is by coming out here and calling BOTH of them out .... Aries wants to wrestle both of them on the big stage and he doesn’t matter who it is but he wants a match at Progress: UNIFIED!


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Up next, the women’s Universal Champion Charlotte Flair makes her way to the ring for promo .... Wrestlemania is approaching rapidly, and so is change .... Charlotte says she broke down Awesome Kong and chased her for a year .... and before she could take the title from her, Molly Holly swooped in after her 100th chance at the title and stole Charlotte’s moment .... Every time they have been in the ring together Charlotte has embarrassed Molly but she didn’t walk away with that title .... Charlotte is fed up with being the absolute best and not having the world title to show for it .... she proved last week that it’s not the title that makes the Champion, but it’s the Champion that makes the title and Molly is nothing but a transitional champion .... she thanks Molly for her service, but her time is over and Charlotte will take it from here ....


IN THE BACK -

Gargano cuts a promo and says he accepts Miz’s terms on the match at UNIFIED! .... Ciampa interrupts and says Miz has gotten in Johnny’s head and he needs to stop worrying about the US title .... they need to stay focused on the Progress tag title tournament .... Gargano says this is HIS time to be a champion, but he’s got Ciampas back and he won’t let him down ....


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PROMO -

Promo airs for Progress: UNIFIED! On Wrestlemania weekend.  Matches confirmed for the show are:

Progress tag team title semi-finals & Finals

Paige defends the Shimmer title against Toni Storm

AND JUST ADDED TO THE CARD:

The Miz defends the United States title against Johnny Gargano

AJ Styles vs Kenny King vs Austin Aries in a 3 way dance ....


‘The Machine’ Brian Cage - def - Roman Reigns in the Main Event

The action goes all over the place and sees Reigns spears Cage through the ring barrier as well as Cage puts Reigns through the announce table with a powerbomb off the apron .... Cage resorts to a low blow and then drills Reigns with the Weapon X but Reigns kicks out .... Reigns comes back with a Superman punch and then goes for the spear again but Cage cuts him off with a tornado lariat!  Cage picks him up and hits him with the Drill Claw (Steiner Screwdriver) and that is enough to get the 3 count ....

After the match, Cage is not done .... Cage grabs a chair and attacks Reigns, clobbering him multiple times!  He picks him up and hits another Drill Claw!  Reigns does a stretcher job out of the arena, but Cage attacks him while he’s on the stretcher!!!!  He pulls Reigns off and then power bombs him onto the stretcher!!!!  Reigns is carried out as the show ends ....