PROGRESS Wrestling: Blood, Laughs, Chaos, and a New Revolution 

PROGRESS Wrestling has never felt like just another wrestling promotion. At its best, it feels like a gig, a riot, a community meeting, a theatre show, and a full-contact sporting war all happening at once. It is loud, sweaty, emotional, funny, brutal, weird, clever, and proudly British. From its early days in London to its modern chapter under new ownership, PROGRESS has built a reputation as one of the most distinctive independent wrestling brands in the world. 

It is a place where a wrestler can kick someone so hard the whole room winces, then two minutes later have the crowd roaring with laughter. It is where serious athletes, cult heroes, villains, comedians, monsters, misfits, technicians, bruisers, and future global stars all collide. That mix has always been the magic: PROGRESS is hard-hitting wrestling with a personality, and that personality is massive. 

The Early Days: A Small Room, a Big Attitude, and a Different Kind of Wrestling 

PROGRESS was founded in 2011 by Jim Smallman and Jon Briley, later joined by Glen Joseph, with the idea of presenting professional wrestling in a way that felt modern, intimate, and fiercely connected to its audience. It was not built to look like a polished television product. It was built to feel alive. The early PROGRESS shows were chaptered like a story, often carrying playful, strange, or dramatic names that gave each event its own identity rather than making it feel like just another date on a calendar. 

The company grew around a punk-rock spirit. The Electric Ballroom in Camden became its spiritual home: a venue that gave PROGRESS shows the feeling of a sweaty underground concert. Fans were not just watching; they were part of the sound, the rhythm, and the mythology. Chants, entrances, running jokes, shocking title changes, and emotional main events made the promotion feel like something you had to experience live. 

In those early years, PROGRESS became a platform for names who would later become huge across the wrestling world. The company helped showcase a generation of British and European talent, from technical specialists to brawlers to character performers. Its identity was rooted in strong-style influence, British wrestling tradition, and an alternative entertainment edge that made it feel different from mainstream wrestling. 

Why PROGRESS Felt Unique 

The heart of PROGRESS has always been contrast. One match might be a grim, strike-heavy fight where every chop sounds like a car crash. The next might be filled with character comedy, crowd participation, and beautiful nonsense. But the comedy has rarely meant the wrestling stops mattering. That is important. PROGRESS comedy works because the performers can still go. The joke lands, then the lariat lands harder. 

This is where someone like Gene Munny becomes such a perfect PROGRESS wrestler. Gene can make a room laugh before the bell even rings. He has the timing of a variety performer, the confidence of a pantomime villain when needed, and the ridiculous charm of someone who understands that wrestling is supposed to be fun. But then the match starts properly, and suddenly he is not just the funny guy. He is tough, clever, physical, and capable of dragging the audience into a real fight. That is the PROGRESS sweet spot: laugh with him, chant with him, then realise he has just delivered one hell of a match. 

Promotion Personality

PROGRESS has always understood that show names matter. The chapter system gives the promotion a sense of serial storytelling, like every event is another page in a chaotic wrestling novel. Some names are dramatic, some are strange, and some feel like inside jokes that somehow become part of the company’s charm. 

• Hello Wembley captured the ambition of PROGRESS at its biggest, presenting independent wrestling on a grand stage. 

• Super Strong Style 16 became the promotion’s signature tournament, a yearly proving ground for elite wrestlers. 

• UNBOXING shows gave PROGRESS a festive mystery-box feeling, where surprises and unpredictability became part of the appeal. 

• For The Love of PROGRESS leaned into the emotional connection between the promotion and its fans. 

• In Darkest Night and In Brightest Day showed the company’s taste for comic-book-style drama and bold event branding. 

• Camden Lock Up tied the show directly to the promotion’s Camden identity. 

• Wonderbrawl sounded exactly like the kind of joyful chaos PROGRESS can deliver. 

That naming style is part of why PROGRESS feels less like a faceless wrestling product and more like a living scene. The shows have attitude before the first entrance music even hits. 

Choosing the “best” PROGRESS matches is almost impossible because the promotion has meant different things at different times. Some fans love the technical classics. Others remember the violent grudge matches, emotional title fights, wild ladders, or star-making tournament bouts. But several match types and moments stand out as examples of what PROGRESS does brilliantly. 

• Will Ospreay vs Zack Sabre Jr. helped define the early Super Strong Style 16 legacy: speed, technique, athletic invention, and a feeling that British wrestling was producing world-class stars. 

• Tommy End vs Mark Andrews showed the tournament’s range, mixing striking danger with heart and resilience. 

• Tommaso Ciampa vs Zack Sabre Jr. represented the kind of international dream match PROGRESS could host when its reputation was white hot. 

• WALTER’s PROGRESS appearances brought a terrifying physicality. His matches felt less like performances and more like survival tests. 

• Women’s title ladder matches, including battles involving Rhio, Kanji, Lizzy Evo, and Nina Samuels, proved that the women’s division could produce the same level of danger, drama, and spectacle as anything on the card. 

• Recent title and tournament matches involving names like Cara Noir, Man Like DeReiss, Luke Jacobs, Gene Munny, Charles Crowley, Simon Miller, Kanji, and Rhio show that modern PROGRESS still has a deep, varied roster. 

The best PROGRESS matches tend to share one thing: commitment. Whether the match is deadly serious, ridiculous, emotional, or violent, the wrestlers commit completely. That commitment is why the audience believes in it. 

Women’s Wrestling in PROGRESS: From Important Division to Centre Stage 

Women’s wrestling in PROGRESS has become one of the promotion’s most important strengths. It is not an afterthought, not a novelty, and not something placed on the card simply to tick a box. At its best, the PROGRESS women’s division has been intense, character-driven, technically sharp, and emotionally rich. 

The division has featured champions, challengers, and personalities who all bring something different. Rhio has carried herself like a serious, dangerous top-level champion. Kanji brings snap, precision, charisma, and a confidence that makes every match feel important. Nina Samuels has brought showmanship and villainous glamour. Alexxis Falcon, Gisele Shaw, Skye Smitson, Lizzy Evo, Lana Austin, Hollie Barlow, and others have helped build a division that can deliver technical wrestling, brawling, comedy, arrogance, fire, and full-on main-event drama. 

What makes the division exciting is that the wrestlers are not all trying to be the same thing. Some are pure fighters. Some are characters. Some are bruisers. Some are technicians. Some can talk the audience into hating them before they even lock up. That variety matters because it gives the division texture. It means a Kanji match does not feel like a Rhio match, and a Rhio match does not feel like a Nina Samuels match. 

The First-Ever Women’s Super Strong Style 16!!

The announcement and staging of the first-ever Women’s Super Strong Style 16 was a landmark moment for PROGRESS. The men’s tournament had long been one of the company’s most prestigious traditions, first introduced as a gruelling sixteen-person single-elimination tournament. Adding a women’s version did more than create another trophy chase. It said that the women’s roster deserved the same grand stage, the same danger, the same tournament mythology, and the same opportunity to define an era. 

The 2026 Women’s Super Strong Style 16 was especially exciting because its first round went global, with matches connected to partner promotions in Europe and North America before the tournament reached its final stages at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. That gave the tournament a wider identity: it was not just a PROGRESS event, it was a statement that women’s independent wrestling belongs on an international platform. 

The tournament featured major names and compelling styles, including Rhio, Kanji, Gisele Shaw, Shotzi Blackheart, Skye Smitson, Hollie Barlow, Stephanie Maze, LA Taylor, and others. Rhio winning the tournament gave the first women’s edition a powerful final image: a performer already central to the division becoming tied forever to a historic first. 

The real victory, though, was bigger than one bracket. The Women’s Super Strong Style 16 created a new tradition. It gave future wrestlers something to chase. It gave fans dream matches to debate. It gave PROGRESS another pillar around which to build its future. 

Hard-Hitting Wrestling and Beautiful Comedy 

PROGRESS has always had teeth. The strikes are loud, the suplexes are nasty, the championship matches can feel like emotional punishment, and the tournament format rewards wrestlers who can survive as much as they can perform. But the promotion also understands that wrestling is not just violence. It is timing, audience manipulation, personality, and surprise. 

That is why comedy in PROGRESS often works so well. It comes from character, not from laziness. Gene Munny is the perfect example. He can make the crowd laugh with a look, a pause, or a ridiculous flourish, but he never lets the match become empty. The humour adds flavour; it does not replace the fight. When Gene takes punishment, it matters. When he fires back, the crowd wants it. When he wins, it feels earned because behind the comedy is a real wrestler with real timing and real toughness. 

Charles Crowley brings a different kind of theatrical chaos. He feels like a character who has escaped from a haunted circus and decided to become a professional wrestler. There is drama in the movement, weirdness in the presentation, and danger underneath the showmanship. That makes him ideal for PROGRESS: strange enough to stand out, skilled enough to belong, and charismatic enough to turn every entrance into an event. 

Simon Miller offers another flavour entirely. Known by many fans for his enthusiasm, presence, and connection with wrestling media, Miller has also become a genuinely compelling in-ring PROGRESS figure. His matches work because the crowd can feel how much he cares. There is a sincerity to him. He looks like someone who is living out a dream but also taking the responsibility seriously. That passion makes him easy to support, especially when he is thrown into a fight against sharper, nastier, or more theatrical opponents. 

Bullit brings impact. The name fits. He feels direct, heavy, and dangerous, the kind of wrestler who can give a card a sudden jolt of physical force. In a promotion full of big personalities, someone like Bullit matters because he can change the tone of a show. A comedy-heavy crowd can suddenly straighten up when the match becomes about power, collisions, and survival. 

Kanji, meanwhile, represents the brilliance of sharp-edged modern women’s wrestling in PROGRESS. She wrestles with bite. Her offence feels crisp, her confidence is obvious, and she has the aura of someone who knows exactly how good she is. In a division full of big characters and hard hitters, Kanji stands out because she can be both stylish and ruthless. She is the kind of wrestler who makes a tournament feel more important simply by being in it. 

The Lee McAteer and Martyn Best Era: Rebuilding PROGRESS from the Ground Up 

Before the current era, PROGRESS went through one of the most important rebuilds in its history under Lee McAteer and Martyn Best. Their ownership was not just a business handover; it was a rescue mission, a relaunch, and a statement of belief. They took over at a time when the promotion had been battered by controversy, the pandemic, a loss of momentum, and a damaged relationship with parts of its audience. PROGRESS still had a famous name, a powerful history, and an incredible back catalogue, but it needed trust, direction, energy, and hard work to make it feel alive again. 

McAteer and Best brought a more professional, commercially minded style of ownership while still understanding that wrestling cannot be run like a cold corporate spreadsheet. It needed heart. It needed fans to feel welcome again. It needed wrestlers to believe the platform mattered. It needed venues, production, streaming, marketing, partnerships, and a schedule that could rebuild habits. They had to make PROGRESS feel dependable without sanding away the chaos that made it special. 

One of their biggest achievements was simply getting PROGRESS moving again. The promotion returned to live events, rebuilt its regular rhythm, and re-established the idea that a PROGRESS show was still something fans should circle on the calendar. That sounds simple, but it is not. After a long break and a difficult public period, momentum does not magically return. It has to be earned show by show, ticket by ticket, match by match, and conversation by conversation. 

They also worked hard to modernise the way PROGRESS reached its audience. Demand PROGRESS PLUS became a key part of that identity, giving fans a dedicated way to follow the product and helping the promotion stand on its own feet beyond older distribution relationships. That mattered because it gave PROGRESS more control over its presentation, archive, and future. It was not just about putting shows online; it was about rebuilding a direct connection with the people who cared enough to keep watching. 

Their era also saw PROGRESS become more outward-looking again. The working relationship with DEFY Wrestling opened doors to the American independent scene, while connections with Pro Wrestling NOAH gave the company a more international flavour. These partnerships mattered because they made PROGRESS feel plugged into a wider wrestling world rather than isolated in its own bubble. They created possibilities for talent exchanges, shared shows, overseas exposure, and a bigger sense that the promotion still had global relevance. 

Another major part of their achievement was ambition. PROGRESS did not just hide in London and hope nostalgia would carry it. Under McAteer and Best, the company expanded its live footprint, returned to international opportunities, and presented shows in places such as the United States as part of major wrestling weekends. That kind of growth requires organisation, money, risk, logistics, relationships, and nerve. It takes people willing to make calls, book venues, move talent, promote shows, and keep going even when independent wrestling is financially unforgiving. 

They also helped create a platform where modern PROGRESS names could thrive. Wrestlers such as Cara Noir, Rhio, Kanji, Gene Munny, Charles Crowley, Simon Miller, Luke Jacobs, Man Like DeReiss, Kid Lykos, Alexxis Falcon, and many others benefited from a promotion that was once again running, promoting, filming, and giving performers meaningful stages. The roster during this period developed its own identity, not simply as a tribute act to the old PROGRESS boom, but as a new generation with its own weirdness, toughness, humour, and fire. 

What stands out most is the workload. McAteer later spoke openly about how demanding the role became, describing the huge energy required and the pressure of keeping the business moving. That honesty gives the era extra weight. Running an independent wrestling promotion is not glamorous behind the curtain. It is cash flow, production issues, talent travel, audience trust, venue costs, late nights, early mornings, social media pressure, and the constant fear that one bad run can undo months of progress. The fact that PROGRESS survived that period and came out stronger says a lot about the grind they put in. 

Their final decision to pass the company to Big Damo and Nikki Storm also says something important about their ownership style. Reports around the sale made clear that McAteer saw Damo and Nikki as people who could take PROGRESS further, and that the right custodians mattered more than simply chasing the highest offer. That is a very wrestling kind of legacy. They did not just buy a brand, squeeze it, and leave. They stabilised it, professionalised it, grew it, restored credibility, built new relationships, and then handed it to people with deep roots in the scene. 

That is why the McAteer and Best era deserves real respect. It may not always have had the wild mythology of the original boom years, but it had something just as important: restoration. They took PROGRESS from a wounded, uncertain place and made it feel like a serious player again. They gave it structure. They gave it international ambition. They gave it a functioning future. They made it possible for the next ownership era to begin from a position of strength rather than survival. 

The New Ownership Era: Big Damo, Nikki Storm, and Fresh Possibilities 

In 2026, PROGRESS entered a major new chapter when Big Damo and Nikki Storm took ownership of the promotion. That matters because both are not just business figures stepping into wrestling. They are wrestlers with deep roots in the UK and Irish scene, international experience, and a personal understanding of what independent wrestling can mean to performers and fans. 

Big Damo’s connection to PROGRESS is especially meaningful. He has wrestled there, held major championships, and understands the physical identity of the brand. Nikki Storm brings her own reputation as a trailblazing performer with charisma, experience, and a serious appreciation for character work. Together, they could guide PROGRESS into an era that respects the old spirit while opening new doors. 

Their ownership also connects PROGRESS with wider possibilities through relationships involving DEFY Wrestling and international independent wrestling. That could mean more talent exchanges, more overseas appearances, more first-round tournament matches in different countries, and more chances for British and Irish wrestlers to be seen by global audiences. It could also mean fresh American names appearing in Camden, European stars getting bigger opportunities, and PROGRESS wrestlers travelling abroad with real momentum behind them. 

What We Might See Next 

• More international crossover: PROGRESS could continue building links with promotions in North America, Europe, and Japan, creating tournament matches and title defences that feel bigger than one country. 

• New locations: Camden will always matter, but Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast, and overseas partner cities could all become important parts of a wider PROGRESS map. 

• Fresh women’s division focus: The first Women’s Super Strong Style 16 should not be a one-off. It can become a yearly showcase that attracts world-class talent. 

• More character-led storytelling: With performers like Charles Crowley, Gene Munny, Simon Miller, and Bullit, PROGRESS can continue mixing theatre, comedy, danger, and emotion. 

• New young stars: PROGRESS has always worked best when it feels like the place where the next big name is being made before everyone else catches on. 

• Bigger destination shows: Events like Hello Wembley proved PROGRESS can dream big. Under new ownership, the company may eventually chase another major venue moment. 

Why PROGRESS Still Matters 

PROGRESS matters because it has never been only about winners and losers. It is about identity. It is about the feeling of walking into a venue and knowing the crowd understands the language of the promotion. It is about chants, shocks, bruises, punchlines, title changes, emotional returns, and wrestlers becoming cult heroes in real time. 

It has had difficult chapters, changes, resets, and rebuilds. But the reason people still care is because PROGRESS can still produce that spark: the moment where a room rises, a wrestler levels up, and the show suddenly feels bigger than wrestling. That spark is why fans remember the best matches. It is why the women’s division deserves the spotlight. It is why comedy and hard-hitting action can exist on the same card. It is why someone like Gene Munny can make you laugh and then make you believe. It is why Kanji, Simon Miller, Charles Crowley, Bullit, Rhio, Gene Munny, and so many others feel like parts of a living, breathing scene. 

Under Big Damo and Nikki Storm, PROGRESS has a chance to honour its loud, strange, passionate past while building something fresh. More cities. More wrestlers. More women’s wrestling. More international flavour. More brutality. More comedy. More unforgettable show names. More nights where Camden, Manchester, or anywhere else feels like the centre of the wrestling universe. 

That is the beauty of PROGRESS. It is not neat. It is not quiet. It is not ordinary. It is wrestling with its heart turned up loud.