Progress Wrestling (stylized as PROGRESS) is a British

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

that was established in 2011 by comedian Jim Smallman, events and comedy promoter Jon Briley, and later, actor Glen Robinson (professionally known as Glen Joseph). The company is now co-owned by Lee McAteer, Martyn Best, and Matthew Buczek.

History

Progress was conceived by Jim Smallman and Jon Briley in 2011, who were both wrestling fans. Smallman is a fan of "

strong style Strong may refer to: Education * The Strong, an educational institution in Rochester, New York, United States * Strong Hall (Lawrence, Kansas), an administrative hall of the University of Kansas * Strong School, New Haven, Connecticut, United Sta ...

" wrestling, Japanese in particular, and Briley was Smallman's agent. In 2015, Progress appeared for five nights at

Download Festival Download Festival is a rock festival created by Andy Copping, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003); in Paris, France (since 2016); at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 2019); Flemington ...

. In December of that year, they began running regular shows at The Ritz in Manchester. On 30 September 2018, Progress Wrestling held "Hello Wembley" at the

Wembley Arena Wembley Arena () (originally the Empire Pool, currently known as OVO Energy, OVO Arena Wembley for sponsorship reasons) is an indoor arena next to Wembley Stadium in Wembley, Greater London, England. The 12,500-seat facility is Greater Lond ...

. Billed by the promotion as the largest independent wrestling show in England for 30 years, the event drew 4,750 people; making it the most attended event in Progress Wrestling history. In 2016, the company began working relationships with other promotions. At Chapter 29 on 24 April in London, Progress hosted two qualifying matches for the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. In 2017, Progress wrestlers such as

Pete Dunne Peter Thomas England (born 9 November 1993) is an English professional wrestler best known under the ring name Pete Dunne. As of April 2017, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand, and is one-half of the New Catch Republic wit ...

Tyler Bate Tyler Bate (born 7 March 1997) is an English professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE where he performs on the Raw brand and is one of the two members of New Catch Republic, performing alongside Pete Dunne. In 2017, he became the inaugur ...

Trent Seven Benjamin Maurice Webb (born 21 August 1981), known by the ring name Trent Seven, is an English Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and Promoter (entertainment), wrestling promoter. He has worked for WWE, where he performed on their NXT ...

, and Mark Andrews participated in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament, culminating in Bate being crowned the first ever WWE UK Champion. Smallman left Progress at the end of 2019 after Chapter 100. In June 2020, Progress reacted to reports of sexual harassment in the British independent circuit. After several accusations had been circulating of behaviour at other wrestling promotions, Progress decided to no longer work with David Starr, Travis Banks, and El Ligero, as well as suspending indefinitely then- Tag team Champions Jordan Devlin and Scotty Davis, who vacated the titles. Ring announcer and creative team member Matt Richards also left the promotion. On 21 June 2020, it was announced that Glen Joseph was stepping down with Michael Oku, Vicky Haskins and James Amner all taking prominent roles in the company. By the time the company returned to running shows, only James Amner would remain involved, and Amner played a key part in the future ownership of the company. In 2021, Progress announced its return amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, travelling to South London to set up a temporary home at Theatre Peckham for Chapter 104: Natural Progression on 20 February, eventually producing 23 shows behind closed doors which featured on the WWE Network. On 31 December that year, ahead of their return to live shows in January 2022, it was announced that Progress had been acquired by Lee McAteer and Martyn Best - taking over ownership from Briley. On 9 February 2024, it was announced that PROGRESS Wrestling would merge with

DEFY Wrestling DEFY Wrestling is an American Independent circuit, independent professional wrestling promotion based out of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. DEFY was created in 2017 after founders Jim Perry and Matt Farmer successfully petitioned the Wa ...

, an independent promotion based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington in the United States. It was created to bring a "global presence" to both brands and aid further expansion plans.

Demand Progress Plus

''Demand Progress Plus'' is Progress'

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

service that launched in 2023, replacing the previous service on Pivotshare. January 2017 had seen the first episode of ''Freedom's Road'', a new series from Progress which would feature matches taped specifically for the show and have a heavy focus on characters and plots.

Championships

As of , .

Current champions

Progress Proteus Championship

The Progress Proteus Championship is a

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

created and promoted by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event. Within ...

Progress Wrestling. The title was named after the shapechanging

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

god,

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus ( ; ) is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" (''hálios gérôn''). Some who ascribe a specific domain to Prote ...

. Progress co-founder Jim Smallman said in the announcement that the champion will be able to pick the stipulation for the championship matches, subject to approval by the promotion. It was announced on 21 July 2019 that the old Progress Atlas Championship which was unified with the Progress World Championship will be replaced. The Atlas title was later revived.

Reigns

Reception

Patrick Lennon, wrestling journalist for the '' Daily Star'', has attended and reviewed Progress shows. Carrie Dunn, founder and main contributor of wrestling blog "The Only Way is Suplex", published the book ''Spandex, Screw Jobs & Cheap Pops: Inside the Business of British Pro Wrestling''. Progress Wrestling features frequently in the book including opening a chapter regarding London based wrestling promotions.

References

External links

*
Progress Wrestling (Progress)
at Cagematch.net {{navboxes , list1= {{Pro Wrestling Noah {{Westside Xtreme Wrestling {{WWE {{Professional wrestling in the United Kingdom Progress Wrestling 2011 establishments in the United Kingdom Entertainment companies established in 2011 British professional wrestling promotions