Main photo by Rob Brazier

Here’s five things you need to know about British wrestling this week:

1) Havoc caused more chaos for Scurll at PROGRESS

PROGRESS opened up volume four of their storied history with a blow-away show at the Ritz in Manchester last Sunday.

Titled A Sudden Sense of Liberty (named for a line from a New Order song — all of PROGRESS’s Manchester shows are named for local bands’ songs), the show was headlined by the first defense of the PROGRESS title for new champion Mark Haskins, who won the big one at the Brixton show last month.

Haskins took on Zack Gibson, who received thunderous heat as usual, and made Liverpool’s number one tap out with the sharpshooter after 25 minutes of white hot action.

Kay Lee Ray and Kimber Lee join the Women of PROGRESS — photo by Tomas Munoz

The show opened with a Bubblegum win over Chuck Mambo before Kimber Lee and Kay Lee Ray made their PROGRESS debuts, with KLR picking up a cheat-assisted win to make her a firm heel favourite going into the women’s Natural Progressions series which starts in London at the end of the month.

Two more newcomers appeared for the first time in a PROGRESS ring (although one had done an ENDVR show) as James Drake, usually found on the local FutureShock roster, beat Fabian Aichner, late of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic. Both men impressed, and Aichner received a “please come back!” chant.

Alongside a successful defense of his Atlas Division Championship by Rampage Brown, and a rankings-boosting tag team three-way win for the South Pacific Power Trip (over FSU and The Origin), the issue of the number one contender to Haskins’ title was settled in a four-way between former champion Marty Scurll, Joe Coffey, Pete Dunne, and Trent Seven, a late replacement for the stuck-in-Germany Shane Strickland.

Scurll triumphed, but was laid out by Jimmy Havoc again after the match. And it may be that Havoc will have to be dealt with before Scurll can challenge Haskins again.

All the action can be seen on Demand PROGRESS, and their return to the Electric Ballroom in Camden is on October 30th, with the gloriously-titled When Men Throw Men At Men.

2) Fight!Nation’s Canterbury show was a good night for Marks

Haskins and Scurll were also busy on Saturday night, in Canterbury, where they appeared at Fight!Nation’s Fight! For Your Right! at the Westgate Hall.

Haskins is champion here, too, but rather than defend his title he appeared in a six-man main event tagging with “Savvy” Sid Scala & Lewis Howley against James Castle & the Swords of Essex, Paul Robinson & Scott Wainwright. As befitting a show where kids went free, the good guys prevailed and the crowd went home happy.

Haskins flies out onto the Swords of Essex — photo by Shoot.Wrestle’s JD Howells

Scurll, a former champion here as well, lost to Mark Andrews, and there were also wins for RevPro regular Lord Gideon Grey over WCPW’s Lucas Archer, for Psycho Phillips against Robert Sharpe, and for “Blackbelt” Tom Dawkins against Josh Bodom — Dawkins’ work here, in IPW:UK and for the XWA is turning heads and it shouldn’t be too long before he follows fellow London School of Lucha Libre graduate Will Ospreay into the upper echelons of British wrestling.

Fight!Nation have a free weekly “TV” show on their YouTube channel, where you can keep up with all the latest action, as well as a “History of Fight!Nation” feature available for £2.50 (just over $3) on their Vimeo page. The promotion return this Sunday in Weymouth with another kids-go-free show.

3) Jones and Ricci shared the big prize at Dragon-Pro

An eponymous match for the All-Wales Championship number one contendership was the main event at Dragon Pro-Wrestling’s Battle Royale last Sunday, and when the dust had settled at Rodney Parade in Newport, Danny Jones and (the former Panda Cub) Edwin Ricci were announced as joint winners.

Both men will now go forward to face Big Grizzly at the promotion’s return to Newport on December 4th, having eliminated eight other men — amongst them Gideon, Mike Bird, and Wild Boar.

Action from the Rookie Of The year qualifiers — photo by Turning Face’s Jim Maitland

Grizzly opened the show in a non-title exhibition match, where he made short work of Cal Adams, but the promotion’s other championship — the Dragon-Pro Tag Team titles  — were defended, as The Pure Breed (Matt Horgan & Owen Wall) defeated the Wild Cards to retain their titles. The champions continued to beat on the challengers after the bell, until Oliver Satchwell and Brendan White made the save, and that pairing will face The Pure Breed for the titles on December 4th.

Elsewhere on a show which also featured two Rookie of the Year qualifying matches, two semifinals were held for the Celtic Crown Women’s Championship, won by Jetta (over Sierra Loxton) and Kat Von Kaige (who beat Aurora Skye), and those two will also fight for the title in December.

Dragon-Pro is an extension of the training school which has produced much of Wales’ top talent, including Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster, and Wild Boar.

4) Shady Nattrass was on Target

Target Wrestling High-Octane Champion Shady Nattrass was a busy man over the weekend for the border-straddling promotion, defending his title on no less than three occasions in two nights.

At the Corner House Hotel in Annan, on Friday night, Nattrass was scheduled to defend against Martin Kirby in the main event, but came out midway through the show and declared he fancied a warm-up. The Coyote Kid accepted the challenge, and was promptly dispatched, before Nattrass reappeared to close the show with a victory over Kirby.

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Shady Nattrass: beloved by fans?

The next night, at The Venue in Carlisle, Nattrass faced DCT and again successfully defended his title before attacking DCT, the referee, and the ringside camera crew, causing chaos in his wake. The Carlisle show also featured a Target Wrestling Tag Team titles defense, with The New Age Kliq scheduled to defend against the Guest List.

However, Chris Renfrew was attacked before the show and BT Gunn was ordered to defend the belts alone, in a handicap match, against the Guest List’s newest members, Darkside & Martin Kirby. The Guest List triumphed and the company has new tag team champions.

Across the weekend, Spyda picked up two wins — the second over ICW’s Stevie Xavier — and there were also wins for Mark Coffey (over Bram), Robbie Dynamite & Dean Allmark (over Havok & Karnage of the Guest List), and for Ryan Hunter, who beat both members of The New Nation in a three-way match.

The company have nothing announced between now & the end of the year but you should keep an eye on their Facebook page for details.

5) Bird & Boar ran wild in Bristol (and other stuff)

Pro-Evolution Wrestling returned to Bristol at the Merchants’ Academy on Saturday night with a big Pro-EVO Tag Team Championship match between champions The Fever and challengers in the shape of Mike Bird & Wild Boar. The match was declared a no contest after Bird & Boar refused to stop an attack on The Fever, who kept their titles.

Earlier in the show — which also featured wins for Robbie Caine, Alan Daniels, and Joseph Miller — The Renegades picked up a big win over the team of Jim Hunter & Travis Banks and, in the show opener, Big Grizzly beat Jake McCluskey. Pro-EVO return on Saturday in Stroud.

Deeper into the south west, in Barnstaple, the Devon Wrestling Association ran The Factory on Saturday night. The show was headlined by a DWA Tag Team Trophy TLC match which saw Winners & Sinners (Marcus Baine & PJ Jones) beat The Magnums (Chris Walker & Dick Riley) to become the new champions.

Elsewhere on the show, which also featured Eddie Ryan and Ultimo Tiger, The UK Dominator won a three-way match over Jason King and John Harding, and former-NXT star Joel Redman defended his DWA Trophy in a street fight against Iestyn Rees.

OTT at the Spigeltent — photo by El Ligero

Over the water in Ireland, and this not strictly part of the remit of this column (but featuring enough UK talent to feature), Over The Top Wrestling traveled to Wexford from their Dublin base to be a part of the Spiegeltent Festival.

Alongside OTT regulars like Charlie Garrett, Ryan Smile, Jordan Devlin, Martina the Session Moth, the Gymnasties, the Kings of the North & the Wards — Dave Mastiff, El Ligero, and Bubblegum made the trip, alongside Kimber Lee (who is on an extended tour of the British isles). OTT have a big weekend — with a lot of the UK’s best at the end of October, and their VOD channel is stacked with some of the best that the UK and Ireland has to offer.