We’re currently at a time in wrestling where we are seeing a rise in the British wrestling scene. WWE just had their second United Kingdom Championship tournament, where they also announced they will be debuting the television program, NXT UK. This will be branching out their NXT brand to the British talent, and exposing fans to the growing UK scene.
A big part of this rise has been the popularity of a promotion based out of London called Progress Wrestling. The buzz around Progress picked up after they released their show, Chapter 13, on YouTube for FREE, back in 2014. The event which featured Zack Sabre Jr. taking on Prince Devitt, received a lot of eyes on the show due to the signing of Prince Devitt to WWE, now Finn Balor. The main event of that show had Jimmy Havoc defending his Progress World Championship in a ladder match against Mark Andrews. Jimmy Havoc went on to hold the title for nearly two years.
Havoc trained alongside Zack Sabre Jr. and Prince Devitt at NWA UK Hammerlock under Andre Baker. His heavy influence on Mick Foley and Sabu got him hooked to the hardcore/death match style of wrestling. He is the CZW Tournament of Death 16 winner and the longest reigning Progress World Champion in the company’s history.
While Progress Wrestling continues to grow as a company, they’re also growing their fanbase in the United States. They draw huge crowds during their WrestleMania weekend shows, and drew over 1,500 fans into the Elmcor Center in Queens, New York on a hot summer night in August of last year.
The promotion is about to embark on a 6 city tour of the United States. This Saturday, August 4th, the Progress #CoastToCoast US Tour starts in Philadelphia and is hitting Boston, New York, Seattle, Chicago and Detroit. For more info and links to purchase tickets visit progresswrestling.com or simply click HERE.
On September 30th, Progress will put on the biggest independent wrestling show in British history, the SSE Arena in Wembley, London. The man that has been in the promotion since Chapter 2 and held the World Championship for 609 days, looks to punch his ticket for the main event of Wembley. His way in, picking up 3 consecutive singles match wins in the Three-And-In Series. The man (or men) to do this will face the World Champion at Chapter 76: Hello Wembley.
I recently got to speak to Jimmy Havoc to discuss the upcoming Progress #CoastToCoast US Tour and the #HelloWembley show, his time with MLW and wrestling for WWE.
Pro Wrestling Ponderings: Who have been your favorite opponents?
Jimmy Havoc: Zack Sabre Jr. Definitely. We started training together back 15 years at Hammerlock. Since I’ve been wrestling, he’s my best friend, he’s my best mate. I’ve never been hit by another human being harder than the way he hits me so that’s always interesting. Will Ospreay. I think we bring out the best of eachother during the matches, I love working with him. Ospreay makes me run too much, which is good. Also Abyss as well. He’s someone I’ve always looked up to and also training and stuff. One of my favorite matches is with Paul Robinson from Chapter 21. That was pretty cool.
What have been your favorite matches that you’ve been a part of?
Progress Chapter 20 when Ospreay took the belt off me. Chapter 21 with me and Robinson. They switch as my favorites. They’re the ones where everything sorta went right. Winning Tournament of Death, I thought that was pretty cool. The two that really stick out were those two from Progress as favorite matches, although there’s one no one really speaks about very much but all of us fucking loved it at the time, it’s Chapter 15. It was me and Regression against Noam Dar, Ospreay, Mark Andrews and Eddie Dennis in an 8 man tag.
What would be a dream match of yours?
John Cena at WrestleMania. Cause I’ll be main event and I would make more money than I’ve ever made in my life.
Keeping on the subject of WWE, last year you wrestled at WrestleMania Axxess, how was that experience and is going to WWE a goal of yours?
I don’t think it’s a goal for any of the parties to be honest. I’m pretty sure they don’t want me, so I like to say it’s not a goal for me, if it makes it easier on my ego. Anyone that gets into wrestling says they don’t wanna work for WWE at some point, is lying. Now it might not be a goal for me because they’re so many other options. I got a paycheck from WWE, that was pretty cool. It’s the first time my parents thought, “oh this is a real job.” Nah not really but you know, I’m enjoying it. Maybe one day but I’m enjoying myself too much. I’m pretty sure they won’t let me do half the stuff I get away with.
I was born 10 years too late that’s the problem. When I was a kid watching I always thought I was gonna get into the WWE by showing up and pinning the Hardcore Champion. I’ll be Hardcore Champion and they’ll have to give me a job.
You don’t come to the United States that often but you’ve been a regular with Major League Wrestling. How have you been enjoying your time with MLW?
It’s been fun, I enjoy Florida. A quite few of my friends are working there for WWE, so I get to hangout with them once a month, which is wicked. MLW is such a cool place to work as well. Court is a really cool guy. The whole team there are wicked. I have a lot of creative freedom. My promos are real fun. I’m working with Alex Greenfield, he’s one of my producers. He used to write Smackdown, so he’s really creative, he writes horror movies as well. So in terms of the promos, that’s really fun. Just a fun promotion to work for. I get to fly out to Florida once a month, New York as well. We’re doing a War Games match next month, I’m looking forward to that.
The next question is from PWPondering’s Progress Contributor, Suit Williams (@SuitWilliams). Your first storyline in Progress was about proving to everyone that you could do more than death matches. Was that all storyline or did you feel like that was something you had to prove at the time?
It is storyline. I can, I just choose not to. I can wrestle, it’s just a lot more effort. The perception of me always has been that death match guy, so there was a bit that I wanted to prove to other people that. For myself it’s never been a thing. In terms of the storyline, I think it went really well because it was a twofold thing. We managed to get a storyline out of it but also I showed everyone I could wrestle as well. But now I don’t anymore because it’s a lot of effort. A lot of running.
On September 30th, Progress is going to have their biggest show ever at the SSE Arena in Wembley. What is your excitement level for that?
Pretty high. Growing up in England, the Wembley Arena has always the fucking place for wrestling, and I’ve managed to wrestle there before on the TNA tour against Abyss, which is fucking nuts. That was pretty cool. To do it for my home promotion as well, that’s gonna be sick.
Originally you were set to face Will Ospreay at the Wembley show, but due to other commitments Ospreay will not be at that show. Are you disappointed that the match isn’t happening?
I’m very disappointed that it’s not the Ospreay match. Obviously I’m still gonna wrestle there. I don’t know who yet. I’m sure something with happen very soon.
Who would be your ideal opponent for the Wembley show?
John Cena again. I’m definitely main eventing. Well, whoever the Progress Champion is. If I’m not in the main event, it’s bollocks because I did build the fucking company.
This Saturday the Progress #CoastToCoast US Tour starts. What is a match that you’re looking forward to most on the tour?
Unfortunately we’re giving it away on the first night, which is the ECW Arena match. Rickey Shane Page is one of my good friends. We did Tournament of Death in the first round which is cool, but it’s our first singles match. Just getting to wrestle in the ECW Arena, that was one of the very few things I’ve had in my bucket list of things to do. It’s gonna be an ECW Rules, so who knows what will happen.
I am strangely excited about wrestling WALTER. Even though I know I might die, cause he hits so fucking hard. I got Mark Andrews, on the second to last day, in Chicago. I’m really looking forward to that, I always like working with Mark. He’s small enough to throw around for me as well so that’s good.
What is your gameplan going into the Progress World Championship Match against WALTER?
Run. Run and duck. Duck a lot. Avoid chops. Hopefully I could papercut his fingers so it hurts too much to chop me. It’s either that or the Bob Sapp defense, where you just sit in the corner and you cover up and they keep hitting you until they get tired. So fingers crossed there.
What does the future hold for Jimmy Havoc?
No idea mate. I’m literally living the dream now. I’m in fucking New York, going to see AFI, because a wrestling fan just tweeted me. I have achieved more than I’ve ever dreamed . There’s still so much more, who knows what happens. As long as I’m enjoying myself. That’s all I care about.
Do you have anything you would like to take this time to plug?
Just follow me on Twitter @JimmyHavoc. I have a Big Cartel page, it’s jimmyhavoc.bigcartel.com. We have a couple of new designs coming out for t-shirts soon. Jimmy_Havoc on Instagram as well. I like Instagram, there’s pictures of me, I feel validated.
You can catch Jimmy Havoc on MLW’s weekly show MLW Fusion on beIN SPORTS on Fridays at 8pm ET. If you don’t receive the beIN SPORTS channel, you can always watch it on their YouTube channel for absolutely FREE. You can watch all past Progress Chapters as well as future shows, by signing up for Demand Progress at just $7.99 a month. Last but not least, I would like to give a big thank you to Jimmy Havoc for taking the time to sit down for this interview. Enjoy your time in the US mate!