After one year of inactivity, PROGRESS Wrestling is returning later this month with its Natural Progression Series airing on their streaming service, and the WWE Network.
The company has announced that the premiere of Chapter 104: Natural Progression will be Saturday, February 20th at 3 pm ET on Demand PROGRESS and the WWE Network.
The company is taping the shows at the Theatre Peckham and included the following note on safety protocols in its press release:
In order to ensure the safest environment we can for our talent and crew and to meet with both local, national and government guidelines for filming we have upped sticks from our normal home of The Electric Ballroom in Camden and travelled South of the river, to set up a temporary home in the incredible Theatre Peckham. We have tested, monitored and bubbled in order to bring you these shows. Theatre Peckham became one of the first venues in London to hold the See It Safely accreditation and hold great pride in the COVID-19 protocols they have in place.
The series will feature rising talent Danny Black, Big Guns Joe, Man Like Dereiss, Ethan Allen, Elijah, Luke Jacobs, Kid Lykos II, and Warren Banks.
Roy Johnson will serve as the host of the series with the commentary team of Hustle Malone and Charles Crowley.
Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT has additional details noting that the quarterfinals of the Natural Progression Series on February 20th will be accompanied by a match between Millie Mckenzie and Mercedes Blaze.
The following week’s Chapter 105 episode “Bring the Thunder” will include the first female Thunderbastard match and the conclusion of the eight-man tournament.
During the promotion’s hiatus, there were several performers accused during the Speaking Out movement forcing the company to address these issues and release several safeguarding policies. Several performers were either suspended or released after the allegations were made.
The promotion released a manifesto and included the following statement:
PROGRESS WILL NOT TOLERATE: Discriminative behaviour, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, domestic abuse, emotional abuse, grooming of an adolescent (The UK government classes anyone 18 and under as a child), bullying, online abuse, psychological abuse, financial/material abuse, abuse of power, physical abuse, economic abuse, using privilege, intimidation threats, shame dumping, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia or ANY behaviours that put talent, crew or fans at risk.
An inquiry into the U.K. wrestling scene was launched last September by the APPG on Wrestling led by MPs Alex Davies-Jones and Mark Fletcher.
