A new promotion from the Grizzled Young Veterans will host its inaugural event this June with tickets set to go on sale for the show very soon.
Taking to Twitter, the team of James Drake & Zack Gibson announced the launch of ‘Burning Heart Pro Wrestling‘ which has been “created by wrestlers, for wrestlers and fans.” The promotion’s first event will take place on June 21, at the Liverpool Olympia in Liverpool, England. Tickets for Burning Heart Pro Wrestling’s first show go on sale at 10 am GMT on Monday, April 29.
So far, no wrestlers have been announced for the show though Drake and Gibson will likely be competing. It was said that the promotion will be led by a “committee of international wrestlers.”
Friday 21st June 2024 Burning Heart Pro Wrestling takes over the historic @LpoolOlympia
Led by a committee of international wrestlers. Created by wrestlers, for wrestlers and fans. Pro wrestling from the heart ???
— Burning Heart Pro Wrestling (@burningheartpw) April 24, 2024
As Gibson made clear in the video, the Liverpool Olympia is no stranger to wrestling and violence. TNA Wrestling has often used the event for shows in the UK. In 2006, the Olympia saw the unification of the Ring of Honor World & PURE Championships as Bryan Danielson defeated the UK’s own Nigel McGuinness.
The Grizzled Young Veterans aren’t the first wrestlers to try their hand at launching a promotion. Hopefully, the pair will have better luck than AOP who attempted to launch Wrestling Entertainment Series: UK in 2022.
WES:UK promoted an impressive debut event featuring ex-WWE Superstars including CJ Perry, Lina ‘Nia Jax’ Fanene, and Adam ‘Braun Strowman’ Scherr. The promotion’s inaugural event was canceled following reports of low ticket sales and all plans for the promotion quickly fizzled out.
NXT UK’s first ever Takeover event is currently underway. The first bout of the night saw the crowning of the first ever NXT United Kingdom Tag Team Champions. Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) faced the Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake) to determine the inaugural Champions.
The rampant crowd in Blackpool were firmly behind Bate and Seven. The Grizzled Young Veterans (Gibson especially) are the most hated Superstars on the UK scene right now and it made for an electric match.
The Grizzled Young Veterans took the win after hitting their tandem Ticket To Mayhem move on Trent Seven. This came after Drake hit a huge middle rope suicide dive to Bate who was on Gibson’s shoulders. Seven attempted his own suicide dive but Drake cut him off with a dropkick in mid air.
Backstage after the win, Triple H congratulated Drake and Gibson on making history.
NXT UK Episode 3 aired on the WWE Network earlier this week. The show featured the debut of Jordan Devlin and a big time main event between Zack Gibson and Noam Dar. Here’s the full results from Episode 3:
Trent Seven b. Saxon Huxley – Seven took the win in around 5 minutes with the Burning Hammer
Flash Morgan Webster b Mark Coffey (w/Joe Coffey) – ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster took the win in around 6 minutes via crucifix pin
Danny Burch b. Sam Gradwell – Burch took the win in 4 minutes with a draping DDT
Zack Gibson b. Noam Dar – Gibson took the win in along twenty plus minute main event with the Helter Skelter
In case you missed them Here’s the full results from Episode 2:
Ligero b. Mike “The Wild Boar” Hitchman – Ligero took the pinfall win after hitting a Tornado DDT
Dakota Kai b. Killer Kelly – Kai took the pinfall win after hitting a code red/backstabber move
A highlight package aired of Zack Gibson winning the last United Kingdom Championship tournament.
Eddie Dennis appeared for a promo, he refers to Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews.
Ashton Smith b. Tucker – Smith took the pinfall win after hitting the Ash Cloud
Tyler Bate b. Wolfgang – Bate took the pinfall win after hitting the Tyler Driver ‘97
NXT UK will be airing on the WWE Network later this evening with some top bouts already announced.
The feature bout will see Noam Dar face Zack Gibson. Gibson appeared during last week’s episode and labelled Dar an “embarrassment.” NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint made the match between the two Superstars for this week. Both men are stalwarts of the UK scene and this could be a barnburner, Noam Dar has been criminally underused since joining WWE and Gibson is one of the best heel characters in the world right now.
‘Flash’ Morgan Webster will be taking on Mark Coffey. Webster broke up an assault from The Coffey Brothers on episode 1 two weeks ago, the brothers were attacking Mark Andrews after he challenged Joe Coffey.
Jordan Devlin will also be in action when he takes on Tucker. This will be Devlin’s debut match for the new WWE Network series. The Irish Superstar has been one of the standout performers on the UK independent circuit this year, having blow away matches for Over The Top (OTT) wrestling as their Champion. Devlin has also been in action for PROGRESS, scoring an incredible bout against Will Ospreay for their ‘Got Got Need’ card earlier this year, a potential Match of the Year candidate.
You can check out the results from weeks 1 and 2 here:
Tonight’s episode of NXT will feature matches taped before Takeover: Brooklyn IV on Saturday night. The main event will feature a match for the United Kingdom Championship.
Two matches have been announced for tonight’s show. Fans can likely expect several highlight packages of Saturday’s Takeover event as well.
NXT 8/22 Preview
WWE United Kingdom Championship
Pete Dunne (c) vs Zack Gibson
The winner of the NXT U.K Championship tournament in London earlier this year will get another crack at Pete Dunne tonight. Dunne defeated Gibson in Royal Albert Hall following Gibson’s tournament victory.
Meanwhile, Dunne has expressed interest in challenging for Ricochet’s newly won NXT North American Championship. He’ll have to get by Gibson tonight for that to happen, however.
Bianca Belair vs Deonna Purrazzo
A back injury forced Bianca Belair out of title contention but she’ll return tonight to take on newcomer Deonna Purrazzo. Belair is hoping the newly signed Mae Young Classic competitor isn’t the first one to hand her a loss in NXT.
Purrazzo made her in-ring NXT debut at a live event on the 17th. She competed in the MYC tapings which were held on August 8th and 9th.
The fallout from NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV
With two new champions crowned on Saturday, fans can expect to see plenty of the Takeover fallout tonight.
Ricochet is the new NXT North American Champion but you can bet Adam Cole won’t simply let that go without a fight. Shayna Baszler was also dethroned by Kairi Sane and does not appear finished with the original MYC winner either.
PROGRESS has announced the first bout for their upcoming #CoastToCoast tour which begins on August 4th in the World Famous ECW Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Grizzled Young Veterans will be facing CCK as part of the THUNDERB*STARD Tag Team Series that will be culminating at the Wembley Arena show in September.
PROGRESS has also confirmed that if the Grizzled Young Veterans (NXT UK’s Zack Gibson and James Drake) are still PROGRESS Tag Team Champions at the time of the event then this bout will be for the belts. The team of CCK (Chris Brookes and Kid Lykos) are one of the heavy favourites to win the THUNDERB*STARD match in September with their huge following in the UK so this is a huge treat for the Philly fans that will be in attendance.
The Coast to Coast tour will be taking place from August 4th and will be hitting the following cities:
4th August – 2300 Arena, Philadelphia (aka The ECW Arena). TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 28TH MAY AT 12PM ET / 5PM UK
5th August – Melrose Memorial Hall, Melrose, Boston. TICKETS
7th August – La Boom, New York City. TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 28TH MAY AT 12PM ET / 5PM UK
9th August – Washington Hall, Seattle. TICKETS ON SALE MONDAY 28TH MAY AT 12PM PT / 8PM UK
11th August – Cicero Stadium, Cicero, Chicago TICKETS
12th August – Monaghan Knights of Columbus Hall, Livonia, Detroit TICKETS
The talent that PROGRESS will be taking ‘across the pond’ for #CoastToCoast are as follows:
PROGRESS World Champion – Travis Banks (4th, 5th, 7th August only)
PROGRESS Tag Team Champions – Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake)
PROGRESS Women’s Champion – Jinny (4th, 11th, 12th August only)
WWE United Kingdom Champion – Pete Dunne
NXT Tag Team Champions – Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven)
Livepool’s No.1 Zack Gibson recently did an interview with Sports Bible ahead of PROGRESS Wrestling’s Super Strong Style tournament this weekend. During the interview, Gibson talked about the success of PROGRESS Wrestling, missing out on the WWE UK Tournament, his future with the company, and more. Here are some highlights:
On PROGRESS Wrestling’s success:
“I’m one of a handful of guys that was there on the first show that are still there now so I have been with the company and watched them grow to the position they are in now. It seems like every year we have to look around and think, ‘can it get any better than this?’ – for example when we were in the Garage the crowds were mental and then moving to the ballroom we’re thinking, ‘this is it!’.
On his goal to be in the WWE:
“It kind of goes without saying, I would imagine 99 per cent of wrestlers would admit that their goal when they first got into wrestling, especially in the modern era, was to wrestle for the WWE.That was my goal. I’ve been extra talent on a couple of shows – there’s a few pictures of me and a few of the lads as Rosebuds.
“But this was the first time I stepped into a ring as Gibson in my own gear and wrestled on a WWE event. It was a massive step in the right direction for me and a big landmark in my career. It was a bit unreal really – I’ve rubbed shoulders with these guys before but not in that capacity. I’m hoping that this leads to bigger things and hopefully this is just the first step and hopefully, you can ask me in a few years what it was like debuting on a main show.”
On missing the WWE UK Tournament:
“The deal with ITV was for nine months so in wrestling nine months just flies by, it’s no time at all. Since I hadn’t heard of any concrete plans with WWE UK, I thought I’d use ITV to raise my stock and then hopefully – because I knew I was getting quite close – that would be the catalyst that forces their [WWE’s] hand and gets me in.
“The timing couldn’t have been worse. I’d signed with ITV and almost moments later they announced they wanted to do it and I missed out. It was never promised to me but I’m fairly confident I would have been involved in the first tournament – I’ve had conversations with a few people.”
You can read the whole interview on SportsBible by clicking here.
PROGRESS has announced the final entrant(s) in their upcoming Super Strong Style 16 tournament. Taking place May 5th, 6th and 7th the annual tournament brings some of the best wrestlers from Europe, Mexico, Japan and the United States to Alexandra Palace in North London.
In an interesting twist the PROGRESS Tag Team Champions the ‘Grizzled Young Veterans’ have decided to enter themselves into the 16 man tournament…which man enters on the day has not yet been confirmed. The ‘Vets’ tag team is comprised of Zack Gibson and James Drake, Gibson is someone who is heavily linked with WWE’s United Kingdom roster after performing as part of the Axxess shows this past WrestleMania weekend. James Drake is already a member of the WWE UK roster and a chance to see the tag team perform as part of the Albert Hall shows may well become a reality this June.
The full lineup for the Super Strong Style 16 tournament is now as follows:
WWE announced over Wrestlemania weekend that the United Kingdom roster would once again be featured during a two day event in the historic Albert Hall on June 18th/19th. The company has confirmed that a tournament akin to the original in Blackpool would determine the Number 1 Contender to Pete Dunne’s United Kingdom Championship.
Whilst there are a slew of worthy challengers already signed to WWE’s United Kingdom roster we decided to look at 3 stars currently working the UK scene who could seemingly make the jump into the ‘big time’ and be crowned the next number 1 contender to the already prestigious belt, here are those names:
Nathan Cruz
You may not know Nathan Cruz, but you really should. The current NGW Champion is a veteran of the UK scene and extremely well respected by his peers. One of the most impressive aspects of his extensive resume comes from his time in the PROGRESS promotion, where he became their first ever top Champion (the belt later became a World Title) and he also held the Tag Team Championships for an extensive period of time, defeating the likes of the Sumerian Death Squad (Aleister Black’s former team), Tommaso Ciampa & Zack Sabre Jr and F.S.U (Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis). Cruz has an incredible presence and can play to crowds of varying ages with unquestionable ease, he is a talent on the UK scene that should absolutely be given a shot amongst the WWE’s growing roster. Incredibly Cruz actually wrestled as part of an NXT taping back in 2016 in a losing effort to Elias, you can read more about his time working for the company from this interview with Sky Sports.
Mark Haskins
Another veteran from UK shores who we really need to see mix it up with some of WWE’s best. Mark Haskins is the definition of a technical master, his unwavering and relentless style has seen him capture the PROGRESS World and Tag Team Championships as well as a slew of belts across Europe. His next big encounter comes as part of ICW’s Newcastle show where he steps in for an injured Paul London to challenge for the ICW World Championship against BT Gunn, who himself is another star worthy of making the tournament in June. The pinnacle of Haskins’ career thus far has to be his PROGRESS World Title win during the 2016 Brixton Academy show against Marty Scurll and Aleister Black, the bout ended in an absolutely euphoric response from the huge crowd and will be remembered for years by the PROGRESS faithful…Haskins is absolutely ready for WWE.
Zack Gibson
By now you may have already heard of Zack Gibson. ‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ has been gracing shows across the UK for a number of years and his claim to soon be the ‘World’s Number 1’ is being backed up with every passing appearance. Gibson is no stranger to the WWE United Kingdom title, he recently challenged Pete Dunne for the strap as part of a Futureshock Wrestling event and whilst he came up short another shot at the coveted prize cannot be too far away for the Scouse Superstar (he’ll definably call himself that in WWE). Interestingly Gibson’s longtime tag team and business partner James Drake is already a member of the WWE United Kingdom division, he took part in the original tournament and subsequent Norwich tapings in a reduced but somewhat prominent role and there is certainly scope to team these two on future shows for the company.
Out of the three listed there is an extremely good chance that Gibson will not only be part of the tournament, but he may actually win. Pete Dunne has been portrayed as someone of a ‘tweener’ character on NXT and the crowds have been massively behind the ‘Bruiserweight.’ A strong villainous character with the presence of Gibson may be just what is needed to help elevate the United Kingdom Championship to bigger heights and help build to what is hopefully an established Network/Television series down the line.
Are there any UK stars you’d like to see? Let us now in the comments.
WWE announced earlier this week that Axxess would feature Four Invitational tournaments taking place over three days: Thursday 5th to Saturday 7th and would feature stars from across WWE’s NXT, 205 Live and United Kingdom rosters. The winners of these tournaments would go on to face their respective title’s Champions on WrestleMania Sunday.
One of the more interesting inclusions can be found in the WWE United Kingdom Championship Invitational, which sees UK star Zack Gibson making his way to NOLA and WWE for the first time as an announced Superstar.
Gibson is one of the most well respected performers in the United Kingdom, his run for the now defunct 5 Star Wrestling arguably stole the show on every live televised programme and his performances for PROGRESS, Futureshock, OTT and ICW have made him one of the most in demand wrestlers across England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales…in fact Gibson challenged for the United Kingdom Championship earlier this year against Pete Dunne for Futureshock Wrestling.
The other names announced for the UK Invitational are as follows:
PROGRESS has announced a huge 3-Way Elimination Tag Team Title bout for this Sunday’s Chapter 65 event ‘Have Some Faith In The Sound.’
Champions James Drake and Zack Gibson (Grizzled Young Veterans) will be defending their belts against Sexy Starr (Jack Sexsmith & David Starr) and Jimmy Havoc/Mark Haskins. All three teams have had their differences over the previous chapter events, the Grizzled Young Veterans took back their belts when they recently pinned an injured Jimmy Havoc and ‘Sexy Starr’ have been in the midst of a vicious feud with the Havoc/Haskins contingent. PROGRESS hope to bring this to a head when the three teams finally share a ring together this Sunday at Chapter 65.
Other matches for this Sunday are:
PROGRESS World Championship Match – Travis Banks (c) vs “Flash” Morgan Webster
Natural Progression Series First Round Match – Danny Duggan vs Danny Jones
UK promotion 5 Star Wrestling has announced the full card for their first taping on the FreeSports channel. The company has issued the following press release for the event emanating from Liverpool’s Echo Arena on February 1st:
When we created the 5 Star Wrestling brand, we set ourselves some extremely ambitious targets. We wanted to work with the biggest and best stars from around the world, to put on huge events in front of the largest possible audiences and above all else, we wanted to finally bring LIVE wrestling to prime-time UK television.
It is with great pride that we announce a MULTI-YEAR DEAL to broadcast all future 5 Star Wrestling events LIVE on British TV, 7pm-10pm every Thursday night, starting February 1st LIVE from the Liverpool Echo Arena.
This is set to be a truly historic night featuring the 5 Star debut of the iconic Rob Van Dam!
FreeSports is a brand new channel here in the UK that can be found for FREE on FreeView, Sky, FreeSat, BT, TalkTalk TV and very soon on Virgin Media, making 5 Star Wrestling programming available in over 22 million homes across the country.
For those who aren’t in on Thursday nights, every episode of 5 Star Wrestling will repeat multiple times per week on FreeSports and we’ll be making them available via various catchup services as well as right here on our Facebook page and over on our YouTube channel.
The full announced card is as follows:
5 Star Championship Match – Rob Van Dam vs John Morrison (c)
Tap or Snap Championship Match: Submission Elimination Match – Mark Haskins vs BT Gunn vs Nathan Cruz vs Joey Axl vs Flash Morgan Webster
The Legendary Rey Mysterio vs Liverpool’s No.1 Zack Gibson
Eddie Ryan vs Jake Hager (WWE’s Jack Swagger)
5 STAR TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT – SEMI FINAL
Carlito & Chris Masters vs Adam Maxted & Charlie Sterling
5 STAR TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT – SEMI FINAL
El Ligero & Jody Fleisch vs Big Grizzly & Dave Mastiff
Moose vs Rampage Brown
Jack Jester vs ‘The Primate’ Jason Prime
Brian Cage vs The Darewolf PJ Black
***FULL MATCH CARD ANNOUNCED***
CO-MAIN EVENT For The 5 Star Championship Rob Van Dam vs John Morrison… https://t.co/U23gweHkxH
WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne will be defending his title against a Non-WWE contracted performer in February…
‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ Zack Gibson will be getting a shot at the coveted title at FutureShock Wrestling’s FutureShock Underground 25 event on February 17th. This is not the first time that Dunne has defended against a star outside of the WWE UK umbrella, he defended against BT Gunn in a 4-way match at an ICW event last year.
For those who don’t know Zack Gibson, he is one of the UK’s top stars and is featured on PROGRESS, Rev Pro and now 5 Star Wrestling.
As per the amendment email from WWE.
On February 17th at Underground 25 The Bruiserweight Pete Dunne will face Liverpool's Number One Zack Gibson…
Former WWE/WCW/Lucha Underground Superstar Rey Mysterio will once again be making his way to the United Kingdom. The Luchador legend will be making an appearance for 5 Star Wrestling against one of the UK’s biggest rising stars, Zack Gibson.
The match will be headlining the company’s February 1st show in Liverpool’s Echo Arena, it will also be available to view in the UK on the FreeSports Freeview channel. For UK readers the channel info is as follows:
Freeview: Channel 95
Sky: Channel 424
Freesat: 252
TalkTalk TV: Channel 95
BT TV: Channel 95
You may remember the 5 Star Wrestling name, the company offered CM Punk $1 Million dollars to appear as part of their 128 man tournament that was subsequently cancelled.
Former WWE/ECW star Rob Van Dam will be making his way to ICW’s biggest event of the year: Fear & Loathing X on November 19th.
RVD was slated to face ICW’s Lionheart but now another name has been thrown into the mix…Liverpool’s Number 1 Zack Gibson will be making this match a Three Way Dance.
Gibson is one of the top talents on the UK circuit, he has been plying his trade as part of PROGRESS, ICW, OTT and Revolution Pro for years and he also starred as part of the World of Sport reboot this past New Year’s Eve. Gibson will be looking to make a name for himself on the worldwide stage when he faces the One of a Kind star.
PROGRESS has announced the next match for their upcoming Chapter 56 event ‘La Danse Macabre.’
PROGRESS Tag Team Champions #CCK (Chris Brookes & Kid Lykos) will be taking on the Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake). We recently listed Chris Brookes as one of the top 3 prospects in the UK independent scene so we’re very excited for this upcoming bout. Both Gibson and Drake are also two talents on the up with their sharp and technically sound styles leading the charge for ‘traditional’ British wrestling.
You can watch Chapter 56 as well as every PROGRESS event in history via the PROGRESS on Demand service.
Here are the results from PROGRESS Wrestling’s latest Chapter event – Galvanize. The show took place at the O2 Ritz in Manchester in front of a sold out crowd:
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match – British Strong Style (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) b. Travis Banks & TK Cooper – The WWE UK Division competitors Seven & Bate successfully retained their Tag Team Title Shields against the South Pacific Power Trip.
Zack Gibson b. El Ligero – Gibson took the win against his former Origin stablemate using his ‘Helter Skelter’ signature move. Nathan Cruz appeared during the match to distract Ligero leading to the finish.
James Drake b. Jack Sexsmith – Sexsmith continues to prove himself as a viable competitor in PROGRESS even with this loss against Drake. This is Drake’s second win in as many Chapter appearances and he looks set to make a big impact in PROGRESS this year.
Mark Andrews b. Will Ospreay – The Number 1 Contender to the PROGRESS Championship Mark Andrews continues his hot streak with a win over NJPW star Ospreay. After the match Jimmy Havoc appeared to beat down the Aerial Assassin Will Ospreay in an attempt to stop him interfering in the main event.
Ringkampf (Walter & Axel Dieter Jr) b. The Hunter Brothers – wXw heroes Ringkampf continue to prove their worth to the PROGRESS faithful with a win over the Hunter Brothers
Flash Morgan Webster b. Nathan Cruz – Morgan Webster picks up the win in his first singles appearance for the company since his long layoff with injury. Cruz has now lost two in a row at Chapter events and he took his anger out on ‘Flash’ after the bout.
Jinny b. Nixon Newell – Jinny defeated NXT bound Nixon Newell to advance to the final of the Natural Progression series, she looks set to win the tournament and become the first ever PROGRESS Women’s Champion.
PROGRESS Championship Match – Pete Dunne b. Jimmy Havoc – Dunne retained his championship in an incredible deathmatch that involved thumbtacks, tables, barbed wire and an interfering Will Ospreay. After the bout Ospreay laid out Havoc and screamed ‘THIS HAS TO END.’
UK independent promotion What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) announced back in January that they would be hosting the first ever ‘Pro Wrestling World Cup,’ an event that would take place over several qualifying stages over the coming months that would build up to the finals in August.
The first of the qualifying nights takes place on March 21st at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Nottingham, England and tickets are still available to purchase at Eventbrite.uk.
The brackets for the English Qualifying Round can be found below. The two eventual winners will then go on to compete at the finals in Newcastle, England this August.
Confirmed bracket for England qualifier in Pro Wrestling World Cup. Which two competitors will progress to the finals in August? pic.twitter.com/NxzTRV1dan
PROGRESS have announced the final matches for their Chapter 45 event: ‘Galvanize.’ The show takes place this Sunday at the O2 Ritz in Manchester and will be available on demand within the week.
Zack Gibson vs El Ligero
The ‘Origin’ stable continues to implode as ‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ Zack Gibson challenges El Ligero. After his impressive win against Nathan Cruz the ‘Lucha Otter’ El Ligero looks to re-establish himself in the PROGRESS singles scene and a win against one of the company’s most impressive talents (in Gibson) would certainly go a long way towards gaining an eventual PROGRESS title shot.
Two of the world’s premier high-flyers collide when NJPW star Will Ospreay takes on WWE UK Division competitor Mark Andrews. Ospreay has not stepped foot in a PROGRESS ring since his beatdown of Jimmy Havoc and reformation of the Swords of Essex with Paul Robinson so expect his reception in Manchester to be extremely hostile. Andrews has a PROGRESS championship match in his future after winning the Thunderb*stard match so this one could go either way.
