The co-owner of Islington-based professional wrestling federation, Progress, Jon Briley, 33, speaks to Islington Now of their success. Since its first event in March 2012, Progress has consistently packed out The Garage in Highbury. Tickets for their upcoming show sold out in just minutes.
Where did your love of wrestling come from?
My business partners [Jim Smallman, 35, and Glenn Joseph, 30] have been wrestling fans ever since they were kids, but it came a bit later for me. About seven years ago I found myself with a lot of free time and started watching Sky Sports, getting into World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) after not watching for years.
Do you find that is a common theme among fans?
Yeah – I loved wrestling as a child but grew out of it, moved on to other things. That happens a lot. More and more I find that people return to wrestling years later with a different perspective. They know it isn’t exactly “real” but enjoy it for the performance, which is what it is.
Being such a big part of people’s childhoods, is there be an element of nostalgia to peoples’ enjoyment of the sport?
Definitely. And Progress brings in plenty of fans who are in their 20s and early 30s who used to watch wrestling on television. But rather than give them what they’re used to, we offer an entirely new product. There are no kids at our shows, no foam fingers or cheesy characters. The atmosphere is a mixture of a wrestling event, a punk gig and the away end at a football match!
For people who don’t watch wrestling, explain what happens at an average Progress event.
We have a regular roster of performers who wrestle for us and, over several shows, we tell stories; these are narratives which usually take the form of a “good guy” and a “bad guy” who have some sort of issue between them and they fight it out. One thing that we do particularly well is striking the balance between solid in-ring action and good storytelling. Sometimes you can hear the cheers and boos all the way down Holloway Road!
How do your stories develop?
Our storylines are based on reality. They evolve organically and out of characters. For example, we have a tag team on our roster called The London Riots and their characters are hooligans, and they come in and attack people with cricket bats. So their storylines and feuds are based on other wrestlers wanting to put them in their place.
What is the biggest misconception people have about independent wrestling?
That it’s not as good as the big American companies – and that is simply not true. We present a totally different product. WWE, for example, does family-friendly shows with short-form storytelling – feuds don’t usually last more than a few weeks, maybe a couple of months at most. Some of our storylines last over a year. The other big misconception about wrestling is that it is “fake”, which is ridiculous; just because it’s been agreed previously that a guy’s going to jump off the top corner and land on you, doesn’t mean that it’s not happening. The action is predetermined but within that there’s a huge scope for performance and athleticism, and risk.
Any nasty injuries to speak of?
On our first show one lad broke his leg. Sometimes people dislocate shoulders, land on their head badly or accidentally get kicked in the face. It happens, but it’s a contact sport.
Is it possible to make a living as a wrestler in Britain?
There aren’t a lot of full-time wrestlers in this country, but there are some, and they work six days a week performing around theatres and holidays camps across the country. You often find people supplement wrestling with other things like acting, modelling or fitness training. And then there are some people who are teachers, for instance, and wrestle on the weekend!
Do you use any overseas wrestling stars?
Very sparingly. That’s because we feel the British guys need an opportunity to show fans that they are as good as anybody else in the world. The fact that every single one of our shows has sold out shows that the fans are invested in the British talent. Our 12th show is this Sunday and we’ve only ever used two imports.
Is your audience mainly from the borough?
The majority is from London, but we know a family that comes from Bristol to attend every show and a couple of regulars from north Wales. A guy from Edinburgh flies down for each event. The shows are definitely worth the effort of travelling down for.
