Progress Men's World Championship
Professional wrestling championship
The Progress Men's World Championship is a professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the British professional wrestling promotion Progress Wrestling. The current champion is Malakai Black, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Cara Noir on Night 3 of The Odyssey Tour on 6 September 2026.
01History
The Progress Championship was created on 25 March 2012. On that date, Nathan Cruz was crowned as the inaugural champion after coming out victorious in the four-way final in the inaugural championship tournament against Marty Scurll, El Ligero, and Mike Mason at Chapter One: In The Beginning.
Unlike most wrestling championships which are conventionally represented by a championship belt, the Progress Championship was originally represented by a large staff with an eagle head piece. At Chapter 16 on 30 November 2014, the staff was replaced by a traditional title belt. The title has been defended in the United States at the WrestleCon Supershow in Dallas, Texas, and subsequently defended in Italy on 30 April and Ireland on 16 July in 2016. On 5 May 2019, the Progress World Championship and the Progress Atlas Championship were unified by Walter after defeating Trent Seven. The title was henceforth known as the Progress Unified World Championship.
Inaugural PROGRESS Championship Tournament (2012)
This tournament was held at Chapter One: In The Beginning on 25 March 2012 to crown the inaugural PROGRESS World Champion. It was won by Nathan Cruz.
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02Title history
Overall, there have been 24 reigns among 19 champions and three vacancies. Nathan Cruz was the inaugural and is also the youngest champion, winning the title at 21 years. Marty Scurll and Cara Noir hold the record for most reigns with two. Noir had the longest reign at 791 days and 17 successful title defences, while Mark Andrews had the shortest reign at less than a day and zero successful title defences. Cara Noir is the oldest champion at 39 years, while Nathan Cruz is the youngest champion at 21 years and 197 days.
Malakai Black is the current champion in his second reign. He won the title by defeating Cara Noir on Night 3 of The Odyssey Tour on 6 September 2026, in Manchester, England.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| <1 | Reign lasted less than a day |
| + | Current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
| 1 | Nathan Cruz | 25 March 2012 | Chapter One: In The Beginning | Highbury, London, England | 1 | 245 | 1 | Defeated Marty Scurll, El Ligero, and Mike Mason in the four-way tournament final to become the inaugural champion. | |
| 2 | El Ligero | 25 November 2012 | Chapter 4: The Ballad of El Ligero | Highbury, London, England | 1 | 245 | 3 | ||
| 3 | Rampage Brown | 28 July 2013 | Chapter 8: The Big Boy's Guide to Strong Style | Highbury, London, England | 1 | 119 | 2 | ||
| 4 | Mark Andrews | 24 November 2013 | Chapter 10: Glory Follows Virtue As If It Were Its Shadow | Highbury, London, England | 1 | <1 | 0 | This was Andrews' Natural Progression Series cash-in match. | |
| 5 | Jimmy Havoc | 24 November 2013 | Chapter 10: Glory Follows Virtue As If It Were Its Shadow | Highbury, London, England | 1 | 609 | 9 | Used the open contract given to him by Jim Smallman for an immediate title opportunity. | |
| 6 | Will Ospreay | 26 July 2015 | Chapter 20: ThunderBastard: Beyond ThunderBastard | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 182 | 4 | This was Ospreay's Super Strong Style 16 cash-in match. | |
| 7 | Marty Scurll | 24 January 2016 | Chapter 25: Chat Shit, Get Banged | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 154 | 7 | ||
| 8 | Pastor William Eaver | 26 June 2016 | Chapter 32: 5000 to 1 | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 35 | 1 | This was Eaver's Natural Progression Series cash-in match. | |
| 9 | Marty Scurll | 31 July 2016 | Chapter 33: Malice in Wonderland | Camden Town, London, England | 2 | 56 | 1 | ||
| 10 | Mark Haskins | 25 September 2016 | Chapter 36: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Room... Again | Brixton, London, England | 1 | 35 | 1 | This triple threat match also featured Tommy End. | |
| , | Vacated | 30 October 2016 | Chapter 38: When Men Throw Men At Men | Camden Town, London, England | , | , | , | Mark Haskins vacated the title due to an injury. | |
| 11 | Pete Dunne | 27 November 2016 | Chapter 39: The Graps of Wrath | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 287 | 11 | Defeated Jimmy Havoc, Matt Riddle, Sebastian, TK Cooper, Travis Banks, and Trent Seven in a seven-way elimination match to win the vacant title. | |
| 12 | Travis Banks | 10 September 2017 | Chapter 55: Chase the Sun | Haringey, London, England | 1 | 318 | 17 | This was Banks' Super Strong Style 16 cash-in match. | |
| 13 | Walter | 25 July 2018 | Chapter 74: Mid Week Matters | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 417 | 15 | Walter defeated Progress Atlas Champion Trent Seven to unify the titles on 5 May 2019. | |
| 14 | Eddie Dennis | 15 September 2019 | Chapter 95: Still Chasing | Haringey, London, England | 1 | 126 | 2 | This triple threat match also featured David Starr. This was Dennis' title opportunity after defeating Mark Andrews at Chapter 76: Hello Wembley!. | |
| , | Vacated | 19 January 2020 | , | , | , | , | , | Eddie Dennis vacated the title due to a shoulder injury. | |
| 15 | Cara Noir | 19 January 2020 | Chapter 101: Dalmatians | Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 791 | 17 | Defeated Ilja Dragunov, Kyle Fletcher and Paul Robinson in a four-way match to win the vacant title. | |
| 16 | Jonathan Gresham | 20 March 2022 | Chapter 130: Dodge, Dip, Duck, Dive, Dodge | London, England | 1 | 56 | 2 | This was a Winner Takes All match in which Gresham defended the ROH World Championship. | |
| , | Vacated | 15 May 2022 | Chapter 134: No Mountain High Enough | Camden Town, London, England | , | , | , | Jonathan Gresham was stripped of the title due to interference by Lykos Gym (Kid Lykos and Kid Lykos II) in his title defence against Gene Munny. | |
| 17 | Chris Ridgeway | 5 June 2022 | Chapter 135: Super Strong Style 16 Night 3 |
Camden Town, London, England | 1 | 69 | 1 | Defeated Warren Banks in the Super Strong Style 16 tournament final to win the vacant title. | |
| 18 | Big Damo | 13 August 2022 | Chapter 137: The Deadly Viper Tour - Codename: Copperhead | Sheffield, England | 1 | 15 | 2 | ||
| 19 | Spike Trivet | 28 August 2022 | Chapter 139: Warriors Come Out To Play | London, England | 1 | 546 | 17 | ||
| 20 | Kid Lykos | 25 February 2024 | Chapter 163: Twisted Metal | London, England | 1 | 154 | 3 | This was a Steel Cage match. | |
| 21 | Luke Jacobs | 28 July 2024 | Chapter 169: The Devil On My Shoulder | London, England | 1 | 393 | 13 | ||
| 22 | Man Like DeReiss | 25 August 2025 | Chapter 183: Hundred Volts | London, England | 1 | 251 | 15 | This was a Tables, Ladders and Chairs match. | |
| 23 | Cara Noir | 3 May 2026 | Chapter 194: Super Strong Style 16 | London, England | 2 | 126 | 2 | This was a no disqualification match. | |
| 24 | Malakai Black | 6 September 2026 | The Odyssey Tour Night 3 |
Manchester, England | 1 | 12+ | 0 | ||
03Combined reigns
As of 18 September 2026.
| † | Indicates the current champion |
| Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cara Noir | 2 | 19 | 916 |
| 2 | Jimmy Havoc | 1 | 9 | 609 |
| 3 | Spike Trivet | 1 | 17 | 546 |
| 4 | Walter | 1 | 15 | 417 |
| 5 | Luke Jacobs | 1 | 13 | 393 |
| 6 | Travis Banks | 1 | 17 | 318 |
| 7 | Pete Dunne | 1 | 11 | 287 |
| 8 | Man Like DeReiss | 1 | 15 | 251 |
| 9 | El Ligero | 1 | 3 | 245 |
| Nathan Cruz | 1 | 1 | 245 | |
| 11 | Marty Scurll | 2 | 8 | 210 |
| 12 | Will Ospreay | 1 | 4 | 182 |
| 13 | Kid Lykos | 1 | 3 | 154 |
| 14 | Eddie Dennis | 1 | 2 | 126 |
| 15 | Rampage Brown | 1 | 2 | 119 |
| 16 | Chris Ridgeway | 1 | 1 | 69 |
| 17 | Jonathan Gresham | 1 | 0 | 56 |
| 18 | Mark Haskins | 1 | 1 | 35 |
| Pastor William Eaver | 1 | 1 | 35 | |
| 20 | Big Damo | 1 | 2 | 15 |
| 21 | Malakai Black † | 1 | 0 | 12+ |
| 22 | Mark Andrews | 1 | 0 | <1 |
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Progress Men's World Championship”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Progress Unified World Championship belt.png by Progress Wrestling, Fair use
- Nathan Cruz (cropped).jpg by Ed Webster, CC BY 2.0
- Aleister Black 2017 WWE (cropped).jpg by Miguel Discart, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Marty Scurll IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion (cropped).jpg by ゾーヒョー, CC BY-SA 4.0
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