We recently spoke to former PROGRESS World Champion Mark Haskins. The UK star has been a huge part of the revival in the region and recently appeared at PROGRESS ‘Hello Wembley’ against Matt Riddle. Here’s the full interview:
Matt Riddle’s Final Indie Opponent
SEScoops: You recently joined PROGRESS at their biggest ever show in Wembley Arena. You started for PROGRESS way back at the Garage and now you’ve faced Matt Riddle in front of nearly 5,000 fans…did you ever expect that U.K. wrestling would reach these heights again?
Mark Haskins: No. When I broke in the scene was in a completely different place to where it is now and I never expected it to gain the momentum it has in recent years. It’s a testament to a lot of passionate people’s hard work coming together and I hope the scene continues to blossom.
SEScoops: You main evented the first of PROGRESS’ ‘September Supershows’ against Tommy End/Aleister Black and Marty Scurll winning the World Title and had to vacate shortly after. Is the World Title in PROGRESS a belt that you are gunning for in the near future?
Mark Haskins: Yeah, I want my belt back.
Moving Further Afield
SEScoops: You appeared for ROH earlier this year, are there any companies further afield in the States or Japan like NJPW, NOAH or MLW that you’d like to appear for? Maybe a return to IMPACT or Dragon Gate?
Mark Haskins: Who knows what the future holds? I’d love to go back to Japan at some point as I’m a very different performer now to what I was back then. I think that would be a lot of fun.
Vicky Haskins
SEScoops: Your partner Vicky Haskins is an extremely important part of your character’s presentation now. When did the idea come about to have Vicky accompany you to the ring?
Mark Haskins: About 2-3 years ago. I’d been pushing for her to come in to Progress 18 months before it actually happened. I think a lot of people don’t realise she’s been a manager for years, she knows what she’s doing and she got signed to FCW before it became NXT back in 2010. I think it was something that people would only understand once they’d seen it happen, and when it did people realised there was something there.
Dream Indie Opponent
SEScoops: Who would be your current dream opponent on the independent scene?
Mark Haskins: Penta El 0M. Rey Fenix would be another. There’s a lot of talents I want to tear it up with. WALTER also being one of them.
SEScoops: We’ve just had the 10 episode run of WoS and the NXT U.K. division starting next week. The two big names that weren’t part of either show were arguably yourself and Jimmy Havoc. Was it a conscious decision to not take part in either and remain completely independent?
Mark Haskins: Not really, I think both company’s have an idea of what they’re looking for and that’s not us. We live in an age though where you can become a star without having to sign to a major organisation and that’s creatively refreshing. I feel like in a lot of cases Wrestling has become very repetitive and it could open up a new era of fans by doing something genuinely different to the norm. It just needs some one to push boundaries and try something new and everyone would realise they don’t need to get signed to a company to be a success.
You can follow Mark on Twitter @ThisIsHaskins. We’d like to take this time to thank Mark again for his time.