Matt Farmer and Jim Perry are once again the owners of DEFY Wrestling, and new shows have been announced for the US promotion.
In a statement on social media, the promotion confirmed that Farmer and Perry had reached an agreement to regain ownership from Big Damo and Nikki Storm following the couple’s acquisition of DEFY back in April.
The press release also confirms that new shows will be happening on October 1 and December 4, both in the promotion’s hometown of Seattle:
MATT FARMER AND JIM PERRY RETURN AS OWNERS OF DEFY WRESTLING
DEFY returns October 1 in Detroit and December 4 in Seattle
SEATTLE — August 27, 2026 — DEFY Wrestling co-founders Matt Farmer and Jim Perry are once again owners of the company after reaching an agreement with Damian Mackle (Big Damo) and Nicola Glencross (Nikki Storm).
Farmer and Perry founded DEFY in Seattle in 2017. In 2024, DEFY joined with the UK’s PROGRESS Wrestling as Perry stepped away to focus on other projects. Earlier this year, Mackle and Glencross acquired PROGRESS and an ownership interest in DEFY.
Farmer and Perry have remained quiet in recent months while the ownership deal was being completed and DEFY worked through significant changes to Washington State’s professional wrestling licensing requirements. With both processes happening at the same time, there was little they could say publicly until the deals were done.
“The DEFYance has been incredibly important through all of this,” Perry said. “Even while DEFY was dormant, they continued to support the Patreon and kept the community around DEFY alive. They may not even fully realize how important that support was during this time. Farmer and I can’t thank them enough for believing in this company while we worked to bring it back.
“We also want to thank the former ownership group at PROGRESS for shepherding the brand in our absence from ownership, James Amner for his continual support, and Damian and Nicola for their work in helping bring DEFY back home.”
DEFY Wrestling Finally Provides Update
Cross and Damo gained control of DEFY as part of the deal that also saw them purchase UK promotion PROGRESS Wrestling. Although multiple PROGRESS shows have taken place and have been announced since the new deal, DEFY was very quiet with the updates. When Features of Wrestling spoke with Damo about DEFY, he did say that there would be an update coming soon, but there were more hurdles to cross:
“There’s updates coming really, really soon. I can’t actually talk about them right now, but there’s some very, very exciting news coming with regards to DEFY. So that has been something that’s been a little more difficult. There’s been different law changes in the state of Washington, but it looks like we’re about to announce a breakthrough on that very shortly. So that’s been one of those kind of frustrating parts of the U.S. style, you know, licensing and everything else. So there’s had to be a few other hurdles that had to be crossed. But news is coming with DEFY. We’re very excited for it, and we think it’s going to be brilliant and for the betterment of the area as well, so we’re very excited.”
Featured image: DEFY
