Big Damo and Nikki Cross have given more insight into how their ownership of UK promotion PROGRESS Wrestling came together.
UK wrestling fans were surprised on May 26 when it was announced that the former WWE stars had become the new owners of the English promotion. Cross and Damo acquired the company from Lee McAteer and Martyn Best, who had been the owners since December 2021.
Speaking with Tom Campbell of Cultaholic, Damo admitted that they were also surprised at how the opportunity came together. Damo first noted that the offer came not long after his wife Cross was released by WWE in April 2025:
“Genuinely, this was not on the bingo card for us, either. We have talked about a million different scenarios for a long time. We have been wrestling for 22 years, Nikki has been wrestling for 18 years, so we know there is a time limit. We are going to have to start thinking about what is the future and we thought that was going to be with our little Scottish promotion in Glasgow, but no, it turns out,” Damo began.
“This opportunity came along a few weeks ago. Not long after Nikki had been released, actually. It was only a few days after. I’ll just be honest, I was in Belfast about to jump on a plane going to another show and I had to sit thinking about it on the plane like, ‘This is wild. There’s no way this could happen.’ Then I come off the plane and we start talking about it seriously. At first we were talking with James Amner, he’s been in situ at PROGRESS for a long, long time. He’s one of the hidden gems. He hates credit in every single way but he’s one of the reasons PROGRESS has been ticking over at all for maybe a decade,” he continued.
Continuing, Damo added that he then spoke with Cross about the idea, adding that the former owners made things very easy.
“When I broached Nikki with it, she was like, ‘What?’ So there’s been plenty of conversations and, listen, the boys made it very easy. I dealt directly with Martyn Best…and he was very patient with me and we were able to come to the best agreement for both of us. That was one of the most amazing experiences in terms of how easy he made that for me. This could have been very, very difficult and this could have been out of our reach, realistically, because we are living in the United States. That is still our home. Obviously that will change in the next few years but that is our handicap, effectively, in one regard. But now it’s putting us in a position where we’re starting to think about, ‘Okay, what do we want to do next?’ and PROGRESS Wrestling has answered a lot of those questions very quickly,” Damo added.
Big Damo And Nikki Cross Looking To Make PROGRESS “Number One Promotion On The Planet”
Closing out this portion of the interview, Damo and Cross spoke about the long-term goals of PROGRESS. The husband and wife both want big things for the UK promotion, which they want to see become one of the biggest indie promotions in the world:
Damo stated: “We can now start thinking about long term, and that’s something Nikki and I were talking about the other day. Our goal is to make this into the number one independent promotion on the planet.”
“Number one. Letter A. Don’t get me wrong, we want to give back to the industry, but PROGRESS is going to be the number one wrestling company in the world,” Storm added.
Cross will make her return to the ring at PROGRESS Scorchio on July 26 at the Electric Bar in Camden, London. The first show under Damo and Cross’ ownership will be WonderBrawl II on June 7 in Manchester. The announced card for the show is currently as follows:
- Lallie [Lana Austin and Hollie Barlow] vs. The Experience [Skye Smitson and LA Taylor]
- Gene Munny (c) vs. Kouga for the Atlas Championship
- Nathan Black vs. Simon Miller
- Nico Angelo vs. Tom Thelwell
- Scott Oberman vs. Charles Crowley
- Young Guns [Luke Jacobs and Ethan Allen] (c) vs. 0121 [Dan Moloney and Man Like DeReiss] for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships
