At Chapter 170: Wrestling Never Sleeps, Luke Jacobs, the 2024 Super Strong Style 16 winner and PROGRESS Wrestling Men’s World Champions once again picked up a win over Kid Lykos in the main event. In this exclusive interview, we delve into Jacobs’ preparation and psyche, his thoughts on the match with Kid Lykos, and the future title scene after four wrestlers all laid claim to his crown come the end of the night!
Luke, congratulations on retaining the PROGRESS Men’s World Championship! How are you feeling after the intense battle with Kid Lykos at Chapter 170: Wrestling Never Sleeps?
How am I feeling? Like a world champion, actually, an undisputed world champion. I’ve never felt more confident and couldn’t be prouder to the best wrestler in Europe, British wrestling was mine for the taking and it’s all mine now. It felt great to put Lykos out of his misery once again.
You appeared to be verging on overconfident in your lead up to the match – do you think that played a part in the bout being so different to the one you had last month, with Kid Lykos taking you to the limit this time? The former champ never gave up and put up a brilliant fight – do you think he proved his worth at Chapter 170?
You can never be too confident, not when your as good as me, and that’s not ego or arrogance, just self belief. Fair play to Lykos, he adapted and brought the fight a lot better than last time, I’ll give him credit for that. Lykos made things harder for me and I respect that, I love a challenge, but I can also adapt and I choked that bitch out. I suppose lykos figured out how to take a hit like a man and get back up since we last faced each other, maybe all that training came in handy, until he got caught in a rear naked choke and passed out, if what your game plan isn’t working then you’ve got to switch things up on the spot and that’s what I did, like the pro I am and I kept my progress world championship.
With the fallout of Chapter 170 still fresh, as soon as you put one challenger to rest, five new ones arrived to lay claim to your Championship – what are your thoughts on each of the current contenders in PROGRESS Wrestling?
I don’t know who the fuck they all think they are, coming out and trying to lay claim to my title? The title I had to go through a whole tournament and then a title match to win, what the fuck have they done to walk out and challenge the most decorated and prestigious champion in British wrestling? You want to see arrogance? Look at those 5 men.
Your reaction to Cara Noir’s return was one of pure shock. Do you fear him?
He’s been gone for a while and things have changed, PROGRESS is mine now, I fear nobody. I have nothing else to say about Cara noir.
Before Chapter 171 though, you have the NOAH UK Tour and your match with Masa Kitamiya on the London leg of the tour has now been made a PROGRESS Men’s World Championship match. How excited for that bout are you?
It’s another person to test myself against and I’m very excited to perform for a company like pro wrestling Noah. Kitamiya gets to face the best, lucky him, his UK Tour is not going to be an easy one.
PROGRESS Wrestling tickets are available for all future shows via the dice app, including this September’s event, HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE VICTORS. See you on Sunday, 22nd September!
Watch wrestling online! You can see Luke Jacobs matches in PROGRESS Wrestling, including his SSS16 and Title wins by subscribing to DEMAND PROGRESS PLUS.