Earlier today PROGRESS Wrestling announced a major shakeup to the team behind-the-scenes, in the wake of sexual misconduct and abuse allegations against numerous wrestlers and wrestling personalities.

Those changes included appointing James Asner, Vicky Haskins, Lucy Cave and Michael Oku to the management team, while Glen Robinson, Matt Richards and Jon Briley are all stepping down from their roles.

Well, it appears a management shake-up is just the tip of the iceberg. PROGRESS has released another statement announcing that the promotion will temporarily be shut down, until a time when “we’re happy enough with the changes”.

Burn It Down. Build It Back Up. Believe In Change.

The last 24 hours have been an eye-opener. Words are not enough. With that in mind, we will build this from the ground back up. We’re shutting everything down, until we’re happy enough with the changes that we make, to re-open. We will be the pioneer for change that this industry needs at this moment.

Our first priority is the safeguarding of talent, crew and fans. We are talking with the police and are close to finalising something that we are super proud of, and that we can share across every promotion.

We know people are keen to know the revamped company structure. Vicky, Lucy, Michael and James are in control of every single element; there is no involvement from anyone else. Jon remains the owner of PROGRESS but we have complete control of everything. Neither Glen nor Matt are involved in any capacity, financial or otherwise, nor are they returning. Jon has trusted us with this, and we applaud his bravery in both this and the health battle he finds himself in.

Starting as we mean to go on, we will be fully investigating the posts about Michael Oku that have been placed online. None of us are above the high standards we want to set, and it will be a full and in-depth investigation.

No one is above scrutiny.

Our emails will remain open: [email protected]