Jody Fleisch has spoken about his upcoming PROGRESS Wrestling return at Chapter 113 and why the idea of wrestling in front of no one is an intimidating thought!
Speaking to Inside The Ropes‘ own Innes McVey, Jody confirmed that his first PROGRESS match in over two years will also be his first match since lockdown restrictions came into effect in the UK due to the COVID-19 pandemic but said he wasn’t phased by having to take an extended break from the ring.
Off the top of my head… I mean, I’ve been away for long periods of time quite a lot throughout my career, so it’s not that different in that respect. Obviously, the whole pandemic thing has just been weird as hell so there’s all that. But I’ve been away and then came back and wrestled quite a lot, so it’s not something that I’m that unfamiliar with. I’ll tell you what might be pretty strange to me is wrestling in front of no live crowd.
‘The Phoenix’ was then asked if the idea of wrestling without a crowd for the first time in his career was an intimidating thought. He agreed and opened up about why fans not being there takes away a huge part of wrestling for him!
Yeah! I mean, this is the way wrestling and everything’s changed in the past… well, for a long time, isn’t it? I mean, technology-wise and stuff. But obviously in the past year, 18 months or whatever, that’s one of the strange directions that the world is taking, so I guess now you do have things that sound really weird like wrestling in front of no crowd.
To me, the whole thing is very interactive, isn’t it? Wrestling in general. So that’s going to be quite a large element taken out of it, so it should be interesting. I’ve seen a few clips and stuff and it looks like normal wrestling, but it’s not you know?
Later, the British wrestling veteran made it clear that he’s focused on picking up his first-ever victory in PROGRESS over Danny Black after failing to win both his previous matches in the company in 2018 & 2019.
I think with that in mind, I’m more focused on picking up the win. The crowd is really important, the vibe in the room is the main thing I focused on back then. But ultimately you want some victories, don’t you? I think I’ll be focusing a little more on that. I love the crowd, I love entertaining, it’s great. But I really need to pick up some wins.
Jody is set to face Danny Black in his first PROGRESS appearance in over two years at Chapter 113: Warp Into Monster Disco Hell, streaming live via Peacock and the WWE Network at 5pm BST on June 19th. The show will also be available on-demand at Demand PROGRESS.
You can check out our interview with Jody Fleisch in full here.
Photo credit: Rob Brazier / Head Drop Photography