Kanji has become the new PROGRESS Women’s Champion, defeating Gisele Shaw at Chapter 111 to win their Best of Three series for the title at 2-1!
In the main event of PROGRESS Chapter 111: One Leg In The Air, Kanji and Shaw faced off in the final of their Best of Three series to determine the new PROGRESS Women’s Champion after Kanji picked up the first win at Chapter 109 before ‘The Quintessential Diva’ evened the score at Chapter 110.
After a back-and-forth battle that spanned almost 20 minutes, ‘The Asian Sensation’ picked up the win over her Canadian opponent with a corkscrew Stunner from the top rope to win only the third championship belt of her career. With this win, Kanji becomes the second British-born star and fifth woman ever to hold the title, following in the footsteps of Toni Storm, Jinny, Jordynne Grace and Meiko Satomura.
In an interview with Inside The Ropes‘ own Innes McVey earlier this month, Kanji spoke about what kind of PROGRESS Women’s Champion fans should expect from her if she captured the gold and why her top priority would be to defend it against former champion Jinny!
“If I was to win, I would fight so hard to make sure I keep the belt until Jinny comes so I can give her the match that I wanted in the beginning after winning that Thunderbastard. Because that feeling I had after winning the Thunderbastard knowing that I would wrestle Jinny for the belt, I still want that. So if I was to win, that is the one thing I would do. I would be a fighting champion to make sure I held it until Jinny came back.”
They just set the standard. Proud isn't even the word.
Watch This Match.@GiseleShaw08 vs @KanjiDuku – Best of 3 Series FINALE#Chapter111 available NOW on:
– @peacockTV
– @WWENetwork
– https://t.co/q1IQTnFsiCpic.twitter.com/jvzPUkeOmZ— PROGRESS Wrestling (@ThisIs_Progress) May 22, 2021
Elsewhere at Chapter 111: Spike Trivet beat Big Guns Joe in the show’s opener, Man Like DeReiss & Dan Moloney of The 0121 defeated Sunshine Machine’s Chuck Mambo & TK Cooper and Kid Lykos II picked up a shock win over Ethan Allan and PROGRESS Unified World Champion Cara Noir!
You can check out our interview with Kanji in full here.