Luke Jacobs Talks about winning NPS 2021
IT MUST have been a strange, almost euphoric, feeling for Luke Jacobs as he lay flat out on the mat at Progress: Chapter 106, having just been pinned by Cara Noir.
The young star of the British wrestling scene had just been defeated by the Progress champion in a fantastic 15-minute contest – losing the title shot that he earned by winning the 2021 Natural Progression Series (NPS).
And despite defeat in the contest, the match was the culmination of a run that had shone a light on the 20-year-old, in his first matches back since the pandemic no-less.
Speaking to Grapple Theory, Luke highlighted what an honour it was to face the Progress champ and what he learned throughout the three shows that made up his NPS journey.
“I think I found out [I was winning] a couple of months in advance, it was quite early on. We had things open when the plans were first laid out, then everything shut again and things get delayed. But when it came to it, it was a great experience and I was delighted they thought I was worthy of winning.
“Cara Noir is probably the best wrestler I’ve ever faced, without a doubt. He is the most professional person I’ve ever met, he’s completely selfless. I’ve seen him do all these quick things in quick progression and he’s skyrocketed out of nowhere, having match of the night after match of the night. I had to really step my game up when I wrestled him. When you get in the ring with him you can instinctively feel that ability and how good he is. He’s been around for a long time and he is someone that the younger guys can learn from to be able to get to that next level. He’s going to be one of the top guys in British wrestling for a while.”
When Progress returned with the NPS, which included names like Warren Banks, Danny Black, Lykos II, Big Guns Joe, and Luke’s Young Guns tag partner Ethan Allen, it highlighted the depth of young talent around in the scene.
There are plenty of naysayers who will say that ‘BritWres is dead’. But stars like Luke, Warren, and the rest of the NPS entrants are proof that the scene is very much alive.
And Luke is not about to let the negative views, of those who believe the scene can’t thrive without the stars that made it, get to him.
“When I see people say BritWres is dead it means nothing to me, things move on, generations move on, that’s just the way it is. That generation all did wonderful things, the people that they’re referring to when they say ‘BritWres is dead’ did wonderful things for the scene. And now they’re doing bigger and better things that they fully deserve.
“If people want to say ‘BritWres is dead’ and they don’t see a future for it that’s fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when shows do come back I think they’ll get a shock at the standard and quality of wrestling they are going to get. Just because it’s younger guys, that haven’t been around as long, I think some people are going to get proven wrong.”
Having won the NPS, one may think that Luke is ready for a starring singles push.
But the youngster says he is not in the mood to fly solo quite yet and still has plenty left to achieve with Young Guns partner Ethan Allen first.
“Me and Ethan just want to take the tag team scene by storm, we want to make it our division. There’s loads of teams we’d like to face but in terms of ‘the guys’ we’d love to face Aussie Open. I remember when they had every major tag belt and I thought ‘that’s the goal’ of what we’d like to achieve.”
You can follow Luke Jacobs on Twitter: @LukeJacobs00_YG