Progress Wrestling Secures New US Investment with IENA

Lee McAteer and Martyn Best, co-owners of PROGRESS Wrestling, have recently closed a sizable US investment from International Exchange of North America (IENA), a leader in cultural exchange programmes to and from the USA.

Please see the below quotes from the press release -

McAteer said, “Martyn and I have always looked to bring the word professional into professional wrestling and part of this means good working practices, ambition and good partners. I have worked with IENA in the past and had built up a superb relationship with their CEO, Matt Buczek.

“Though he’s a reformed Yorkshireman living in the States, Matt wanted to maintain our working relationship, and when Martyn and I shared our vision for PROGRESS, Matt could really relate to his awareness of the success of WWE and AEW, and though clearly of a much smaller scale, he could see the excitement that Martyn and I had.

“Matt, and IENA’s investment will underpin the plans we have to grow PROGRESS Wrestling and especially our recently launched DEMAND PROGRESS PLUS service.”

Martyn added, “Having met Matt I can see he has clear enthusiasm for wrestling and our plans to build up interest beyond the UK. IENA are a major player in Cultural Exchange sector, and I’m sure his business acumen will be invaluable as we grow globally.”

CEO of IENA, Matt Buczek stated -

“I’ve known and worked with Lee McAteer for many years from his AmeriCamp days and I know he has great energy and ambition to grow any business. I had been looking at areas whereby we could keep our working relationship strong, and the combination of Lee, Martyn and me and my partners’ collective experience is an exciting cocktail.

“Having lived and worked in the USA for over 20 years, I’ve seen the huge popularity of WWE, and with PROGRESS having been a recent media partner of WWE which I watched on Peacock TV, it was clear that the opportunities for growth were very strong.”

This is fantastic news for Progress with an increased US investment giving our US brothers and sisters even more Progress Wrestling and strengthening the already strong ties the company has over the pond!

We hear at Real Rasslin wish to congratulate all involved and look forward to seeing the continued success Progress has for decades to come.