In the past four days, Mark Haskins, one of the top stars in the UK for over a decade, wrestled four matches. He was victorious in three and as a result walked away with two new prizes, the Ring of Honor International Cup and the Frontline Wrestling Heavyweight Championship.
These add to the 30-year-old Haskins’ already incredible resume, which includes tag team title reigns in Southside Wrestling Entertainment, IPW:UK, RevPro, PROGRESS and Defiant Wrestling, as well as singles titles in IPW:UK, Over the Top Wrestling, Smash, PROGRESS, 4FW and SWE to name just a few. In all, Haskins has won 27 titles and several tournaments, including both of the ones he was victorious in from August 18-21.
ROH International Cup
Haskins. #winner #ROHInternationalCup #ROH #HonorReUnited #doncaster @ThisIsHaskins @VickyHaskins @ringofhonor @DoncasterDome pic.twitter.com/BGjWN3mCzv
— Sian ✨ (@BoristheSpiderx) August 18, 2018
Following a hugely successful Honor United tour, Ring of Honor was happy to return to the UK for Honor Re-United, which featured an eight-man, United States vs United Kingdom single-elimination tournament. The winner would be given the inaugural ROH International Cup.
Representing the U.S. side were Flip Gordon, Christopher Daniels, Jonathan Gresham and Hangman Page. Representing the U.K. were Mark Haskins, Jimmy Havoc, Joe Hendry and Kip Sabian. The tournament was held over two of the three days of the tour, with the third day culminating in the winner receiving not just the Cup, but a shot at Jay Lethal‘s ROH World Championship as well.
This is my time. This. is. Haskins. https://t.co/qHCTjAAPWO
— SKINS (@ThisIsHaskins) August 19, 2018
In the first round, Haskins defeated Gresham to advance, where he would go on to face and defeat Gordon in the semifinals. In the finals, Haskins faced off against Page in the second match for both men that day. Mark Haskins emerged the victor and went on to have a 26+ minute encounter with Lethal. The match, which was one of, if not the biggest matches outside of the UK for Haskins in his career, was a showcase in front of an international audience. Lethal retained his title but Haskins still walked away a winner, not just of the cup, but because of the great match he put on in front of the ROH audience.
Frontline Heavyweight Championship
Haskins. Havoc. Robinson. Haskins.
The Blacklist. https://t.co/zkzUtu3Ksn
— Frontline Wrestling (@FrontlinePuro) August 22, 2018
At Build Me an Empire, Frontline Wrestling’s debut to the world, Mark Haskins defeated Naoki Tanizaki to advance to the finals of the four-man tournament, where he would face the other semifinalist, Rob Lynch.
It was a match worthy of the main event but what happened afterward is what has people talking. Haskins, alongside his wife Vicky Haskins, Jimmy Havoc and Paul Robinson, made their intentions known. The foursome laid out Lynch, followed by Havoc holding a steel chair high in the air and Haskins doing the same with his belt.
The following morning, Mark Haskins explained the actions of the foursome, now known as the Blacklist, in the above tweet, noting that the so-called British revolution was started thanks to their blood, sweat, and tears, but it has been other people that have “gotten rich” off it instead.
The Blacklist make their intentions very clear. Chaos.@thisishaskins @vicky.haskins@jimmy_havoc
@lucha_paul @frontlinepuro #spirit https://t.co/Q6XAe8GkRu pic.twitter.com/SPd5wqAjoE— Oli Sandler (@OliRingside) August 22, 2018
A blacklist is defined as a list of people who are essentially undesirables, meant to be avoided at all costs and discriminated against. It’s an apt name for Haskins’ new group, who also noted in his tweet, that “if no global company wants this then we make Britwres our stomping ground.”
Uniting for the first time, Havoc seems to be the lynchpin as he has history with both Haskins and Robinson. While all three wrestlers would face each other and even team together on a few occasions, it wasn’t until PROGRESS that the links deepened.
In 2012, Havoc aligned with the London Riots (James Davis and Rob Lynch), leading to his first PROGRESS victory, which also so happened to be his first title in the promotion. The trio was soon joined by Isaac Zercher and Paul Robinson and began calling themselves Regression, which is the opposite of progress and was meant to symbolize their hatred for the company. With the help of Regression, Havoc held the PROGRESS title for 609 days, a reign the length of which has not yet been broken. 2015 saw Robinson and Havoc team together for the last time, ironically against the Riots, which was followed by Robinson defeating Havoc one-on-one in a #1 contenders match for the PROGRESS title.
The following year, Jimmy Havoc found himself involved in a feud with Pete Dunne and British Strong Style (Dunne, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) and he did so with the unlikely allies of Mark Haskins and Flash Morgan Webster. From there, Haskins and Havoc aligned on a more permanent basis with the duo winning their first tag titles together in February of this year. This would be followed up with two championship runs in Defiant.
Together, the Blacklist is comprised of three guys who were around at the dawn of this revolution, all of whom left undeniable marks and helped shape Britwres as it is today. Frontline Wrestling has officially been put on notice.
