There was lots happening backstage on Friday night during and after Ring of Honor‘s Final Battle PPV, but PWInsider’s Mike Johnson is reporting an interesting piece of news to come out of event regarding a potential new signee to the company for 2019. “The word backstage last night was that British talent Mark Haskins has officially signed with the company and is coming in,” Johnson stated in his round up of news out of New York last night.
Only 30 years old, Mark Haskins has been a star on the UK indie scene for 12 years, debuting in 2006. His initial breakout came working for IPW:UK starting in 2007, where he became the IPW British Cruiserweight Champion at the age of 20, a feat he would accomplish twice that year. He also began to work regularly in Germany with Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) and in 2008 made his Japanese debut working with Pro Wrestling NOAH and then Dragon Gate the following year.
In 2011, Mark Haskins worked throughout the year for TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, as part of the Maximum IMPACT! Tour in Europe, before appearing at Destination X to face UK legend Doug Williams. He worked several other matches for TNA Xplosion as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSc7Zmmp3f4
In 2012, he added Southside Wrestling Entertainment (SWE) to his list of promotions, becoming the SWE Heavyweight Champion in 2013, as well as starting to work for an upstart new promotion called Revolution Pro UK (RevPro). He would become a tag team champion in RevPro with Joel Redman in The Thrillers, and in 2013 he would begin working with another new UK indie, PROGRESS Wrestling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_AyiG0CacY
By 2016, Mark Haskins had emerged as one of the true faces of the newly booming UK indie scene, a major player with RevPro, PROGRESS and the others. He made his debut with Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG) in the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles as well as travelling to Canada where captured the Smash Wrestling Championship. The Smash win jumpstarted a huge next year for Haskins, who won the IPW World Championship twice, PROGRESS World Championship, OTT No Limits Championship and start a title winning combination alongside Jimmy Havoc, winning tag team gold in PROGRESS and Defiant Wrestling.
Haskins made his ROH debut earlier this year as part of the Honor United tour, before being announced for the ROH International Cup tournament in the UK this past August. Haskins defeated Hangman Page in the tournament final, earning a title shot against ROH World Champion Jay Lethal on the last day of the Honor Re-United tour in London. Mark Haskins would add to a recent influx of new talent to the company, who are stocking up with the departure of The Elite (Young Bucks, Cody, Hangman Page). In recent weeks and months, they’ve added Jeff Cobb, “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams, Brody King and PCO.
