WWE’s Strange UK Push
Wrestling in the United Kingdom is absolutely on fire. While WWE struggles the indie scene across the globe has stepped up to fill in the quality gaps, and the UK has really stepped up. Much like NJPW in Japan and Ring of Honor in the US, Progress has pulled ahead of many talent-filled promotions to state what British wrestling is all about. Then the WWE joined in. Now there’s a UK Champion, a possibly TV show, and a lot of nothing happening.
At the beginning of this year the WWE held a tournament to crown the very first WWE UK Champion. The move into a new territory was shrewd and calculated but it meant some notable, and talented, wrestlers got some time to shine. By the end, Tyler Bate won and it seemed like WWE was ready to invade. They signed several performers and over 100 days later Pete Dunne defeated Bate for the championship at NXT TakeOver: Chicago. It showed that even at a slow pace, the UK Championship meant something. Then, in the months that followed, nothing happened. The belt and its champion was seldom seen in a WWE ring, the UK division was scattered on the Network, and it’s been nearly a year since this all started.
Then there’s the WWE’s UK show. Based off the King of the Ring tournament, the WWE originally intended for there to be a Network-based show like 205 Live. Months later reports now suggest the WWE wants a weekly British-based, British-produced show airing on traditional television. The show still hasn’t even been pitched to British television yet, let alone negotiated and begun production. We’re still a long way off from a proper WWE UK show and until then the division is just in limbo.
This is almost all for naught. A year on and the indie scene in the UK has only deepened while WWE struggles. Dunne and Bate have only become hotter commodities on the indie circuit and a complete release would probably benefit both of them immensely right now. What began as an attempt to undercut the growing indie scene and to elbow out opponents has turned into WWE’s folly. Perhaps they can recover and spin this into a successful venture, the talent certainly is there. But for now this is just another strange choice by the WWE and the only silver lining has been Pete Dunne’s beatdown of Enzo Amore.
