WWE to announce new UK talent tournament next week?
 

WWE UK have an announcement next week and after offering talent contracts wrestler in the UK are calling "mark" contracts (you get a little bit of extra money, but you can't work for promotions on TV), it looks like there's going to be a CWC style tournament exclusively with British wrestlers.

Why though? Why have a weird limited presence? The contracts were about trying to undermine World of Sport coming back so this seems like another step towards that. They're putting World of Sport on at prime time on New Years Eve so they have some confidence in it. UK could be some weird battleground of wrestling next year.

Nice idea. But really it's not.

Unless this is just for fan service and seeing what the United Kingdom has to offer, then cool.

But if this is another way of just adding to the talent pool, probably bad. Honestly think NXT is ready to bust at the seams with all the talent stashed away down there. Probably a lot of guys who should be on the main roster by now. And send a few from the main roster back down.

It's not to add unless someone really impresses. The contracts that they were pffering gave them a little amount of money while they work the indies, but it stops them from appearing on promotions with TV. This is to try and get a smaller talent pool for World of Sport and the tournament is a way to give them a payday for signing the shitty contract they were offered. It does seem like they;re slightly worried it could take off in the UK alongside things like WCPW.

If they're showcasing traditional british style matches im down. Nlt down enough to pay for the network...but maybe a dvd

Probably just to convince those wrestlers the WWE actually has future plans for them when the sheets are saying the opposite is going to end up being the reality. First time since the fall of WCW the WWE is legit worried about losing market share and top status in a region for wrestling since both ITV and WCPW are potential big threats.

I'd assume if this plan actually works, the WWE might try something similar in the future for both Japan and Mexico to snag more control in those markets.

Which wrestlers have actually agreed to those contracts? Anyone of note?

I saw some people asking, but no confirmations yet. I'm guessing they're hoping the tournament will make it more appealing.

I just read the WoS taping results, and I saw that is champion. Oh dear god.

WWE announce UK Title and Tournament
 

http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe-united-...hip-tournament

Looks very interesting.

Some names I've seen at a local company before who are pretty good. Pete Dunne is a beast (has competed for PWG before). Tyler Bate is very similar to Jack Gallagher.

Booked ticket for the Sunday.

Wonder where they go from here with this. Could be some sort of partnership with Progress where the WWE UK Title is defended there maybe? Potentially with Progress on the Network?

Also, the new belt is the best they've designed in years.

It is very nice.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cztx1zRXAAALDyq.jpg:orig

• Trent Seven
• Jack Starz
• Pete Dunne
• Wolfgang
• Roy Johnson
• Sam Gradwell
• James Drake
• Jordan Devlin
• Tyler Bate
• Joseph Conners
• Tyson T. Bone
• HC Dyer
• Dan Moloney
• Chris Tyler
• Saxon Huxley
• Ringo Ryan
• Tiger Ali
• Tucker

Surprised they didn't get Joe Hendry.

The guys from Moustache Mountain are Pete Dunne seem like the most notable names there, I guess you could throw in Connors and Wolfgang because of their WCPW / ICW championship runs. No idea who anyone else is.

Pretty interesting. Will the UK Championship be brought to raw or Smackdown? Maybe they start a new promotion in the UK like NXT.

Title looks nice. Couldn't care less about this however

That belt looks better than the Raw and wwe one tbh

Could be an NXT type of thing with European guys? Either that, or another "brand." I don't have a problem with this as of yet, and maybe see it as an expansion of sorts. They're perhaps offering some light contracts as a testing phase without much early investment to see if it works, then maybe signing them to better ones if it does?

It's just a computer render.

NIGEL!

I donut get the title...will it be defended on a regular basis? If so, not a fan, we donut need more title belts.

Probably at IWC shows or some shit.

Great way to try out British guys and maybe grow the Network population in England and the surrounding areas.... Makes sense to me.... Throw in some vintage clips of former British talent and it seems like a decent series....

Quite a few guys in there that I know/use to know personally. Jealously dictates that I hope they all fail miserably and don't get signed to WWE.

I'm hoping this is like tournament thing that gets held on a yearly basis.

In the words of Lance Storm: "If I can be serious for a moment."

IF this takes off and is a huge success, where's all this talent gonna go? Unless there's something in the cards like a WWE UK and they're gonna have a show and compete strictly in the United Kingdom, I think it could work.

But we just wrapped the Cruiserweight Classic and now WWE is moving rapidly to this. I think it's just too much all at once.


Also, 'member the European Championship?

UK does not equal Europe.

WWE trying to kill the only place TNA does well in.

The idea of it sounds great but the field feels like it's the XFL of talent.

TNA doesn't even have a TV deal here anymore. It's all about ITV's World of Sport.

Not a fan of that belt. Would be alright if it was totally different.

Love british style wrestling. Pumped for this.

Would be cool if they used the the british rule set with the rounds and everything.

According to WCPW, seems like the WWE got rid of the restrictions regarding the so called "mark deals" and promotions with tv/ppv coverage.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">William Regal confirmed to us that there are &quot;zero restrictions&quot; on any of the wrestlers working for other UK promotions.</p>&mdash; WCPW (@WhatCulturePW) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhatCulturePW/status/809425113573707776">December 15, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I donut think rounds are good for pro wrestling. That TNA crap they have shows that perfectly. It's trash.

Hey come on, TNA is just as unpopular over here as it is in the rest of the world.

I don't know all the future plans but I could see the idea of trying to start regional territories. They have a model that works with NXT. They could replicate that in markets where they want to grow their network subs and find new stars.

The average person is Des Moines Iowa may not care to follow this future UK promotion but someone in England might enjoy it. You hope you find a few guys who can be brought over to the US either for NXT or the main roster. If you're a hardcore fan you might know some of these guys and be willing to invest another hour a week to watch.

My guess is England is a test market, then they will try Japan, Mexico, and then growth markets like India and Brazil.

It does, at least for now. #BREXIT is far from official and could still fall apart.

Also, it's semi-interesting and all, but whatever, just bring back
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20150614114456

I don't know who many of these guys are. I've heard of Pete Dunne and, I think, Wolfgang. Good for them. I've wanted the WWE to do a proper territory system for a long time -- you need that for guys to get really good and work out how to change style. My bet is that it ends up that they all do the same matches like the cruiserweights anyway.

Probably because he's not on the road and has connections with the UK scene, he appeared on an ICW iPPV a few weeks ago.

And that turned out to be a lie. WCPW even tweeted a deleted tweet saying "No restrictions!!".

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C005N8iWIAASYmb.jpg:large