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

WWE have basically walked into the thriving garden that is the British pro wrestling scene and have decided to help "cultivate" it by taking down the fences, picking as much produce as they want whenever they feel like it, and dictating when it's okay for the owners of the garden to enjoy their vegetables.

But at the same time, providing a fuck load of fertilizer.

If it means more veg for everyone, is this a bad thing?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XPi2PzZFYa8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

The salt and snark.

Mark Andrews has now been added to the tournament. Not sure who he is replacing.

Didn't know he had left TNA.

Either way, that's three from Attack! Pro Wrestling which will be locally good news.

Mark Andrews really didn't impress me in TNA. A lot of it probably has to do with them not knowing what to do with him. They didn't even know what to call him, came in as Mark Andrews and then they only called him Mandrews before going back to Mark Andrews again. Had just turn heel and was showing a bit more character.

Who do UK wrestling fans have pegged to win this thing? The guys have heard of don't really seem like the guys you'd go with as your top choice for a winner.

According to PWI, the main reason why Zack Sabre Jr wasn't invited to this tournament was due to the WWE being petty he refused to sign a deal with them after the CWC tournament.

I was honestly not that impressed by Zack Sabre, Jr. in the CWC. He's a good looking kid, but he's a bit on the lanky side, which I think does make a difference when you're trying to do that style. His facial expressions were way over the top, which makes me think he would be a better heel that you want to see get the shit beat out of him.

I think the perfect gimmick for him would be a spoiled rich kid who has gotten the best catch-as-catch training money can buy, but he shows up and faces scrubs that are basically paid to humour him and get tied up so "Master Zack" can have his wrestler's lifestyle. He should have a rich butler who does a big hype-up for him. The pop for when one of the "scrubs" gets frustrated and decides to lash back could be huge. And if you ever decided to turn ZSJ babyface, you can have a heel take out the manager which leads to ZSJ finally showing the world he didn't need the easy outings.

I'd say Trent Seven, Pete Dunne or Joseph Conners.

They're stood closest to HHH so he obviously likes them the most.

That is very fair reasoning.

Is What Culture the Youtube site? They make some good stuff about how they would book historical wrestling feuds to make them better.

What is Wrestle Culture? Is that an ERROR?

Yeah. WhatCulture is the pop culture site that produces a lot of wrestling content, including What Culture Pro Wrestling.

I'd narrow it down to Seven and Dunne in seriousness.

Dunne is already Progress champ, was in their CWC "qualifier" against Jack Gallagher, has worked PWG & was in last years BOLA (which Regal is a huge fan of).

Seven is currently main eventing ICW as their top babyface and is a bit of throwback to old style British wrestling. He's very charismatic, not really an amazing promo but better on the mic than Dunne.

They were the only two guys WWE interviewed for youtube channel and I'd expect them both to make the final unless they see big things for somebody else.

I could see Seven vs. Dunne being the finals too. I'd probably go with Seven as the first champ, with him dropping it to Dunne on the WrestleMania Kickoff show. Wolfgang is a guy I'd like to see go a long way in the tournament before getting knocked out by a babyface and starting a feud with them.

Seven vs Dunne seems inevitable as the final.

I think it will be Dunne. He just seems to have that bit about him that has the potential to one day go places. The whole 'bruiserweight' gimmick works well for him as well.

Having seen him live a few times, he can go well in the ring as well. Hopeful this is the start of big things.

Think it will be him vs Mandrews in the semi as well, which given these two have a lot of history should be a good match.

I think Dunne is as good as signed. He's the biggest name they managed to get and he was sitting at the corporate table on the bracket breakdown show.

I think the semi-finals will end up being Tyler Bate vs. Trent Seven and Joseph Conners vs. Pete Dunne. Trent Seven will be in the finals, I'm fairly sure, but I'm honestly not sure who goes against him. I could see it being Conners that takes the whole thing, to be honest.

The belt looks better than the Universal Title and already has about as much history.

Small update in regards to the production side of the tournament. Pretty much going to be handled the same way the CWC was.

Quite enjoying this so far. Danny Burch looked fantastic despite the unfortunate ending to his match. Wouldn't mind him getting another shot in NXT.

:lol:

"Let's go Jesus!"
"Jesus sucks!"

The crowd are absolutely crucifying Huxley out there.

I would be stunned if Pete Dunne didn't get signed.

Was fairly entertaining. A couple of average matches but a couple of pretty good matches too. Expect they will ramp it up a notch tomorrow night.

Am heading up tomorrow and am very much looking forward to it.

I'd rather not all the matches be absolute slammers. It'll help the more exciting matches stand out more.

Watched the first two matches at work but watching it over again now. Guess 3pm start wasn't conducive for a thread.

Pete Dunne is such a great fucking heel.

Are Gladwell and Regal related? Have somewhat similar face and both from Blackpool.

Regal fucked everyone in Blackpool, so probably.

Caught up with Day 1 today. Really impressed with the characters of Tyson T-Bone (needs a new name) and Tyler Bate (albeit similar to Jack Gallagher) who at 19 was really impressive. Trent Seven has a bunch of charisma but I'm not sold on his look. Pete Dunne could be a star in the Cruiserweight Division tomorrow. Jordan Devlin looks like a dwarf (his head is too big).

Pete Dunne is amazing.

Trent Seven looks pretty fat for his weight.

Good wrestler though, and very charismatic.

I actually saw Seven or Bate losing as soon as Cole mentioned the possibility of the tag team partners having to face each other during Seven's entrance. It was almost too much of a giveaway.

Thought Bate was the more likely of the two to lose though since Devlin can properly heel it up. Quite surprised at Seven going out. Fun match.

Did anybody think of the guys who sold their territory to Vince the 80s when they showed the faces of the promoters of all the other companies in the crowd last night?

This Devlin kid has to be related to Finn right? Or did Finn search Bray for a replica to train?

Tyler Bate is fucking great, btw. I've loved Pete Dunne but Bate has blown me away. So much poise for a 19 year old.

Tyler Bate has been my favorite so far. I think the only thing stopping him from being signed will be his age. WWE supposedly have a rule now where they don't sign anybody under 21, although they've brought in younger wrestlers in for tryouts and such.

Might be a better thing for Bate though. It'll give him time to hone his craft in other parts of the world. He'll be WWE bound someday surely.

To anyone watching, how is the #WWEUKCT? I haven't watched it yet b/c I think we have too many titles already and don't need another one.

It's all defended in England so its ok.

Great match rn

Pete Dunne V @MAndrewsTNA is the second best match I've seen this year. Fuck me.

Best one of the year I've seen.

Looks like they trying to end it before football.

Footballs already been on

Man Tyler is over.

Tyler is legit

SOMEONE DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIS MANIAC

Regal! Regal! Regal! Regal!

4:40pm.

YES! NEVILLE!

"Why wasn't I booked in this shit?"

Sweet, Tommy End.

Cole also confiming that Hero was re-signed at NXT.

RIP Tommy End.

Allistaire Black lives.

FINN BALOR

"Seperated AC? Put a Z-PAK on it and get out there."

Dunne: Thank you, random stranger telling me how bad I damaged mustache guy.

Rocktape should sponsor Pete Dunn.

BRAINBUSTAHHHHHHHHHHHH

Watch that final folks, it's fucking great. Now the number 2 match of the year beating out the last one.