Ever since WWE announced a UK-only tournament to crown the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion earlier this year, fans of both the WWE and UK BritWres scene have wondered when the WWE was going to finally make a WWE UK centric program to highlight more of the burgeoning British wrestling scene and it’s plethora of talent, both men and women. The WWE has long been a fan of using British wrestlers on its programming, from the British Bulldogs in the 80s to stars like Wade Barrett, Neville, Paige, Drew McIntyre and Jack Gallagher (WWE’s three Irish stars, Finn Balor, Sheamus and Becky Lynch are all from the Republic of Ireland, not part of the United Kingdom). But with such a massive roster competing for spots on Raw, Smackdown and NXT, it would be hard to fully give the wealth of UK talent the opportunities to properly integrate.
Following the tournament, which crowned British Strong Style member Tyler Bate as the inaugural WWE UK Champion, it was reported that the UK show would debut in May of this year. Tapings were held and it featured several 205 Live stars (who were part of the European tour that month) and a host of UK talent used during the UK Championship tournament, such as “The Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, Wolfgang, Mark Andrews, Joseph Conners, and the new UK Champion himself. But just as the show was slated to debut, it was shelved. The months went on – and on – and the WWE suddenly seemed to get cold feet about a UK show altogether, focusing on this summer’s Mae Young Classic instead.
But in October, new reports surfaced from PWInsider that the WWE was in talks with ITV, the United Kingdom’s largest television channel, which airs in England, Scotland, Wales and the British islands (Isle of Mann and the Channel Islands). These talks were for ITV to host and co-produce a new program with the WWE, reportedly called WWE King of the Ring, that would focus exclusively on UK talent. ITV was the original host channel in the UK for the legendary British wrestling series, World of Sport, which ran from 1965 until 1985, when wrestling in the UK took a dive in popularity. With the resurgence in British wrestling the past few years, ITV revived a special World of Sport event on New Year’s Eve 2016 and was initially in talks with Jeff Jarrett and Impact Wrestling to restart the series this year, but plans seemingly fell through following Jarrett’s ongoing problems within Impact and Anthem.
If this show indeed pulls through, it will most likely be anchored by current WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne, who may have finally(or is very close to) signed as a full-time WWE Superstar, the first of the UK tournament entrants to do so. Following his main roster debut on Monday Night Raw last week, where Dunne challenged and defeated WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore in an impromptu non-title Champion vs. Champion match.
During the broadcast of Monday Night Raw, PROGRESS Executive Producer Glen Joseph tweeted the following:
https://twitter.com/Glen_Joseph/status/927682144104779776
With PROGRESS being Pete Dunne’s primary home promotion in the UK, it seemed as if Joseph was wishing Dunne luck on his “future endeavours” (although Dunne did appear this past Sunday at PROGRESS Chapter 57: Enter Smiling, teaming with fellow British Strong Style and WWE UK talents Bate and Seven). Adding fuel to the speculation that Dunne was now signed full time to the WWE was the sudden emergence of Dunne’s first official WWE T-Shirt on WWE Shop. WWE isn’t known for investing in merchandise for anyone not signed to a full WWE contract (as opposed to the limited dates one the UK wrestlers were on).
While there has been no confirmation from either side if Dunne has officially crossed over to the WWE full time, he has been working more WWE dates of late, including a UK Championship match against Johnny Gargano this Saturday at NXT Takeover: War Games that is being taped for next week’s NXT television show. Prior to his Raw appearance last Monday, Pete Dunne was a surprise guest at ICW‘s Fight Club TV taping, accompanied by Triple H himself.
With BritWres in a massive upswing of popularity – not only in its native United Kingdom and Ireland but globally as well – there are many who feel that should WWE enter the BritWres game, it would spell the end of the UK scene as we know it. But Pete Dunne isn’t one of them, as he told Mayer Nissim in early November in an interview with Digital Spy:
“It’s infuriating for people to claim that… look at it: you’ve got girls from the Mae Young Classic who are still doing independents, you’ve got a WWE title that can be seen on independent shows, there’s multiple WWE talents on these UK independent shows. To hear things like, ‘WWE is trying to kill the independents’ or whatever, that’s the opposite of what seems to be happening, so I think those comments are completely absurd.”
We’ll keep you updated as more details emerge on WWE’s potential new UK show and the future of Pete Dunne.
