During Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, commentators mentioned that AEW would be going to the country in 2023. No further details were revealed.
Tony Khan in previous interviews has expressed interest in touring the United Kingdom, specifically mentioning Craven Cottage as a possible location for a future event in the UK. That is the home of the Fullham F.C. soccer club, which is owned by Khan’s father, Shahid.
AEW is making several debuts in the coming months. They are set to debut at the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington on January 4, then Portland, Oregon on January 6. They will also make their Fresno, California debut on January 18, followed by Lexington, Kentucky on January 25.
The company also recently made their debut in Toronto, Canada on October 12 and 13. The October 12 show was headlined by Chris Jericho retaining the ROH World Championship over Chris Jericho.
WWE officially announced that they will be running a stadium show in the United Kingdom on Labor Day weekend.
In a press release, WWE confirmed that they will be holding a stadium event at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales on Saturday, September 3. They did not announce an event name or ticket information.
“Principality Stadium is the perfect place for a major event, hosting our amazing fans from Wales, throughout all of Europe, and around the world,” John Porco, WWE Senior Vice President of Live Events is quoted as saying in the press release. “The weekend will be filled with a variety of WWE experiences that we believe will leave a lasting memory, on par with SummerSlam at Wembley Stadium in 1992.”
“We’re extremely proud that Principality Stadium has been chosen by WWE to host this major event, which is testament to the stadium’s reputation as a world-class venue,” Mark Williams, Principality Stadium Manager said in the press release. “Principality Stadium is unique in its position at the heart of the city centre, which will undoubtedly offer WWE fans an unrivaled event experience both inside and outside of the stadium and bring great benefit to the wider city of Cardiff.”
WWE’s last major stadium event in the United Kingdom was SummerSlam 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The British Bulldog defeated Bret Hart to win the WWE Intercontinental title in the main event.
The first round of the WWE United Kingdom championship tournament will take place during next month’s Download Festival.
WWE made the announcement earlier this afternoon on their website. The matches will take place during NXT’s annual excursion to the festival, as they will be running shows all three nights starting on June 8 through June 10. WWE also announced that competitors for the tournament will be announced on Wednesday and Friday.
One competitor already set for the tournament is Jack Gallagher. He defeated Drew Gulak at a recent NXT television taping to advance.
The tournament will continue at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England on June 18 where a winner will be crowned. That winner will face Pete Dunne the next day, also at Royal Albert Hall for the United Kingdom championship.
The last time there was a tournament in the United Kingdom, it was to crown the initial champion back in January of 2017. It was there that Tyler Bate defeated Pete Dunne to win the title and become the first champion. Dunne defeated Bate at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on May 20 of last year to win the championship and has held it since.
The Download Festival will take place at Donington Park in Derby, United Kingdom.
After months of questions, World of Sport Wrestling has resurfaced and is taping television imminently.
The next set of World of Sport tapings will take place over the course of three days, starting on May 10 and running through May 13. All of the tapings will take place at Epic Studios Norwich in Norfolk, England. It isn’t currently known what talent will appear at the taping, though some of the contracted talent for ITV include Dave Mastiff and Grado.
It had been reported in recent weeks in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the ITV contracted talent were told that the World of Sport promotion was looking to run shows again next month, with the idea of running a limited series. ITV has had interest in pro wrestling since taping and airing a pilot episode of World of Sport Wrestling back on New Years Eve 2016. They have not taped television since then, with a planned taping featuring Impact Wrestling talent being postponed back in May of last year due to prolonged contract negotiations.
At the same time, WWE is once again running shows in the United Kingdom. The upcoming United Kingdom Championship tournament will air in June at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Though the field had seemingly been set, Thursday morning saw an addition to WWE’s United Kingdom Championship tournament lineup.
WWE announced that Mark Andrews would compete in the upcoming 16-participant tournament. Andrews is likely best known to fans in the United States for his time in TNA, where he wrestled for the past few years in the company’s X Division as Mandrews.
A native of Wales, Andrews has become one of the many bright stars that the UK scene has produced during its recent revival. He has also wrestled stateside for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla the past two years, featuring in both the 2015 and 2016 Battle of Los Angeles tournaments. When in the UK, he’s a regular of popular promotion PROGRESS Wrestling.
The WWE UK Championship tournament is set to take place at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool over two days later this month. It will kick off on January 14th before crowning the inaugural champion on the 15th. Triple H has expressed optimism that the shows could lead to a weekly series from the UK on the Network.
Nigel McGuinness will make his WWE debut on commentary over those two days as he joins Michael Cole in the broadcast booth.
WWE held a press conference this morning in London to announce the inauguration of the United Kingdom Wrestling Championship Tournament, a 16-man single-elimination tournament to crown the first WWE United Kingdom Champion.
When is it?
The two-day affair, to be shown live on the WWE Network, will be held on January 14th and 15th, in Blackpool, a town in north west England close to the heart of NXT commissioner (and one of WWE’s heads of development) William Regal.
The show clashes with PROGRESS Wrestling’s debut show in Birmingham, and Preston City Wrestling have acted quickly to announce matinee shows in Blackpool on the days of the WWE events.
Why is it?
In the early 2000s there was talk of WWE opening a UK office but nothing came to fruition. The carrot was dangled, however, that this tournament could lead to a dedicated UK territory, with a show on the WWE Network, much in the way that the Cruiserweight Classic led to 205 Live.
At the press conference, Regal was at pains to stress that this was not a response to the forthcoming relaunch of ITV’s World of Sport show, although the timing is nothing if not coincidental. However, it must be stressed that the wheels move slowly in big corporations, so it may just be that — a huge coincidence.
The UK scene is at its hottest point for well over 30 years, with a slew of critically (and financially) successful promotions, and a deep talent pool produced by training schools like the ProJo, the House of Pain, Glasgow Pro-Wrestling Asylum, and more.
Who’s in it?
The full list of talent released for the tournament includes 18 names, presumably including a couple of alternates in case of injury. It includes Wolfgang, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Sam Gradwell, James Drake, T-Bone, Tucker, Jordan Devlin, Joseph Conners, HC Dyer, Chris Tyler, Roy Johnson, Dan Moloney, Jack Starz, Tiger Ali, Ringo Ryan, and Saxon Huxley.
Who are they?
Seven and Dunne (and latterly Bate) form the tag team of British Strong Style, who are PROGRESS Tag Team Champions. Dunne is also a double singles champion, currently holding the PROGRESS and Fight Club: PRO titles, while Seven recently won a number one contenders’ match for Wolfgang’s Insane Championship Wrestling Heavyweight Championship. Seven, Dunne, Bate, and Dan Moloney are all regulars for Fight Club: PRO, a promotion co-owned by Seven.
Drake, T-Bone, and Gradwell (who wrestles as Ricky J McKenzie) are fixtures on the north west scene, while Jordan Devlin and Pro-Wrestling Ulster’s Tucker bring an Irish flavor to the contest. Tiger Ali is a former 4-Front Wrestling Champion who has caught the eye of Ultimo Dragon and main evented Arena Mexico.
Conners and Dyer are graduates of Stixx’s House of Pain school, and they both work regularly for Southside, where Conners is a former Heavyweight Champion and Chris Tyler currently holds one-half of the tag team titles titles (with Stixx). ProJo trainee Johnson works a powerlifter gimmick for PROGRESS, and the field is rounded out by All-Star Wrestling’s Ringo Ryan, the Robbie Brookside-trained Jack Starz, and former Lance Storm student Saxon Huxley.
What does that mean for PROGRESS & ICW?
The vast majority of UK wrestlers are free agents, so there is little that PROGRESS, ICW, OTT — or any other promotion for whom these wrestlers work regularly — can do about what looks on the surface like an audacious talent grab. However, many of these promotions have close working ties with WWE, and their talent and officers, and it is hard to imagine that there haven’t been at least preliminary discussions before today’s public reveal.
One possibly unforeseen complication, given the lead time usually required for such projects, is that PROGRESS’ debut show in Birmingham looks — at least at present — to be without the promotion’s Heavyweight and Tag Team Champions, and the British Strong Style stable are the hometown heroes for that date. However, this may open up opportunities to others from the region who previously have been overlooked by the promotion.
Who’s not in it?
Aside from those signed to TNA (Drew Galloway, Bram, Grado, and Rockstar Spud), the big names missing are Zack Sabre Jr., Marty Scurll, and Will Ospreay, and the latter two are under contract to Ring of Honor (with Ospreay under a New Japan contract to boot). Other stars of the UK scene you would have expected to see are Jimmy Havoc (possibly not PG enough), Mark Andrews (has been working TNA of late), and Nathan Cruz (who had an NXT tryout on his recent US tour).
Also missing are those who signed up to the World of Sport revival, a list which includes scene heavyweights Dave Mastiff, Joe Coffey, Rampage Brown, El Ligero, Bubblegum, Sha Samuels, and Kenny Williams, among others.
Lastly, also not named was Nick Aldis, whose wife Mickie James just signed to return to WWE and who presumably will base himself in the US. That may also account for Sabre, who will become a US-resident in 2017.
Where now?
For now this is just a one-off, but it may lead to a regular show on the WWE Network, and the formation of a regular WWE UK promotion, run similarly to NXT. Whether this would be stand-alone, or promoted in conjunction with “friendly” promoters like PROGRESS, is anyone’s guess.
This may also account for the rumors of contracts offered to UK wrestlers that Dave Meltzer has reported on recently, which were described by some as preventing talent working for anyone the WWE considered to be competition — again, presumably, the partner promotions would still be on safe ground.
Outside the WWE UK project, the World of Sport revival show is confirmed for a New Year’s Eve broadcast on ITV, and there is still talk of a touring promotion — and regular series — spinning out of it if it is successful. Adding to the confusion is FloSlam’s entrance into the UK and Irish market, signing up IPW:UK and OTT for broadcast on their streaming network, which may affect talent who have signed to WWE UK deals.
2016 has certainly not been a dull or predictable year for wrestling, UK and worldwide, and the last sputtering days of the year show no sign of slowing down. No one could have predicted this happening, and it’s nothing short of fascinating for followers of the sport, regardless of nationality.
