WWE has revealed the bracket for next month’s United Kingdom Championship tournament.
After announcing the first round matchups last week, WWE posted a video today where the bracket was unveiled. The left side of the bracket has: Zack Gibson vs. Amir Jordan, Drew Gulak vs. Jack Gallagher, Flash Morgan Webster vs. James Drake, and Tyson T-Bone vs. Jordan Devlin.
The matches on the right side are: Tucker vs. Joe Coffey, Dave Mastiff vs. Kenny Williams, El Ligero vs. Travis Banks, and Ashton Smith vs. Joseph Conners.
The winners of the first round matches will advance to Royal Albert Hall, where WWE will be holding UK-brand shows on June 18th and 19th. The tournament will be taking place on the first night, then the winner will challenge for Pete Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship on the 19th.
A bracketology special for the tournament will air on the WWE Network at 8 p.m. Eastern time on June 7th.
What Michaels’ role will be hasn’t been revealed, aside from that he’ll be appearing “alongside Triple H” and obviously won’t be wrestling. Michaels currently works as a coach at WWE’s Performance Center.
The two nights at Royal Albert Hall will be taking place on June 18th and 19th. A tournament to determine the challenger for Pete Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship on the 19th is also set for the opening night, along with Dunne teaming with Tyler Bate & Trent Seven against The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong).
The second night will have Dunne defending against the tournament winner, Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. EC3 & Velveteen Dream, and NXT North American, Women’s, and Tag Team title defenses.
Most of the first round matches for the tournament will be held at Download Festival on June 8-10, with the winners advancing to Royal Albert Hall. Those matchups are:
Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak (already filmed at an NXT TV taping earlier this month)
Jack Gallagher vs. Drew Gulak, Ashton Smith vs. Joseph Conners, Flash Morgan Webster vs. James Drake, Kenny Williams vs. Dave Mastiff, El Ligero vs. Travis Banks, Zack Gibson vs. Amir Jordan, Tucker vs. Joe Coffey, and Tyson T-Bone vs. Jordan Devlin are the opening round matchups. Aside from Gulak vs. Gallagher, all of those will be taking place at Download Festival from June 8-10.
The winners of the first round matches will advance to Royal Albert Hall on June 18th, and the winner of the tournament will challenge for Pete Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship at the venue the next night.
The bracket for the tournament will be announced next Wednesday.
Travis Banks, Flash Morgan Webster, Jordan Devlin, Tucker, Drew Gulak, Ashton Smith, James Drake, and Tyson T-Bone were the final eight wrestlers announced for the tournament. They join Zack Gibson, Joe Coffey, Jack Gallagher, Dave Mastiff, Kenny Williams, El Ligero, Joseph Conners, and Amir Jordan in the 16-person field.
Banks, who is from New Zealand but is a standout wrestler on the UK scene, is the current champion for PROGRESS Wrestling. Dave Meltzer reported earlier this week that he was one of the names that WWE had attempted to sign recently.
Webster made his WWE TV debut on this week’s episode of 205 Live, teaming with Cedric Alexander & Mustafa Ali to defeat Gulak, Drake & Conners. Devlin, Tucker, Drake, and Tyson T-Bone were part of the first UK Championship tournament in 2017.
First round matches in this year’s tournament will take place at Download Festival on June 8-10. It will continue at Royal Albert Hall on June 18th, with the winner challenging for Pete Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship the next night.
The first eight wrestlers have been announced for WWE’s next United Kingdom Championship tournament.
WWE revealed today that Zack Gibson, Joe Coffey, Jack Gallagher, Dave Mastiff, Kenny Williams, El Ligero, Joseph Conners, and Amir Jordan will be taking part in the 16-man tournament. The first round matches will take place at Download Festival on June 8-10, with the winners advancing to Royal Albert Hall on June 18th.
The wrestler who wins the tournament will challenge for Pete Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship during the second night at Royal Albert Hall on June 19th.
With ITV taping pro wrestling this past week in Norwich, WWE attempted to sign as many of the top United Kingdom stars as possible in recent weeks to both keep them from World of Sport and also to be with them for their own heavier expansion into the U.K. market with a U.K. specific brand and weekly television.
WWE kicks off its next phase on June 18th and 19th with the King of the Ring tournament at Royal Albert Hall in London.
As noted in the current Observer, Toni Storm was key on the radar. While talent is not allowed to publicly talk about signings until WWE releases the names themselves, and this is not a list of confirmed siinings, those who have been in talks for the WWE’s new project are Storm, Joe Coffey, Dave Mastiff (who had been pushed as the lead heel on the first ITV pilot show), El Ligero, Travis Banks, Chris Brookes, Jinny, and Eddie Dennis.
A six-man tag match is set for the first of WWE’s two United Kingdom Championship tournament shows at Royal Albert Hall in June.
WWE revealed today that British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) will be teaming together to face the Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong) on night one. Strong turned against Dunne at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, joining Undisputed Era and allowing the group to retain their Tag Team titles.
After TakeOver, Bate & Seven lost a tag title match to Strong & O’Reilly at WrestleMania Axxess and were being attacked by Undisputed Era until Dunne made the save.
The first night in London will also feature a tournament to decide who will be challenging for Dunne’s WWE United Kingdom Championship on the second show. In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that it is believed to be an eight-man tournament with WWE’s UK-contracted wrestlers. The NXT Women’s, North American, and Tag Team titles will be defended on night two as well.
The UK Championship tournament shows will be taking place on June 18th and 19th, which fall on a Monday and Tuesday and come just days after NXT TakeOver: Chicago.
The first UK Championship tournament took place in Blackpool across two days in January 2017 and aired live on the WWE Network. It concluded with Tyler Bate defeating Pete Dunne in the finals to become the first WWE UK Champion. Dunne now holds the title after winning it from Bate at NXT TakeOver: Chicago last May.
The two dates for this year’s tournament fall on a Monday and Tuesday. It will again feature wrestlers from WWE’s UK division.
Then known as the WWF, the company came to Royal Albert Hall for “Battle Royal at the Albert Hall” in 1991. That show was uploaded to the WWE Network earlier this year when Coliseum Home Videos were part of a classic content drop.
While hyping up upcoming programming during tonight’s Hall of Fame ceremony, WWE confirmed that two tournaments are coming to the Network.
WWE announced the second annual Mae Young Classic and another United Kingdom tournament, which will be called King of the Ring. When the tournaments will be happening wasn’t mentioned, but Dave Meltzer reported last month that there’s been “a lot of movement going on behind the scenes” with the company’s UK project lately.
WWE’s initial UK tournament took place across two days in January 2017, with Tyler Bate becoming the inaugural United Kingdom Champion. Kairi Sane won the first Mae Young Classic by defeating Shayna Baszler in the finals last summer.
The commercial also advertised new seasons of the Edge & Christian Show, Table for Three, Ride Along, Camp WWE, and WWE Story Time, along with a WWE 365 documentary on AJ Styles and WWE 24 specials on The Hardys, Raw’s 25th anniversary, and Ronda Rousey.
“Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard” — based on Prichard and Conrad Thompson’s podcast — and “Elias: Unplugged” were announced as coming to the Network as well.
For the second time since the title was created, WWE’s United Kingdom Championship is set to be defended outside of the company.
Insane Championship Wrestling announced today that Pete Dunne would defend his title on July 29th at the first night of their “Shug’s Hoose Party 4” weekend of shows. Dunne’s challenger will be decided at an ICW show prior to that, with WWE UK’s Wolfgang facing the winner of a four-way (which includes Davey Blaze, Kenny Williams, BT Gunn, and Gabriel Kidd) in a number one contender’s match.
Dunne’s match won’t be the only WWE representation on the July 29th show, with it having been previously revealed that Noam Dar would return to ICW to team with Sha Samuels against Grado & Joe Coffey.
The first time that the WWE UK title was defended outside of the company was during WrestleMania weekend earlier this year. When Tyler Bate was still champion, he put his title on the line against Mark Andrews at PROGRESS Wrestling’s event in Orlando in March. This will be the first time that the title has been defended at a non-WWE show in the UK.
Both ICW and PROGRESS have strong relationships with WWE. George Barrios (WWE’s Chief Financial Officer) even mistakenly said last month that there had already been an agreement announced for events from ICW and PROGRESS to appear on the WWE Network.
Dave Meltzer reported that those deals are in place, but Vince McMahon has to give the okay for them to become official.
The WWE UK Championship tournament brought a lot of new eyeballs on UK talent, and the tournament itself is recapped to start the show. Tyler Bate talks about how his career has changed since winning the title, while Wolfgang talks about how his social media following has grown since then. Trent Seven says he wants to be the face of the company in the UK, while Pete Dunne says he’ll take the crown.
Jim Ross and Nigel McGuinness introduce us to Norwich, England. Tonight, Trent Seven faces Pete Dunne to determine who faces the champion at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, while Mark Andrews faces Tyler Bate for the UK title in the main event.
Wolfgang vs. Joseph Conners
We get highlights of Wolfgang’s work from the UK Title tournament. Conners comes out looking incredibly intense with a stare that makes him stand out instantly. His power moves from the tourney are showcased and they talk about how he lost his left ear.
Lots of near falls leading to the final sequence. Conners lands a powerbomb for a two count and goes for a diving something, but eats a big spear. A swanton bomb gets the win for Wolfgang.
TJP and Brian Kendrick vs. Dan Maloney and Rich Swann
Kendrick starts against Maloney, who bullies Kendrick around until Kendrick outsmarts him and attacks the arm. TJP and Kendrick work the arm before we get a spot that I haven’t seen since ESPN Classic aired the AWA and Ron Fuller did the stump puller to his own partner. Maloney switched out with Kendrick and TJP went from blindly cranking on Dan’s arm to Kendrick’s. TJP looks over and sees them and then apologizes to Kendrick.
Kendrick tags in and gets the Captain’s Hook, but Maloney makes the save. Maloney clubs away at Kendrick, but the heels cheat to win by having TJP hold Kendrick’s arms for a hotshot. Kendrick wins with a small package using the tights.
Trent Seven’s injury in the UK Championship tournament is shown before he tells Charly that he’s hurt, but it’s just tendon damage. Pete Dunne attacks him to set up the number one contender’s match. Dunne says he’s now getting the credit he deserves and he’s where he should be. Trent Seven is shown hitting nasty strikes and winning with the Seven Stars. Andy Shepherd is mid-ring to do introductions for the match. Dunne comes out with the PROGRESS championship in his mouth. Trent comes out and they leer at each other menacingly.
#1 Contender’s Match: Pete Dunne vs. Trent Seven
They go back and forth off a collar-and-elbow tieup before Dunne circles around to try and gain a good position on the damaged right arm of Seven. Dunne takes him down and tortures him for a bit, but Seven escapes and lands a series of chops. Dunne gets pulled off the second rope and eats a left arm lariat to the gut for 1. Dunne goes behind, but Trent’s rope escape leaves the arm open for a hard shot to the arm. They brawl to the floor and Dunne lands a nasty forearm strike to the jaw. This allows him to trap the arm in the steps and kick the arm into the post.
Dunne talks smack on the apron and eats a slap before kicking away, but opening himself up to a Dragon suplex on the apron! They’re both down for a 9.5 count before rocketing back in. This gets a well-deserved “this is awesome” chant and it’s easily the best match on TV in at least a month. Trent goes up top for a superplex, but Dunne attacks the hand. Trent still goes for a Dragon suplex off the top, but Dunne flips to his feet and lands a forearm before eating a backfist and then landing an enzuiguri.
Dunne runs off the rope, but eats a lariat for 2.5. Trent goes for a Seven Star lariat, but a bodyscissors counter opens the door for the Kimura. Seven recovers and hits a Dragon suplex and a backfist. Dunne avoids a wrist clutch burning hammer and lands the Bitter End to win it and go to TakeOver Chicago to face the winner of tonight’s main event for the UK Title.
Dunne says that people would get hurt and did before they hype up the WWE 24 special on Finn Balor. A Mark Andrews hype video showcases his work in the UK tournament while Tyler Bate says he’ll show the world why he’s the champion. This was simple and effective. Andrews comes out to a really cheery fast-paced song that is delightfully amusing and lets the crowd swing their hands around. Bate and his outstanding game show theme come out to a mild applause.
WWE UK Champion Tyler Bate vs. Mark Andrews
Andrews and Bate shake hands to start things off before a quick takedown exchange. Bate works him down on the mat and focuses on the arm. Andrews counters with matwork of his own before a kneeling armbar. Bate recovers and starts to work on the leg and going back to the arm. Andrews uses some Johnny Saint tactics to escape a wristlock.
Andrews locks on a front facelock before Bate puts him up top calmly. Andrews is in a full nelson, but escapes with more British technical wizardry. Bate wrestles him down and locks on a standing surfboard before a cartwheel and a running rana lead to Andrews doing a cartwheel. Mirror image dropkicks lead to a standoff. They jawjack and Andrews gets a dropkick for 2 before locking on an octopus stretch. Tyler begins to go to the rope, so Andrews turns it into a cradle for 2.
Andrews hits a 619, but eats another uppercut and a long airplane spin before going to turn it around, but eating an inverted rana for 2. JR points out that Andrews is doing well for himself while not flying around endlessly and saving his flying for when it matters. Andrews goes up for the shooting star press, but Bate stops him and goes for a Lambeu leap before eating a rana.
A running SSP gets 2 for Andrews. Andrews lifts him up, but eats a superkick and a modified slingshot lariat. Tyler goes for a suplex, but eats a stunner. Andrews goes for the SSP, but Bate gets the knees up and sends Andrews to the other side of the ring. Andrews rolls into mid-ring, but eats a koppo kick and the Tyler driver ends it.
This was an outstanding match, but a notch below Dunn-Seven, which was an absolute must watch. Dunne comes down to attack Andrews and stares down Bate before their Takeover match.
Final Thoughts:
This was an outstanding show and easily the best single show that WWE has done since either night of the UK Title tournament. They have struck gold with every single person showcased on this program and Pete Dunne feels like a top-level heel in the making. It’s hard to imagine him headlining Raw, but it’s very easy to see he and Nakamura engaged in a WWE Title feud on SmackDown in a year’s time.
Hopefully he doesn’t spend too much time outside of the main roster, because they could just transplant every part of his act to the main roster without any alteration and they would have someone who fans could genuinely hate. His physical style stands out as much now as Finlay’s did over a decade ago when he returned, and hopefully they continue to allow him to do what he does and don’t “improve” him by sanding off the rough edges.
The WWE announced today that the debut of the WWE United Kingdom show will be a special airing on Friday, not Thursday night as was originally reported, this week.
Because the top two matches on the show have to do with the NXT TakeOver special on Saturday, they had to air earlier. The show will debut at 3 p.m. Friday Eastern time, which makes sense because that would be prime time in the U.K., the key market. There will be an 8 p.m. replay on Friday night.
Jim Ross and Nigel McGuinness will be doing studio voice overs of the matches taped on May 7th in Norwich, England.
Announced for the show is Tyler Bate vs. Mark Andrews for the U.K. title, and Pete Dunne vs. Trent Seven for the top contender position. WWE has already announced Bate vs. Dunne as the match for TakeOver: Chicago on May 20th. Reports were that both of these matches were excellent.
The other matches that will air will be Rich Swann & Dan Moloney vs. Brian Kendrick & TJP, and Wolfgang vs. Joseph Conners.
Jim Ross announced today on his blog that he will be the play-by-play announcer for the WWE U.K. television show, teaming with Nigel McGuinness.
The first shows were taped on Saturday and Sunday in Norwich, England, with results on the front page of the site.
As of what we’ve heard, the shows will be broken up into weekly one-hour shows, similar to NXT, airing on the WWE Network. At the tapings yesterday, it was announced that the first episode would be debuting before the end of the month.
Ross will continue to also do weekly television for AXS and New Japan Pro Wrestling due to the unique contract situation he has, so he will be announcing for the two largest pro wrestling companies in the world at the same time.
On his blog, he also noted that AXS would be making the announcement on May 18th of its broadcast plans for the New Japan shows on July 1st and July 2nd in Long Beach. The deal to air those events on AXS has been in talks for months. The events will also air live with Kevin Kelly and Don Callis on New Japan World.
– Before the show started, PROGRESS Wrestling co-owner Jim Smallman cut a promo for the live crowd. He said 2017 is the year for British wrestling and acknowledged the chants from last night and made a joke of them. He interacted with those in the crowd who weren’t there at night one.
TV taping results —
– Wolfgang defeated Joseph Conners
This was a lengthy match and Conners controlled most of it. He repeatedly ignored the ref’s requests during the match. Wolfgang caught Conners coming off the second rope with a gut check at one point. The story of the match was Wolfgang selling his ribs after being worked on, but he eventually won with a Swanton Bomb.
– Brian Kendrick & TJP defeated Dan Moloney & Rich Swann
Moloney was over with the crowd after last night, with the audience again chanting “Dan, Dan, Dan.” TJP was taunting the crowd during the early part of the match and thought he was attacking the arm of Moloney over the rope, but turned around to realize that he was doing it to Kendrick. The crowd was very pro-Kendrick during the match as well.
Swann got a hot tag to Moloney after a short time and the crowd chanted “Dan” to each move Moloney hit before he was cut off again by TJP. Kendrick pinned Moloney with a cradle and a handful of tights. Swann and Moloney danced for the crowd after the match.
– Tyson T-Bone defeated Saxon Huxley
T-Bone started the match trying to box with Huxley. The match was short and not very good at all. T-Bone won with a top rope draping DDT.
– Akira Tozawa defeated Tony Nese
This was a very good match. The crowd loved Tozawa and did his battle cry chant during his entrance. After some early offense from Tozawa, Nese took over and tried to submit him with a torture rack. Tozawa escaped but was cut off again and Nese did a springboard moonsault off of the second rope from the outside and into the ring.
There was a really good sequence late into the match with them trading kicks and counters. Nese got the better of it with a double foot stomp to Tozawa on the mat. Nese eventually missed a 450 and Tozawa hit a Saito suplex for two before winning with a senton off the top rope.
– Triple H came out for a promo. The crowd chanted “We want Mania” at him. He acknowledged some of the crowd. He thanked the UK fans for making the shows possible. He said WWE will continue coming back if the fans keep coming to the shows.
– Sam Gradwell defeated James Drake
They had a basic match, with the crowd chanting multiple different things at both. Gradwell won with a diving headbutt.
– Pete Dunne defeated Trent Seven in a number one contender’s match to earn a UK title shot at NXT TakeOver: Chicago
Dunne was introduced as the PROGRESS Wrestling Champion and came out with the belt. He worked on Seven’s arms early in the match. He trapped Seven’s bandaged arm in the steel steps and kicked them while on the outside. He continued working over Seven when they were back in the ring until Seven fired back with chops, a DDT, and a suicide dive.
Dunne countered Seven’s offense, with them eventually brawling on the outside and trading shots on the apron before Seven gave Dunne a German suplex on it. After some more back and forth action, Dunne won with the Bitter End.
He got on the mic after the match and told us people would get hurt and that he’ll win the title at TakeOver “by any means necessary.”
– United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate defeated Mark Andrews to retain his title
This was a really good main event. It had lots of counters and “This is awesome” and “British wrestling” chants throughout.
They felt each other out in the early part of the match before having a lot of good back and forth. Andrews went for a shooting star press near the finish, but Bate countered with two knees and followed up with a rolling kick and the Tyler Driver ’97 for the win.
Dunne attacked Andrews on the ramp after the match, which brought out William Regal. Dunne and Bate had a staredown in the ring with Regal watching on as well. Bate posed for the fans and Regal raised his hand, then left while clapping and bowing out of respect to Bate. Bate waved to the crowd and left.
– We were thanked for attending. They announced that the shows will be on the WWE Network later this month.
Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne will once again be facing off with the WWE United Kingdom Championship on the line.
It was announced at yesterday’s UK TV tapings in Norwich that there would be a UK title defense at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on May 20th. The participants for the match were then confirmed today, with Dunne set to challenge for Bate’s title.
Dunne defeated Trent Seven in a number one contender’s match and Bate successfully defended his title against Mark Andrews at today’s tapings. Bate previously defeated Dunne in the finals of WWE’s UK tournament to win the championship.
Bate and Dunne are stablemates as part of British Strong Style outside of WWE.
WWE also confirmed that the shows the company filmed in Norwich this weekend will be making their way to the Network later this month.
TakeOver: Chicago will take place at the Allstate Arena prior to the venue also hosting SmackDown’s Backlash pay-per-view the next night.
