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What's the story?
The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament takes place next month, and ahead of the event, WWE has already begun signing many stars to contracts with the company.
In case you didn't know...
Following the first United Kingdom Tournament in January 2017, WWE signed all of the competitors to contracts so that they were unable to appear on any other shows that were broadcast on TV or online.
This caused WhatCulture a few issues since WWE used a lot of their talent as part of the tournament.
WWE will then have control of the stars before they are officially announced as part of the show and can then use them as part of their NXT, 205 Live and main roster shows whilst also knowing that WWE owns their image rights.
The heart of the matter
According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, WWE has already signed around 20 UK based Indy Superstars to the company.
These names include Toni Storm, Dave Mastiff, Joe Coffey, El Ligero, Travis Banks, Chris Brookes and Eddie Dennis, with many names expected to be revealed in the coming weeks.
WWE appears to be signing a number of UK talents to keep them away from their competition in World of Sport, who taped their shows in Norwich this past weekend.
World of Sport has the likes of Will Ospreay, Kay Lee Ray, and Grado whilst former WWE Star Stu Bennett (Wade Barrett) has been working as an announcer for the promotion.
ITV is set to broadcast WOS for 10 weeks, and it seems that WWE is trying to sign as many stars to contracts as possible to prevent them from working for their competition at all.
What's next?
The United Kingdom Championship Tournament takes place on the 18th and 19th of June live from The Royal Albert Hall in Kensington.
Author's take
Much like when WCW and WWE were competing for ratings, it appears that The United Kingdom has become a battleground for both promotions and can only be a good thing for the UK talent.
In the space of two years, the country has gone from having no televised wrestling to having two promotions and it appears that the issues between WOS and WWE are far from over.
