What’s the story?
The newest championship title to be introduced to the WWE Universe is the WWE United Kingdom Championship. The title was introduced during a tournament held in January 2017, which saw nineteen-year-old Tyler Bate become the inaugural champion.
WWE is heading back to the United Kingdom in May, and according to a report from CagesideSeats, the tapings won’t be for the WWE Network.
In case you didn’t know...
The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament was the most recent tournament that was exclusive to the WWE Network. The massively successful and critically acclaimed tournament took place over two days this past January and saw the crowning of the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion.
Several matches from the weekend were incredible, as stars like Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, Mark Andrews, Jordan Devlin, and eventual WWE UK Champion, Tyler Bate fought over the new championship title.
The event also introduced the WWE Universe to the newest member of the NXT announce team, Nigel McGuinness.
The heart of the matter
The report states that the WWE UK tapings in May will be for actual television instead of the WWE Network. We know that WWE is planning a tour of the United Kingdom in May and that they’ll tape Raw and SmackDown during that tour on the 8th and 9th of May, but those aren’t the tapings in question here.
WWE has advertised tapings for WWE UK Championship Live on May 5th and 6th of this year from Norwich, England. More specifically, the shows will be taped at Epic Studios in Norwich, which is the same venue that World Association of Wrestling (Paige’s family’s promotion) tapes out of.
The WWE UK Championship tapings are expected to have a majority of the talent that appeared in the UK Championship Tournament, as well as members of the WWE Cruiserweight Division.
It is unknown at this time whether or not the events will air specifically in the United Kingdom, or if they’ll be available for broadcast on a worldwide level.
What’s next?
The tapings are scheduled to take place over the first weekend of May.
Sportskeeda’s take
We always knew that the plan for the WWE United Kingdom Championship was to eventually build a television program around it. However, we don’t have any information yet on what the details of the show will be, from a broadcast standpoint.
Will this be exclusive to the United Kingdom? Does WWE already have a deal in place for television rights? We’ll bring you more on this story as it develops.
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