What’s the story?
At a press conference held following Day 1 of the recently concluded WWE U.K. Championship, pro-wrestling website Inside The Ropes posed a couple of interesting questions to Triple H and William Regal. While ‘The Game’ was asked about the possibility of a WWE pay-per-view taking place in the U.K., Regal was questioned on whether he would be willing to wrestle Pete Dunne.
In case you didn’t know…
On Sunday 15 January, the WWE crowned their first ever United Kingdom Champion at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England in the form of Tyler Bate. In the final of a 16-man tournament which was held for the title, the 19-year old British wrestler pinned the highly experienced Pete Dunne after hitting him with his signature finishing move, the Tyler Driver ’97. Bate’s road to the final saw him overcome the challenge of Tucker in the first round whereas he beat Jordan Devlin and Wolfgang in the quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
The heart of the matter
Triple H stated that it is a goal for the WWE to carry out pay-per-views in the U.K. but admitted that it was a tough process to make things work that way because there is already so much on their plate at present. Despite the difficulties, though, he was positive about achieving the goal and asserted that U.K. Championship tournament was a huge step in that direction. Here’s what ‘The Game’ said:
“I think that is a goal of WWE to be here in that way. It’s a very difficult process with PPV schedules and coming to the UK or globally to perform live with a live TV component, following that up with RAW and SmackDown. It’s a massive undertaking, trying to co-ordinate all that.
There were 5 shows going on tonight under WWE. We have somewhere between 18 to 21 trailer trucks that come to our events, it’s tough to get them over the ocean. Is it a goal? Yes and I think tonight was one step closer to that goal becoming a reality.”
In an incident that occurred after the first round of matches in the tournament, Pete Dunne attacked his quarter-final opponent, Sam Gradwell, while William Regal was introducing them. Dunne’s actions angered Regal and he pushed the wrestler aside. Asked if he would step into the ring if Gradwell wasn’t able to compete in the quarters, the iconic wrestler denied it and claimed that his days were over long back.
The NXT general manager was quoted as saying this:
“No, no. My days are long gone. No, no, no. All I ever wanted to be was a wrestler at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and anything after that was a bonus. Then after that I decided I wanted a twenty year career, then when I got to 20, I thought I’d see if I could do another few and I ended up with a 30 year career, which is more than 95% of people who ever come into our industry. I’m done.”
What next?
The crowning of a new United Kingdom Champion has set up a perfect platform for the WWE to expand their business in the region. The next few weeks will give us a fair idea about how things will proceed in terms of the WWE’s new U.K. division.
Sportskeeda’s Take
The U.K. Championship tournament has marked the beginning of a new chapter in the WWE’s illustrious history as a wrestling promotion and provided the WWE Universe with a lot more to look forward to.
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