What’s the story?
The first ever WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament was a success, but many fans were confused as to why the brackets were missing one of the top British performers on the scene today. Zack Sabre Jr. was conspicuous by his absence, and Ringside News are now reporting a potential reason as to why he wasn’t involved.
The site claims that Sabre Jr. was already booked to appear elsewhere, and the money that WWE offered him to take part in the tournament, wasn’t enough for him to change his plans. Many outlets have claimed that the money WWE offered for the tournament was relatively low but many performers chose to take part for the exposure and recognition.
As one of the top performers on the worldwide independent scene, Zack Sabre Jr. has more flexibility when it comes to picking and choosing his dates from a financial perspective, and already has more than enough recognition in the USA.
In case you didn’t know...
Zack Sabre Jr. may well be the number one British independent wrestler on the planet today. He is a former winner of PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament and the current PWG World Champion and was a losing semi-finalist in 2016’s WWE Cruiserweight Classic.
When that tournament was announced, Sabre Jr. was touted as the most likely winner of the entire thing, falling short in the semis after deciding against signing a full-time contract with WWE. Many expected the Technical Wizard to be a major part of the UK Championship tournament, but this didn’t come to pass.
The heart of the matter
The discussion about the financial side of the UK Championship tournament will continue to reverberate around the UK wrestling scene for months to come. The money rumoured to be offered is around $20,000 per year, which isn’t an altogether impressive sum of money, but it comes with the exposure and cache that can change a wrestler’s career.
Zack Sabre Jr. is at a point in his career when he simply doesn’t need this.
What’s next?
If anything, we seem further away from the prospect of seeing Zack Sabre Jr. performing full time in WWE than we did this time last year. With more British promotions growing in reputation, more performers are coming to the fore, and the ship may already have sailed on Sabre Jr. being welcomed to rapturous applause in NXT.
Sportskeeda’s take
Whilst it would have been nice to see Zack in the tournament, it was equally pleasant to see a major talent decide against falling into the paws of the WWE giant. Variety is the spice of life after all, and 16 men benefited from Sabre Junior’s decision.
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