WWE announced over Wrestlemania weekend that the United Kingdom roster would once again be featured during a two day event in the historic Albert Hall on June 18th/19th. The company has confirmed that a tournament akin to the original in Blackpool would determine the Number 1 Contender to Pete Dunne’s United Kingdom Championship.
Whilst there are a slew of worthy challengers already signed to WWE’s United Kingdom roster we decided to look at 3 stars currently working the UK scene who could seemingly make the jump into the ‘big time’ and be crowned the next number 1 contender to the already prestigious belt, here are those names:
Nathan Cruz
You may not know Nathan Cruz, but you really should. The current NGW Champion is a veteran of the UK scene and extremely well respected by his peers. One of the most impressive aspects of his extensive resume comes from his time in the PROGRESS promotion, where he became their first ever top Champion (the belt later became a World Title) and he also held the Tag Team Championships for an extensive period of time, defeating the likes of the Sumerian Death Squad (Aleister Black’s former team), Tommaso Ciampa & Zack Sabre Jr and F.S.U (Mark Andrews & Eddie Dennis). Cruz has an incredible presence and can play to crowds of varying ages with unquestionable ease, he is a talent on the UK scene that should absolutely be given a shot amongst the WWE’s growing roster. Incredibly Cruz actually wrestled as part of an NXT taping back in 2016 in a losing effort to Elias, you can read more about his time working for the company from this interview with Sky Sports.
Mark Haskins
Another veteran from UK shores who we really need to see mix it up with some of WWE’s best. Mark Haskins is the definition of a technical master, his unwavering and relentless style has seen him capture the PROGRESS World and Tag Team Championships as well as a slew of belts across Europe. His next big encounter comes as part of ICW’s Newcastle show where he steps in for an injured Paul London to challenge for the ICW World Championship against BT Gunn, who himself is another star worthy of making the tournament in June. The pinnacle of Haskins’ career thus far has to be his PROGRESS World Title win during the 2016 Brixton Academy show against Marty Scurll and Aleister Black, the bout ended in an absolutely euphoric response from the huge crowd and will be remembered for years by the PROGRESS faithful…Haskins is absolutely ready for WWE.
Zack Gibson
By now you may have already heard of Zack Gibson. ‘Liverpool’s Number 1’ has been gracing shows across the UK for a number of years and his claim to soon be the ‘World’s Number 1’ is being backed up with every passing appearance. Gibson is no stranger to the WWE United Kingdom title, he recently challenged Pete Dunne for the strap as part of a Futureshock Wrestling event and whilst he came up short another shot at the coveted prize cannot be too far away for the Scouse Superstar (he’ll definably call himself that in WWE). Interestingly Gibson’s longtime tag team and business partner James Drake is already a member of the WWE United Kingdom division, he took part in the original tournament and subsequent Norwich tapings in a reduced but somewhat prominent role and there is certainly scope to team these two on future shows for the company.
Out of the three listed there is an extremely good chance that Gibson will not only be part of the tournament, but he may actually win. Pete Dunne has been portrayed as someone of a ‘tweener’ character on NXT and the crowds have been massively behind the ‘Bruiserweight.’ A strong villainous character with the presence of Gibson may be just what is needed to help elevate the United Kingdom Championship to bigger heights and help build to what is hopefully an established Network/Television series down the line.
Are there any UK stars you’d like to see? Let us now in the comments.
