It has been revealed that contracted talents to WWE’s United Kingdom division are no longer allowed to be featured as part of On Demand services for independent companies across the UK…apart from two notable exceptions.
PROGRESS and Insane Championship Wrestling are arguably the two biggest independent companies in the UK and the working relationship between them and WWE has been well publicised; both feature WWE UK Superstars on a consistent basis (PROGRESS have more contracted talent) and appear to have struck deals with WWE early to ensure that their presentation is not affected.
The companies that will certainly be feeling the effect of this are Revolution Pro (Rev Pro), RIPTIDE, DEFIANT and Fight Club: Pro. The four well established brands use WWE UK stars on a regular basis and whilst Rev Pro have a strong working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling the loss of some of their stars such as Zack Gibson, Chris Brookes et al could affect them greatly.
Fans of the UK scene had predicted this situation occurring early on during the initial WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament, with companies such as Fight Club: Pro having to show feature bouts such as The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) vs British Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) ‘behind closed doors’ to fans in attendance when they would certainly have generated a massive income from DVD sales prior to WWE striking deals with UK talent.
