How WWE Were Destined To Damage British Wrestling With NXT UK
Dave Meltzer wasn't the first, but The Wrestling Observer scribe was perhaps the most prominent to draw a line between the UK project and Vince McMahon's hostile takeover of the territories in the mid-1980s. He'd reported on much of that as it was happening, and alarm bells rang for the future health of a thriving British scene. He said;
"...when Vince McMahon was about to make his move, it wasn't just the bold move into others' territories first. Before he made any moves, he worked with the other promoters that he later tried to put out of business. He asked them to send tapes of their top talent and he put a show on the USA Network called 'All-American Wrestling'. It showcased all the top stars from the different top promotions. [The promoters] thought he was doing them a favour by putting their talent on his national platform. In reality, he was putting their talent on that platform, then signing most of the talent up and running against those who supplied the tapes with their own former stars."
Sound familiar?
McMahon's charge through the territories was dispiritingly strategic. In order to create the perception of milk and honey that awaited those that fancied the same fame Hulk Hogan was achieving, he needed his company to look like a safe bet itself. This particular bit of gamesmanship mirrors closest how WWE have set up in Great Britain. NXT UK is far from a finished product nearly two full years after that aforementioned initial press conference, yet the branding has been powerful enough to lure talents into signing contracts that rule them out of every independent date with the exception of a carefully-chosen few.
ICW's Mark Dallas and PROGRESS' Jim Smallman were positively beaming when presented as the company's invited guests when Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate tore the roof off of Blackpool's Empress Ballroom in January 2017, because of course they were. They were as thrilled as the promoters Meltzer mentions above just to be getting what they believed was positive exposure. Moreover, they were fans. Triple H had an easier job than "nnnDad-uh" - many of the folk he'd sit down with were just glad to be at the table.
CONT'D...