10 Things You Learn Watching WWE TV After 9 Months Away

Bringing in a UK Championship belt is simply an awesome idea. For years WWE has been squandering the opportunities to provide a legitimate international product, that engages with their enormous international audience, in a more meaningful way. One of the great strengths of UFC has been its ability to engage internationally, and create icons of their sport, who aren't North American. It doesn't matter where the talent is from in UFC. What matters is their talent and how charismatic they are.

While they have been far more accepting of international wrestlers in recent years, they have still, more often than not, paired an international character with gimmicks that are either embarrassing (or just downright racist). This is dumb. In an era of globalisation and shrinking borders, there is no need to pretend that a wrestler from the Pacific is a savage, or that someone from the UK must be a part of the Monarchy. It is intelligence insulting, and it helps enforce the image that Wrestling is a product produced by rednecks and consumed by even stupider rednecks.

Obviously, WWE hasn't cut the crap entirely. Gentleman Jack is so ridiculously foppish, that they may as well have given him a bag of Waitrose crumpets to snack on while he was commentating duty on Raw. But the fact that they are seriously looking abroad to expand their roster, and they are looking outwards to tap into the rich legacies of other countries, like the UK, is a very promising development indeed.