10 Times WWE Actually Worked With Other Companies
3. BritWres...
...until NXT UK expedited its inevitable decline.
WWE's 2017 UK Championship Tournament saw the company bring together some of the best and most starstruck wrestlers from the likes of PROGRESS and Fight Club Pro to compete for a brand new WWE UK Championship. A series of follow-up special events and Triple H briefly lending his bearded gurn to ICW's disgusting pre-existing collection of them spoke to a special relationship that appeared to be forming between a thriving scene and their pal Paul.
In reality, it was just about the fox getting into the henhouse.
Lots got WWE jobs and handshake pics and some of the promotions even got their own little button on the Network, but NXT UK's formal launch (and the talent warehousing that followed) in 2018 brought about the beginning of the end.
2020 saw British Wrestling's mid-2010s boom go bust with a sense of conclusiveness some had been in denial about for several years. With all the companies already closed or simply unable to access talent due to the pandemic, the SpeakingOut movement exposed the scene's disgusting underbelly, reframing just how much of those glory days were really all that glorious.
Demand for the product was and remains at an all time low - the BT Sports Studio wouldn't draw many more than it already gets even if they were legally allowed to open the door.