10 Wrestlers Who Won't Be In WWE Royal Rumble 2017 Match

7. Tyler Bate

Kurt Angle
WWE.com

Last weekend, 19-year-old Tyler Bate was crowned the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion in a two-day tournament. The belt - and Bate, by extension - will be the centerpiece of a new UK-centric WWE Network show, but there have been no announcements about when that show is coming.

With that in mind, it's possible that putting Bate in the match wouldn't be the worst thing - after all, it's an easy way to give him a cameo appearance and keep him in fans' minds.

That said, is it worth it? There's a chance that many of the fans watching the Rumble won't know Bate, as his exposure to U.S. audiences doesn't really stretch beyond the one two-day tournament. It's also possible that WWE wants to keep the whole UK division separate from the rest of the roster right now (the shows will air on the Network, but will likely all be taped in the UK), so putting Bate in the Rumble might not fit with the company's plans. They'll err on the side of caution.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013