11 Things WWE Got Right With UK Championship Tournament
8. Tournament Pacing
WWE has a reputation for treating tournaments with utter disdain, but the last 12 months have lent credence to the belief that such hatred begins and ends with Vince McMahon. Both the UK Championship tournament and the Cruiserweight Classic were undoubted successes, exercises in putting together tournaments that start slow and build to an emotional crescendo, alongside booking that leads fans to view many different men as potential winners throughout.
Going into night two, an argument could be put forward for any seven of the eight men left ending the night as champion, with maybe only poor Sam Gradwell being out of the picture. Unpredictability is the key to maintaining interest throughout a tournament, and WWE managed that without resorting to unnecessary shocks and surprises.
The match quality improved with every passing round too, a necessarily slow first round followed by a number of hard-hitting quarter finals and attritional semis, before reaching an emotional peak in the fantastic final. Vince McMahon may not like tournaments, but this proved that WWE knows exactly how to book them nonetheless.