WWE Pulls UK Talents From Southside Wrestling's Final Ever Show

Despite previously approving the bookings, WWE pulls all contracted stars from Southside's farewell.

by Andrew Pollard
Kay Lee Ray NXT UK TakeOver Cardiff
WWE.com

With Southside Wrestling due to close with a 9 Year Anniversary Show to say goodbye on October 26th, the promotion has been dealt a hammer blow as WWE has pulled several contracted wrestlers from that send-off show.

In a statement from Southside, it was confirmed that El Ligero, Joseph Conners, Kay Lee Ray, Ilja Dragunov, Xia Brookside, and Saxon Huxley have all been pulled by WWE – despite these bookings all previously being approved by Vince McMahon’s company.

You can find the full Southside Wrestling statement below.

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This October 26th show was designed to be both an anniversary celebration and one final goodbye from Southside before the promotion merges with Revolution Pro. By all accounts, the event will still take place as advertised – just several Southside Wrestling favourites will unfortunately no longer be able to appear.

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Southside’s Ben Auld revealed earlier this month that the promotion was closing its doors after they had decided to accept an offer from RevPro. All previously announced Southside show’s will now take place under the RevPro banner from November onwards.

Many fans are sad to see Southside Wrestling go, but they were at least hoping for one last all-star show as a way to go out with a bang. While the 9 Year Anniversary Show is sure to be a great night, this all looks extremely petty from WWE and is sure to leave a bad taste in the mouths of plentiful fans, wrestlers, and obviously Southside personnel.

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Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.