NXT UK Is The First Step In Pro Wrestling’s Evolution

Over the course of the recent WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament two day special, it was Triple H and Johnny Saint who announced the start of NXT UK. A branch of the WWE developmental company NXT based solely in the United Kingdom. While a second child company is by no means a new idea for the WWE, this will be the very first time they’ve launched a farm system outside of the United States, and the results could change the landscape of professional wrestling forever.

In June of 2012, World Wrestling Entertainment closed their then training company Florida Championship Wrestling, in favour of launching a brand new vision for the minor league dubbed NXT. Six years later and NXT has risen to be a monstrous brand that many claim to be even better than the main roster product being put out today. The ringmaster if you will behind it all is Triple H. Under his guidance and attention, the concept of a developmental company went from barely being able to fit 150 people in a venue to 15,000 plus fans filling the Barclays Center. If anyone knows about what it takes to build a brand and strongly develop it, it is Triple H. His track record shows that he knows how to build from the ground up.

In January of 2017, WWE hosted the first United Kingdom Championship Tournament two day event. Critically, the show was a huge success, the main event of the second night featured the crowning of the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion. We witnessed Tyler Bate defeat Pete Dunne to become one of the youngest champions in WWE history at only 19 years old. The UK brand looked to be on the horizon in 2017. Following the initial tournament, WWE then held a United Kingdom Championship Special in May of that year. The special was used as a way to test the waters for what a potential brand could hold, but with the inaugural Mae Young Classic on the rise, the United Kingdom label seemed to be put on the back burner.

After a wildly successful United Kingdom Championship match at NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017 between Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate, we saw Dunne win the championship to start a reign that as of this writing still has not ended yet. However, the UK Division would then see a cool down. Over the next year, the championship would be defended 12 times. Six of those coming from NXT television, one coming from the most recent UK Title Tournament, and the other six coming from the UK independent scene.

The indies is where the first step in why NXT UK is changing the landscape of the wrestling business is taking place. Before the United Kingdom Championship, the thought of a WWE title being defended outside of the company was unheard of for nearly three decades. Pete Dunne became the travelling champion all across the UK independent scene, taking the WWE UK Championship with him everywhere he went. The UK brand was not developed yet, but the foundation was being laid in promotions such as PROGRESS Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling, FutureShock Wrestling, and Ultimate Championship Wrestling.

This past week was the second ever and potentially last UK Championship Tournament two day event. On night one, Triple H and British Wrestling Legend, Johnny Saint announced the NXT UK brand was officially launching. With the launch, the brand will see the UK Championship, the UK Women’s Championship, and the UK Tag Team Championship represented on the WWE Network weekly, starting in late July.

Most notably signing with the NXT UK brand is someone who many claim to be one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world: Toni Storm. Along with Storm, the current PROGRESS Champion, Travis Banks and Zack Gibson, one half of the PROGRESS Tag Team Champions (and the UK Championship Tournament winner), have signed with the label. From a tag team standpoint, Moustache Mountain consisting of Tyler Bate and Trent Seven will likely be the focal points of the division, alongside The Coffey Brothers, Mark and Joe.

Going forward with the NXT UK brand, we will see the start of a project that Triple H has dubbed the “global localisation”. A system where the WWE will go into markets all around the world and create new NXT brands in places such as Canada, India, Japan, and Mexico. Along with the NXT brands would come smaller scale Performance Centers to help develop and sign local talent. Triple H is taking the old territory wrestling system that ruled wrestling until the 1980s, and he is modernising it into the present times.

NXT UK is the first step towards a project that will change professional wrestling forever. The concept of the wrestling territories was very simple at its core: once a worker was becoming stale in one area, they would venture out into a new territory where they were exposed to new opponents, new fans, and new opportunities. Translate that to now and you have a world of possibilities.

Picture this. Remember when The Ascension was the hottest tag team in NXT? Do you also remember how they were called up to the main roster because they did everything imaginable in NXT? Imagine back then that instead of calling The Ascension up to the main roster, you instead sent them to NXT UK to have a tag run there. New opponents, new fans, new opportunities, and above all else it gives the talent a bigger chance to grow as performers.

Too often do we see NXT talent called up to the main roster and wasted, but with global localisation, we can see talent flourish under the NXT brands being built today. Instead of sending talent like Tyler Breeze up right away, why not send him to NXT Japan for a run? Does the main roster still not have anything for him? That’s okay, send him to NXT UK for an eight-month program. This system will overall help the main roster product in the WWE. Rather than just calling up talent for the sake of calling up talent, the call-ups can be used only when there is a plan in place for them. New opponents. New fans. New opportunities.

With the future of the NXT UK brand developing rapidly as the days go by, I’m excited to see what that future holds. I’ll be one of the biggest supporters of this brand from the very start because I see the potential. I see the bigger picture and that bigger picture is simply that the global localisation of NXT will unquestionably change the future of professional wrestling as a whole.