UK and European news and comments

[Paul 584]

Such a shame, Trav is a great guy and had some impressive skills.

[Guest]

So I just wanted to bump this up a bit seeing as the scene has become even more popular due to the WWE UK Tournament and possibly the fast rise of What Culture Pro Wrestling.

I think it would be a shame to not go with the flow and generate a bit of traffic through the interest of British and European Wrestling.

 

So just a quick question:

 

Anyone know who's behind the Lucha Forever project? I figured it's once again another promotion from the West Midlands as they've got shows in Birmingham and in Cardiff. They've booked a the likes of Scurll, Sabre Jr., Dunne etc. and are just about going down the Lucha Underground route with Intergender matches, Trio Titles and so on.

@dsrchris you have an idea?

[DC 536]

Anyone know who's behind the Lucha Forever project?

The domain for their website is registered to a British wrestler by the name of Ryan Smile.

[Guest]

Thanks DC, tried to look to who the website was registered to on my phone to no avail. Looks like Will Ospreay is also in on the boat and will be overlooking creative with Ryan Smile.

 

 

 

In other news, looks like the WWE UK Tournament competitors contracts clauses are coming into effect. Pete Dunne and Joseph Conners were supposed to compete for IPW:UK tomorrow, which will also broadcast live on FloSlam. Unfortunately Conners will now not compete and Dunne will compete just for the live audience.

Seems like this will effect a lot of promotions who book such talent, stream their content and haven't entered talks with the WWE.

[Omega 354]

Interested to see how the ICW/WWE potential relationship works on the network. They'll have to make the content over 18's only or tone it down and I can;t see Dallas censoring the show just to buddy with WWE... maybe.

[dsrchris 190]

The domain for their website is registered to a British wrestler by the name of Ryan Smile.

 

Yep, the last shows Ryan ran were as Pro Wrestling Kingdom, and they were actually really good. I'm quite looking forward to these new shows, but they still haven't confirmed the venue they'll be running in Birmingham yet.

[Guest]

Interested to see how the ICW/WWE potential relationship works on the network. They'll have to make the content over 18's only or tone it down and I can;t see Dallas censoring the show just to buddy with WWE... maybe.

 

I'd imagine that they'll just cover UK Title defences for now before plans for an actual network show get the green light. In that case, I can see them toning down for a match or two but the whole product as we know it will probably stay the same.

 

 

RevPro held Higher Stakes on Saturday. Read some mixed reactions towards the Sabre Jr. and Marty Scurll 41 minutes match on Twitter and over on UKFF.

[Guest]

Moustache Mountain and Pete Dunne have also been pulled from the wXw Show in London on Saturday. Seems like they're heading to Texas for the Royal Rumble weekend.

Quite a bummer, Moustache Mountain were supposed to fight for the tag titles and Dunne was supposed to take on Jody Fleisch in a 16 Carat qualifier.

 

Dunne was also announced for the Hamburg Show in February in an encounter with Ilja Dragunov. A match everyone over here desperately wants to see, me included. Hope it doesn't get binned.

[dsrchris 190]

Have wXw signed a FloSlam deal to stream their shows? Because if they have, then that's the last you'll see of Pete or any UKCT competitors until their WWE contracts run out. It's the same reason why they got pulled from

 

What's gonna be interesting is that there's a PROGRESS show scheduled for this weekend, and all of British Strong Style are supposed to be there. But then rumours abound that Tyler and Pete may be showing up either at Takeover or the Rumble itself.

 

It's not outside the realms of possibility for them to perhaps appear on Takeover and catch a red eye flight that would get them to London in time for the Sunday afternoon show, but bloody hell that'd take some doing.

 

I'm still in two minds about this whole WWE deal. If they do something, great, if they don't then they've successfully fucked over 16 of the top guys in the UK and stopped them from working in a lot of other places.

[Guest]

wXw haven't signed a deal but they did have one event in the FloSlam schedule but that's besides the point. wXw still have their own Network though but don't broadcast live and due to the fact that they were "important" matches, you can't make dark bonus matches for the fans, wXw were booked into the corner.

That said, I read it was because of WWE commitments and them having to fly over, so WWE have of course priority and we shouldn't judge them for making the jump.

 

Bate and Dunne were announced for a ton of shows right after the tournament ended including Fight Club: PRO and Progress, so they're still available. wXw are waiting for a response regarding future bookings but if it proves to be a slight disadvantage, then that's where they'll draw the line and book other talents.

 

I'm also now on the fence like you Chris. I remember William Regal mentioning something on the lines that they're not "exclusive" contracts. So I thought bookings would be at least OK but disallowing promotions to at least show the matches is just balls.

[Guest Jayfunk]

Have wXw signed a FloSlam deal to stream their shows? Because if they have, then that's the last you'll see of Pete or any UKCT competitors until their WWE contracts run out. It's the same reason why they got pulled from

 

What's gonna be interesting is that there's a PROGRESS show scheduled for this weekend, and all of British Strong Style are supposed to be there. But then rumours abound that Tyler and Pete may be showing up either at Takeover or the Rumble itself.

 

It's not outside the realms of possibility for them to perhaps appear on Takeover and catch a red eye flight that would get them to London in time for the Sunday afternoon show, but bloody hell that'd take some doing.

 

I'm still in two minds about this whole WWE deal. If they do something, great, if they don't then they've successfully fucked over 16 of the top guys in the UK and stopped them from working in a lot of other places.

 

It's funny as you may see TNA contracted wrestlers such as Drew on the network.

[dsrchris 190]

I thought Galloway didn't renew his TNA deal?

[Omega 354]

One suspects he'd drop it like it's hot even if he didn't if WWE are really sniffing around the UK scene again.

[Guest]

It's funny as you may see TNA contracted wrestlers such as Drew on the network.

 

That would be real shitty move by TNA to pull talent from bookings. Depending on who you are, you're not earning big at that place. How's a wrestler supposed to earn money, if TNA tape a few days every three months and do no live tours?

I think other than Lashley, everyone else is taking bookings.

 

With WWE, at least as one of the UK Talent, you're earning quite a bit with additional bookings elsewhere (well if the talent isn't pulled).

 

 

I'm interested to see where this 5 Star Wrestling thing is going on Spike TV in the UK.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJg1SQ-d658

[Guest Jayfunk]

Aren't WWE pulling talent now? Edited January 26, 2017 by Kam

[Omega 354]

Aren't WWE pulling talent now?

 

The answer is maybe but... All the guys mentioned have missed a few dates but if WWE are thinking of actively using them (which sounds like it's true) then why the fuck would you not bin off indie UK/Europe shows to work with the WWE? Plus I doubt any promoter or fan would begrudge any of these guys the chance to make it however remote or limited.

 

There's no indication WWE are pulling the guys because they simply don't want them wrestling with certain promotions, unlike what was said above where TNA barely tape and so barely pay people a regular wage so preventing them from working for other promotions would be incredibly shitty.

[Kam 243]

I'm interested to see where this 5 Star Wrestling thing is going on Spike TV in the UK.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJg1SQ-d658

That doesn't look too bad, might try watching it on Saturday. Pretty bold to go live, even ITV didn't risk that :)

[DC 536]

Interested to see how the ICW/WWE potential relationship works on the network. They'll have to make the content over 18's only or tone it down and I can;t see Dallas censoring the show just to buddy with WWE... maybe.

The Network has parental controls and the original ECW is on there pretty much as it originally aired, so ICW should be fine.

 

From what I read online (based on reports from Meltzer), Progress and OTT are also meant to be signing up to the Network (with an "Indy Scene" selection from the 'Shows' drop-down on The Network) and WWE are also actively trying to have EVOLVE move from FloSlam to The Network also.

 

It's worth noting that WWE has a financial stake in FloSlam as well.

[Guest]

So here's HHH answer to all the speculation:

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/798529-mike-johnson-confronts-triple-h-over-concerns-that-wwe-is-starting-the-end-of-the-european-indy-scene

 

Earlier today WWE held it’s WWE NXT: San Antonio Takeover Media Call hosted by Paul “Triple H” Levesque. [...]

 

 

MJ: I want to ask you about the UK scene. You guys signed a number of talents that worked the tournament. Since then those talents have been pulled from appearing on different UK promotions and European promotions based on where that content is going to appear. Whether it be on the FloSlam platform or on iPPV or whatever. Before the tournament took place there seemed to be this understanding that nobody was going to have any sort of restraints where they could work and now you’ve got a bunch of indy promotions, some of which you guys tried to forge relationships with, all scrambling to reshuffle cards. Can you explain why this happened and why there wasn’t a grace period? Also, where did the misunderstanding come from? You have a lot of people freaking out over there that you guys are about to do the 2017 version of what happened in the 80’s where Vince walked in and trounced all the territories. There’s a lot of guys concerned that you guys are about to start the beginning of the end of the European indy scene.

 

PL: Yeah, there’s a lot of confusion based on that. A lot of that confusion is based on people’s refusal to acknowledge the reality of the situation. We signed talent as part of this UK tournament. We are looking forward to doing what will eventually become a weekly show over there. The talent knew going in what the deal was. They knew what the restrictions were and they knew what the restrictions weren’t. We’re not restricting them from working for anybody as long as it’s not distributed. As long as there is no distribution outside of the live event. Some of these promotions tried to come in after the fact and add a distribution component to that. Talent didn’t sign up for that to start with. It was added coming off of the success of what we did or what they were working on. That’s a change. That’s a change in how the talent is being dealt with. Talent had an agreement to go to a live event and compete on a live event and that’s changed. We’re not heavy handing anybody. We are asking them to approve and work with us and the groups. I was very clear when I was over there that we want to work with groups that are cultivating talent and not groups that are just coming in and one-offing talent. Is there a period of time where we are allowing guys to work for people? Absolutely. Every single one of these talents knew the deal. They knew the deal going in to it and they knew what the ask was and they knew what their restrictions are. Coming out the other side of it there is a lot of confusion. It’s not on our side. It’s not on the talent’s side, I believe. It’s on the promoters side who just kind of changed things and do things however they want to do things. You can call them promotions but there are a lot of people that do one-off shows over there. There is a big difference. All of this is strategic and you are going to see a lot of announcements here in a short period of time. Where I think all of the questions you are having now and the fears people are having will go away. People are going to go, “Oh, it’s very clear what they are doing now.” It’s just strategic. You can’t come out right and say those things.

 

So that's a bold statement, if it's streamed, they're taken off.

 

Possibly a slight shot at What Culture? A bit ironic though.... That said, it's ultimately down to the talent themselves and more power to them of course.

[Kam 243]

By 'distribution' wouldn't that also cover DVDs too - which I imagine a lot of Indy feds do?