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With NXT UK moving to regular tapings and live Takeover specials, those contracted by WWE for the brand are beginning to pull out of independent dates in Great Britain and elsewhere as contractually, it would seem they can no longer appear on independent events as WWE is their priority. Wrestletalk in Great Britain is reporting the moves are a side effect of WWE signing UK talents to new deals that include the exclusivity as well as a bump in pay.
This was, for many European promoters, their worst fears when it came to WWE beginning to run their own brand in the UK,the possibility of WWE cutting them off from talents they regularly used and helped develop.
The move, however, does not come as a shock. Back in January 2017, I discussed the fears European promoters had with WWE's Paul "Triple H" Levesque during a media call to discuss the NXT brand and the developmental system:
"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."
Levesque responded, "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."
From that point on, promotions that had any major TV, DVD or streaming distribution were limited in how they could utilize WWE signed contracts, but over the weekend in Liverpool as new talents were signed to deals, they automatically became exclusives for WWE. Among the names that have pulled out of announced dates include El Liger, Xia Brookside, Flash Morgan Webster and James Drake, although there are likely others that will be added to that list shortly.
Now that NXT UK has weekly TV and is gearing up for the next stage in Takeover events - and one would think live events down the line, the strategic move is to sign those talents up and keep them WWE exclusives. This has led to a number of promotions that aren't aligned with WWE to announce talents would no longer be appearing for them, something that will force changes to strategic plans but also allow other talents the chance to step up and seize those opportunities.
With WWE looking upon Germany and other areas as potential satellite NXT brands internationally, over the next several years, it's a process that will likely repeat itself.
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