Long story short: there is speculation that the WWE’s NXT UK brand could get shut down amidst the hashtag-Speaking Out movement
To those of my 0 readers who don’t pay attention to wrestling, to summarize, there’s been an online movement in the industry known as #SpeakingOut in which people (men and women but mostly obviously women) went on social media to identify and post documentation of those in the professional wrestling industry of bad behavior, of the less than fortunate nature.
There hasn’t been a company large or small that hasn’t been named in some sort of capacity, be it a promoter, producer or a talent, and so far the names that have been thrown out have been pretty eye-opening, and the fallout of lots of it is beginning to get big. The trying-to-rebirth NWA has put themselves on hiatus amidst the allegations, and their VP has outright resigned. Philadelphia’s Chikara Pro wrestling has outright shut down. Jim Cornette, the guy who can’t not get involved with anything in wrestling, had a disgusting sexual adventure/fetish unearthed. Notable names from Ring of Honor, Impact and even AEW have been unearthed as people who have done things as far as being too clingy, not taking no for an answer, to some, little extreme remarks to express physical desire.
But with obviously anything pertaining to the wrestling industry, all eyes eventually seek out what’s going on in the world of the WWE, and believe you me, things have not been easy for the ol’ McMahon family business either, amidst all this.
Numerous names of talent have been named, and you can practically see the WWE machine scrambling to figure out the guys who are above a certain tier to whether they’re safe from losing their job, versus the guys that need to be immediately let go in order to look like they’re doing something about it.
One very alarming and unfortunate pattern that has emerged however, is the volume of reports coming out of the UK, primarily involving guys that are on the NXT UK roster. As the link above details, guys like Ligero and Travis Banks have been immediately released, with the latter being somewhat of a surprise considering I figured he had a future with at least 205 Live reinforcement. But guys like Trent Seven, Joe Coffey and Jordan Devlin are also names of accused parties, and regardless of what happens from their individual cases, it’s a frightening notion that already so many names in the British wrestling scene have popped up in such a short amount of time.
Amidst all this is the initial speculation that the NXT UK brand could be headed to their doom, combined with the fact that coronavirus has completely suspended all future NXT UK programming in the interim. All of which would make me sad as a wrestling fan, because I’ve grown to really enjoy and appreciate NXT UK for what it’s developed into over the last 2+ years, which is a WWE-property that actually still has some grassroots feel to it, and their TakeOver main events all turn into these New Japan Pro-Wrestling style epic events.
Not to mention that I still covet a replica of an NXT UK Tag Team Championship belt, regardless of the poor optics of the UK wrestling scene as a whole right now, which most certainly won’t happen if the company does go under.
Plus if NXT UK was Triple H’s first real baby overseas, then the likelihood of future NXT brand expansions into Japan or Australia among other places will probably never happen, which would also make me sad because I love the idea that Trips is trying to bring back territories, but on a global level.
The point is, that this would be a really sad way for NXT UK to go under, if it does. Coronavirus brought NXT UK to a halt, but then #SpeakingOut is what puts the bullet in its head. It’s a shame that so many in the British scene are supposedly such shitheads, and it would be the appropriate thing to do if the roster is reduced to just Joseph Connors and Ashton Smith, but there’s no doubt Vince would love to raid what useable talent they do have and bring them to North America; that is if they already haven’t.
