From this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Quote:
“What could be a major promotional war is brewing behind the scenes, and the battleground looks to be the U.K.
The recent television pilot that was taped for a revival of ITV’s World of Sport is scheduled to air at the end of the month. While ITV has not officially announced a pick-up of the series, there have been moves made behind-the-scenes which indicate such a thing is strongly being considered, with the idea of a massive taping in a few months where they may do as many as ten weeks worth of shows at once, somewhat similar to how TNA has been doing.
The difference between this project and TNA ends there. ITV is the No. 2 network in the U.K., and the World of Sport pilot will likely be viewed by millions of people. Keep in mind that Raw on Sky may do 150,000 viewers.
While WWE has nearly three decades as the dominant pro wrestling organization in that country, and even with television being limited to a subscription channel as opposed to a major free station, they are far more popular than in the U.S. and in general, draw bigger crowds at far higher ticket prices. The idea that ratings in and of themselves are a predictor of a level of business success has always been a fallacy in pro wrestling, and even if the ITV show does 20 times the number of viewers, that doesn’t mean the wrestlers pushed on those shows will have the marketability to pull numbers at house shows or sell merchandise.
However, WWE is hardly going to sit back as the business changes in 2017, whether it’s an ITV-led promotion, or a FloSlam streaming service, or even a rise in underground promotions in the U.S. that are garnering cult followings. It’s not a secret that WWE is going to be more aggressive in signing talent, whether it be it sees things in that talent, or, as some have said in the U.K. scene based on recent deals offered, just to keep talent away from potential competitors and building up smaller companies.
WWE vs. ITV is already brewing behind-the-scenes. ITV has recently sent all their talent amendment to their contracts that wouldn’t allow anyone appearing on those shows to do television on major stations. Those contracts would not prevent the ITV talent from appearing for other companies, nor from appearing on iPPV or streaming services for other companies. However, the contracts would give ITV first dibs on the talent, similar to TNA. There is already talk of doing house shows if the first season is a success. If that’s the case, they would have the right to book the talent on their shows, and if the talent would have made other bookings on those dates, they would have to cancel.
WWE at the same time is starting to offer unique contracts to the key U.K. wrestlers who are marketable or have some name value that don’t already have deals. The deals were described as different from anything they’ve done in the past. These are not main roster deals, nor developmental deals. Those in the U.K., and for that matter even some in WWE who are friends with talent that have been offered the deals, have termed then “competition-killer” deals. They are low dollar guarantees, the talent would stay in the U.K. and be allowed to continue to work indies, but now would have a small cushion. The key would be in locking the talent down to where they can’t go to the ITV promotion, but would also not be allowed to appear for promotions like WCPW (a group that spends big money for foreign talent and does its own Internet weekly television show and iPPV shows), or with promotions that have streaming services. The contracts would give WWE the right to approve or not approve of their indie dates.
Some of the names offered deals are fairly well known in the U.K. hardcore community, while others really have no name value at all. Many had prior tryouts with WWE and they weren’t at the time interested in picking them up. A major percentage of those who tried out a few weeks ago at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow were offered these type of deals. It would enable the talent involved that is struggling to make a living in wrestling, most having other jobs, to have a little big of a cushion to pursue their wrestling, and since the dream of most is WWE since that is what they grew up on, there is that emotional leverage of a WWE offer as opposed to going with a small company with no stability or a newer company that may or may not have longevity.
The WWE has already asked for everyone’s names and started to do background checks, and have told people to clean up their social media accounts, but haven’t offered the actual physical contracts yet.
There are ideas hinted around, perhaps another television show featuring the contracted U.K. talent for that market only. The idea is that just being associated with a WWE product would increase the marketability of such talent on the U.K. scene.
At the same time, several of the key U.K. promotions have had contact from both FloSlam and WWE regarding being part of their streaming services. The key promotions, Revolution Pro, Progress, ICW and WCPW have their own streaming service. WCPW is backed by the What Culture site and thus has strong financial backing and thus would be unlikely to sign up with either side. Revolution Pro, which has some of the hottest and best action at its big shows, and uses top American indie wrestlers as well as stars from New Japan, would have at least some international appeal as a streaming show given both the names and in time, potential due to show quality. The thing working against anyone new getting past a certain level of exposure is that with the amount of product that WWE puts out, and it being the major league group, unless it’s someone who has no interest in WWE or lives and dies with pro wrestling, there aren’t enough hours in the day for even following another strong product.
At this point, neither the WWE Network nor FloSlam have reached a deal with any of the key U.K. groups. WWE did work with both Progress and Revolution Pro in qualifying matches for the Cruiserweight Classic.
At the ICW show in Glasgow, the WWE contracts were major talk, and the peer group pressure was to not sign with people calling them “mark deals,” with the idea that “They don’t want you, they just don’t want anyone else to have you.””
