wrestling / News
WWE Offering Unique Contracts to Lock in UK Talent
– The WON reports that WWE is offering UK talent contracts that are particularly unique in order to keep them out of the hands of competition in the country. The site reports that WWE is offering key talent in the area “competition-killer” deals that would serve as low-dollar guarantees to see talent stay in the UK and work the indies, with final approval over which indie dates to work being up to WWE.
The reason for this has to do with ITV having taped a pilot for the revival of World of Sport, which will air at the end of the month. Being the #2 network in the country, the ITV show will be in many more potential homes than WWE on Sky Sports. While the series has not been officially picked up, it is being strongly considered and that puts them in a position of competing with WWE.
The site notes that a conflict between the two sides is starting to build, with ITV having recently sent talent an amendment to their contracts that doesn’t allow anyone appearing on the show to do TV for any other major networks. ITV would have first call for bookings, similar to what TNA does with their talent. Thus, the idea behind WWE’s offers are to lock talent in and make them unable to go to ITV or other promotions that have streaming content.
There’s no word on who has been offered deals, though the WON says that some names are fairly well known in the “UK hardcore community” and others are completely unknown. Many have done WWE tryouts in the past, and several did the recent tryouts in Glasgow.
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