Gleed’s Blog: Was NXT UK a success or failure?

By Haydn Gleed, Prowrestling.net Contributor (@haydngleed)

Hello dear readers! It’s been a long time. I hope you haven’t missed me too much, and greetings to anyone who came along since I last wrote here. After a few years away, I’m back and starting with a subject that was close to my heart. Nearly ten years ago, I was fortunate to be invited, with other UK wrestling media, podcasters, and bloggers, to attend the first NXT UK tournament. It genuinely feels like yesterday.

With Ilja Dragunov’s contract expiring, it feels safe to ask the question: was NXT UK a success or failure?

The concept made perfect sense. With the independent promotions Progress, Pro Rev, ICW, and PCW red hot in the UK, it was perfectly natural for WWE to take a look at how they could profit from the buzz and the talent on the scene. The NXT UK tournaments were highly praised and highly watched on the WWE Network (remember that?!) by all accounts.

The NXT UK weekly television show started a few months after the tournament, and then a second iteration of the tournament was held the following January. It was logical that British and European talent could be molded and taught the “WWE way,” and if they impressed, they would be called up to the main NXT show and then eventually to the main roster. With Jim Smallman, the head of Progress Wrestling at the time, arguably the biggest or at least the most WWE-like of the major British promotions, being part of the production team at NXT UK as well as Robbie Brookside heading the production of the in-ring side of things, what could go wrong?

COVID, wrestlers’ misbehavior, and a general lack of understanding or ideas of what to do with the talent – that’s what.

2020 was a tough year for every business not named Mask Bros (the company most people got their mask coverings from in the UK at the time), but from a wrestling promotion point of view, how do you produce television that somewhat relies on the atmosphere created by the live crowd and naturally requires human beings to be within very close contact with each other? When NXT UK stopped producing their weekly show, it was no surprise. The cost of creating something like the “WWE THUNDERDOME” was not worth it for what was essentially a feeding ground for a feeding ground to the main roster. NXT UK’s weekly TV show was put in abeyance (sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to use that word).

During this time, some brave female wrestlers came forward as part of the #speakingout movement with allegations related to their experience with prominent wrestlers, including many who were on the NXT UK roster. I’m not going to rehash all of that here, as it’s easy enough to find the details, but not only was a chunk of wrestlers gone from the brand, but the passion and dedication to the UK wrestling scene were dampened. I can tell you firsthand that the allegations and subsequent facts that came out sickened me to the point that I stopped writing about wrestling, as I didn’t want to promote something that had such things happening behind the scenes.

With several investigations on the go and the appetite for the show seemingly gone, all remaining talent were essentially moved to the main NXT roster, and that’s when things started to unwind for some of the key players from the early days of NXT UK. Pete Dunne had bounced around between NXT and WWE. There wasn’t much beyond that, aside from when his name was changed to Butch, and when he’d get angry over R-Truth continuing to call him Butch after he’d changed his name back. Dunne was the sidekick for Sheamus in their Brawling Brutes faction with Ridge Holland, and his role as Rayo as part of the El Grande Americano act has never really gained much traction.

Tyler Bate, who was Dunne’s opponent in the final of the first of the aforementioned tournaments, was very unlucky with injuries early on. There were also stories about his behavior which were swirling around online, but to the best of my knowledge, no proof was ever brought forward, nor was there an official investigation. In his case, the allegations were relatively minor compared to others, and centered on how he tried to pick up women in bars. But with this all swirling around, to a degree it’s understandable why WWE may have been hesitant to get behind him. Bate has never really left the side or shadow of Pete Dunne.

Dunne and Bate are highly talented, and despite being on the smaller side, they could have and should have been treated better. On the UK independent scene, they were presented as Peaky Blinders-esque type personalities/family, and I never understood why this wasn’t done in WWE. I don’t feel that any wrestler who works for a major company is beyond being saved. All it takes is the right gimmick and/or storyline, and the fans getting invested. I would love to see Bate get a sit-down interview package where he talks about his early success in the UK independent scene and how he was destined for the big time, but it never worked out. They could even tap into the issues he had to give it a feeling of realism. He could state that he’s been training, and he’s ready for one last run, but if he loses, he will return to the UK and leave WWE. He could wrestle in Evolve and TNA, and they could show brief, weekly video packages on Bate’s story and see what comes of it, and whether the fans are buying in.

On the more positive side of things, JD McDonagh (f/k/a Jordan Devlin) is a strong and stable member of the WWE main roster. He won’t be going anywhere soon while being part of the Judgment Day faction. Had you asked me after the first NXT UK tournament who, out of the 16 men that competed, would be the biggest star ten years on, Jordan Devlin would have struggled to crack my top five. It’s not due to a lack of talent, but rather it felt like something was missing at the time, which he seems to have gained over time.

Of course, from all the NXT UK alumni, the most successful is Gunther (f/k/a Walter). I watched him have some of the best matches I’d ever seen with a variety of opponents on the UK independent scene. In addition to his in-ring greatness, his dedication to transforming his body makes it no surprise that he has become such a huge star for WWE. I always hoped Gunther and Ilja Dragunov would cross paths on the main roster and become long-term love/hate rivals, like a European version of how the careers of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are intertwined. Some of the matches Gunther and Dragunov had even before NXT UK were out of this world.

However, for whatever reason, WWE just didn’t seem to get Dragunov. Despite a successful run late last year with the U.S. Title and the weekly open challenge matches that were the highlight of several Smackdown shows, WWE just couldn’t seem to get past his quirky personality. His apparent departure from WWE feels to me like the final nail in the coffin of anything that could be salvaged from NXT UK.

Dragunov was my gauge for whether NXT UK v1 could be seen as an overall success or failure. When you weigh the good and bad, I see it as a failure. It was definitely something that Paul Levesque got behind, but as the problems with the pandemic and the wrestlers’ behavior mounted up, I don’t think it was seen as something worth keeping around.

So is NXT UK salvageable and worthy of a version 2/reboot? Yes and no. Yes, because after a brief spell where all the top talent had been signed up to WWE, the inspiration that the original wave of NXT UK wrestlers provided for young aspiring wrestlers is starting to shine through, with some great talent making their mark. I wouldn’t try a weekly TV show. Rather, I’d reestablish ties with the UK promotions and put on annual shows to give exposure to the next wave of European talent to the U.S. market. For that to work long-term, WWE would need to work harder at understanding non-U.S. talent. Between not getting the best out of Shinsuke Nakamura, their inability to use Dragunov correctly, and don’t get me started on the way Joe Hendry has been handled on the main roster, it all suggests that WWE is a long way away from being ready for another wave of European talent.