Lasting four years and 211 episodes, NXT UK is a part of WWE history that seems to have been forgotten already.
NXT UK was cancelled in 2022, after very little interest. Despite a strong start, less than 20,000 (sometimes less than 10,000) viewers tuned in by the end of its life, and WWE’s project of spite was deemed a complete failure.
NXT UK did managed to irreprebably damage the UK indie scene (although Mark Andrews thinks they were the best thing for the wrestlers), and do its best to stop World of Sport being a success. However, despite its flaws, at its best, NXT UK helped create some huge stars and shone a light on a previously ignored section of the wrestling world.
Here is the complete history of NXT UK, starting with the entire reason it was created in the first place – spite.
NXT UK Was Created As A Response To World Of Sport
Before we look at NXT UK, we need to look at the reason it was created. That reason being ITV commisioning a series of “World of Sport” wrestling, hoping to bring professional wrestling back into the mainstream.
In October 2016, ITV announced that World of Sport Wrestling would be returning for a one-off Christmas special on New Year’s Eve 2016. The show drew 1.25 million viewers for his debut special. This is more than WWE and AEW get per week combined in Britain.
It was impressive enough for ITV to commision a full series, set to air in 2018. With the promotion signing up top talent like Grado, Will Ospreay and Joe Hendry, they had one of the most impressive rosters in the world, and threatened to challenge the WWE for the top spot in the UK.
This would not do. Vince McMahon and Triple H took immediate action by booking a United Kingdom tournaement. They announced this in December 2016, just two months after ITV revealed their intentions to revive British wrestling.
WWE and ITV competed to sign the top talents at the time. While World of Sport managed to secure an impressive roster, the WWE UK Tournament saw the likes of Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate and Mark Andrews all sign deals with the company.
The original WWE United Kingdom Tournament was a huge success. It featured an appearance from Irish star Finn Balor, the debut of the newly signed Tommy End (who later changed his name to Alastair Black) and some of the best matches of the year.
The final saw Progresss stars Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne battle it out. Tyler Bate won an incredible final to win the tournament, and be crowned the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion.
With a whole cohort signed, a new champion crowned and interest at an all-time high, the stage was set for the WWE to launch their own British wrestling promotion – NXT UK.
NXT UK Was Formed One Year Later
The company went on to have a few more United Kingdom specials, although a fully-fledged British promotion would not come into effect until 2018.
With news that ITV may not be doing a whole series of wrestling, WWE held off on announcing NXT UK. However, just two months after they announced the airing of the debut World of Sport series, WWE started NXT.
They announced the formation of the promotion in June 2018. Wrestling legend Johnny Saint was made the general manager of the UK division of WWE, with Sid Scala later named as his assistant.
NXT UK aired its first episode on 17 October 2018, exclusively on the WWE Network. This was the first of 211 episodes of the program, which ran until 2022.
The first episode of NXT UK featured four matches from some of the top talent in Britain. The four matches on the show were:
- Joe Coffey vs Mark Andrews
- Dave Mastiff vs Sid Scala
- Toni Storm vs Nina Samuels
- Pete Dunne vs Noam Dar for the WWE United Kingdom Championship
The first episode was well received, althoguh it did not share the quality of its American counterpart. It quickly gained momentum, building stars out of the likes of Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, Rhea Ripley and Toni Storm in the early days.
Numerous pay per view events were can’t miss. There were three NXT UK Takeover events, mirroring the style of their US counterparts. These events were:
- NXT UK Takover: Blackpool
- NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff
- NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II
A third event, NXT UK Takeover: Dublin was planned, but ultimately cancelled (more on that later).
NXT was marked by long title reigns, especially from its main champions. While Tyler Bate held the WWE UK belt for 125 days, his successor Pete Dunne carried the belt for an incredlbe 685 days.
However, WALTER (WWE’s Gunther) beat that immediately, carrying the title (which was renamed the NXT United Kingdom Championship) for an asthonishing 870 days. This was the longest title reign in decades, before being surpassed by Roman Reigns Universal title run.
However, disaster would strike in the midst of WALTER’S legendary run as champion.
The Pandemic & Speaking Out Killed Their Momentum
While the promotion was picking up momentum with some great PPV’s, a decent TV show and WALTER putting on weekly bangers, it all came to a halt in 2020.
The COVID-19 pandemic took over the world, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson shut down the UK in March that year. Non-essential business were forced to close, and unlike in Florda where WWE was based, wrestling did not count as essential.
NXT UK was shut down until September that year. While the hiatus was terrible for the industry, they at least kept paying their contracted talent throughout. This is one aspect that was a positive to their formation, although they never reclaimed their momentum from before the pandemic.
They even wrestled in the BT Sports studios in front of an empty crowd for the most of their tenure. It did not make for good TV, no matter how many incredible WALTER matches they put on.
If the hiatus caused by the pandemic wasn’t enough, NXT UK was dealt another blow by the Speaking Out movement. This occured in June 2020, when multiple wrestlers, mainly based in the UK, were accused of various levels of abuse and sexual assults.
NXT UK was one of the promotions most affected by the speaking out allegations. Tyler Bate and JD McDonagh were suspended from the company due to these claims, although they were later reinstated without consequences.
However, two wrestlers were actually fired from NXT UK because of Speaking Out. El Ligero and Travis Banks, two mainstays of the scene, were released soon after accusations had been levied against them.
Both were accused of innaproritate relations with trainees, as well as being abusive. Millie McKenzie is the one who outed Travis Banks, who now continues to wrestle in Mexico under a mask.
Meanwhile, AEW star Mariah May outed Sid Scala as being abusive when she was training with him. However, he was not punished by the company, and remained employed until NXT UK was shut down in 2020.
NXT UK Was Cancelled In 2022 To Be Replaced With NXT Europe
After years of struggle and bad ratings, WWE decided to pull the plug of NXT UK. It only lived on Peacock (US) and the WWE Network (UK), with basically nobody watching it.
It didn’t matter how good matches between Ilja Dragunov, Tyler Bate and other stars were. Simply put, nobody cared about NXT UK.
So, they canned it. WWE cancelled two sets of TV tapings on the 8th and 9th of August, before Triple H made the official announcement of NXT UK’s demise on August 18th.
In its stead, the WWE planned to create a new, incredibly similar promotion. NXT Europe was to replace NXT UK, doing the same thing but in mainland Europe instead of in Great Britain. They claimed the reason was to “Expand NXT beyond the UK”, but that wasn’t the real reason.
There were three main reasons why NXT UK failed. They were; COVID killed their momentum, the failure of World of Sport in 2018, and the potential impacts of Brexit in running a promotion in the UK.
We know it had nothing to do with expanding beyond Britain because, as of August 2024, a whole two years after announcing it, there is still no sign of NXT Europe. It looks like WWE will quietly abandon the concept, and shuffle off back to the US with their tail between their legs.
Except they won’t. I’m sure with the recently announced World of Sport reboot, they will be quick to sign up all the talent they can and give a really good go at NXT Europe until that project is dead.
