Ever since the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament way back in January, there’s been talk of WWE doing an ongoing U.K. series of some kind, possibly on the WWE Network in the 205 Live style. But 205 Live hasn’t exactly set the world on fire, and with talk of WWE looking for ways to save money, the chances for an ongoing U.K. show have begun to look pretty slim.
But according to PWInsider.com, WWE is now pitching the series to U.K. broadcasters, including ITV. This could be the perfect solution. A deal to broadcast on regular television in the U.K. would help pay for the show, which the rest of us could presumably still watch on the Network. Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate were born to be stars, and any British TV exec ought to be able to see that.
The specific mention of ITV is interesting, because they’ve previously toyed with bringing back British wrestling mainstay World of Sport, which was so important to U.K. wrestling that it crippled the entire scene when its 20-year run ended in 1985. British wrestling has been reinvigorated in recent years by Progress and other promotions, which is something both ITV and WWE have been looking for ways to cash in on.
Impact Wrestling was briefly involved in the attempt World of Sport revival, but reportedly came into conflict with ITV over scheduling, because U.K. television general works in short, standalone seasons, whereas American wrestling shows (except for Lucha Underground) are designed to run nonstop forever. Hopefully WWE paid attention to that failure, and won’t hit the same roadblock.
As for the title of the proposed series, it’s a familiar one: King of the Ring.
The King of the Ring tournament was once a WWE/WWF mainstay and the focus of an annual pay-per-view. It stopped being a regular event in 2002, and has only popped up occasionally in the years since, most recently as a Network special in 2015, where British Superstar Wade Barrett was crowned the winner. Barrett left WWE in 2016, but that’s all the more reason it would be amazing for him to show up in the first episode of the new King of the Ring series, to deliver the bad news that he’s still the reigning King and everyone has to go through him. I don’t know if he’d be up for that, but it seems like he might be.
