WWE Offering Unique Contracts to Certain Independent Stars?

In what seems to be an interesting development in the United Kingdom, WWE looks to be in a promotional war with the ITV Television Network.

According to a new report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a recent television pilot for ITV’s “World of Sport” Wrestling is scheduled to air at the end of the month. With ITV being the No. 2 watched network in the U.K., this pilot will likely be viewed by millions of people. In comparison, “Monday Night Raw” on the Sky Network may only have around 150,000 people watching.

In addition to this, former WWE announcer Jim Ross will be the voice of “World of Sport,” as indicated by the following tweet:

httpss://twitter.com/TWrestlingmag/status/804700345565908996

As a result of this, WWE is going to be more aggressive in signing certain U.K. talent; partially because they see potential in these wrestlers, but also because the company doesn’t want them competing for anyone else.

In response to this, ITV has recently sent all their talent amendment to their contracts that wouldn’t allow anyone appearing on their shows to do television on major stations, including Sky Sports.

An excerpt from the newsletter states the following:

WWE… 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.

Editor’s Note:

I have a hard time believing this story to be true. WWE has enough of a hold on the global market that the company not locking into a few wrestlers from the U.K. shouldn’t be a big deal. We’ll see how everything transpires in the next few weeks.

Do you think that this move by WWE a good thing? Leave us a comment below, or post a comment on our Facebook page!

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