WWE pulls more UK talent from appearances
Following Thursday’s news of contracted WWE UK talents being pulled from FloSlam broadcasts, Friday saw more announcements of wrestlers being removed from scheduled appearances as restrictions regarding where they’re allowed to work are put in place.
The “Working a Resthold” podcast announced that Pete Dunne, Mark Andrews, and Trent Seven would no longer be appearing on their live podcast in London on January 28th prior to wXw’s show later that night.
The podcast posted, “Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, Scott Andrews was informed that due to their new WWE contractual obligations, Trent Seven, Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews are now unable to participate in the show. On behalf of myself, Dannii and Marianne, we’d like to wish all three the very best for the future and would like to thank them for their professionalism.”
They have updated their lineup with Eddie Dennis, Chris Brookes, Doug Williams, Jody Fleisch, and Johnny Storm now joining Marty Scurll and Ryan Smile.
Despite William Regal initially claiming that the signed UK talent would face “zero restrictions” regarding where they’re allowed to work aside from dates where WWE needs them and some places that have contracts that would present a conflict of interest, it quickly became clear that wouldn’t be the case.
WWE has developed relationships with ICW, PROGRESS, and OTT, with Dave Meltzer reporting in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that a deal for ICW events to appear on the Network is in place along with the possibility of more to come.
UPDATE: In what could possibly be related to Dunne, Andrews, and Seven being pulled from the podcast, Meltzer notes that WWE is bringing some of the UK talent to San Antonio next week for Royal Rumble weekend.
Meltzer also reports that contracted talents will be permitted to perform for certain promotions but the events cannot be distributed (televised, streamed, transmitted or taped) unless authorized. It is said that all talent was told this before signing deals, and is in all of their contracts.
The full What Culture interview with Regal where he spoke about there not being restrictions on talent (which happens at 1:30) is available to watch below: