WWE's delayed new TV show gets completely canceled - Reports
WWE had major expansion plans that had been spoken about for years, but never materialized the way it was initially designed. It seems like the company is abandoning one such idea.
Post-pandemic, there seemed to be a major shift. NXT: UK as a brand was slowly dismantled, with speculation that the "Speaking Out" movement led to the death of the brand. Previously, Triple H had openly spoken about plans for an "NXT Europe" show - which was meant to be the pivot from NXT: UK. However, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported in 2022 that the release of Nigel McGuiness was an indication that the Europe expansion plans were being put on hold.
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, it seems like any signs of an NXT Europe show are fading away and the idea is being completely scrapped:
"I just keep thinking like remember when they closed NXT UK? This was a couple of years ago now and they were going to immediately re-open NXT Europe and then they fired almost everyone... Most of the people that worked NXT UK were fired and I thought if you're going to do NXT Europe like you say why are you firing people? They were under $25,000 a year contracts, it's not like they were paying giant money to these people. The cost savings were negligible. Other people were telling me they're never gonna do this Europe thing, they say it because they didn't want to admit to shutting down the UK thing because the UK thing was their original idea to offset that ITV show... I always hear we're doing the European thing but it's been years now and I'm hearing less now than I heard years ago that they are," Meltzer said. (H/T: Cultaholic)
What was Triple H and WWE's original plan for multiple NXT brands?
There were huge expansion plans from the mid-2010s as NXT was taking off in the United States. NXT: UK was meant to be the first of many versions as The Game had a strategic vision for the future of WWE.
Speaking to LadBible TV, The Game revealed WWE's plans for a multi-country WWE NXT system leading to a type of World Cup:
"So, NXT Europe, NXT Australia, NXT South Africa, South America, Mexico, [we will] eventually build that into a global system that will lead to almost a World Cup scenario," Triple H revealed. "The World Cup finals for NXT will one year be in London, the next year maybe Mexico City, and all the while really what you’re doing is building this fanbase for college football while you’re building stars for the major leagues which is RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania, right. In India right now, we are the second biggest sport in India outside of Cricket. It’s massive already but imagine that scale when we have a brand on the ground of native Indian people having their own brand [and] one of them branches out and goes to RAW or SmackDown, headlines WrestleMania, it’s game-changing."
It seems like WWE will be taking a different approach to expansion going forward, especially considering that there are now new owners.