WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament: thoughts of a UK fan

One of my biggest passions in life is pro wrestling. It's something I've watched pretty much all of my life, and yes, i understand the some of the pitfalls of the modern mainstream wrestling scene, the lack of characters, the loss of compelling stories, in ring psychology being at i minimum for the most part, and the death of kayfabe (the the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true," specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not of a staged or pre-determined nature of any kind) are all contributing factors, but the trade-off is a flux of talented, world traveled ring veterans, that put on amazing matches. But it's not the mainstream WWE that I'm going to be focusing on as such, but their UK championship tournament that will be taking place today at the time of writing on the WWE network.

Despite being a life long wrestling fan, I'm still somewhat new to the UK wrestling scene, i became a fan of Progress wrestling in late 2014, after watching some Jimmy havoc promos and loving his story to the progress title (staff when he originally won it) and since then I've become a huge fan of their work, I love how they build new talents while not neglecting the guys they have already.

But looking at a promotion like progress really does remind me how far we've come as a nation of wrestling fans, we've gone from the world of sport legends like giant haystacks and big daddy, two guys that were monsters in terms of their drawing power (at least in the UK, lock ness in WCW anyone?)  and their size, to extremely talented guys such as will osprey,  "The villain" Marty Scurll, Zack sabre jr (who is billed from a place pretty much down the road from me) that get the wrestling world talking about the revival of the UK scene.

I am proud to be a UK-based Wrestling fan because of the legacy that our great nation has in the world of pro wrestling, and with promotions like WCPW, Rev pro and ICW as well as the previously mentioned Progress, there's nowhere to go but up, and even the biggest wrestling ("sports entertainment") company in the world is paying attention to us and our talented wrestlers by giving us the UK championship tournament.

I by no means think the WWE is a perfect company, I've seen them waste amazing talent like Wade Barrett, a man who yes, had some success in the company, but nowhere near as much as he should have, completely destroy the ascension, one of if not the most dominant teams in NXT history, and that's just two examples of the misuse of awesome talent.And only now have we seen the recently revived cruiser-weight division start to get back on track after an honestly lack luster start after the amazing cruiser-weight classic tournament. And that honestly doesn't fill me with much hope for the aftermath of the tournament. But there are two bonuses at the very least

1.it will be a great platform for UK talent.

There are some amazing talents in this match, ICW champion Wolfgang, Trent Seven, Mark Andrews, Tyler bates, and pick to win the whole thing Pete Dunne. and getting a place on the WWE network will do wonders for the careers of some of the most talented guys that the UK has to offer. Which leads into point number two

 2. the match quality should be amazing.

With the guys with have in this tournament, these matches should be instant classics, some of the best workers in the whole of the UK are will be a part of this groundbreaking event, and yes there are some notable talents missing from this, like the aforementioned Will Osprey, and my favorite independent wrestler right now, "The Villain" Marty Scurll and I understand why these guys can't be a part of this, but as a fan it's still a shame to me, but that doesn't take away from the guys that are getting this chance and I'm sure they'll do the best they can with this spot.

In summary, I'm grateful to be a fan in this time where the UK wrestling scene is hotter than it's been in many years, and that we as fans are blessed to have so many talented men and women representing our great nation, and after this weekend the world will know how good our talent are and that UK wrestling has only just began to show everyone who good we are.

  So if you're watching the tournament who've you got to win? Let me know in the comments!  I'll be rooting for the bruiserweight and current progress champion Pete Dunne, or Trent seven.