WWE’s long-gestating plans for the NXT Europe brand may have come to an end according to a recent update on the subject.
With NXT UK being discontinued in September 2022, plans for NXT Europe were first revealed in August of that year with a 2023 release date.
It was later revealed that plans for the launch of NXT Europe had shifted to 2024, with little being heard about the brand during this year.
Dave Meltzer has now provided an update on NXT Europe during Wrestling Observer Radio and it looks far from hopeful, revealing:
“Remember when they closed NXT UK, this was a couple of years ago now, and they were immediately gonna re-open NXT Europe. And then they fired almost everyone except certain people like Oro Mensah and the Gallus boys, Blair Davenport, Lyra Valkyria, who they brought in, some of the top people.
“But most of the people that were working in NXT UK were fired, and I thought, if you’re really gonna do NXT Europe like you say, why are you firing people? Because these people were under like $25,000 a year contracts, it’s not like they’re paying giant money to these people. The cost savings was negligible.
“Other people were telling me, ‘They’re never gonna do this Europe thing, they’re saying it because they never want to admit to shutting down the UK thing because the UK thing was their original idea to offset that ITV show that Grado was a big star in and Davey Boy Smith Jr was a big star in, which failed.
“That thing had died so they didn’t really have a reason and they weren’t really doing any shows, so they shut down the UK thing. I always hear, ‘We’re doing the European thing’, but it’s been years now and I hear less now than I heard years ago.
“I remember Paul Levesque doing the idea, a real idea they were gonna do, have a European outpost, NXT Europe, NXT Middle East, NXT Japan, NXT Mexico or Latin America. His vision was NXT outposts, regional stuff all over the world to develop young talent and the best talent from all of these places would end up on the main roster at some point.
“But that idea’s years and years and years old, and the original thing was it was slowed down due to Covid. Well we’re years out of Covid and I’ve heard nothing about it.
“Maybe someday we’ll hear about it, but now there’s new ownership, maybe they are not down with that.”
The topic emerged after discussions surrounding WWE potentially opening a developmental facility in Las Vegas, which could reportedly happen in the future as an addition to what already exists in Orlando rather than as a replacement.
We’ll keep you posted with any further updates.
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