WWE King of the Ring May Return (and Not How You Think)

It appears that the WWE's King of the Ring might be making a return. Just maybe not how you would expect.

There has been much written about how WWE still has the goal for launching a U.K. exclusive show to feature their U.K. championship that was created earlier this year. Plans are still being put in motion for that to become a reality, and King of the Ring might be the name of the show.

The biggest surprise is that the show is currently being shopped to traditional television networks in the U.K, according to a report from PWInsider. That's a shift from earlier reports this year that the show would be aired on the WWE Network. While that could still be the case for those of us not located in the U.K. if we want to watch the product, getting the show on to standard television in the U.K. could mean some advertising revenue for WWE.

Also according to the PWInsider report, WWE is shopping the series to ITV. That's significant because the network brought back World of Sport Wrestling in 2016. That project nearly resulted in a relaunching of the World of Sport Wrestling franchise, which had been successful in the past. However, the project never got past a press conference, but it did supposedly motivate WWE to launch their U.K. tournament.

Though plans are being put in motion, the report notes we are a long way from anything actually going down. In other words, we're probably nowhere close to anyone actually signing on to air the series on television in the U.K. as WWE hasn't reached the negotiation stage yet.

It will be interesting to see if WWE negotiates the option to stream the show on the WWE Network while also possibly airing on broadcast television in the U.K. Clearly the U.K. product would appeal to the masses and WWE would like to get that product out to the rest of the world without too much delay. RAW and SmackDown currently air on the WWE Network, but they are put up several weeks after their airing due to WWE's contract with the USA Network. That wouldn't be as feasible with the U.K. show, as RAW and SmackDown have broadcast deals all around the globe. A U.K. show would not air on television anywhere outside the U.K., most likely, so WWE would theoretically be looking to get it up on the Network as soon as possible.