Several talents are expected to report to the WWE Performance Center in July to begin training under new deals with the company – Japanese star Io Shiai, indie star and WWE NXT regular Deonna Purrazzo, former English rugby star Luke Menzies, former Australian rugby star Daniel Vidot, US gymnast Stacy Ervin, Jr. and indie star Keith Lee.
WWE will hold another tryout at the Performance Center soon and several athletes are scheduled. NCAA wrestler Jacob Kasper from Duke University is scheduled to attend the camp as is former NFL player Dorin Dickerson, who had stints with the Houston Texans, the Buffalo Bills and the Detroit Lions.
In other talent news, we noted before that WWE has signed several UK talents to UK-exclusive contracts, believed to be for a new WWE UK TV series & promotion that will be announced soon. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that WWE has also signed Charlie Morgan and Nina Samuels to what are being called “extended tryout” contracts. These are deals that guarantee the talents a tryout without actually signing them to deals. The Observer notes that the deal basically keeps the talents from ITV’s World of Sport promotion. Mark Coffey (Joe Coffey’s brother) and Wild Boar reportedly have similar deals. It was also noted that there were 12 wrestlers on ITV’s original list of talents that chose to sign with WWE instead. Chris Brookes was also offered a WWE UK contract but he turned it down.
Revolution Pro recently confirmed that the talents signed to WWE UK deals and the talents participating in the WWE UK Title tournament will no longer be able to appear on their shows. These talents will be allowed to work for Insane Championship Wrestling and PROGRESS Wrestling because both groups have a working & business relationship with WWE. The WWE – Rev Pro changes led to Travis Banks being done with the promotion. Banks was a Rev Pro regular but is working the WWE UK Title tournament. The change also led to Jinny, who is signed to a WWE UK deal, dropping the Revolution Pro Women’s Title to Jamie Hayter last weekend.
Revolution turned down a business deal with WWE, similar to the deals PROGRESS and ICW have, but WWE was still allowing talents to work the Rev Pro shows until now. The Observer reports that Rev Pro turned down the WWE deal because signing would have meant the end of their working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling. The Observer notes that these UK talents have also been told they can’t work for Defiant Wrestling, possibly due to their weekly online shows.
