WWE News: Triple H talks about hosting a PPV in the UK, says UK WrestleMania could happen

What's the story?

Triple H recently appeared on Sky Sports' Lock Up podcast and spoke about the possibility of WWE hosting a pay-per-view, or even WrestleMania, in the United Kingdom.

The Game spoke about the obstacles WWE will need to overcome to do so, as well as why two UK talents can go on to headline WrestleMania, and how WWE is different from the NFL in global markets.

In case you didn't know...

After it's success the first time around, Triple H announced during WrestleMania week that the United Kingdom Championship Tournament will return for two nights this summer on June 18 and 19 from the most famous arena in London - Royal Albert Hall.

The first United Kingdom Championship Tournament was held in 2017 at the Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom and aired live on WWE Network, crowning the first-ever WWE United Kingdom Champion - 19-year-old Tyler Bate. Bate beat current WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne in the final.

This year's event will see another tournament to determine the challenger to Dunne's title, as well as a plethora of NXT stars - including a match between British Strong Style and The Undisputed ERA.

The heart of the matter

On this week's Lock Up podcast, Triple H was asked about whether The Greatest Royal Rumble helped edge WWE closer to bringing a pay-per-view to the United Kingdom.

"You guys are obsessed with that! And you should be. This is an open opportunity for all the markets outside of (the US) The time frame for when we run things in the US doesn't work for a lot of places in the world. This opens up a lot of opportunities to put things in a localised time format for the wrestling globe - especially the UK where the desire's very high.

The Game opened up about what the key strategy is for confirming a show outside the United States.

Getting things down to work in a reasonable manner with a reasonable cost, in a reasonable time slot is really what it's all about to us but it is definitely something we're working towards.

SummerSlam came to the United Kingdom in 1992

The 14-time WWE Champion went on to express frustration at people who don't understand the complexities of the situation.

When people say, "I don't understand, just do the show." We run 560 live events a year, we do an average of 9-10 live events a week. They are planned out a year or sometimes longer in advance. Putting those pieces together, one change dramatically affects the entire puzzle so it's just a process that we're going through but absolutely we will get there, it's just, I'm sure for everyone that's waiting, it seems to be forever, but we'll get there.

Triple H went on to say that another important factor was putting on an event of strong enough calibre to have it be meaningful to the rest of the globe but also doing so in a cost-effective manner so that it makes a meaningful business sense - but The Game did have encouraging words.

It's not a matter of IF we can overcome the obstacles, it's a matter of when and getting them all lined up.

The United Kingdom already has its own WWE championship

WrestleMania seemed unlikely for the foreseeable future with Triple H saying ambitions should be set high, but that WrestleMania isn't just a bigger pay-per-view, it's a week-long series of events and that the logistics of executing WrestleMania week, along with the two weeks sandwiching the Grandest Stage of Them All was "logistically extraordinarily difficult" in our own backyard, never mind with international crews and international support systems.

Can we get there? Sure. Maybe over time. But I think obviously we will take steps in that direction and the steps in that direction are probably other pay-per-views.

Triple H went on to say that WWE are taking steps all the time, and he has his own personal ambitions there.

The thing for me is I would also like to bring other meaningful international events through WWE as you see us doing with NXT and the UK Championship. Taking those next steps, international shows, making international brands and bringing those to those local markets and putting them on in those time slots that are meaningful to those markets.

Wembley is no stranger to NFL matches

When asked whether NFL expanding into other markets was something WWE took notice of when doing the same thing, though, Triple H expressed their differences.

We don't look at the NFL because we're already a global product. We're a global product with a massive fanbase and we're already in those markets. They're willing to go out and do events in those markets at massive losses to break those markets.

And the reason why? Well, it may be obvious, but it's also pretty genius.

Those teams are big but local teams are where it's at, but you look at Saudi. John Cena here is the same John Cena that's in Saudi. Roman Reigns is the same Roman Reigns. It translates everywhere in the world.

Triple H took on John Cena in Saudi Arabia, and the WWE Universe loved it!

There's not a culture, there's not a place in the world where WWE is not seen and where we don't have a large fan base, so it's now taking the next steps of how can we increase those markets, give them more and be more engaged in those markets.

As far as the upcoming UK weekly show, Triple H said it's taking longer to get off the ground than he'd have liked, but the template is there and they're building on it with this new tournament and with the talent in WWE.

You're going to see those talents thrive locally and then go beyond that nationally, as we've seen with Pete (Dunne) and Tyler (Bate). In a few years, those are the stars you're going to see on Raw and SmackDown, those will be the stars you see headlining WrestleMania.

What's next?

Well, it might not be WrestleMania, but Triple H promised it will be a "spectacular" show. The WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament returns to London on June 18 and 19 at the Royal Albert Hall.

Raw and SmackDown, however, will emanate from London's O2 arena, on May 14th and 15th, with a United Kingdom tour around that and the NXT Superstars hitting Download Festival in June!

Author's take

Well, I'm biased. I'd LOVE WrestleMania, or any pay-per-view, to come to the UK. To try and remove myself from the situation, though, even another continent other than North America would be cool for a change.

WrestleMania is always great - but the crowd fell flat during this year's main event. Can you imagine having the crowd that was in Saudi Arabia going wild for John Cena and Triple H at a WrestleMania - or even an Australian crowd for that matter? Although we will see WWE hit Australia for a huge show later in the year.