WWE Needs to Continue Working With Other Promotions in 2018

WWE once marketed itself as “the worldwide leader in sports entertainment.” To continue at the top, good working relationships with other promotions are essential.

As we get ready to close the door on 2017, WWE NXT superstar Oney Lorcan is getting ready to make an appearance at Beyond Wrestling’s Heavy Lies the Crown event. While Lorcan – known as Biff Busick before joining NXT – won’t be wrestling at the show, or appearing on the live stream. It’s just a special appearance for the fans in attendance, as Lorcan was one of Beyond’s top stars for a long time.

Lorcan isn’t the only WWE star who’s appearing for a former employer. Over the Christmas weekend, Kairi Sane showed up at a Stardom event in Japan marking Yoto Bito’s retirement. And Alexander Wolfe and Marcel Barthel stopped in at wXw’s 17th anniversary show in Germany.

Apollo Crews, meanwhile, is heading over to the UK to participate in PCW’s Road to Glory tournament in February. That’s right – Crews will be wrestling for PCW while under WWE contract. It seems WWE wants to run out of a specific arena in Blackpool – one that PCW owner Steve Fludder has an exclusive deal with. So in a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” move, WWE is lending Crews in exchange for building access.

Of course, WWE’s relationship with promotions like EVOLVE, Progress, ICW, and others is well documented. Triple H himself tweeted out the above photo, with Gabe Sapolsky and Jim Smallman (of EVOLVE and Progress, respectively) hanging out in the production area. The Game also appeared in the ring at an ICW event in November – though not to wrestle.

To continue WWE’s run at the top of the wrestling industry, these kinds of interpromotional relationships need to continue and even strengthen. Ring of Honor and New Japan have forged a strong partnership that includes talent sharing, and it’s worked out fantastically for both companies. WWE should consider something of this nature as 2018 rolls on.

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It may not necessarily be to the same extent as the ROH/NJPW pairing. But Jack Gallagher wrestling on two different Progress shows in 2017 is a start. Crews participating in a tournament is even better. But why not lend underutilized, mid-card superstars to a promotion like EVOLVE to get them some more work? Why couldn’t Tye Dillinger face, say, Hot Sauce Tracy Williams at La Boom in Queens?

The benefits to both parties would be worth it. WWE gets to shuffle superstars on its roster without needing to find television time for them all the time. A company like EVOLVE could get the weight of the WWE marketing machine behind it. And for the fans, hey, who doesn’t love more wrestling?

What do you think of WWE forging more working relationships with other promotions?