One of the most impressive talents from WWE’s Mae Young Classic tournament last year was Toni Storm. Storm has reportedly been on WWE’s radar for a while now and speculation that she’ll be involved in the upcoming UK Championship and second Mae Young Classic tournaments has been increasing more and more lately. It looks like Storm will indeed be coming over to WWE after all as the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has just reported that she has signed a UK deal with the company. Like other UK WWE talents, this does not mean she is part of NXT full time and she is also still allowed to compete on any independent wrestling shows that WWE approves of.
Every so often, WWE brings up the idea of adding some independent wrestling shows to the WWE Network. Insane Championship Wrestling and PROGRESS Wrestling both have a working relationship with WWE, which has prompted the company to ask if fans are interested in seeing shows from either of those promotions on some of their surveys. In an update provided by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the company is once again considering the idea of adding these shows to the WWE Network. Given that ICW and PROGRESS are both UK promotions, an official announcement is expected to be made during the UK Championship Tournament shows, but that still depends on if WWE can decide on adding the shows in time.
Several new WWE Superstars have been added to the roster this year, but there have not been a whole lot of releases in 2018. It was previously reported by WrestleVotes that WWE is actually holding off on releasing talents on purpose because their 90-day no-compete clauses would be finished in time for Cody Rhodes’ All In show on September 1st. The Wrestling Observer stated that they have not been able to confirm that report with any backstage officials in WWE. It is entirely possible that WWE has simply chosen not to release any of their talent. WWE currently has the largest roster in the history of the company, and with the UK Championship tournament taking place soon, it may be growing even larger soon.