The treatment of World of Sport, which would have failed even if NXT UK was never a thing, makes it clear there’s conflict at ITV. There is someone who wants to bring wrestling to the channel, but someone higher up doing everything to bury it as it doesn’t fit ITVs cookie cutter model they force on to their many bland game shows. Compare our version of Ninja Warrior (which was the same building they filmed WoS in) to international versions of Sasuke/Ninja Warrior to really see how soulless ITvs production is.
At the same time, it’s this or Channel 4, because BBC (get your mind out of the gutter) aren’t touching it and Channel 5 is a channel held together by duct tape. C4’s “edgy” identity fits wrestling a little more but they are happier doing shit like Celebrity Gameshows, documentaries about why everything sucks, and Gogglebox, which is literally just YouTube reaction channel content.
