Tyler Bate seemed to be on a roll last year as one of the top wrestlers in the mix for the United Kingdom Championship. However, in recent months he’s been treated as an afterthought. Last week, he was brought into 205 Live so he could lose to TJP in an opening round match for the Cruiserweight Championship tournament. On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that there is heat on him.
Meltzer said, “Tyler Bate lost 4 matches this week. He went o and 4. He went from being the big guy that they were grooming for the UK for the future and he has fallen out of favor.” He continued, “He lost the title to Pete Dunne [and] there was a situation where they had a tour. They, at the last minute, wanted to book him on a main roster tour I think. This was a long time ago but this was right before they put Pete Dunne over him. They called [Bate] late and he had made other plans and that’s what happened.”
Meltzer might be talking about an earlier tour (perhaps the post-WrestleMania UK tour) but I do remember that Bate was on the UK tour in November and that’s when he was brought into 205 Live to lose to Enzo Amore and there was no follow-up storyline. At that point, I think it was obvious that something was up because he lost and there was no storyline follow-up with Bate and Amore.
This week, Bate lost matches to Roderick Strong (NXT TV), TJP (205 Live), and Velveteen Dream (NXT TV tapings).
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