Report: Reason WWE Pressured WXW And PROGRESS Wrestling To Part Ways With David Starr Revealed

Night two of wXw's 16 Carat Gold tournament was main evented by David Starr vs. Bobby Gunns in a Title vs. Career match for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship. After a 40 minute battle, Gunns vanquished Starr, ending The Cream In Your Coffee's career in the German promotion.

It then emerged that WWE had pressured wXw and PROGRESS Wrestling to part ways with Starr. While many suspected it was because of Starr's activism, Dave Meltzer revealed more details in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

According to Meltzer, WWE contacted promotions they have a working relationship with in December, before Starr and EVOLVE promoter Gabe Sapolsky had a spat on Twitter. They told both PROGRESS and wXw to stop using Davey Wrestling because of We The Independent and his attempts to unionise professional wrestlers in the UK. The Jewish Cannon stomping on the WWE United Kingdom Championship in the Summer also only added fuel to the fire.

This led to PROGRESS ending their relationship with Starr in the new year, and booking him to lose to Jimmy Havoc and Eddie Dennis on his way out. This ultimately differed from wXw who did not want to part ways with Your Favourite Wrestler's Favourite Wrestler, which is why they continued working together until March and ended his tenure with the company with a high profile angle.