U.K. and European prospects attend WWE tryout at London's O2 Arena

Some of the brightest prospects in Europe and the U.K. are hoping to turn the heads of WWE talent scouts this week at a tryout in London.

Hours before the O2 Arena opens to the WWE Universe for back-to-back nights of Raw and SmackDown LIVE, 22 men and two women churned through in-ring drills inside the venue under the guidance of William Regal, Matt Bloom and Steve Corino.  

The tryout is the latest in a concerted effort to recruit wrestlers from the region. A similar tryout last year in Glasgow, Scotland, laid the foundation for the field of competitors in January’s United Kingdom Championship Tournament, many of whom fought last weekend as part of the first U.K. Championship Live events in Norwich, England.

Among those attending this week’s tryout are:

• 6-foot-3, 265-pound Jurn Simmons, who is currently the Unified World Wrestling Champion for Oberhausen, Germany-based Westside Xtreme Wrestling.
   
• 6-foot-2, 207-pound Adam “Flex” Maxted of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who has wrestled against the likes of Drew McIntyre.
   
• German cruiserweight Christian “T-K-O” Tscherpel, who trained under former WCW star Alex Wright and competes for Wright’s organization, New European Championship Wrestling.
   
• Welsh cruiserweight Flash Morgan Webster, who competed in a WWE Cruiserweight Classic qualifying match last year in PROGRESS Wrestling.
   
• Travis Banks & Chris Brookes, known collectively as Commonwealth Catch Kings, the reigning tag team champions of U.K.-based Revolution Pro Wrestling.
   
• TK Cooper, a six-year veteran from New Zealand who competed at this year's WrestleMania Axxess as part of  PROGRESS Wrestling's featured bouts.

The London tryout is the second international camp in as many weeks for WWE’s talent development division. WWE also recently hosted a four-day tryout at the Dubai Opera House, featuring prospects such as former professional baseball pitcher Rinku Singh, Indian TV star Saurav Gurjar and numerous grapplers from The Great Khali’s wrestling academy, Continental Wrestling Entertainment.