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#3 WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament (2017)
In 2017, WWE attempted to further their expansion into other parts of the world with the introduction of the United Kingdom Championship. To determine the first titleholder, the company recruited some of Great Britain's most accomplished independent wrestlers for a two-night tournament in Blackpool, England.
The tournament will be fondly remembered for years to come for creating brand new stars that the eventual NXT UK brand would be built around and a stellar job by the commentary team.
The latter part came as a huge surprise because the often criticized Michael Cole put on the best effort of his career in establishing the characters of the competitors and allowing Nigel McGuiness to add color was a breath of fresh air.
Night 1 of the tournament cemented Pete Dunne as the top heel of the United Kingdom expansion. He was made to look strong but also a rulebreaker who didn't care who he pissed off, including NXT General Manager William Regal. As is the case with many great WWE stories though, Dunne could only be as good as the top babyface hero who would overcome him.
He would find that in Tyler Bate. The youngest competitor in the entire tournament won a competitive first round match against Tucker to end Night 1. He then followed that up on Night 2 beating Jordan Devlin and the larger Wolfgang to advance to the finals.
In a fantastic finale, Tyler Bate defeated Pete Dunne with the Tyler Driver 98 to win the WWE United Kingdom Championship. Not only was Bate the inaugural champion, but he became the youngest champion in WWE history at that time, being just 19 years old. It was an outstanding start for the eventual NXT UK brand and firmly allowed WWE to plant their flag in the territory.
