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What's the story?
The first ever WWE NXT UK Women's champion will be crowned this week, at tapings this weekend in Birmingham, England.
In case you didn't know
NXT UK is the latest branch of WWE and will allow independent stars from not only the United Kingdom but across the world, to compete in the UK.
The brand was launched in December 2016, when WWE COO Triple H announced a 16-man tournament to crown the first ever WWE UK champion.
The tournament saw Tyler Bate defeat Pete Dunne in the finals, but would later lose the title to Dunne months later.
As champion, Dunne has defended the title in several independent promotions, such as PROGRESS Wrestling, and has defended it against non-British talent, the first of which was NXT superstar Johnny Gargano.
Whilst no official launch date has been announced for the NXT UK brand, plans have been set, including having British wrestling legend Johnny Saint being announced as the general manager of NXT UK.
The heart of the matter
The news of the first ever NXT UK Women's champion broke on WWE.com, with eight women announced as combatants to be the inaugural champion.
They are:
Toni Storm
Jinny
Isla Dawn
Millie McKenzie
Nina Samuels
Dakota Kai
Rhea Ripley
Xia Brookside
The tapings will take place during the Insomnia Gaming Festival, the UK's biggest gaming festival, which will take place at the NEC Birmingham arena.
What's next?
It seems WWE is making big steps to make the WWE NXT UK brand a big success. The UK fanbase, who have for years been starved of pro-wrestling, and now seemingly entering a renaissance, with WWE NXT UK, the new World of Sports wrestling show on ITV, and independent shows such as PROGRESS wrestling.
Tickets for the Saturday and Sunday tapings are available at https://insomniagamingfestival.com/wwe-nxt-uk/
