WWE United Kingdom Championship

The WWE United Kingdom Championship, later known as the NXT United Kingdom Championship from 2020 to 2022, was a professional wrestling title owned by WWE and competed for by the men of NXT UK. It was created on 15 December 2016 and a 16-man tournament with British wrestlers happened on 14 and 15 January 2017 to crown the champion. Tyler Bate beat Pete Dunne in the final to become the first champion.

NXT United Kingdom Championship
Second champion Pete Dunne, who held the title for 685 days
Details
Promotion	WWE
Date established	15 December 2016
Date retired	4 September 2022 (unified with the NXT Championship)
Other name(s)
WWE United Kingdom Championship (2016–2020) NXT United Kingdom Championship (2020–2022)
Statistics First champion(s) Tyler Bate Final champion(s) Tyler Bate Most reigns Tyler Bate (2 reigns) Longest reign Walter (870 days) Shortest reign Tyler Bate (2nd reign, 59 days)[a] Oldest winner Walter (31 years, 228 days) Youngest winner Tyler Bate (19 years, 314 days) Heaviest champion Walter (297 lb (135 kg)) Lightest champion Tyler Bate (175 lb (79 kg))

It was also sometimes defended at NXT events and on independent wrestling shows in the United Kingdom before the COVID-19 pandemic. On 4 September 2022 at Worlds Collide, the title was made into one into the NXT Championship, retiring the title. Tyler Bate, the only man to hold the title more than once, was the final champion.

The base design of the belt was similar to the WWE Championship belt introduced in 2014, with differences.^[1] Instead of a large cut out of the WWE logo, the center plate was designed after the United Kingdom's royal coat of arms, featuring a lion and a horse, with a shield at the center. Above the shield were the crown jewels. When the championship was originally introduced, the shield at the center of the main plate featured the WWE logo, but that was changed to the NXT UK logo on 17 January 2020 when the title was renamed.

Tournament to crown the first champion

First Round January 14, 2017[2]

Quarter-Finals January 15, 2017[3]

Semi-Finals January 15, 2017[3]

Final January 15, 2017[3]

1

Tyler Bate

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16

Tucker

10:34

Tyler Bate

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Jordan Devlin

6:05

8

Danny Burch

8:55

9

Jordan Devlin

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Tyler Bate

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Wolfgang

5:55

5

Trent Seven

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12

H.C. Dyer

5:25

Trent Seven

6:35

Wolfgang

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4

Tyson T-Bone

6:20

13

Wolfgang

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Tyler Bate

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Pete Dunne

15:10

6

Mark Andrews

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11

Dan Moloney

5:35

Mark Andrews

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Joseph Conners

8:10

3

James Drake

7:12

14

Joseph Conners

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Mark Andrews

10:33

Pete Dunne

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7

Pete Dunne

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10

Roy Johnson

7:30

Pete Dunne

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Sam Gradwell

4:50

2

Saxon Huxley

6:00

15

Sam Gradwell

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Reigns

Record two-time champion Tyler Bate celebrates winning the Championship for the first time on January 15, 2017.

Over the championship's nearly six year history, there were five reigns between four champions. Tyler Bate was the first champion and is also listed as the last champion. He also had the most reigns at two, he was the youngest champion at 19 (making him the second teenager to win a title in WWE), and his second reign was the shortest reign at 59 days (3 days as listed by WWE because of tape delay, despite Bate appearing as champion on NXT a couple of weeks before his title win aired). Walter had the longest reign, which lasted 870 days, and he was also the oldest champion when he won the title at 31.

Name	Years
WWE United Kingdom Championship	15 December 2016 – 17 January 2020
NXT United Kingdom Championship	17 January 2020 – 4 September 2022

Key

No.	Overall reign number
Reign	Reign number for the specific champion
Days	Number of days held
Days recog.	Number of days held recognized by the promotion

No.	Champion	Championship change			Reign statistics			Notes	Ref.
		Date	Event	Location	Reign	Days	Days recog.
	NXT
1	Tyler Bate	15 January 2017	United Kingdom Championship Tournament	Blackpool, England	1	125	125	Defeated Pete Dunne in the tournament final to become the first WWE United Kingdom Champion. Bate then defended the title on NXT and at independent shows in the United Kingdom.
2	Pete Dunne	20 May 2017	TakeOver: Chicago	Rosemont, IL, U.S.	1	685	685	The title became the top championship of NXT UK when the show was created in June 2018, but continued to be defended on NXT and at independent shows.
	NXT UK
3	Walter	5 April 2019	TakeOver: New York	Brooklyn, NY, U.S.	1	870	870	The title was renamed NXT United Kingdom Championship in January 2020.	[4]
4	Ilja Dragunov	22 August 2021	TakeOver 36	Orlando, FL, U.S.	1	319	347	WWE lists the end of Dragunov's reign's on 4 August 2022, when the episode aired on tape delay.	[5]
—	Vacated	7 July 2022	NXT UK	London, England	—	—	—	Ilja Dragunov gave up the title after suffering an injury. Aired on tape delay on 4 August 2022.	[6][7]
5	Tyler Bate	7 July 2022	NXT UK	London, England	2	59	3	Defeated Trent Seven in the final of a tournament to win the vacant championship. WWE lists the start of Bate's reign on 1 September 2022, when the episode aired on tape delay, despite the fact that Bate started appearing as champion on 16 August at NXT Heatwave.	[8][9]
—	Unified	4 September 2022	Worlds Collide	Orlando, FL, U.S.	—	—	—	Bron Breakker defeated Tyler Bate to make the NXT United Kingdom Championship into one with the NXT Championship. The NXT United Kingdom Championship was retired with Bate listed as the final champion. Breakker went on as the unified NXT Champion.

Combined reigns

Rank	Wrestler	No. of reigns	Combined days	Combined days recognized by WWE
1	Walter	1	870
2	Pete Dunne	1	685
3	Ilja Dragunov	1	319	346
4	Tyler Bate	2	184	128

Footnotes

1. WWE lists Bate holding the title for 3 days because of tape delay, despite Bate appearing on NXT a couple of weeks before his title win on NXT UK aired.