The WWE UK Championship has certainly taken the WWE fans by storm, introducing fans to a wide array of wrestlers and performers they previously heard little or nothing about. Until the UK Tournament, I doubt very few people outside of the United Kingdom had heard of the likes of Tyler Bate, Pete Dunne, Wolfgang, Trent Seven as well as countless others.
The recent win by Dunne at NXT Takeover: Chicago over Bate to become the second WWE UK Champion gives the title some renewed vigour. Dunne was quintessentially the ideal competitor to come out on top as champion, as Chicago has a bit of an edge when it comes to the wrestling fan base’s preferred type of wrestler. Bate as the inaugural champion was ideal to inaugurate the new championship with a positive presence that fans could get behind.
Despite very few appearances on WWE programming, aside from two title defences on NXT against Seven and 205 Live regular Jack Gallagher, Bate has a solid run as the first champion, and Dunne would most likely have as strong a run based on his in ring style and brutish demeanour in the ring. While there is no doubt that the UK talent pool is rife with future carriers of the UK title, as the Championship is technically meant to be contested by competitors of British descent, I thought it would be prudent to examine some possible contenders for the WWE UK Championship beyond the competitors that were featured in the inaugural tournament and subsequent UK special.
Here are five possible future contenders for the WWE United Kingdom Championship.
Neville
The current WWE Cruiserweight Champion and self described “King of the Cruiserweights” has had an incredible run as Champion since beating Rick Swann for the title back at the Royal Rumble. Whether Neville loses the title to Austin Aries at the upcoming RAW exclusive Extreme Rules pay-per-view or not, the man from Newcastle and former NXT Champion has shown that he can be an incredibly diverse in ring technician who could easily adapt high flying and submission wrestling as well.
But it is highly unlikely that Neville will remain Cruiserweight Champion forever since his reign has demonstrated that he could be booked for bigger and more interesting angles. Neville himself is no strange to the UK wrestling scene; during the WWE UK tournament he made an appearance facing Tommy End (now Aleister Black) wrestling a special exhibition match, making it clear he would have dominated the tournament if he was in it.
What is also interesting is that the current UK Champion, Pete Dunne, recently tweeted out an old photo of himself getting his picture taken with Neville (back then wrestling under the name “Pac’), next to a photo shopped image of Neville and Dunne carrying their respective championships over their shoulders. Dunne retweeted it, saying “time for a match, I reckon”.
The match between Dunne and Tyler Bate at Takeover Chicago no doubt is a Match of the Year candidate for 2017. “I reckon” a match between Dunne and Neville will rank in the same calibre as well. Also a wild possibility is that you could make it a title vs. title match; Dunne is after all billed at weighing in at 205 Ibs.
Drew McIntyre
Since returning to WWE programming in NXT after successful stints at TNA and other promotions, the Scottish born McIntyre has certainly reinvented his in-ring persona from the “Chosen One” moniker he adopted during his last WWE run when he was Intercontinental Champion, and then subsequently flaming out as a member of 3MB.
Coincidentally, former fellow 3MB stablemates Jinder Mahal and Heath Slater have found success as current reigning WWE Champion and former first ever Smackdown Tag Team Champion, respectively. Perhaps this is a sign that McIntyre will find similar success with gold? Since coming to NXT, McIntyre has been booked very strongly, not yet losing a match by pinfall or submission. He’s made his intentions known as wanting to claim the NXT Championship. McIntyre may very well be the next wrestler in line to have a reign after Bobby Roode.
The focus on McIntyre may be on the NXT Championship at the moment, but there is no way I would say he is completely left out of the title picture on the WWE UK scene. Remember that the UK roster is not limited by weight class; you have competitors that are within the Cruiserweight category like Tyler Bate and Mark Andrews, to the 255 Ibs. Wolfgang, another Scotland native. I wouldn’t mind seeing McIntyre vs. Wolfgang some time down the road.
Killian Dain
SaNiTy’s “Beast of Belfast” has been running roughshod over various competitors since joining the anarchistic group in NXT. Dain was even granted the rare Wrestlemania appearance when he competed in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, becoming one of the final three competitors in that match before getting eliminated.
There’s no question that Dain would be in strong contention for the WWE UK Championship. The only downside is that most of Dain’s body of work has been alongside Eric Young’s stable and Dain has had little opportunity to branch out on his own to establish his own identity apart from SaNiTy. It’s not like that isn’t being done; Nikki Cross’ recent battles over the NXT Women’s Championship demonstrated an individual SaNiTy member’s ability to strike out on their own.
I even have a great way to spin this into Dain branching out on his own without disassociating himself from SaNiTy yet. Young could announce that in order to spread SaNiTy’s chaos beyond Full Sail he’s sending Dain over to the UK brand to win the WWE UK Championship. Dain could do so, and over time, do a face turn as he breaks away from Young’s troupe. This is a little different than the way Braun Strowman was booked to dominate on his own after being split from the Wyatt Family during last year’s brand extension. Nevertheless, Dain is a dark horse choice to be a future WWE UK Champion.
Finn Balor
I’ve been so focused on wrestlers from the Cruiserweight division, such as Neville and Jack Gallagher (who already competed for the UK title and would undoubtedly do so again), and members from the current NXT roster that the possibility of main roster participants on the UK scene. One of them is the former NXT Champion and first ever WWE Universal Champion.
If you’re asking yourselves, “wait, Finn is Irish, and Ireland technically is not part of the UK,” but let’s not forget that Balor himself was training one of the contenders in the UK Championship tournament, Jordan Devlin. Devlin was also billed as being from Bray, County Wicklow where Balor is from, so the argument that Irish born wrestlers cannot compete for the UK Championship doesn’t pass muster.
You may think that having Balor compete for the UK Championship is a bit of a step down; after all Balor toiled overseas in the UK and Japan for years before finally making it to the WWE. But considering the way the Demon King is being booked he looks like he’s being stuck in a mid-card role, basically conducting a perpetual non-feud with Bray Wyatt. The upcoming Fatal Five Way for a shot at the Universal Title, which Balor is a part of, to me doesn’t look that optimistic that he will win considering that the four other contenders are equally, if not more, credible championship material at this time.
Putting Balor in for a future opportunity at the WWE UK Championship could bolster the fledgling brand with some star power and redirect his career in a unique way. You could also foresee some kind of storyline being booked pitting the teacher (Balor) against his former student (Devlin). And since I’ve brought up the possibility of an Irish main roster member competing for the WWE UK Championship, this brings me to…
Sheamus
The first Irish born WWE Champion, former World Heavyweight Champion, United States and Tag Team Champion, like Balor, would bring some star power into the UK roster. Sheamus is currently preoccupied with Cesaro in trying to regain the RAW Tag Team titles from the Hardys. The recent heel turn by Sheamus and Cesaro have breathed some new life into their feud with the Hardys, and they may walk away in their next encounter with the tag team straps.
That said, even if they were once again Tag Team Champions, that’s not to say it is impossible to book Sheamus into a program also going after a singles title. It is reminiscent of the late 1990s when Shawn Michaels and Triple H won the Tag Team Titles and Michaels held the European Championship which was in existence back in that period. I’m not suggesting that “Shesaro” is anywhere near the same caliber ad the legendary DX duo, but there is precedent for a member of the Tag Team Champions to be holding singles gold.
An established vet like Sheamus as a potential WWE UK Champion, again, could bring some heft into establishing the WWE UK brand.
This is by no means a complete list of wrestlers beyond the WWE UK brand who would be eligible to compete for the UK Championship. The aforementioned Jack Gallagher who already had a shot at the title, the Scot Noam Dar, and even someone like Zack Sabre Jr who we all saw in last year’s Cruiserweight Classic are all viable candidates. Although, it was reported that Sabre lost the Cruiserweight Classic because he did not agree to sign with WWE (Sabre is now with New Japan Pro Wrestling).
That being said, the WWE UK roster’s future looks particularly optimistic considering the crop of talent within they can work with, not to mention the possible entry of main roster and NXT wrestlers that could enter the United Kingdom Championship title mix.
Are there others you think would be viable challengers for the WWE UK Championship? Feel free to comment!
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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