8 Times WWE Rewarded Its UK Audience

3. The United Kingdom Championship Tournament

Tyler Bate WWE UK Champion
WWE.com

Over two January 2017 nights, British wrestling fans were treated to a weekend full of fantastic matches as part of the United Kingdom Championship Tournament event designed to crown the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion.

Comprising 16 competitors, this whole tournament was made to feel like a genuinely big deal by WWE – helped even more in that regard by the two-day event being held at Blackpool’s legendary Empress Ballroom.

While Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne were rightly positioned as the stars of the show – Bate becoming the inaugural WWE UK Champion – the event as a whole was crammed full of some brilliant in-ring action from some of the UK’s finest independent names. Added to that, the Blackpool crowd also had the surprise treat of Neville vs. Tommy, Tommy, Tommy F*cking End (that'd be PAC vs. Aleister Black these days).

Since then, the NXT UK brand has been a mixed bag in terms of how the product has been presented, how fans have responded to it, and what sort of energy has been invested into it. But still, that first showcasing of British talent back in January 2017 ticked so many of the right boxes.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.