Pete Dunne Emerges As The Next Challenger For Finn Bálor’s NXT Championship

WWE News - NXT Sees Pete Dunne Target Finn Bálor!

by Andrew Pollard
Pete Dunn Danny Burch Oney Lorcan NXT
WWE.com

With this week's NXT broadcast currently taking place, Pete Dunne has seemingly emerged as the next challenger for Finn Bálor’s NXT Championship.

After the Prince made his way to the ring to address his New Year’s Evil bout with Kyle O’Reilly and simultaneously throw down the gauntlet as to who would be next to face him, it was the Bruiserweight who answered the NXT Champ’s call.

Dunne made it clear that the only reason that Bálor holds the NXT brand’s biggest prize is because he’s opted not to take it from him just yet – and those words were swiftly followed by Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan joining the Birmingham native in attacking Bálor.

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Thankfully for the NXT Champion, O’Reilly and his Undisputed Era buddies of Adam Cole and Roderick Strong were on hand to make the save, with Kyle making plentiful admiring glances towards the piece of gold draped over Bálor’s shoulder.

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Finn Bálor vs. Pete Dunne? Finn Bálor vs. Kyle O’Reilly #3? Finn Bálor vs. Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O’Reilly? Book any of those, book all of those, as the NXT Championship scene continues to be one of the true highlights of WWE programming these days.

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Senior Writer
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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.