WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament Review

The past two years or so has seen British Wrestling skyrocket. Throughout history, we have seen the UK Scene deliver some amazing talent, fantastic shows, and phenomenal wrestling but as the years have gone by the scene has struggled to keep up with the times and unfortunately there was a huge gap that saw British Wrestling barely even spoken about. However, over the past couple of years that has completely changed. We have seen the UK Wrestling scene grow massively in popularity with more on the market in terms of promotions, wrestlers, and live shows across the country. Companies such as ICW, NGW, WCPW, and progress are some of the many that have been responsible for changing the way British wrestling is viewed. We also have to thank stars such as Adrian Neville, Wade Barret, Sheamus, Paige, Becky Lynch, and Finn Balor for raising the awareness of the talent that can come out of the United Kingdom and Ireland. This month I have dedicated four weeks to the British Wrestling scene and as we reach the halfway point its time to take a look at something that has got the whole wrestling community talking, the WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament. Finally, the WWE are putting the spotlight on British Wrestling and jumping on board with the amazing talent the UK has to offer and the timing could not be any better.  It was announced last month that the WWE would be holding a two-day tournament in Blackpool where sixteen of the best talents here in the United Kingdom would battle it out to become the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion. In today's blog post I'm going to be running you through the entire weekend in my full review of the tournament. I'm going to be running you throughout the past two days telling you what I thought of every single little thing that happened and of course what I thought of the winner. As always any recent blog post will be linked bellow and you can let me know what YOU thought of the tournament by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

Before we get talking about the highlights, matches, and the winner of the tournament lets first take a look at everything else starting off with the actual championship. When the reveal was fist made I tweeted out on several different occasions my opinions on the title and made it perfectly clear that I absolutely loved it. The design is just stunning and I honestly do think it's one of the best-looking championships out there at the moment. It had such a beautiful British feel managing to look unique and traditional at the same time. Simply a stunning overall design and I'm so glad they managed to get this right considering that recent WWE title designs haven't been the best. We then move onto the announce team and I have to say, as someone that has a strong disliking for Michael Cole he did a geat job this past weekend calling the action but it was, in my opinion, Nigel McGuuinness who was the standout. It was so refreshing hearing something different. He was fluent, easy to listen to and called the action amazingly well. He and Cole worked fantastically together. It was very natural between the two, they both came across very passionate and invested in the action and it made the show that much stronger. And finally, we have to talk about that epic crowd and the stunning venue. The Blackpool crowd were just on fire throughout both shows. I know I'm bias but the British crowd never ever fail to disappoint. They're always completely one hundred and ten percent invested in every single match that was presented to them and like I always say a good crowd changes a show completely and the Blackpool crowd were brilliant. The venue itself was so fitting. It definitely had an ECW feel, something I saw a lot of people commenting on and I also really liked the intimate feel the venue had and what the overall show had in fact. From where the commentary took place to the venue and placement of everything gave the show such an intimate feel and I loved it. I really do hope we get to see more shows by the WWE set up like this and I really really hope that the WWE consider hosting more shows here in the UK especially a major PPV. This weekend sure proved we Brits deserve that.

Day One - Highlights 

Night one was for sure a good show. We had som fantastic wrestling, on the edge of your seat action and actually a great deal of storytelling, something I actually wasn't expecting but the second night was without a doubt the stronger and overall better show. However, for now, we're going to dive into some of the best moments of the Saturday show. So, I actually had to watch this one a little later on in the night because I was really busy but I did catch up late that night and I honestly can say I really really enjoyed the show. Every single match was gripping and while most in the first round were leaning on the predictable side the way the matches were conducted the longer they went on the more I genuinely was left sitting there wondering if maybe there would be a few surprises. The most unpredictable match in my opinion of that first round came from Danny Burch VS Jordan Devlin. Now, I'm going to talk about Devlin in more detail later on in the post but this match was without a doubt one of the most unpredictable. While Devlin had been shown a lot on WWE product during the build up week Danny Burch does have history with the company working on the NXT roster for nearly two years and so I was definitely undecided on who was going to be walking away with the victory here. They both brought something a little different and they both picked up two very different reactions from the live crowd and everyone at home. Devlin did a fantastic job working as one of the best overall heels of the tournament. He picked up so much heat from the fans and bought a great deal of character to the match and I honestly was not expecting him to be such a character stand out or even work as a heel in the first place. Those closing moments that saw Burch busted open and Devlin pick up the win was just brutal but looked so well and was one of the standouts of the night. Talking of standouts of the first night we have to talk about Sam Gradwell. Sam was actually one of the men I didn't know all that much about. I hadn't seen much of his work and so I didn't know what to expect, however, he's video package alone grabbed my attention. Hearing what he had to say moments before his match in the first round really did leave me wanting to know more about him and very very interested in learning and seeing more of his character. I was surprised to see him work as a babyface considering he came across like such a natural heel but of course him working in his hometown and seeing him go up against Pete Dunne later on in the tournament meant that it all did make sense in the end and work perfectly fine. That leads me to my next point and a man that I'm going to be talking about a lot in today's blog post, Pete Dunne. I don't believe anyone made as big of an impact as the Progress champion, Pete Dunne. An early favourite in the tournament he made sure to prove exactly why he was one of the most talked about men in this tournament. He was one of the in ring standouts of the night without a doubt but it was his character work throughout both nights that made him one of the most talked about competitors. After advancing into the second round the closing moments of Saturday's show saw Dunne take out his Sunday opponent, Sam Gradwell something that didn't go down with NXT General manager Willam Regal and if  you watched the videos uploaded by WWE throughout Saturday and Sunday you would have seen that there was great story telling going on with Dunne and Regal. The stare downs between the two were fantastic and I was interesting seeing just how much storytelling there was this weekend but all the work from Dunne and his character did make him a huge talking point.

Day Two - Highlights 

As I mentioned earlier, while day one was full of great wrestling and strong storytelling, day two was of another level and as expected this was the better show. The talent raised the bar much much higher and the night itself will go down as one of the best wrestling shows of the year without a doubt. A Bold statement to make in January but one I will certainly be sticking by. Now, I've spoken a lot about how predictable I believed some of these matches to be. It was pretty easy to pick out from the sixteen competitors who was going to be picking the victories in the first round and there really were no surprises, however, we had plenty of shocks that came our way on Sunday night and I have to say that predictability went out of the window. One of two of the biggest surprises came from the match up between Mark Andrews and former WCPW Champion, Joseph Conners. The pair certainly did not disappoint and gave a little bout that left me very entertained. Throughout the match I honestly did believe that Joseph Conners was going to walk away with the victory, however, there was a huge swerve and it was, in fact, Mark Andrews who picked up the shock victory advancing into the next stage of the tournament to face Pete Dunne where the pair would compete in what was the best match of the entire tournament in my personal opinion. I honestly did not expect them to go down this root and a little part of me was disappointed because I'm such a big Joseph Conners however, it did turn out to be a brilliant move to make. It meant we had more diversity in that stage of the tournament and the match between him and Dunne will be highlighted as one of the best of the year, I don't doubt that. Another big surprise in terms of match results came from Trent Seven VS Wolfgang, two men that I have been a big fan of for a long time and two men I've spoken about a lot here on my blog and over on social media and I did mention in a recent blog post that I believed these two were going to be ones to watch throughout the tournament. Again, I was totally expecting Seven to go over. Both men were extremely over with the fans but it was clear from the start Trent Seven was a huge fan favourite. He picked one of the biggest reactions from the live crowd on both nights and it seemed guaranteed that he would take the victory here. However, we had a huge surprise when current ICW Champion Wolfgang got the win. I was again a little disappointed. Seven was someone I was strongly backing throughout the tournament and so I wasn't happy for a little while but I soon snapped out of it. Wolfgang put on a fucking fantastic performance and earned his spot in the next round without a shadow of a doubt.

A bonus highlight of the weekend came from the extra match added to the Sunday show between Newcastle's very own, Adrian Neville and newbie to the NXT roster, Tommy End, someone who has been wrestling here in the UK for several years for companies such as ICW and Progress. It was great hearing the reaction both these men picked up from the live crowds but I personally did mark out a heck of a lot more for Tommy End. He's someone that I have been following for such a long time and I was so so glad to see him make an appearance last night. I strongly believe that Tommy will have a brilliant run in the WWE and I'm so excited for what is to come for him and it was amazing seeing him apart of the show on Sunday.  I was, however, surprised that he wrestled under Tommy End and not his new ring name. Balor also made an appearance which was a nice touch too. 

So, after all, those brilliant matches and the fantastic performances from all the men involved it finally came down to two of the best and most popular amongst the fans, the nineteen-year-old Tyler Bate and the Bruiserweight Pete Dunne. Both men had been huge talking points over the weekend for different reasons. While Dunne was a popular choice because of how much he had stood out with his character and antics across the twenty-four hours, Bate impressed everyone around the world for his fantastic skill at such a young age. Both men were highlighted as two of the best and where in actual fact two big fan favourites from the very start. The match itself between these two was simply fantastic. After defeating Wolfgang earlier on in the night Bate had plenty of momentum on his side, however, a blindside attack from Pete Dunne changed that completely and with attack heavily focused on Bates' shoulder this proved to be an issue throughout the night's final match. Dunne would use the tactics he has always used to gain the upper hand and of course targeting that injured shoulder of the young Tyler Bate. Throughout the match Pete focused on the shoulder and there plenty of times where it looked as though Bate would have no choice but to tap out to those brutal submissions Dunne had locked in. It also helped that Pete had trained Tyler in the past and so he knew exactly what areas to target. However, in this session of teacher VS Student it was the student who prevailed and Bate used the crowds support and his never give up attitude to carry on and in the end pick up what would be the biggest victory of his life, making history and becoming the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion. I made it perfectly clear right from the very start that I was backing Tyler Bate and so to see him actually go all the way made me the happiest and proudest person in the world. My reaction to his victory was just crazy but it was just amazing to watch and I was so so happy. It really is phenomenal what this guy can do at his age and while everyone that competed did an amazing job, the right guy one and Tyle Bate for sure has a huge career ahead of him. 

Overall Standouts

 Before we look to start wrapping things up here in today's blog post lets take a look at some of the standouts of this tournament. First up we have Jordan Devlin. I will admit, I wasn't his biggest fan but that only went to show just how great he was at his job. This is the guy that managed to get an entire room full of people to hate him in under twenty-four hours. The genuine heat this guy picked up from the fans was mental and is something that some of the biggest names in the WWE fail to achieve. He told a fantastic story throughout the weekend and worked as one of the best heels of the tournament. We then, of course, have Wolfgang, someone who had an even bigger showing than expected. He

really did represent ICW well and prove why he is a champion there. He's performance in all three of his match were fantastic. He showed amazing diversity in the ring and had everyone up on their feet throughout. Mark Andrews is in the list of names that stood out for me. He wasn't someone I was expecting to go very far but he proved me wrong defeating Joseph Conners in round two in a shock victory and went on to compete in the best match of the tournament. And then finally we have Pete Dunne, the man in my eyes who stole the show. He brought the most character, the most heat and the most entertainment. He showed himself to be a natural heel and one of the best bad guys wrestling has to offer. The heels in this industry could learn a heck of a lot from him. He kept me entertained more than anybody and provided us with four outstanding matches. He may not have won the tournament but he stood out like crazy and I don't doubt that the twenty three year old has a huge career ahead of him. I do plan on doing an entire post all on Tyle Bate in the near future so keep an eye out for that. 

To round up I think it's safe to say that the WWE United Kingdom tournament was a huge success. It lived up to and even exceeded expectations. Night two was without a shadow of a doubt the better show but I was completely entertained throughout both nights. I was surprised to see the difference in this and the Cruiserweight Championship tournament. We got far more character and storyline's within the space of two days than we did the Cruiserweight classic tournament which lasted a long longer. I can honestly say that I cannot wait to see where the WWE go next with this idea and what awaits the UK wrestling scene. What I can say for now is that two thousand and seventeen looks to be the start of a fantastic time for British Wrestling. Remember I will be continuing on with the British Wrestling season here on my blog throughout the rest of the month with the next post in the series going up on Friday evening. For now, you can let me know what you thought of the tournament and if you think the right man won by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me over at @TezangiVictoria. 

Recent Blog Posts:
Last Week In Wrestling
My Top Five WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament Picks
WWE NXT Review and Reactions
WWE Smackdown LIVE Highlights
WWE Monday Night RAW Highlights
Five British Wrestles to Watch in 2017
Five Current British Wrestlers You Should Know

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