The NXT United Kingdom Championship was a men's

professional wrestling championship A championship or title in professional wrestling is a recognition promoted by professional wrestling organizations. Championship reigns are determined by professional wrestling matches, in which competitors are involved in predetermined rivalri ...

that was created and promoted by the American

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. It was primarily defended as the top championship of the

NXT UK ''NXT UK'' is a professional wrestling television programme that was produced exclusively in the United Kingdom by the American promotion WWE. It aired on BT Sport and 5Action (previously known as Paramount Network). In the United States, the s ...

brand division, a sister brand of WWE's

developmental territory In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

based in the United Kingdom. It was also occasionally defended at NXT events and had also been defended on

independent wrestling In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor league for pro wres ...

shows in the United Kingdom before the

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. Established on 15 December 2016 as the WWE United Kingdom Championship, the title was first awarded to

Tyler Bate Tyler Bate (born 7 March 1997) is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the NXT brand. In 2017, he became the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion (later renamed NXT United Kingdom Championship), ...

, who won the inaugural

WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament was a professional wrestling tournament and WWE Network event produced by WWE, an American-based professional wrestling promotion. The event was established in December 2016, debuting as a WWE Network ...

on 15 January 2017. The brand's show of the same name had its first tapings in August 2018, which began

airing Airing is the practice of hanging or laying out articles and exposing them to air, and sometimes heat and light. This practice is commonly used to dry many types of fabric. One of the most common methods of drying using airing is the clothesline. ...

in October. From its inception up until the debut of ''NXT UK'', the title was primarily defended on the NXT brand and shows produced by UK-based independent wrestling promotions. In January 2020, the title was renamed to reflect its status as the top title of NXT UK. On 4 September 2022 at Worlds Collide, the title was unified into the

NXT Championship The NXT Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. It is defended as the top championship of the NXT brand division, the promotion's developmental territory. In ...

, officially retiring the title in the process, with Bate, the title's only two-time holder, recognized as the final champion.

History

In a press conference at

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on 15 December 2016,

Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as on ...

, the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

and head of

for the American

professional wrestling promotion A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling that has little relationship to the rules of the amateur olympic form. "Promotion" also describes a role which entails man ...

, revealed that there would be a 16-man single-elimination tournament to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion for the promotion's new United Kingdom division. The tournament was held over a two-day period, 14 and 15 January 2017, and was

streamed Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

exclusively on the

WWE Network WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American entertainment company WWE. It primarily distributes original professional wrestling events, films, television and ...

won the inaugural tournament to become the first WWE United Kingdom Champion. Following the inaugural tournament in 2017, the title began being featured on WWE's

developmental brand In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

NXT when Bate debuted during the 28 January 2017, tapings of ''

'' in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

, which aired 1 February. During the 1 February tapings at the brand's former home base of

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Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was fo ...

, the title's very first defense took place, where Bate defeated

Trent Seven Benjamin Maurice Webb (born 21 August 1981), better known by the ring name Trent Seven, is an English professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and actor. He was signed to WWE on their NXT UK brand, where he is a former NXT UK Tag Team Champion ...

(aired 15 February). The title was defended for the first time outside of WWE when Bate retained the title against Mark Andrews on a show for the London-based promotion,

Progress Wrestling Progress Wrestling (stylized as PROGRESS) is a British professional wrestling promotion that was established in 2011 by comedian Jim Smallman, events and comedy promoter Jon Briley, and later, actor Glen Robinson (professionally known as Glen ...

; the show took place in

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, on 31 March as part of

WrestleMania Axxess WrestleMania Axxess is a professional wrestling fan convention held by WWE during the week of WrestleMania. The event typically runs for four days—from Thursday to WrestleMania Sunday—and features WWE talent and alumni autograph signings, inte ...

. The first title change, as well as the first defense to air live, took place on 20 May 2017 at TakeOver: Chicago, where

Pete Dunne Peter Thomas England (born 9 November 1993) is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Butch. He is a former WWE United Kingdom Champion and also a former NXT ...

defeated Bate to become champion. Although unsuccessful,

Johnny Gargano John Anthony Nicholas Gargano (born August 14, 1987) is an American professional wrestler best known under the ring name Johnny Gargano. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is best known for his time in NXT, wh ...

was the first wrestler from outside of the United Kingdom division to challenge for the UK title on the 18 November tapings of ''NXT'' (aired on 22 November). When the championship was unveiled in December 2016, it was announced to be the top championship of a new WWE Network show, produced in the United Kingdom. However, it was not until mid-2018 when WWE formally established

as the brand for their United Kingdom division and sister brand of their American-based NXT. The brand's show, also titled ''

'', had its first tapings in August, which began airing on 17 October. On the premiere episode, Dunne retained the UK Championship against

Noam Dar Noam Dar (; born 28 July 1993) is an Israeli-Scottish professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, and is a record setting two-time NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion. He also wrestles for Scottish promotion Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW ...

. During the 17 January 2020 tapings of ''NXT UK'', the title was renamed to NXT United Kingdom Championship to reflect its status as the top title of NXT UK. In August 2022, WWE announced that the NXT UK brand would go on hiatus and would relaunch as NXT Europe in 2023. As such, NXT UK's championship's were unified into their respective NXT championship counterparts. Subsequently, the NXT United Kingdom Championship was retired on 4 September 2022 at Worlds Collide. At the event,

Bron Breakker Bronson Parmar Rechsteiner (born October 24, 1997) is an American professional wrestler and former American football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Bron Breakker and is the current NXT ...

defeated Tyler Bate to unify the NXT United Kingdom Championship into Breakker's

, with Bate, the title's only two-time holder, recognized as the final NXT UK Champion. Breakker went forward as the unified NXT Champion.

Inaugural tournament

Vacant title tournament (2022)

Championship belt design

Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom

The base design of the belt was similar to the

WWE Championship The WWE Championship is a world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two world titles on WWE's main roster, alongside SmackDown' ...

belt ( introduced in 2014), with notable differences.WWE Superstars - WWE.com
/ref> Instead of a large cut out of the WWE logo, the center plate was modeled after the United Kingdom's royal coat of arms, featuring a lion and a horse (instead of the traditional unicorn) on either side of the arms, with a shield at the center; atop the shield were the crown jewels. The banner atop the arms read "United Kingdom" while the banner below read "Champion". Gold divider bars separated the center plate from the belt's two side plates. In what became a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts, the side plates featured removable center sections that could be replaced with the reigning champion's logo; the default side plates featured the WWE logo on a red globe. The plates were on a black leather strap. When the championship was originally introduced as the WWE United Kingdom Championship, 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 to NXT United Kingdom Championship.

Reigns

Over the championship's nearly six year history, there were five reigns between four champions. Tyler Bate was the inaugural champion and is also recognized as the final champion. He also had the most reigns at two, he was the youngest champion at 19, and his second reign was the shortest reign at 59 days (3 days as recognized by WWE due to tape delay, despite Bate appearing as champion on '' NXT 2.0'' a couple of weeks before his title win on ''NXT UK'').

Walter Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

had the longest reign, which lasted 870 days, and he was also the oldest champion when he won the title at 31.

Combined reigns

Notes

References

External links

Official NXT United Kingdom Championship Title History
{{British wrestling titles WWE NXT championships National professional wrestling championships

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...