History
In a press conference at The O2 Arena on 15 December 2016, Triple H, the chief operating officer and head of NXT for the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, 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 exclusively on the WWE Network. Tyler Bate 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 NXT when Bate debuted during the 28 January 2017, tapings of NXT in San Antonio, Texas, which aired 1 February.[1] During the 1 February tapings at the brand's former home base of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, the title's very first defense took place, where Bate defeated Trent Seven (aired 15 February).[2] 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; the show took place in Orlando, Florida, on 31 March as part of WrestleMania Axxess.[3] 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 defeated Bate to become champion.[4][5] Although unsuccessful, Johnny Gargano 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).[6]
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.[7][8] However, it was not until mid-2018 when WWE formally established NXT UK as the brand for their United Kingdom division and sister brand of their American-based NXT.[9][10] The brand's show, also titled NXT UK, had its first tapings in August, which began airing on 17 October.[11] On the premiere episode, Dunne retained the UK Championship against Noam Dar.[12] 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.[13]
In August 2022, WWE announced that the NXT UK brand would go on hiatus and would relaunch as NXT Europe at a later time.[14] 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 defeated Tyler Bate to unify the NXT United Kingdom Championship into Breakker's NXT Championship, with Bate, the title's only two-time holder, recognized as the final NXT UK Champion. Breakker went forward as the unified NXT Champion.[15]
Vacant title tournament (2022)
