WWE Week in Review: Inaugural UK Champion crowned, Mickie James returns

This week’s edition of the WWE Week in Review at FanSided discusses the UK Championship Tournament and the best of the week from RAW, SmackDown, 205 Live and NXT.

Before I get into the action for the week –and there was certainly plenty of that to go around with some title matches, some huge returns and the crowning of a brand new champion in the United Kingdom– I want to hit on a couple of other things first.

To start, I can’t talk about the week that was in WWE without talking about the passing of one of its most famous superstars. Of course, I’m talking about the passing of the 73-year-old Hall of Famer, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who died this past Sunday following a battle with stomach cancer. Certainly one of the most charismatic and high-flying superstars of the golden era, Snuka wowed audiences with his abilities inside the ring and would have some great battles with Bob Backlund, Don Muraco and Rowdy Roddy Piper. Following a three-year hiatus, Snuka returned to WWE in the late ’80s and would spend a few years in the mid-card. But he may be most famous during that stretch for being the answer to a trivia question. Who is the first man The Undertaker ever beat at WrestleMania, kicking off his illustrious streak? Jimmy Snuka. But what you may not know is that he’s also the answer to another. Who was the first-ever ECW champion? That’s right, Jimmy Snuka. Superfly was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996.

And speaking of the WWE Hall of Fame, how about the news that Kurt Angle will headline the class of 2017 two nights before WrestleMania? It’s been more than a decade since Angle left WWE but this is simply fantastic. Angle took to professional wrestling quicker than anyone ever has following his obvious accomplishments in the amateur world and became one of the best in-ring performers I’ve ever seen. I’m sure we’ll be diving into a lot more Kurt Angle-related things as we move closer and closer to WrestleMania but I couldn’t pass up the chance to give it a mention here.

But let’s get into the action for the week, starting with the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament that took place last weekend.

WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament

The WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament really needs to be seen to be fully appreciated, so if you haven’t done so, please do yourself a favor and check this out on the WWE Network.

I think what I liked most about it was the fact that even though many fans may not know who these guys are, it still felt important. The setup was fantastic and Michael Cole and Nigel McGuinness were great on commentary. Just seeing Nigel on WWE television was crazy enough in itself — I’m sure the folks at ROH just loved watching that. The live crowd both nights were into everything from start to finish, which only made the tournament that much more enjoyable.

Night one featured the eight first round matches, and while only one match went over ten minutes, most of them were still really solid. The outcome of a few of the matches was pretty obvious at points but that didn’t take away from the level of excitement. The only match I really wasn’t into was the Gradwell vs. Huxley match, but outside of that I was pretty impressed.

And again, the production value here was phenomenal. From the lights to the vignettes letting the casual fan know who these guys were, I thought the first night was a lot of fun and ended quite explosively. The eight men who advanced were all brought out at the end of the night and Pete Dunne, who’s just absolutely phenomenal anyway, got himself noticed by attacking Sam Gradwell, who would be his opponent on night two. This caused William Regal to get in his face. I don’t know if Regal would ever lace up his boots again but if he does, count me in for a match between he and Dunne. Great stuff here.

Dunne and Gradwell kicked off night two and Dunne just continued to stay hot. He disposed of Gradwell in under five minutes but it was a very intense five minutes. That was essentially the theme of this tournament overall. None of the quarterfinal matches made it to ten minutes but these guys were getting the most out of their time in the ring. The semifinal match between Dunne and Mark Andrews was one of the best matches in the tourney. These two had a great match at PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles last year and while this wasn’t quite on that level, it was still very good and the building of Dunne’s heel persona was done perfectly, as was the storytelling of 19-year-old Tyler Bate, who had the backing of the live crowd throughout this tournament. He put on some quality matches leading up to his semifinal bout with Wolfgang, which was also a solid affair. And just as expected, Dunne came out following Bate’s win to attack his opponent in the finals, setting up the crowd for a classic good guy vs. bad guy finale.

However, before the final match we were given another treat. Neville made his way to the ring and said that there’s no way that he shouldn’t be on this card and he should be the UK champ by default, which led to the entrance of Tommy End. I’m really surprised that he used that name here seeing as how it looks as if they’re going with calling him Aleister Black on NXT but I’ll take it. He and Neville put on a quick, solid match which saw Neville pick up the win. Nice surprise for the live crowd, as was the introduction of Finn Balor before the final match.

That final match was just spectacular, wasn’t it? This was a great back-and-forth contest and both Bate and Dunne looked really strong here. They let these guys go out there and create a classic match that could turn into a classic rivalry, especially given the history between these two guys. And both are so young — Dunne is 23 and Bate is 19. The future is bright for both of these guys and if they go ahead and decide to build a UK brand, these are the two guys to start with. Bate picked up the win in this match, and it’s clear that WWE will build him as a star, but Dunne did so much over those two days to get himself over as a great heel and I hope we see plenty more of him in the future.

Overall, this tournament was simply a lot of fun. We got to see some fresh faces put on some entertaining matches and I’ll be curious to see where things go from here. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Bate and/or Dunne show up at the Royal Rumble to keep this momentum going.