Pete Dunne Talks Elevating The WWE United Kingdom Championship, His Surprise Appearance On RAW Last Year, And More

"The Bruiserweight" in less of a joint-manipulating mood.

The current WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne was stabbed in the back recently by a man who he rolled through the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic with, Roderick Strong. Prior to the events that transpired between the two at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, Dunne spoke with 'Inside The Ropes' and mentioned his then-partner Roderick Strong as being one of the reasons that he has been able to elevate the U.K. Championship.

"Yeah its great. I see a lot of people asking about what are the rules, who can it be defended to. You know, much like the European Title back in the day, I think its great if anybody can wrestle for it especially when it’s the caliber of people like Gargano, people like Roddy, and the more we can do that and the more we can shed light on the U.K. Title and the U.K. division the better," Dunne continued, "And the more its going to elevate that title so when more U.K. talents does get the chance to wrestle for it, it gives them a bigger platform. I think that’s important, and using people like Roddy and using people like Johnny to help elevate myself and help elevate the brand is ideal."

Back in November of 2017 during WWE's tour of the United Kingdom, "The Bruiserweight" made a special appearance on Monday Night RAW to put a halt on Enzo Amore's antics. Dunne discussed appearing on RAW and stated that he was aware that the U.K. talent were going to utilized, but did not know to what capacity.

"Yeah, I think that was a good measure for me of the exposure this company’s given me. Its always, you do shows… even doing stuff like Axxess you think ‘Oh, will they know who I am’ and every time they seem to be pleasantly surprised, and that was a really good example." Dunne explained. "Obviously, there’s a lot of people that watch the main roster that don’t really know about NXT and especially don’t really know about the U.K. stuff. So it was a really pleasant surprise to see how excited everyone was and obviously to get introduced by Kurt Angle and stuff was amazing," he continued, "That’s when I found out. I heard rumblings because the tour [was in the U.K.]. I heard rumblings that there might be U.K. guys doing something, but we didn’t know if there was going to be… if it was going to be TV stuff or unrecorded stuff. So, it was a very pleasant surprise to find out that I’d be in that spot. I found that out on that day."

The former PROGRESS World Champion was then asked to reveal his WrestleMania dream opponent and he threw out the name of a man who was not too fond of Pete Dunne on-screen upon his arrival to WWE, William Regal.

"Regal, is obviously an answer I always give. It’ll be cool to wrestle AJ Styles who has been like a hero of mine since I was a little kid, and then for nostalgia’s sake I’d like to wrestle Mark Andrews for it or any number of British guys that haven’t had the chance to be on that platform yet."

On night two of the second annual WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament this summer, Pete Dunne along with Tyler Bate & Trent Seven will take on the Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly)

If you are going to use any of the quotes above, credit 'Inside The Ropes' with an H/T to Fightful.com for the transcriptions.