Pete Dunne


Peter Thomas England is an English professional wrestler and promoter. He is currently signed to WWE under the ring name Pete Dunne, but is inactive due to travel ban because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a one-time and the longest-reigning WWE United Kingdom Champion, with his reign lasting 685 days; he and Matt Riddle are also former NXT Tag Team Champions and the winners of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. He continues to compete on the independent circuit, most notably in Progress Wrestling, where he is a former Progress World Champion.
Dunne began training for a career in professional wrestling at the age of 12 in 2005 and made his professional debut in 2007. He has worked extensively across the United Kingdom for promotions such as Progress Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling, Fight Club: Pro, and Attack! Pro Wrestling, having co-founded the latter. He has also worked internationally with promotions such as Over The Top Wrestling, Westside Xtreme Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Destiny World Wrestling, and Michinoku Pro Wrestling.

Early life

Peter Thomas England was born in Birmingham on 9 November 1993.

Professional wrestling career

Training and early career (2006–2011)

Dunne began training in 2006 at the age of 12, originally under the tutelage of Steve "Psycho" Edwards at Phoenix Wrestling in Coventry, a short drive from his home city of Birmingham. Dunne has said that his early training under Edwards was limited, providing him with only "the basics". Dunne's first appearance as a wrestler was at the 2007 Holbrooks Festival in Coventry, where he first met and wrestled Mark Andrews. He later trained for a short time under Max Angelus and began working on other small local shows, largely in community centres around Birmingham.
Dunne competed as the masked Tiger Kid until January 2010, when he began performing as Pete Dunne after losing a hair vs mask match to Helix at Riot Act Wrestling in Kent. He then began regularly performing in a tag team alongside his kayfabe brother, Damian Dunne. He spent most of his early career working for as many small independent promotions as possible such as EDW Wrestling in Shrewsbury, as well as regularly practicing with Mark Andrews and other friends, training in a re-purposed boxing ring in a community centre in Cardiff during the school holidays. Dunne began competing internationally and more regularly in 2011, competing for LDN Wrestling, travelling to Ireland for Dublin Championship Wrestling, Wales for Celtic Wrestling, Welsh Wrestling, and Royal Imperial Wrestling. and Scotland for PBW.

Attack! Pro Wrestling (2011–2016)

In a move to increase the number opportunities available to their group of friends, Dunne and friend Jim Lee co-founded Attack! Pro Wrestling in 2011, arranging a weekend of shows in Pete's native city of Birmingham. On the first weekend of shows in August 2011, Dunne wrestled in a four-man tournament dubbed the 'Elder Stein Invitational', in which he advanced to the final, before losing to Mark Andrews. The promotion would later expand to run shows primarily in Cardiff and Bristol, with Dunne an ever-present performer, primarily as a face, and often taking on his best friend Mark. Dunne later would become one of the promotion's primary heels, after unexpectedly turning on Mark at "Mandrews Goes To America" in January 2015; a show themed as a farewell event to Mark upon his signature of a contract with TNA Wrestling. From mid-2015 to 2016, Dunne held the ATTACK! 24/7 Championship for an unprecedented 307 consecutive days, over which time he feuded with Eddie Dennis and Wild Boar simultaneously for the title. He would eventually lose the belt to referee Shay Purser, which acted as the beginning of a lengthy feud with ATTACK's co-founder and ring announcer, Jim Lee. Pete's spell as a performer in ATTACK! Pro Wrestling concluded on 20 November 2016, when he lost a five-vs-five elimination match against a team captained by Jim, with the stipulation that the losing team captain had to leave ATTACK.

Michinoku Pro Wrestling (2013)

Dunne spent three months touring with Japanese promotion Michinoku Pro Wrestling in 2013, teaming with Jason Larusso to defeat Bad Boy in his debut match, but losing to the Brahman Brothers the next night. Dunne lost his next two matches on the tour, before defeating Ayumu Gunji in his first singles match in Japan. Dunne's final match on the tour took place on 5 May, when he and Larusso were defeated by Yapper Man #1 and Yapper Man #2.

Revolution Pro Wrestling (2014, 2016–2017)

Dunne made his debut for Revolution Pro Wrestling on 10 May 2014, teaming with F.S.U to take on The Revolutionists in a losing effort. Dunne's next match was in January 2016 at Live At The Cockpit 5, first defeating El Ligero, and then Morgan Webster to win the RPW British Cruiserweight Championship. Dunne held the Championship until July, successfully defending it against Webster, Sonjay Dutt, ACH, Mike Bailey and Matt Cross before dropping the championship to Will Ospreay at Summer Sizzler. Dunne also competed at Global Wars UK, losing to Yuji Nagata on night one and Tomohiro Ishii on night two. On 21 January 2017, Dunne lost to NJPW's Yoshi-Hashi.

Progress Wrestling (2014, 2016–2019)

Dunne debuted in Progress at Chapter 13 on 18 May 2014, defeating Robbie X. Four months later he returned to Progress, losing to Morgan Webster. Dunne was absent from Progress for 19 months after this, returning at Chapter 28 in April 2016, teaming with Damian Dunne to defeat Trent Seven and Tyler Bate. At Chapter 29, Dunne was involved in a qualifying match for WWE's Cruiserweight Classic tournament, losing to Jack Gallagher. At Chapter 30, Dunne competed in the first round of the Super Strong Style 16 Tournament, but was eliminated in the first round by Mark Haskins. At Chapter 33, Dunne turned on longtime tag team partner and kayfabe brother Damian Dunne, aligning himself with Trent Seven as British Strong Style. Dunne and Seven defeated The London Riots at Chapter 36 to win the Progress Tag Team Championship.
At Chapter 39, by virtue of retaining their championships in a rematch against the London Riots earlier in the night, Dunne and Seven were entered in a 7-man elimination match for the vacant Progress World Championship. Dunne pinned Jimmy Havoc to become the new Progress World Champion after Tyler Bate came down to the ring and attacked Havoc, aligning himself with Seven and Dunne. At Chapter 40, Dunne made his first successful defence of the championship, defeating Zack Sabre Jr. On 16 December, Progress management forced Dunne and Seven to vacate the Progress Tag Team Championship after Dunne attempted to give his half of the shield to Bate. At Chapter 41, British Strong Style once again left with all of the gold in Progress after Seven and Bate defeated the LDRS Of The New School and The London Riots to win the Progress Tag Team Championships and Dunne defeated Fabian Aichner to retain the Progress World Championship. Dunne lost by disqualification to Jimmy Havoc at Chapter 43, but the championship did not change hands. At Chapter 44, Dunne, Seven and Bate were defeated by Havoc, Mark Haskins, and Morgan Webster in a six-man tag team match. At Chapter 45, Dunne defeated Havoc in a no-disqualification match for his fourth successful defence. At Chapter 46, he successfully defended the Championship against Mark Andrews. Dunne defended the Championship twice in Orlando, Florida during WrestleMania weekend, defeating Mark Haskins on 31 March and ACH on 1 April. At Chapter 47, Dunne, Seven and Bate put all of their championships on the line against Ringkampf, in a six-man tag team match, successfully retaining all of them. At Chapter 48, Dunne retained the title against both Andrews and Haskins in a triple threat match. He lost the title to Travis Banks on 10 September. At Chapter 60, Dunne successfully defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Jack Gallagher.
In May 2018, Dunne entered the Super Strong Style 16, defeating Doug Williams in the first round but losing by disqualification against Zack Gibson in the second round after hitting Gibson with a steel chair. The same weekend, Christian Michael Jakobi, the CEO of wXw, gave him a challenge against current wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion, Ilja Dragunov, who he'd call him the "Best Independent Wrestler in Europe". At Chapter 69: Be Here Now, he accepted the challenge, and the match is scheduled to take place at "Hello Wembley", at the Wembley Arena.

Chikara (2014–2017)

Dunne made his debut for Chikara in September 2014, when he, Damian Dunne and Mark Andrews, billed collectively as "Team UK", took part in the 2014 King of Trios, making it to the quarterfinals, before losing to The Devastation Corporation. A year later, Dunne returned for the 2015 King of Trios; this time he, Andrews and Morgan Webster, "Team Attack!", were eliminated in their first round match by United Nations.
Dunne returned to Chikara on 1 September 2017, when he, Trent Seven, and Tyler Bate, billed collectively as "House Strong Style", entered the 2017 King of Trios, defeating House Whitewolf in their first round match. Over the next two days, House Strong Style defeated House Throwbacks in the quarterfinals, House Rot via forfeit in the semifinals and House Sendai Girls in the finals to win the 2017 King of Trios.

WWE

Debut (2016–2017)

On 15 December 2016, it was revealed that Dunne would be one of 16 men competing in the two-night United Kingdom Championship Tournament to crown the first ever WWE United Kingdom Champion on 14 and 15 January 2017. Dunne defeated Roy Johnson in the first round, advancing to the quarter finals and eventually the semi-finals where he defeated Sam Gradwell and Mark Andrews respectively to advance to the finals, where he lost to Tyler Bate. Dunne then signed a contract with WWE, which allowed him to continue taking independent bookings with some restrictions. He then became a part of NXT, making his debut on 22 February 2017 in a winning effort against Mark Andrews; he then started to appear on NXT. On 4 April, Dunne, and others who participated in the tournament, appeared on 205 Live to promote upcoming UK live shows.

United Kingdom Champion (2017–2019)

On 7 May, Dunne defeated Trent Seven at a live event to become the new number one contender for the United Kingdom Championship. Dunne then went on to defeat Bate at to win the title for the first time in a highly acclaimed match, which was later named Match of the Year at the NXT Year-End Awards. Dunne made his main roster debut during a one-off appearance on the 6 November episode of Raw in Manchester, England, where he defeated WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore in a non-title champion versus champion match. He then kept on defending his title on NXT, first against Bate on December 20, and then against Roderick Strong on February 14, 2018.
Dunne turned face when he and Strong subsequently teamed up, starting on March 28 for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, defeating Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in the first round and Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young of SAnitY in the semi-finals. They faced The Authors of Pain in the finals on March 4; however, the match ended in a no contest when Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole of The Undisputed Era attacked both teams.
As a result, all three teams faced each other in a triple threat tag team match at, which acted as the final match of the tournament while The Undisputed Era's NXT Tag Team Championship was also on the line. At the event, Strong turned on Dunne and attacked him, giving the victory to The Undisputed Era and aligning himself with the stable. This would mark the beginning of a feud between Dunne and The Undisputed Era, starting with a singles match on the May 2 episode of NXT, in which he defeated Strong by disqualification after being attacked by Cole and O'Reilly.
At the United Kingdom Championship Tournament event, Dunne teamed up with Bate and Trent Seven as British Strong Style on the first night to defeat The Undisputed Era, and on the second night, retained his title against United Kingdom Championship Tournament winner Zack Gibson. In July, the NXT UK brand was established, with the United Kingdom Championship as its top title; Dunne subsequently defended the title on both brands. On the 22 August episode of NXT, Dunne once again retained his championship against Gibson; in parallel, he became the longest-reigning champion in WWE at 456 days following Brock Lesnar's loss of the WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam.
On the August 29 episode of NXT, Dunne teamed up with NXT North American Champion Ricochet against The Undisputed Era, losing due to a miscommunication. As both blamed the other for their loss, the two had a match for both titles on the September 19 episode of NXT, marking the first time a WWE United Kingdom Champion faced a NXT North American Champion. The match ended in a no contest after The Undisputed Era attacked both men. After numerous attacks in the following weeks, Dunne eventually teamed up with Ricochet and the War Raiders to take on Undisputed Era at in the titular match, where his team would pick up the victory.
At on 12 January 2019, the inaugural NXT UK TakeOver event, Dunne retained his title against Joe Coffey in the main event. Two weeks later, Dunne appeared as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble match at the namesake pay-per-view on 27 January. He would fail to win however, as he was eliminated by Drew McIntyre. At, Dunne lost the UK Championship to Walter, ending his record setting reign at 685 days.
On the April 14 episode of NXT UK, Dunne lost his rematch against Walter for the United Kingdom Championship, after interference by Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel, thus turning Walter heel. The following week, after Walter, Aichner and Barthel declared the formation of Imperium, Dunne, with British Strong Style brawled with them in the ring.

Return to NXT (2019–present)

Dunne returned to regular NXT in June 2019, rekindling his feud with Roderick Strong; after Strong started a feud of his own with NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream, Dunne got involved on the July 24 episode of NXT, attacking Strong and indicating his desire to go after Dream's title. The three faced off in a triple threat match for the title at, where Velveteen Dream retained his title. Dunne would then go on with a three-way feud against Damian Priest and Killian Dain, culminating in a Triple threat match to determine the #1 contender for the NXT Championship at Survivor Series which he won. At Survivor Series, he was unsuccessful in his match against Cole.
On the January 10, 2020 episode of NXT, the participants of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic were announced, with Dunne and Matt Riddle being announced as surprise participants; they would later take on the name of The BroserWeights, a portmanteau of Dunne's "Bruiserweight" nickname and Riddle's "Original Bro" nickname. Together, they defeated Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in the first round on January 15, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium in the semifinals on January 22, and Grizzled Young Veterans in the finals on January 29 to win the tournament and earn a match against Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era for the NXT Tag Team Championship at. After they won the Dusty Rhodes Classic they debuted a golf cart with their team name designed on it. As a part of their prize for winning they received a Tag Team Championship match against current champions Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish of the Undisputed Era at TakeOver Portland. Leading up to Portland they were in a series of skits showing the process of getting to Portland with their Dusty Classic Trophy. It started with them first planning to drive but that came to an end when Dunne didn't have a license to drive. Riddle came up with a plan to get a ride in the cargo part of Triple H's private plane. Riddle pushed Dunne in and they were able to get to Portland. At the event on February 16, Dunne and Riddle defeated Fish and O'Reilly to win the titles.
After a successful title defense with Riddle against Fish and O'Reilly on the March 11, 2020 episode of NXT, Dunne became inactive due to being unable to travel to the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In his absence, Riddle teamed-up with Timothy Thatcher as Dunne's replacement, until the May 13, 2020 episode of NXT where Thatcher walked out during a title defense, leading Riddle to lose he and Dunne's titles to Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium.
Dunne has yet to return; meanwhile, Riddle moved to the SmackDown brand.

Professional wrestling style and persona

Dunne is nicknamed "The Bruiserweight" in reference to both his stature and style, which mostly consists of brawling, stiff strikes, submission grappling, and bending of his opponents' fingers. His finishing maneuver is a Pumphandle reverse STO called the Bitter End.

Personal life

England has a daughter named Emmi Rae. He turned to veganism after watching the documentary Cowspiracy.
England, Mark Andrews, and Eddie Dennis are co-founders of Defend Indy Wrestling, a clothing line designed specifically for independent wrestling fans. Inspired by the "DEFEND Pop Punk" message propagated by American band Man Overboard, the trio created the brand in 2011, producing t-shirts, hoodies, and other accessories.

Other media

Dunne is a playable character in the video games WWE 2K19 and WWE 2K20.

Championships and accomplishments

Winner Loser LocationEventDateNotes
Helix Tiger Kid Kent, EnglandRiot Act Wrestling

Footnotes