I think the NXT UK title is the most valuable title to hold at the moment in WWE. Maybe valuable isn’t the right word, but it’s the title in which I’d personally want to hold in the company if all the brands had the same amount of exposure.
What I love about it is the length that each champion gets with the title. It makes winning the title so much more impressive for the new champion as the previous title holder is seen as practically invincible. Although the inaugural champion, Tyler Bate held the championship for 125 days, going into his first match with Pete Dunne, he was the underdog, so him losing the belt to Dunne, in one of the best matches of 2017, made his relatively short reign good.
The reign of Pete Dunne was incredible, holding the belt for 685 days, a 685 days that flew by in the time of Dunne holding the belt. There was no point in Dunne’s reign where I thought, ‘he’s getting a bit stale now,’ and that is testament to what Dunne did to elevate the title and NXT UK as a brand. One thing that is interesting about the NXT UK Championship is how sporadically it’s defended and in my opinion this helps the title become even more valuable. It makes opportunities to gain a title shot rare and heightens the impact on losing the match or winning.
WALTER has now held the title for 585 days (12/11/20) and is 100 days away from breaking Dunne’s incredible record and I don’t have a clue who will beat him, and when they’ll beat him. It would be interesting if he relinquishes the belt and moved onto NXT but then that makes the next holder seem weak as they weren’t able to beat Der Ringgeneral.
Either way, I think the rest of WWE should learn from NXT UK in order to make their titles feel more prestigious. However, that requires less PPV’s which we all know means less money. So it’s unlikely this will ever happen.
TheWrestlingFallacy 