37 Facts About Pete Dunne

Pete Dunne is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Butch, and is a member of The Brawling Brutes stable.

Pete Dunne is a former WWE United Kingdom Champion and a former NXT Tag Team Champion alongside Matt Riddle, with whom he won the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

Pete Dunne has since worked extensively across the global independent circuit in promotions such as Destiny World Wrestling, Fight Club: Pro, Insane Championship Wrestling, Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Over the Top Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, Progress Wrestling, Revolution Pro Wrestling, Singapore Pro Wrestling, and Westside Xtreme Wrestling.

Pete Dunne began training in 2006, at the age of 12, originally under the tutelage of Steve "Psycho" Edwards at Phoenix Wrestling in Coventry.

Pete Dunne has said that his early training under Edwards was limited and provided him with only "the basics".

Pete Dunne later trained for a short time under Max Angelus and began working on other small local shows, largely in community centres around his native Birmingham.

Pete Dunne competed under a mask as Tiger Kid until January 2010, when he lost a hair vs mask match to Helix at Riot Act Wrestling in Kent.

Pete Dunne then retired the character and mask, adopted the Pete Dunne name, and began regularly performing in a tag team alongside his kayfabe brother Damian Dunne.

Pete Dunne spent most of his early career working for as many small independent promotions as possible such as EDW Wrestling in Shrewsbury, and Kamikaze Pro Wrestling in Birmingham, 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.

Sometime in 2014, Pete Dunne would be one of the focuses of BBC 3 television show "People Like Us", a show revolving around following people from the Birmingham Borough of Chelmsley Wood and its surrounding areas as they make strides to achieve their personal goals, such as weight loss, acting careers or in Pete Dunne's case, becoming a pro wrestler.

Pete 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.

Pete Dunne lost his next two matches on the tour, before defeating Ayumu Gunji in his first singles match in Japan.

Pete Dunne was absent from Progress for 19 months after this, returning at Chapter 28 in April 2016, teaming with Damian Pete Dunne to defeat Trent Seven and Tyler Bate.

At Chapter 29, Pete 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, Pete Dunne turned on longtime tag team partner and kayfabe brother Damian Pete Dunne, aligning himself with Trent Seven as British Strong Style.

Pete 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 Pete Dunne.

At Chapter 40, Pete Dunne made his first successful defence of the championship, defeating Zack Sabre Jr.

Pete Dunne lost by disqualification to Jimmy Havoc at Chapter 43, but the championship did not change hands.

At Chapter 45, Pete Dunne defeated Havoc in a no-disqualification match for his fourth successful defence.

At Chapter 48, Pete Dunne retained the title against both Andrews and Haskins in a triple threat match.

At Chapter 60, Pete Dunne successfully defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Jack Gallagher.

In May 2018, Pete 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.

Pete Dunne made his debut for Chikara in September 2014, when he, Damian Pete 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.

Pete 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.

Pete Dunne made his debut for SPW in October 2017, where he would face "The Statement" Andruew Tang, ultimately defeating him.

On 15 December 2016, it was revealed that Pete 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.

Pete 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.

Pete Dunne then signed a contract with WWE, which allowed him to continue taking independent bookings with some restrictions.

Pete Dunne 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.

Pete Dunne then kept on defending his title on NXT, first against Bate on December 20, and then against Roderick Strong on February 14,2018.

At NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool on 12 January 2019, the inaugural NXT UK TakeOver event, Pete Dunne retained his title against Joe Coffey in the main event.

Pete Dunne moved back from NXT UK to 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, Pete Dunne got involved on the 24 July episode of NXT, attacking Strong and indicating his desire to go after Dream's title.

On 11 January 2022 episode of NXT, Pete Dunne lost to D'Angelo in a Crowbar on a Pole match.

Pete 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.

Pete Dunne's finishing maneuver is a pumphandle reverse STO called the Bitter End which was originally called Drop Dead.

Pete Dunne is a playable character in the video games WWE 2K19, WWE 2K20, and WWE 2K22.