Pete Dunne

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

NotJayTabb said:

"i've been watching Pete Dunne for a decade now, and even as a youthful flashy babyface fresh of a Michinoku Pro tour, he was a standout on most cards he was on. By 2014, he had developed enough that he was able to look comfortable as a mat worker against the likes of ZSJ and Doug Williams, and spent the next few years becoming one of the main faces of the burgeoning BritWres scene. By the time he broke out with a MOTY contender against Tyler Bate in Chicago, winning over a crowd who barely knew them, he became one of the most "must-see" guys in the WWE developmental leagues. He's one of the best "big match" workers on NXT, always good value on Takeovers, and at 27yrs old I can see him adding to his resume in the next 5 years."

[Marksman]

Also been watching Dunne for a decade or so, I remember him as a fairly bland tag wrestler in Shrewsbury's EDW, which I used to go and see live sometimes. Having seen his recent work, I'm really high on him - as NJT says, he's always great on Takeovers, the small joint manipulation stuff looks legitimately nasty, and I love his sneering facials. Definitely someone who'll be on my list, and I think a solid run over the next 5 years could take him pretty high. 

[BrandonWagemann]

I think the biggest knock against Pete Dunne’s case is was when he and the other British Strong Style guys got their original deals that allowed them to still work indies and Pete in general did not give a fuck about his work during his bookings. Some truly awful and mailed in matches during that time period. Maybe that won’t matter in 5 years as his run in WWE has generally been really good and will continue to grow but it’s a huge black mark on his case at least for me. 

[Ed.]

I can't see it.  The biggest thing holding back Dunne for me is I doubt he'll be able to add sufficiently to his case in the next 5 years because I hate WWE's current portrayal of him as the finger/hand work guy.  I've already seen my fill of matches where Dunne's opponents fall to their knees but leave their hands outstretched to be stomped onto or spending all match bending fingers but then he just wins with the Bitter End anyway.  He's like Pentagon Jr now in how outplayed the 'break/snap' spots are in his closing stretches.  I really didn't like the Kushida match last week and it feels like he's slipped into a formula for his matches in NXT.

If I could take early UK title run Dunne and extrapolate him out across the next 10 years, he could of made my list but he's already starting with some negatives (like the last years of his indie run as Brandon pointed out) and I don't see a future where he doesn't frustrate me.