{"id":111297,"date":"2022-03-11T21:17:05","date_gmt":"2022-03-12T02:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=111297"},"modified":"2022-03-11T21:19:23","modified_gmt":"2022-03-12T02:19:23","slug":"pete-dunne-smackdown-debut-butch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/03\/11\/pete-dunne-smackdown-debut-butch\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT\u2019s Pete Dunne Makes SmackDown Debut as Butch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an unexpected turn of events, <strong>Sheamus\u2019s<\/strong> and <strong>Ridge Holland\u2019s <\/strong>tag team became a three-man heel faction with the addition of <strong>Pete Dunne<\/strong>. On March 11\u2019s broadcast of <strong><em>Friday Night SmackDown <\/em><\/strong>from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, Pete Dunne debuted under the newly granted ring name <strong>Butch.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Upon the recent, quiet release of <strong>Cesaro<\/strong>, their recent antagonist, Holland and Sheamus were repurposed on <em>SmackDown\u2019s<\/em> previous installment into a comic feud with <strong>Kofi Kingston <\/strong>and <strong>Big E <\/strong>over Big E\u2019s destroyed ATV. The reprisal of that feud saw them add Butch to their numbers in a rematch against Big E and Kingston.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"qme\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40\ud83d\udc40<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SmackDown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Butch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Butch<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWESheamus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WWESheamus<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RidgeWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RidgeWWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ok3AHpeBYf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ok3AHpeBYf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1502452798901964806?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Pete Dunne Debuts on SmackDown as Butch<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>What to Know Following the Bruiserweight&#8217;s Debut<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Butch was largely a stalking ringside fixture throughout the energetic bout. When Holland and Sheamus claimed victory with a pinfall over Kingston, Butch entered the fray. Adding insult to injury, Butch repeatedly kicked Kingston, until being pulled off by teammates Holland and Sheamus.<\/p>\n<p>Dunne\u2019s\/Butch\u2019s association with <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment<\/strong> began in 2016 when he competed in the United Kingdom Championship Tournament to crown the WWE United Kingdom Champion. In this effort, Dunne was unsuccessful, having lost to <strong>Tyler Bate. <\/strong>Dunne joined the <em><strong>NXT UK<\/strong> <\/em>roster and eventually won the United Kingdom Championship from Bate the following year. In 2019, he appeared in the eponymous match of the <em>Royal Rumble<\/em> event, but that same year lost his UK championship to <strong>WALTER<\/strong> after a 400+ day reign.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"qme\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83d\udc4a\ud83d\udc4a\ud83d\udc4a<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SmackDown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWESheamus?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@WWESheamus<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RidgeWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RidgeWWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Butch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Butch<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fNOyGVF7eu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/fNOyGVF7eu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1502459149594120192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 12, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Further Success on NXT<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 2020, Dunne and <strong>Riddle<\/strong> won the <em>Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, <\/em>and later also earned the NXT Tag Team Championship. With the <em>SmackDown<\/em> debut of Butch, Pete Dunne is reunited with former <strong>Kings of NXT <\/strong>teammate <strong>Pat McAfee. <\/strong>McAfee was the ringleader of the heel faction, with Dunne, <strong>Danny Burch, <\/strong>and <strong>Oney Lorcan <\/strong>serving as his henchman in his feud with <strong>The Undisputed Era.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Upon McAfee\u2019s departure from NXT, the faction dropped the Kings of NXT tag, Ridge Holland joined the fold and Dunne assumed leadership. The fearsome \u201cBruiserweight\u201d continued his formidable tenure on NXT after its rebrand in September 2021. Dunne\u2019s most recent feud on <em>NXT 2.0<\/em> was paired off against newcomer <strong>Tony D\u2019Angelo, <\/strong>which culminated in a steel cage match on February 15, 2022\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/02\/15\/preview-wwe-nxt-vengeance-day-2-15-22\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong><em>Vengeance Day<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0event.<\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;18867&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an unexpected turn of events, Sheamus\u2019s and Ridge Holland\u2019s tag team became a three-man heel faction with the addition of Pete Dunne. On March 11\u2019s broadcast of Friday Night SmackDown from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama, Pete Dunne debuted under the newly granted ring name Butch. Upon the recent, quiet release of Cesaro, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":111302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,26,5,3],"tags":[552,553,536,5868,399,223],"class_list":["post-111297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-big-e","tag-kofi-kingston","tag-pete-dunne","tag-ridge-holland","tag-sheamus","tag-the-new-day"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}