Pete Dunne On Challenges In Teaming With Matt Riddle, Building The WWE NXT Tag Division Behind Them

WWE NXT Tag Team Champion Pete Dunne recently spoke with Newsweek and discussed challenges in teaming with partner Matt Riddle as The BroserWeights.

While there is chemistry between Dunne and Riddle, Dunne admitted that it wasn't always easy to establish that chemistry outside of the ring. He commented on how challenging the vignettes with Riddle were.

"The main challenge is being put into a tag team, where you've never done any tag team stuff before, even coming up with new moves and ideas," Dunne explained. "Also a challenging part is those vignettes. I've never been known for my talking, so it's been exciting to be challenged in both of those areas. Having said that, it's also come together kinda easily. As soon as we had that first tag team wrestling match, for us and the overall opinion seems to be, it felt like we were teaming for a long time.

"The benefit of being on television is not just the matches we put together, not just the Takeovers the championship match or the Dusty Classic stuff, but to have those vignettes go out to show a different side of yourself, especially for myself. Since I've been in the company, I've been having those big title matches in the UK or showing the more serious side of wrestling. But to show that we can do both, we can make people laugh and get people invested in our matches as well, it's been a great experience."

WWE surprised fans when Riddle and Dunne went all the way to the finals of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and won it before capturing the titles. Dunne said he and Riddle are looking to stay together for a long time.

"The story for us is our tag team is a little thrown together. We don't want to be a short- lived thing. We want to be around for a long time, and it's sort of a changing of the guard in NXT. Undisputed Era had a great run, but now it's our time to build the tag team division behind us," Dunne said.

Dunne revealed that he is preparing to move his family from the UK to Florida now that he is a full-time member of the main NXT brand. Dunne said he's grateful for his journey to the brand, and commented on how he's become a bridge between the main NXT brand and NXT UK.

"I'm lucky to have this career where I haven't spent time nailed down to one brand," Dunne said. "I've been able to do other stuff like NXT UK, NXT in the states, being a part of RAW and various main roster tours, building up to the Survivor Series match with Adam Cole and being a part of the Royal Rumble... I've had this career where I come up unlike the stereotypical way most WWE talent do, and I'm grateful for that. And because of that I've become this sort of bridge between the UK and the U.S. NXT brand."

There's no word yet on who The BroserWeights will defend their titles against at the "Takeover: Tampa Bay" event during WrestleMania 36 Weekend, but Dunne expressed interest in putting the straps on the line at WrestleMania 36 as NXT Women's Champion Rhea Ripley will be doing against Charlotte Flair. Dunne said if he had it his way, he and Riddle would face Trent Seven and Tyler Bate on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

"If I had it my way it would be Moustache Mountain," Dunne said. "To share a moment like that with those lads, or with anyone from the UK whether it's the Grizzled Young Vets or people like that, being able to share the success that comes with the growth of NXT UK with lads from over there that I grew up with either helped train or wrestled a million times, that's what's special."

Dunne and Riddle will defend their titles against Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly during tonight's NXT episode on the USA Network. Fish and O'Reilly previously dropped the titles to Dunne and Riddle at the recent "Takeover: Portland" event.