Pete Dunne Reveals His Favorite Wrestler Growing Up

During the latest episode of WWE After the Bell with Corey Graves, Pete Dunne mentioned his favourite wrestler growing up as a kid and how that wrestler's style impacted his career. The Bruiserweight said his style has been impacted by the experiences he's had as a wrestler travelling all over the world.

"I started wrestling when I was 12 years old, I was a fan of AJ Styles, people like that who were flying around the ring," Dunne said. "Originally that's what I wanted to do but I realized pretty quickly I was just pretty average when it comes to that stuff and I needed to find a niche that really suited me. Also leaning into the fact that I am British, if I could take an element of what made British wrestlers in the past successful, mixed that with the style of wrestling I really enjoyed at the time and just things I've picked up travelling around the world."

Tyler Bate became the first ever NXT UK Triple Crown winner as he and Trent Seven became the new NXT UK Tag Team Champions. Being the former NXT UK Champion, Pete Dunne revealed two wrestlers from that brand that he believes have a bright future as potential breakout stars.

"One that I think that a lot of people that follow NXT UK would say would be A-Kid," Dunne said. "Somebody that I saw, I wrestled him originally in the UK years ago and he's just not the same person. I remember going out to Spain a couple years later and wrestling him and being shocked at what had happened, he was a completely different performer. The transition was crazy, the level he was at to where he is now is unrecognizable. I'm not sure I've seen anybody improve at that level, his in-ring stuff is so slick and all that and even outside of that you can see him growing in confidence.

"The way he talks, the way he walks around in his entrance, everything is just... you can really see him becoming a WWE superstar and he's stood in that transition. I think there's still more to come from him. The other answer that people wouldn't expect is Wild Boar. He's somebody I grew up with wrestling and I don't think people fully know how good he is and I think he's someone who is pretty untapped. There's so much more to come from him.

Pete Dunne recently mentioned how he'd love to face AEW star Bryan Danielson sometime down the road and hopes it will happen. The Bruiserweight spoke about the superstars he'd love to face in WWE right now and spoke about his confrontation with Samoa Joe that unfortunately never led to a match between the two.

"There's so many people up there," Dunne said. "Cesaro would be one, AJ Styles like I said, he was my favourite wrestler growing up. Honestly, I look at those rosters on RAW and SmackDown now and know there's so many people that I'd love to work with and I think I can have great matches with. There's still time, I just turned 28 years old, there's still work to be done in NXT but down the line there's so many people I'd love to get in the ring with."

"When [Samoa Joe] came back into NXT, we had those few stare-downs and I thought, right, we're going in that direction and I can't wait to get in there. Like I said, that era of himself, AJ Styles, these are the guys that I grew up really watching. That's another sort of dream match there for me, I really think me and him would be a great match and hopefully down the line this is still an option."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE After the Bell with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.