Triple H Says Pete Dunne Has One of the Brightest Futures of Any WWE Superstar

Pete Dunne's historic run with the WWE United Kingdom Championship came to an end at NXT TakeOver: New York on Friday night when he lost a title match against the Austrian brute Walter. The loss ended Dunne's reign at 685 days, one of the longest championship reigns in WWE history and the longest of the modern era, eclipsing other recent reigns like Brock Lesnar's first Universal Championship reign, CM Punk's 434 days at WWE Champion and Asuka's undefeated reign as NXT Women's Champion. But even after dropping the title, Triple H had nothing but positive things to say about Dunne during the TakeOver: New York post-show media conference call.

"As far as a Raw, SmackDown, or anything else...he will do amazing things with his career," Triple H said. "He's (25-years-old) and is just getting started. It's amazing how good he is at the age he's at and he's another guy, when you look at him, starting with us just a couple of years ago, how good he's become and how much better he is now than he was then.

"So where does he go? Onward and upward," he added. "Whether he's back in (the NXT UK) title picture or moves on to another title picture. I don't know that there's too many people here with a brighter future than him. He's going to be able to do whatever he wants to do."

One champion who did manage to retain his title at TakeOver: New York was Velveteen Dream, who pulled off an upset against the undefeated Matt Riddle to keep his NXT North American Championship. In a recent interview with Comicbook.com, WWE Hall of Famer and NXT coach Shawn Michaels said the expectations for Dream "cannot be bigger."

"There's a couple of guys that I'm fortunate to get to work with, but I guess it's just because he's so young and has so much natural ability, and at such a young age, is so comfortable in absolutely every aspect of the job, you just got to believe that ... if he were to just grow at the exact same pace as everyone else, at this point, being so young and as talented as he is, I just don't see how the expectations for him cannot be bigger than certainly anything I've ever seen.

"I'm a fan of most of my guys, but every once in awhile, when you put all that talent in the body of a ... gosh, I can't even remember what it was like to be 23 anymore, and to see the very natural ability and the ease at which he does it," Michaels continued. "There is stuff that that young man can do that I don't even think he's found yet, only because he hasn't seen it. There isn't anything that he can't do, because I would imagine he doesn't see why he couldn't do it. I do like to think there's something special in that young man."

H/T Fightful

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