Best British WWE wrestlers of all time
Our round-up of the best British WWE wrestlers of all time.
The United Kingdom is known for producing incredible footballers, cricketers and athletics stars, but lesser known for the phenomenal wrestling talents it has produced.
That is changing, as the British wrestling scene expands into the mainstream, with heaps of top talent crossing the Atlantic to find success.
We have studied the tapes to find the greatest British WWE wrestlers, from outstanding athletes to some of the best brains the industry has ever seen.
To be clear, this is a list of the greatest professional wrestlers from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - so incredible stars from the Republic of Ireland, like Becky Lynch and Finn Bálor, are not eligible.
To compile this countdown, we balanced superstars’ career influence, in-ring ability and championship success in WWE.
This meant wrestlers like the late Dynamite Kid just missed out, while burgeoning talents like Noam Dar, Butch and Piper Niven wait, ready to smash their way onto this esteemed list in the future.
RadioTimes.com brings you our ranking of the 10 best British WWE wrestlers of all time.
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5. Finlay
Though David John Finlay Jr was only an in-ring competitor in WWE between 2005 and 2010, his influence on the company is still growing even today.
Inside the squared circle he was a tough, skilled competitor – even winning the United States championship – but he has made his largest contribution outside of it.
Fit is one of the most respected trainers in the business. Stars from several generations praise Finlay with having a huge influence on their careers.
He trained the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton in his early days with the WWE, while his work with the company’s female competitors is also credited with changing the face of the division.
4. Paige
Everyone remembers Paige’s WWE debut. It was the Raw after WrestleMania XXX, typically the most unpredictable night of the year, and dominant Divas champion AJ Lee was in the ring.
That’s where Paige comes in. She came out to congratulate AJ on her WrestleMania title defence, reaching 295 days as champion, but the heel champ took things too far, slapping and forcing Paige into a title match.
The fans were behind the 21-year-old NXT upstart, and the crowd simultaneously jumped out of their seats when Paige fought out of AJ’s Black Widow submission move and ended up pinning the champ for three.
That moment was hard to top, but Paige broke real ground for female competitors in WWE. She was the inaugural NXT Women’s champion, became a two-time Divas champion and played a key on-screen in WWE’s Women’s Revolution before serious injury cut her run with the company short.
3. William Regal
You’ll be hard-pressed to find many more highly-respected pros in the wrestling business than William Regal.
The Staffordshire-born superstar has done it all in sports entertainment and in WWE - and he has done whatever it takes for the health of the business, even if that meant literally kissing the boss’s ass (for a storyline).
In WWE, Regal won multiple Intercontinental, Hardcore, European and Tag Team Championships, while also earning the distinction of winning the King of the Ring tournament.
He was the king of the wrestling psychology, too. Regal understood every intricacy of heel work and he has spent the second half of his career sharing with young talent everything that made him an in-ring master.
His work in NXT continues to take that platform to new heights.
2. Drew McIntyre
Having a brilliant finisher is helpful in professional wrestling. Luckily for Drew McIntyre, he has two. The Scottish Warrior lays out anyone in his path with his devastating Claymore Kick, but only if his wicked DDT, the Future Shock, hasn’t done the job.
These moves have most certainly done the job for Drew McIntyre's career. The superstar from Ayr, Scotland, has made the most of his second chance in the company, building swiftly up through NXT and the main roster to the top of the mountain.
He eliminated Roman Reigns to win the 2019 Royal Rumble, beat Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania to become the first British WWE champion, and kept rolling from there.
While his place in the company is a little unsure at present, his resume and career speaks for itself. He is a Triple Crown champion, led WWE during its toughest times and that comeback, well, has been as brilliant as his finishers.
1. British Bulldog
The stage was Wembley, the year 1992, the event was SummerSlam. The first major pay-per-view held outside of North America was headlined by an Intercontinental Championship match between the British Bulldog, aka Davey Boy Smith, and Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart.
After 24 minutes, the Bulldog reversed the Hitman’s sunset flip into a pinfall and scored a count of three.
The match was iconic, the pop was iconic and the embrace between real-life brother-in-laws was equally so. It’s exactly the sort of story WWE tells better than anyone else, and it crowned the career of Davey Boy Smith.
This was the highlight of the British Bulldog’s Hall of Fame career, a career which included winning a plethora of titles, including becoming the first ever European Champion in the company.
Davey Boy Smith’s life was cut short in 2002, but his legacy is unmatched.
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