In a press conference at The O2 Arena on 15 December 2016, Triple H, the chief operating officer and head of NXT for the American professional wrestling promotion WWE, revealed that there would be a 16-man single-elimination tournament to crown the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion for the promotion's new United Kingdom division.

The tournament was held over a two-day period, 14 and 15 January 2017, and was streamed exclusively on the WWE Network.

Tyler Bate won the inaugural tournament to become the first WWE United Kingdom Champion.

[3] The title was defended for the first time outside of WWE when Bate retained the title against Mark Andrews on a show for the London-based promotion, Progress Wrestling; the show took place in Orlando, Florida, on 31 March as part of WrestleMania Axxess.

[4] The first title change, as well as the first defense to air live, took place on 20 May 2017 at TakeOver: Chicago, where Pete Dunne defeated Bate to become champion.

[10][11] The brand's show, also titled NXT UK, had its first tapings in August, which began airing on 17 October.

[18] Instead of a large cut out of the WWE logo, the center plate was modeled after the United Kingdom's royal coat of arms, featuring a lion and a horse (instead of the traditional unicorn) on either side of the arms, with a shield at the center; atop the shield were the crown jewels.