On 15 December 2016, at The O2 Arena, Triple H announced that the following month, WWE would crown its inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion. A tournament to crown the inaugural champion occurred as the United Kingdom Championship Tournament event, which took place over two days on 14 and 15 January 2017. The tournament and championship were won by Tyler Bate, who at the time became the youngest wrestler to hold a WWE singles championship at 19 years old.