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WWE Worlds Collide

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This article is about the professional wrestling events staged by WWE from 2019 onwards. For the 1994 professional wrestling pay-per-view promoted by Asistencia Asesoría y Administración, see AAA When Worlds Collide. For the 1994 and 1996 professional wrestling live events promoted by Extreme Championship Wrestling, see ECW When Worlds Collide.
WWE Worlds Collide
NXT Worlds Collide logo used as of 2022
PromotionsWWE
BrandsRaw (2019)
SmackDown (2019)
205 Live (2019)
NXT (2019–2020, 2022)
NXT UK (2019–2020, 2022)
First event2019
Last event2022

WWE Worlds Collide, also known as NXT Worlds Collide, was a professional wrestling event series produced by WWE, an American-based professional wrestling promotion. Established in 2019, the concept is interbrand competition between WWE's various brand divisions. Although the event has been held primarily for WWE's developmental territories, NXT and the former NXT UK, other brands have also been featured. The event was put on hiatus after the 2020 event but returned in 2022. The 2022 event was also the last event for NXT UK as it was planned to be relaunched as NXT Europe in 2023.

The first event was held as a tournament in early 2019 and featured wrestlers from NXT, NXT UK, and the now-defunct 205 Live. In April that year, a four-episode streaming television series titled WWE Worlds Collide aired. In addition to the other three brands, this series also featured wrestlers from WWE's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. A second singular event was then held in 2020, but only featured wrestlers from NXT and NXT UK. The 2022 event was again held primarily for NXT and NXT UK, but also with a few wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown taking part.

History

[edit]

In early January 2019, WWE announced an interbrand tournament to take place during the weekend of that year's Royal Rumble pay-per-view and it would stream on the WWE Network. The tournament was a two-day event, held on January 26 and 27 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and aired on tape delay as a single broadcast on February 2.[1][2][3] The event hosted a 15-man single-elimination tournament, called the Worlds Collide Tournament, which was evenly divided between the NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brands. The winner of the tournament received a future match for a championship of their choice, with the choices being the NXT Championship, the NXT North American Championship, NXT UK's WWE United Kingdom Championship, and 205 Live's WWE Cruiserweight Championship—the latter only being an option if the winner was within the 205 lb. weight limit.[4]

On March 28, 2019, WWE announced that Worlds Collide would return during April's WrestleMania Axxess festival.[5] In addition to the three brands previously featured at the Worlds Collide special, wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands would also participate in the events.[5] On April 9, WWE announced that these events would air as a four-episode streaming television series on the WWE Network titled WWE Worlds Collide, starting on April 14.[6][7][8]

During WWE's Royal Rumble 2020 weekend announcements, WWE revealed that another Worlds Collide event would be livestreamed on the WWE Network on January 25, 2020, and broadcast from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, though unlike the first event, it would only feature the NXT and NXT UK brands and not also 205 Live (which would cease operations in February 2022). Also unlike the first event, there was not a Worlds Collide Tournament with a future championship opportunity at stake. Instead, the card's matches were interbrand matches pitting wrestlers from NXT against those from NXT UK.[9]

Worlds Collide was then put on hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2021, the company revealed their event calendar for 2022, and Worlds Collide was not included.[10][11] Prior to this, NXT underwent a restructuring, being rebranded as "NXT 2.0", reverting to a developmental territory for WWE.[12] However, on August 18, 2022, WWE announced the return of Worlds Collide, scheduled for September 4, and it would primarily feature NXT and NXT UK. The announcement also confirmed that the 2022 Worlds Collide would be the final event for NXT UK; following the event, the brand took a hiatus and will relaunch as NXT Europe in 2023. At the 2022 event, all of NXT UK's championships (except the NXT UK Heritage Cup) were unified into their respective NXT championship counterparts. In addition to the WWE Network in international markets, it was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States (as the American WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021).[13] The 2022 event was also the final major event for NXT in which the brand was referred to as "NXT 2.0", as shortly after the event, the "2.0" moniker was dropped.[14]

Events

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# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
1 Worlds Collide (2019) January 26–27, 2019
(aired February 2, 2019) 		Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix Convention Center Velveteen Dream (NXT) vs. Tyler Bate (NXT UK) in the Worlds Collide tournament final match [1]
2 WWE Worlds Collide (series) April 6–7, 2019
(aired April 14 – May 1, 2019) 		Brooklyn, New York Pier 12 April 14: Tyler Breeze (Raw) vs. Roderick Strong (NXT) [6]
April 17: Jordan Devlin (NXT UK) vs. Akira Tozawa (205 Live)
April 24: Nikki Cross (SmackDown) vs. Bianca Belair (NXT) vs. Toni Storm (NXT UK) in a triple threat match
May 1: 20-man interbrand battle royal
3 Worlds Collide (2020) January 25, 2020 Houston, Texas Toyota Center NXT's The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong) vs. NXT UK's Imperium (Walter, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and Alexander Wolfe) [9]
4 Worlds Collide (2022) September 4, 2022 Orlando, Florida WWE Performance Center Bron Breakker (NXT) vs. Tyler Bate (NXT UK) to unify the NXT Championship and NXT United Kingdom Championship [15][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b WWE.com staff (January 24, 2019). "WWE Worlds Collide to stream on Saturday, Feb. 2". WWE. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  2. ^ "NXT, 205 Live and NXT UK Superstars to battle in the first-ever WWE Worlds Collide Tournament at Royal Rumble Axxess". WWE.com. January 10, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2019. The WWE Worlds Collide Tournament, which will be taped for a WWE Network special, kicks off with a 15-Superstar Battle Royal on Saturday, Jan. 26, at the 8 a.m. session of Axxess.
  3. ^ Joseph Currier (January 10, 2019). "WWE WORLDS COLLIDE TOURNAMENT SET, WILL BE TAPED FOR NETWORK SPECIAL". Wrestling Observer. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  4. ^ Ryan Satin (January 10, 2019). "Worlds Collide Tournament To Air On WWE Network". ProWrestlingSheet. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
  5. ^ a b "NXT Superstars vs. NXT Alumni, Cruiserweights Collide and more at WrestleMania Axxess' Worlds Collide events". WWE. March 28, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  6. ^ a b "When to watch Worlds Collide on WWE Network". WWE. April 9, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  7. ^ Joseph Currier (March 28, 2019). "WORLDS COLLIDE SPECIALS, NXT UK TAPINGS SET FOR WRESTLEMANIA AXXESS". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  8. ^ "Full WWE When Worlds Collide Taping Results From AXXESS (SPOILERS)". 411Mania. April 8, 2019. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved April 9, 2019.
  9. ^ a b "WWE Worlds Collide preview, Jan. 25 2020: NXT and NXT UK clash during Royal Rumble Weekend". WWE. November 17, 2019. Retrieved November 16, 2019.
  10. ^ Brookouse, Brent (October 20, 2021). "WWE schedule, list of PPVs for 2021: Crown Jewel date, location, start time, watch live". CBSSports. Retrieved October 23, 2021.
  11. ^ WWE.com Staff (October 25, 2021). "WWE unveils 2022 pay-per-view schedule". WWE. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
  12. ^ Wrestlenomics Staff (October 4, 2021). "The future of WWE NXT 2.0 on the USA Network". Wrestlenomics. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  13. ^ Defelice, Robert (August 18, 2022). "WWE Announces The Impending Launch Of 'NXT Europe' Final NXT UK Event To Be 'Worlds Collide' On 9/4". Fightful. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  14. ^ Renner, Ethan (September 13, 2022). "WWE NXT changes logo, returns to black and gold color scheme". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  15. ^ "WWE To Launch NXT Europe In 2023". WWE. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  16. ^ Moore, John (September 4, 2022). "NXT Worlds Collide results: Moore's live review of NXT Champion Bron Breakker vs. NXT UK Champion Tyler Bate in a unification match, NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose vs. NXT UK Women's Champion Meiko Satomura vs. Blair Davenport in a unification match, Carmelo Hayes vs. Ricochet for the NXT North American Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
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