On January 10, the WWE announced plans for an inter-brand tournament entitled Worlds Collide, that would pit five WWE Superstars each from NXT, NXT UK and 205 Live against each other in a rather unique tournament. The entire tournament will be taped over Royal Rumble weekend at the Royal Rumble AXXESS events, starting with a 15-man Battle Royal. The order of elimination would then produce the seeds for the knockout tournament, that would start after the Battle Royal.
Further Details on WWE Worlds Collide Tournament
In a new release, the WWE has finally announced when this WWE Network special will air, with the date of Saturday February 2 as the date of air. Opening round matches will be released to stream on the WWE’s website, as well as Social Media outlets like WWE’s Facebook page, YouTube Channel, WWE App and on Twitter, starting at 12pm. At 8pm, the actual Worlds Collide special will air on the WWE Network, featuring the entire Battle Royal, plus select later round match-ups and the tournament finals.
There has been two changes to the roster being utilized since the January 10 announcement. While Humberto Carillo was originally revealed on the WWE’s website as representing 205 Live, his name was quickly removed – with “Superstar to be named later” taking his place – as apparently the WWE website team had inadvertently spoiled the impending debut of the NXT talent to the Purple Brand that week. Carillo has since been re-announced as taking part in the tournament.
The other switch was the removal of Heavy Machinery‘s Otis Dozovic from the NXT entrants. It was a surprising revelation, as Heavy Machinery had just been announced as making the move to either Raw or SmackDown. Since then, Heavy Machinery has appeared on both brands the past two weeks. Dozovic’s name was noticeably absent on the latest roster reveal for the tournament, but instead has been replaced by Shane Thorne, formerly of The Mighty. Thorne’s athletic style actually lends itself better to the tournament and the other competitors involved.
FULL LIST OF REPRESENTATIVES BY BRAND
NXT
- Adam Cole
- Velveteen Dream
- Dominik Dijakovic
- Keith Lee
- Shane Thorne
NXT UK
- Mark Andrews
- Travis Banks
- Tyler Bate
- Jordan Devlin
- Zack Gibson
205 LIVE
- Cedric Alexander
- Humberto Carillo
- Drew Gulak
- Tony Nese
- TJP
