{"id":111504,"date":"2022-03-15T21:53:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=111504"},"modified":"2022-03-15T21:53:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-16T01:53:00","slug":"a-kid-debuts-on-nxt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/03\/15\/a-kid-debuts-on-nxt\/","title":{"rendered":"A-Kid Debuts on NXT 2.0, Defeats Kushida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 15\u2019s broadcast of <em><strong>NXT 2.0<\/strong><\/em> saw the premiere of former <em><strong>NXT UK<\/strong><\/em> roster member <strong>A-Kid<\/strong>. Real name Carlos Ruiz, A-Kid initially signed to <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s<\/strong> NXT UK brand in 2019. A-Kid is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/11\/26\/andnew-a-kid-heritage-cup\/\" target=\"_self\">the inaugural NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion<\/a>, winning the accolade in November 2020.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>A-Kid Makes Impact on NXT 2.0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Before WWE, A-Kid cut his teeth on Madrid, Spain\u2019s then-burgeoning independent pro wrestling scene, fighting under the banner of <strong>Whitewolf Wrestling<\/strong><em>. <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/11\/16\/indie-watch-a-kid-the-ace-of-spain\/\" target=\"_self\">He had a notable bout against <strong>Ricochet<\/strong> in 2017<\/a>.\u00a0 In 2018, A-Kid\u2019s match against <strong>Zack Sabre Jr. <\/strong>earned him the distinction of being the first Spanish pro wrestler to be dubbed with a five-star match rating by <strong>Dave Meltzer. <\/strong>The momentum of increased appearances on the U.K. wrestling scene led to A-Kid\u2019s eventual path to NXT U.K.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">.@KUSHIDA_0904 is looking to spoil <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AKidWrestler?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AKidWrestler<\/a>&#39;s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WWENXT?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WWENXT<\/a> 2.0 debut. Who will come out on top? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1Haw8ipdTu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/1Haw8ipdTu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1503895337437732864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 16, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>NXT 2.0 Debut<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>As A-Kid graced the Capitol Wrestling Center for the first time, announced <strong>Wade Barrett <\/strong>touted the NXT UK alum but conceded that he could rightfully be considered a relative unknown in the U.S. A-Kid\u2019s first NXT opponent was <strong>Kushida<\/strong>, in a qualifying match to move on to face <strong>Grayson Waller<\/strong> for a spot in the North American Championship ladder match.<\/p>\n<p>In Kushida, A-Kid found an opponent who has left few stones unturned in the world of professional wrestling. A six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, two-time Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion, and two-time winner of the Best of the Super Juniors in <strong>New Japan Pro-Wrestling<\/strong><em>, <\/em>Kushida also retired from mixed marital arts with an undefeated record. He is a former NXT Cruiserweight Champion.<\/p>\n<p>A-Kid and Kushida began the encounter matching their mutually considerable skill in grappling. Both put playful flourishes on their floor grappling efforts but were quick to turn the tables on each other as both sought a victory by submission. The day went to A-Kid, after hitting a DDT and scoring a cover on Kushida. The debuting Spanish star from the U.K. earned a shot at Grayson Waller. He positioned himself one step closer to <strong>Carmelo Hayes\u2019s<\/strong> North American Championship, following his victory over Kushida, with his NXT debut.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>March 15\u2019s broadcast of NXT 2.0 saw the premiere of former NXT UK roster member A-Kid. Real name Carlos Ruiz, A-Kid initially signed to World Wrestling Entertainment\u2019s NXT UK brand in 2019. A-Kid is the inaugural NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion, winning the accolade in November 2020. A-Kid Makes Impact on NXT 2.0 Background Before [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":111510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,4,5],"tags":[3189,7740,8146,190,70,1171,172],"class_list":["post-111504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-nxt","tag-a-kid","tag-carmelo-hayes","tag-grayson-waller","tag-kushida","tag-ricochet","tag-wade-barrett","tag-zack-sabre-jr"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}