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What's the story?
Just in case you thought WWE's big WrestleMania weekend couldn't get any bigger here they are to prove you wrong. The promotion has announced a bumper list of matches for their four day WrestleMania Axxess event featuring stars from 205 Live and NXT as well as wrestlers from independent promotions Evolve and Progress.
In case you didn't know...
WWE's Axxess is always an interesting event with last year's involving stars from 205 Live and NXT as well as Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) and Progress. This saw wrestlers like Jinny, Toni Storm, Jimmy Havoc compete in a WWE ring for the first time.
Axxess is a great event because it allows WWE to showcase some of the wrestlers they see as major players in the future. Guys such as Liv Morgan, Pete Dunne, and Sonya Deville were all part of last year's Axxess and now they're champions or major players in their respective divisions.
The heart of the matter
On this year's Axxess event Progress are returning, alongside wrestlers from another indy promotion, Evolve to join the NXT and 205 Live guys as usual. This year's event will also feature four tournaments to determine a contender for the WWE UK, NXT Tag Team, NXT North American and NXT Women's titles, with the title matches all taking place on the fourth day.
For the first time ever at WrestleMania Axxess, multiple tournaments will be held, each with major championship implications. Featured tourneys include the WWE United Kingdom Championship Invitational, the NXT North American Invitational, the NXT Tag Team Invitational and the NXT Women’s Invitational.
The four tournaments will take place beginning Thursday night during Axxess Day 1 and culminate during Axxess Day 4 with the tournament winners facing their respective champions in title matches
The WWE have also announced the first round matches for all of the tournaments that will take place at the show which are as follows.
For the WWE UK Title we're getting Lio Rush vs Buddy Murphy, Lince Dorado Vs Raul Mendoza, Mark Andrews vs Zack Gibson and Dan Matha vs Drew Gulak.
Fabian Aichner vs Jason Kincaid, Akira Tozawa vs Kona Reeves, Chris Dijak vs Ariya Daivari and Hideo Itami vs Wolfgang are competing for the NXT North American Title shot
As for the NXT Tag-Team Title match the following teams are set to do battle. Moustache Mountain vs Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss, Street Prophets vs Cezar Bononi & Adrian Jaoude, SAnitY vs Forgotten Sons and TM61 vs Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch
Finally the NXT Women's Title tournament will see the following women competing. Nikki Cross vs Aliyah, Kairi Sane vs Bianca Belair, Dakota Kai vs Lacey Evans and Candice Lerae vs Peyton Royce
Indie stars Keith Lee and Walter are also wrestling at the event against Kassius Ohno and more wrestlers from Progress and Evolve are set to appear
What's next?
With four actual title matches taking place at WrestleMania Axxess I think the odds are high that we see a shock title change take place during this show, especially as it's so close to NXT TakeOver: New Orleans.
Author's take
This is sure to be an incredible few days of wrestling and we're not even talking about WrestleMania or NXT TakeOver. The WWE really is pulling out all of the stops for this huge wrestling weekend.
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