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What's the story?
After becoming a mainstay at the United Kingdom's biggest rock and metal festival over the past two years, it had previously been announced that NXT will be returning to Download Festival.
Well, today, WWE confirmed that United Kingdom Championship Tournament will kick off in Donington, with festival-goers being treated to round one of the tournament!
In case you didn't know...
Download Festival is a very big deal in the UK. This year, it's being headlined by Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N' Roses and Ozzy Osbourne, and with bands like Shinedown and Volbeat, also set to appear.
Well, WWE have established quite the partnership over recent years, and the action in the ring has become almost as important as the action across the stages for many festival-goers with Bobby Roode making his NXT debut at the festival.
Last year's festival saw Mark Andrews' band Junior play a mini-set on the NXT ramp before the Welshman was attacked by longstanding rival Pete Dunne.
Superstars already confirmed for this year's event are NXT Champion Aleister Black, NXT North American Champion Adam Cole, Ricochet and NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler.
The heart of the matter
WWE has confirmed today via WWE.com that "next month’s Download Festival just got even bigger!" as the United Kingdom Championship Tournament will begin at the festival.
In addition to featuring the Superstars of NXT live and in action, Donington's festival-goers will see the opening round of the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament live!
The tournament is set to feature 16 competitors and will continue at its own live event over two days at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday, June 18.
The tournament itself culminates on day one and the winner of the tournament will receive a title match against WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne the following day.
WWE confirmed that the tournament's competitors will be revealed this week.
What's next?
Download Festival takes place at Donington Park in Leicestershire on June 8th, 9th and 10th.
The United Kingdom Championship Tournament is just over one week later, on June 18th and 19th.
Author's take
As a huge WWE fan who already has tickets for Download Festival, this is incredibly exciting. I was sold before NXT got announced, then that announcement made the weekend an even more attractive prospect, now with WWE's United Kingdom Superstars likely to be at the event, I'm over the moon.
I can't wait to see how this all plays out.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
