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What’s the story?
Former Impact Wrestling star and WWE United Kingdom star, Mark Andrews, has officially signed a WWE contract and will now be a permanent member of the 205 Live roster going forward.
In case you didn’t know…
Back in January 2017, even before his departure from Impact Wrestling became public knowledge, Mark Andrews was added as the final participant in the WWE United Kingdom tournament.
He had joined Impact Wrestling in 2014 after he won the Impact reality series, 'TNA British Bootcamp'. Mark outlasted Grado, Kay Lee Ray, the late Kris Travis and WWE's Danny Burch and Nikki Cross to win the contract.
He had a fairly unsuccessful run in Impact for over two years, having never had an actual storyline at any point and was generally used for to put others over. He decided not to re-sign in December 2016.
The heart of the matter
Much like WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne, former Champion Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Jordan Devlin and other UK performers, Andrews had signed some kind of particular WWE deal following the tournament. It would see him wrestle occasionally on NXT but also take in independent dates, usually throughout the UK and Europe.
Last week it was reported that Triple H had received most, if not all the control over 205 Live from Vince McMahon, so Mark being added to the roster, which will also see him compete on WWE RAW, was likely a Triple H decision. This also means that he has signed a full-time contract with WWE.
What’s next?
Mark Andrews has been entered into the 16-man WWE Cruiserweight Championship tournament and won his first-round match over former Champion Akira Tozawa this past Tuesday on 205 Live.
No word yet on who he will be facing in the second round.
Author’s take
Andrews had been struggling in Impact Wrestling, but the WWE UK tournament helped him recover quickly. He has been very entertaining thus far in WWE during his few appearances, so it will be a tremendous addition to the 205 Live roster.
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