The 2019 Worlds Collide was a professional wrestling streaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brand divisions. It was the inaugural Worlds Collide and took place on January 26 and 27, 2019, at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona as part of that year's Royal Rumble weekend. The event aired on tape delay as one single event on February 2, 2019, on the WWE Network. The event was based around direct competition between wrestlers from the three brands.
The event featured the 15-man Worlds Collide tournament, with the wrestlers being equally divided among the NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live rosters. The prize was a championship match of the winner's choice from the three brands. The tournament was won by NXT's Velveteen Dream, who chose to challenge Johnny Gargano for the NXT North American Championship.
Production Background In early January 2019, the professional wrestling promotion WWE announced that it would be hosting an interbrand tournament to take place during the weekend of that year's Royal Rumble pay-per-view and livestreaming event. The tournament was a two-day event, held on January 26 and 27 at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona, and aired on tape delay as one single event on February 2 on the WWE Network.
The event hosted a 15-man single-elimination tournament, called the Worlds Collide Tournament, which was evenly divided between wrestlers from the NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brands. The winner of the tournament received a future match for a championship of their choice, with the choices being the NXT Championship, the NXT North American Championship, NXT UK's WWE United Kingdom Championship, and 205 Live's WWE Cruiserweight Championship—the latter only being an option if the winner was within the 205 lb. weight limit.
Storylines +Other on-screen personnelRoleNameCommentatorsTom PhillipsVic JosephByron SaxtonNigel McGuinnessRing announcersGreg HamiltonMike RomeSarah SchreiberWWE Global Headquarters hostCharly CarusoRefereesTom CastorD.A. BrewerDrake WuertzChris Sharpe
The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brands, with storylines produced on WWE's weekly television shows, NXT, NXT UK, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.
On January 10, a 15-man battle royal was announced for the event. The order of elimination in the battle royal determined the first-round matches for the Worlds Collide tournament. The winner of the battle royal would receive a bye to the second-round.
Participants – NXT – NXT UK – 205 Live
WrestlerDate Adam ColeJanuary 10, 2019Velveteen DreamJanuary 10, 2019Dominik DijakovicJanuary 10, 2019Keith LeeJanuary 10, 2019Shane ThorneJanuary 22, 2019Mark AndrewsJanuary 10, 2019Tyler BateJanuary 10, 2019Travis BanksJanuary 10, 2019Jordan DevlinJanuary 10, 2019Zack GibsonJanuary 10, 2019Cedric AlexanderJanuary 10, 2019Tony NeseJanuary 10, 2019Drew GulakJanuary 10, 2019TJPJanuary 10, 2019Humberto CarrilloJanuary 15, 2019
Tournament bracket
Aftermath The "Worlds Collide" name was subsequently adopted for a WWE Network series that aired in April 2019. During the Royal Rumble 2020 weekend announcements, WWE revealed that a second Worlds Collide event would air live on the WWE Network on January 25, 2020, and held at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, though unlike the 2019 event, it would only feature the NXT and NXT UK brands and not also 205 Live (which was later dissolved in February 2022). Also unlike the 2019 event, there was not a Worlds Collide Tournament with a future championship opportunity at stake. Instead, the card's matches were interbrand matches pitting wrestlers from NXT against those from NXT UK.
Results January 26
January 27
References