Worlds Collide was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT and NXT UK brand divisions. It took place on January 25, 2020 at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas and was streamed live on the WWE Network. It was the second event promoted under the Worlds Collide chronology.
Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Imperium (Walter, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and Alexander Wolfe) defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong) in an eight-man tag team match.
Production
Background
Worlds Collide is a series of professional wrestling shows that began on January 26, 2019, when WWE held an interbrand tournament featuring wrestlers from their NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brands. The “Worlds Collide” name was subsequently adopted for a WWE Network series that aired in April 2019. During their Royal Rumble 2020 weekend announcements, WWE revealed that a second Worlds Collide event would air live on the WWE Network on January 25, 2020, though unlike the previous year’s event, it would only feature the NXT and NXT UK brands and not also 205 Live. Also unlike the 2019 event, there was not a World 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.
Storylines
The card included six matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE’s writers on the NXT and NXT UK brands. Storylines were produced on the WWE NXT and NXT UK television programs.
Event
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentators | Tom Phillips |
| Nigel McGuinness | |
| Spanish commentators | Carlos Cabrera |
| Marcelo Rodríguez | |
| Ring announcers | Alicia Taylor |
| Andy Shepherd | |
| Referees | Drake Wuertz |
| Darryl Sharma | |
| D. A. Brewer | |
| Interviewer | Cathy Kelley |
| Pre-show panel | Charly Caruso |
| Sam Roberts | |
| Andy Shepherd |
Pre-Show
On the pre-show, Mia Yim collided with Kay Lee Ray. In the end, Ray rolled up Yim while grabbing the ropes to win.
Preliminary matches
The actual pay-per-view opened with Ilja Dragunov facing Finn Bálor. In the end, Bálor performed the 1916 DDT to win the match.
Next, Angel Garza defended the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks in a fatal 4-Way match. In the end, Garza performed the Wing Clipper on Scott, however, Devlin broke up the pin by delivering a headbutt to Garza and threw him out of the ring. Devlin then performed the Devlin Side on Scott and pinned him to win the championship for the first time.
After that, Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) faced DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa). In the end, Ciampa and Gargano performed their old tag finisher, Meeting in the Middle (running knee smash/superkick combo) on Seven to win the match. After the match, both teams shook hands and hugged, with Ciampa and Gargano raising Bate’s and Seven’s hands afterward.
The penultimate match was Rhea Ripley defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Toni Storm. In the end, after Storm missed the Frog splash, Ripley performed the Riptide to retain the championship.
Main event
In the Main Event: Imperium, which consisted of NXT UK Champion Walter, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and Alexander Wolfe, defeated The Undisputed Era, which consisted of NXT Champion Adam Cole, NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong, in an Eight-man tag team match despite being outnumbered 4-3 after Wolfe suffered an injury early in the match.
Results
| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1P | Kay Lee Ray defeated Mia Yim | Singles match | 9:15 |
| 2 | Finn Bálor defeated Ilja Dragunov | Singles match | 14:00 |
| 3 | Jordan Devlin defeated Angel Garza (c), Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and Travis Banks | Fatal 4-Way match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship | 12:05 |
| 4 | DIY (Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa) defeated Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate) | Tag team match | 22:55 |
| 5 | Rhea Ripley (c) defeated Toni Storm | Singles match for the NXT Women’s Championship | 10:15 |
| 6 | Imperium (Walter, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and Alexander Wolfe) defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong) | Eight-man tag team match | 29:50 |
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