Axiom | |
---|---|
![]() Axiom in 2024 | |
Birth name | Carlos Ruiz |
Born | Madrid, Spain [1] | May 9, 1997
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | A-Kid [2] Axiom [3] El Niño Anónimo [4] The Kung-Fu Kid [1] |
Billed height | 5 ft 8 in (173 cm) [2] |
Billed weight | 154 lb (70 kg) [5] |
Billed from | Madrid, Spain [2] |
Debut | July 14, 2012 [5] |
Carlos Ruiz [6] (born May 9, 1997) is a Spanish professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Axiom and is currently one-half of the NXT Tag Team Champions with Nathan Frazer in their first reign. He previously performed in NXT UK as A-Kid, where he was a former one-time and the inaugural NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion. [7] [8]
Ruiz also competed in various American and European independent circuits, notably for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Progress Wrestling, and Chikara. [9] [10] In 2018, Ruiz became the first Spaniard and the youngest wrestler at the age of 20 to ever compete in a singles match rated 5 stars by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . He is also the first Spaniard to compete and win a championship in WWE.
In June 2016, it was announced that Ruiz, performing under the name A-Kid would participate with Rod Zayas and Adam Chase in Chikara's King of Trios, as House White Wolf. [11] However, they would be defeated by House Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, and Tyler Bate) in the first round. [12] Next year, he participated in Chikara's Rey de Voladores tournament, [13] but was defeated in the finals by Air Wolf. [12] The following years, A-Kid and Adam Chase (later, Carlos Romo) wrestled in the British circuit as Team White Wolf, winning the Attack! Tag Team Championship. [14] They also faced each other at the RevPro 7th Anniversary Show. [15]
Ruiz (as A-Kid) made his WWE debut alongside fellow wrestler Carlos Romo on April 20, 2019, where they were defeated by Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) during a set of NXT UK tapings. [16] On October 17, 2019, A-Kid was announced as having signed for the NXT UK brand. [17] He made his singles debut on October 31, 2019, defeating Kassius Ohno. [18] On November 26, 2020, A-Kid became the first-ever NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion by defeating Trent Seven in the finals of a tournament, becoming the first Spanish wrestler to win a championship in WWE. [19] On the May 20, 2021, episode of NXT UK, A-Kid lost the Heritage Cup to Tyler Bate. On the October 14 episode of NXT UK, A-Kid faced Ilja Dragunov for the NXT United Kingdom Championship but was defeated.
On the March 15, 2022 episode of NXT, A-Kid made his debut on the brand coming from NXT UK in a winning effort against Kushida for a opportunity for a ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver for the NXT North American Championship. [20] The following week he competed on NXT in a losing effort against Grayson Waller. [21] The following week on March 29, A-Kid was entered in a triple threat match against Cameron Grimes and Roderick Strong in a last chance opportunity for the NXT North American Championship match opportunity at NXT Stand & Deliver. [22]
In July 2022, Ruiz was repackaged as a masked superhero named Axiom. [23] [24] He competed on the July 19 episode of NXT 2.0 defeating Dante Chen. He then entered a best of three series against Nathan Frazer where he won the first match on the September 6 episode of NXT 2.0 but lost the other two matches on September 14 and October 11 episodes of NXT. At NXT Deadline, Axiom failed to win the Iron Survivor Challenge. Axiom entered a brief rivalry with Carmelo Hayes where he lost to him on the December 13 episode of NXT but defeated Trick Williams on the January 17 episode of NXT. At NXT Stand & Deliver, Axiom failed to win the NXT North American Championship and lost again on the following episode of NXT to Wes Lee. Axiom entered a rivalry with Scrypts where he defeated him on the May 2 episode of NXT, unmasking Scrypts after the match. Shortly afterwards, the two started teaming after Scrypts turned face. On the July 18 edition of NXT, Scrypts turned on Axiom and aligned himself with their opponents, the debuting Bronco Nima & Lucien Price, during their scheduled match.
Axiom wrestled his main roster debut match on the November 17, 2023 episode of SmackDown in a losing effort to Dragon Lee. [25] At the NXT Deadline kickoff show, Axiom defeated Nathan Frazer. [26] After this, he formed a tag team partnership with Frazer. In early 2024, Axiom and Frazer participated in the NXT Tag Team Championship Eliminator Tournament, defeating No Quarter Catch Crew (Charlie Dempsey and Myles Borne) in the first round [27] and Latino World Order (Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro) and The Good Brothers (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) in a triple threat tag team match in the final [28] to face NXT Tag Team Champions The Wolf Dogs (Baron Corbin and Bron Breakker) for the titles at NXT Stand & Deliver, but failed to win the match. [29] In a rematch on the following episode of NXT, Axiom and Frazer defeated The Wolf Dogs to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. After the match, The Final Testament's Authors of Pain (AOP) returned to NXT and attacked Axiom and Frazer. [30] At Week 2 of Spring Breakin', Axiom and Frazer successfully defended their titles against AOP after interference from New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate). [31] On the May 21 episode of NXT, Axiom and Frazer retained their titles against The D’Angelo Family (Luca Crusafino and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo). After the match, they were attacked by The Good Brothers. [32] At NXT Battleground, Axiom and Frazer retained their titles against The Good Brothers. [33] Soon after, Frazer started to set his sights on singles titles to Axiom's displeasure. [34] Eventually, Axiom would do the same as he faced LWO’s Joaquin Wilde on the 31 July episode of Speed in the Speed Championship #1 Contenders Tournament in a losing effort. [35]
Ruiz, as A-Kid made his video game debut in WWE 2K22 as downloadable content (DLC) alongside The Hurricane, Wes Lee, and Stacy Keibler known as the "Stand Back Pack". [36] [37] He appeared as Axiom in the base game in WWE 2K23 and WWE 2K24 .
Shayna Andrea Baszler is an American professional wrestler and a former kickboxer and mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand. Baszler is a former two-time and longest combined-reigning NXT Women's Champion and a former record-tying three-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion.
John Anthony Nicholas Gargano is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand where he is one-half of the current WWE Tag Team Champions with Tommaso Ciampa in their first reign. Gargano is best known for his time in NXT, where he became the first-ever NXT Triple Crown winner by winning the NXT Championship once, the NXT North American Championship for a record 3 times, and the NXT Tag Team Championship once. His popularity in NXT led him to be nicknamed "The Heart and Soul of NXT".
Drew Gulak is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he was a former one-time WWE Cruiserweight Champion and eight-time WWE 24/7 Champion.
Christopher James Dijak is an American professional wrestler. He is currently working on the independent circuit under the ring name Donovan Dijak. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring names Dominik Dijakovic, T-Bar, and Dijak.
Noam Dar is a Scottish-Israeli professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand. He is the leader of The Meta-Four stable and has held the NXT Heritage Cup a record-setting three times. He is also known for his tenure with Scottish promotion Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW).
Peter Thomas England is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Pete Dunne and is one-half of the New Catch Republic with Tyler Bate. He is a 1-time WWE United Kingdom Champion and 1-time NXT Tag Team Champion alongside Matt Riddle, with whom he also won the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
Benjamin Maurice Webb, better known by the ring name Trent Seven, is an English professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and actor currently signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is best known for his time in WWE, where he performed on their NXT UK brand and was a former NXT UK Tag Team Champion.
Tyler Bate is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the Raw brand. He is also one half of the New Catch Republic with Pete Dunne.
Jordan Devlin is an Irish professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name JD McDonagh. He is a member of The Judgment Day stable where he is one-half of the World Tag Team Champions with stablemate and mentor Finn Bálor in their first reign as a team and McDonagh's first reign individually. He previously performed in NXT UK, where he was a one-time and the longest-reigning NXT Cruiserweight Champion. His other accomplishments include being a two-time OTT World Champion and a one-time PROGRESS Tag Team Champion. Devlin is also known for his tenure in Japan with Pro Wrestling Zero1, wrestling under the name Frank David and becoming a one-time Zero1 International Lightweight Tag Team Champion.
Fabian Aichner is an Italian professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Giovanni Vinci.
Marcel Barthel is a German professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Ludwig Kaiser. He is a member of Imperium.
New Catch Republic is an English professional wrestling tag team consisting of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate. They are currently signed with WWE and appear on the Raw brand.
Deveon Everhart Aikens is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Wes Lee and is a member of the The Rascalz stable. He is a former one-time and longest reigning NXT North American Champion at 269 days and a former two-time NXT Tag Team Champion.
Mark Anthony Coffey is a Scottish professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand as a member of Gallus. He is also a former NXT UK Heritage Cup and NXT UK Tag Team Champion.
Ilja Rukober, better known by his ring name Ilja Dragunov, is a Russian-German professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand. He is a former 1-time NXT United Kingdom Champion & 1-time NXT Champion.
Joshua Bruns is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Josh Briggs. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the NXT brand. In WWE, he is a one-time NXT UK Tag Team Champion with Brooks Jensen, and he and Jensen are recognized as the final holders of the championship. He previously appeared for Evolve, where he was the final Evolve Champion.
Theresa Serrano is an American professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Zoey Stark. She is a former one-time NXT Women's Tag Team Champion with Io Shirai.
Taylor Grado is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE where she performs under the ring name Jacy Jayne on the NXT brand. She is a former record-tying two-time NXT Women's Tag Team Champion. Grado began her career under the name Avery Taylor and previously performed for World Xtreme Wrestling, Shine Wrestling, Evolve and Full Impact Pro prior to joining WWE.
Benjamin Buchanan is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Brooks Jensen. He is a former one-time and the final NXT UK Tag Team Champion.
Benjamin Timms is a British professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Nathan Frazer and is currently one-half of the NXT Tag Team Champions with Axiom in their first reign. He is a former one-time NXT Heritage Cup Champion.