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Spanish professional wrestler From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carlos Ruíz[6] (born May 9, 1997) is a Spanish professional wrestler best known under the ring name A-Kid. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Axiom and is one-half of the current NXT Tag Team Champions with Nathan Frazer in their second reign. He is also known for his time in NXT UK, where he is the inaugural NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion.
Prior to joining WWE, Ruíz competed in various American and European independent circuits, notably for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), Progress Wrestling, and Chikara.[7][8] In 2018, Ruíz 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.[9] However, they would be defeated by House Strong Style (Pete Dunne, Trent Seven, and Tyler Bate) in the first round.[10] Next year, he participated in Chikara's Rey de Voladores tournament,[11] but was defeated in the finals by Air Wolf.[10] 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.[12] They also faced each other at the RevPro 7th Anniversary Show.[13]
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.[14] On October 17, 2019, A-Kid was announced as having signed for the NXT UK brand.[15] He made his singles debut on October 31, 2019, defeating Kassius Ohno.[16] On November 26, 2020, A-Kid became the first-ever NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion Champion by defeating Trent Seven in the finals of a tournament, becoming the first Spanish wrestler to win a championship in WWE.[17] 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.[18] The following week he competed on NXT in a losing effort against Grayson Waller.[19] 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.[20]
In July 2022, Ruiz was repackaged as a masked superhero named Axiom.[21][22] 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.[23] At the NXT Deadline kickoff show, Axiom defeated Nathan Frazer.[24] 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[25] 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[26] 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.[27] 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.[28] 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).[29] Much later, Frazer started to set his sights on singles titles to Axiom's displeasure.[30] 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.[31] After multiple successful title defenses, on the August 13 episode of NXT, Axiom and Frazer lost the titles to Chase University's Andre Chase and Ridge Holland, ending their first reign at 126 days. The pair regained the titles in a rematch 19 days later at NXT No Mercy to become two-time champions.[32][33]
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".[34][35] He appeared as Axiom in the base game in WWE 2K23 and WWE 2K24.
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