For the past four years, Download has provided its attendees with a non-musical experience in the form of wrestling.
Beginning in 2015, there was a ring set up in the campsite village to house some matches throughout the weekend.
2016 it was moved into the arena under its own tent and the festival has teamed up with the biggest ‘sports entertainment’ company WWE.
WWE has provided stars from its NXT roster for the past three years to compete in matches for the faithful fans.
This has provided some extra entertainment, as well as giving the chance for the WWE faithful to see some of the up and coming talent, including the likes of the ‘Glorious’ Bobby Roode, Ember Moon, No Way Jose and more who have already made the move from NXT to the main rosters.
As NXT UK is now an established, weekly broadcast show on the WWE Network, Download Festival will be playing host to NXT UK, in the first live tapings of the shows at Download!
This will be extra special as it could mean that titles may change hands, as this can only be done with televised broadcasts in WWE rules.
Set to feature at Download’s NXT UK tapings are former NXT UK champion Pete Dunne, his conqueror and current NXT UK champion Walter, Moustache Mountain: Tyler Bate and Trent Seven, women’s NXT UK champion Toni Storm, former women’s NXT UK champion Rhea Ripley and many more.
There will be two shows on each day the arena is open but none of the matches will be the same.
Having NXT at a tent isn’t the only way wrestling gets involved at Download Festival. In 2017, WWE superstar Chris Jericho opened main stage on the Sunday with his band Fozzy.
The same year, then NXT UK champion Pete Dunne invaded the Dogtooth stage to assault his challenger Mark Andrews following his set with his pop-punk band Junior.
Outside of the festival itself, wrestling and rock music has a strong bond. Many WWE stars use rock themes for their entrances and help to promote artists by sharing their love for them on social media.
Rock and wrestling have a very long history (we’ll go into it in more detail in another article so as not to take away from the fantastic Download festival).
So we’ll see you in the pit and in the wrestling tent, get your NXT chants at the ready.