This weekend's WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament is a historic opportunity for the 16 competitors hailing from England, Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. By the end of action Sunday, the first WWE U.K. champion will be crowned -- and everyone involved has an opportunity to show what they've got for a global audience on the WWE Network.
Before you tune in Saturday, however, learn everything you'll need to know about each of the 16 participants. In part 2 of ESPN's U.K. Championship tournament preview, we break down the right side of the bracket.
Mark Andrews
Height: 5-foot-8
Weight: 160 pounds
Age: 24
Hometown: Cardiff, Wales
Twitter: @MandrewsJunior
Andrews likely is the most intriguing participant in the WWE U.K. Championship tournament, as well as the most recognizable for North American fans going into this event cold.
That's because, up until the last couple of months, he was under contract with Impact Wrestling (or TNA, if you prefer), and appeared as recently as early December on a prerecorded edition of its weekly television show. Andrews got his start with the company by participating in (and winning) its "British Boot Camp" reality show, but he felt like the time was right to close that chapter of his career -- and he couldn't have picked a better time.
"Been with TNA for two years," said Andrews. "I'd had a great time there, but I decided it was time to finish up with them to try and take a bet on myself because the U.K. has been such a hot spot for wrestling. Fortunately for me, literally instantly after my contract was up, this opportunity came around, so it was kind of perfect timing."
Andrews was announced as a participant on Jan. 5, making him the final addition to this tournament field.
Read more about Mark Andrews' TNA departure and thoughts on the exploding British wrestling scene
Dan Moloney
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 216 pounds
Age: 19
Hometown: Birmingham, England
Twitter: @DeeMoloney97
At 19 years old, Moloney and Tyler Bate are the two youngest competitors in this competition -- but like many of the younger participants, that's a deceptive number. Moloney has been training in the ring since he was 12, and that has led to his developing a highly technical approach in the ring.
He's been in the ring with many of the competitors in this tournament, including a recent match involving Pete Dunne, Trent Seven and Tyler Bate. Moloney has worked for Chikara in both England and in the States, as well as U.K. standard-bearers like ICW, Fight Club: PRO and Southside Wrestling.
Career highlights to this point include reigns as Kamikaze Pro Relentless division champion and ATTACK! Pro Wrestling 24:7 champion. He also wrestled then-Impact Wrestling champion Eddie Edwards in a losing effort with the title on the line in an October match in Kamikaze Pro.
When it comes to first-round opponent Mark Andrews, Moloney has only a few recorded matches -- all of them tag-team contests dating to 2014 -- and a 1-2 overall record.
James Drake
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 178 pounds
Age: 23
Hometown: Blackpool, England
Twitter: @james__drake
After being inspired by watching Triple H and The Rock feud over the WWF title in 2000, Drake joined a wrestling school in Blackpool before he was even a teenager.
"Every week I'd be limping into school, trying to hide my bruises from my parents," Drake told ESPN. "I knew if they found out they would think it was too early for me, too young."
He started getting booked on shows at age 15 -- "I got battered for about five years" -- before making his own little space in the British scene, including a spot with All Star Wrestling. He has now wrestled close to 600 shows, and says simply "my wrestling style is James Drake."
"Life doesn't feel real right now," he said of his involvement in the tournament. "I've got a lot of close family members in the audience. They're gonna see a side to me they didn't think was possible."
Joseph Conners
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 193 pounds
Age: 29
Hometown: Nottingham, England
Twitter: @JosephConners
There are a number of ways to channel some of the legends of pro wrestling, but it's highly unlikely that Conners intended to conduct a Mick Foley tribute in losing the top part of his left ear.
It hasn't done much to hamper his career, though, as Conners has enjoyed a tremendous run over the last 12 months in particular. He became the second-ever What Culture Pro Wrestling world champion in a four-way match in which he dethroned current NXT superstar Big Damo, and held onto that title until this past November, when he lost to former WWE Intercontinental champion Drew Galloway. He also held the Southside Wrestling heavyweight championship for the second time in 2016.
Over the past three months he's been in the ring with former WWE superstars Cody Rhodes, MVP and Mr. Kennedy. Conners and James Drake, his first-round opponent in the WWE U.K. Championship tournament, have never crossed paths in the ring.
Pete Dunne
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 205 pounds
Age: 23
Hometown: Birmingham, England
Twitter: @PeteDunneYxB
Despite being just 23 years old, Dunne is an 11-year veteran who has wrestled in 14 different countries. He started training at the tender age of 12 once a week on Sundays in Coventry but felt he wasn't taking the necessary steps to progress. So, at age 17, he booked a flight to Japan and trained for three months in a remote dojo in the middle of the mountains, eight hours north of Tokyo and a 15-minute walk from the main road. It was a far cry from the working-class estate he grew up on in Birmingham.
Things certainly have changed in the past few years.
"We have arguably the deepest talent pool right here on this small island," Dunne said.
"It would be unbelievable to be crowned the first U.K. champion. To even say this was a thing that was happening a month ago, I wouldn't have believed ya. To have this all come together so quickly, and have this huge platform and all this exposure, and to be the person, whoever the person is that wins the tournament, it's an unbelievable opportunity."
Read more about the journey that led Pete Dunne to the WWE U.K. Championship tournament
Roy Johnson
Height: 5-foot-10
Weight: 203 pounds
Age: 32
Hometown: London, England
Twitter: @RoyJohnsonYeah
Roy Johnson enters the WWE U.K. Championship tournament with only two years of experience in a wrestling ring but is a standout athlete, having previously competed in powerlifting, in which he captured both a European title and a British Open championship.
He enjoyed a swift rise from starting at the "Projo" (Progress Training School) in October 2014 to making his debut for PROGRESS Wrestling less than five months later.
Johnson's unique personality and charisma, using his grime rapping skills to create some entertaining promos in PROGRESS, already have made him one to watch on the BritWres scene, despite his relative inexperience.
Saxon Huxley
Height: 6-foot-3
Weight: 220 pounds
Age: 29
Hometown: Hartlepool, England
Twitter: @MuscleCatJesus
While there are competitors of many shapes and sizes in the WWE U.K. Championship tournament, Huxley is far and away the closest to the traditional WWE mold at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds.
He also has one of the stronger pedigrees in terms of training, having learned at the foot of former WWE superstar Lance Storm and current WWE superstar Brian Kendrick. In terms of career path and life approach, Huxley has very much followed in Kendrick's footsteps, having competed all over North America and Europe over the course of his career. Some of his highest-profile matches came early on in his career during a handful of appearances on televised shows for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood.
While he stands out from the rest of the tournament field for both his style and his body of experience, there's going to be a certain level of familiarity in the first-round match between Huxley and Sam Gradwell, as they each spent time training under British wrestling legend Marty Jones.
Sam Gradwell
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 210 pounds
Age: 25
Hometown: Blackpool, England
Twitter: @sam_gradwell
The only two career paths Gradwell dreamed of as a kid were to be a dinosaur and a wrestler.
"I don't think T-Rexes have good pensions, anyway, I've made a good choice there," Gradwell told ESPN.
He may not have been in a dinosaur suit, but Gradwell's first experience with WWE came as one of Adam Rose's Rosebuds during the "Raw" and "SmackDown" tapings at London's O2 Arena in April 2014, wearing various articles of fancy dress.
"The biggest audience I've performed in front has been as a dancing pirate," he said.
Trained in Manchester, Gradwell has wrestled in China, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, the Isle of Man, and up and down England and Scotland, taking little bits on board from each place and adding them to his style of brawling, high-flying and technical wrestling.
"To make my WWE debut in my hometown of Blackpool is phenomenal," he added. "You couldn't write a more poetic story there. On January 14-15 you're gonna be in a fight with a man who's got his nana in the audience. So if I don't bash you, she will."