Dragon Lee Never Planned For WWE WrestleMania 40

In the run-up to WWE WrestleMania XL it looked as though Dragon Lee was set to make his Mania debut, with the former NXT star set to team with Rey Mysterio against Dominik Mysterio and Santos Escobar. 

In storyline, Dragon Lee was taken out of action and was replaced with Andrade. Per a report from SEScoops Aaron Varble on X/Twitter this was always the plan, with Dragon Lee never scheduled to wrestle in the match.

The match marked Andrade’s WrestleMania main card debut, having wrestled on the kick-off show ahead of WrestleMania 35 in 2019, competing in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. This was also Andrade’s fourth match since returning to WWE at the 2024 Royal Rumble in January, having exited All Elite Wrestling in December 2023.

Dragon Lee has one WWE Premium Live Event appearance to his name since joining the main roster in 2023, suffering a singles loss to Santos Escobar at Survivor Series 2023 last November. The former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion joined WWE in early 2023, having signed in late 2022 after several appearances in All Elite Wrestling alongside brother RUSH.