In the first summation of all titles in the WWE, we looked at the current belts across both main roster brands in RAW and Smackdown Live. Now we look at the titles currently available in WWE’s unofficial “third brand”: NXT.
NXT Championship
When NXT was relaunched from the cheesy reality show format into an actual wresting program, they needed a new champion. An inaugural champion was crowned at a tournament held in 2012. Since then, 16 men have held the previous version of the title as well as the current version (as shown in the picture).
Seth Rollins was the first NXT champion, having been crowned by winning the 2012 tournament. Other champions include Neville, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Drew McIntyre, Andrade Cien Almas, Aleister Black and Tommaso Ciampa.
Joe and Nakamura currently hold the distinction of being the only two time NXT Champions. Balor still hold the record of having the longest uninterrupted reign as champion at 292 days, while Joe also hold the shortest reign during his second run (13 days). Ciampa was forced to vacate the title recently as he had to undergo neck surgery which is likely going to put him out of action for up to a year.
The 17th champion will be decided at NXT Takeover: New York the night before Wrestlemania. Ciampa’s former partner Johnny Gargano, a former NXT North American Champion, will take on Undisputed Era leader Adam Cole, also a former NXT NA Champion, in a two out of three falls match to crown the new NXT Champion.
Speaking of the aforementioned newest title in NXT…
NXT North American Championship
In recognition of the need for a mid-card title in NXT, the NXT North American Championship was introduced in 2018 and the first title holder was decided in a six man ladder match at NXT Takeover: New Orleans. Ricochet, Adam Cole, EC3, Lars Sullivan, Killian Dain and Velveteen Dream were in that match and Cole emerge as the winner…and the first ever North American champion.
As it is a new title, there have only been four champions as of this writing: Cole, Ricochet, Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream. Cole lost the championship to Ricochet at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4, Gargano beat Ricochet for the title at NXT Takeover: Phoenix and Dream won it from Gargano on a taping of NXT back in February.
Gargano also holds the distinction of having lost the North American Championship in his very first title defence.
NXT Women’s Championship
The women’s championship on the black and yellow brand has at least a deep history on NXT as it came into fruition around the same time as the NXT Championship. An inaugural tournament was held in 2013 to crown the first champion, in which Paige won and was crowned the first NXT Women’s Champion.
Paige was stripped of the title a year later after winning the then WWE Divas Championship and moving onto the main roster, and another tournament was held to crown the new champion. Charlotte Flair won that tournament and held the title for over 250 days, after which she dropped the title to Sasha Banks, who lost it to Bayley. All but Becky Lynch in the unofficial “stable” known as the Four Horsewomen have been NXT Women’s Champion.
Perhaps the most well known NXT Women’s Champion is Asuka. The Empress of Tomorrow held the title for an uninterrupted 522 days (from April 2016 to August 2017) and is the longest reigning women’s champion in NXT and one of the longest reigning champions in the modern era.
Subsequent title holders in the post-Asuka era are Ember Moon, Shayna Baszler and Kairi Saine. Baszler is currently the only two time NXT Women’s Champion; her second reign began after she defeated Saine at the all women’s WWE pay per view Evolution.
NXT Tag Team Championships
The NXT Tag Team titles were introduced in 2013 and the inaugural champions were crowned in a tournament which was won by Adrian Neville and Oliver Gray (collectively known as British Ambition). Neville is also a recognized two time tag team champion; his second reign was with former wrestler now WWE commentator Corey Graves.
A number of NXT tag teams have held the titles, such as the Wyatt Family (Luke Harper and Erick Rowan), The Ascension, Lucha Dragons, Blake and Murphy, Vaudevillains, The Revival, American Alpha, #DIY, the Authors of Pain, Sanity, Moustache Mountain and the Undisputed Era.
The Ascension has the recognized longest title reign at 343 days, and the Revival and Undisputed Era are the only teams to be two time NXT Tag Team Champions. The current champs, War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe), are scheduled to face the winners of the 2019 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, Aleister Black and Ricochet, at NXT Takeover: New York.
Since 2018, the winners of that tournament would receive a tag team title match. In the first Dusty Classic, the UE’s interference led to a ‘winner take all’ triple threat match at NXT Takeover: New Orleans where the UE faced Pete Dunne/Roderick Strong and AOP to decide the winners of the Dusty Cup and the tag titles.
Part 3 will explore the titles of the latest brand to emerge from the WWE umbrella, NXT UK, as well as the Cruiserweight and Women’s Tag Team Titles.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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