NXT North American Championship
| NXT North American Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Details | |||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||
| Brand | NXT | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | March 7, 2018 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Bronson Reed | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | May 18, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||
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The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on their NXT brand division. It is one of three secondary championships in WWE, along with the United States Championship on Raw and the Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown. The current champion is Bronson Reed, who is in his first reign.
Introduced during the March 7, 2018 tapings of NXT (aired March 28), the title was established as the secondary championship for NXT, which at the time was still regarded as a developmental territory for WWE. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Around this time, NXT was in the midst of establishing itself as WWE's third major brand, which became official in September 2019 when NXT was moved to the USA Network.
The title is distinct from the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship, as it does not carry the lineage of the former title, which was contested from 1979–1980.
History
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In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). It was not until 2018, however, that a secondary championship was established for the brand. During the March 7, 2018, tapings of NXT (aired March 28), NXT General Manager William Regal announced a ladder match for TakeOver: New Orleans to determine the inaugural NXT North American Champion. Later that night, EC3, Killian Dain, Adam Cole, Ricochet, Lars Sullivan, and Velveteen Dream were announced as the participants in the match.[1][2][3] At the event, Cole won the match to become the inaugural champion.[4]
While NXT had originally been established as WWE's developmental territory, the NXT North American Championship was introduced in the midst of NXT establishing itself as WWE's third major brand. This became official when NXT was moved to the USA Network in September 2019, thus making the NXT North American Championship a third secondary title for WWE, along with the WWE Intercontinental Championship and WWE United States Championship.[5]
Belt design
The championship belt was unveiled by WWE Chief Operating Officer and NXT head Triple H on April 3, 2018. Featuring three gold plates on a thick brown leather strap, the rounded center plate features a globe that only shows the continent of North America. The banner above the globe reads "North American" and above the banner is the NXT logo. The lower banner at the bottom of the globe reads "Champion". In what has become a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts, the two side plates feature a removable center section which can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates feature a vertical NXT logo on a globe. This was WWE's first secondary title to feature customizable side plates. It was the only NXT championship to feature the NXT logo for the default side plates until the introduction of the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship in 2021; the other NXT championships feature the WWE logo.[6]
Reigns
As of September 13, 2024, there have been eleven reigns between nine champions and one vacancy. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Velveteen Dream has the longest reign as champion at 231 days (209 days as recognized by WWE due to tape delay, but still the longest). Johnny Gargano has the most reigns at three, with his first reign being the shortest at 4 days (due to tape delay, however, WWE recognizes that Gargano's first reign lasted 25 days, thus recognizing his second reign as the shortest at 14 days). Dream is the youngest champion at 23 years old while Damian Priest is the oldest at 37.
Bronson Reed is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Johnny Gargano in a Steel Cage match on the May 18, 2021 episode of NXT.
Notes
- ^ 209 days as recognized by WWE due to the episode in which he won the title airing on tape delay, but still the longest.
- ^ 25 days as recognized by WWE due to the episode in which he lost the title airing on tape delay; the shortest reign recognized by WWE is Gargano's second reign at 14 days.
References
- ^ Johnson, Mike (March 7, 2018). "SPOILER: NEW WWE CHAMPIONSHIP CONFIRMED, HOW FIRST CHAMPION WILL BE CROWNED". PWInsider. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
- ^ Powell, Jason (March 7, 2018). "NXT introducing new title belt during WrestleMania weekend (non match result TV taping spoiler)". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
- ^ WWE.com Staff (March 7, 2018). "Breaking news: NXT to debut a new championship (CAUTION: SPOILER)". WWE. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
- ^ Moore, John. "4/7 Moore's NXT Takeover: New Orleans live review – Andrade Almas vs. Aleister Black for the NXT Title, Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship, Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa in an unsanctioned match, ladder match for the new North American Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on April 8, 2018. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- ^ "Triple H Discusses NXT as a Third Brand, Putting Talent in a Position to Succeed, More – 411MANIA". www.411mania.com.
- ^ WWE.com Staff (April 3, 2018). "Triple H unveils new NXT North American Championship". WWE.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 3, 2018.