NXT North American Championship

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NXT North American Championship
NXT North American Championship.png
The NXT North American Championship belt with default side plates
Details
PromotionWWE
BrandNXT
Date establishedMarch 7, 2018
Current champion(s)Carmelo Hayes
Date wonOctober 12, 2021

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 inaugural champion was Adam Cole. The current champion is Carmelo Hayes, who is in his first reign.

The championship was introduced during the March 7, 2018, tapings of NXT (aired March 28). At the time, NXT was still regarded as a developmental territory for WWE. In September 2019, the promotion began promoting NXT as its "third brand" when the NXT television program was moved to the USA Network. However, NXT was rebranded two years later, which returned it to its original function as WWE's developmental brand.

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[]

Inaugural champion Adam Cole after winning the inaugural championship ladder match

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]

In January 2022, the championship will be unified with the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. At the special New Year's Evil episode of NXT 2.0 on January 4, 2022, reigning champion Carmelo Hayes will defend the title against Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong. The winner of the unification match will go forward as North American Champion while the Cruiserweight Championship will be retired.[6][7]

Belt design[]

The championship belt was unveiled by WWE executive 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.[8]

Reigns[]

Main article: List of NXT North American Champions

As of December 29, 2021, there have been twelve reigns between ten 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.

Carmelo Hayes is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Isaiah "Swerve" Scott by cashing in his NXT Breakout Tournament contract on the October 12, 2021 episode of NXT 2.0 in Orlando, Florida.

Notes[]

  1. ^ 209 days as recognized by WWE due to the episode in which he won the title airing on tape delay, but still the longest.
  2. ^ 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[]

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Triple H Discusses NXT as a Third Brand, Putting Talent in a Position to Succeed, More – 411MANIA". www.411mania.com.
  6. ^ Currier, Joseph (December 21, 2021). "TITLE UNIFICATION MATCH ADDED TO NXT NEW YEAR'S EVIL". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
  7. ^ WWE (December 28, 2021). Diamond Mine gets last laugh at Championship Unification contract signing: WWE NXT, Dec. 28, 2021. YouTube. Event occurs at 1:52. Retrieved December 28, 2021. Wade Barrett: The winner of that matchup will go forward as the North American Champion.
  8. ^ 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.

External links[]

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