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NXT Women's Championship

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This article is about the women's championship on the NXT brand. For the championship on the now-defunct NXT UK brand, see NXT UK Women's Championship.

NXT Women’s Championship
The current NXT Women's Championship belt with default side plates
(2024–present)
Details
PromotionWWE
BrandNXT
Date establishedApril 5, 2013
Current champion(s)Roxanne Perez
Date wonApril 6, 2024
Statistics
First champion(s)Paige
Most reigns2 reigns:
Longest reignAsuka
(510 days)[b]
Shortest reignIndi Hartwell
(31 days)
Oldest championShayna Baszler
(38 years, 81 days)
Youngest championPaige
(20 years, 307 days)
Heaviest championRaquel González
(176 lbs (80 kg))
Lightest championKairi Sane
(115 lbs (52 kg))

The NXT Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is defended on NXT, the promotion's developmental brand. The current champion is Roxanne Perez, who is in her record-tying second reign. She won the title by defeating Lyra Valkyria at Stand & Deliver on April 6, 2024.

Introduced on April 5, 2013, the inaugural champion was Paige. In September 2019, the promotion began promoting NXT as its "third main brand" when the NXT television program was moved to the USA Network. Two years later, however, NXT reverted to its original function as WWE's developmental brand. To date, it has been the only NXT championship to be selected by a Royal Rumble match winner, which occurred in 2020, subsequently being the only NXT championship to be defended at a WrestleMania, which occurred at that year's WrestleMania 36. In September 2022, the NXT UK Women's Championship was unified into the NXT Women's Championship.

History

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The inaugural NXT Women's Champion Paige, shown here with the original championship belt design (2013–2017)

In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW). The following year on April 5, the NXT Women's Championship was introduced during WrestleMania Axxess. On the May 30 tapings of NXT (aired June 5), WWE's Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon announced that there would be an eight-woman single-elimination tournament, featuring four women from NXT and four from WWE's main roster competing to be crowned the first NXT Women's Champion.[1][2][3] During the June 20 tapings of NXT (aired July 24), Paige defeated Emma in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion.[4]

Paige successfully defended her title at Arrival against Emma. Then-NXT General Manager, John "Bradshaw" Layfield, stripped Paige of the title on the April 24, 2014, episode of NXT, as Paige had recently won the WWE Divas Championship, and was in turn promoted to WWE's main roster. A new tournament began the following week. The finals occurred at TakeOver where Charlotte defeated Natalya to win the vacant NXT Women's Championship. On the September 16, 2015, episode of NXT, now NXT General Manager William Regal announced that Bayley would defend her title against Sasha Banks in the main event at TakeOver: Respect on October 7 in the first-ever 30-minute Iron Woman match in WWE history.[5] At the event, Bayley defeated Banks to retain the championship, scoring the win with 3 falls to 2.[6][7]

Although NXT had been established as WWE's developmental territory, WWE began promoting it as their "third brand" in September 2019 when NXT was moved to the USA Network. This subsequently made the NXT Women's Championship one of the top three singles titles for women in WWE, along with the Raw Women's Championship—which had replaced the Divas title in 2016—and the SmackDown Women's Championship (these two titles would be renamed as WWE Women's Championship and Women's World Championship, respectively, in June 2023).[8] This was validated in 2020; first, Charlotte Flair (previously known as just Charlotte) won the 2020 Women's Royal Rumble and chose to challenge for the NXT Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36, becoming the first Royal Rumble winner to challenge for an NXT title, and secondly, the title became the first NXT championship to be defended at a WrestleMania where during WrestleMania 36 Part 2, Flair defeated defending champion Rhea Ripley to win her record-tying second NXT Women's Championship.[9] However, WWE revamped NXT in September 2021 and returned the brand to its original function as a developmental territory.[10]

In January 2020, WWE briefly began referring to the women's championship as the "NXT Championship" to bring it on an equal level as the men's title,[11] though reverted to calling it the NXT Women's Championship soon after; it remained as NXT Women's Championship on the official title history during this time.[12]

In August 2022, WWE announced that the NXT UK brand would go on hiatus and would relaunch as NXT Europe at a later time.[13] As such, NXT UK's championship's were unified into their respective NXT championship counterparts. On September 4, 2022, at Worlds Collide, reigning NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose defeated NXT UK Women's Champion Meiko Satomura and Blair Davenport in a triple threat match to unify the NXT UK Women's Championship into the NXT Women's Championship. Satomura was recognized as the final NXT UK Women's Champion, while Rose went forward as the unified NXT Women's Champion.[14]

Tournaments

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Inaugural NXT Women's Championship tournament (2013)

[edit]
Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
         
Tamina Snuka 4:00
Paige Pin
Paige Pin
Alicia Fox 4:44
Bayley 3:27
Alicia Fox Pin
Paige Pin
Emma 13:12
Sasha Banks 3:30
Summer Rae Pin
Summer Rae 4:25
Emma Pin
Emma Sub
Aksana 3:40

Second NXT Women's Championship tournament (2014)

[edit]
Quarterfinals Semifinals Final
         
Bayley 3:58
Sasha Banks Sub
Sasha Banks 4:06
Natalya Sub
Layla 3:30
Natalya Sub
Natalya 16:49
Charlotte Pin
Alexa Bliss Pin
Alicia Fox 3:08
Alexa Bliss 5:01
Charlotte Pin
Charlotte Pin
Emma 3:50

Third NXT Women's Championship tournament (2023)

[edit]
First round
NXT
(May 9–16, 2023) 		Semifinals
NXT
(May 23, 2023) 		Final
NXT Battleground
(May 28, 2023)
         
Gigi Dolin 4:29[15]
Tiffany Stratton Pin
Tiffany Stratton Pin
Roxanne Perez 9:39[17]
Jacy Jayne 9:06[16]
Roxanne Perez Pin
Tiffany Stratton Pin
Lyra Valkyria 16:01[18]
Lyra Valkyria Pin
Kiana James 8:51[15]
Lyra Valkyria Pin
Cora Jade 3:41[17]
Fallon Henley 5:05[16]
Cora Jade Pin


Belt designs

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Sasha Banks with the original design of the NXT Women's Championship belt (2013–2017).

The original NXT Women's Championship belt featured an oval shaped silver center plate. At the top of the plate was the WWE logo. The center of the plate was the NXT logo encrusted with pink diamonds; red coloring was behind the letter "X". Above the NXT logo read "Women's" while below the logo read "Champion". There were two side plates, which were skinny and matched the curve of the center plate. The inner side plates were encrusted with pink diamonds, while the outer side plates were blank silver plates. The plates were on a black leather strap. When first introduced, the WWE logo was the long-standing scratch logo but in August 2014, all of WWE's pre-existing championships at the time received a minor update, changing the scratch logo to WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network that launched earlier that year in February.[19]

Ember Moon with the second design of the NXT Women's Championship belt (2017–2022).

On April 1, 2017, at WrestleMania Axxess, NXT General Manager William Regal announced that all of the existing NXT title belts at the time would be redesigned. The new title belts were unveiled at TakeOver: Orlando that same night and given to the winners of their respective matches. The redesigned women's championship featured a nearly identical design to the redesigned NXT Championship, including being on a black leather strap, but with a couple of notable differences. The belt was smaller to fit the women. The letters "NXT" on the center plate were silver instead of gold, while the rest of the plate was gold. One other difference was that a banner reading "Women's" was underneath the WWE logo. Coming in line with WWE's other championship belts, the new design featured side plates with a removable center section that could be customized with the champion's logo; the default plates featured the WWE logo.[20]

On April 2, 2022, during NXT's WrestleMania week event, Stand & Deliver, reigning champion Mandy Rose debuted a new belt design; it was largely similar to the previous version (2017–2022), but the silver behind the logo was replaced by multi-colored paint (matching the NXT 2.0 colorscheme) and the letters "N" and "T" on the center plate were updated to the font style of the NXT 2.0 logo. The default side plates were also updated, replacing the WWE logo with the NXT 2.0 logo. Coming in line with all other women's championships in WWE, the plates were on a white leather strap instead of black.[21] When "NXT 2.0" went back to being called "NXT" in September, the default side plates were updated with the new NXT logo.

The NXT 2.0 version of the championship belt (2022–2024)

With NXT's move to The CW on October 1, 2024, the show got a new logo. As a result, both the men's and women's NXT championship belts received an update that same episode. They mostly have the same design as their respective previous version, but with The CW era NXT logo on the center plate and side plates, with more of a globe visible behind the logo on the center plate. The multi-colored paint from the NXT 2.0 version (2022–2024) was also removed, and the plates are now primarily silver with gold accents.[22]

Reigns

[edit]
Main article: List of NXT Women's Champions
Record-tying two-time and current champion Roxanne Perez

As of December 26, 2024, there have been 20 reigns between 17 champions, and three vacancies. Paige was the inaugural champion. Asuka is the longest reigning champion at 510 days, beginning on April 1, 2016, and ending on August 24, 2017; however, WWE recognizes the reign as 522 days, with it ending on September 6, 2017, the date the episode in which she vacated the title aired on tape delay.[23] Indi Hartwell has the shortest reign at 31 days. Paige is the youngest champion, winning it at the age of 20, while Shayna Baszler is the oldest, winning the championship at 38. Baszler, Charlotte Flair, and Roxanne Perez are tied for the most reigns at two. Only three women have held the title for a continuous reign of one year (365 days) or more: Asuka, Shayna Baszler, and Mandy Rose.

Roxanne Perez is the current champion in her record-tying second reign. She defeated Lyra Valkyria at Stand & Deliver on April 6, 2024, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[24]

Notes

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  1. ^ She was known as just Charlotte during her first reign.
  2. ^ WWE officially recognizes Asuka's reign as 522 days due to tape delay.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Caldwell, James. "WWE NEWS: McMahon's Friday tweet – anti-smoking, Stephanie introduces NXT Women's Title (w/Pic), Cena check-in, Ross new blog, Dupree wins title". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
  2. ^ Namako, Jason (May 31, 2013). "WWE NXT Results – 5/30/13 (#1 Contender Battle Royal)". Wrestleview. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  3. ^ James, Justin. "James's WWE NXT results 5/29 & 6/5: Wyatts defend Tag Titles, NXT Women's Title introduced, #1 contender battle royal, Parade of released NXT wrestlers in matches". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  4. ^ Caldwell, James (July 21, 2013). "WWE News: NXT spoilers summer episodes – first NXT Women's champ, Flair, more, plus NXT TV in the U.S.?". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on June 26, 2013. Retrieved July 21, 2013.
  5. ^ James, Justin (September 16, 2015). "James's WWE NXT report 9/16 – Week 180: Bayley returns to Full Sail as Women's champ, big set-up for "Takeover," Dusty Tag Classic continues, Adam Rose dumps on NXT, more; Overall Reax". Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on March 26, 2016. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  6. ^ Melok, Bobby. "NXT Women's Champion Bayley vs. Sasha Banks (30-Minute WWE Iron Man Match)". WWE. Archived from the original on November 14, 2015. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  7. ^ Trionfo, Richard (October 7, 2015). "WWE NXT TakeOver Respect report: Sasha Banks and Bayley go 30 minutes, the first Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners crowned, Asuka makes her NXT in ring debut (poor Dana), and more". PWInsider. Archived from the original on May 12, 2016. Retrieved October 7, 2015.
  8. ^ "Triple H Discusses NXT as a Third Brand, Putting Talent in a Position to Succeed, More – 411MANIA". www.411mania.com. Archived from the original on May 11, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  9. ^ Powell, Jason (April 5, 2020). "WrestleMania 36 results: Powell's live review of Night Two featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre for the WWE Championship, John Cena vs. "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt in a Firefly Funhouse match, Edge vs. Randy Orton in a Last Man Standing match, Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte Flair for the NXT Women's Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on January 24, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2020.
  10. ^ Currier, Joseph (December 3, 2021). "Preview and Predictions for 'NXT WarGames'". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on December 11, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2021.
  11. ^ "Could Toni Storm dethrone Rhea Ripley at Worlds Collide?". WWE. Archived from the original on January 26, 2020. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  12. ^ "NXT Women's Championship". WWE. Archived from the original on May 16, 2014. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
  13. ^ Defelice, Robert (August 18, 2022). "WWE Announces The Impending Launch Of 'NXT Europe' Final NXT UK Event To Be 'Worlds Collide' On 9/4". Fightful. Archived from the original on August 18, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2022.
  14. ^ Moore, John (September 4, 2022). "NXT Worlds Collide results: Moore's live review of NXT Champion Bron Breakker vs. NXT UK Champion Tyler Bate in a unification match, NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose vs. NXT UK Women's Champion Meiko Satomura vs. Blair Davenport in a unification match, Carmelo Hayes vs. Ricochet for the NXT North American Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Archived from the original on September 18, 2022. Retrieved September 4, 2022.
  15. ^ a b Moore, John (May 9, 2023). "5/9 NXT TV results: Moore's review of Gigi Dolin vs. Tiffany Stratton, and Lyra Valkyria vs. Kiana James in NXT Women's Title tournament matches, Gallus vs. The Dyad for the NXT Tag Titles, Bron Breakker vs. Trick Williams, Ilja Dragunov vs. Dijak, Duke Hudson vs. Javier Bernal, Tyler Bate vs. Charlie Dempsey, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen vs. Tank Ledger and Hank Walker". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  16. ^ a b Moore, John (May 16, 2023). "5/16 NXT TV results: Moore's review of Roxanne Perez vs. Jacy Jayne, and Fallon Henley vs. Cora Jade in NXT Women's Title tournament matches, Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler, Supernova Sessions with Noam Dar and guest Dragon Lee". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  17. ^ a b Moore, John (May 23, 2023). "5/23 NXT TV results: Moore's review of Tiffany Stratton vs. Roxanne Perez and Lyra Valkyria vs. Cora Jade in NXT Women's Championship tournament semifinal matches, Noam Dar vs. Nathan Frazer, Hank Walker vs. Tank Ledger, Axiom vs. Dabba-Kato, Eddy Thorpe vs. Tyler Bate". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
  18. ^ Moore, John (May 28, 2023). "NXT Battleground results: Moore's live review of Carmelo Hayes vs. Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship, Tiffany Stratton vs. Lyra Valkyria for the vacant NXT Women's Title, Gallus vs. The Creeds for the NXT Tag Team Titles, Wes Lee vs. Tyler Bate vs. Joe Gacy in a Triple Threat for the NXT North American Title, Noam Dar vs. Dragon Lee for the NXT Heritage Cup". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved May 28, 2023.
  19. ^ Graser, Marc (August 15, 2014). "WWE Rebrands With New Logo Tied to Digital Network". Variety. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  20. ^ WWE (April 1, 2017). "EXCLUSIVE: WWE NXT General William Regal arrives at WrestleMania Axxess with a HUGE announcement regarding NXT TakeOver: Orlando!". Facebook. Archived from the original on September 3, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
  21. ^ WWE [@WWENXT] (April 12, 2022). "It's all in the details. #WWENXT" (Tweet). Retrieved April 12, 2022 – via Twitter.
  22. ^ Russell, Skylar (October 1, 2024). "Shawn Michaels Debuts New NXT Championship And NXT Women's Championship Belts On Tuesday's WWE NXT". Fightful. Retrieved October 2, 2024.
  23. ^ WWE.com Staff (January 4, 2017). "Asuka becomes longest reigning NXT Women's Champion ever". WWE. Archived from the original on January 5, 2017. Retrieved January 4, 2017.
  24. ^ Moore, John (October 24, 2023). "NXT TV results (10/24): Moore's review of Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women's Title, Tony D'Angelo and Stacks vs. Andre Chase and Duke Hudson for the NXT Tag Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
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