NXT North American Championship

The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on their NXT brand. It is one of three secondary championships in WWE, along with the WWE United States Championship on Raw and the WWE Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown. The current champion is Keith Lee, who is in his first reign.

NXT North American Championship
The NXT North American Championship belt with default side plates.
Details
PromotionWWE
BrandNXT
Date establishedMarch 7, 2018
Current champion(s)Keith Lee
Date wonJanuary 22, 2020

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 1979–1981.

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 the WWE, along with the WWE Intercontinental and United States Championships.[5]

Belt design

The design of the 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 is also the only NXT championship to feature the NXT logo for the default side plates; the others feature the WWE logo.[6]

Reigns
Current champion Keith Lee.

As of June 30, 2020, there have been six reigns between six champions. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Velveteen Dream has the longest reign as champion at 231 days while Johnny Gargano has the shortest reign at 4 days. Due to tape delay, WWE recognizes that Dream's reign lasted 209 days while Gargano's lasted 25 days (which is still the longest and shortest reigns, respectively). Dream was also the youngest champion, winning the title at 23, while Roderick Strong was the oldest at 36.

Keith Lee is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Roderick Strong on the January 22, 2020 episode of NXT in Winter Park, Florida.

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Days recog. Number of days held recognized by the promotion
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign DaysDays recog.
1 Adam Cole April 7, 2018 TakeOver: New Orleans New Orleans, LA 1 133133 Defeated EC3, Killian Dain, Lars Sullivan, Ricochet, and Velveteen Dream in a six-man ladder match to become the inaugural champion. [1][4]
2 Ricochet August 18, 2018 TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 Brooklyn, NY 1 161161 [7]
3 Johnny Gargano January 26, 2019 TakeOver: Phoenix Phoenix, AZ 1 425 WWE recognizes Gargano's reign as ending on February 20, 2019, when the following episode aired on tape delay. [8]
4 Velveteen Dream January 30, 2019 NXT Winter Park, FL 1 231209 WWE taped two endings for the match, one with Gargano retaining and the other with Dream winning.[9] The latter was revealed as the true result when the episode aired on tape delay on February 20, the date WWE recognizes for Dream's reign. [10]
5 Roderick Strong September 18, 2019 NXT Winter Park, FL 1 126126 [11]
6 Keith Lee January 22, 2020 NXT Winter Park, FL 1 160+160+ [12]


See also

Notes
  1. 209 days as recognized by WWE due to the episode airing on tape delay, but still the longest.
  2. 25 days as recognized by WWE due to the episode airing on tape delay, but still the shortest.

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. 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.
  7. Moore, John. "8/18 Moore's NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV live review – Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano in a Last Man Standing match for the NXT Title, Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane for the NXT Women's Championship, Adam Cole vs. Ricochet for the NXT North American Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved August 18, 2018.
  8. Moore, John. "1/26 Moore's NXT Takeover: Phoenix live review – Tommaso Ciampa vs. Aleister Black for the NXT Championship, Shayna Baszler vs. Bianca Belair for the NXT Women's Championship, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong vs. War Raiders for the NXT Tag Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  9. Lafferriere, Nicolas (February 1, 2019). "Se revelan más detalles sobre el combate títular ocurrido en las grabaciones de NXT (SPOILERS)" (in Spanish). Solowrestling.com. Retrieved July 5, 2019.
  10. James, Justin (February 20, 2019). "2/20 NXT TV REPORT: Velveteen Dream vs. Gargano for the NXT North American Championship, Strong vs. Black, Yim vs. Li". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved February 21, 2019.
  11. Moore, John. "9/18 NXT TV results: Moore's live review of Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong for the NXT North American Championship, Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain in a Street Fight, Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai vs. Bianca Belair in a four-way for a shot at the NXT Women's Championship". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
  12. Moore, John. "1/22 NXT TV results: Moore's review of Roderick Strong vs. Keith Lee for the NXT North American Championship, Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament semifinal matches, final Worlds Collide hype". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
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