NXT Women's Championship

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

NXT Women’s Championship
The current NXT Women's Championship belt with default side plates (2022–present)
Details
Promotion	WWE
Brand	NXT
Date established	April 5, 2013
Current champion(s)	Roxanne Perez
Date won	April 6, 2024
Statistics First champion(s) Paige Most reigns 2 reigns: Shayna Baszler Charlotte Flair Roxanne Perez Longest reign Asuka (510 days) Shortest reign Indi Hartwell (31 days) Oldest champion Shayna Baszler (38 years, 81 days) Youngest champion Paige (20 years, 307 days) Heaviest champion Raquel González (176 lbs (80 kg)) Lightest champion Kairi Sane (115 lbs (52 kg))

TheNXT Women's Championshipis awomen's professional wrestlingchampionshipcreated and promoted by the AmericanpromotionWWE.It is defended onNXT,the promotion'sdevelopmental brand.The current champion isRoxanne Perez,who is in her record-tying second reign. She won the title by defeatingLyra ValkyriaatStand & Deliveron April 6, 2024.

Introduced on April 5, 2013, the inaugural champion wasPaige.In September 2019, the promotion began promoting NXT as its "third main brand"when theNXTtelevision program was moved to theUSA 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 aRoyal Rumble matchwinner, which occurred in2020,subsequently being the only NXT championship to be defended at aWrestleMania,which occurred at that year'sWrestleMania 36.In September 2022, theNXT UK Women's Championshipwasunifiedinto the NXT Women's Championship.

History

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

In June 2012,WWEestablishedNXTas theirdevelopmental territory,replacingFlorida Championship Wrestling(FCW). The following year on April 5, the NXT Women's Championship was introduced duringWrestleMania Axxess.On the May 30 tapings ofNXT(airedJune 5), WWE'sChief Brand OfficerStephanie McMahonannounced that there would be an eight-womansingle-eliminationtournament,featuring four women from NXT and four from WWE's main roster competing to be crowned the first NXT Women's Champion.During the June 20 tapings ofNXT(aired July 24),PaigedefeatedEmmain the tournament final to become the inaugural champion.

Paige successfully defended her title atArrivalagainst Emma. Then-NXTGeneral Manager,John "Bradshaw" Layfield,stripped Paige of the title on the April 24, 2014, episode ofNXT,as Paige had recently won theWWE Divas Championship,and was in turn promoted to WWE's main roster. A new tournament began the following week. The finals occurred atTakeOverwhereCharlottedefeatedNatalyato win the vacant NXT Women's Championship. On the September 16, 2015, episode ofNXT,now NXT General ManagerWilliam Regalannounced thatBayleywould defend her title againstSasha Banksin themain eventatTakeOver: Respecton October 7 in the first-ever 30-minuteIron Woman matchin WWE history.At the event, Bayley defeated Banks to retain the championship, scoring the win with 3 falls to 2.

Although NXT had been established as WWE's developmental territory, WWE began promoting it as their "third brand" in September 2019 whenNXTwas moved to theUSA Network.This subsequently made the NXT Women's Championship one of the top three singles titles for women in WWE, along with theRaw Women's Championship—which had replaced the Divas title in 2016—and theSmackDown Women's Championship(these two titles would be renamed as WWE Women's Championship and Women's World Championship, respectively, in June 2023).This was validated in 2020; first, Charlotte Flair (previously known as just Charlotte) won the2020 Women's Royal Rumbleand chose to challenge for the NXT Women's Championship atWrestleMania 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 aWrestleManiawhere during WrestleMania 36 Part 2, Flair defeated defending championRhea Ripleyto win her record-tying second NXT Women's Championship.However, WWE revamped NXT in September 2021 and returned the brand to its original function as a developmental territory.

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,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.

In August 2022, WWE announced that theNXT UKbrand would go on hiatus and would relaunch as NXT Europe at a later time.As such, NXT UK's championship's wereunifiedinto their respective NXT championship counterparts. On September 4, 2022, atWorlds Collide,reigning NXT Women's ChampionMandy RosedefeatedNXT UK Women's ChampionMeiko SatomuraandBlair Davenportin atriple threat matchto 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.

Tournaments

Inaugural NXT Women's Championship tournament (2013)

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Tamina Snuka

4:00

Paige

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Paige

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Alicia Fox

4:44

Bayley

3:27

Alicia Fox

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Paige

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Emma

13:12

Sasha Banks

3:30

Summer Rae

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Summer Rae

4:25

Emma

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Emma

Sub

Aksana

3:40

Second NXT Women's Championship tournament (2014)

Quarterfinals

Semifinals

Final

Bayley

3:58

Sasha Banks

Sub

Sasha Banks

4:06

Natalya

Sub

Layla

3:30

Natalya

Sub

Natalya

16:49

Charlotte

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Alexa Bliss

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Alicia Fox

3:08

Alexa Bliss

5:01

Charlotte

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Charlotte

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Emma

3:50

Third NXT Women's Championship tournament (2023)

First round NXT (May 9–16, 2023)

Semifinals NXT (May 23, 2023)

Final NXT Battleground (May 28, 2023)

Gigi Dolin

4:29

Tiffany Stratton

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Tiffany Stratton

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Roxanne Perez

9:39

Jacy Jayne

9:06

Roxanne Perez

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Tiffany Stratton

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Lyra Valkyria

16:01

Lyra Valkyria

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Kiana James

8:51

Lyra Valkyria

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Cora Jade

3:41

Fallon Henley

5:05

Cora Jade

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Belt designs

Sasha Bankswith 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 theWWE Networkthat launched earlier that year in February.

Ember Moonwith 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 atTakeOver: Orlandothat same night and given to the winners of their respective matches. The redesigned women's championship featured a nearly identical design to theredesigned 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.

On April 2, 2022, during NXT's WrestleMania week event,Stand & Deliver,reigning championMandy Rosedebuted a new belt design; it is 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 are on a white leather strap instead of black.When "NXT 2.0" went back to being called "NXT" in September, the default side plates were updated with the new NXT logo.

Reigns

Main article:List of NXT Women's Champions

Record-tying two-time and current championRoxanne Perez

As of August 28, 2024, there have been 20 reigns between 17 champions, and three vacancies. Paige was the inaugural champion.Asukais 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 ontape delay.Indi Hartwell has the shortest reign at 31 days. Paige is the youngest champion, winning it at the age of 20, whileShayna Baszleris the oldest, winning the championship at 38. Baszler,Charlotte Flair,andRoxanne Perezare 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, andMandy Rose.

Roxanne Perez is the current champion in her record-tying second reign. She defeatedLyra ValkyriaatStand & Deliveron April 6, 2024, inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania.

See also

• Women's championships in WWE
• Women in WWE

External links

• Official NXT Women's Championship title history
• Media related toWrestlers as the NXT Women's championat Wikimedia Commons