The NXT Women's Championship is a

women's professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. As is the norm for this sport, women's professional wrestling is organized by wrestling federations called promotions. Some promotions are exclusively for women, ...

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

created and promoted by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. It is defended on the

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * ''WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * ''NXT UK'', the British spin- ...

brand division, the promotion's

developmental territory In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team, feeder club, or nursery club is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher ...

. Introduced on April 5, 2013, the inaugural champion was Paige. The current champion is

Roxanne Perez Carla Gonzalez (born November 5, 2001) is an American professional wrestler signed to WWE where she performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Roxanne Perez, where she is the current NXT Women's Champion in her first reign. She is a former ...

, who is in her first reign. At the time the title was established, NXT was a developmental territory for WWE. In September 2019, the promotion began promoting NXT as its "third brand" when the ''

'' television program was moved to the

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...

. Two years later, however, NXT reverted to its original function as WWE's developmental brand. In 2020, the NXT Women's Championship became the first and so far only NXT championship to be selected by a

Royal Rumble match The Royal Rumble match is a professional wrestling match based on the classic Battle Royal match in which a number of wrestlers (traditionally 30) aim at eliminating their competitors by tossing them over the top rope, with both feet touching the ...

winner, and subsequently, it became the first and so far only NXT championship to be defended at a

WrestleMania WrestleMania is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event held annually between mid-March and mid-April by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. Since premiering in 1985, 37 editions followed, mos ...

WrestleMania 36 WrestleMania 36 was the 36th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic ...

. In September 2022, the

NXT UK Women's Championship The NXT UK Women's Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship that was created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It was defended on the NXT UK brand division, a sister brand of WWE's developmental territory NXT ba ...

was unified into the NXT Women's Championship by

Mandy Rose Amanda Rose Saccomanno (born July 18, 1990) is an American professional wrestler, television personality, and fitness and figure competitor. She is best known for her time in WWE, where she performed under the ring name Mandy Rose. Rose began ...

History

Paige as NXT Women's Champion WrestleMania Axxess 2014 3

In June 2012,

established

as their

, replacing

Florida Championship Wrestling Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) was a professional wrestling promotion based on the former National Wrestling Alliance member promotion, Championship Wrestling from Florida, which operated from 1961 until 1987. From October 2007 to August ...

(FCW). The following year on April 5, the NXT Women's Championship was introduced during

WrestleMania Axxess WrestleMania Axxess is a professional wrestling fan convention held by WWE during the week of WrestleMania. The event typically runs for four days—from Thursday to WrestleMania Sunday—and features WWE talent and alumni autograph signings, inte ...

. On the May 30 tapings of ''

'' (

aired Air is the name given to the atmosphere of Earth. Air or AIR may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Art *Air (Maillol), ''Air'' (Maillol), a sculpture by Aristide Maillol *Air (painting), ''Air'' (painting), a painting by Jan van Kess ...

June 5), WWE's

Chief Brand Officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

Stephanie McMahon Stephanie McMahon Levesque (born Stephanie Marie McMahon; ; September 24, 1976) is an American businesswoman and retired professional wrestler. She is the current chairwoman and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of WWE, the world's largest profe ...

announced that there would be an eight-woman

single-elimination A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, 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 of ''NXT'' (aired July 24), Paige defeated Emma in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion. Paige successfully defended her title at

Arrival Arrival(s) or The Arrival(s) may refer to: Film * ''The Arrival'' (1991 film), an American science fiction horror film * ''The Arrival'' (1996 film), an American-Mexican science fiction horror film * ''Arrival'' (film), a 2016 American science ...

against Emma. Then-NXT

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

John "Bradshaw" Layfield John Charles Layfield (born November 29, 1966), better known by the ring name John "Bradshaw" Layfield (abbreviated to JBL), is an American retired professional wrestler and football player. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on ...

, stripped Paige of the title on the April 24, 2014, episode of ''NXT'', as Paige had recently won the

WWE Divas Championship The WWE Divas Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship in WWE. The championship was created by WWE in 2008, and was introduced as part of the WWE brand extension via a storyline by then SmackDown General Manager Vickie Gue ...

, and was in turn promoted to WWE's main roster. A new tournament began the following week. The finals occurred at

TakeOver In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are listed on a stock exchange, in contrast to t ...

where

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

defeated

Natalya Natalya (russian: Наталья) is the Russian form of the female given name Natalia. The name Natasha (russian: link=no, Наташа), being originally a diminutive form of Natalya, became an independent name outside the Russian-speaking state ...

to win the vacant NXT Women's Championship. On the September 16, 2015, episode of ''NXT'', now NXT General Manager

William Regal Darren Kenneth Matthews (born 10 May 1968), better known by the ring name William Regal, is an English retired professional wrestler. He is known for his over 20 years spent in WWE, as both a performer and an on-screen authority, and for his ti ...

announced that Bayley would defend her title against

Sasha Banks Mercedes Justine Kaestner-Varnado (born January 26, 1992) is an American professional wrestler and actress. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sasha Banks. Banks previously wrestled on ...

in the

main event In sports, a card lists the matches taking place in a title match combat-sport event. Cards include a main event match and the undercard listing the rest of the matches. The undercard may be divided into a midcard and a lower card, according to ...

at TakeOver: Respect on October 7 in the first-ever 30-minute Iron Woman match in 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 when ''NXT'' was moved to the

. 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 The WWE Raw Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two women's world titles for WWE's main roster, along ...

—which had replaced the Divas title in 2016—and the

SmackDown Women's Championship The WWE SmackDown Women's Championship is a women's professional wrestling world championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the SmackDown brand division. It is one of two women's world titles for WWE's main rost ...

. 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

, 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

where during WrestleMania 36 Part 2, Flair defeated defending champion

Rhea Ripley Demi Bennett (born 11 October 1996) is an Australian professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Rhea Ripley and is a member of The Judgment Day. She was also the inaugural N ...

to 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 the

NXT UK ''NXT UK'' is a professional wrestling television programme that was produced exclusively in the United Kingdom by the American promotion WWE. It aired on BT Sport and 5Action (previously known as Paramount Network). In the United States, the s ...

brand would go on hiatus and would relaunch as NXT Europe in 2023. 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

defeated NXT UK Women's Champion

Meiko Satomura Meiko Satomura (里村明衣子, Satomura Meiko, born November 11, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is currently signed to the American promotion WWE performing on the NXT brand and the Japanese promotion Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestlin ...

and

Blair Davenport Beatrice St. Clere Priestley (born 22 March 1996) is an English-New Zealand professional wrestler, best known by the ring name Bea Priestley. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Blair Davenpor ...

in a

triple threat match Many types of wrestling matches, sometimes called "concept" or " gimmick matches" in the jargon of the business, are performed in professional wrestling. Some gimmick matches are more common than others and are often used to advance or conclude a ...

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.

Inaugural NXT Women's Championship tournament (2013)

Second NXT Women's Championship tournament (2014)

Belt design

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 WWE Network is a subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and digital television network owned by the American entertainment company WWE. It primarily distributes original professional wrestling events, films, television and ...

. 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 the majority of 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 champion

debuted 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.

Reigns

As of , , there have been 15 reigns between 13 champions, and two vacancies. Paige was the inaugural champion.

Asuka Asuka may refer to: People * Asuka (name), a list of people * Asuka (wrestler), professional wrestler * Asuka (wrestler, born 1998), professional wrestler also known as Veny outside of Japan Places In Japan * , an area in Yamato Province (now ...

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.

Kairi Sane is a Japanese professional wrestler and actress currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wonder Ring Stardom under the ring name Kairi (stylized in all caps). Housako is also known for her work with WWE as . She is the cur ...

has the shortest reign at 71 days; however, WWE recognizes Charlotte Flair's second reign as the shortest at 63 days due to tape delay (in reality, Flair held the title for either 73 or 74 days; the exact date that she won the title is unknown). Paige is the youngest champion, winning it at the age of 20, while

Shayna Baszler Shayna Andrea Baszler ( ; born August 8, 1980) is an American professional wrestler, kickboxer and former mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand. Baszler is a former two-time and longest ...

is the oldest, winning the championship at 38. Baszler and Flair 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

is the current champion in her first reign. She defeated

on the December 13, 2022 episode of ''

'' in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

Notes

References

External links

Official NXT Women's Championship title history
{{NXT Championships WWE NXT championships WWE women's championships