The NXT Tag Team Championship is a men's professional wrestling tag team championship 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. 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 highe ...

. Introduced on January 23, 2013, the inaugural championship team was British Ambition ( Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey). The current champions are The New Day (

Kofi Kingston Kofi Nahaje Sarkodie-Mensah (born August 14, 1981) is a Ghanaian-born American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Kofi Kingston. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-ha ...

and

Xavier Woods Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT brand under the ring name Xavier Woods. He appeared on WWE's NXT brand as one-half of the current NXT Tag ...

), who are in their first reign. The title was established as the men's tag team championship for NXT, which at the time was a developmental territory for WWE. Over the years, NXT grew to become WWE's third major brand, which became official in September 2019 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 Madi ...

. Two years later, however, NXT reverted to its original function as WWE's developmental brand. In September 2022, the

NXT UK Tag Team Championship The NXT UK Tag Team Championship was a men's professional wrestling tag team 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 ...

was unified into the NXT Tag Team Championship.

History

In June 2012, WWE 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 the January 23 episode of ''

'', special guest and

WWE Hall of Fame The WWE Hall of Fame is a hall of fame which honors professional wrestlers and professional wrestling personalities maintained by WWE. Originally known as the "WWF Hall of Fame", it was created in 1993 when André the Giant was posthumously i ...

Shawn Michaels Michael Shawn Hickenbottom (born July 22, 1965), better known by his ring name Shawn Michaels, is an American retired professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE as Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative. Widely regarded as one ...

announced that there would be an eight-team

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 mat ...

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 ...

to crown the first NXT Tag Team Champions. On the January 31 taping of ''NXT'' (

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), a sculpture by Aristide Maillol * ''Air'' (painting), a painting by Jan van Kessel the Elder Films * ''Air'' ...

February 13), British Ambition ( Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey) defeated

The Wyatt Family The Wyatt Family was an American professional wrestling stable in WWE originally composed of Bray Wyatt, Erick Rowan, and Luke Harper. The Wyatt Family debuted in WWE's then developmental branch NXT in November 2012, with Harper and Rowan g ...

( Luke Harper and

Erick Rowan Joseph Ruud (born November 28, 1981) is an American professional wrestler performing as Erick Redbeard. Having previously wrestled in Japan, where he trained and performed for Pro Wrestling Noah, Ruud signed a contract with WWE in 2011. He was s ...

) in the tournament final to become the inaugural champions. In the first title defense, however, Neville and

Bo Dallas Taylor Michael Rotunda (born May 25, 1990) is an American professional wrestler. He is best known for his tenure in WWE, where he performed under the ring name Bo Dallas. Rotunda is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Blac ...

defended the title against The Wyatt Family due to Grey being injured, where they lost; Dallas was not recognized as champion. On the June 20 taping of ''NXT'' (aired July 17), Neville and

Corey Graves Matthew Polinsky (born February 24, 1984) is an American wrestling color commentator and retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler currently signed to WWE as a commentator and analyst for ''WWE Raw, Raw'' and ''WWE SmackDown, SmackDo ...

defeated The Wyatt Family for the title, making Neville the first two-time champion. On June 8, 2016, The Revival ( Scott Dawson and

Dash Wilder Daniel Marshall Wheeler (born May 17, 1987) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) under the ring name Cash Wheeler. Wheeler is also known for his time in WWE, under the ring name Dash Wilder. ...

) became the first team to hold the championship on more than one occasion when they defeated

American Alpha American Alpha was a professional wrestling tag team, composed of former amateur wrestlers Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. The team performed on WWE's developmental brand NXT before being moved up to the main roster on the SmackDown brand. The ...

(

Chad Gable Charles Edward Betts (born March 8, 1986) is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Chad Gable. He is a four-time tag team champion in ...

and

Jason Jordan Nathan Everhart (born September 28, 1988) is an American professional wrestler better known by the ring name Jason Jordan. He is currently signed to WWE, where he works as a producer. He has not wrestled since suffering a neck injury in Janu ...

) at TakeOver: The End. Although NXT had been established as WWE's developmental territory, over the years it grew to establish itself as WWE's third major brand. This would become official in September 2019 when NXT was moved to the

, thus making the NXT Tag Team Championship the third major tag team title for men in WWE, along with the

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship The WWE Raw Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, representing the Raw brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE's main ros ...

and

WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship The WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling world tag team championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, representing the SmackDown brand division. It is one of two male tag team championships for WWE ...

. However, WWE revamped NXT in September 2021 and returned the brand to its original function as a developmental territory. 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, th ...

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,

Pretty Deadly ''Pretty Deadly'' is a creator-owned American comic book series by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Spanish artist Emma Ríos, distributed by Image Comics. The story combines elements from western and horror genres, and draws on aspects from mythology ...

(Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) defeated Gallus ( Mark Coffey and Wolfgang), reigning NXT Tag Team Champions

The Creed Brothers The Creed Brothers are an American professional wrestling tag team consisting of brothers Brutus Creed (Drew Kasper; born May 13, 1996) and Julius Creed (Jacob Kasper; born October 3, 1994). They are currently working for the professional wrestlin ...

(Brutus Creed and Julius Creed), and NXT UK Tag Team Champions Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs in a fatal four-way tag team elimination match to unify the NXT UK Tag Team Championship into the NXT Tag Team Championship. Jensen and Briggs were recognized as the final NXT UK Tag Team Champions, while Pretty Deadly went forward as the unified NXT Tag Team Champions.

Inaugural tournament

Belt design

The original NXT Tag Team Championship belts featured a simple design. The center plate was an irregular polygon. Prominently down the center of the plate was a vertical NXT logo in gold; to the left center side of the logo read "Tag" while the right center side read "Team". The two side plates contained the WWE logo. The plates were on a black leather strap. A unique feature of this original design was that the two belts were slightly different. On one belt, the left side of the center plate was black with "Tag" written in gold while the right side of the center plate was gold with "Team" written in black; the other belt was the opposite. The side plates also reflected this coloring; the side plate on the black side was dominated by a black background behind the WWE logo while the side plate on the gold side had a dominant gold background behind the WWE logo. When first introduced, the side plates had the WWE 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 Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television t ...

. On April 1, 2017, at

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, int ...

, 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 all of the NXT title belts would be redesigned. The new title belts were unveiled at TakeOver: Orlando that same night and given to the winners of their respective matches. Both the center plate and side plates of the new NXT Tag Team Championship belts are the same shape as the previous design and are again on black leather straps. The differences are the design on the plates themselves. The center plate maintains the vertical NXT logo prominently in the center, but now in silver with the WWE logo affixed at the very center of the "X". At the top of the plate right above the vertical NXT logo is a banner that reads "Tag Team", while at the bottom of the plate below the logo is a banner that reads "Champions". Black, silver, and gold ornamentation fills in the rest of the plate. Unlike the previous design, both belts are exactly the same. Coming in line with the majority of WWE's other championship belts, the updated design features side plates with a removable center section that can be customized with the champion's logo; the default side plates feature the WWE logo. As a result, the championship was the first WWE tag team championship to feature customizable side plates.

Reigns

file:Kofi and Woods.png, 200px, Current champions The New Day -

(left) and

As of , , there have been 28 reigns between 23 teams composed of 47 individual champions, and two vacancies. The Undisputed Era as a stable have the most reigns at three, while individually, stable member

Kyle O'Reilly Kyle Edward Greenwood (born March 1, 1987) is a Canadian professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) where he performs under the ring name Kyle O'Reilly. He is also known for his time in Ring of Honor (ROH) from 2009 to 20 ...

has the most reigns, also at three. The inaugural champions were the British Ambition (Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey). The team with the longest reign is The Ascension ( Conor O'Brian/Konnor and Rick Victor/Viktor), who held the title for 364 days, while the shortest reign belongs to Moustache Mountain (

Tyler Bate Tyler Bate (born 7 March 1997) is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs on the NXT brand. In 2017, he became the inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion (later renamed NXT United Kingdom Championship) ...

and

Trent Seven Benjamin Maurice Webb (born 21 August 1981), better known by the ring name Trent Seven, is an English professional wrestler, wrestling promoter, and actor. He was signed to WWE on their NXT UK brand, where he is a former NXT UK Tag Team Champi ...

), who held the title for 2 days. However, due to tape delays, which are the dates that WWE officially recognizes, they recognize that The Ascension's reign was 343 days and that Moustache Mountain's reign was 22 days, which are still the longest and shortest reigns regardless. Tyler Bate holds the record as the youngest champion when he won it at 21, while the oldest is

Bobby Fish Robert Anthony Fish (born October 27, 1976) is an American professional wrestler currently appearing on the independent circuit. He is best known for his tenure with WWE, where he performed on the NXT brand and was a member of The Undisputed E ...

when he won it at 42. The current champions are The New Day (

and

), who are in their first reign, both as a team and individually. They defeated

(Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) on December 10, 2022 in

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

at NXT Deadline to win the titles.

Notes

References

External links

Official NXT Tag Team Championship Title History
{{NXT Championships WWE NXT championships Tag team wrestling championships