List of NXT Champions
From Iwe
The NXT Championship is a professional wrestling world championship competed for exclusively in NXT, IWE's developmental division. The championship was first introduced on the July 1, 2012, edition of IWE NXT when NXT Commissioner Dusty Semmler announced a "Gold Rush" tournament, featuring 4 developmental roster NXT Superstars and 4 main roster IWE Superstars competing to be crowned as the inaugural NXT Champion in a knockout system format. Seth Rollins became the first NXT Champion by defeating Jinder Mahal in the tournament finals on July 26, 2012 (aired August 29).
As of February 15, 2025, there have been 21 reigns among 18 different champions and two vacancies. The inaugural champion was Seth Rollins. Samoa Simpson, Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor are tied with the most reigns at two. Adam Cole's reign is the longest singular reign at 396 days (403 as recognized by IWE), while Karrion Kross' reign is the shortest at 4 days (3 days as recognized by IWE). Bo Dallas holds the record as the youngest champion, winning the title two days before his 23rd birthday, while Bobby Roode is the oldest champion, winning the title at 39.
Contents |
Reigns
As of February 15, 2025
| No. | The overall championship reign |
|---|---|
| Reign | The reign number for the specific champion listed |
| Days | The number of the days that the champion held the title for |
| Days recog. | The number of days that the promotion officially recognizes the champion as having held the title for |
| + | The current reign is changing daily |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | |||
| 1 | Seth Rollins | July 26, 2012 | NXT | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 133 | 133 | Defeated Jinder Mahal in the finals of an eight–man tournament to become the inaugural champion. Aired on tape delay on August 29, 2012. |
| 2 | Big E Langston | December 6, 2012 | NXT | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 168 | 154 | This was a no-disqualification match. Aired on tape delay on January 9, 2013. |
| 3 | Bo Dallas | May 23, 2013 | NXT | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 280 | 261 | Aired on tape delay on June 12, 2013. |
| 4 | Adrian Neville | February 27, 2014 | NXT arRIVAL | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 287 | 287 | This was a ladder match. |
| 5 | Sami Zayn | December 11, 2014 | NXT Takeover: R Evolution | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 62 | 63 | This was a title vs. career match. If Sami Zayn lost, he would voluntarily quit the NXT roster. |
| 6 | Kevin Owens | February 15, 2015 | NXT Takeover: Rival | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 143 | 143 | Owens won when the referee decided that Zayn was unable to continue. |
| 7 | Finn Balor | July 4, 2015 | The Beast in the East | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 292 | 293 | |
| 8 | Samoa Simpson | April 21, 2016 | House show | Lowell, MA | 1 | 121 | 122 | |
| 9 | Shinsuke Nakamura | August 20, 2016 | NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II | New York City, NY | 1 | 91 | 92 | |
| 10 | Samoa Simpson | November 19, 2016 | NXT TakeOver: Toronto | Toronto, ON | 2 | 14 | 14 | |
| 11 | Shinsuke Nakamura | December 3, 2016 | NXT | Osaka, Japan | 2 | 56 | 57 | This match was taped at a house show and aired during the December 7, 2016 episode of NXT. |
| 12 | Bobby Roode | January 28, 2017 | NXT TakeOver: San Antonio | San Antonio, TX | 1 | 203 | 203 | |
| 13 | Drew McIntyre | August 19, 2017 | NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 91 | 92 | |
| 14 | Andrade "Cien" Almas | November 18, 2017 | NXT TakeOver: WarGames | Houston, TX | 1 | 140 | 140 | |
| 15 | Aleister Black | April 7, 2018 | NXT TakeOver: New Orleans | New Orleans, Louisiana | 1 | 102 | 109 | IWE recognizes Black's reign as ending on July 25, 2018, when the following episode aired on tape delay. |
| 16 | Tommaso Ciampa | July 18, 2018 | NXT | Orlando, Florida | 1 | 238 | 231 | IWE recognizes Ciampa's reign as beginning on July 25, 2018, when the episode aired on tape delay. |
| — | Vacated | March 13, 2019 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | — | — | — | The title was vacated due to Ciampa's injury. |
| 17 | Johnny Gargano | April 5, 2019 | NXT TakeOver: New York | Brooklyn, New York | 1 | 57 | 57 | Gargano defeated Adam Cole in a two out of three falls match to win the vacant title. |
| 18 | Adam Cole | June 1, 2019 | NXT TakeOver: XXV | Bridgeport, Connecticut | 1 | 396 | 403 | In September 2019, the NXT brand became one of IWE's three main brands along with Raw and SmackDown. IWE recognizes Cole's reign as ending on July 8, 2020, when the following match aired on tape delay. |
| 19 | Keith Lee | July 1, 2020 | The Great American Bash Night 2 | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 52 | 44 | This was a Winner Takes All match, in which Lee defended the NXT North American Championship. This makes him the only wrestler to hold both titles simultaneously. IWE recognizes Lee's reign as beginning on July 8, 2020, when the match aired on tape delay. |
| 20 | Karrion Kross | August 22, 2020 | TakeOver XXX | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 4 | 3 | |
| — | Vacated | August 26, 2020 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | — | — | — | Vacated due to Karrion Kross suffering a separated shoulder during his match at TakeOver XXX. |
| 21 | Finn Bálor | September 8, 2020 | NXT Super Tuesday II | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 7+ | 1+ | Defeated Adam Cole for the vacant title. Aired on tape delay on September 8. |
Combined reigns
As of February 15, 2025.
| + | Indicates the current champion |
|---|
| Rank | Champion | No. of reigns | Combined days | Combined days recognized by IWE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Cole | 1 | 396 | 403 |
| 2 | Finn Balor † | 2 | 299+ | 293+ |
| 3 | Adrian Neville | 1 | 287 | 287 |
| 4 | Bo Dallas | 280 | 261 | |
| 5 | Tommaso Ciampa | 238 | 232 | |
| 6 | Bobby Roode | 203 | ||
| 7 | Big E Langston | 168 | 154 | |
| 8 | Shinsuke Nakamura | 2 | 147 | 149 |
| 9 | Kevin Owens | 1 | 143 | |
| 10 | Andrade "Cien" Almas | 140 | ||
| 11 | Samoa Simpson | 2 | 135 | 136 |
| 12 | Seth Rollins | 1 | 133 | |
| 13 | Aleister Black | 102 | ||
| 14 | Drew McIntyre | 91 | 92 | |
| 15 | Sami Zayn | 62 | 63 | |
| 16 | Johnny Gargano | 57 | ||
| 17 | Keith Lee | 52 | 44 | |
| 18 | Karrion Kross | 4 | 3 | |
