NXT Cruiserweight Championship


The NXT Cruiserweight Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, currently defended on their NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live brand divisions. It is the promotion's only championship with a weight limit, wherein only wrestlers 205 lbs and under—designated as cruiserweights—can compete for the title. The current champion is Jordan Devlin from NXT UK, who is in his first reign; however, due to a travel ban as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an interim champion is serving as the titleholder in the United States until Devlin's return. Santos Escobar from NXT is the current interim champion in his first reign.
Originally established as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, it was first unveiled on September 14, 2016, as the award for the Cruiserweight Classic, which was won by T.J. Perkins. It was originally defended on Monday Night Raw as part of the Raw brand's cruiserweight division before the premiere of the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live in November 2016, after which, it was defended on both shows. Following WrestleMania 34 in 2018, the title became exclusively defended on the 205 Live brand. In October 2019, the title became shared between 205 Live and NXT and was renamed the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, and was then extended to NXT UK in January 2020.
The title is distinct from the previous WWE Cruiserweight Championship that originated in World Championship Wrestling and was retired in 2007. Although the two titles had shared the same name, they do not share the same title history.

History

In mid-2016, WWE held the Cruiserweight Classic, a WWE Network series and tournament for wrestlers 205 lbs and under, billed as cruiserweights. Tournament qualifying matches took place in various promotions of the independent circuit, including well known promotions such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Evolve. Many cruiserweight wrestlers from around the world were given the chance to qualify for the 32-man single-elimination tournament, which took place over four dates: June 23, July 13, August 26, and September 14.
The final of the Cruiserweight Classic came down to T.J. Perkins and Gran Metalik. Before the final match, Triple H revealed that the winner would not only receive a trophy but would also become WWE Cruiserweight Champion for the revived cruiserweight division for the promotion's Raw brand. Perkins defeated Metalik to become the inaugural champion.
Originally, the championship was defended exclusively on Monday Night Raw. On November 29, 2016, a cruiserweight-exclusive show entitled 205 Live premiered on the WWE Network. On the premiere episode, Rich Swann defeated The Brian Kendrick to win the championship. The title then became defended on both Raw and 205 Live. In early 2018, Triple H was given creative control over 205 Live, as he has with the NXT brand, and began restructuring the show. Following WrestleMania 34, 205 Live became its own brand where the title became exclusively defended. Although the title became exclusive to 205 Live, it was still defended on WWE's main pay-per-views alongside Raw and SmackDown.
After then-champion Enzo Amore was released from WWE on January 23, 2018, and the title was vacated, it was announced that a general manager would be appointed for 205 Live and would address the championship. On the January 30 episode of 205 Live, Drake Maverick was appointed as the 205 Live General Manager. Maverick announced that there would be a 16-man single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, with the finals to occur on the WrestleMania 34 Kickoff pre-show. The tournament came down to Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali, where Alexander defeated Ali to win the vacant championship.
Just prior to NXT moving to the USA Network in September 2019, NXT head Triple H spoke with Newsweek and said that "You'll start to see 205 begin to become part of NXT". He said that 205 Live's talent would start moving towards NXT, that 205 Live had "become lost in limbo", and that the Cruiserweight Championship would have more meaning on NXT where it could create more opportunities for the cruiserweight wrestlers. It was then reported that the NXT Creative Team would be in charge of 205 Live. The following month, the title was renamed to the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, becoming part of the NXT brand, and started being defended on the NXT show. NXT, previously a developmental territory for WWE, became the promotion's third major brand with the move to USA.
On October 18, 2019, Drake Maverick – who himself was drafted to SmackDown but remaining as the General Manager of 205 Live – announced that following the 2019 WWE Draft, he had made a talent exchange agreement with NXT General Manager William Regal, whereby NXT's cruiserweight wrestlers could also wrestle on 205 Live. With Jordan Devlin's win at Worlds Collide on January 25, 2020, the title also became shared with the NXT UK brand.
Due to the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom, current champion Jordan Devlin is unable to travel outside of his home country and defend the title. On April 8, 2020, NXT General Manager William Regal announced a tournament to crown an interim champion in the United States which would begin on the April 15 episode of NXT. Devlin responded by stating that whoever won was a fraud and that when he can return, he would prove that he is the only true NXT Cruiserweight Champion. The interim championship tournament was won by Santos Escobar, who was using his prior persona El Hijo del Fantasma during the tournament.

Inaugural tournament (2016)

Interim championship tournament (2020)

A round-robin tournament began on April 15, 2020, to determine the interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion after Jordan Devlin was deemed unable to defend the title due to COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions. Eight wrestlers were split into two groups of four, where each wrestler competed against the other three members of their respective group. The wrestlers with the best record in each group then competed to determine the interim champion. Any ties were broken by head-to-head results.
Group A consisted of Kushida, Tony Nese, Jake Atlas, and former 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick, while Group B consisted of Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, El Hijo del Fantasma, Akira Tozawa, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher. Although Maverick was released from WWE on April 15, he confirmed via Twitter that he would still be competing in the tournament; at the time, he had stated they would be his last matches in the company. As a result of a tie in Group A, Maverick, Kushida, and Atlas faced each other in a triple threat match on the May 27 episode of NXT to determine the winner of the group; Maverick won to advance to the final against Group B's winner, Fantasma. The final occurred during the May 27 tapings of NXT where Fantasma defeated Maverick to become the interim champion; following the match, Triple H offered Maverick a new NXT contract, which he accepted. The following week, Fantasma turned heel on Maverick, unmasked himself, and changed his ring name to Santos Escobar.
Group AKushidaNeseAtlasMaverick
KushidaKushida
Kushida
Maverick
NeseKushida
Atlas
Maverick
AtlasKushida
Atlas
Atlas
MaverickMaverick
Maverick
Atlas
Group BSwerveFantasmaTozawaGallagher
SwerveSwerve
Tozawa
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FantasmaSwerve
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TozawaTozawa
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GallagherGallagher
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Brand designation

The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the NXT Cruiserweight Championship between WWE's brands.
Date of transitionBrandNotes
September 14, 2016RawThe championship was established for Raw as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. TJ Perkins became the inaugural champion by winning the Cruiserweight Classic.
November 29, 2016205 LiveThe WWE Cruiserweight Championship became part of 205 Live after the launch of that brand on November 29, 2016, though the championship continued to be defended on Raw until WrestleMania 34, after which, it became exclusive to 205 Live.
October 9, 2019Shared
The WWE Cruiserweight Championship became shared between 205 Live and NXT in October 2019 and was renamed to NXT Cruiserweight Championship.
January 25, 2020Shared
In addition to 205 Live and NXT, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship became shared with NXT UK in January 2020.

Belt design

When the championship was introduced, the irregularly shaped center plate of the belt largely featured a globe with the WWE logo over the top of it. Above the globe was a banner that read "Cruiserweight" and below the globe was one that read "Champion". Ornamentation filled out the rest of the plate. In what has become a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts, the side plates featured removable center sections, allowing the holder's personal logo to be added to the championship belt; the default side plates showed silver and purple world maps with the WWE logo over them. The plates were on a purple strap. During Neville's first reign, the color of the slash under the WWE logo on the center plate and default side plates was changed from purple to orange.
On January 25, 2020, Triple H and NXT General Manager William Regal presented a new NXT-branded Cruiserweight Championship belt to then-champion Angel Garza. The design is largely the same, except the WWE logo on the center plate was replaced with a vertical NXT logo and the purple strap was changed to a dark purple, almost black colored strap. The color of the slash under the WWE logo on the side plates was also changed to silver.

Reigns

As of ,, there have been sixteen reigns between fourteen champions and one vacancy. The inaugural champion was T.J. Perkins. The oldest champion is The Brian Kendrick, winning the title at 37 years old, while the youngest champion is Lio Rush when he won it at 24. Neville and Enzo Amore are tied for the most reigns at two. Neville's first reign is also the longest reign at 197 days, while Akira Tozawa's singular reign is the shortest at 6 days. Neville also has the longest combined reign at 232 days.
Jordan Devlin is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating previous champion Angel Garza, Travis Banks, and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, who Devlin pinned, in a fatal four-way match at Worlds Collide on January 25, 2020 in Houston, Texas. However, due to a travel ban as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an interim champion was determined to serve as titleholder in the United States until Devlin's return. Santos Escobar is the current interim champion in his first reign. He defeated Drake Maverick in the interim championship tournament final while under his previous persona El Hijo del Fantasma during the May 27 tapings of NXT in Winter Park, Florida.