The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is defended as the secondary men's championship of the developmental brand, NXT. Oba Femi is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating SmackDown's Dragon Lee in his NXT Breakout Tournament contract cash-in match on the January 9, 2024, episode of NXT.
As of September 20, 2024, there have been 22 reigns between 18 champions and two vacancies. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Johnny Gargano has the most reigns at three. Wes Lee's sole reign is the longest at 269 days, while Trick Williams' sole reign is the shortest reign at 3 days. Carmelo Hayes has the longest combined reign at 273 days across his two reigns. Velveteen Dream is the youngest champion, winning the title at 23 years old, while Damian Priest is the oldest, winning the title at 37.
No. | Overall reign number |
---|---|
Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
Days | Number of days held |
Days recog. | Number of days held recognized by the promotion |
+ | Current reign is changing daily |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | ||||
1 | Adam Cole | April 7, 2018 | TakeOver: New Orleans | New Orleans, LA | 1 | 133 | 132 | Defeated EC3, Killian Dain, Lars Sullivan, Ricochet, and Velveteen Dream in a six-man ladder match to become the inaugural champion. | [1][2] |
2 | Ricochet | August 18, 2018 | TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 161 | 161 | [3] | |
3 | Johnny Gargano | January 26, 2019 | TakeOver: Phoenix | Phoenix, AZ | 1 | 4 | 25 | WWE recognizes Gargano's reign as ending on February 20, 2019, when the following episode aired on tape delay. | [4] |
4 | Velveteen Dream | January 30, 2019 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 231 | 209 | WWE taped two endings for the match, one with Gargano retaining and the other with Dream winning.[5] The latter was revealed as the true result when the episode aired on tape delay on February 20, the date WWE recognizes for Dream's reign. | [6] |
5 | Roderick Strong | September 18, 2019 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 126 | 126 | [7] | |
6 | Keith Lee | January 22, 2020 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 175 | 181 | WWE recognizes Lee's reign as ending on July 22, 2020, when the episode in which he vacated the title aired on tape delay. | [8] |
— | Vacated | July 15, 2020 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | — | — | — | Keith Lee voluntarily relinquished the title two weeks after winning the NXT Championship in order to focus on defending the latter. This episode aired on tape delay on July 22, 2020. | [9][10] |
7 | Damian Priest | August 22, 2020 | TakeOver XXX | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 67 | 67 | Defeated Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Johnny Gargano, and Velveteen Dream in a five-man ladder match to win the vacant title. | [11] |
8 | Johnny Gargano | October 28, 2020 | NXT: Halloween Havoc |
Orlando, FL | 2 | 14 | 14 | This was a Devil's Playground match. | [12] |
9 | Leon Ruff | November 11, 2020 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 25 | 25 | [13] | |
10 | Johnny Gargano | December 6, 2020 | TakeOver: WarGames | Orlando, FL | 3 | 163 | 163 | This was a triple threat match, also involving Damian Priest. | [14] |
11 | Bronson Reed | May 18, 2021 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 42 | 41 | This was a Steel Cage match. | [15] |
12 | Isaiah "Swerve" Scott | June 29, 2021 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 105 | 104 | [16] | |
13 | Carmelo Hayes | October 12, 2021 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 172 | 171 | This was Hayes' Breakout Tournament contract cash-in match. At NXT: New Year's Evil on January 4, 2022, Hayes defeated Roderick Strong to unify the NXT Cruiserweight Championship into the NXT North American Championship. |
[17][18] |
14 | Cameron Grimes | April 2, 2022 | Stand & Deliver | Dallas, TX | 1 | 63 | 63 | This was a five-man ladder match, also involving Santos Escobar, Solo Sikoa, and Grayson Waller. | [19] |
15 | Carmelo Hayes | June 4, 2022 | In Your House | Orlando, FL | 2 | 101 | 101 | [20] | |
16 | Solo Sikoa | September 13, 2022 | NXT 2.0: One Year Anniversary Show |
Orlando, FL | 1 | 7 | 6 | Sikoa replaced Wes Lee after Lee was injured by Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams. | [21] |
— | Vacated | September 20, 2022 | NXT | Orlando, FL | — | — | — | Shawn Michaels ordered Solo Sikoa to vacate the title as he was not originally scheduled to be in the match in which he won the title. It is unknown when the segment was taped. | [22] |
17 | Wes Lee | October 22, 2022 | Halloween Havoc | Orlando, FL | 1 | 269 | 269 | Defeated Carmelo Hayes, Von Wagner, Nathan Frazer, and Oro Mensah in a five-man ladder match for the vacant title. | [23] |
18 | "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio | July 18, 2023 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 74 | 73 | [24] | |
19 | Trick Williams | September 30, 2023 | No Mercy | Bakersfield, CA | 1 | 3 | 3 | Dragon Lee was the special guest referee. | [25] |
20 | "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio | October 3, 2023 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 2 | 67 | 66 | [26] | |
21 | Dragon Lee | December 9, 2023 | Deadline | Bridgeport, CT | 1 | 31 | 31 | [27] | |
22 | Oba Femi | January 9, 2024 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 255+ | 255+ | This was Femi's Breakout Tournament contract cash-in match. | [28] |
As of September 20, 2024.
† | Indicates the current champion |
---|
Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
Combined days rec. by WWE |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Carmelo Hayes | 2 | 273 | 272 |
2 | Wes Lee | 1 | 269 | |
3 | Oba Femi † | 1 | 255+ | |
4 | Velveteen Dream | 1 | 231 | 209 |
5 | Johnny Gargano | 3 | 181 | 202 |
6 | Keith Lee | 1 | 175 | 181 |
7 | Ricochet | 1 | 161 | |
8 | "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio | 2 | 141 | 139 |
9 | Adam Cole | 1 | 133 | 132 |
10 | Roderick Strong | 1 | 126 | |
11 | Isaiah "Swerve" Scott | 1 | 105 | 104 |
12 | Damian Priest | 1 | 67 | |
13 | Cameron Grimes | 1 | 63 | |
14 | Bronson Reed | 1 | 42 | 41 |
15 | Dragon Lee | 1 | 31 | |
16 | Leon Ruff | 1 | 25 | |
17 | Solo Sikoa | 1 | 7 | 6 |
18 | Trick Williams | 1 | 3 |