In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling. On July 1, the NXT Championship was introduced as the brand's top championship, as well as its first title, in turn replacing the FCW Florida Heavyweight Championship that had been retired along with the FCW territory. NXT Commissioner Dusty Rhodes announced an eight-man single-elimination tournament, dubbed the "Gold Rush" tournament, involving four wrestlers from NXT and four wrestlers from WWE's main roster competing to be crowned the first NXT Champion. On the July 26 taping of NXT, Seth Rollins defeated Jinder Mahal in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion. On November 19, 2016, at, Samoa Joe became the first performer to hold the championship on more than one occasion. After Drew McIntyre won the title in 2017, it was briefly referred to as a world championship, but has not been officially classified as such. In September 2019, the NXT brand itself became WWE's third major brand when it was moved to the USA Network.
Inaugural tournament
Belt design
The original NXT Championship belt featured a simple design. The large gold center plate was the letter "X". On the center left side of the X was a smaller letter "N" while on the opposing right side was the letter "T". The belt contained six total side plates, three sitting on either side of the center plate; each side plate only featured 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. The plates were on a large black leather strap. On WrestleMania weekend 2017, all existing NXT title belts at the time were redesigned. The new title belts were unveiled at that same night and given to the winners of their respective matches. Like the previous design, the plates are gold and on a black leather strap. The letter "X" again dominates the center plate with smaller letters "N" and "T" sitting on the left and right sides, respectively. On this new design, however, the letters are on an octagonal shaped plate. Above the "X" is the WWE logo, while below the "X" is a banner that reads "Champion". Simple ornamentation with some silver fills in the rest of the plate. Coming in line with the majority of WWE's other championships, the new design includes side plates with a removable center section that can be customized with the champion's logo; the default plates feature the WWE logo.
Reigns
As of ,, there have been 19 reigns among 17 different champions and one vacancy. The inaugural champion was Seth Rollins. Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura are tied with the most reigns at two. Adam Cole's reign is the longest singular reign at 396 days making it the only reign running a continuous year, while Samoa Joe's second reign is the shortest at 14 days. 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. Keith Lee is the current champion in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Adam Cole in a Winner Takes All match—in which Lee also defended the NXT North American Championship—on July 1, 2020 in Winter Park, Florida at The Great American Bash.
