NXT North American Championship


The NXT North American Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on their NXT brand division. It is one of three secondary championships in WWE, along with the United States Championship on Raw and the Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown. The championship is currently vacant; previous title holder Keith Lee voluntarily relinquished the title so that he could focus on defending the NXT Championship. The next champion will be determined at TakeOver XXX on August 22, 2020.
Introduced during the March 7, 2018 tapings of NXT, the title was established as the secondary championship for NXT, which at the time was still regarded as a developmental territory for WWE. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Around this time, NXT was in the midst of establishing itself as WWE's third major brand, which became official in September 2019 when NXT was moved to the USA Network.
The title is distinct from the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship, as it does not carry the lineage of the former title, which was contested from 1979–1981.

History

In June 2012, WWE established NXT as their developmental territory, replacing Florida Championship Wrestling. It was not until 2018, however, that a secondary championship was established for the brand. During the March 7, 2018, tapings of NXT, NXT General Manager William Regal announced a ladder match for to determine the inaugural NXT North American Champion. Later that night, EC3, Killian Dain, Adam Cole, Ricochet, Lars Sullivan, and Velveteen Dream were announced as the participants in the match. At the event, Cole won the match to become the inaugural champion.
While NXT had originally been established as WWE's developmental territory, the NXT North American Championship was introduced in the midst of NXT establishing itself as WWE's third major brand. This became official when NXT was moved to the USA Network in September 2019, thus making the NXT North American Championship a third secondary title for WWE, along with the WWE Intercontinental and United States Championships.

Belt design

The design of the belt was unveiled by WWE Chief Operating Officer and NXT head Triple H on April 3, 2018. Featuring three gold plates on a thick brown leather strap, the rounded center plate features a globe that only shows the continent of North America. The banner above the globe reads "North American" and above the banner is the NXT logo. The lower banner at the bottom of the globe reads "Champion". In what has become a prominent feature of WWE's championship belts, the two side plates feature a removable center section which can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates feature a vertical NXT logo on a globe. This was WWE's first secondary title to feature customizable side plates. It is also the only NXT championship to feature the NXT logo for the default side plates; the others feature the WWE logo.

Reigns

As of ,, there have been six reigns between six champions and one vacancy. The inaugural champion was Adam Cole. Velveteen Dream has the longest reign as champion at 231 days while Johnny Gargano has the shortest reign at 4 days. Due to tape delay, WWE recognizes that Dream's reign lasted 209 days while Gargano's lasted 25 days. Dream was also the youngest champion, winning the title at 23, while Roderick Strong was the oldest at 36.
The championship is currently vacant. During Night 2 of The Great American Bash, Keith Lee defeated Adam Cole in a Winner Takes All match to win the NXT Championship. During the July 15 taping of NXT, Lee voluntarily relinquished the North American Championship so that he could focus on defending the NXT Championship. A five-man ladder match was then scheduled for TakeOver XXX on August 22, 2020 to determine the next North American Champion.