professional wrestling championship From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The WWE Cruiserweight Championship, later known as the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was a wrestling title owned by WWE. Only wrestlers under 205 lb (93 kg) could compete for it. The first champion was T.J. Perkins. On January 4, 2022, at New Year's Evil, the title was made into one with the NXT North American Championship and retired. Carmelo Hayes was the last champion.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship | |||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Two-time champion Neville with the first championship design (2016–2020) | |||||||||||||||||||||
Details | |||||||||||||||||||||
Promotion | WWE | ||||||||||||||||||||
Brand | Raw (2016–2018) 205 Live (2018–2022) NXT (2019–2022) NXT UK (2020–2022) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date established | September 14, 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Date retired | January 4, 2022 (made into one with the NXT North American Championship) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other name(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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The title did not continue the history of WWE's old Cruiserweight Championship.
In 2016, WWE created the Cruiserweight Classic, a 32-man tournament for cruiserweights.[1] When T.J. Perkins beat Gran Metalik in the final, Triple H gave him the new WWE Cruiserweight Championship for the new cruiserweight division on the Raw brand.[2][3]
After the show 205 Live was created, the Cruiserweight Championship also could be defended in this program.[4] When WWE fired the champion at the time, Enzo Amore in January 2018,[5] there was an announcement that there would be a general manager on 205 Live who would decide what would happen to the championship.[6] Drake Maverick was chosen to be the general manager and he decided that there would be a 16-man tournament to decide a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion and that the final would happen at WrestleMania 34. In the final, Cedric Alexander beat Ali to win the title.[7] After WrestleMania 34, 205 Live separated from Raw so the title was only defended on that show.
On October 3, 2019, the title was renamed to "NXT Cruiserweight Championship", became part of the NXT brand, and started being defended on the NXT TV show.[8] On October 18, Drake Maverick announced that NXT's cruiserweight wrestlers could also wrestle on 205 Live.[9][10] After Jordan Devlin won the title at Worlds Collide on January 25, 2020, the title could also be competed fot on the NXT UK brand.[11]
At NXT WarGames on December 5, 2021. Joe Gacy, who weighed 245 lbs, became the only man above the weight limit to challenge for the championship. Reigning NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong allowed Gacy to challenge for the title at WarGames. Gacy said that if he won the title, he would make it an all-inclusive championship.[12][13] At the event, Strong won and remained champion.[14]
At the special New Year's Evil episode of NXT 2.0 on January 4, 2022, North American Champion Carmelo Hayes defeated Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong to make the titles into one. Hayes became the last champion and went on as North American Champion. The Cruiserweight title was then retired.[15][16][17] The final episode of 205 Live aired on February 11, 2022, and it was replaced by NXT Level Up the following week on February 18.[18]
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 |
<1 | Reign lasted less than a day |
No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. | |||||
WWE: Raw | ||||||||||
1 | T. J. Perkins | September 14, 2016 | Cruiserweight Classic Finale | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 46 | 45 | Beat Gran Metalik in the tournament final to become the first champion. | [3] | |
2 | The Brian Kendrick | October 30, 2016 | Hell in a Cell | Boston, MA | 1 | 30 | 30 | [19] | ||
3 | Rich Swann | November 29, 2016 | 205 Live | Columbia, SC | 1 | 61 | 60 | Took place on the first episode of 205 Live. | [20] | |
4 | Neville | January 29, 2017 | Royal Rumble | San Antonio, TX | 1 | 197 | 196 | [21] | ||
5 | Akira Tozawa | August 14, 2017 | Raw | Boston, MA | 1 | 6 | 5 | [22] | ||
6 | Neville | August 20, 2017 | SummerSlam Kickoff |
Brooklyn, NY | 2 | 35 | 35 | [23] | ||
7 | Enzo Amore | September 24, 2017 | No Mercy | Los Angeles, CA | 1 | 15 | 15 | [24] | ||
8 | Kalisto | October 9, 2017 | Raw | Indianapolis, IN | 1 | 13 | 12 | This was a lumberjack match. | [25] | |
9 | Enzo Amore | October 22, 2017 | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs | Minneapolis, MN | 2 | 93 | 92 | [26] | ||
— | Vacated | January 23, 2018 | — | — | — | — | — | Reigning champion Enzo Amore was released from WWE one day after it was confirmed that he was under investigation for an alleged sexual assault that was reported to the police in October 2017. | [27][28] | |
10 | Cedric Alexander | April 8, 2018 | WrestleMania 34 Kickoff |
New Orleans, Louisiana LA | 1 | 181 | 180 | Defeated Mustafa Ali in a tournament final to win the vacant championship. The title then became exclusive to the 205 Live brand. |
[7] | |
WWE: 205 Live | ||||||||||
11 | Buddy Murphy | October 6, 2018 | Super Show-Down | Melbourne, Australia | 1 | 183 | 183 | [29] | ||
12 | Tony Nese | April 7, 2019 | WrestleMania 35 Kickoff |
East Rutherford, NJ | 1 | 77 | 77 | [30] | ||
13 | Drew Gulak | June 23, 2019 | Stomping Grounds Kickoff |
Tacoma, WA | 1 | 108 | 108 | This was a triple threat match also including Akira Tozawa, who was pinned by Gulak. In October 2019, the title became shared between 205 Live and NXT, and it was renamed to "NXT Cruiserweight Championship". |
[31] | |
WWE: NXT and 205 Live | ||||||||||
14 | Lio Rush | October 9, 2019 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 63 | 63 | [32] | ||
15 | Angel Garza | December 11, 2019 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 45 | 44 | [33] | ||
16 | Jordan Devlin | January 25, 2020 | Worlds Collide | Houston, TX | 1 | 439 | 438 | [lower-alpha 3] | [11][34] | |
WWE: NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live | ||||||||||
17 | El Hijo Del Fantasma/Santos Escobar | May 27, 2020 | NXT | Winter Park, FL | 1 | 321 | 313 | [lower-alpha 4] | [35][36][34] | |
18 | Kushida | April 13, 2021 | NXT | Orlando, FL | 1 | 161 | 160 | [37] | ||
19 | Roderick Strong | September 21, 2021 | NXT 2.0 | Orlando, FL | 1 | 105 | 105 | [38] | ||
20 | Carmelo Hayes | January 4, 2022 | NXT 2.0: New Year's Evil |
Orlando, FL | 1 | <1 | <1 | This was a title unification match in which Hayes also defended the NXT North American Championship. | [39] | |
— | Unified | January 4, 2022 | NXT 2.0: New Year's Evil |
Orlando, FL | — | — | — | Carmelo Hayes defeated Roderick Strong to make the NXT Cruiserweight Championship into one with the NXT North American Championship. The Cruiserweight Championship was retired with Hayes going on as North American Champion. | [39] |
Rank | Wrestler | No. of reigns |
Combined days |
Combined days rec. by WWE |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jordan Devlin | 1 | 439 | 438 |
2 | El Hijo del Fantasma/Santos Escobar | 1 | 321 | 313 |
3 | Neville | 2 | 232 | 231 |
4 | Buddy Murphy | 1 | 183 | |
5 | Cedric Alexander | 1 | 181 | 180 |
6 | Kushida | 1 | 161 | 160 |
7 | Enzo Amore | 2 | 108 | 107 |
Drew Gulak | 1 | 108 | ||
9 | Roderick Strong | 1 | 105 | |
10 | Tony Nese | 1 | 77 | |
11 | Lio Rush | 1 | 63 | |
12 | Rich Swann | 1 | 61 | 60 |
13 | T. J. Perkins | 1 | 46 | 45 |
14 | Angel Garza | 1 | 45 | 44 |
15 | The Brian Kendrick | 1 | 30 | |
16 | Kalisto | 1 | 13 | 12 |
17 | Akira Tozawa | 1 | 6 | 5 |
18 | Carmelo Hayes | 1 | <1 |
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