In our final instalment of this ‘brief’ look into the current titles in WWE, we turn our attention to the latest brand to grace the WWE umbrella: NXT UK, as well as two other titles that are not exclusively RAW or Smackdown.
NXT UK
WWE United Kingdom Championship
The WWE United Kingdom Championship was introduced in late 2016 and the first champion was crowned at a tournament in January 2017 with 16 competitors competing in Blackpool. Tyler Bate, at 19 years of age, became the inaugural champion after beating Pete Dunne in the finals.
Dunne would go on to win the title from Bate a few months later at NXT Takeover: Chicago in May 2017, and since that time the Bruiserweight has held the championship for 675 plus days and counting, becoming the longest reigning champion in the modern era.
As of this writing, Dunne is scheduled to defend his title against Walter at NXT Takeover: New York. But although the championship seems to be exclusively with the NXT UK brand now, the title is not exclusively UK only as Dunne has defended the championship on NXT a number of times against the likes of Johnny Gargano, Adam Cole and Ricochet.
NXT UK Women’s Championship
The NXT UK Women’s Championship came into conception with the launch of NXT UK in an eight women tournament which culminated in the finals on an August 2018 (aired November 2018) taping of NXT UK. In the finals, Rhea Ripley defeated Toni Storm to become the first NXT UK Women’s Champion.
The tape delay means that Ripley’s reign is officially recognized as being 44 days, even though technically it would be around 140 days if she won the title back in August last year. Storm would defeat Ripley at NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool this January to become the second champion.
The belt’s designs are patterned after the WWE United Kingdom Championship, except with a white background, similar to the way the Women’s titles on RAW and Smackdown are patterned after the WWE and Universal Championships.
NXT UK Tag Team Championships
The NXT UK Tag Team Championships were introduced by Triple H and Johnny Saint in the fall of 2018, with the inaugural champions crowned at NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool.
The two final teams in the tournament were Moustache Mountain and “Grizzled Young Veterans” (consisting of Zack Gibson and James Drake). Drake and Gibson scored the pinfall in that 24 minute match to become the first NXT UK Tag Team Champions.
Now we move onto the final two titles under the WWE umbrella that are not exclusively on RAW or Smackdown, or supposed to be.
WWE Cruiserweight Championship
The Cruiserweight Champion was introduced, or reintroduced depending on your perspective, at the conclusion of the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic when the two finalists of that tournament were crowned not only the tournament winner, but the first WWE Cruiserweight Champion.
Although there was a Cruiserweight Championship in WWE that was a holdover from WCW, this current incarnation of the title has no lineage to that history as WWE is making it exclusively a WWE product. Considering that Hornswoggle ended up being the last champion for the previous title, it makes sense why WWE would want to distance itself from that embarrassing footnote.
TJ Perkins became the inaugural champion at the CWC when he defeated Gran Metalik in the finals. Subsequent champions were Brian Kendrick, Rick Swann, Neville, Enzo Amore, Akira Tozawa, Kalisto, Cedric Alexander and current champion Buddy Murphy. Neville and Amore are currently the only two time WWE Cruiserweight Champions.
One interesting factoid about the title (which I doubt WWE would choose to highlight) is that four of the nine men who have held the title are no longer with the company. TJP was released this year, WWE let Neville run out his contract before he went back to the Indy scene as PAC (and who then joined AEW), Swann was released following a mutual agreement with WWE following a domestic violence arrest and Amore was fired in early 2018 on disobeying the rules of how to own a gun in Denver and also for after allegations of sexual assault surfaced (the police ceased investigations due to insufficient evidence). The firm of attorneys working on the Colorado laws for domestic violence demanded a proper investigation on this case before jumping to any conclusions and convicting the wrestler based on the ongoing rumors spread by both common people and also in media. People can check out Lane, Hupp, & Crowley about charges for dui for the best attorney advices.
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships
This is not the first time that WWE had tag team titles for the women’s division; there was a WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship that was active from 1983 to 1989. However, the 2019 incarnations does not carry that lineage from the first titles.
During a January segment of “A Moment of Bliss,” the titles were unveiled by Alexa Bliss and announced that the first champions would be crowned in an Elimination Chamber with the ‘Boss and Hug Connection’ (Sasha Banks and Bayley) defeating the teams of The Iconics (Peyton Royce and Billie Kay), Nia Jax and Tamina, Carmella and Naomi, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville and the Riott Squad (Sarah Logan and Livv Morgan).
After their win, Banks and Bayley (who are RAW superstars) began also appearing on Smackdown Live and NXT with the intention of defending the titles on all three brands. As of this writing, they are scheduled to defend the titles at Wrestlemania 35 against Jax/Tamina, The Iconics and the Divas of Doom (Natalya and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, who announced her coming out of retirement to compete).
And with that, it brings a total of 17 championships currently under the WWE umbrella, an unprecedented number for some. At this point, do they need anymore titles, or is this a good number to settle for now? What do you think?
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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