Top Three Greatest NXT Champions Of All Time: For over a decade now, NXT has been an essential part of WWE programming. The developmental territory allows for new stars in the company to hone their craft away from the continuity of RAW and SmackDown on the main roster.
While the show is seen by many as WWE’s third brand, for the longest time, it was only seen as a developmental program, where the stars of tomorrow wrestle. After a resurgence in 2019, which saw the brand take on stars from the main roster at Survivor Series, it has now returned to its roots in preparing future WWE superstars.
Despite it being a developmental brand, some of the greatest wrestlers, characters, and performers of the last decade from all over the world have wrestled for NXT. In the latter half of the 2010s, WWE started focusing on hiring the best wrestlers from other companies and independent circuits and sent them to NXT to prepare them for the main roster.
The likes of Shinsuke Nakamura, Adam Cole, and Bobby Roode were considered stars and legends even before they stepped foot in the WWE, but they still went on to become legends in NXT.
So today, we will look at the greatest NXT Champions of all time. The championship has had a long history. From its humble beginnings in 2012 to becoming arguably the most exciting championship in the company in the late 2010s, to not becoming a sign of things to come for the main roster.
These are the top three greatest NXT Champions of all time:
Top Three Greatest NXT Champions Of All Time
3) Tommaso Ciampa
Today’s fans will know Tommaso Ciampa as one-half of the former tag team champions DIY alongside Johnny Gargano, and that is how his career in NXT began. But across his very long stint in the then-black and gold brand, he would go on to become one of the greatest characters in the history of the show and an absolute legend of the brand.
After turning on Gargano at Takeover: Chicago in 2017, he began a years-long feud with his former tag team partner. And while much of it was beset with injuries, Tommaso developed one of the most loathed characters (in a good way) in WWE maybe ever.
Amid his GOAT feud with Gargano, Ciampa won the NXT Championship from Aleister Black. This reign, which officially clocked in at 237 days from July 2018 to March 2019, when he had to vacate the title due to injury, saw him defend the championship against Gargano at Takeover: Brooklyn IV in a Last Man Standing Match, one of the greatest NXT matches of all time. He made other memorable defences in that time too, like the one against Velveteen Dream.
His second reign, which makes him one of only seven people to have multiple reigns, came during the short-lived NXT 2.0 in 2021. In fact, he was the first champion of that era. This reign, unlike his first one, was purely transitional, as about three months after the win, he lost the title to who would go on to become the next face of the brand, Bron Breakker.
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2) Adam Cole
Some might be surprised to see Adam Cole not being on top of this list, and those people are somewhat correct. The current AEW star can stake the claim at not only being the greatest NXT Champion of all time, but also the brand’s greatest star ever.
He made his WWE debut like many stars from the indie scene, being presented as an instant threat to the NXT Championship. Having made his debut in 2017, he won the brand’s tag titles along with the Undisputed Era. He also became the first-ever North American Champion. But it was in 2019 that his reign with the top belt began.
In a match considered by some to be the greatest in-ring WWE match of all time, Cole defeated Johnny Gargano to win the NXT title at Takeover: New York. And thus began the longest NXT Championship reign of all time. In his massive 403-day title reign, which is the only reign of this title of over a year, Adam wrestled in some of the best NXT matches ever in defending his title.
His legendary defenses against Dinn Balor, Matt Riddle, Pete Dunne, Tommaso Ciampa, and even Daniel Bryan on SmackDown are fondly remembered by NXT fans to this day. He finally went on to lose his belt in yet another classic against Keith Lee, who unified the NXT and the North American Championships.
1) Finn Balor
While Adam Cole had more classics and had a longer reign with the NXT Championship, Finn Balor defined what it meant to hold that title and is the standard of being the NXT champion for the decade since his first win.
Yet another two-time champion, Balor, was among the first stars brought into the brand who had made a big name outside WWE. As Prince Devitt in NJPW, he started Bullet Club, which was the most popular wrestling faction in the world in the late 2010s.
Becoming the champion after ending Kevin Owens’ great reign in July 2015, he made classic defences against Owens and Samoa Joe (the only three-time NXT Champion). He was among the first names drafted in the 2016 WWE Draft, going to the main roster and immediately becoming the first-ever WWE Universal Champion, at SummerSlam 2016. He was one of the first hyped-up NXT call-ups.
He returned to the developmental brand in 2019 with a new attitude. In 2020, he won the NXT Championship once more, this time having even greater defenses against the likes of Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Pete Dunne.
While his second reign was more impressive in-ring, his first reign defined what it meant to be an NXT champion. He was also among the most interesting characters on the brand with his demon persona. He paved the path for big stars from outside WWE coming to NXT and winning the championship, making him the most influential NXT champ of all time.
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