The American promotion WWE produced and promoted the NXT North American Championship, a professional wrestling title that is defended on their NXT brand division. Along with the Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown and the United States Championship on Raw, it is one of the three secondary titles in the WWE. Currently reigning as champion is Wes Lee. On October 22, 2022, at Halloween Havoc in Orlando, Florida, he beat Carmelo Hayes, Oro Mensah, Nathan Frazer, and Von Wagner in a five-man ladder match. Here is a brief description of some of the NXT North American Champions.
Adam Cole
American professional wrestler Austin Kirk Jenkins is presently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he competes under the ring name Adam Cole. His involvement with WWE and Ring of Honor is also well known (ROH). In 2009, Cole began his eight-year relationship with ROH, during which he went on to win the first-ever three ROH World Championships. He also won the 2014 ROH Survival of the Fittest competition and was a former ROH World Television Champion. Cole has also competed for a number of independent promotions, such as Chikara, Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he previously held the title of World Junior Heavyweight Champion, and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he previously held the title of World Champion. He also holds the record for the longest reigns for both titles. He was a member of the Bullet Club stable in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he also worked.
Ricochet
American professional wrestler Trevor Mann is presently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He competes on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Ricochet. He has won the Open the Dream Gate, Opens the Brave Gate, Opens the Twin Gate, and Open the Triangle Gate championships in the Japanese promotion Dragon Gate.
Additionally, Ricochet competed for the American promotions Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he twice won the Battle of Los Angeles, Dragon Gate USA (DGUSA), where he previously held the title of Open the Freedom Gate Champion, and Chikara, where he primarily competed while hiding his identity as Helios. Additionally, he has performed for Lucha Underground as Prince Puma and New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he won 2014 Best of the Super Juniors tournament. He was once the NXT North American Champion in the organization.
Johnny Gargano
American professional wrestler John Anthony Nicholas “Johnny” Gargano is presently associated with the WWE’s Raw brand. He is the inaugural NXT Triple Crown Champion and has won the NXT Championship once, once as a tag team with Tommaso Ciampa, and three times in North America. In 2005, Gargano made his debut in professional wrestling for Cleveland All-Pro Wrestling. Gargano characterizes his character as “someone lacking self-awareness and living in his own delusional little universe” and refers to his wrestling style as “Lucharesu,” a hybrid of British chain wrestling, lucha libre, and puroresu.
Keith Lee
American professional wrestler Keith Lee (born November 8, 1984) is presently associated with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He was formerly under contract with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWERaw )’s brand. He has held the titles of NXT North American Champion and NXT Champion in the past. Between 2005 and 2017, a period of twelve years, Keith held a total of eight wrestling championships. In 2007, he won the Xtreme Championship Wrestling TNT Championship, which was his first championship. Keith won the XCW Heavyweight Championship in 2009, two years later. Keith has also held the titles of WWN Champion, PWG World Champion, VIP Heavyweight Champion, and NAWA Tag Team Champion. Keith previously competed for VIP Wrestling as a member of the tag team The Pretty Boy Killers, which held the VIP Tag Team Championship.
Lastly, there have been 17 reigns as of November 11, 2022, between 14 champions and two vacancies. The longest champion reign belongs to Velveteen Dream at 231 days, the longest combined reign belongs to Carmelo Hayes at 274 days. With three reigns, Johnny Gargano has the most reigns, with his first reign being the shortest at four days although WWE now acknowledges that Gargano’s first reign actually lasted 25 days, making Solo Sikoa’s reign the shortest at seven days. Dream, who is 23 years old, is the most recent champion, while Damian Priest, who is 37, is the oldest.
