WWE Cruiserweight Championship

For the old championship, see WWE Cruiserweight Championship (1991–2007).

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
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)
WWE Cruiserweight Championship (2016–2019) NXT Cruiserweight Championship (2019–2022)
Statistics First champion(s) T. J. Perkins Final champion(s) Carmelo Hayes Most reigns 2 reigns: Neville Enzo Amore Longest reign Jordan Devlin (439 days[a]) Shortest reign Carmelo Hayes (<1 minute[b]) Oldest winner Roderick Strong (38 years, 57 days) Youngest winner Lio Rush (24 years, 332 days) Heaviest champion 205 lb (93 kg): Carmelo Hayes Buddy Murphy Lightest champion Akira Tozawa (156 lb (71 kg))

The title did not continue the history of WWE's old Cruiserweight Championship.

History

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]

Reigns

Key

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, 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	[c]	[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	[d]	[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]

Combined reigns

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

Related pages

• WWE Cruiserweight Championship (1991–2007)
• List of current champions in WWE

Footnotes

1. WWE officially recognizes 438 days
2. Unified with the NXT North American Championship
3. This was a fatal four-way match also involving Travis Banks and Isaiah "Swerve" Scott. Devlin pinned Scott to win the title, that now could also be defended on the NXT UK brand. Devlin's reign ended on April 8, 2021 at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Night 2, when Santos Escobar defeated him to became the undisputed champion. From May 27, 2020 (aired June 3) until April 8, 2021, both Devlin and Escobar were listed as champion.
4. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, reigning champion Jordan Devlin was not allowed to wrestle in the United States. An interim champion was crowned in the United States until Devlin could return. Devlin, who lived in the United Kingdom, still defended the title on NXT UK, while the U.S.-based interim champion defended the title on NXT. Fantasma defeated Drake Maverick in the finals of an eight-man tournament to become the interim champion in the U.S. WWE lists the start of his reign on June 3, 2020, when the episode aired on tape delay. On the June 10 episode of NXT, Fantasma unmasked and changed his ring name to Santos Escobar. After Devlin made his return to the U.S. the following year, Escobar defeated Devlin in a ladder match at the second night of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver on April 8 to become the undisputed champion (the days of his reign as interim and undisputed champion are listed as one single reign by WWE).