11 Notable WWE Title Changes That Happened At House Shows

6. Shinsuke Nakamura - NXT Championship (2016)

AJ Styles US title
WWE.com

When you talk about NXT in 2016, you have to consider Samoa Joe as one of the MVPs of the promotion. The Samoan Submission Machine notched two reigns as NXT Champion during the year, earning a 2017 call-up to the main roster and a main-event feud with Brock Lesnar.

But as 2016 neared its end, Joe would have his second reign as NXT champ cut short by Shinsuke Nakamura, as the two stars continued trading the title back and forth. Nakamura would win the title in his home country of Japan at a December house show, which would later be aired on the WWE Network.

Nakamura’s second reign would serve to set up Bobby Roode, who defeated Shinsuke less than two months later.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.