Huge WWE Title Change At NXT Tapings
Wait, what?
Just when we were wondering where on earth they could possibly go next with Ciampa vs Gargano fued, it turns out the third chapter is going to involve the NXT Championship. That’s right, Tommaso Ciampa's only gone and won the thing .
During last night’s tapings at Full Sail University, Aleister Black defended his NXT Championship and, by the end of the show, old black heart had taken the belt. His reign ending 102 days, the sixth shortest reign ever, and the third shortest total time as champion.
Reports thus far are that it’s one hell of a match - as you’d probably expect - but the finish to it is slightly subversive. Gargano, the white-meat babyface, interferes in the match to try and cost Ciampa, the dastardly heel, but gets thrown out the ring and that’s that. A twist on a classic, I think you’d call that.
Where is leaves Black is anyone’s guess. He’s the first person to drop the NXT title on a regular episode of TV since Bo Dallas in 2013. Yes, Nakamura and Samoa Joe both did this, but the former was on a special edition in Osaka, and the latter was on an everything-can-happen house show. More surprising still, he never even got to headline a TakeOver as champion.
Black basically finds himself in the same position as CM Punk in 2008, where management have decided that a separate rivalry requires the belt more than he does, regardless of where that puts him. Even though in the short term it puts him directly in said rivalry, because his rematch is now a triple threat. Bit of a mess this one.
As for Ciampa and Gargano though, this now means that the 3rd of their brutal main events will now include the NXT Championship and Aleister Black. Two things that will undoubtably add something new to it but that it also probably didn’t need.