Joe Hendry Crowned NXT Champion (WWE News)

Joe Hendry is your new NXT Champion.

by Andrew Pollard
Joe Hendry NXT Champion
WWE

With Oba Femi having vacated the NXT Title last month as the Ruler headed to the main roster, Joe Hendry is your new NXT Champion.

Last night's NXT closed out with a seven-man ladder match for the vacant NXT Title, with Hendy overcoming Ricky Saints, Dion Lennox, Keanu Carver, Shiloh Hill, Sean Legacy, and Jackson Drake to get the win. In terms of the finish of the match, it came down to Joe and Ricky on either side of a ladder, both grabbing at the NXT Championship, before the Scotsman hit Absolute with that title, sending Saints crashing down through another ladder.

This marks Joe Hendry's first slice of WWE gold, having formally joined the company late last year. Prior to this, Hendry had held the TNA World Championship and TNA Digital Media Championship, and, of course, the prestigious WhatCulture Pro Wrestling Championship and Defiant Internet Championship.

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Elsewhere on a fairly newsworthy episode of NXT TV, Shawn Michaels announced Robert Stone as the new interim General Manager following Ava's exit from the company last week; tensions simmered between ZaRuca during a loss to the Elegance Brand for the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Titles; Zaria, Sol Ruca, Kendal Grey, or Wren Sinclair will be up next to challange NXT Women's Champion Jacy Jayne; Uriah Connors - the real-life Brogan Finlay, son of Fit Finlay - left Chase U to join Lexis King's burgeoning faction of second-generation stars; that faction continued to try and court Charlie Dempsey; and Tony D'Angelo once again set his sights on the NXT Championship.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.