Ranking All 11 WWE NXT Champions
3. Kevin Owens
We all knew Kevin Owens was set to debut for NXT at TakeOver: R Evolution, but we just didn't know for sure in what form or fashion.
That night, he made himself a target on the black-and-yellow brand right off the bat by beating down Sami Zayn following his grand NXT Championship victory. Two months later to the day, he destroyed his former friend for the title, thus shaking the show to its very core.
In addition to furthering his feud with Zayn, Owens had a slew of enemies during his NXT title reign from Finn Bálor to Alex Riley to even John Cena. He actually defeated all of them on various occasions, making him that much more of an awesome champion.
The most amazing aspect of Owens' rapid rise to the top of NXT was that his motivations were quite clear: he had no intention of doing anything else than providing for his family, and in order to do that, he had to be champion. He was a part of "developmental" for all of eight months (technically five if you consider his Raw debut occurred three months before his actual departure), but his short stint helped put NXT on the map.