Ranking Every Woman To Have Held The WWE NXT Women's Championship

With only eight different champs over six years, NXT's women's title has an incredibly rich history.

Bayley Asuka
WWE.com

In six short years, the NXT Women's Championship has already managed to feel far more important than any title WWE has had on its main roster in at least a decade.

One year following its relaunch as WWE's developmental system, NXT introduced its very own women's championship in the summer of 2013 and held a tournament to decide the inaugural champion. From there, the ladies of the black-and-gold brand stole the show every chance they had and delivered some of the most memorable women's matches in company history.

The "women's evolution" going on in NXT eventually led to the main roster stepping up its game with the women's divisions on Raw and SmackDown, and the rest is history. Even with so many stars getting called up over the years, NXT's women's division is arguably stronger now than it's ever been.

Since its creation, the NXT Women's Championship has been held by eight different women across 10 different reigns. Not only have each of them ranged from good to great, every one of these competitors (with the obvious exception of Shayna Baszler) went on to either contend for or win a title on the main roster.

As NXT's stacked women's division continues to expand, it will be exciting to see who else will join this small yet elite list of former NXT Women's champions and add to the title's growing legacy.

8. Kairi Sane

Bayley Asuka
WWE.com

Kairi Sane's reign as NXT Women's champion was essentially the equivalent to the one Sami Zayn had as NXT champion years ago. Both of their title wins were memorable moments and came in great matches, but their time on top was short-lived.

In Sane's case, she was the underdog walking into her NXT Women's Championship with Shayna Baszler at TakeOver: Brooklyn III. They were tied one win apiece at that point, and in shocking fashion, The Pirate Princess bested her longtime foe to become the new champ.

Fans were thrilled to see Sane get her just due nearly a year removed from her win in the finals of the inaugural Mae Young Classic, but her subsequent run as champ left a lot to be desired.

Sane and Baszler continued to feud in the weeks that followed, culminating in a rematch at the first-ever Evolution pay-per-view that October. Despite it being way too soon for Sane to lose the title, Baszler reigned supreme and cut her reign short at 71 days.

The Pirate Princess attempted to get the belt back at TakeOver: WarGames II but lost again after interference from Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. Following two more unsuccessful attempts at TakeOver: New York and on the April 17, 2019 edition of NXT, she made the move to the main roster and has been aligned with Asuka ever since.

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Since 2008, Graham has been a diehard pro wrestling fan and, in 2010, he combined his passions for WWE and writing when he joined Bleacher Report. Equipped with a master's in journalism, Graham has contributed to WhatCulture, FanSided's Daily DDT, Sports Betting Dime, and GateHouse Media. Along the way, he has conducted interviews with wrestling superstars like Chris Jericho, Edge, Goldberg, Christian, Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Ross, Adam Cole, Tessa Blanchard, Ryback, and Nick Aldis among others.