WWE NXT Reveals New Title Belt, First Champion to be Crowned in New Orleans

With a growing roster comes the need for more championships, and that is exactly what WWE NXT announced during their Wednesday night tapings.

NXT will finally add a long rumored secondary title to their ranks, the NXT North American Championship to be exact. The announcement was made by NXT General Manager William Regal at the tapings.

Regal went on to announce that the title will be revealed at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans during WrestleMania weekend in just a few week’s time. The first champion will also be crowned that night in a six person ladder match.

The match announcement was made alongside a debuting EC3 at the NXT tapings. EC3 played off the announcement as though he was going to be given the new belt, but Regal announced he would get a chance to wrestle for it alongside five others.

Wednesday night’s tapings will take the brand through all of their television right up until NXT TakeOver. It’s expected that the segment featuring EC3 and the title announcement will air on either March 21 or March 28 on the WWE Network. Other performers set for the ladder match are Ricochet, Velveteen Dream, Lars Sullivan, Killian Dain, and Adam Cole.

EC3’s signing with WWE was announced back in January, with the former TNA Impact Wrestling star even appearing in the crowd during NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia on Royal Rumble weekend.

The NXT roster continues to grow by leaps and bounds, with the brand arguably as talent deep as they have ever been at this moment. With only the NXT title and NXT tag team titles as full time belts to wrestle for on the men’s side, it’s not all that surprising to see them add a secondary title for stars to compete toward. Some would argue the UK title already fits that bill, but the company has stalled in starting a UK television show centered around that title that was originally planned for launch several months back.