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WWE Speed Championship

WWE Speed Championship
The WWE Speed Championship belt with default side plates
Details
PromotionWWE
BrandNXT
Date establishedMarch 27, 2024
Current championEl Grande Americano
Date wonMay 5, 2025
(aired May 7, 2025)
Statistics
First championRicochet
Longest reignDragon Lee
(171 days)[a]
Shortest reignRicochet
(42 days)
Oldest championEl Grande Americano
(39 years, 58 days)
Youngest championDragon Lee
(29 years, 188 days)
Heaviest championAndrade
(230 lb (100 kg))
Lightest championDragon Lee
(165 lb (75 kg))

The WWE Speed Championship is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It is a specialized championship for NXT, the promotion's developmental brand, in which matches have a five-minute time limit. The current champion is Raw's El Grande Americano, who is in his first reign. He defeated Dragon Lee during the Speed tapings on May 5, 2025 (aired May 7).

The title was unveiled on March 27, 2024, to be exclusively defended on Speed, which streamed exclusively on the social media platform X. It was originally regarded as an internet championship and was open to wrestlers from Raw, SmackDown, and NXT. The inaugural champion was Ricochet, who was a member of the Raw roster at the time of his reign. On August 24, 2025, following an indefinite hiatus of Speed, the title was officially moved to the NXT brand.

History

[edit]
Inaugural champion Ricochet

On February 9, 2024, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE announced a partnership with X to introduce WWE Speed, a weekly video series to stream exclusively on the social media platform where wrestlers would perform in matches with a five-minute time limit.[1] The following month on March 27, WWE commentator Corey Graves announced that Speed would premiere on April 3, 2024, but regular matches would instead be three minutes in length. An eight-man tournament was also announced to crown the inaugural WWE Speed Champion that would take place over the first few episodes of the program. It was also revealed that male wrestlers from all three of WWE's brand divisions—Raw, SmackDown, and the developmental brand NXT—were eligible to challenge for the title.[2]

The inaugural Speed Championship tournament final, which was taped in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 26, 2024, and aired on tape delay on May 3, saw Ricochet defeat Johnny Gargano to become the inaugural champion.[3][4] This tournament final also confirmed that the championship matches would have a duration of five minutes instead of Speed's regular three-minute length.[5] On the July 17 episode, Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes fought to Speed's first time-limit draw in their semifinal match. It was decided that both men were eliminated from the tournament with the winner of the other semifinal, Baron Corbin, receiving a bye to the tournament final to face Andrade for the title.[6]

Following the July 9, 2025, episode, the future of Speed came into question as no new episodes have been uploaded since without explanation. Various news outlets began reporting that the series may have been quietly cancelled, but neither WWE or X have made any statements on the show's status.[7] Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer further clarified that WWE had not taped any episodes since then and his WWE contacts had no knowledge on the program's future.[8] Around the same time, Women's Speed Champion Sol Ruca began appearing on NXT with the title. In an interview on August 19, Ruca has since confirmed that the Speed Championships previously only appeared on Speed as it was "a separate universe being on X". She was then given permission by WWE to carry the title on NXT and is still recognized as champion.[9] A few days later at Heatwave, NXT general manager Ava announced that the men and women's Speed Championships will be defended on the NXT brand, with qualifying tournaments open to Raw, Smackdown, TNA and AAA wrestlers starting from September 2 episode of NXT.[10]

Inaugural tournament

[edit]
Quarterfinals
Speed
(aired April 3-April 17, 2024) 		Semifinals
Speed
(aired April 24-May 1, 2024) 		Final
Speed
(aired May 3, 2024)
         
Ricochet
Pin
Dragon Lee 2:57[11]
Ricochet Pin
JD McDonagh 1:58[14]
JD McDonagh Pin
Axiom 2:26[12]
Ricochet Pin
Johnny Gargano 4:21[3][4]
Bronson Reed Pin
Cedric Alexander 1:50[11]
Bronson Reed 2:23[15]
Johnny Gargano Pin
Johnny Gargano Pin
Angel 2:08[13]

Reigns

[edit]

As of August 26, 2025, there have been four reigns between four champions. The inaugural champion was Ricochet. Dragon Lee has the longest reign at 171 days (168 days as recognized by WWE due to tape delay), while Ricochet has the shortest at 42 days. El Grande Americano is the oldest champion at 39 while Lee is the youngest at 29.

The current champion is El Grande Americano from Raw, who is in his first reign. He defeated Dragon Lee during the May 5, 2025, tapings of Speed (aired May 7).[16][17]

Key
No. Overall reign number
Reign Reign number for the specific champion
Days Number of days held
Days recog. Number of days held recognized by the promotion
+ Current reign is changing daily
No. Champion Championship change Reign statistics Notes Ref.
Date Event Location Reign Days Days recog.
WWE: Raw, SmackDown, and NXT
1 Ricochet April 26, 2024 Speed Cincinnati, OH 1 42 42 Defeated Johnny Gargano in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion.
WWE recognizes Ricochet's reign as beginning on May 3, 2024, and ending on June 14, 2024, when the episodes aired on tape delay. 		[3][18]
2 Andrade June 7, 2024 Speed Louisville, KY 1 161 159 WWE recognizes Andrade's reign as beginning on June 14, 2024, and ending on November 20, 2024, when the episodes aired on tape delay. [19][20]
3 Dragon Lee November 15, 2024 Speed Milwaukee, WI 1 171 167 WWE recognizes Lee's reign as beginning on November 20, 2024, and ending on May 7, 2025, when the episodes aired on tape delay. [21][22]
4 El Grande Americano
(Chad Gable/Ludwig Kaiser) 		May 5, 2025 Speed Omaha, NE 1
(1/1) 		113+ 113+ WWE recognizes Americano's reign as beginning on May 7, 2025, when the episode aired on tape delay. Chad Gable portrayed the Americano character when he won the title, but after he suffered a legitmate shoulder injury, Ludwig Kaiser took over the character on June 30, 2025.
On August 24, 2025, at Heatwave, NXT general manager Ava announced that the championship would be defended on the NXT brand going forward. 		[16][17][23][24][10]
WWE: NXT


Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ WWE officially recognizes 168 days due to tape delay.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Defelice, Robert (February 8, 2024). "WWE Speed To Air On X (Twitter) Beginning In Spring 2024". Fightful. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  2. ^ Rose, Bryan (March 27, 2024). "WWE Speed premiere date revealed, tournament will crown champion". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved March 28, 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Lambert, Jeremy (April 26, 2024). "Spoiler: First-Ever WWE Speed Champion Crowned". Fightful. Retrieved April 27, 2024.
  4. ^ a b Lee, Joseph (May 3, 2024). "Ricochet Becomes First-Ever WWE Speed Champion, Special Friday Episode Airs". 411Mania. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  5. ^ Lowson, Thomas (May 3, 2024). "Ricochet Celebrates WWE Speed Title Win After Becoming First-Ever Champion". SE Scoops. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  6. ^ Powell, Jason (July 17, 2024). "WWE Speed - Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved July 18, 2024.
  7. ^ Gomez, M. (July 30, 2025). "WWE Speed abruptly halts with no explanation". Cageside Seats. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
  8. ^ Ucchino, Rick (August 1, 2025). "New Report Indicates That WWE Speed Has Been Cancelled". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 2, 2025.
  9. ^ Wannan, Jack (August 19, 2025). "Sol Ruca unsure of WWE Speed's status: I don't have an answer". POST Wrestling. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  10. ^ a b Lambert, Jeremy (August 24, 2025). "WWE Speed Titles To Be Defended On NXT Moving Forward". Fightful. Retrieved August 25, 2025.
  11. ^ a b Nason, Josh (April 3, 2024). "Ricochet, Bronson Reed advance in WWE Speed title tournament on debut episode". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
  12. ^ Currier, Joseph (April 10, 2024). "JD McDonagh advances in WWE Speed title tournament". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  13. ^ Tessier, Colin (April 17, 2024). "Johnny Gargano Beats Angel To Advance In WWE Speed Title Tournament, Semi-Final Match Set For 4/24". Fightful. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  14. ^ Currier, Joseph (April 24, 2024). "Ricochet advances to WWE Speed title tournament finals". Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. Retrieved April 25, 2024.
  15. ^ Tessier, Colin (May 1, 2024). "Johnny Gargano Advances To WWE Speed Title Tournament Finals, To Face Ricochet On 5/3 WWE Speed". Fightful. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
  16. ^ a b Thomas, Jeremy (May 5, 2025). "Spoiler From WWE Speed Taping". 411Mania. Retrieved May 6, 2025.
  17. ^ a b Lambert, Jeremy (May 7, 2025). "El Grande Americano Wins WWE Speed Championship". Fightful. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
  18. ^ Tessier, Colin (May 3, 2024). "Ricochet Beats Johnny Gargano To Win WWE Speed Championship On 5/3 WWE Speed". Fightful. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  19. ^ Lambert, Jeremy (June 7, 2024). "Spoiler: New WWE Speed Champion Crowned". Fightful. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  20. ^ Powell, Jason (June 14, 2024). "WWE Speed – Ricochet vs. Andrade for the WWE Speed Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved June 14, 2024.
  21. ^ Martínez, Sebastián (November 15, 2024). "Spoilers WWE Speed 15 de noviembre de 2024". Solowrestling. Archived from the original on November 27, 2024. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
  22. ^ Powell, Jason (November 20, 2024). "WWE Speed – Andrade vs. Dragon Lee for the WWE Speed Title". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved November 20, 2024.
  23. ^ "WWE Raw live results: Night of Champions fallout". F4W/WON. June 30, 2025. Retrieved June 30, 2025.
  24. ^ "Chad Gable Dealing With Undisclosed Injury | Fightful News". www.fightful.com. Retrieved June 30, 2025.
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