NXT Is Outdoing WWE in Terms of Maximizing Championship Reigns

When NXT puts a championship around a wrestler's waist, it builds up that performer, jettisoning him or her forward. There is no such promise with WWE's titles.

The developmental branch properly harnessing the power of a wrestler being champion is just one of the ways it is outclassing its big brother.

There's something upside down about the minor leagues providing the blueprint for the majors, but WWE fans have to be used to that by now. While WWE's decision often leave fans scratching their heads, NXT recalls a simpler, more logical time in wrestling history.

That most certainly applies to how it handles its title reigns. 

At NXT, champs are given time to make their mark, avoid suffering non-title losses and defend their titles often. WWE titleholders, meanwhile, have to battle the booking team just as often as they take on actual challengers. 

Limiting Losses

NXT champions don't have to bear the weight of non-title losses the way their main-roster brethren do. Wrestlers carrying around a strap of leather and gold should be on a hot streak, hitting one of the high points of their career.

Too often on the main roster, though, WWE officials ask their champs to lose in non-title action.

That can only make the titleholders look weak. It doesn't help the title's prestige either. 

Compare Paige's second run as Divas champ to her time holding tight to the NXT Women's Championship, courtesy of CageMatch.net. After knocking off AJ Lee at SummerSlam, Paige didn't go on a tear; she wasn't made to look unstoppable.

Instead, she dropped her first two matches, falling to Natalya on the Aug. 18 edition of Raw and the SmackDown that aired on Aug. 22.

It's not as if those losses led to a great rivalry either. They just served as a way to kill Paige's momentum just as soon as she got her name placed on her newly won title.

NXT treated her differently. 

In over 300 days as NXT champ, Paige had no non-title losses in one-on-one contests. As Divas champ for just 35 days, meanwhile, she lost twice in that type of bout.

It's not surprising then that her run as NXT champ aided her career more. That was when she truly emerged as a predator who occupied the top of the food chain, that she proved herself to be a badass in boots. Conversely, it's hard to even remember Paige's second Divas title reign.

Paige's situation was no outlier either. The difference in Nikki Bella and Charlotte's title reigns makes it seem like they are existing in two different universes.

Nikki, who is closing in on two months as champ, already has two consecutive losses in singles matches and three defeats in tag bouts on her record, per CageMatch.net. So far since winning the belt, she is just 5-5.

Charlotte's reign is doing better to make her look formidable. She has just one singles loss since winning the title, per ProFightDB.com. That came against Natalya on the Dec. 8 edition of Raw. Including that setback and tag team matches, Charlotte has a 14-4 record to brag about.

Why one champ has a .500 winning percentage and another boasts a .778 one is hard to understand.

As a result, it feels like Nikki hasn't separated herself from her peers, while Charlotte feels like an unstoppable force at Full Sail University. Should Nikki lose the belt, it won't be surprising or even all that entertaining. Losing, at this point, is commonplace for her.

Besting Charlotte, though, will feel like a much more significant feat, something defeating a champion should always be.

Sustained Reigns

The Ascension may look like buffoons now courtesy of WWE altering their gimmick and asking them to trash-talk The Road Warriors, but as NXT tag champs, they were a squad that seemed untouchable at times.

A part of that is how dominant they were in the ring. How long they kept the tag titles played a big part in that as well.

Putting the last four NXT tag champs and the last four WWE teams to hold the gold (not including the current titleholders) sheds some light on why The Ascension benefited from their reigns more than Damien Mizdow and The Miz, for example.

Team	Brand	Length of Reign (in days)
The Ascension	NXT	364
The Usos	WWE	202
Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey	NXT	91
Adrian Neville and Corey Graves	NXT	84
Goldust and Stardust	WWE	63
The Wyatt Family	NXT	49
Damien Mizdow and The Miz	WWE	36
The New Age Outlaws	WWE	36

Those NXT duos held onto their titles for a total of 588 days, with an average 147 reign between the four of them. The WWE teams' reigns add up to 337 days and average out to 84.25 days. That's even with The Usos having a lengthy time with the titles.

The Usos' time on top is when the WWE tag belts felt the most precious out of those reigns listed above.

Luke Harper and Erick Rowan were the many barbarians at the gate who The Usos drove off. In the process, Jimmy and Jey looked much like The Ascension, like a great team.

It's going to be easier to forget that Miz and Mizdow were ever champs or that The New Age Outlaws went on an unexpected title run after popping back up on the scene. They are just blips on WWE's timeline.

NXT has given its champions time to hold their belts, time to be remembered in that role.

Adrian Neville recently wrapped up a reign that stretched on for nearly 300 days, per WWE.com. Both Charlotte and Paige had long turns in the NXT women's throne.

On the main roster, meanwhile, The Miz lost the Intercontinental Championship just one night after winning it from Dolph Ziggler at Night of Champions. A year before that, Daniel Bryan had his WWE title run end after just a day when Triple H stripped him of the belt, citing a fast count from a crooked referee.

NXT doesn't go for the cheap thrill of the hot-potato title change. That has led to title changes, when they do occur, being more moving, more significant. 

Numerous Quality Title Defenses

The contrast in how WWE and NXT have handled their No. 1 title in the past few months is stunning.

Neville was a workhorse, a fighting champion and a champion who grew during his reign. Brock Lesnar, on the other hand, has been a ghost of a champ.

After defeating Bo Dallas at NXT Arrival, Neville went on to defend the championship nine times, per CageMatch.net.

That was about one defense per month. Lesnar has defended the WWE title just once during his reign, a disqualification loss at Night of Champions. That gives him one defense every five months.

When Neville's reign was over, he was much better off. Fighting the likes of Tyson Kidd, Sami Zayn and Brodus Clay elevated fans' perception of him. He was a warrior who gladly faced any challenger and won against them often. Being champ pushed and showcased him; the title reign did its job.

We won't be able to say that with Lesnar.

Credit: WWE.com

Lesnar's time as champion has seen him emerge from the darkness every so often, with very few actual matches on his schedule. When he faces Seth Rollins and John Cena at the Royal Rumble, it will be his first match since September.

A number of outstanding matches powered Neville's reign.

He and Kidd put on two of the best bouts on NXT last year. His successful defense at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way inspired Justin James of PWTorch to write, "This is the best match I have seen all year without anything close to competition."

Neville's last moments as champ were fantastic as well. Thanks largely to Neville's loss to Zayn at NXT Takeover: R Evolution, Grantland's David Shoemaker called the event "the best wrestling show of the year."

Both of those bouts earned their way into the top five when WWE.com listed the Top 25 matches of 2014.

Credit: WWE.com

Lesnar's reign cannot compete with Neville's in that department because frankly Lesnar isn't competing. Even before The Beast Incarnate snatched away the WWE title at SummerSlam, though, Cena wasn't defending at the rate that Neville did.

Per ProFightDB.com, Cena put up the title just twice during his reign, the last instance being when Lesnar ran over him like a steamroller.

While the NXT champ gets extra exposure and opportunities by defending on TV from time to time, it has become increasingly rare that Raw features a WWE title bout. As for SmackDown, it's been ages since we've see that show feature a challenger attempting to pull the top belt off the champ. 

With how it books its champions and championships, NXT is showing WWE how things should be done. It's easier to get invested and be moved by the title bouts at Full Sail University. 

While NXT's prospect should be watching the main-roster stars at work, looking for ways to emulate them. Vince McMahon and Company need to draw inspiration from their own feeder system, the process of crowning and uncrowning a champ a more polished process at NXT.