Ricky Saints could become the NXT Champion on September 27th.
The former North American Champion is gearing up to fight Oba Femi for the prestigious belt at the company’s No Mercy PLE. This is Ricky Saints’ first crack at the NXT Championship and the 35-year-old promises to not mess up this big opportunity.
Ever since the first NXT Champion was crowned in 2012, that belt has had a long line of men who held that special gold around their waist. Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Drew McIntyre, Big E. Langston are just some of the names who won the NXT Championship throughout its lineage and Ricky Saints understands the value that the title brings.
Speaking on the Rob Brown Show, the NXT star was asked about what it meant to win the NXT title, and to him, being put in a special class of NXT Champions is certainly remarkable.
“The legacy of that belt is so rich. If you really go back and see the people who have held that title, it’s an insane amount of names on there, and you see them to this day still killing it. I am a former NXT North American Champion. I know in my heart that I can beat Oba and I do believe that when I beat Oba Femi, once I’m NXT Champion, I’m going to be put in a very special class of people that were North American Champion and NXT Champion. That list is very small. To be put in that category and class, it’s incredible. It’s something to tell myself, ‘You always thought you could do it and you did it.’ I’m a very ‘proof is the pudding’ type guy.”
Will Saints be that guy added to the special list on September 27th? Oba Femi has been the NXT Champion for over 240 days. Lately, it does seem as if NXT has run out of credible challengers for Femi. Unless there’s an influx of new talent coming in, Femi barely has any other challengers if he beats Saints at No Mercy. Ricky has a strong chance at walking out of the PLE as the next NXT Champion. Though there’s an argument to be made that it may be too soon to give Saints the belt since he only made his NXT debut back in February. Either way, the match result for NXT No Mercy is highly unpredictable going in.