We have a new NXT Champion after NXT New Year's Evil — or, maybe we do? It at least appears to be the case.
Let's try to make sense of what's going on with Oba Femi seemingly vacating the title. Did he relinquish it? What does this mean?
How We Got Here:
The main event of the night was Oba Femi putting the NXT Championship on the line against TNA Wrestling's Leon Slater, who currently holds the TNA X Division Championship. Slater had won a No. 1 contender's match that was itself a replacement for what was originally scheduled for New Year's Evil, which would have been Femi defending against Iron Survivor Challenge winner Je'Von Evans. However, Evans had opted to have his match earlier a few weeks back instead, wherein he was cost the potential title win by Ricky Saints, who started off tonight's episode putting both Slater and Femi on notice that he was coming for the title, specifically mentioning that he is 1 and 1 with Femi. Evans has been officially called up to the Raw roster, making a mess of this setup, if you try to wrap your mind around the booking.
Match Details:
Femi retained the title over Slater and was celebrating in the ring when the show went to a backstage segment about Ava talking to EVOLVE talent about how there will be room for more NXT call-ups, given how a handful of Superstars have moved over to Raw or SmackDown recently. Robert Stone barged in to ask Ava if she just saw what Oba Femi did, and the show went to a feed of the belt left behind in the ring. The implication of this is that Femi has vacated the title in order to move over to Raw or SmackDown, as he's been teased to join over the past few episodes. Overlooking the belt in the distance was Tony D'Angelo.
Technically, at the moment, there is nothing official about Femi relinquishing the title, as he's still listed on https://www.wwe.com/superstars as the NXT champion despite them updating Izzi Dame for being the new NXT Women's North American champion, but that could change at any given time.
Tell us what you think about this title change by leaving a comment below! Who do you think will be the next in line to challenge for the title, or possibly even win the belt next? Keep the discussion going!
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