Huge news from NXT today as Samoa Joe defeated Finn Bálor with a Muscle Buster to become the 8th NXT Champion. The match went down at the live event in Lowell, Massachusetts, on Thursday night, and WWE uploaded the finish to their YouTube page. So it’s real, it’s canonical, and we’ve got a new champ. Get all of your “Bálor Club debuts at Payback” predictions ready.
This is the first time the NXT Championship has changed hands at a non-televised event. The first six title changes (including Seth Rollins becoming the first champion) happened at the “NXT Arena” at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. Finn Bálor became the first champion to win the title outside of that arena, taking the strap from Kevin Owens during the ‘The Beast in the East’ live special in Tokyo, Japan. This one’s interesting, as Bálor and Joe have faced off twice at major NXT events. The first was NXT TakeOver: London back in December, followed by NXT TakeOver: Dallas over WrestleMania weekend.
If you were wondering why you should go to NXT live events in your area, unexpected, major moments like this are a great selling point. Let’s see how this all plays out on NXT TV.
