If you can manage to remember all the way back to NXT TakeOver: Dallas during WrestleMania 32 weekend, you’ll recall that human murder machine Asuka broke every human’s heart when she choked Bayley into unconsciousness to capture the NXT Women’s Championship. Since then, it’s just be a steady stream of Asuka head-kicking fools into the stratosphere, and she’s still never lost a match since coming to NXT.
NXT and WWE announcer Tom Phillips tweeted on Sunday night that Asuka just put herself into the record book at the longest-reigning NXT Women’s Champion of all time.
https://twitter.com/TomPhillipsWWE/status/815744590066188289
But that’s only partially true. Given the nature of NXT airing on tape delay, Asuka had in fact held the belt for 275 days as of Sunday. The inaugural NXT Women’s Champion, Paige, won the belt on the July 24, 2013 episode of NXT television and vacated it on April 24, 2014 … a reign of 274 days. But the episode of NXT on which she won the belt was taped on June 20, 2013. So Paige actually literally held the title for 308 days, even though her reign “officially” began being recognized out in the open starting on July 24, 2013.
Got all that? Cool. Of course, it’s incredibly likely that Asuka will hold onto the championship for another 33 days, passing Paige’s literal record as well (both of which, I must note, will trump Nikki Bella’s much-touted 301-day reign as WWE Divas Champion), but for now, WWE says she’s the longest-reigning women’s champ in NXT history. Certainly nothing to sneeze at.
And boy, it really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long at all, does it? Weird what happens when you’re not reminded every single week that there’s a big milestone coming up for a champ.
