WWE NXT Championship Match Announced for This Week's Episode

By Connor Casey

This week's edition of NXT will see a relaunch of WWE's Black & Gold brand, complete with a new set at the Capitol Wrestling Center down in Orlando. The show will also see a new NXT Champion be crowned, as general manager William Regal confirmed on Monday that the four-way between Kyle O'Reilly, Pete Dunne, Tommaso Ciampa and LA Knight will now be for the title. That match was originally going to crown the next No. 1 contender, but plans had to change after Samoa Joe announced on Sunday night that he was relinquishing the championship due to an undisclosed injury. 

"As part of my recent return, my goals were very simple, I sought to ensure the respect and integrity due to both NXT and its championship," Joe said in his announcement video. "I sought to ensure that everybody understood that the needs of one individual will never outstrip the sum of the brand. Today, I find myself having to stand on these principles. Recently, WWE medical has informed me that due to certain injuries they would like to have me step away from the ring for a brief yet still undetermined amount of time.

"I realize that this week we are on the cusp of a new NXT," he continued. "We are on the brink of a new era in our history. I realize that that era deserves a fighting champion. That's why it makes this very difficult decision very easy to make. Effective immediately, I relinquish the NXT Championship. Best of luck to those who will vie for it. My sincerest condolences to whoever wins because I will be along shortly to re-collect what's mine."

O'Reilly and Dunne have both had opportunities at the NXT title on TakeOver specials in the past, while Ciampa held the championship for more than 200 days from mid-2018 to early 2019 before a neck injury forced him to relinquish it. Tuesday's match will mark Knight's first shot at the brand's top prize. 

While WWE has put out a few teasers at what the rebooted version of NXT will look like, little is concretely known about what the new version of the show will provide. WWE president Nick Khan discussed it in an interview with Ariel Helwani over SummerSlam weekend. 

"We are doing a complete revamp on NXT, led by Triple H, who is really one of the architects of the original NXT. What we found — it's part of why we did the tryout yesterday — what we want to make sure is easy for folks who want to be WWE Superstars, is figuring out how to become WWE Superstars," Khan said. 

"In terms of an NXT re-brand, look for it in the next couple of weeks. It's going to have a whole new look, it's going to have a whole new feel — and we believe — because of a lot of the indie wrestlers, if you will, have come through our system and are in our system with SmackDown and Raw now. We don't want to just keep doing that same thing, we want to look elsewhere for great, young talent," he continued.

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