In an effort to put the top titles of the women’s division on equal footing with the men’s, WWE has begun referring to the NXT Women’s Championship as simply the “NXT Championship,” starting on last night’s episode of NXT. On commentary, Mauro referred to Rhea Ripley as the “NXT Champion” and noted that one of Io Shirai’s goals is to win the NXT Championship. Kay Lee Ray was also referred to as the “NXT UK Champion.” This distinction can be seen in the description of the YouTube video from last night’s episode:
Becky Lynch was a guest on this week’s episode of WWE Backstage and one of the major topics was how to improve the women’s division. Becky suggested something very similar to what is happening: “The best thing for the Women’s division right now is that we eliminate the term ‘Women’s.’ I think that it’s now starting to hold us back. Why do we need that division? We need people. We need characters. We need people looking for the main events. Not the top women’s spot, the top spot.”
The change is seemingly official with the women’s NXT Championship, despite it not being reflected on WWE.com at the time of this writing. However, there are reportedly changes coming to the top women’s prizes on Raw and SmackDown as well. Will Becky Lynch and Bayley soon be referred to as the WWE Champion and Universal Champion, respectively? Only time will tell.
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