The NXT Cruiserweight Championship will be unified with the NXT North American Championship at NXT’s upcoming New Year’s Evil special on January 4, 2022 when Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong faces off against North American Champion Carmelo Hayes. It is assumed that with 205 Live undergoing a rebrand and dropping the weight limit that the Cruiserweight title will be retired and folded into the North American title.
This will end a disappointing run for the revived championship, which was recommissioned in 2016 as the WWE Cruiserweight Championship following the success of the Cruiserweight Classic. The title was a new entity and did not share lineage with the previous Cruiserweight Championship that was inherited by WWE following its purchase of WCW in 2001. It became exclusive to NXT and renamed the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in 2019.
Current champion Roderick Strong won the title back in September, defeating previous champion Kushida on an episode of NXT. He is currently in his first reign. Carmelo Hayes is also in his first reign as North American Champion, defeating former WWE Superstar Isaiah “Swerve” Scott for the title in October after Scott’s ill-fated call-up to SmackDown.
NXT New Year’s Evil will take place on January 4, 2022 on the USA Network.
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