Tommaso Ciampa wins NXT Championship, Von Wagner debuts

More than two years after having to vacate the title, Tommaso Ciampa is once again NXT Champion.

Ciampa defeated LA Knight, Pete Dunne, and the debuting Von Wagner in a fatal four-way match on NXT tonight to win the NXT Championship. Ciampa pinned Knight after hitting the Fairytale Ending.

The NXT Championship was vacant going into tonight’s show. Samoa Joe had to relinquish the title over the weekend due to injury. Joe said he was stepping away from the ring for a “brief but still indeterminate” amount of time but would be back shortly to collect the NXT Championship from whoever won it.

Kyle O’Reilly was originally supposed to be in the fatal four-way match, but there was an angle on tonight’s show where he was attacked by Dunne and Ridge Holland in the locker room. NXT general manager William Regal announced that Wagner would be replacing O’Reilly in the match because he was the one who saved O’Reilly from Dunne and Holland.

The 6-foot-5 Wagner (real name Cal Bloom) is the son of Wayne Bloom (former wrestler Beau Beverly). Wagner played college football at the University of Central Florida. He signed with WWE in March 2019.

Ciampa previously held the NXT Championship from July 2018 to March 2019. He had to relinquish the title then due to undergoing neck surgery.

Tonight’s show ended with a backstage segment where Bron Breakker (Bronson Rechsteiner) congratulated Ciampa. Ciampa then congratulated Breakker on his first win in NXT. The two had a tense staredown as they shook hands and Breakker looked at Ciampa’s title belt.

Breakker made his NXT debut by defeating Knight earlier in tonight’s show. Breakker and Wagner’s debuts were part of the beginning of “NXT 2.0,” which is WWE’s revamp of the NXT brand.