10 NXT Superstars who won titles in their first year on the main roster

10 NXT Superstars who won championships in their first year on the main roster

Modified Mar 01, 2021 16:22 GMT

#4. Finn Balor's Irish luck followed him from NXT to RAW

Finn Balor won the Universal Championship in his first month on the main roster

Finn Balor made his debut on NXT in September 2014. In July 2015, he won the NXT Championship at The Beast in the East by defeating Kevin Owens.

The Extraordinary Man Who Can Do Extraordinary Things held the NXT title for 292 days before dropping it to Samoa Joe on a live event in April 2016.

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On July 19, 2016, Balor was drafted from NXT to RAW and debuted a week later. On his first appearance on The Red Brand, Balor wasted no time going for the gold. He won a fatal-four-way against Owens, Cesaro, and Rusev, then a match against Roman Reigns, to earn a shot at the newly introduced Universal Championship at SummerSlam.

BREAKING: New @WWE Universal Champion @FinnBalor suffered injury during @SummerSlam match! https://t.co/WEuWSSneol pic.twitter.com/amFC2UYPkI
— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016

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On August 21 2016, Balor, as The Demon King, defeated Rollins in an epic match to become the first-ever Universal Champion, but it did not come without a price.

The Irish Superstar sustained a shoulder injury during his historic match, which required surgery and meant he would be out for up to six months. He had to relinquish his title just hours after winning it. Despite this, he made this list as he became champion on the main roster in less than a month after his promotion from NXT.

About the author

Ahmed Hamdy is an Egyptian journalist with a decade of experience in sports journalism, specializing in pro wrestling and football.

Hamdy kicked off his career as a sports reporter for Al-Ahram Weekly. He then became a producer/reporter for Mal Masr TV program on the Egyptian channel ON TV. In the following years, Hamdy worked as a reporter for several international news outlets, including Deutsche Welle (Germany), As-Safir (Lebanon), and Al-Monitor (U.S.A).

In 2014, Hamdy joined leading Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm, where he is now a Senior Sports Editor. In addition to all that, the Egyptian also worked as a sports editor for Sport360 and feature writer for Manshoor.com.

Hamdy has covered several sports events throughout the past few years, including WWE's tour in Egypt and the 2019 African Cup of Nations.

The experienced journalist joined Sportskeeda's pro wrestling feature writers team in early 2021. Since then, his work has managed to get millions of reads.

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Edited by James Sullivan