NXT Heritage Cup

NXT Heritage Cup is a unique professional wrestling championship for the male roster of WWE’s developmental brand NXT. While traditional championships are represented by a title belt, the Heritage Cup, as the name suggests, is a trophy awarded to the winner of the cup. All the matches for the Cup are only contested under the British Round Rules. The title was originally introduced for NXT UK but was brought to NXT after the former shut down in 2022.

Current NXT Heritage Cup Champion (as of February 2025)

Lexis King is the NXT Heritage Cup Champion in his first reign with the title, as of February 2025. On the December 17, 2024, episode of NXT, King faced Charlie Dempsey in the British Round Rules match. He defeated Dempsey 1-0 by disqualification and became the new champion.

What are the British Round Rules?

Unlike the other titles, the NXT Heritage Cup can never be defended in a traditional match. It can also not be defended in other gimmick matches like Hell in a Cell, Ladder Match, Battle Royal, and so on. The cup is to be always defended in a British Round Rules match, given its origin was in the NXT UK brand.

Here, the match is divided into six rounds, each lasting for three minutes each. The player gets a point if he covers his opponent for a pinfall, gets a submission, or wins via countout. In case, one player wins, the round ends before three minutes. If not, the round automatically ends after three minutes and no superstar gets a point for that particular round. No matter how the round ends, there is a break of 20 seconds for the stars.

The match is conducted in a Best-of-Three format and the star who first gets two points is announced the winner. In case all the six rounds get completed and no star has two points, the one with more points is crowned the winner or the match is announced as a draw. There are two more exceptions to the two-point rule. If a star wins by disqualification or knockout, he need not win two rounds to get the victory.

List of NXT Heritage Cup Champions