WWE Speed Championship explained

WWE Speed Championship
Created:March 27, 2024
Currentholder:Dragon Lee
Won:November 15, 2024
Aired:November 20, 2024
Promotion:WWE
Firstchamp:Ricochet
Longestreign:Andrade
(161 days)
Shortestreign:Ricochet
(42 days)
Oldest:Ricochet
Youngest:Dragon Lee
Heaviest:Andrade
Lightest:Dragon Lee

The WWE Speed Championship is a men's professional wrestling internet championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, available to wrestlers from all three of the company's brand divisions. Revealed on March 27, 2024, it has a stipulation in which matches have a five-minute time limit and stream exclusively on WWE's online program Speed, from which the title takes its name. The inaugural champion was Ricochet, who was a member of the Raw roster at the time of his reign. The current champion is Dragon Lee from Raw, who is in his first reign. He defeated Andrade during the Speed tapings on November 15, 2024 (aired November 20).

History

On February 9, 2024, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE announced a partnership with X to introduce WWE Speed, a weekly video series to stream exclusively on the social media platform where wrestlers would perform in matches with a five-minute time limit.[1] The following month on March 27, WWE commentator Corey Graves announced that Speed would premiere on April 3, 2024, but regular matches would instead be three minutes in length. An eight-man tournament was also announced to crown the inaugural WWE Speed Champion that would take place over the first few episodes of the program. It was also revealed that male wrestlers from all three of WWE's brand divisionsRaw, SmackDown, and the developmental brand NXT—were eligible to challenge for the title.[2]

The inaugural Speed Championship tournament final, which was taped on April 26, 2024, and aired on tape delay on May 3, saw Ricochet defeating Johnny Gargano to become the inaugural champion.[3] [4] This tournament final also confirmed that the championship matches would have a duration of five minutes instead of Speeds regular three-minute length.[5] On the July 17 episode, Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes fought to Speeds first time-limit draw in their semifinal match. It was decided that both men were eliminated from the tournament with the winner of the other semifinal, Baron Corbin, receiving a bye to the tournament final to face Andrade for the title.[6] Andrade defeated Corbin on July 19, 2024 to retain his title. He then defended the title successfully against Pete Dunne on August 23, 2024.

Inaugural tournament

Reigns

As of,, there have been three reigns between three champions. The inaugural champion was Ricochet. Andrade has the longest reign at 161 days (159 days as recognized by WWE), while Ricochet has the shortest at 42 days. Ricochet is also the oldest champion at 35 while Dragon Lee is the youngest at 29.

The current champion is Dragon Lee from Raw, who is in his first reign. He defeated Andrade during the November 15, 2024, tapings of Speed (aired November 20).

See also

References

Notes

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: WWE Speed To Air On X (Twitter) Beginning In Spring 2024. February 8, 2024. Defelice. Robert. Fightful. March 28, 2024.
  2. Web site: WWE Speed premiere date revealed, tournament will crown champion. March 27, 2024. Rose. Bryan. Wrestling Observer Figure Four Online. March 28, 2024.
  3. Web site: Spoiler: First-Ever WWE Speed Champion Crowned. April 26, 2024. Lambert. Jeremy. Fightful. April 27, 2024.
  4. Web site: Ricochet Becomes First-Ever WWE Speed Champion, Special Friday Episode Airs. May 3, 2024. Lee. Joseph. 411Mania. May 3, 2024.
  5. Web site: Ricochet Celebrates WWE Speed Title Win After Becoming First-Ever Champion. May 3, 2024. Lowson. Thomas. SE Scoops. May 3, 2024.
  6. Web site: Powell . Jason . July 17, 2024 . WWE Speed - Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes . July 18, 2024 . Pro Wrestling Dot Net.