Here’s Why Leon Ruff Became NXT North American Champion

There’s your explanation. Every now and then you see something that doesn’t make a lot of sense in wrestling and leaves you scratching your head. It might not be the worst thing in the world, but at the same time it is a move that leaves you wondering what WWE is thinking. That was the case again earlier this year, and now we know the logic behind the move.

Back in early November, Leon Ruff defeated Johnny Gargano to become the new NXT North American Champion. This came out of nowhere as Ruff is brand new to NXT and had never won a significant match there. Ruff would go on to hold the title for about three and a half weeks before losing the title back to Gargano at Takeover: WarGames. Everything came and went, and now we know why.

In a discussion on the Wrestling Observer Forum, a question was asked about why Ruff was given the title in what was little more than a joke title reign. Dave Meltzer responded, saying that someone in NXT thought it would be funny to make Ruff the champion. There is no word on who made the call, but Ruff seems to be sticking around in NXT, as he and Kushida have a tag match scheduled against The Way on next week’s show.

Ruff did well for a bit. Check out how he did as champion:

Opinion: I would hope that there is more to it than just a joke getting out of hand, but at the same time I have trouble believing that anything else is true. Ruff’s title reign came out of nowhere and while it did not wind up meaning anything in the long term, it is not the best sign to see where things might be going in NXT. Hopefully that is just a one off situation, because it could mess NXT up for a long time to come.

What do you think of the move? What does it mean for NXT going forward? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!