Bron Breakker Wins NXT Championship At New Year’s Evil

Written by Sondra Ruth • Published 5th January 2022
Bron Breakker with the NXT Championship

Second generation Superstar Bron Breakker defeated Tommaso Ciampa at NXT New Year’s Evil to capture his first NXT Championship.

Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa are certainly no strangers to each other, with the second generation NXT staring down the NXT Champion during his first appearance on NXT television in September. Breakker would unsuccessfully challenge for the NXT Championship at Halloween Havoc, but was successful in pinning Ciampa to gain the win for Team 2.0 at NXT 2.0 WarGames on December 5th.

The tension between the two came to a fever pitch when Ciampa attacked Breakker, leading to the two agreeing to face off for the NXT Championship once more at New Year’s Evil.

Before the match began, Bron Breakker made his entrance by breaking down a huge golden X, symbolizing the fact that he’s trying to usher in a new era and that the black and gold brand is being left behind. Ciampa, meanwhile, wore trunks that contained the rainbow swirl pattern of NXT 2.0 in an attempt to continue reigning supreme in this new era.

Both Ciampa and Breakker showed great intensity in the competition, with Ciampa suffering a cut on his face early in the match and later going through the announce table.

Bron Breakker has been impressive since his debut, but he managed to pull out new offense in this NXT Championship match with moves like an impressive standing moonsault.

After kicking out of a Fairytale Ending, Breakker was able to deliver a bulldog to the champion and then get him in the Steiner Recliner for a tapout victory.

This is the first time Tommaso Ciampa has been beaten to lose his NXT Championship as he was forced to relinquish it due to injury back in 2019. His current reign began on the September 14th episode of NXT 2.0 where he defeated Pete Dunne, Von Wagner, and LA Knight to capture the championship for the second time.

Shawn Michaels, who has been instrumental in running NXT 2.0 while Triple H recovers from a cardiac event he suffered earlier this year, took to social media to praise Bron Breakker and congratulate him on his victory in this generational battle.

“An #WWENXT generational battle for the #NXTChampionship ushers in the era of a NEW @WWENXT Champion!! Congrats to @bronbreakkerwwe!!!”

Full results for NXT New Year’s Evil are available here.