For many wrestlers, holding a title is a sign that you’ve made it.
Whether it’s on the main roster or in development, when the powers that be decide to put a strap on a wrestler, it tends to show that they’re seen as a star right now or a star in the making.
WWE currently has 22 championships across their roster divided across Raw, SmackDown, NXT, Evolve, and WWE ID.
That’s a lot.
For those of a certain age, they’ll remember a time when there were just three – the WWE World, Intercontinental and Tag Team Championships.
Of course, the landscape has now changed, with the women’s division and developmental brands having numerous titles that didn’t previously exist.
But it appears that one title is set to be removed from the WWE championship arsenal.
WWE has officially confirmed that NXT Heatwave will feature a title unification match between NXT Women’s North American Champion Zaria and WWE Women’s Speed Champion Wren Sinclair.
It was one of three title matches confirmed for the event on Sunday August 30th with NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo set to defend his title against Grayson Waller, Cruz Montana and. Zilla Fatu in a fatal 4-way as well as NXT North American Champion Myles Borne defending his title against Jackson Drake.
With Zaria and Sinclair set to face off in a title unification, it suggests that one of the titles will be retired.
While WWE has not confirmed that either championship will be retired, that’s typically what has happened in the past for unification matches.
One of the most prominent examples of that was the Undisputed WWF Championship, which was created as a result of the unification between the WWF (now WWE) Championship and WCW World Heavyweight Championship to consolidate the two world titles into one.
The most likely scenario in this case is that the WWE Women’s Speed Championship will likely be the one dropped.
For those unaware, the Speed titles were originally brought in as exclusive championships for X, with the social media platform showcasing 3 to 5 minute matches to crown the Speed Champion.
After the series was discontinued on X, it moved to NXT and has been there ever since.
It now appears that the plan is to discontinue it altogether.
Zaria and Wren Sinclair fought to a time limit draw in their Speed Championship match earlier this month and, after losing to Zaria for a North American Championship match the week after, Sinclair will be looking to even the odds at Heatwave.
There is no current news on what the plans are for the Men’s Speed Championship, with Lexis King holding that strap.
But if the announcement on NXT is to be followed to its logical conclusion, August 2026 will likely see the end of the WWE Women’s Speed Championship.
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