Kelani Jordan won the NXT Women's Championship on Sunday night, defeating Kendal Grey at Heatwave in what many are calling one of the best women's matches of the year. NXT is WWE's third main brand, a separate roster with its own events and titles, and the women's championship is its top prize. Jordan had been pursuing this particular belt for a long time.
The short version of how the match ended: Grey was on the apron, the narrow platform outside the ring ropes, when Jordan drove her into the turnbuckle. Grey's momentum carried her back inside. Jordan was already in position. She hit a split-legged moonsault, a move where the wrestler leaps from the ropes and splits her legs wide in the air before landing across a grounded opponent. The pin followed.
Getting to that finish was not clean. Grey had Jordan in serious trouble more than once. She connected with an avalanche reverse Spanish Fly and later picked Jordan up and drove a knee into her. Neither finished the job. Jordan kept coming.
The titles that came before
Jordan already had championship experience before this night. She was the inaugural NXT Women's North American Champion, the first person to hold that belt. She also held the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling Knockouts Championship for a period.
Both reigns ended in losses. She dropped the North American title to Fallon Henley in a gauntlet at Halloween Havoc 2024. In a gauntlet, one competitor defends back to back against a series of challengers, with the title at stake each time. She then lost the TNA Knockouts Championship to Lei Ying Lee in a triple-threat match at NXT Gold Rush.
What both losses had in common was format. One was a gauntlet, the other a triple-threat. Getting Grey one-on-one was a different situation. Jordan's gymnastics background gave her a counter to Grey's amateur wrestling style, and she used it at the right moment. Jordan has held singles titles before this night. She had never held the NXT Women's Championship.