The WWE Speed Championship is a men's professional wrestlinginternet championship created and promoted by the American promotionWWE, available to wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and NXTbrand 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. The inaugural champion was Ricochet, who was a member of the Raw roster at the time of his reign. The current champion is Raw's El Grande Americano, who is in his first reign. He defeated Dragon Lee during the Speedtapings on May 5, 2025 (aired May 7).
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 divisions—Raw, SmackDown, and the developmental brandNXT—were eligible to challenge for the title.[2]
The inaugural Speed Championship tournament final, which was taped in Cincinnati, Ohio on April 26, 2024, and aired on tape delay on May 3, saw Ricochet defeat 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 Speed's regular three-minute length.[5] On the July 17 episode, Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes fought to Speed's 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]
Inaugural tournament
Quarterfinals Speed (aired April 3-April 17, 2024)
As of August 10, 2025, there have been four reigns between four champions. The inaugural champion was Ricochet. Dragon Lee has the longest reign at 171 days (168 days as recognized by WWE due to tape delay), while Ricochet has the shortest at 42 days. El Grande Americano is the oldest champion at 39 while Lee is the youngest at 29.
The current champion is El Grande Americano from Raw, who is in his first reign. He defeated Dragon Lee during the May 5, 2025, tapings of Speed (aired May 7).[12][13]
Defeated Johnny Gargano in the tournament final to become the inaugural champion. WWE recognizes Ricochet's reign as beginning on May 3, 2024, and ending on June 14, 2024, when the episodes aired on tape delay.
WWE recognizes Americano's reign as beginning on May 7, 2025, when the episode aired on tape delay. Chad Gable portrayed the Americano character when he won the title, but after he suffered a legitmate shoulder injury, Ludwig Kaiser took over the character on June 30, 2025.
