The championship was first introduced on April 5, 2013 at WrestleMania Axxess. It was announced at the May 30, 2013 tapings (broadcast on the June 5 episode) of WWE NXT, by Stephanie McMahon that there would be a tournament, featuring four developmental female talents and four female talents from the main roster competing to be crowned as the inaugural NXT Women's Champion in a knockout system format. The first NXT Women's Champion was crowned on June 20, 2013, with Paige defeating Emma in the tournament finals.
Tournament brackets[]
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Finals | |||||||||||||
| Tamina Snuka | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Paige | 4:00 | ||||||||||||||
| Paige | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Alicia Fox | |||||||||||||||
| Bayley | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Alicia Fox | 3:27 | ||||||||||||||
| Paige | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Emma | |||||||||||||||
| Sasha Banks | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Summer Rae | 3:30 | ||||||||||||||
| Summer Rae | Pin | ||||||||||||||
| Emma | |||||||||||||||
| Emma | Sub | ||||||||||||||
| Aksana | |||||||||||||||