The big selling point of WWE NXT Deadline premium live events are the Iron Survivor Challenge matches, which set up title opportunities for New Year's Evil. All participants were chosen by John Cena.
The entry order for the competitors in the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge match this year started off with Kelani Jordan and WWE EVOLVE Women's Champion Kendal Grey.
Grey set the pace early with a pinfall on Jordan even before the third competitor, Jordynne Grace, entered the match. Jordan would return the favor and pin Grey.
Lola Vice entered the match in the fourth position and quickly gained a point on Grey, sending her back to the penalty box, only for Grey to make up for it with a point on Grace, who then nabbed one for herself on Jordan.
Sol Ruca was up last and was taken out temporarily by Jordan pulling her off the apron. Once Ruca came back out, she scored two quick pins over Jordan and Vice to tie up the field.
Jordan, Grace, and Vice all scored their second points, but Grey managed to get a third in the final few seconds of the match to secure herself a victory and a title shot against Jacy Jayne.
For the men's match, Myles Borne had earned the right to qualify by beating Trick Williams. He also earned the ability to pick his entry spot when he scored the pinfall in an eight-man tag team match alongside Je'Von Evans and Leon Slater and Joe Hendry against DarkState. Borne decided to go with entry spot #3.
Starting the match were TNA X Division Champion Leon Slater and Je'Von Evans, with Borne naturally following third. Fourth was Dion Lennox, and last up was Joe Hendry.
Throughout the course of the match, one point was scored by each competitor. In the last few seconds, Evans was able to get one more pin over Myles Borne to win and secure himself a title shot against Oba Femi, even though Tony D'Angelo would come out to end the show by laying out Evans to make a statement.
Personal Reactions & What Happens Next?:
I wholeheartedly expect Kendal Grey to lose to Jacy Jayne. While they've been in a habit lately of doing double champions, I don't think Grey holding both the NXT and EVOLVE Women's Championships at the same time is the course they're on. Grey puts up a good fight and loses to Jayne, who drops the belt to someone at NXT Stand & Deliver.
It's a little less clear when it comes to Oba Femi. Je'Von Evans has had so many opportunities and keeps coming up short. For WWE to go back to that well over and over again, only to perpetually have him not win, gets very old and doesn't serve any real purpose. This is effectively the moment to either give him the belt or stop pretending like he's in contention. And with Tony D'Angelo attacking Evans after, I could see a scenario where D'Angelo fights Evans at Vengeance Day or Stand & Deliver after Evans wins the belt at NYE.
What did you think about these Iron Survivor Challenge matches this year? Do you think the titles will change hands at New Year's Evil? Drop a comment below and keep the discussion going!