Tag: Nxt Deadline 2023

Trick Williams, Blair Davenport win WWE NXT Iron Survivor Challenge matches

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Trick Williams and Blair Davenport are the NXT Iron Survivor Challenge 2023 winners.

At Saturday’s NXT Deadline event, Williams and Davenport emerged victorious in the Iron Survivor Challenge matches. With those victories, Williams has earned an NXT Championship shot and Davenport has earned an NXT Women’s Championship shot. They’re both getting their title matches at NXT New Year’s Evil on Tuesday, January 2.

The Iron Survivor Challenge is a 25-minute match where the wrestler who has scored the most falls by the time runs out is declared the winner. The match debuted in 2022 with Grayson Waller and Roxanne Perez becoming the first Iron Survivors.

Williams defeated Bron Breakker, Tyler Bate, Dijak, and Josh Briggs to win the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge. Williams only had one fall entering the final minute, but he went on a flurry where he pinned Dijak, Bate, and Breakker to end the match on top with four falls.

In the women’s Iron Survivor Challenge match, Davenport won with three falls. She defeated Lash Legend, Tiffany Stratton, Fallon Henley, and Kelani Jordan. 

Davenport took the lead with a late fall over Henley. Davenport then ran away from Legend so that Legend had no chance to even things up.

Following the match, Davenport had a staredown with NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria. Cora Jade then made her NXT return by ambushing Valkyria and posing with the NXT Women’s Championship belt.

New Year’s Evil is the first NXT episode of 2024. It’s currently set to feature the following title matches:

  • NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov defends against Trick Williams
  • NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria defends against Blair Davenport

Cora Jade makes WWE NXT return at Deadline

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Cora Jade has returned to NXT with her sights set on becoming Women’s Champion.

Jade made her return by ambushing NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria at Deadline on Saturday night. It marked Jade’s first appearance in NXT since July.

At Deadline, Blair Davenport won the women’s Iron Survivor Challenge match to earn an NXT Women’s Championship shot against Valkyria. Davenport got on the microphone after the match and declared that the clock is ticking on Valkyria’s title reign.

Valkyria then came out to the stage and stared down Davenport. But as the staredown was happening, Jade attacked Valkyria from behind. Jade posed with the NXT Women’s Championship belt before throwing it back down on Valkyria.

In a backstage interview, Jade said she’s here to take the NXT women’s division to a whole new level.

A QR code had been shown on NXT this past Tuesday teasing that Jade would be returning at Deadline. Her most recent appearance was a loss to Dana Brooke in a kendo stick match on the July 25 edition of NXT. There was a backstage segment where Jade stormed out after her loss and said she was sick of this place.

Davenport is getting her NXT Women’s Championship match against Valkyria at NXT New Year’s Evil on Tuesday, January 2. It’s a special episode of NXT television.

Dragon Lee wins North American title at WWE NXT Deadline

Posted on by Joseph Currier

NXT has a new North American Champion.

At Deadline on Saturday night, Dragon Lee defeated Dominik Mysterio to win the North American title. Dragon Lee was a late replacement in the match after Wes Lee, who was originally supposed to challenge Dominik, had to be pulled from the show due to a back injury.

Rey Mysterio was on commentary for the match and rooting for Dragon Lee to defeat his son. Near the finish, there was a moment where Dominik went for a 619 but took too much time taunting his father. That led to Dragon Lee being able to avoid the move. Lee followed up with a sit-out powerbomb and an Asai DDT to get the victory.

This is Dragon Lee’s first title reign in WWE. He and Rey Mysterio hugged as Dragon Lee celebrated his victory after the match.

Dominik didn’t have Rhea Ripley or any other Judgment Day members in his corner at Deadline.

Dragon Lee was called up to the WWE SmackDown roster this October. On SmackDown, he’s been feuding against Santos Escobar.

AEW wrestler Rush posted a tweet congratulating his brother Dragon Lee on the title win:

It was announced on NXT this past Tuesday that Dragon Lee would be taking Wes Lee’s place at Deadline. Wes Lee is undergoing back surgery and is expected to be out of action for 8-12 months.

CM Punk teases WWE NXT Deadline appearance

Posted on by Joseph Currier

It looks like CM Punk will be in the building for WWE NXT Deadline tonight.

In a post to his Instagram stories on Saturday afternoon, Punk revealed that he’s in Connecticut ahead of NXT Deadline. The premium live event is taking place from Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport tonight.

Punk shared a photo of himself outside of WWE headquarters and wrote: “Missed my flight today. Woke up in Bridgeport. Anything to do here?”

Punk tagged NXT’s Instagram account in the post.

In storyline, Punk is currently a free agent after making his return to WWE at Survivor Series. He’ll reveal which brand he’s signing with on this coming Monday’s episode of Raw.

Punk returned to SmackDown last night for the first time in nearly a decade. During his promo, Punk stated that he had a phone call with Shawn Michaels scheduled for this weekend. Punk said he would be talking with Michaels about NXT.

Michaels responded to Punk on Saturday: “@CMPunk Since you’re in Bridgeport and have some time, let’s forgo the phone call and talk in person.”

Punk said in his SmackDown promo that he’s back in WWE to finish what he started. He’s here to finish his own story of headlining WrestleMania.

Deadline is going head-to-head with AEW Collision tonight.

Deadline streams live on Peacock/WWE Network starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time. There will be a one-hour pre-show before the event.

Here’s the full Deadline lineup:

  • NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov defends against Baron Corbin
  • Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge match: Tiffany Stratton vs. Lash Legend vs. Blair Davenport vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Fallon Henley
  • Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge match: Dijak vs. Trick Williams vs. Josh Briggs vs. Bron Breakker vs. Tyler Bate
  • NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio (w/ Rhea Ripley) defends against Dragon Lee (w/ Rey Mysterio)
  • Steel cage match: Roxanne Perez vs. Kiana James
  • Carmelo Hayes vs. Lexis King
  • Pre-show match: Axiom vs. Nathan Frazer

Shawn Michaels: Wes Lee being pulled from NXT Deadline was last-minute decision

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Wes Lee being pulled from NXT Deadline was a last-minute decision.

Lee was scheduled to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American Championship at this Saturday’s premium live event. But it was announced on NXT this Tuesday that Lee is injured and won’t be able to compete in the match. Lee needs surgery on his back and is expected to be out of action for 8-12 months.

During a media conference call to promote Deadline, Shawn Michaels opened up about Lee’s injury.

The decision with Wes was pretty darn close to last-minute. Wes has been struggling for quite some time. I certainly didn’t know the depth of it. I knew — obviously we get medical reports. It was a decision that Wes made on his own, as he should. I mean, clearly, he’s a young man that goes out there and just performs like few others. And he had a huge match already going into this premium live event looking for the North American Championship. But just a day or two before, we had a long talk. And he just did not think he could make it through the match with the pain he was in. And so that was the decision certainly that he and our medical team made. It is the best decision for Wes, and that’s the only thing in my mind that’s important right now, So look, all of this was last-minute. Wes, to his credit, was certainly doing everything he could do to get himself ready for this. But it just wasn’t meant to be.

Lee tweeted last night: “Thank you all for the get well wishes. Warms my heart to see the love from y’all. Truly hurt to have to deliver the message but I promise to also deliver on my claim to return and rep the WesSide proudly. Love y’all”

Dragon Lee is replacing Wes Lee in Saturday’s North American title match. Michaels noted on the conference call that he thought Dragon Lee was the best choice for a replacement. Michaels said there’s already a past story between Dominik and Dragon Lee. And from a selfish standpoint, Dragon Lee is someone who Michaels likes both as a performer and as a human being. Michaels said he enjoyed having Dragon Lee in NXT and would have liked to have him in the brand longer.

Dragon Lee was called up to the WWE SmackDown roster this October.

Rey Mysterio will be in Dragon Lee’s corner at Deadline. Dominik will have Rhea Ripley in his corner.

Wes Lee competed on the November 28 episode of NXT, winning a fatal four-way match to set him up as Dominik’s challenger for Deadline. He defeated Johnny Gargano, Bronson Reed, and Cameron Grimes.

Deadline streams live on Peacock/WWE Network at 8 p.m. Eastern time this Saturday (December 9).

Josh Briggs, Blair Davenport qualify for WWE NXT Iron Survivor Challenge

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Two more NXT stars have qualified for the upcoming Iron Survivor Challenge match.

Blair Davenport and Josh Briggs both qualified for the match, which will take place at Deadline on December 9 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Briggs won his match on Tuesday after Lexis King hopped on the apron and distracted Hayes. Briggs then picked up the upset win after hitting a lariat then followed with a moonsault.

Later in the night, Davenport was the next to qualify for the women’s Iron Survivor Challenge match, defeating Thea Hail with a knee to the face. Hail had been looking to the Chase U section of the crowd for support but found it empty, with students walking out last week following the announcement that Chase U and Andre Chase were under investigation.

Briggs joins Trick Williams and Dijak in the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge match, while Davenport will join Tiffany Stratton and Lash Legend in the women’s match.

JBL made the qualifier matches for this week’s NXT. For next week’s show, Jerry Lawler will make the qualifying matches.

WWE announces NXT Deadline for December

Posted on by Joseph Currier

NXT Deadline is making its return for 2023.

WWE has announced that NXT Deadline 2023 will take place from Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut on Saturday, December 9. The show will stream live on Peacock/WWE Network.

In December of last year, the first-ever NXT Deadline took place. The show featured the debut of a new stipulation match: the Iron Survivor Challenge. Grayson Waller and Roxanne Perez won the men’s and women’s Iron Survivor Challenge matches.

The graphic for Deadline 2023 indicates that Iron Survivor Challenge will be returning. Here are the rules for the match type:

  • Five Superstars will compete in this unique 25-minute match as they battle each other and the clock.
  • Two Superstars will start the match, and every five minutes a new Superstar will enter the match until all five are in the ring.
  • The goal is to have the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes.
  • Falls can be won at any time via pinfall, submission, or disqualification.
  • When a Superstar scores a fall, they will earn one point.
  • However, when a Superstar loses a fall, that Superstar must pay the penalty. They are forced out of the ring and into a penalty box for 90 seconds.
  • Once the 90 seconds are up, the Superstar can re-enter the match.
  • The Superstar who has scored the most falls when the clock hits 25 minutes will be named the Iron Survivor and become the No. 1 Contender to the NXT Championship and NXT Women’s Championship, respectively.

Carmelo Hayes, Tiffany Stratton, Ilja Dragunov, Roxanne Perez, Tony D’Angelo & Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo, and Bron Breakker are advertised for Deadline.

Tickets for the show are going on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Eastern time on Friday, October 6. A pre-sale will begin on Wednesday, October 4. 

Deadline will be NXT’s final premium live event of 2023.