Thanks to the broadcast partner shift, things have been ridiculously hot and heavy in the WWE universe this fall. Things aren't cooling down any with winter approaching, rather they're heating up to epic proportions. A day after Friday Night SmackDown announced that there's going to be a lot of moving and shaking surrounding the move of Monday Night Raw to Netflix in about a month, the NXT's latest PLE event comes barreling down the pike.
It more than likely means that many of the storylines and bookings surrounding the biggest names in the Black and Gold Silver brand will be disrupted in short order. Saturday's event has several matches that now take on added significance and expectations. Here's a rundown, as well as a central hub to come back and check results.
This PLE features two championship battles, for the men's and tag-team titles, as well as a grudge match between two of the most popular women's combatants as Jaida Parker and Lola Vice have a no-holds-barred bake-off. The biggest events however are the five-wrestler Iron Survivor matches.
Iron Survivor Matches start with two wrestlers, then a new wrestler enters every five minutes. It's a point system, where each pinfall, submission or disqualification counts as one point, where the "loser" goes in a penalty box for 90 seconds. So early competitors have more time to accumulate points in the 25-minute time limit, but are obviously at risk of being worn down as well. A points tie at the end of the 25 minutes leads to a sudden death period.
Date: Saturday, December 7, 2024
Time: 7 pm ET
Location: Minneapolis Armory, Minneapolis, MN
Broadcast: Peacock
Related: WWE Friday Night SmackDown Results: Cody Rhodes vs Chad Gable, DIY takes belts
NXT Deadline Match Card
Courtesy of WWE permission granted to KD Drummond
- Iron Survivor Men's Challenge: Wes Lee vs Je’Von Evans vs Nathan Frazer vs Ethan Page vs Eddy Thorpe
- Iron Survivor Women's Challenge: Sol Ruca vs Zaria vs Stephanie Vaquer vs Giulia vs Wren Sinclair
- Trick Williams (c) vs Ridge Holland – NXT Championship
- Nathan Frazer & Axiom (c) vs Myles Borne & Tavion Heights – NXT Tag Team Championship
- Lola Vice vs Jaida Parker – NXT Underground Match
Match Results
Men's Iron Survivor
Before the match it's learned that Ava has replaced Eddy Thorpe, who made no sense in the first place, with a mystery fifth competitor. The first two contenders in are Je'Vonn Evans and Wes Lee. Lee gets the early advantage, earning a cheating pin with his legs up on the ropes just as the first five minute timer expires and Nathan Frazier is brought in. No pins in the next five minutes but as soon as Ethan Page is the fourth in, Frazer rolls up Page. Just when Page gets out of his 90 second penalty box he's able to roll up Frazer to give him his first point.
The mystery fifth competitor is Oba Femi, who comes in detroying the field and earning a pin over Evans. Finally Evans gets on the board and even things up at one all around. Page gets a roll up of Femi to take the lead but Evans gets him, sending him into the penalty box with Femi to get decimated.
With just a minute left, Evans and Page both have two pins. Femi though pulls off a double chokeslam and double pin with just 10 seconds remaining to zoom in front with three points. Evans climbs to the top rope and lands an amazing cutter, but he runs out of time before attempting the pin.
Oba Femi wins, gets No. 1 contender status for New Year's Evil.
Lola Vice vs Jaida Parker in Underground Match
The rematch after Parker defeated Vice with a brick in a Hardcore Match and the two cost each other in the Iron Survivor Qualifiers. Good back and forth action that finished with the MMA fighter, Vice, attempting a series of submission moves and finally locking in an Anaconda sleeper that knocked Parker out.
Vice wins by submission.
Fraxiom (c) vs No Quarter Catch Crew for NXT Tag Championship
Frazer was busted up in the Iron Survivor match, leaving Axiom to take much of the work in this tremendous battle. Won't lie, did not know Tavion Heights was that explosive, he had a ton of dope moves in this contest. They've been hiding him in NQCC. Regardless, an amazing flurry to finish with Axiom rolling Borne into an inside cradle for the win.
Fraxiom wins by pinfall.
Trick Williams (c) vs Ridge Holland for NXT Champion
What a disappointment. These two just didn't have a ton of in-ring chemistry and the blame mostly goes to Holland. There was a moment at the end of the match he forgot to keep running into the ring post, making things awkward before Williams landed a Trick Shot to get the win.
Williams wins by pinfall.
Women's Iron Survivor
Guilia and Wren Sinclair start things off, with Sol Ruca being third in the ring. Right before competitor four comes in, Guilia lands a pinfall on Sinclair for the first pinfall. Sol Ruca lands a double Sol Snatcher on Zaria and Guilia, but both roll out the ring before a pin attempt. When Sinclair comes out the penalty box, Ruca lands a Snatcher on her and gets a point for a pinfall.
Stephanie Vaquer enters as the fifth. Zaria lands a mean canonball with Guilia on her back into Vaquer in the corner. Zaria gets a pin on Guilia to get her first point with 17:45 gone from the 25-minute clock. Triple team gets Zaria out the ring, but she comes back with a top-rope Moonsault to take out Ruca and Vaquer. Guilia lands a double-mission dropkick into a Senton on a third wrestler; impressive.
Vaquer rolls up Sinclair to get her point. Sinclair gets out the penalty box with under a minute remaining and rolls up Ruca for her first point. Guilia though gets the inside cradle on Sinclair to earn her second point and avoids Vaquer's roll up to maintain the lead as the timer expired.
Guilia wins with two points.
Predictions
- Iron Survivor Men's
- Wes Lee's bad guy arc hasn't been bad, but it hasn't elevated him to the heights I'm sure they hoped for. Eddy Thorpe's recent run-in with Ava and Shawn Michaels certainly puts him in focus as someone they're looking to push hard. Frazer having to fight twice in one night is an interesting twist as well, but this match will likely come down to AEW import Ethan Page and superstar-in-the-making Je'Von Evans. Evans feels like he has the brightest future among everyone in NXT right now and is just waiting on the coronation before he gets pushed to one of the big-two brands. Prediction: Evans wins to vault him to the top of the brand.
- Wes Lee's bad guy arc hasn't been bad, but it hasn't elevated him to the heights I'm sure they hoped for. Eddy Thorpe's recent run-in with Ava and Shawn Michaels certainly puts him in focus as someone they're looking to push hard. Frazer having to fight twice in one night is an interesting twist as well, but this match will likely come down to AEW import Ethan Page and superstar-in-the-making Je'Von Evans. Evans feels like he has the brightest future among everyone in NXT right now and is just waiting on the coronation before he gets pushed to one of the big-two brands. Prediction: Evans wins to vault him to the top of the brand.
- Iron Survivor Women's
- The two biggest signings in terms of fanfare of 2024 for NXT are Vaquer and Guilia. Ruca is, in my estimation, the most sellable women's wrestler in NXT with the best finishing move and Zaria is the most powerful. But there's a weird push of Wren Sinclair as a technical old-school style of wrestler that means she has a chance. The push for Guilia is too strong though. Prediction: Guilia wins to prep her to take Roxanne Perez's belt so the latter can move up to Raw.
- The two biggest signings in terms of fanfare of 2024 for NXT are Vaquer and Guilia. Ruca is, in my estimation, the most sellable women's wrestler in NXT with the best finishing move and Zaria is the most powerful. But there's a weird push of Wren Sinclair as a technical old-school style of wrestler that means she has a chance. The push for Guilia is too strong though. Prediction: Guilia wins to prep her to take Roxanne Perez's belt so the latter can move up to Raw.
- Trick Williams vs Ridge Holland (Men's NXT Championship)
- Williams recently got his title back from Ethan Page and is enjoying a run as two-times Trick. Meanwhile Holland just destroyed his former faction, Chase U, and kayfabe sent Williams to the hospital as the NXT's resident pure heel. Honestly with everything Williams has going for him, it feels like he's too big to stay in NXT, much like Oba Femi who is conspicuously absent from this PLE. I think both are getting ready to be promoted. Prediction: Holland wins to pave the way for Williams to be promoted to SmackDown to feud with former partner Carmelo Hayes.
- Williams recently got his title back from Ethan Page and is enjoying a run as two-times Trick. Meanwhile Holland just destroyed his former faction, Chase U, and kayfabe sent Williams to the hospital as the NXT's resident pure heel. Honestly with everything Williams has going for him, it feels like he's too big to stay in NXT, much like Oba Femi who is conspicuously absent from this PLE. I think both are getting ready to be promoted. Prediction: Holland wins to pave the way for Williams to be promoted to SmackDown to feud with former partner Carmelo Hayes.
- Fraxiom vs No Quarters Catch Crew (Tag-Team Championship)
- They've been hinting at the potential breakup of Fraxiom for a while as a storyline, but the high-flying duo continues to be a thing. NQCC has the WWE's worst faction name this side of Pure Fusion Collective, but they are front and center this PLE (with Wren Sinclair). Borne & Heights somehow won Tuesday's Battle Royale to earn this spot after not seeing much action at all for the last several months. Weird pushes have reasons. Prediction: NQCC wins to be a vehicle for having a more inclusive tag division.
- They've been hinting at the potential breakup of Fraxiom for a while as a storyline, but the high-flying duo continues to be a thing. NQCC has the WWE's worst faction name this side of Pure Fusion Collective, but they are front and center this PLE (with Wren Sinclair). Borne & Heights somehow won Tuesday's Battle Royale to earn this spot after not seeing much action at all for the last several months. Weird pushes have reasons. Prediction: NQCC wins to be a vehicle for having a more inclusive tag division.
- Lola Vice vs Jaida Parker Underground Match
Courtesy of WWE permission granted to KD Drummond
- An underground match is basically a street fight match with no ropes and a fight-club theme. Vice is a former MMA fighter and Parker's style has won her Street Fight/Hardcore Matches against Michin and recently over Vice, where a brick was broken on the loser's face, leading up to the continued feud. Both wrestlers are trying to turn the corner from eye candy to legit title contenders in the eyes of the brass. Prediction: Vice wins this one to create a trilogy match that will propel that winner into a legit title shot.
