Grayson Waller Wins 1st-Ever Men's Iron Survivor Challenge Match at NXT Deadline
Grayson Waller won a future shot at the NXT Championship after winning the men's Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline on Saturday.
A Hall of Fame panel comprised of Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, X-Pac, Molly Holly and Alundra Blayze determined who would compete in the men's and women's matches for the chance to become the No. 1 contender in their respective divisions.
Michaels was the one who revealed the brand-new match type, noting that each Iron Survivor Challenge match would involve five Superstars wrestling each other for 25 minutes, with the winner being decided by who had accrued the most points through pinfalls and submissions by the end of the contest.
The panel considered several possible participants for the men's match and made their decision based on both recent form and past accomplishments.
On Nov. 29, Michaels announced Waller, Carmelo Hayes, JD McDonagh and Joe Gacy would be in the men's Iron Survivor Challenge, while the final competitor would be determined by a wild-card match.
The wild-card match was a Triple Threat between Axiom, Von Wagner and Andre Chase, which was won by Axiom.
Waller won the match with three points, edging Hayes, Gacy and Axiom, who each had two. McDonagh had zero.
Hayes earned the first pin on Axiom. Later on, Waller got two in a row on Axiom and McDonagh to take the lead. Those two then brawled in the penalty box.
Axiom then got two in a row with pins on Waller and McDonagh. A fresh Gacy then entered the ring last and earned a submission on Axiom via the Rings of Saturn before pinning Hayes.
That made the score two apiece for Waller, Gacy and Axiom, with Hayes at one and McDonagh at zero. But Hayes joined the two-point club with a submission on Waller, and it really became a four-man race with the clock winding down.
In the end, Waller won after earning his third point with a pin on Axiom.
Hayes has struggled in recent weeks, losing a five-man ladder match for the vacant North American Championship at Halloween Havoc and a subsequent North American title clash to Wes Lee, but his selection was clearly based on being a two-time North American champion and one of the faces of NXT.
McDonagh found himself in a similar situation since he lost an NXT Championship Triple Threat match against Bron Breakker and Ilja Dragunov at Halloween Havoc, and he later lost a singles match to Apollo Crews on NXT TV. But the Irishman did beat Dragunov and Axiom in singles bouts to impress the panel.
Waller impressively bounced back from losing a casket match to Crews at Halloween Havoc with wins over R-Truth and Duke Hudson, cementing his spot in the Iron Survivor Challenge.
Gacy hasn't wrestled a ton on television over the past couple of months, but singles wins over Cameron Grimes in September and November piqued the interest of the panel, as did his leadership of his Schism stable.
After losing a best-of-three series to Nathan Frazer, Axiom rebounded with a win over Javier Bernal on the Nov. 29 episode of NXT and then won the Triple Threat.
Waller ultimately defeated a star-studded field, and now he will face the winner of the main event of NXT Deadline between Breakker and Crews.
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