WWE presents the NXT Deadline event on Saturday, December 9, 2023, in Bridgeport, CT, at The Total Mortgage Arena, the final Peacock premium live event of the year.
The card
WWE NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov vs. Baron Corbin is expected to headline the show. Top matches on tap for the show include Dijak vs. Trick Williams vs. Josh Briggs vs. Bron Breakker vs. Tyler Bate in the Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge and Tiffany Stratton vs. Lash Legend vs. Blair Davenport vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Fallon Henley in the Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge.
The rest of the card includes NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio vs. Dragon Lee, Roxanne Perez vs. Kiana James in a Steel Cage, Carmelo Hayes vs. Lexis King, and Axiom vs. Nathan Fraszer in the Kickoff match.
Plans change
Mysterio was originally slated to defend his title against Wes Lee, but Lee announced this past Tuesday on NXT that he will be sidelined for 6-8 months with a back injury. Some people questioned how long WWE knew about the injury and when plans were nixed.
While speaking with the media to promote the event, head of NXT creative Shawn Michaels was asked about the match being nixed. He said the decision was pretty close to last month after Lee had been struggling for “quite some time,” although he doesn’t know the depth of it.
Lee made the call to pull himself from the match. A day or two before the announcement was made, he had a talk with Lee, who told him he didn’t think he could make it through the match with the pain he was in.
Plans from the announcement to the replacement came together in less than 24 hours and at the last minute.
