Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

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WWE NXT Deadline 2025 kicks off this Saturday from the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas! For the fourth consecutive year, all eyes are turning to the men’s and women’s Iron Survivor Challenge matches, though former AEW stars Ricky Saints and Ethan Page will each defend their singles titles on the show, while Tatum Paxley seeks to get revenge on the traitorous Izzi Dame. It’s a lot of action for just five-match card, and as always, Wrestling Inc. is here to predict the winners!

Now of course, when it comes to matches like the Iron Survivor Challenge (in which only two out of 10 people will win) the idea of “collective picks” is a bit of a misnomer. Our predicted men’s winner was chosen with significant dissent in the ranks, and our chosen women’s winner would not have been successful in a “first past the post” election. There’s a bit more consensus with the other matches, though nobody was the unanimous choice. “NXT” clearly likes to keep fans on our toes come Iron Survivor season, but we’re confident we can meet the Deadline! Let’s get to the picks!

Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge: Je’Von Evans (64%)

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Je’Von Evans is WWE’s brightest shining star at the moment. He’s spent the past year nearly becoming champion and being praised by everyone from The Undertaker to Rob Van Dam. It would seem that, if anyone should win the Iron Survivor, it should be Je’Von Evans. If this is the NXT equivalent to the Royal Rumble, there’s simply no one else on the lineup who has had the year that Evans has. That’s why two-thirds of the Wrestling Inc. staff picked Evans to face either Ricky Saints or Oba Femi, depending on who is champion by the end of NXT Deadline.

The second-place vote makes a lot of sense: Joe Hendry. Hendry has moved heaven and earth to become a WWE star, despite technically being a TNA-contracted talent for the majority of that time. Now he’s a WWE Superstar, and it would make sense for the company to capitalize on him. However, the staff just doesn’t think it’s very likely. Evans has history with both men in the WWE NXT Championship match, and the case couldn’t be clearer that Evans has “next,” whether he wins the title or not.

Though I would really hope that, if he wins, Evans gets a title reign, as he’s become a true star of the Orlando warehouse NXT calls home.

Written by Ross Berman

Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge: Sol Ruca (50%)

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The Women’s Iron Survivor match will feature some of the best “NXT” has to offer, including Lola Vice, former TNA Knockouts Champion Kelani Jordan, EVOLVE Women’s Champion Kendal Grey, Sol Ruca, and Jordynne Grace, and with the amount of talent in the match, it’s a pretty difficult one for us to call here at WINC. Exactly half of us, at 50%, are in agreement that Sol Ruca will emerge at the women’s winner of “NXT’s” most exciting match.Â

Ruca is one of the company’s brightest rising stars, and we think winning the Iron Survivor Match, to go on to face Jacy Jayne at New Year’s Evil, will even further elevate her. With Jayne in her now second reign with the title, it looks highly likely that Ruca could dethrone her, but that’s a prediction for another day.

She has had an interesting last few months, however. Back in October, she wasn’t medically cleared to compete at Halloween Havoc, and her now-former tag team partner Zaria attempted to defend Ruca’s Women’s North American Championship, but lost the gold to Blake Monroe. A week later, Ruca vacated the Women’s Speed Championship, which was ultimately won by Fallon Henley, who defeated Zaria. The former tag team partners have been at odds even before Zaria lost the title on her friend’s behalf, and things reached an even hotter point on Tuesday’s episode of “NXT” when the pair had to be separated in the ring before getting physical.

For those of us who don’t believe that Ruca can get it done, possibly due to interference by Zaria, our runner up in predictions was Grace at 36%, with both Vice and Jordan garnering seven percent of the votes. The women of “NXT” always show out, and this bout could emerge as Deadline’s match of the night.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Izzi Dame vs. Tatum Paxley: Paxley (79%)

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This match was inevitable from the moment Izzi Dame and The Culling betrayed Tatum Paxley and cost her the NXT Women’s Championship, and the majority of the WINC staff sees Paxley getting her revenge here, with 79% of our crew prophesying Dame’s comeuppance. Part of our confidence surely has something to do with the fact that Paxley, unlike Dame, is in fact a former champion — if “WWE NXT” had enough confidence in her for even a brief title reign, surely they have enough to put her over someone like Dame.

That’s not to say the 21% of us who disagree don’t have reason for doing so — Dame has The Culling on her side, of course, and it’s possible she could win to set up a longer feud. But far more of us don’t see that happening. Paxley could use a big singles win after losing the title so quickly, and Dame is the perfect opponent for that sort of fast-turnaround wrestler rehab. Assuming “NXT” really does see what a large portion of the fandom sees in Paxley, it seems like an easy call to give her this victory.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

NXT North American Championship: Ethan Page (93%)

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NXT North American Champion Ethan Page might be the closest thing the developmental brand has to a franchise star. Je’Von Evans is on the come-up, guys like Oba Femi are (hopefully) on their way to the main roster, but Page’s consistent presence on “NXT” has earned him a certain amount of security. Yes, he and Chelsea Green have become AAA stalwarts as well, thanks to holding the AAA Mixed Tag Titles, but Page feels like an “NXT guy” through and through at this point.

It’s for that reason that almost no one on the Wrestling Inc. staff thinks that Mr. Iguana has a chance to dethrone the North American Champ. Sure, Iguana is a very popular figure, and it’s very possible that he’ll end up taking the AAA Mixed Tag Title off of Page, but Page has become synonymous with the North American Title for the time being. A whopping 93% think that Page will leave Deadline with his title. Even if Iguana is going to hold the big North American title, it feels like the kind of moment that should happen at a AAA show. Admittedly, San Antonio, TX, will be an incredibly hospitable crowd for the lucha star, but I’m just not sure that will be enough to overcome the sheer force of personality that the current North American Champion brings.

Written by Ross Berman

NXT Championship: Ricky Saints (86%)

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Ricky Saints is due to defend his NXT Championship for the third time against the man he defeated in September, Oba Femi, at “WWE NXT” Deadline. Femi himself held the NXT Championship for 263 days after dethroning Trick Williams in January, making ten defenses before coming against Saints at No Mercy, and has yet to have wrestled another match as he prepares to challenge one year on from the night he won the Iron Survivor – thus securing his initial shot at Williams.Â

Saints’ previous two title defenses also came against Williams. And the champion heading out of Deadline will surely contend with this year’s Iron Survivor next; contested between Je’Von Evans, Myles Borne, Leon Slater, Dion Lennox, and Joe Hendry.Â

The favorite to do so among the Wrestling Inc. staff is Saints, with 86% predicting him to complete the defense and cement his reign over the former champion. Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season is on the fast approach, and while neither man would appear out of place on the main roster, Femi has had the longer stint with WWE’s developmental territory. Should he lose this shot at the title, given that he has already held the North American Championship over the course 273 days in 2024, then it’s not difficult to see him being eyed for a Rumble spot.Â

On the other hand, Saints feels like he has more to do in “NXT” as champion, and while WrestleMania approaches so too does Stand & Deliver; keeping the title on him heading into the new year, with an eye on a fresh successor, may be the better move with that in mind.

Written by Max Everett

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