The 2022 NXT Deadline (stylized as DEADL1NE) was the inaugural NXT Deadline professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held primarily for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. The event took place on Saturday, December 10, 2022, at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Deadline replaced NXT WarGames as the brand's December event, as the WarGames concept was moved to the main roster for that year's Survivor Series event for the Raw and SmackDown brands. Additionally, Deadline debuted the Iron Survivor Challenge match-type in WWE, with one each for the men and women.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including two dark matches that were later streamed on Level Up. In the main event, Bron Breakker defeated Apollo Crews to retain the NXT Championship. For the event's Iron Survivor Challenges, Grayson Waller won the men's, while the women's, which was the opening bout, was won by Roxanne Perez. In another notable match, SmackDown's The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) defeated Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) to win the NXT Tag Team Championship for the first time, becoming the third WWE Tag Team Triple Crown Champions. This also marked their record 12th WWE-branded tag team championship as a team, and Kingston's record 15th WWE-branded tag team title individually.
The event received positive reviews, with critics praising both Iron Survivor matches, but were very critical of the Isla Dawn vs. Alba Fyre match.
Production
Background
On October 15, 2022, the American professional wrestling promotion WWE filed to trademark the name "NXT Deadline" for their developmental brand, NXT. During a media conference on October 21 the night before NXT Halloween Havoc, WWE executive Shawn Michaels confirmed that NXT's next livestreaming event would be Deadline. It was scheduled to be held on Saturday, December 10 at NXT's home venue, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, and aired on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets. Deadline replaced NXT WarGames as the brand's December event, after the WarGames concept was moved to the main roster for the 2022 Survivor Series for the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Storylines
The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on the weekly television program, NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show, Level Up.
On the November 15 episode of NXT, WWE executive Shawn Michaels announced a new match format for WWE called the Iron Survivor Challenge, which would occur at Deadline, with one each for the men and women. The rules are as follows:
Five wrestlers compete in the match, which lasts 25 minutes. Two wrestlers start the match, which begins the timer, and every five minutes, another wrestler enters with the fifth and final participant entering at the 15-minute mark. Each time a wrestler scores a pinfall, submission, or being the victim of a disqualification, they gain a point. Points can be gained even before other participants have entered. A wrestler who is pinned, submitted, or is disqualified goes into a penalty box for 90 seconds. The winner of the match, dubbed the Iron Survivor, is the wrestler who scores the most points at the end of the 25-minute time limit. In the result of a tie, those who are tied enter sudden death overtime. The winners of the men's and women's matches become the number one contenders for the NXT Championship and NXT Women's Championship, respectively.
On the November 29 episode of NXT, the first four contestants for the men's Iron Survivor Challenge were revealed as Carmelo Hayes, JD McDonagh, Grayson Waller, and Joe Gacy, while for the women's match, Zoey Stark, Cora Jade, Roxanne Perez, and Kiana James were revealed as the first four participants. The following week, Axiom won the fifth and final spot in the men's match by defeating Von Wagner and Andre Chase in a triple threat match, while Indi Hartwell won the fifth and final spot in the women's by defeating Wendy Choo and Fallon Henley, also in a triple threat match.
On the November 15 episode of NXT, Apollo Crews warned NXT Champion Bron Breakker that his goal was to become champion. Later, after Crews' match, Breakker appeared to confront him. The following week, Breakker was scheduled to defend the NXT Championship against Crews at Deadline.