The following two entrants into the six-man ladder match, along with Ricky Saints, who declared himself for the bout, to crown the brand new NXT Champion were determined by two qualifying matches on “WWE NXT.” Shiloh Hill and Sean Legacy will join Saints within the upcoming title match after defeating Josh Briggs and Eli Knight, respectively.
Hill and Briggs competed in the primary qualifier of the night. The season two winner of “WWE LFG” fought hard to start out off and did his best to maintain Briggs off his feet. Briggs slapped Hill around, which only served to motivate him. Briggs dropped Hill with an enormous boot, followed by a chokeslam, but Hill kicked out. Hill bumped into one other boot and Briggs went up top, but Hill dodged the moonsault. The “LFG” winner hit an enormous neck breaker and got the pin to advance. After the match, Tony D’Angelo appeared to take out each men with chokeslams of his own.
The previous “WWE EVOLVE” stars, now “NXT” signees, competed within the second qualifier. Legacy and Knight were evenly matched throughout much of the bout, trading high-flying offense, and Saints put over Knight quite a few times on commentary. Legacy hit a standing fly, followed by a 450 Splash, but Knight kicked out. Knight rocked Legacy with a belly-to-belly into the corner, and hit a standing moonsault after Legacy rolled out of the way in which from one off the highest rope.
Legacy got his feet up for a second moonsault, then hit a Death Valley Driver/twisting neck breaker combination to Knight for the victory. D’Angelo appeared once more and took out each men, and bounced Legacy off the commentary desk in front of Saints for good measure. The previous “Don” was then arrested by “NXT” General Manager Ava’s security and brought out of the world.