Every year, the winners of the Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline get a special prize. An NXT Championship match awaits them at New Year’s Evil. This year, Je’Von Evans won for the men, and Kendal Grey won for the women. Both of them were very deserving of the win, as they have had tremendous years so far.
But the end of Deadline held a big surprise for both Evans and the new NXT Champion Oba Femi. After Femi confronted Evans by taunting him with the title, Tony D’Angelo returned after not being around for several months.
He targeted both men, as Evans got slammed to the ground, and Femi locked eyes with him as the show closed. The road to New Year’s Evil next month just got extremely interesting. With D’Angelo back, should Evans vs. Femi proceed as scheduled, or should a triple threat be the plan?
Evans vs. Femi Should Be the Match
What was interesting about D’Angelo’s return is that he went after Evans first instead of Femi. Those two have never faced each other in NXT, while he has a tremendous amount of history with Femi. It seems like he’s firing a warning shot instead of going directly to him.
He’s a very calculating person, always thinking before he does something. After all, not thinking led to Stacks disobeying his orders and betraying him. If it’s still Evans vs. Femi, D’Angelo has a lot of options to cause trouble.
He could attack Evans beforehand to weaken him against Femi. That will ensure an NXT Championship match if he retains. Another option would be for him to go after Femi, allowing Evans to become NXT Champion. Going with Evans vs. Femi enables D’Angelo to get another match with the latter through his trademark mischievous tactics.
D’Angelo’s Actions Should Make It a Triple Threat
When Evans got the last-second pinfall to win, he was expecting a great match against Femi at New Year’s Evil. D’Angelo’s return and actions complicate things immensely.
There’s no way he’s going to ignore what happened on Tuesday. D’Angelo obviously is going to get some harsh words from Femi, and now he’ll get some as well from Evans. The whole situation reminds me of what happened last year. Trick Williams was NXT Champion, Femi was the challenger, and Eddy Thorpe was in D’Angelo’s role.
Thorpe had obvious problems with Williams, and in the end, a triple threat was made. The same thing is going on now with D’Angelo. He had issues with Femi, and now, with the attack, both men want to fight him. The only way to settle this rivalry without it getting out of control is to make the NXT Championship match a Triple Threat match.
How Will This Problem Be Solved?
What was a straightforward match has now turned into a mess for Femi, Evans, and D’Angelo. Femi has to deal with Evans, who rightfully won the opportunity to challenge him for the NXT Championship. But now he has to keep an eye on D’Angelo, who wants his championship as well.
With New Year’s Evil coming up in a month, there is only a short time to figure out which direction WWE is going to take this conflict. They could still do Evans vs. Femi.
That could allow D’Angelo to impact the match significantly in various ways. But if the threat of him is too big, he could be added to make the match a triple threat. Doing that could cause D’Angelo and Femi to combat each other, with Evans doing the same to both men. The only thing for sure is that their rivalry is just getting started.
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