Ahead of NXT Deadline, it's important to remember that Trick Williams has only been a member of the WWE Universe since 2021 when he left football behind to try his hand at becoming a WWE Superstar.

Since then, he's wrestled 75 matches, become Carmelo Hayes' go-to guy, and even tasted gold as the North American Champion, even if he didn't even make it a week with the belt around his waist.

So, with arguably the biggest match of his career on the books for Deadline, with a chance to secure a guaranteed NXT Championship shot with a win in the Iron Survivor Challenge, Williams would like to do everything in his power to make the most of it, right? Pick his spots, bide his time, and work smarter not harder at Deadline?

Nope, as Williams pointed out in an interview with Comicbook.com, he wants the opening spot in the Iron Survivor Challenge and to go the distance against four of the best performers NXT has to offer.

“Oh, absolutely. I mean this is everything. Like you said, man, there are some big guys in this match, and you got Josh Briggs, Mr. Country Strong, you got Bron Breakker, the dog, and you got Dijak, 6'6, and acrobatic man. I mean, this is the time for me to prove myself and show that I can hang with the best of the best on a whole different level,” Trick Williams told Comicbook.com

“I remember watching the Iron Survivor Challenge last year. I'm thinking this is probably the dopest match I've seen,” Williams said. “The 90 seconds locked up… It is like, hey, which is the best spot to have? Do you want to start off the match and have the most time in the match, or do you want to come in fresh on the back end where other people are tired and try to collect your falls that way?

“So it just kind of depends on where your mind is at. Me being the fighter I am, I probably want to start off the match, but I'm looking forward to it. I also going to keep in mind, like we said, there are some big guys in this match, Matthew, so you got to be careful what you ask for here.”

What, you may ask, is the perfect spot to go into the Iron Survivor Challenge? Well, in 2022, Roxanne Perez won the women's match as one of the first two participants alongside Zoey Stark, while Grayson Waller secured the win a few matches later from the four spot, even if he had to run around the ring to avoid getting pinned before the clock hit quadruple zeros. If Trick Willie wants to go in first and fight for the entire 25-minute match, good luck to him, as at this point, no one really has a firm grasp on the optimal match strategy just yet.

Shawn Michaels talks McKenzie Mitchell's exit ahead of NXT Deadline.

With NXT Deadline rapidly approaching, Shawn Michaels held the official press conference for the final Premium Live Event of the 2023 WWE calendar year.

One topic asked of the NXT head honcho was the firing of McKenzie Mitchell, who was let go without much notice ahead of Deadline. While it sure doesn't sound like HBK was the one who fired Mitchell, as he seemed to really enjoy her company as a coworker, he wished her well in her future endeavors all the same.

“No, I don't. McKenzie is always going to be a part of the NXT family,” Shawn Michaels told reports via WrestleZone. “It obviously took me by surprise as well, my understanding is that there are some areas where we have overlapping jobs, and there were going to be changes. There are a lot of things that go on in this company that are way above me, and this was obviously one of them. Like we always say, the door is always open in the WWE, I think that, in my opinion, McKenzie will always be a part of the NXT family, and it doesn't mean that we can't revisit that relationship down the road. Obviously, it's a loss to us in NXT, but the machine, as always, has to continue to roll on, and we will obviously do that and miss her greatly because everybody absolutely loves and adores McKenzie.”

So if Mitchell is always going to be part of the NXT family, which is true, considering she's married to the show's head commentator, Vic Joseph, why was she fired in the first place? Unfortunately, every few months, this appears to be the new reality in this TKO era of WWE.