7 Times Wrestling Promotions Turned Lemons Into Lemonade

Ever since joining the NXT brand in the spring of 2020, Karrion Kross dominated everyone he was in the ring with, and in just a few short months earned himself a match against the NXT Champion Keith Lee. The match took place at NXT TakeOver: XXX, where Kross won the championship, but had also separated his shoulder. He had to vacate the title just four days after winning.

WWE's third brand was without a champion. A problem that arose with this was that at the same TakeOver event where Kross had won the gold, a ladder match for the vacant North American Championship had taken place. This ladder match had a number of qualifying matches in the weeks leading up to it. It would have been far too soon to run a similar style of qualifying leading up to an NXT title match.

Instead, the four cornerstones of NXT - Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and Finn Bálor - all demanded a shot. General Manager William Regal booked the four of them in the first ever 4-way 60 minute Iron Man match. After the hour the match was a draw with Cole and Bálor both having two falls a piece.

With a champion still not crowned a match was set for the following week between Cole and Bálor. Bálor came out on top winning the NXT Championship for a second time. Without the injury to Kross we would have never got to see NXT's first ever 60 minute Iron Man match.