To determine a new number one contender to the NXT North American Championship, “WWE NXT” General Manager Robert Stone arranged a Gauntlet Eliminator Match with five participants. After a physical push, Johnny Gargano emerged victorious on “NXT.”

Per the match rules, two stars started the Gauntlet Eliminator, with the remaining three then entering at three-minute intervals. Eliminations could occur at any point in the match via pinfall or submission,

Vanity Project’s Jackson Drake and Shiloh Hill kicked off the match. Over the next several minutes, DarkStates’ Dion Lennox, Charlie Dempsey and Johnny Gargano followed with their respective arrivals. With Gargano being in a mental funk on the “WWE SmackDown” brand recently, his wife Candice LeRae tried to snap him out of it by bringing him back to “NXT,” a place in which Gargano memorably built his name.

The match’s first elimination came with some assistance from OTM, who attacked Lennox at ringside before dumping him back into the ring. Hill capitalized by dropping Lennox with a pop-up neckbreaker for a pinfall. Moments later, Hill repeated the move to secure two more eliminations, this time on Drake and Dempsey.

Before Hill could turn his attention to Gargano, who laid motionless and depressed on the apron for most of the match, Birthright’s Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo and Uriah Connors yanked him to the outside and slammed him into the steel steps. To further the damage, Dempsey delivered a German suplex onto the floor. Encouraged by LeRae, Gargano finally reached his feet in the ring corner, and with a push from her, he then fell perfectly onto Hill to gain the match-winning pinfall.

Gargano will now challenge Myles Borne for the NXT North American Championship at “NXT” Stand & Deliver on April 4.