Adam Cole vs. Davey Richards vs. Jay Lethal vs. Michael Elgin vs. Mike Mondo vs. Roderick Strong

[9.0] "A truncated version of Survival of the Fittest due to the nature of it having to fit TV time, but I thought they did an excellent job of packing in as much story in as little time as possible. The way Michael Elgin was eliminated really kept him looking strong and I think he came off looking better in defeat here than he did the previous year winning it. The Exploder through the table spot looked wincingly painful, especially the way Elgin bounced off the table with such velocity. Richards and Lethal teaming up to take out Elgin was a clever strategy on their part, and Elgin looked like a beast being able to withstand the combined forces of the two for so long before finally succumbing to the numbers game. The final stretch between Lethal and Richards was excellent, just chock full of near-fall after near-fall until the surprising conclusion of Lethal winning. It came off very unexpected at the time considering Lethal had yet to establish himself as a main event player, but this was truly the first step towards his ascension to the top."