The Messiah of the Backbreaker and NXT's one-man wrecking ball battle to claim the last spot in next week's No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match. Video courtesy of the award-winning WWE Network.

With the coveted final spot in next week’s Fatal 4-Way No. 1 Contender’s Match at stake, Roderick Strong showed no sign of intimidation as he squared off with NXT’s one-man wrecking ball, Lars Sullivan. Strong brought the fight to his much larger foe, even managing to superplex the boulder-shouldered behemoth off the top rope, only for Sullivan to authoritatively, and shockingly, kick out at one.

Strong continued the onslaught, plastering Sullivan with knee strikes and downing him with an Olympic Slam, but none of the attacks seemed to do anything more than annoy the 300-pounder. As Strong sprung off the ropes to fire another shot at Sullivan, the burly brawler caught him and launched him high in the air for a pop-up powerslam. Sullivan then smashed Strong onto the canvas with his spleen-splitting Freak Accident slam, putting the popular Messiah of the Backbreaker down for the three-count.

With the win, Sullivan — who remains undefeated in singles competition — moves on to face Aleister Black, Johnny Gargano and Killian Dain in next week’s huge Fatal 4-Way Match, which will determine the challenger to NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas at NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia.