Credit to furkokiller & his mate for bringing this to my attention.
I was editing each event (Raw, NXT etc) so all matches were 1v1 finisher win matches to try & get through this fast. BUT none of those matches counted ... you have to play & win the matches generated by the game.
To make this process faster, from the main menu, edit the Match Rules to Finisher win & set momentum to Fast. I only edited 1v1, 1v1 Extreme Rules, Tag Team & Triple Threat. These were the most common match types. I simulated any other match type. Once the match starts, do a few moves & taunts, then hit the finisher for the win.
You could also set the difficulty to Hard to also work towards