I've never really paid a lot of attention to NXT. I used to, a long time ago, but these days I just sorta watch when something exciting sounds like its coming up, unlike the other companies I'm following at the moment where I'll always try to catch even bad sounding PPVs just in case (cough cough Bad Blood 2024). But this Halloweeen Havoc card sounded real great, so I immediately set aside time to watch it. Had to catch the Magic the Gathering Worlds Finals first to see the German Juggernaut Kai Budde, but after that was over and I'd fried up some sausages for lunch, Halloween Havoc time.
Halloween Havoc was always my favourite WCW PPV, because I'm a sucker for cute spooky aesthetics. I can't really point to one I actually remember as a kid, but I know I liked it. So, while I'm partially sad about WCW PPV names being used for NXT, making them feel 'lesser', I am happy to see Halloween Havoc specifically back for the cute set dressing. I'm just typing this up live play by play thoughts while I watch, and then later I'll come back and add my final thoughts once I've had a lil bit to think.
Match 1:
Tony D'Angelo (c) vs Oba Femi
NXT North American Championship, Tables, Ladders & Scares Match
I assume a Tables, Ladders & Scares match is just a cute Halloween themed TLC match but I am hoping someone will come out in a ghost outfit and go 'ooooooo' at some point. I was a little surprised they opened with this, but I guess you gotta open with something, and everything on this card is pretty cool.
I really like Oba Femi, I know that's not exactly a hot take, but he's got a great look, solid ringwork, exudes power. Can't wait to see him on the main roster eventually. Tony D'Angelo I am less familiar with, but mafia pinstrip is also a cool look. My understanding is Oba Femi was the longest reigning NXT NA Champion, Tony beat him, and this is Oba's runback.
Oba Femi starts this match feeling unstoppable, he's had all the control, constant dumping of Tony onto ladders and chairs, but after the first kick out he's stopped trying to pin and just causing more pain, so I imagine its going to be an 'arrogance costs him' kinda plot. "Oba Femi looking like a Diablo 4 character" is definitely not the most subtle product placement line but it made me laugh.
Big shoulder by Oba Femi to send Tony through a table in the corner but he's still not going for a pin! Oba Femi swinging his crowbar around while Tony parries it with the chair was pretty cool, I can't think of a match off the top of my head that had sorta 'weapon footsies' going on. I'm sure it has happened, and I've probably watched it, but for now it feels cool and original.
Oba's crowbar hold was a bit odd looking. I thought at first it was meant to be a crowbar choke that was just way too high up to choke, but on the second time he did it, I think maybe it was meant to be kind of a neck snap? Either way, looked odd, took me a bit out of it.
Ziptieing someone to the ring is pretty cool, makes a lot more sense than the classic Cena 'tape someone around the ring pole', but zipties are real fuckin annoying to get off, so I'm pretty curious how this is gonna go. Oba's dismantling of the two run in guys was cool, but the rest of him slowly approaching the woman was so slow. I guess it had to be to buy time to get Tony to get the ziptie off since, as mentioned, they're fuckin annoying, but still took me out of it.
Oba Femi's popup powerbomb is so cool looking, looks so strong. Cool enough looking to disable my smark nature and actually think 'wow he must be strong'. I feel like the finish was a little too quick with the interference, would've liked a little bit more of a beatdown before the pin, but that's fine, it is just an opener. The team move with the chair was cool, sorry, don't know his goons names or what you'd call that move. Also, no really ladder specific spots in this match I think? Just ladders as a form of table, if you will. Not a bad match, but not particularly stand out, decent enough opener though.
Also, no ghosts. Boo. But not booooooo.
Final thoughts:
I liked this match a fair bit. It wasn't super special, I doubt I'll be thinking back to it in a couple months, but it did a solid job doing what it was trying to do. I did some googling to see how Oba Femi beat the shit out of Tony's family with him ziptied and unable to defend them previously, so I guess the family beating now also makes sense. It also makes Oba Femi look incredibly strong, so that's cool. Only regrets where no spooks (minor) and no real ladder spots (somewhat major).
7/10
Match 2:
Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez vs Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer
This is match 2? Might just watch this then go to the gym afterwards, feel like I've got exactly what I came for. Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer look so fucking cool, Vaquer's face paint was sick, and the lil orange highlight hair ornament was great. Giulia's outfit didn't look like it had any Halloween adjustments, besides the spider web makeup, but it doesn't really need much, she already looks Halloween-y by default. So glad they let the joshi keep their ridiculous outfits in WWE, they stand out so much but they're so great. Unfortunately the aura of those two really made Cora Jade and Roxanne look a little plain, but not too plain.
My main wonder going into this match is where Giulia and Vaquer are gonna go from here. Like, obviously they both want to rough Roxanne up a bit for some revenge and to get back to the title, but there's two of them and one belt. Can't imagine the kayfabe friendship lasts long.
Roxanne's movements are definitely a little slower than Vaquer and Giulia, which is an unfair comparison given she's so young, but it is pretty apparent. Alright, nevermind, she's picked up the pace when she went in for the roll through to the Crossface, that was pretty smooth. Her little tantrum strikes were cute, didn't look even remotely real but I imagine that's not really the point of a move like that.
Booker inventing new rules on commentary is great fun, its been pretty fun to watch him on regular commentary after having just watched the Main Event Mafia Impact the other day. Bit of a camerawork botch, swapping to the camera directly behind Roxanne so we missed a couple seconds of Cora Jade vs Giulia but that happens.
Vaquer's massive springboard crossbody after the tag was so cool, she got wild air time from that. Giulia's been good, but Vaquer's definitely my highlight of this match. I wonder if Giulia's maybe having issues swapping to a bit of a safer style? She hasn't looked as flash as she has on Marigold, but she was also a lot more carefree with her body there. Her worked headbutts looked pretty funny, too.
I don't think I've said much about Cora Jade so far, she hasn't been in the ring much though. Mostly just interference bits. Roxanne doing the absolutely slowest climb to the top rope I've ever seen for a tag team spot made it a bit too obvious there was gonna be a counter, but that's fine, slow climbing is a classic, just need to balance a bit better between slow and obvious slow. Vaquer's corkscrew moonsault to finish was absolutely gorgeous. Definitely MVP of the match. Have a feeling I'm going to think this should've been main event.
Final thoughts:
Cora Jade was definitely a step behind the other three, but its a little hard to say from purely this match whether that's because she wasn't given much to do, or if she wasn't given much to do because she's a step behind. Giulia and Roxanne were solid, but Vaquer is really just incredible. She didn't miss a beat the whole match, everything looked incredible. Very eager to see where the womens division goes from here.
8/10
Yoooo, my girl DELT- er, ZARIA is here! She looks so cool. I'm not super surprised they changed her name, its a bit of a shame but such is life. Glad she kept her sick as hell look, though.
The Boogeyman prank segment was hilarious. Bayley had the best reaction.
Match 3:
Andre Chase vs Ridge Holland
Ambulance Match
This is definitely more in the area where I don't know anything at all, but the video package before hand gave me a pretty alright summary of what this is about. Feel like I have a decent idea now. Andre Chase really does look like a university professor, solid gimmick. Wasn't quite sure what Ridge Holland's deal is other than being an angry Englishman, but that's enough on its own. First thought, could they not get a van that looks a little bit more like an ambulance? I mean, it doesn't really matter, ambulance matches are a silly gimmick anyway, but that's pretty clearly not an ambulance. Andre fights in the sweater? That's cool, must be tricky.
Chase did some decent jumping spots early in the match, like a wheel kick from the apron, but the match slowed down a bit when it got close to the ambulance, as a sorta ambulance equivalent near fall. Had to walk and brawl all the way back to the ring after that, with a couple of standard weapon spots. I always wonder what they use in the fake fire extinguishers for these, though. I'm sure I could google it, but just wondering is nice. Ripping up the padding around the ring is kind of a funny hardcore spot for a match that's mostly taken place at the top of the ramp anyway, like why not just walk slightly further away? This is maybe personal preference, but I feel like getting sent rolling by a charge from the stretcher is overselling. I think taking the hit to the gut and lurching over makes it look more painful, but might just be me.
DDT to the announcer table without the table breaking sounded painful, made a big thud. Was cool, but that far away from the ambulance, pretty obvious it wasn't gonna be the finish. Senton bomb off the top of the ambulance was pretty cool, also made me realise I mistook the earlier senton off the apron for a wheel kick due to the angle. See, I am typing this live, or I'd go back and correct myself. Also glad someone finally used some of the pumpkins as a weapon. Little surprised at the finish, felt a bit sudden but that might just be an issue of the gimmick. I felt like Andre Chase seemed in control for a lot of it, too. Pretty solid match but I think most of my highlights where from Chase.
Final thoughts:
I genuinely can't think of much that Ridge did besides his finisher and some kinda lame charges with the stretcher. I liked Chase, but there was a lot of downtime in this match, between walking and brawling to the ambulance, walking and brawling back to the ring, stretchering someone to the ambulance, just so slow.
4/10
Match 4:
Fatal Influence (Jazmyn Nyx, Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley) vs Kelani Jordan (c)
Gauntlet Match
NXT Women's North American Championship
Again, don't really know any of these people particularly well. Gauntlet match is pretty busted as a match you can just choose so I feel like either Kelani is dropping the belt or about to portrayed as a monster. Kelani vs Jazmyn to start. Kelani immediately looks great. Very mobile, solid looking technical mat wrestling, then right into a springboard moonsault to the outside. Looks real cool. Jazmyn hasn't got much offense at all yet but credit to her, she's been selling pretty well. Moonsault to the outside at the start of a gauntlet seems insane, though. Goddamn, she can really jump, huh. Good thing that everyone knows wrestlers in a gauntlet start the match with half health.
Match 2 is Jacy Jayne. Kelani definitely took a hit to some part of her from the apron on that corkscrew to the outside, hope it didn't hurt too much. She seems fine, at least. Jacy Jayne pretty much immediately getting triple the offense Jazmyn got, like a cool looking knee, unfortunate that it had to come after Giulia's. Something about Jacy Jayne's name makes me think she should be a cowboy. Kelani gets the win with a rollup into a bridge. Been a lot of cool bridges tonight by the women. No german bridging suplexes, which is one of my favourite moves, but I'll settle for cool bridges in general.
Match 3 is Fallon Henley, who seemingly is a cowboy. Coming in last in a gauntlet is a bit of a cheat in terms of aura, but she definitely does feel like a final boss. Forgot to type anything for a while because I got so engrossed in Kelani almost taking it. I generally dislike when you get someone jumping into nothing while the other person gets out of the way, because the roll tends to happen too late for someone to have decided to do nothing, but this match had a good instance of it. Kelani rolled basically immediately after Fallon springboarded, so she'd have time to react and just land, I think. Kelani sure can move, damn. Cartwheel into elbow into hulk up and kip up, I'm feeling her. Noooo, the distraction! God, what a spin huh. Fallon gets the knees up, then takes the win. Damn. I'm a big Kelani fan now.
Final thoughts:
Kelani was really good! I hadn't heard much about her before, but I'm glad the Giulia and Vaquer match got me watching this because I'm now a big fan. Obviously in a gauntlet match its a little tricky to show off much about the people on the handicapped side, but none of them really stood out much besides Fallon, and even then, wasn't that special. Still, Kelani did great.
6.5/10
ZARIA's in the ring! Big sick spear, sick F-5. Aussie pride is overflowing now. Really in love with the NXT women's division now.
Tony D'Angelo promo was cool, I think I understand a bit better why he's a face now, seems like its just family pride and mobster allusions rather than outright mobster? Not 100% sure.
Still don't know why Bully Ray is here.
I fucking love that Jack O'Lantern jacket.
I love Tatum, her popping out of the casket to spin the wheel was great. Dunno why they split up her and Lyra across brands.
Match 5:
Trick Williams (c) vs Ethan Page
NXT Championship
Devil's Playground Match
I think this is basically a hardcore falls count anywhere match. Shame that even if Ethan Page wins this, its not like he's gonna get any revenge against CM Punk. Pretty cool video package leading into it, both felt like they really hate each other. Cute Willy Wonka outfit for Trick. I've heard a lot of good things about Trick Williams, but haven't watched a ton.
I don't like Ethan Page because he insulted the Jack O'Lantern jacket. Page takes a Jack O'Lantern to try and use on Trick, but Trick hits him down and catches the pumpkin mid air. He then puts it on Page's head and hits it a bunch until it breaks apart. Not sure I understand why you'd put a Jack O'Lantern on someone's head and then hit the pumpkin. Surely that's just going to absorb the impact, pumpkins are kinda spongey. They walk and brawl through the crowd, before Ethan hits Trick with a classic metal trash can. This one's full of 'garbage' like completely untouched paper plates, but nevertheless, nice touch.
Walk and brawl back to the ring. Couple of standard-ish chair spots, before Ethan Page does a weird sorta arm wrap takedown from the top rope onto a chair. Not really sure how to describe it, haven't seen something like that before. Trick gets a DDT into taking a breath into some strikes, cool looking kicks. The Trick Shot is probably only the second best looking knee tonight, but it got a cute little sneaky spot on the pin. Ethan Page puts his leg up on the rope, and the ref goes to stop the pin from the rope break, before remembering its falls count anywhere. Ref goes to count three, but that gave Page enough time to kick out. I liked it. Unique slimeyness.
Ethan Page gets a black bag usually used for tacks, but this one has a bunch of nuts and washers. Commentary says nuts and bolts, but I don't see any bolts. I'm guessing there's a reference to something in this feud? Nuts seem pointlessly painful to fall onto since its not even visually cool like tacks are. Trick gets thrown stomach first into the stairs, and it looks like he's spitting up blood. Big grin on Page's face. Ego's Edge from the top of the stairs onto the commentary table, goes for the valid pin outside, but a kick out! Come on, a kick out from a finisher onto a table after you're spitting up blood?
Medical staff attending to Trick to determine if he's okay. Ethan Page a bit annoyed by the interruption to the match, before starting to assemble a stair contraption in the ring. I agree with him, that's a little unfair, gets Trick time to breathe. Call the match off if you need to attend him that closely! Trick gets up nevertheless, climbs back into the ring, to get thrown into another steps. Page tries to guillotine Trick with the steps on another set of steps but Trick gets out, chokeslams him onto the steps, then he goes for a big swing with the steps. Low blow by Page! Page picks up the steps. Low blow by Trick! He goes for another Trick Shot, and this one gets the three count. This was a fun match, but I think it felt more, like, midcard keep the audience going kinda match, not the main event. I think I preferred both the womens tag match and Oba Femi vs Tony D'Angelo.
Final thoughts:
I mean, it was good, but I kinda thought Trick Williams would be better from all the talk I'd heard. It was solid enough, but for a main event, I have a bit higher expectations than I would from something a bit earlier in the card. Like, if you swapped this and the Oba Femi vs Tony D'Angelo match, I'd probably be more critical on that and a bit easier on this, but I think they were about the same quality. Finish felt unsatisfying to me, too. Also, why did they tease the whole 'the match could end anywhere! Even up here!' while in the prop graveyard and then go nowhere near the prop graveyard. I wanted someone hit over the head with a tombstone.
6.5/10
Post match attack by Ridge, then Ethan Page joins in, but Bully Ray comes in to take out both the heels! Oh my god who cares, why is Bully Ray even here. I didn't really care for Ridge in his match so that as a feud doesn't really excite me, but the NXT Women's division might've hooked me anyway.
Final final thoughts:
Decent enough PPV, but man, the womens division seems light years ahead of the mens in quality at the moment. I know there's other names that have been talked up that weren't on this, like Je'Von Evans, but still, both the womens matches were really solid, and left me excited for more, plus the debut of ZARIA. Meanwhile the main event ended with setup for a feud with a guy I'd just decried. I mean, I'm probably gonna keep loosely following for the women and Oba Femi, but still a bit worrying. Of course, this could also have just been a lukewarm PPV for the men, I can't judge them too harshly off just one show. We'll find out next time, I guess! Also, love the Halloween aesthetic as always, long live WCW.