NXT Halloween Havoc
- Sean Covington
- Oct 31, 2020
- 3 min read
NXT North American Championship: Damian Priest (c) vs. Johnny Gargano
Shotzi spins the wheel and indeed makes a deal. We get a Devil’s Playground match which seems to be a Falls Count Anywhere match. Both men looked like absolute stars. Priest gets the live music entrance and Johnny is sporting some awesome Nightmare Before Christmas gear. This was a lot of fun. I’ve been waiting for someone to take advantage of the plexiglass boards and Priest did not disappoint We’ve seen a lot of these two lately so it made sense that there would be counters galore. We get some neat stair spots and a nasty table spot. This match took advantage of the stipulation as the brawl goes all over the CWC. Too often, a Falls Count anywhere match just seems like a normal match with a few moments but this felt different. Gargano gets the win after being assisted by someone in a Ghostface mask and we have a new champion!
Segment: Pat McAfee and Lorcan/Birch
The new tag team champions and Pat McAfee cut a pretty textbook heel promo. Pat speaks in disjointed bad guy cliches but is interrupted by Kyle O’Reilley…and the Bruiserweight Pete Dunne! Kyle and Pete look ready to take out the bad guys until Pete takes out O’Reilly! Looks like we have a new group to take on UE!
Match #2 Jake Atlas vs. Santos Escobar
Santos is rocking a really cool Rey Mysterio Jr. Halloween Havoc ’97 gear! This was a relatively short match but this was effective. Escobar wins after Raul Mendoza hits Jake with the loaded mask allowing Santos to hit Legado. Atlas looked great here. He showed a ton of fire and even landed his cartwheel DDT finish. Jake is sure to be a mainstay in the cruiserweight division.
Haunted House of Terror: Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis
There were some genuinely entertaining moments between Grimes and William Regal before this “match” I could totally buy Regal as a horror movie villain. If you enjoy cinematic matches and/or embrace the silliness of pro wrestling then this was great. I find Grimes hilarious so that helped. This was essentially Cameron being stalked by Dexter, Michael Myers style, with a few jump scares thrown in. No real winner as this is to be continued…
Match #4: Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Gonzalez
This may be the match I was looking forward to the most. It’s not often Rhea is against someone as physically imposing as she is and Raquel just may be her equal, and perhaps even more so. This was a fight! This was really Raquel’s coming out party as she had a fantastic showing. She really got to show off her power and toughness. There were a few moments where I thought Gonzalez would pull off the upset. Rhea does get the win with the Riptide but man, she had to earn it.
Haunted House of Terror: Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis (Part 2)
Every good horror movie has a part 2 so I guess this is it. Apparently, zombies have infiltrated the CWC as they scare Cameron Grimes into the ring and into a waiting Dexter Lumis. After a quick beatdown, Lumis puts Grimes to sleep with an Anaconda Vice. The End!
NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai vs. Candice LaRae
Candice is out first with some Nightmare Before Christmas gear of her own. Io also gets the live music entrance, being played to the ring by NXT regular Poppy. The wheel is spun again and this time we have a Tables and Ladders and Scares match. This match had everything. We had violence. We had death-defying offense. We had…Io beating Candice with a severed arm. The was a heck of a main event. I have not been a fan of a majority of WWE’s ladder matches as of late and even feel that there’s been far too many of them but, I really like this. There is some continuity from the match earlier as Ghostface returns to help Candice but gets cut off by Shotzi. Candice gets taken out by Io, getting knocked off of her ladder and falling through a ladder on the outside. This looked BRUTAL! Io as able to retain the NXT Women’s Title
Final Thoughts:
Who is Ghostface?
What’s next for Io? The match tonight should be the blow-off with Candice
Shotzi Blackheart was an absolute joy tonight.
Pro wrestling is always best when it rolls with the absurdity of the genre. This show could be been hokey but it was a lot of fun.
Halloween Havoc was always my favorite WCW PPV of the year and this show did justice to the name.
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