Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo VS The Creed Brothers: Tables, Ladders, and Scares
After Shotzi and Scarlett showed up in an Ectomobile from Ghostbusters and New Year’s Day sang another song, it was time for the opening match of the night as Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo went to war with The Creed Brothers. I can tell you that this was a terrific match that was so enjoyable to watch. All four men pulled out ridiculous moves as Angel and Humberto were put through a table early on whilst Julius Creed landed nastily on a ladder not once, but twice. Brutus Creed was also terrific here as he was hitting people in the face with ladders and at one point, all four guys were smashing each other on the head with a Steel Chair. My only criticism of this match is because NXT didn’t know what to hang at the top of the ladder, it meant that this match could be won by Pinfall which was a bit silly, but I prefer pinfall matches anyway (unless it’s the Royal Rumble or MITB). In the end, Julius Creed hoisted up Humberto Carrillo on his shoulders before Brutus Creed delivered a Brutus Ball which sent Carrillo crashing through the table as The Creeds picked up the win. Whilst there is an argument to be made that Angel and Humberto should’ve won this match, they came out of this match looking the best they’ve looked for a long time. Also, it was nice to see The Creed Brothers end their NXT career with a victory as those guys deserve it (they’d better not be on next week’s show).
Grade: A-
Fallon Henley VS Tiffany Stratton, Dominik Mysterio VS Nathan Frazer: NXT North American Championship, Bron Breakker VS Mr. Stone
Shotzi and Scarlett were talking about “the spirits” before Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn walked in and said they’d take over hosting duties. I was actually quite happy about this as I said this should happen a few weeks ago. Tiffany Stratton then got annoyed at McKenzie Mitchell before Joe Gacy cut an eerie promo about being an outcast (or something like that). Fallon Henley then made her way down to the ring before she was attacked from behind by Tiffany Stratton. This resulted in Tiffany injuring Fallon enough so the match couldn’t take place. I’m guessing they were short on time or something.
Grade: C
Meta-Four arrived at the Haunted House dressed up as Mystery Incorporated (minus Fred). Everyone except Noam Dar was freaking out a little as they entered the house before they all got scared and ran off in separate ways after some scary individuals showed up. It was then time for the first Championship match of the night as Dominik Mysterio put his NXT North American Championship on the line against Nathan Frazer. This was alright for what it was, but it became clear that Nathan was actually too quick for Dominik to keep up. Still, some of the moves they did hit looked good, and after a distraction by Rhea Ripley, Mysterio was able to land his Frog Splash onto Frazer to retain his Title. After the match, Wes Lee returned to drop “Dirty” Dom and I have mixed feelings about this. Whilst Wes is a terrific performer and character, this sort of feels like a backwards step for him and he really should be shining on the main roster by now. Still, they should have a good match.
Grade: B-
Andre Chase and Jacy Jayne were talking backstage before Duke Hudson and Thea Hail walked over. Jacy and Thea then left as Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo confronted Chase U saying they want a rematch for the NXT Tag Team Championships. We then saw Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn in the background getting excited about the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships Title curse. We then returned to the Haunted House to see Jakara Jackson, Oro Mensah, and Lash Legend all get kidnapped. The funniest thing about this was Akira Tozawa was just lurking in the shadows before he told his henchman to “take them away”. How and why does Tozawa have henchmen?! Mr. Stone was then in the ring as it was time for him to go one-on-one with Bron Breakker. This was a literal squash match that only went a couple of minutes and in isolation, this wasn’t very good. However, Bron’s Spear on Stone was so good that it made me laugh so I can’t be too harsh on it. After Breakker picked up the victory, he tried to “kill” Mr. Stone on the outside before Von Wagner returned and started beating up "The Badass". Whilst you could argue that Von should’ve been away for longer, the crowd popped for him so this should tell that this has all worked amazingly well.
Grade: C+
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Chelsea Green and Piper Niven VS Chase University, Kelani Jordan VS Lola Vice: NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament Final
We got a great video highlighting just how big of a deal it was that Lyra Valkyria beat Becky Lynch to become the brand-new NXT Women’s Champion last week before Scrypts talked about OTM. I didn’t like this at all. It was then time for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships to be on the line as Chelsea Green and Piper Niven looked to retain against Chase University’s Thea Hail and Jacy Jayne. I thought this was decent stuff between four women who are all talented in the ring. Piper Niven particularly stood out in this match, but Thea Hail deserves a lot of credit because she hung with two veterans of the game whilst also looking like an equal to her Tag Team partner who’s had plenty of success in that division. Near the end of the match, the referee got distracted by Duke Hudson trying to rally the crowd before Jacy Jayne tried to grab Andre Chase’s NXT Tag Team Championship. However, Mr. Chase stopped Jacy and this ultimately led to Chelsea Green dropping Jayne with the UnprettiHer to get the victory. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn watched on from the Podium/platform area and overall, I thought this was a success.
Grade: B-
After Lexis King teased that he’s done a lot more in NXT than people think, it was time for the Final of this year’s NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament as Kelani Jordan and Lola Vice clashed in the biggest match of their young careers. This was alright, it wasn’t anything special, but you shouldn’t really expect that in these types of Tournaments. My main negative towards this year’s NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament is just how predictable it’s been, like I literally predicted that this would be the final before any Superstars were even announced. However, there was a surprise in this one as after Elektra Lopez distracted Kelani Jordan who missed with her attempted Split-legged Moonsault, Lola Vice dropped Jordan with a big Roundhouse Kick to get the victory meaning Vice now has a contract to fight for Championship Gold whenever she likes.
Grade: C
We returned back to the Haunted House to see Noam Dar recapture his NXT Heritage Cup. The acting by Noam Dar was terrific in this before he got mobbed by a bunch of monsters/scary individuals. Akira Tozawa then walked in and told Noam that all he wants is a shot at the NXT Heritage Cup before Dar accepted. However, Tozawa wasn’t finished there as he ordered his minions to “end Supernova 11”. I think someone needs to have a word with Master Gable because this was very odd! We then cut back to the Performance Center to see Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn looking delighted after their night’s work. We then saw Von Wagner demanding Mr. Stone to get him a match with Bron Breakker for next week whilst Boa was in the background talking to Dante Chen. This is the second time that this has happened and it’s certainly intriguing.
NXT Championship: Ilja Dragunov VS Carmelo Hayes
It was then time for the Main Event of NXT Halloween Havoc 2023 Night 2 as the NXT Championship was on the line in the final match of the trilogy between Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes. For whatever reason, I felt like this wasn’t as good as their previous two encounters and I found the opening 10 minutes to be slightly disappointing. However, the match got good when Dragunov delivered a H-Bomb to Melo through the announce table before Hayes kicked out of another H-Bomb that Ilja delivered inside the ring. Towards the end of the contest, Melo dropped Dragunov before he climbed up to the top rope and before he could he hit Nothin’ but Net, Trick Williams’ music hit and Carmelo Hayes’ selling of this was superb. This distracted the former A-Champion who got dropped with a Superplex by The Mad Dragon before The Czar nailed Hayes with Torpedo Moscow to get the victory. As Ilja Dragunov left, Trick Williams got into the ring and got into the face of Carmelo Hayes. Before anything more could be said, NXT cut to the back to see Dragunov laid out on the floor with Baron Corbin standing over him. Even if this match wasn’t as good as their first two, it was still really good stuff overall and the stuff with Trick has kept my sister intrigued so it’s clearly worked.
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