NXT North American Championship Ladder Match: Carmelo Hayes VS Oro Mensah VS Wes Lee VS Von Wagner VS Nathan Frazer
After a cool intro video hyping up the show and hosts Shotzi and Quincy Elliott welcoming everyone to Halloween Havoc, it was time to find out who was going to become the brand new North American Champion. The match itself was superb. All 5 men brought different things to the table and it was a lot of fun to watch. Here are some of the best spots: Frazer hit a crazy springboard Spanish-fly onto Hayes and both men landed on a ladder. Mensah did this crazy dive were he basically bounced off the ring ropes. Von Wagner nearly took out fans in the front row whilst trying to get a ladder out. Wagner ended up going through said ladder after Nathan Frazer hit a frog splash onto him. Wagner was then back and he, and I’m not joking, he through Wes Lee from inside the ring to on top of the table. It was one of the craziest spots I’ve ever seen. After Wagner, Frazer and Mensah were all taken out, the battle came down to Carmelo Hayes and Wes Lee. It made total sense that these two should have been the last two and after Wes Lee hit the Meteora on Melo onto a ladder, Lee climbed up and grabbed the gold meaning Wes Lee is the brand new North American Champion. After such a tough year personally for Wes, I am really happy that he won.
Grade: A-
Casket Match: Apollo Crews VS Grayson Waller
I didn’t really enjoy the Apollo Crews VS Grayson Waller matchup. Instead of them wrestling really well, it was more like a filmed match than an actual wrestling match. At one point, Waller put Crews through the casket and he was rightly celebrating like he had won the match, but it didn’t count because he didn’t lock him in it. The lights then went out and when they came back on, Crews was walking out with minions carrying out another casket. Also, this casket was a lot bigger than the first one which when you realised it, you could clearly tell it was just a wooden box. After both men attempted to close the case on one another, Crews finally got the win after hitting a sort of powerslam. Crews winning makes sense, but it just felt too “gimmicky”. If anything, this match summed up their entire feud.
Grade: C
Weapons Wild Match: Cora Jade VS Roxanne Perez
During her entrance, Roxanne Perez brought out a skateboard, an item that Cora Jade used to end their friendship. The skateboard was one of many weapons that were used, the likes of chairs and kendo sticks were also involved. After the two fought hard, Roxanne and Cora both climbed up to the platform area which wrestlers tend to use to cut promos. After Jade took off part of the railing, the two went flying off it and crashed through a table. This was an awesome, yet pretty dangerous spot. After Cora Jade shouted, “You were never my friend”, Roxanne Perez fought back and hit the Pop- Rox onto Jade (who landed on a pile of chairs) to get the win. I actually thought both women did really well. For neither of them to be over the age of 21 and have this much ability is as scary as it is exciting. Roxanne lost the first battle with Jade because she wasn’t ruthless enough. Taking both of them over the platform and through the table shows she definitely is now. We might get a trilogy match but honestly, I hope we don’t because this was a good way to end their feud.
Grade: B
Ambulance Match: Julius Creed VS Damon Kemp
After some nonsense with Shotzi, Quincy Elliott and Lash Legend, it was time for an ambulance match. For the entire week, I’d been thinking “Where are they going to put this ambulance” and the answer to my question was by the exit door. This match was fine but where the ambulance was kind of hindered it. After trying to lock their opponents inside the ambulance, they would have to go back to the ringside area so the live crowd could see what they were doing. This ruined it slightly but to be fair to them, they made up for it with some of the spots. At certain points in the match, both men were just throwing stuff at each other with no care as to where those weapons landed. Also, in a crazy moment, Kemp continued to slam the door onto Julius’ hands. Creed’s hands were there to stop him losing the match and seeing his brother being forced out of NXT but dearie me that must have hurt. In the end, Creed bashed Kemp’s back with unrelenting chair shots before he power bombed him through a gurney. He then chucked Kemp into the ambulance before he closed it to get the win. Julius Creed is seriously becoming a new Montez Ford. Like the Street Profits, the Creed Brothers are a brilliant team, but you feel like Julius could genuinely become a singles star. It’s a small problem for WWE but one I’m sure they’re not to upset about having.
Grade: B-
NXT Women’s Championship: Mandy Rose VS Alba Fyre
Earlier on in the night, Toxic Attraction arrived at a Haunted House looking for Alba Fyre. After some creepy moments, Alba Fyre drove off with Mandy Rose in the back seat. I liked that WWE did this given that Haunted Houses have appeared in both of the previous NXT Halloween Havoc’s (Grimes and Lumis 2020, Gargano, Lumis, Melo and Trick 2021). Sadly though, it didn’t really work. Also, Jacy Jayne’s acting wasn’t particually very good. However, I did really enjoy the fact that Fyre locked Gigi Dolin inside a freezer. Who comes up with this stuff!
Anyway, after Fyre brought Rose back to the Performance Centre, the match for the NXT Women’s Championship was underway. After Alba Fyre looked like she was going to become champion, Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne miraculously returned to save the champion. After some more interference from the former tag champs, Mandy hit the "Kiss from the Rose” to get the win and retain her championship. It was an ok battle once they got into the ring, but it was pretty short. Also, it’s kind of sad to see how far Fyre’s star power has dropped. She used to be the “Forever Champion” but now, it feels like she can barely get an important win. The win for Rose means she will get her one-year celebration on NXT shortly.
Grade: C+
NXT Championship: Bron Breakker VS Ilja Dragunov VS JD McDonagh
The Main Event of Halloween Havoc saw Bron Breakker defend his NXT Championship in a triple threat match against the former NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov and the number 1 contender to the gold, JD McDonagh. This match was brilliant. Breakker and Dragunov showcased their excellent power, speed and striking abilities and the two continued to wear each other down which is exactly what JD McDonagh’s plan was. I’ve been looking forward to this match for weeks and the reason for that is because I genuinely could see all 3 of them winning which very rarely ever happens. In this match, all 3 of them had moments where I believed they were going to be champion. After Bron Breakker hit his powerslam, McDonagh threw him out of the ring and covered Dragunov for a super close near fall. Then, in arguably one of the spots of the year, Dragunov looked to have put Breakker away but as the ref went to count three, JD caught the referee’s hand. Dragunov was furious with this and the two went at it on the outside. Eventually, Dragunov won out before he and Breakker went face to face. The two fought hard and it looked like Dragunov was potentially going to win out, but as he went to hit his finishing move, Breakker met him with a spear to retain his NXT Championship. Dragunov showcased why he was the one who ended Walter’s incredible NXT UK title run, he is genuinely an incredible wrestler. JD McDonagh showed everyone that he has one of the best characters in all of professional wrestling. Weeks ago, he said that the smartest man was going to win this match and his brilliant strategy nearly made that statement a reality. Also, he’s a really good wrestler which helps. As for Breakker, he’s got this Nak of making other people look like they could genuinely beat him before he ends up getting the W. Surely, surely, we are finally going to get the Hayes VS Breakker match that in my opinion, is NXT's Mania Main Event matchup. Even though this show wasn’t the best, the first and last match on this show are going to be talked about for a while.
Main event match of the year contender!