Rhea Ripley VS Roxanne Perez
NXT kicked off with the Judgement Day. Balor, Priest and Mysterio were all there to support Rhea Ripley as she took on Roxanne Perez in the pick her poison match. It was nice to see Rhea wrestling again, she has genuinely improved so much over time and she did a really good job at making Perez look good. At one point, Ripley flew into the ring post before Roxanne connected with a suicide dive for a cool little sequence. In the end, The Judgement Day and particularly Dominik Mysterio’s interference cost Perez and allowed Ripley to win with the Riptide. Even though Roxanne has lost to both Bayley and Rhea in a week, her stock has definitely risen.
Grade: B-
Shinsuke Nakamura returns to NXT, faces Stacks
Cameron Grimes and the OC were preparing for their tag team match later on before Gallows and Anderson talked about money again. Tony D came out in crutches with Stacks and as he went to reveal Stacks’ opponent, he said we’d find out after the commercial break. British Quiz show tactics right there. When we came back from the Ad break, Grayson Waller was poking fun about Apollo Crews before Chucky came onto the screen. He attempted to scare Waller before he announced that Crews VS Waller would be a spin the wheel, make the deal matchup. Waller then ran out of the building, never to be seen again. Back in the ring, Stacks was ready for his opponent before Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance music hit. I popped massively for this and so did the NXT Crowd. Throughout the match, the fans were shouting “Nakamura” and singing his song like we were back in 2016/18. Stacks got a bit of offense in but in the end, Shinsuke Nakamura got the win with the Kinshasa. Hopefully, we’ll see Shinsuke back in NXT in the not-too distant future.
Grade: B for Shinsuke
Alba Fyre VS Sonya Deville, The North American Championship picture
Nathan Frazer and Axiom were both talking/reflecting on their iconic trilogy before Axiom told Frazer that he would be cheering him on this Saturday. Von Wagner than came up to both of them and told them that he is going to be the new North American Champion. I very much hope that that is not the case. Back in the ring, it was time for Alba Fyre VS Sonya Deville. I was actually quite disappointed with this, these two are really good wrestlers but they only got about 2 minutes. Plus, all that happened in this match was Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne kept getting involved. Alba Fyre actually managed to pick up the win with the rollup, but she was quickly attacked by all 3 women before Mandy Rose returned to NXT. Rose trash talked the former forever champion on the mic before Fyre fought all four of them off before she held the NXT Women’s Championship up in the air. That means she isn’t winning this Saturday.
Grade: C-
We then went backstage and Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams started a brawl with Wes Lee and Oro Mensah. The match then started but I didn’t think this was particularly great. There just didn’t seem to be a particularly good amount of chemistry between the four men and in the end, Carmelo Hayes got the win with the Don’t Miss (Diving Axe kick). After the match, Mensah and Lee took out Williams before Melo hit a cool looking dive onto the two of them. As the former A Champ got up, he got hit with a massive kick from Von Wagner before Nathan Frazer jumped onto Von to end the segment. Not a great match but a good closing angle.
Grade: C- for the match, B- for the closing angle
The Schism VS Cameron Grimes and The OC
The Schism cut a promo talking about how they are going to make Cameron Grimes pay before Bron Breakker talked about how he has looked up to Kevin Owens and is looking forward to being on the KO Show later on tonight. Back in the ring, it was time for the Schism to take on the team of Cameron Grimes and the OC. The match was fine, The Dyad and the Good Brothers are two excellent tag teams and Cameron Grimes is an excellent talent. On commentary, Booker T said that Cameron Grimes is a future World Champion which is interesting. In the end, Cameron Grimes hit the cave-in onto Rip Fowler before the OC got the win with the Magic Killer onto Reid. I didn’t mind them winning but for me, Cameron should have got the pinfall win.
Grade: C+
Build to important matches, Shotzi returns to NXT!
Veer Mahaan was being interviewed by McKenzie Mitchell before Veer’s “Brother” Sanga came up to him and told him that he was ready to listen. Those two could be the challengers Pretty Deadly are looking for. Speaking of the tag team division, a video package aired showcasing the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Katana Chance and Kayden Carter as well as their challengers Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark. We then went backstage and the four were sitting in an office, signing a contract to make the title match official for next week's show. The best part of this was the KC’S bringing up the fact that they had sat in the challengers' chairs’ quite a few times. We then got am onscreen interview between Julius Creed and Damon Kemp. Both men tried to get under one another’s skin and the best part of this was when Creed told Kemp that he wasn’t better than him in college and, he isn’t even the best athlete in his family which was a really good line. I’m looking forward to their match this Saturday, Julius Creed comes across as a real star.
Grade: B- for KC’s/Stark and Lyons, B for Creed and Kemp
Ring announcer Alicia Taylor then announced that the host of Halloween Havoc would be none other than Shotzi. The former Blackheart was delighted to return to the role that she did in 2020 and she was determine for this show to be even more successful than the last one. Then, out of nowhere, Xyon Quinn came out and asked if he could be Shotzi’s co-host before Quincy Elliott then said the same. Shotzi decided to up the stakes for Quinn and Elliott’s match where the winner would be Shotzi’s co-host this Saturday. The match itself was pretty sloppy. Sadly, Quincy Elliott doesn’t look like a very good wrestler and Xyon Quinn has never been booked properly. After Hank Walker came out to stop Xyon getting a weapon, he rolled back into the ring and got met with the “Diva Drop” for the win. Shotzi and Elliott then danced after the match for some reason.
Grade: D for the match
A terrifying Chase U lesson, Raquel Rodriguez VS Cora Jade
Andre Chase was teaching his class a lesson about Halloween Havoc before he set his students homework. The homework was to watch Halloween Havoc, that sounds like fun. Before he could finish teaching his 2-minute lesson, Chucky was back and he attempted to scare the students before Thea Hail swore. I have no words for this. We were then back in the office, this time with Pretty Deadly and Enofe + Blade. All four men signed the contract before it was announced that next week’s show is called "Tag Team Title Tuesday". Raquel Rodriguez then came down to the ring to face off with her old tag team partner Cora Jade. The theme for the night continued where matches weren’t as good as they should be. This match only went on for a couple of minutes and after Cora Jade trashed talked Raquel, the former Gonzalez attacked Jade with her black kendo stick. Raquel didn’t seem to care and Jade was delighted with her victory before she was attacked by Roxanne Perez. The heel then ran off, leaving Raquel and Roxanne to celebrate in the ring for some reason. It was fine but it was weird to have this match end in a DQ whilst Ripley just beat Perez. It also didn’t really further the storyline at all.
Grade: C- for the match
The KO Show featuring Bron Breakker, Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonagh
Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen and Fallon Henley had their own parting going on with guests like Javier Bernal, Ikemen Jiro and Indi Hartwell. Please call Indi up to the main roster. After this, Kevin Owens came out for another massive pop. KO was excellent in this segment, he continued to question JD McDonagh before he told Breakker and Dragunov that they cannot let McDonagh become NXT Champion this Saturday. All 3 men did well in this segment, Breakker is NXT’s Number 1 guy, Dragunov is an amazing promo and McDonagh plays his character so well. Kevin Owens quickly left the ring which allowed Breakker and Dragunov to brawl. At first, JD watched but he then attempted to get involved but it backfired for the Irish Ace. Dragunov stood tall with the NXT Championship (that’s a mistake) before Austin “Freakin” Theory’s music hit. It wasn’t till about 2 minutes after the show had ended that it popped into my head about how big of a deal this is. If the plan is Theory to cash his briefcase in to become NXT Champion, they really should have waited till the actual night for him to show up. However, Triple H clearly doesn’t think that Austin Theory should be holding the Undisputed Championship, but he also doesn’t want the Briefcase to go to waist. Having Theory cash in to become NXT Champion would not only be historic, but also bloody awesome.
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