By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV Halloween Havoc: Night Two
Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live October 31, 2023 on USA Network
[Hour One] The Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters pulled up to the NXT Parking Lot. Shotzi Blackheart and Scarlett walked out dressed as sexy Ghostbusters. They headed to the Performance Center…
The band New Years Day performed their song “Vampyre” live. They also showed clips of last week’s Halloween Havoc Night One…
Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Alicia Taylor was the ring announcer…
The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile made their entrance. Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo were jumped during their entrance by the Creeds. They both wore pre-match skull masks…
1. Brutus Creed and Julius Creed vs. Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo in a “Tables, Ladders, and Scares” match. Brutus immediately held down Carrillo on a table. Julius gave Angel a Death Valley Driver and sent both Carrillo and Garza through the table. Angel managed to turn the tide with a chair shot to Julius’s back. Carrillo took down Brutus with a enzuigiri. Garza and Carrillo made a ladder bridge with chairs and a ladder. Julius recovered and trapped Garza and Carrillo under a ladder. Brutus slammed another ladder on top of the ladder.
The Creeds opened more tables at ringside which hyped up the crowd. Garza tossed Brutus into the ringpost. Garza and Carrillo brawled with Juius to the top rope. They both gave Julius a Super Press Slam through the ladder bridge. Garza trapped Brutus in a Gory Special. While in the special, Carrillo gave Brutus a Blockbuster through the tables at ringside. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
Julius and Brutus traded chair shots which included protected chairshots to the face. Carrillo gave Brutus a chair assisted enzuigiri (which may have been unprotected). Carrillo gave Brutus a Missile Dropkick on a chair. Julius broke up the pin. Carrillo gave Julius a deadlift Power Bomb through a ladder. Julius kicked out at two. Brutus jabbed both opponents in the gut with a chair. Brutus then knocked down both opponents with a helicopter spun ladder. The referee looked afraid for his life.
Brutus baseball slid a a ladder into the Cousins. The cousins hit a ladder around the neck of Brutus. Julius hit both opponents with a cannonball. Julius had bruises on his back from the match. The Creeds set up more tables. Brutus punched Garza off the top rope through a table. The Creeds then gave Carrillo a Doomsday Brutus Ball for the victory. Both Creeds pinned Carrillo.
Brutus Creed and Julius Creed defeated Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza via pinfall in 14:03.
John’s Thoughts: Sick tag team match! The Creeds showed they have a bright future ahead of them while the Garza cousins showed that they are criminally underutilized in WWE. Only criticism I had was all those head aimed chair shots in the middle of the match. I hope they were protected because it’s not cool if they weren’t. Both teams are going to be feeling it tomorrow because they were giving each other a ton of battle scars here. Both teams needed wins, but with the Creeds possibly called up to Raw full time, The Creeds were the right team to put over strong. I just hope that WWE also sees the value they have in the Garza cousins.
Shotzi and Scarlett were playing with a Ouija Board. Shotzi was dressed as a clown. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn showed up and offered to take over the show host duties, which Shotzi and Scarlett agreed to hand the show over…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Tiffany Stratton who walked off when McKenzie praised Fallon Henley’s Tiffany Stratton impersonation…[c]
John’s Thoughts: I do hope Fallon Henley caught the eyes of WWE officials. She really showed her range in that impersonation.
Joe Gacy was cutting a promo talking about how he likes horrors. He said he makes mistakes and nobody is perfect, but still peers, friends, and strangers stab him with their judgmental eyes. Gacy asked if he’s the problem? He said he’s not asking for forgiveness, but understands he has darkness in him from his past. He said now there’s no strings holding him back now…
John’s Thoughts: Good promo and interesting too. It looks like he’s going to go back to his unhinged character he had in CZW. The guy is a great talker, so hopefully this gimmick sticks. They wasted too much time with him in that crappy cult faction he had before.
Ilja Dragunov was doing jump rope exercises looking ripped…
Tiffany Stratton jumpped Fallon Henley during her entrance and tossed her into the ringpost. Tiffany gave Henley a kneebar against the ringpost. Referees ran out and the match didn’t start because Fallon was injured…
Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in from the commentary table. They sent the show to this year’s Haunted House cinematic, featuring the Meta Four and Akira Tozawa. The Meta Four were dressed as the Scooby Doo gang with Oro as Shaggy, Noam as Scooby, Lash as Velma, and Jakara as Daphne.
They quickly ran away from their first attempt to enter the house because there was a ghoul person. Jakara mocked Oro for looking like a hood Shaggy. They managed to buy sandwiches after their first failed attempt. Noam finally fustered up the bravery to enter the house. They ran away when to skeleton men scared them from behind. A “to be continued” graphic aired…[c]
Vic Joseph hyped up WWE announcing they are having an event in Germany…
Nathan Frazer made his entrance first. Dominik Mysterio made his entrance with Rhea Ripley. Rhea was dressed as a cop while Dom was dressed as her prisoner…
2. Dominik Mysterio (w/Rhea Ripley) vs. Nathan Frazer for the NXT North American Championship. Both men had a collar and elbow lockup early on with Dom getting the first armdrag. Frazer put Dom in a headlock. Dom came back with a hip toss. Dom punched Nathan in the corner. Nathan escaped the corner and gave Dom 3 hip tosses and a dropkick. Dom went to retreat to Mami. Nathan ran circles around Dom and caught Dom with a flying axe handle strike. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
Dom hit Nathan with two of the three amigos. Frazer reversed the third suplex with a Brainbuster. Frazer rallied with strikes. Nathan hit Dom with a Scorpion Death Drop with Dom landing a bit awkwardly. Dom kicked out and gave Frazer a jawbreaker on the top rope. Frazer gave Dom a baseball slide. Dom dodged a dive at ringside and gave Nathan a superkick. Frazer recovered and gave Dom a suicide dive.
Frazer reversed a Frog Splash into a Superplex Final Cut combo for a nearfall. Rhea tossed the Women’s Title to Dom, but Dom didn’t make the catch. Dom dialed it up, but Nathan blocked a 619 with a superkick. Dom tripped Frazer off the ropes and hit Frazer with the Frog Splash for the win.
Dominik Mysterio defeated Nathan Frazer via pinfall in 10:26 to retain the NXT North Amerian Championship.
After the match, Dom was attacked by the returning Wes Lee. Dom went to Rhea to retreat. Wes picked up the NA title and posed with it…
John’s Thoughts: Good match with Dom gaining from working with the protégé of Seth Rollins. Did get a little bit rough in the middle portion, but both men recovered. Dom bringing back his “Prison” Dom gimmick was great, but it also made me miss his skits where Dom and Rhea would terrorize Rey Mysterio’s family every holiday. Can we get one of those again? Dom does benefit by getting the dominant win after the failed cheating attempt (gives him some credibility). Dom vs. Wes should be fun, and I hope NXT gives Dom and Rhea promo time because there’s money with them on the mic.
Jacy Jayne congratulated Andre Chase for winning the tag titles and wanted credit for helping them win. Chase didn’t want to praise Jacy. Duke Hudson and Thea Hail showed up hyped up. After the girls left, Tony D and Stacks showed up and asked for their entitled rematch. Hudson agreed and said they’ll get it. After everyone left, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn showed up dressed as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. They did their usual creepy talk (a bit hard to decipher sometimes due to Alba’s thick accent)…
Bron Breakker vs. Robert Stone was hyped for after the break…[c]
Back at the haunted house, Jakara Jackson was by herself and freaking out. She walked through a random “closet” but was scared by a random monster. Other monsters also scared her. Oro Mensah was spooked by a random man with pale paint. More random costumed character showed up to scare Oro. Oro hit one of the men with a sandwich. Tozawa showed up and knocked out Oro. Tozawa and random ninjas kidnapped Oro.
Lash Legend thought she found the Heritage Cup, but found a random trophy. Lash was spoked by a monster in a sink. A pumpkin masked monster kidnapped Lash. To Be Continued…
[Hour Two] Robert Stone was in the ring as a replay aired of Bron Breakker smashing Von Wagner’s skull. Bron Breakker made his entrance looking confident while Stone looked the opposite…
3. Bron Breakker vs. Robert Stone. Stone tried to run away early on with Bron being confident and cutting Stone off at the pass. Stone managed to run away and even land a punch. Stone did dodge a few tackles, but ultimately was taken down with a shoulder tackle. Bron tossed Stone like a shot put while continuing to sell his confidence. Bron said he’ll send Stone to rehab like Von. Stone tossed Bron into the buckle and rolled up Bron for a two count.
Bron quickly came back with a Saito Suplex. Bron took down the straps and hit Stone with a spear for the easy win.
Bron Breakker defeated Robert Stone via pinfall in 2:38.
Bron dragged Stone to ringside and was about to smash the steel steps on Stone. Bron was stopped in his tracks with Von Wagner making his entrance. Von had a bandage on his head. Von dumped Bron to ringside and gave Bron a chokeslam. Von sold brain damage for a second. Bron retreated to the back after Von missed hitting Bron with the steel steps. Von helped Stone to his feet…
John’s Thoughts: You really have to turn your brain off with this whole brain damage and attempted on-air murder storyline. I also get a bit turned off at the cheesy “rehab” segments (though I still get a kick out of Von’s bad but endearing acting). In terms of acting though, the bright spot in this feud has been Robert Stone who’s showing his range as a serious wrestler. This is the Stone I’ve been wanting to see for years, dating back to Stone’s run in TNA. I hope this leads to more of a push for Stone somehow. Speaking of TNA, good to see Stone back in the ring. He played the role perfectly and Bron also did a great job selling confidence throughout the foregone conclusion.
Carmelo Hayes was shown psyching himself up in the locker room…
Highlights from last week’s NXT Women’s title change aired. An Irish narrator talked about Lyra completing her journey to the title against one of the best in WWE. The narrator then talked about all the people in Ireland talking about being proud of both countrywomen. Lyra was shown making the Irish news rounds…[c]
Vic Joseph thanked the band New Years Day again for providing the theme song for Halloween Havoc…
Scrypts, Bronco Nima, and Lucien Price were cutting a promo in front of graffiti walls. Scrypts talked about how people thought wrong about him for the longest time, thinking he sipped wine all his life or be a running traveling circus. He said he did that to fit in with everyone. He said he met Nima and Price and they reminded him of where he came from. He said he’s Reggie, but back in da hood in St. Louis they call him scrypts. He talked about being locked up, shot at, had to watch his grandfather die in his bedroom. He said he is cut from the same cloth as Lucien and Bronco.
Scrypts called out the Brawling Brutes for being cookie cutter and not being able to last in the hoods. Scrypts talked about how the Brutes cost them a shot the tag titles. Scrypts said you’re either somebody or nobody, and OTM are somebody…
John’s Thoughts: Hell yes! Finally and a long time coming. Flipping guy “Reggie” overstayed it’s welcome, and emo-Scrypts was a Shockmaster esque flop. Putting Scrypts with Nima and Price was a match made in heaven. This was Reggie’s best promo in WWE to date and I hope he continues to keep it up. He also gives Nima and Price street credibility because of his past as a real life crip.
Entrances for the next match took place. Jayne and Hail jumped the champions during their entrance (that’s about 3 matches tonight having jump-starts)…
4. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven vs. Jacy Jayne and Thea Hail (w/Andre Chase, Duke Hudson) for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. Jayne and Hail used tags to cut the ring in half on Green. Green dumped Hail to ringside. Hail dodged a slide and took down Green with a dive. Jayne used a cannonball to save Hail from Niven. Hail and Jayne did DX crotch chops heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
Booker compared Chelsea and Piper to HBK and Kevin Nash. Piper used her power to block a Kimura. Hail got a window of opportunity with a DDT. Green tagged in and dragged Hail away. Hail dodged an elbow drop and tagged in Jayne for the hot tag. Jayne cleaned house. Jayne caught Niven with a superkick. Jayne caught Green with a cannonball. Jayne escaped a Unprettier and hit Green with a Uranage. Piper broke up Jayne’s pin. Niven caught Hail with a flapjack slam.
Jayne and Green took each other out with pump kicks. Chase and Hudson rallied up the crowd. Jayne wanted to use the tag belt, but Chase pulled it away and didn’t want the cheating. Green caught the distracted Jayne with an Unprettier for the victory.
Chelsea Green and Piper Niven defeated Jacy Jayne and Thea Hail via pinfall in 8:58 to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn were laughing from the crow’s nest section…
John’s Thoughts: Well worked tag match. Green and Niven are getting a chance to build good chemistry. Here’s still hoping that the WWE Women’s Tag Title curse is on hold or gone. Having the tag belts on NXT would benefit due to NXT’s deep women’s roster and large focus on women’s wrestling (if I remember correctly, the women’s division was featured in 6 or 7 matches last week).
Lexis King sat on his throne and thanked McKenzie Mitchell for providing his first interview. King said he’s pleased at all the attention the name Lexis King is getting. He said he’s used to the attention. He said it’s his life and he’s doing things his way. Lexis said you’re going to have to wait to see “what I already have done”. McKenzie asked what that meant? King said everyone will have to wait. McKenzie ended the interview and King asked her to stick around a while for candy. McKenzie declined…
Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in from the commentary table. Vic announced the return of the Iron Survivor Match for the Deadline PLE…
Entrances for the next match took place…
5. Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice (w/Elektra Lopez) in the finals of the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. Lola started the match with kicks from a fighting pose. Jordan gave Vice a armdrag. Lola came back with rapid kicks. Lola gave Kelani a hip attack. She yelled “I’m a Latina” while shaking her booty. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
Vice tripped up Kelani. Kelani dodged a hip attack. Vice hit Kelani with a nice looking front kick enzuigiri. Kelani rallied with a series of elbows. Kelani hit Vice with a flip leg drop for a two count. Vice escaped an Overdrive attempt. Jordan ducked a kick, but Vice follwed through with a thrust kick to the gut. Jordan hit Vice with a legsweep.
Jordan hit Vice with an Overdrive. Lopez got on the apron for a distraction. This allowed Vice do dodge a moonsault. Vice caught Jordan with a nice looking hook kick to the head for the win.
Lola Vice defeated Kelani Jordan via pinfall in 6:56 to win the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament.
John’s Thoughts: As usual, rough at points but forgivable due to both women being developmental projects. Jordan definitely has a lot of upside and you can see why people in WWE are high on her. Vice continues to improve and in continued to be impressed by her striking offense. Vice was the right person to go over because Jordan has more character development and Vice still needs to be made. I don’t think she’s going after the Women’s title yet because she’s not ready in terms of in-ring. Maybe she and Elektra cash in on a tag title shot? NXT Women’s division is deep enough for a mid-card women’s title too if they want to introduce something there.
Back at the haunted house, Scooby Doo Noam Dar was yealling and asking for Tozawa to give him back his Heritage Cup. Dar then found the Cup and said it was the best day of his life. For some reason, he licked the cup. Dar then acted emotional and romantic with the cup. Noam was surrounded by the random masked people.
Dar said he’ll bay them twice what Tozawa is paying them. Tozawa took the cup back and begged Dar for title shot. Dar gave him the title shot after the random costumed people freaked him out. Tozawa then ordered the costumed people to dogpile Dar…
John’s Thoughts: NXT does a cheesy Halloween haunted house skit every year and they are hit and miss. This year’s was on the “miss” side. There was just no real effort in the story other than the usual random costumed extras acting spooky. Very generic, and disappointing given how entertaining Meta Four are as characters. Only bright spot was the Meta Four’s Scooby Doo costumes.
Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov were shown heading to the ring in separate camera shots…
Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre were acting like witches backstage. The camera panned over to Von Wagner yelling that he wants a match against Breakker next week. Stone yelled that Von is not ready due to recovering from brain damage. Von said he needs to end this. Von continued to sell the dizziness from the brain damage. Stone asked Von if he’s alright? Von said he’s ok and just wants a match
Noam Dar vs. Akira Tozawa for the heritage cup, Lyra Valkyria appearing, and NXT Deadline qualifying matches were advertised for next week’s NXT…
With 8 minutes left at the top of the hour, Carmelo Hayes made his entrance wearing a “Justice for Trick” shirt. Ilja Dragunov made his entrance. Alicia Taylor handled the formal in-ring introductions…
6. Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship. Both men started off even trading strikes. Ilja planted Melo with aGerman Suplex. Ilja no-sold a German from Melo. Melo and Ilja traded elbows in the center of the ring. Both men traded paintbrush slaps and took each other out with high roundhouse kicks. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
Both men traded strong style right hands. Ilja chopped Melo in the knee cap and gave Melo a German Suplex. Ilja avoided a springboard DDT and ran through Melo. Ilja hit Melo with a Jackknife Power Bomb for a two count. Melo staggered Ilja with two superkicks and a pump kick. Ilja responded with a lariat for a two count. Melo reversed a Constantine Special with a La Mistica slam for a two count.
[Overrun] Ilja tossed Melo off the top rope. Melo recovered and knocked Ilja off the top rope with a gamengiri. Melo gave Ilja a sick looking spike DDT on the ring apron. Melo hit Ilja with a Frog Splash for a nearfall. Both men slowly got to their feet and traded hands. Melo got the upper hand with overhead shots. Ilja came back with a stiff lariat and senton. Ilja planted Melo with a Gutwrench Suplex for a two count.
Melo gave Ilja a pump kick. Ilja came back with a few Mafia Kicks. Ilja managed to land a Standing H Bomb (diving forearm) but was too fatigued for the cover. Ilja escaped a final cut and chopped Melo in the back of the neck. Melo blocked a Constantine Special with a pump kick. The match was at the 12 minute mark. Ilja blocked a Spike DDT and put Melo in Fireman Carry. Ilja hit Melo with an Attitude Adjustment on the ring apron.
Ilja roared and cleared the announce table. Ilja spilled Vic’s weekly bowl of candy to the floor. Ilja put Melo on the announce table and climbed to the barricade. Ilja hit Melo with a diving H Bomb through the table. Vic noted that the referee was being lenient to allow both men to fight. The referee allowed both men to enter the ring without rush. Ilja gave Melo a boot against the bottom buckle. Melo blocked a Coast to Coast.
Ilja reversed a Codebreaker. Melo tossed Ilja into the buckle and landed a Codebreaker, but Ilja no sold it and hit an H Bomb for a nearfall. Melo blocked an H Bomb with a Codebreaker. Melo was going for Nothin’ But Net, but froze when Trick Williams made his entrance. Vic noted it looked like Melo saw a ghost. Ilja caught Melo with a slap and Superplex. Ilja hit Melo with Torpedo Moscow for the victory.
Ilja Dragunov defeated Carmelo Hayes via pinfall in 16:42 to retain the NXT Championship.
Highlights from the epic match aired. After Ilja left, Trick Williams slowly entered the ring. Trick slowly walked to Carmelo Hayes. Vic wondered if Melo was the man that attacked Trick. Suddenly commotion could be heard. The camera cut to the Gorilla Position where Baron Corbin attacked Ilja. The show closed 14 minutes into the overrun…
John’s Thoughts: Another instant classic. These Ilja vs. Melo matches have HBK’s fingerprints all over it in a good way. My guess is that HBK was the road agent for this match given his love for workrate and melodrama. You can see why HBK loves Melo and Ilja given that they are very similar in-style to The Heartbreak Kid. These guys can do no wrong against each other and should fight forever. Yes, sometimes I get mad at an epic match ending in a distraction finish, but it fit in well to the story they’re telling with Trick Williams.
They’re laying it on too thick that Carmelo Hayes is the culprit for attacking Trick, to the point where I’m wondering if it’s a misdirect and they have someone else in mind? I don’t think they’re going to introduce Wes Lee because of how he returned tonight, but that might be a misdirect too. I like that they didn’t end the show with a definite answer because it makes people want to tune in next week coming off the cliffhanger. They can always go with Baron Corbin being the culprit, but that would be an underwhelming copout. They could also go with Lexis King being the culprit with him saying “I did something” but didn’t reveal what that something is.
NXT Halloween Havoc were two hot shows. Both shows anchored by strong main events, but the rest of the matches delivered too. I would say that Night One wins the battle of being the better show, because there were a few misses this week. This year’s haunted house skit did nothing for me and was a downgrade compared to some of their past attempts (I remember the Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes and even last year’s Alba Fyre vs. Toxic Attraction being more entertaining).
Speaking of Fyre and Dawn, a bit disappointing as this week’s hosts to the point where I was kinda hoping that we’d get Scarlett and Shotzi back who did an amazing job last week. I like Dawn and Fyre’s acting work as witches, they just didn’t really give them any material to do anything. If you are limited on time, definitely check out the bookend matches of this show. Maybe even check out the Scrypts promo too for the nice character shift.
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