NXT Halloween Havoc 2026 Review
Myles Borne VS Tavion Heights: Weapons Wild Match
After Danhausen welcomed everyone on All Hallows’ Eve, NXT Halloween Havoc 2026 kicked off with Myles Borne and Tavion Heights finally getting their hands on one another in a Weapons Wild Match! Whilst the entrance gear would tell you that this was another version of Freddie VS Jason, we didn’t get to see a lot of it as Netflix cut out the start before they went straight to a commercial break almost straight after they came back! In fairness, what we did see was good, with Borne taking a tough bump onto nuts and bolts, whilst Heights would later land hard on a trash can! In fact, that was actually the ending, as a Borne Again onto the bin was enough for Myles to get the win, with the feud potentially set to continue, although I’d rather it didn’t!
Grade: B-
Zaria VS Izzi Dame
After weeks of torment, Zaria was looking to finally get revenge on Izzi Dame in non-Title action! Izzi Dame continued her mind games by entering the arena as Glinda (from Wicked), whilst Zaria having a touch of green to both her face paint and titantron was a nice bit of symmetry! Whilst the fact that the NXT Women’s North American Championship wasn’t on the line made the eventual result pretty obvious, I actually thought this was potentially the match of the night, at least from a wrestling perspective! Zaria would continue to fight back as the match went on, with Dame playing more mind games by having a picture of ZaRuca appear on the titantron, whilst another Glinda appeared in the crowd! Eventually, after Dame introduced the North American Title, Zaria’s feelings would get the better of her, with Izzi taking advantage to nail the NA Champion with a Claymore (to the Title) to get the win! Whilst I’m not convinced that we needed the Wicked characters in the crowd, everything else here was done well!
Grade: B
Zilla Fatu VS Charlie Dempsey: Very Nice, Very Evil Match
Thanks to Danhausen spinning the wheel to make the deal, the next match saw Zilla Fatu go one-on-one with Charlie Dempsey in a “Very Nice, Very Evil” match! The premise of this was basically that it was a Falls Count Anywhere Match, although it didn’t really end up going that way as we didn’t see one attempted pinfall outside of the ring! Due to there not being any rules, the rest of BirthRight were able to get involved, with Lexis King, Uriah Connors, and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo all using pumpkins as weapons to try and take Fatu down! Sadly for them, pumpkins don’t change the fact that BirthRight suck, with Zilla Fatu taking care of all of them before he delivered a Triple Z to Dempsey to get the win! In no way should this have been a match on a Premium Live Event!
Grade: C+
NXT Women’s Championship: Kelani Jordan VS Wren Sinclair
For the first time all night, a Championship was on the line as Wren Sinclair challenged Kelani Jordan for the NXT Women’s Championship! I fully believed coming into the show that this should’ve been the Main Event; Wren is one of the few compelling Babyfaces on the show, whilst Kelani is just damn good! Sadly, this match wasn’t executed to its full potential! I will say that once again, the wrestling between the two competitors was pretty good, but the story felt flawed! Everything that’s happened over the past couple of weeks and months set us up perfectly for a Kendal Grey Heel turn, and yet, we never saw Kendal after Sinclair’s entrance! We also didn’t get the trigger pulled on a Title change, with Jordan eventually retaining after putting her foot on the rope! There were so many different ways that NXT could’ve gone here, and instead, they did nothing!
Grade: C (for the booking)
Naraku VS Shiloh Hill
Earlier in the night, Naraku and Shiloh Hill started a backstage brawl that saw them spit orange mist into each other’s faces! This led to a cinematic storyline throughout the night, with both guys fighting off ghosts and ghouls as they were apparently “hallucinating”! Shiloh and Naraku would then eventually find each other again, brawling their way back into the NXT Performance Center so we could get a proper match between the two, which ended rather quickly! See, after weeks of learning about all of the different mists, Hill learnt that “the fog” can combat it, with Shiloh spitting “the fog” out as a shield against Naraku’s mist, as he was then able to take advantage to get the win! All of this was very bizarre; I enjoyed what NXT tried to do with having a storyline throughout the night, but the actual match at the end of things was the worst of it all!
Grade: C
NXT Championship: Grayson Waller VS Tony D’Angelo
And in the Main Event of NXT Halloween Havoc 2026, two guys with a ton of history together faced off as Grayson Waller put his NXT Championship on the line against Tony D’Angelo! This match got plenty of time to breathe, meaning it flowed quite well! I personally enjoyed this match; I thought the intensity was strong, and there were plenty of nice callbacks to D’Angelo’s past! In fact, the way everything’s been done over the past week could make you think that this was Tony D’s last appearance in NXT, but let’s be honest, how many times have I said that before?! At one point, Grayson sent Tony crashing through the announce table with a really well-done Cutter, before D’Angelo would’ve gotten the win had it not been for the referee getting knocked out! Waller would then take full advantage of this, nailing Tony D’Angelo with a crowbar, as The Arrogant Aussie followed that up with a Rolling Stunner to get the 3-count! After the match was over, Danhausen made his way down to ringside to make a surprise announcement, with CM Punk then appearing on the screen as The Best in the World will challenge Grayson Waller for the NXT Title this Wednesday! The ending of this show summed everything up perfectly; rather than focusing on making one of NXT’s biggest shows of the year a massive success, WWE is putting all their efforts into hurting other promotions by putting a ton of Main Roster talent on the following show!
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