NXT Review: 27/10
NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic (Semi-Finals): The Vanity Project VS Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno
The final NXT before Halloween Havoc kicked off with The Vanity Project taking on Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno in the first of two Semi-Finals in the 2026 NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic! This entire tournament has been filled with shocks, to the point where I had no idea who was going to win here; trust me, that’s a good thing! On the one hand, I fancied Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno as a dark horse pick from the outset, with that feeling only increasing when they managed to knock off FRAXIOM! On the other hand, a win for Hank and Tank over The Creed Brothers on the other side of the bracket made me feel like The Vanity Project was a safe bet for a Final defeat, given the fact that you could easily build out a proper rivalry for the NXT Tag Team Championships following next week’s Final! This was also a highly competitive bout, with Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes targeting an injury they caused to Noam Dar on a recent NXT Live Event! Whilst this could’ve gone either way, a mistake by the current NXT Tag Team Champions opened the door for Dar and Moreno to hit their finishing move to get the win, booking their ticket in next week’s Final! The Cinderella Story continues!
Grade: B
Chantel Monroe VS Lizzy Rain, Saquon Shugars VS Sean Legacy, Myles Borne and Tavion Heights’ Final Words
During the opening match, Grayson Waller appeared in a mini-box, having just shown up outside Tony D’Angelo’s house! As expected, Tony was losing it! Cruz Montana would then reflect on last week’s ending to NXT by saying that he will finish Dion Lennox next week, before Chantel Monroe made her NXT in-ring debut against Lizzy Rain! Chantel has come up from Evolve, with her already rubbing quite a few wrestlers the wrong way, to the point where Lizzy Rain was looking to teach the new Monroe a lesson! I guess this match was fine; Booker T was acting a bit weird on commentary; he wasn’t happy with Chantel’s consistent showboating and attempts to cheat! However, when Monroe cheated at the end by grabbing the ropes to steal the win over Rain, Booker praised her! That didn’t make a lot of sense, and neither does WWE’s booking of Lizzy Rain, who is clearly better in the ring than Monroe!
Grade: C
Izzi Dame is delighted with how she’s managed to expose Zaria over recent weeks, with Izzi claiming that when she’s done exposing the Aussie, she’ll take the one thing that she has left: the NXT Women’s North American Championship! We were then straight into more action as Sean Legacy went one-on-one with Saquon Shugars! This match came about after a heated backstage confrontation last week, although I should clarify that all of the anger was coming from Saquon’s side! For some reason, Shugars wasn’t taking this match seriously at all; he kept being nonchalant, and it cost him! In the end, a standing Spanish Fly was enough for Legacy to beat Shugars, with The Shugar-Man far from happy afterwards! I’m sorry, but Saquon just doesn’t work for me!
Grade: C
Tony D’Angelo rushed to his house, only to get a phone call from Grayson Waller, who’d already gotten bored and gone and got food! After playing American Football last week, Kam Hendrix was showing off at Basketball this week (okay, Troy Bolton), before Myles Borne and Tavion Heights got their final words in ahead of Halloween Havoc! Tavion was annoyed at the amount of security standing between them, with Myles making it clear that that was for Heights’ own protection! Myles blames Tavion for all of his recent shortcomings, with Borne claiming that Heights hasn’t been capable of doing anything on his own! Heights would then call Borne out for pretending to be something he’s not, whilst The Olympic Kid is exactly who he says he is! The two would then get close to starting a brawl before Danhausen’s laugh started echoing around the NXT Performance Center, with “Mr. Very Nice, Very Evil” saying that this is the perfect match to raise the stakes! Those stakes being a Weapons Wild Match, courtesy of the Halloween Havoc Wheel! I feel like I say the same thing about this Wheel every year, but it’s always the same matches! On a plus note, both promos were solid!
Grade: C+
NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic (Semi-Finals): The Wagner Brothers VS Hank and Tank, Zilla Fatu Gets Attacked, Jackson Drake VS EK Prosper: NXT North American Championship
Mr. Stone isn’t happy with Dion Lennox and DarkState whatsoever, to the point where next week’s match between Dion and Cruz Montana is going to be an “Unsanctioned Match”, as Stone wants no part of it! Just wait until we get to the Zilla Fatu part of the review for my full thoughts on these two cards! After it feels like we haven’t been there for ages, Tony D’Angelo returned to his restaurant looking to find Grayson Waller, only to find a note from the NXT Champion saying to meet him “where it all began”! It was then time for the second Semi-Final matchup in the 2026 NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic as Hank and Tank looked to take down The Wagner Brothers! It’s not very often that Hank and Tank are outmatched in the size department, but there’s no doubting that Tank Ledger was the smallest guy in this match! The Wagner Brothers are huge, especially Galeno, and I will say that it was pretty cool to see the current AAA World Tag Team Champions’ father, Dr. Wagner Jr., in the crowd cheering his boys on! I know that El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. is also known as Dr. Wagner III, so that family lineage is pretty strong! To no one’s surprise, Hank and Tank won this match, but sadly, after what was a fairly competitive bout, the ending was a bit scrappy! Still, Hank and Tank will take on Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno in the 2026 Dusty Cup Final next week, which should be pretty good as I have no idea which team’s going to come out on top!
Grade: B-
We got a digital exclusive from Monday Night Raw, which saw Kelani Jordan get into a bit of a war of words with Iyo Sky! Awesome; Kelani is great! All of this angered Kendal Grey, who needs to calm down for the sake of Wren Sinclair, whilst Zilla Fatu was then being interviewed by Sarah Schreiber in front of the Halloween Havoc wheel! Zilla doesn’t care about BirthRight one bit, which bothered Arianna Grace, before Fatu got attacked by the ghouls, who ultimately turned out to be BirthRight! Uriah Connors would then deliver a pretty nasty weapon shot with a shovel, attempting to break Fatu’s hand, but this is the part of the article where we need to talk about Halloween Havoc’s card! Being honest, it isn’t that good! In fact, the only match that’s genuinely interesting to me is Kelani VS Wren, and that’s coming from someone who loves NXT way more than the Main Roster! In fact, the two matches next week (Dusty Cup Final and Montana-Lennox) is more interesting and deserving of being on the Premium Live Event, but they’re being held back for next week’s show due to it taking place on a Wednesday due to “election coverage”! It’s a real problem when WWE is more worried about taking viewers away from other promotions than stacking up one of NXT’s biggest and most exciting shows of the year!
Grade: D (for the HH Match Card!)
After Shiloh Hill prepared for his Halloween Havoc match with Naraku, it was time for the Main Event match of the night as Jackson Drake put his NXT North American Championship on the line against EK Prosper! This is another match that I would’ve been more hyped to see than most of the matches at Halloween Havoc, mostly because the talent involved is so high! There’s no doubt that Jackson and EK are two of the most exciting young talents in the entire wrestling scene, with them putting on a very entertaining bout here! Honestly, it’s impressive given that they’re still somewhat new to NXT (having debuted this year), and the only reason I’m not going fully in with my praise of this match was the ending! Despite Mr. Stone stating that he didn’t want any outside interference ruining the match, that wouldn’t stop The Vanity Project from getting involved repeatedly, whilst Kam Hendrix would also arrive to cost Prosper the match, with Drake able to steal away “and still”! Great match, but I’d much rather see Jackson Drake just win clean!
Grade: B-
Grayson Waller and Tony D’Angelo Come to Blows
After Zaria stormed out of the Performance Center scathing over Izzi Dame, Grayson Waller showed up to the arena to try and once again get in the head of Tony D’Angelo! Tony would then arrive in the parking lot, leading to Waller meeting him for a massive brawl to close the show! Most of the Evolve locker room showed up, only to do nothing, whilst Waller and D’Angelo would just brawl on the grass! I suppose I have to give NXT credit for raising the levels of this feud going into Halloween Havoc, but I would also counter that by saying that we should’ve been doing this from the start!
Comments