On Saturday, October 25th, WWE NXT returned to the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, AZ, for its big event, “Halloween Havoc.” This marked the sixth “Halloween Havoc” event under the NXT umbrella, and 18th overall. This show also featured wrestlers from Lucha Libre AAA and TNA Wrestling. The main event of the show saw Ricky Saints put his NXT Championship on the line against Trick Williams.
We also saw Jacy Jayne put her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Tatum Paxley, The Broken Hardys put their NXT Tag Team Championships on the line against DarkState in a Broken Rules match, Ethan Page defended his NXT North American Championship against El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. in a Day of the Dead match, and so much more. So what were the top three moments of the night?
3. Blake Monroe Gets Her First Taste of NXT Gold
In the second of five championship matches on the show, we saw Blake Monroe challenge Zaria for the NXT Women’s North American Championship. Zaria filled in for her friend, Sol Ruca, who suffered an injury during her and Zaria’s match against Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair on Friday Night SmackDown.
This is a rivalry that started back at the NXT vs. TNA Showdown. Monroe called Sol greedy for wanting to add another title to her collection and even tried to drive a wedge between Sol and Zaria. Monroe told Zaria that Ruca was “using” her. Monroe made her intentions known, stating that she wanted the NXT North American Women’s Championship.
Since coming to WWE, everyone knew Monroe had an insanely bright future, but what many didn’t know was how soon she would get her first singles title. The match between Monroe and Zaria was fantastic. Zaria was accompanied by Sol, who was using a crutch and a brace. Monroe noticed that, and that ultimately played a big factor into how the match played out.
In the end, Monroe accidentally kicked out the crutch, causing Ruca to fall to the ground. This allowed Monroe to hit her second glamour shot of the night, winning the title. This was a fun match, which saw Monroe finally win her first WWE gold. She more than deserves this moment, and I’m excited to see how her reign develops.
2. DarkState Defeat The Broken Hardys in Broken Rules
In the final match before the big main event between Trick Williams and Ricky Saints, we saw The Broken Hardys put their NXT Tag Team Championships on the line against two members of NXT’s new fearsome group, DarkState. The two members were revealed to be Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin, who held the titles for DarkState the first time around.
At the NXT vs. TNA Showdown, Matt Hardy & Jeff Hardy defeated DarkState to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions in a winner-take-all match. DarkState immediately wanted their rematch, but they weren’t prepared for what was going to happen. After DarkState attacked The Hardys, the following week, the Hardys revived their “Broken” gimmick.
This match became a “Broken Rules” match. Spoiler alert, it was amazing. It wasn’t too much of a question as to who would win this one. People knew that the NXT Tag Team Championships would be coming back home following the Hardys’ final match against Team 3D. So, this match lived up to the hype and then some.
In the end, Lennox and Griffin hit a Doomsday on Jeff Hardy, who went through a table, which saw Lennox jump from a ladder outside of the ring to the inside to win the match. This was such a fun and chaotic match. DarkState gets a lot of flak online, but they have a really fun gimmick with lots of talent there. I’m excited to see where this one goes.
1. Tatum Paxley Reaches The Top of the Mountain of the NXT Women’s Division
In perhaps one of the most shocking moments of the night, we saw Jacy Jayne put her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Tatum Paxley. This was a bit of a randomly paired match at first, as many people didn’t see Paxley having much of a chance. However, they were dead wrong.
On the October 14th episode of NXT, we saw a battle royal to crown the new #1 Contender for Jayne’s NXT Women’s Championship. This was a match that saw all of NXT’s best, and even some of TNA’s best, compete for a chance to win a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship. The match went on to be won by Paxley.
Paxley has been working her butt off since making her mark in NXT. She’s truly been through a lot since her fun team with Shotzi Blackheart and Gigi Dolin, too, now being in a team with Izzi Dame, Shawn Spears, and Niko Vance, The Culling. However, Jayne had some backup too in Fatal Influence’s Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid.
This was a very fun match from the get-go. Paxley has improved so much in the ring, and she truly deserved this shot. In the end, after some confusion with Dame looking to maybe shock fans and use the NXT Women’s Championship on Paxley, she got taken out by Jayne. This allowed Paxley to capitalize and hit Jayne with a cemetery drive for the three-count. This was an interesting booking decision that nobody saw coming, but Paxley more than deserved this.
