Halloween Havoc was this past weekend and it was a decent show. Here’s my grades for the matches:
-Tony D’Angelo defeats Oba Femi-4.5/5
-Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer defeat Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade-5/5
-Ridge Holland defeats Andre Chase-2/5
-NXT Women’s North American Title Gauntlet Match (Kelani Jordan defeats Jazmyn Nyx, Kelani Jordan defeats Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley defeats Kelani Jordan)-3/5
-Trick Williams defeats Ethan Page-4/5
TNA’s Bound for Glory was this past weekend as well and it was honestly a better show than Halloween Havoc. My grades for the matches:
-Ash by Elegance and Heath by Elegance (Heather Reckless) defeat Xia Brookside and Brinley Reece-2.5/5
-Frankie Kazarian wins the Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match-3/5
-Mike Bailey defeats El Hijo del Vikingo-5/5
-Spitfire defeat Rosemary and Wendy Choo-2/5
-Josh Alexander defeats Steve Maclin-4/5
-PCO defeats Matt Cardona-3/5
-Mike Santana defeats Moose-4/5
-Masha Slamovich defeats Jordynne Grace-5/5
-Nic Nemeth defeats Joe Hendry-2.5/5
-The Hardys defeat ABC and The System-4/5
Other big stories:
-WWE announced a new developmental program called WWEID. From what I’ve heard, it’s basically what they’re doing with recruiting NIL athletes but with indie wrestlers. The reaction I’ve heard is that it’s either going to do to the American indie scene NXTUK did to the British indie scene or will be a great big nothingburger. Probably somewhere in between.
-Dave Meltzer made a bizarre comment this past week. He criticized AEW for having Shelton Benjamin defeat Sammy Guevara, comparing it to TNA bringing in Val Venis to beat Christopher Daniels. It may seem similar on the surface but it’s a hilariously bad faith reading if you think about it for a second. Venis was a washed-up has-been who beat one of TNA fans’ favorite wrestlers. Benjamin is someone that can still go and was buried for most of his WWE career and Guevara isn’t close to being liked like was. And even ignoring that, the hype package for this match made it sound like Guevara was the person pushing the most for this match. I’ve noticed a weird trend with Meltzer on AEW: he’ll wave off or make excuses for serious AEW issues like their ratings (they didn’t have their normal lead in! other stuff was on!, shit like that) but will flip his shit over minor stuff.
-Zaria made her in-ring debut this week, pinning Brinley Reece in a quick match. We then got the members of Fatal Influence setting their sights on her, with Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade joining in with them. Kelani Jordan, Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and TNA’s Jordynne Grace came out to make the save for Zaria. We’re getting a 10 Women match with them next week.
-Next week’s NXT will be on Wednesday night and will be from the famous 2300 Arena. It will be an ECW throwback show, with Bubby Ray Dudley teaming up with Trick Williams to take on Ethan Page and Ridge Holland, Dawn Marie being the referee for Lola Vice vs. Jaida Parker, and Rob Van Dam and Francine making appearances.
-Bobby Lashley made his AEW debut, teaming up with Shelton Benjamin and MVP. All three laid out Swerve Strickland and Prince Nana.
-Chris Bey was injured at a TNA taping and had to be stretchered out. We wish him a speedy recovery.
-El Phantasmo is taking a leave of absence, he has a cancerous tumor. We wish him a speedy recovery as well.
-Rhea Ripley was written off, after being attacked by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez in the NXT parking lot. I’m not sure if this is for a legit injury (she hasn’t wrestled in a few weeks) or part of a storyline. They released an x-ray showing her right orbital socket was fractured but this might just mean she’ll show up with an eye patch next week.
-I never want to hear Chris Jericho mention Jay Briscoe’s name ever again. Luckily, my recording glitched out during this segment (and only this segment), so it was no great loss.
-GCW has been fumbling things real bad lately. They’re returning to the Hammerstein Ballroom, one of ECW’s stomping grounds. They ran a PPV there a few years ago and it was so bad, it killed a lot of their hype. The build up to this show has been about how terrible that show was and how this will make up for it. In my experience, doing this just reminds people of that old terrible show and doesn’t inspire much confidence. They also had a death match end with one of the wrestlers calling another wrestler the r word, which just makes me even more annoyed with them.
-We end this week with the announcement that Vince McMahon is trying to launch a new entertainment company. Considering how well his non-WWE ventures have gone, I predict that we’ll be some hilarious shit.