The 2022 NXT Halloween Havoc was a professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's developmental brand, NXT. It was WWE's third annual Halloween Havoc for NXT and the 15th Halloween Havoc overall. The event took place on October 22, 2022, at NXT's home venue, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for a third consecutive year. SmackDown wrestler Shotzi returned to co-host the event with NXT wrestler Quincy Elliott. In a cross-promotion with the Chucky television series, Chucky returned to participate in the Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal segments.
Unlike the previous two years, which aired as a television special of the weekly NXT program, the 2022 Halloween Havoc aired via WWE's livestreaming platforms, marking the first Halloween Havoc to air on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, and the WWE Network in other international markets. It was in turn the first Halloween Havoc to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced at the start of the year to refer to its events airing on traditional pay-per-view and via the livestreaming platforms. This was also the second time for Shotzi to host, after previously hosting the 2020 event when she was still on NXT. It was also NXT's first PLE since the brand reverted back to its original "NXT" name the previous month, after it had been promoted as "NXT 2.0" since September 2021.
There were six matches scheduled on the event's card, as well as two dark matches that occurred before the live broadcast. In the main event, Bron Breakker defeated Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonagh in a triple threat match to retain the NXT Championship. In other prominent matches, Mandy Rose defeated Alba Fyre to retain the NXT Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Wes Lee defeated Carmelo Hayes, Oro Mensah, Von Wagner, and Nathan Frazer in a five-way ladder match to win the vacant NXT North American Championship.
Production Background
Halloween Havoc is a professional wrestling event established in 1989, held in October as part of the month's Halloween festivities. It was originally produced as an annual pay-per-view (PPV) event by the former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1989 until 2000. Following WWE's acquisition of WCW in March 2001, WWE reinstated Halloween Havoc as an annual event for its developmental brand, NXT, in 2020, with both the 2020 and 2021 events held as a television special of the weekly NXT television program.
NXT's third Halloween Havoc, and 15th overall, was scheduled for Saturday, October 22, 2022, at NXT's home venue, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida for a third consecutive year. Unlike the prior two years, the 2022 event was scheduled to be held as a premium live event (PLE), marking the first Halloween Havoc to broadcast on WWE's livestreaming platforms: Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, and the WWE Network everywhere else. This was subsequently the first Halloween Havoc to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced on January 1 to refer to its events that are available on PPV and via livestreaming. This would also be NXT's first PLE held since the brand reverted back to its original name of "NXT" the previous month after it had been promoted as "NXT 2.0" since September 2021.
After serving as the host of the 2020 event, it was announced that SmackDown wrestler Shotzi would return to NXT to host the 2022 Halloween Havoc. NXT wrestler Quincy Elliott earned the right to co-host the event with Shotzi after defeating Xyon Quinn in a match on the October 18 episode of NXT.
Storylines The card included six matches, as well as two dark matches before the live broadcast, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show, Level Up.
At Heatwave on August 16, Bron Breakker defeated JD McDonagh to retain the NXT Championship and then defeated Tyler Bate at Worlds Collide to unify the NXT United Kingdom Championship into the NXT Championship. During this time, McDonagh would continuously taunt Breakker and the NXT Championship. On the September 20 episode of NXT, McDonagh defeated Bate to earn another title match against Breakker. Following the match, McDonagh was confronted by both Breakker and a returning Ilja Dragunov, a previous holder of the United Kingdom Championship but had to vacate it due to injury. The following week, during another confrontation between the three, Breakker suggested a triple threat match for the NXT Championship, which was made official for Halloween Havoc.
After defeating Carmelo Hayes to win the NXT North American Championship on the September 13 episode of NXT, Solo Sikoa, who replaced Wes Lee due to an attack by Hayes and Trick Williams, was informed by Shawn Michaels that he was stripped of the title because he was not sanctioned to compete in the match. After Sikoa was called up to the main roster on SmackDown after debuting at Clash at the Castle two weeks prior, it was announced that Hayes and four other challengers would compete in a ladder match for the vacant championship. That same episode, Oro Mensah became the first to qualify by defeating Grayson Waller. Over the next few weeks, Lee qualified by defeating Tony D'Angelo, Von Wagner qualified by defeating Andre Chase, and Nathan Frazer qualified by defeating Axiom, which also served as the final match of their best of three series.
On the September 13 episode of NXT, while Toxic Attraction (Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin, and Jacy Jayne) were celebrating one year of dominance over NXT's "2.0 era", they were interrupted by Alba Fyre, who challenged Rose for the NXT Women's Championship. After Fyre played mind games with Rose over the next few weeks, including kidnapping her in the parking lot, the match was made official for Halloween Havoc.
After Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez won the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship at NXT: The Great American Bash on July 5, Perez announced that she would cash in her NXT Women's Breakout Tournament contract for an NXT Women's Championship match the following week, but failed to win the title due to Jade turning on Perez, turning heel and disbanding their team. As a result, the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship was vacated. Jade then defeated Perez at NXT: Heatwave on August 16. On the October 4 episode of NXT, Jade and Perez were the guests on the Waller Effect, hosted by Grayson Waller, where Waller announced that a rematch between the two at Halloween Havoc would be a Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match. Waller then spun the wheel with it landing on a Weapons Wild match.
On the August 23 episode of NXT, Grayson Waller introduced a new talk show called "The Waller Effect". His first guest was Apollo Crews. After the two talked about Crews's time in NXT, Crews punched Waller in the mouth. A match between Waller and Crews was scheduled for the following week, where Waller won after he poked Crews in the eye. Crews returned on the September 20 episode, where he caused Waller to lose his match. On the October 4 episode, Waller wanted security guards to protect him from Crews. The following week, Crews talked about his issues with Waller and having visions of a graveyard and a casket. Later that night, Waller lost his match after he was distracted by the Halloween Havoc wheel spinning by itself. While that match was underway, a Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match between the two was made official for Halloween Havoc.
At Worlds Collide, NXT Tag Team Champions The Creed Brothers (Brutus Creed and Julius Creed) competed in a fatal four-way tag team elimination match to unify the NXT and NXT UK Tag Team Championship, and were the final team eliminated by Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince and Kit Wilson) after Diamond Mine teammate Damon Kemp attacked Julius, turning heel. On the September 13 episode of NXT, The Creed Brothers failed to reclaim the title from Pretty Deadly in a Steel Cage match after Kemp handcuffed Julius to the cage, leaving Brutus to fight Pretty Deadly alone. On the October 4 episode, Kemp announced that he and Julius would have a match at Halloween Havoc, with the stipulation that if Julius lost, Brutus would have to leave NXT. In turn, Julius chose his own stipulation in the form of an ambulance match.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:HostsShotziQuincy ElliottCommentatorsVic JosephBooker TSpanish commentatorsMarcelo RodríguezJerry SotoRing announcerAlicia TaylorRefereesAdrian ButlerChip DanningDallas IrvinDerek SandersJoey GonzalezPre-show panelSam RobertsMcKenzie MitchellDave LaGreca
Dark matches Before the event went live on the streaming services, two dark matches took place. In the first, Kiana James defeated Valentina Feroz, while in the second, Axiom defeated Javier Bernal.
Pre-show No matches took place on the pre-show, however, Halloween Havoc hosts Shotzi and Quincy Elliott appeared alongside Apollo Crews and Grayson Waller. They spun the wheel, which landed on "Casket match", thus being the stipulation for Waller and Crews's match.
Preliminary matches The actual PLE began with the ladder match for the vacant NXT North American Championship, featuring Carmelo Hayes, Nathan Frazer, Wes Lee, Oro Mensah, and Von Wagner as the five participants. Frazer performed a springboard Spanish Fly suplex on Hayes onto a ladder. Trick Williams interfered by taking Mensah off of a ladder and out of the ring. Williams and Mr. Stone tried to retrieve the title belt, but Stone knocked Williams off with a shoe. Williams then tipped the ladder over, causing Stone to fall out of the ring. Frazer performed a frog splash on Wagner through a ladder. Afterwards, Lee performed a Plancha on Frazer, followed by dropkick by Mensah on Lee. Hayes performed a crossbody from the barricade on Mensah before Lee performed a cannonball on Hayes. Wagner threw Lee over the top rope and onto the announce table. After Frazer and Wagner vied for the title belt, Mensah took both of them out at ringside. Frazer and Mensah threw Wagner over the barricade and slammed a ladder onto him. After Mensah and Frazer fought at the top of the ladder, Mensah shoved Frazer off. Hayes then positioned another ladder between the ropes and one of the other ladder's rungs before pulling Mensah off the ladder. In the closing moments, Lee performed a meteora on Hayes onto the ladder bridge and unhooked the belt to win the title for the first time.
Following this, Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne, and NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose) pulled up to a haunted house. As they explored the house, Alba Fyre dragged Jayne behind a curtain before slamming Dolin onto a table. Afterwards, Fyre attacked Rose with a bat. After Rose was distracted by creepy characters, Fyre got the better of Rose before placing her in an SUV. Fyre then drove the SUV back to the Performance Center.
In the second match, Apollo Crews took on Grayson Waller in a casket match. During the match, Waller poked Crews in the eye and sent him through the casket, but since the lid wasn't closed, the match continued. Afterwards, the lights flickered, and Crews led some druids to ringside with a new casket. Waller sent Crews into the casket, but Crews used his feet to prevent the lid from closing. Waller then performed an Ace Crusher on Crews and looked for the Tombstone Piledriver, but Crews countered into a modified gutbuster. In the climax, Waller prevented the lid from closing. Waller then attempted an Ace Crusher, but Crews countered and slammed Waller into the casket before closing the lid to win the match.