NXT Halloween Havoc 24 pre show

It's spooky season and Halloween is in full swing in NXT! The New North American Champion Tony D'Angelo defends his title against former champion Oba Femi in a Table, Ladders and scares match without the family at ringside. Kelani Jordan has the biggest defense of her championship run as she faces not one, not two but all three members of Fatal Influence in a gauntlet match. Newly 2 time NXT Champion Trick Williams competes against former champion 'All Ego' Ethan Page in the third ever Devil's Playground match. 

Transcript

0:09

Woo! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! The end of the game, baby! What is up guys, welcome back to Wrestling Crossroads. As always, I am one half at an anecdote twisted alongside brother Pyro. What's up? And we are talking NXT Halloween Havoc. Was that really necessary? Yes. Spooky, spooky season, spooky themed pay per view. It is fitting. I love everything about that little girl being just a CM Punk right now. A bloody sandpunk, to be fair. Anywho, um, I do, I do want to apologize ahead of time. I have a chest cold, so if you hear me coughing, uh, a big apologies. We'll try to kind of edit it out unless we are unable to. I'll, I'll remind you to shut up every so often. Oh yeah, I, I know you definitely will. Okay, getting right into it, because we are at the finish line to start. Yeah, we started a little late. We lost track of time. Yes. Um, so, starting off, Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade, new f former friends now turned friends again, take on Friends turned enemies turned friends turned what is this, what are we, what are we doing here? Taking on Julia and Stephanie Valquer. Now, funny thing about our predictions, we're half and half. Are we? We are. We are. Me, you, and Flash are choosing Roxanne and Korra, whereas Dissario, Hex, and Cauldron are choosing Julia and Stephanie. Okay, okay. Um, if you don't know more or less how we got here, Roxanne on the opening show to, uh, NXT going to the CW was to face Julia for the NXT Women's Championship. Closing moments of that match, Cora Jade returned after nine months of surgery on her knee of that knee injury and kind of, you know, helped Roxanne pick up the win in that. Um, the next week they kind of came up talking a little bit of smack, Julia came out and was like, yes, I have backup. Here comes Stephanie Valkyrie who has been rumored to come down to NXT after leaving, uh, former brands. I was just going to say former brands because I didn't know exactly how she was signed to Japan. Okay. After leaving new Japan. Um, and then, uh, Stephanie and Julia kind of made, you know, the requests that they face here at Halloween Havoc. And that's just kind of how we got here. So you're reasoning for going, um, Roxanne and Cora, against the other two. One, I feel like they have some, some kind of trick up their sleeves, them being the heels in this. Okay. But also, you want to strengthen that bond between Cora and Roxanne. They've teamed longer. They have more of a chemistry together. And why have you a champion lose? Okay. All right. And I know, um, Desario did give a reasoning as to why his whole thing was, you don't bear, you don't, you know, completely throw your fresh new faces. Yeah. You know, you don't beat them around on their first big show on their first pay per view, which I can see where he's coming from to the S, but at the same time, you don't make your champion. You it's kind of, kind of. build on what they have going on, because there's a lot more here. Okay. Alright, uh, take us into our next match. Next match, Andre Chase versus Ridge Holland in an ambulance match. I know this was, what, um, a few months of, you know, Ridge trying to gain trust and be part of Chase University, and then Eventually mounting frustrations because They are not necessarily the best when it comes to the win loss column And in the big moment of defense for that tag, the tag titles that Ridge got him to Andre Chase dropped the ball again And after a week, so Andre Chase Er, and Chase University being tormented by Ridge via attacks Mm hmm Ridge makes his, or Andre, Andre made his return. Yes. Uh, after the events of no mercy. Well, Andre made his return. Uh, not this past Tuesday, not the Tuesday that we just finished, but the past Tuesday before he came and attacked, um, Ridge after Ridge had started to beat down, um, um, Uh, what, Riley is his name? Riley Osbourne? Yeah. Starting to attack Riley Osbourne. Okay, so again, after him, you know, slowly picking off the members of Chase U. Starting with Andre Chase at No Mercy, by the way. Yes. After a while, he made his return. You know, standing up for You! And We eventually got to Where we are. We are. We are. Going through, again, we are split right down the middle. It's me, Flash, and Cauldron with Ridge. You, Hex, and Dasario. We'll chase you. You're gonna ask for my reasoning, so I'm against you. It doesn't happen often, so I need to question it. Here, here's the thing. I'm really gonna throw you for a loop here today. I want you to read DeSario's reasoning as to why he goes Andre. There is no way that they let Ridge destroy everyone and chase you going Andre. That is exactly why. See, and that's why I feel like both of you are wrong. This was supposed to be a redemption story. Error redemption article of you know, he can be trusted whatever because he's been getting a lot of backstage heat for being part of two pretty damning injuries One of them still has yet to return That that was the whole angle And now I think this is more of a Ridge needs to prove that he can be that dude That he can still you know You Be that aggressive like I'm I want to be, you know, champion material. Yeah I mean, I kind of see he's already taken out Riley Osborne, which whatever he's taken out andre chase already once And he's taken out the biggest thread in up and chase you that being duke Hudson You took out the big man. You took out the chase you mvp so to say What's to say he doesn't take out Andre Chase again. And this time, let's be real. He was creative with taking out everybody else because he at least waited till after the fair one on one match. Now you have given him access to a lot of fun toys and tools. The, the whole thing here now is there is no limit to the destruction I can cause on you. That is a hundred percent correct. But who's to also say Rich has no one in the back Who's to say Duke Hudson doesn't come back tonight? Who's to say we don't see him going in obviously helping Andre chase? And yes, he did take out members of Chase you very very so so the whole they're not going to let him Take down all the members. He's already taken down all the members At this point, I'm saying more or less, you know, like I think Anger is going to blind him in this because he wants to be able to say I put all of them on the shelf at The exact same time you have to think When he put Riley down who came back Andre chase if this is Ridge going I'm gonna put all of you on the shelf at the exact same time You That can also blind you. We've seen it happen before. So who's to say Andre doesn't have Duke come help him because there's no rules here. You're right, but let's, let's be real. You know the type of man Andre Chase is. He, his pride is going to get in the way of letting anyone else come and help him save face for the university. You never know. And we never know how far. We've seen it. We also don't know how far Andre Chase is willing to go for the university. That's another thing that I was trying to get to. We don't know how far he's willing to dig into himself to be that type of aggressor for the university. Because he's never been put in a line like this. He, he really, if you look back at Andre Chase, Last time he had to dig into some stuff that he didn't dig into, it kind of led to a deal in them dropping, dropping the tag titles to the family. Are we forgetting the whole, JC Jane alignment at one point? You know what, I don't think about JC Jane. And those, and that storyline where he dug himself into some pretty deep shit, shit. I don't think about J. C. Jane. We don't talk about J. C. Jane on here. Unfortunately, J. C. Jane's in our next match. I was gonna say, um, we don't speak about J. C. Jane, yet she's involved with the next match that you are taking us into, my love. Yeah. The two people you can't stand to talk about the most are on one fucking match. One, one match on the card. How you doing? Keep talking about it, I'm gonna make you do it. Kaylani Jordan takes on no longer a member of Fatal Influence, but all of Fatal Influence in a gauntlet match for the NXT Women's North American Championship. Um, now looking Jesus Christ. Looking at our predictions, we are completely split down the middle yet again. There is nothing we can get more one sided ever. I swear! Okay, sorry about that. I'm just a little like, I don't know how we get one sided and one sided. Um, so, looking at our predictions, Me, you, and Hex are choosing Fatal Influence. Why? Cause nobody can do it like Lani and we hate Lani here. So, um, and Dissario, Cauldron, and Flash See, see, that's, that's not the only reason. One, I was picking Plato influence regardless of So, at first it was only one member. Guess what? How do you battle plan for the, for not knowing who your opponent's going to be? That is true. Now you have to, now you're forced into a position where it's not one, but three. One, back to back, back to back. There is no break in between. No. No. So, how, or do, now this is a question of, does she really have the stamina, and I don't think she has the stamina to go three matches in a row. Maybe spread out throughout the night, but that's not how a gauntlet freak can work. No, I just want the title off of her in general. I don't care which member of Fatal Influence holds it, and it's just going to be a Fatal Influence title at that point. Right, especially because, again, first off you didn't know how to prep, prepare for one, because you didn't know which one. Now you gotta prep for three. Mm hmm. Let's, let's be real. Whereas all three members of Fatal Influence have had out all the time in the world before match stipulation to study their opponent. Because regardless of which one of the three it was going to be, they still only had to study one person. Yep. Fatal Influence is going to take out Kehlani tonight. And I'm happy about it. Alright, take us into our next match. Tony D'Angelo, Obafemi, Tables, Ladders, and Scares. Ehhh. Wee ooo. Get out of here. Anywho. NXT North American Championship on the line. Tony cap Tony captures it off of the big man after a lot of training, a lot of resilience, a lot of real deep down emotion. Oba obviously making a case for, I want my title back. Um, love for the first match at all tonight. We are all on the same page. Hey, Tony D'Angelo walks out of her seat, Pennsylvania, still NXT North American champion. Why? Myself, Desari, and I'm pretty sure you're on the same page here. Yep. Opa's got a lot bigger things to chase and worry about right now. Oh, I agree. Cause, let's be real, with what that man did with the NXT North American title trick, you Oba, sign me the hell up. Obafemi will be your next North Ameri er, your next NXT champion. I 100 percent agree, we know this. Um, I've been waiting for Oba to be able to drop this. Am I a little upset personally because he did beat Wesley's longest reigning, you know, Yeah. Number, I, I'm a little upset at that, but I, I, I digress on that. He was a great champion, had beautiful defenses. I was gonna say, you've never, you, outside of that being the thing, you've never had a bad thing to say about Obafemi as a performer or as a champion. I think it was really smart when he won Breakout Star of the Year that the first thing he did was he cashed in on the North American Championship because why start big only to see yourself fall? Because what if he couldn't hold the weight of the NXT championship on his shoulders? Oh no, like, he, he really was, was smart and took the North American title and made it a stepping stone. Yes. And I love how when he says it, when he, I was watching their promo today, and he said to The Don, after when The Don was having a celebration, when I reclaim the North American championship, I will then become the ruler. of NXT once again. I love how to him, the NXT North American Championship and the regular, like, big title is even in his eyes. I Oh, I love that he uses that as not only a measure of success, which makes sense, but a, a status label, if you will. I think it's absolutely beautiful. Alright, um, main event of the night. Trick Williams, AllEgoEthanPage, Hmm, you're looking at me like I did something wrong. Let's get it! NXT Championship, Devils Playground. Now this, if I'm correct, is the third only ever Devils Playground that we have had. I believe you are correct. First one. Do you remember who it was? No. It was during the pandemic, unfortunately. It was, but it was a beautiful match and even you said so. Damian Priest, Johnny Gargano, NXT North American Championship. They went all around the arena, even using the spinner wheel as a launch for ADDT. Second one was Roxanne Perez, and I believe it was Fallon Henley, if I want to say correctly, who her opponent was on that one. I don't remember if a title was involved, but now we have number three, All Ego, and Trick Williams. This is another one, we are entirely all in on one person, and that is Trick Williams. Now, I know you were a little upset that Trick had won the title back, after losing it to All Ego a couple months back. You didn't think it was the right call for him to win that match? No. Okay. So, then why continue to go Trick here? Yes? Roxette and Keanu Dukes. Ah, okay. So somebody I completely forgot about, because they're not even used on the main roster. Got it. Yeah. I, like, I wanted to look it up. Oh yeah, no, you're good. Because at this point, you, you let this feud die. Yes, it needs to. Because it's been going on for too long. Mm hmm. And, why put the title back on him to have him drop it right away? You know? I agree. So, like, this is It's kind of like the Tony D'Angelo. Yeah. Yeah. So you let You let Trick hold this light. You know, you'll see Ethan Vance again down the road, but I think you give him something else to focus on. And if you keep the same two people in the title picture, is it really a title picture? Your fans are going to get tired. Your fans are going to get bored. Again, Obafemi works his way into that title picture and is the one to take it off the trick wheel. That's what I'm just saying. Cause you know what? Plus, you let the crowd go home happy. Give it to Trick. You give it to Trick. You let the baby face retain. And there really is Okay. So My The other thing is Regardless of how this plays out Who's really next up? What's really next for either one of these guys? I mean, I, I agree. Especially if you keep them locked in as they are together for even longer than they already have been. I mean, when we looked, when they had the number one contender match that was, All Ego, Wesley, and Javon, uh, um, Javon Evans. I personally wanted it to be somebody other than All Ego because, like you had said, I'm ready for this dude to die. I wouldn't have cared if it was Javon. That would have been one hell of a match. I've seen them put on one hell of a match. I didn't care if it was Wesley. Because now Wesley is chasing bigger and better things. You know, he's got the weight off of him. But who's to say? That that weight doesn't come back and cost him the championship. Like, we are one and one. Here's a rubber match that I'm now setting up for at the next pay per view. You get what I'm saying? I could have seen it be, you know, a call for any man in this. Am I a little upset that it was all ego? Yes. Um, I, I'm not behind the, I'm not behind the persona. I'm not behind him as a superstar yet, in any means necessary. At least right now. I don't see the hype behind him. Anything else you had to say about this, Madge? About the pay per view in general? No. Cause like, I feel like you didn't really answer the question, what is next for both of these guys? No, I, I didn't. There's nothing next that I see. Which is why I said, I wish it would have been a different challenger. Yeah. That's where I went into. Yeah. Okay. I don't, I kind of got lost there. That's what I was like, but I, I made my points as to why it would have been either guy, why I could have seen either guy. Cause then you also could have set up, if Wesley had lost, you could have set up something for him. And if you know, Javon Evans had even come just a smidgen close to winning it. That's because Javon's time will freaking come, dude. I know. Yeah. But I'm saying even if he came a smidgen close to winning it, you know why? Because two weeks before that he faced a legend. I was gonna say he already got the rub from Randy. Mm hmm. So speaking of Javon Yes, there is actually something I saved Mm hmm, and I want to read it to you So this is this after the match with Randy then this is this is like right after um Um This actually does involve somebody from a different company. Okay. I'll let you have at it. So, uh, on the Rich Eisen show. Okay. Swerve Strickland was asked, uh, uh, was asked what he thought about Javon Evans. Okay. So, and this is how it reads. Swerve Strickland on NXT standout Javon Evans telling Swerve that he got him into wrestling. So, I love Javon. Shoutout to, shoutout, yeah, shoutout to you. Javon Extremely Talented, my god. Can you read? Do I need to take over? No. One of the greatest things I've ever heard in my career, still to this day, when I was on my 90 days, I was doing seminars, 17 years old, and it was like 20 kids. I go to Javon and you could tell that he was the standout of this class. He's like, honestly, I got into wrestling from watching you and Leo Rush in Defy. So, I'm Wow. Am I that far removed? Earlier this year I'm in Tampa, 21. Savage invited me to a show. He walks in, he walks by and I'm wa watching and Jevon walks by. He's like 6, 4 4, and I'm god damn boy He is like a humble, super humble kid. I love him to death. He just wrestled Randy Orton and killed it. A Dynamite doing it's thing, but man, there are still people I have sentimental value in. I'm gonna root for him no matter what he does. Or wherever he goes. That is absolutely amazing. I love that. I love that he really could swerve when you see him in person shorter than he appeared on tv. Yeah. He honestly, watching him make his entrance at at Dynamite when you went the last time when I went, I am, I'm watching, I'm looking at him and I'm looking at Nana and I'm like, I, I'll look at my buddy. And I'm like, dude, you, how tall do you think they are? Because like, I'm pretty sure you got some height on them and I'm pretty sure I'd be eye level. Like, huh? I'm a little curious as to how tall he is. I'm actually looking it up and he is 6'1 There is no way dude like swerve swerve strickland, you see it on my phone looking down scrolling 61233 All right, swerve. I need to know are you wearing lists because like ain't no way you six one, bro I love those like 5 10 on a good day. I love the Overall love that Javon Evans has been getting from the wrestling community. I was gonna say like not even just WWE, but like fans and people outside the company like I was watching it. He's earned his stripes. He's earning his stripes day in and day out. Pretty early too But a thing that I was gonna say is the fact that he's only what 19, 20? He just had his 20th birthday. He spent his 20th birthday as a member of the NXT roster. What the hell? See, one of the things that Then again, we can say the same thing for Tyler B. One of the things that I love is, you know, they were alluding to, during the match with Javon and Randy, they were alluding to the fact that when Randy was brought on, he had faced numerous legends, you know, Undertaker, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair. And they, you know, helped mold him into the person that he is. And that's why Randy wanted to go down and face Jevon Evans of all people. My, my, my thing is, uh, if you look at when Randy came up, cause that was 22 years ago versus the system in place for young guys like Jevon now, it's a lot different. It's, it's a night and day different. Where, cause like, Early 2000s. You had to come in and you had to like scratch and claw and really break into this business like If you didn't have the last name that helped pivot. Even, even then, even then, if you really pay attention to Randy, Yes, he was, he was naturally gifted, but even with his name being Randy, His last name being Oregon, There was really a solid possibility that he didn't make it through. I mean, I agree. Yeah. Like he actually had to grind this out. Whereas now the company has an actual true developmental system and training system to get you ready to get here. Granted having those subtle rubs from people like Randy from, from those legends, like Randy, those guys that really helped pave the way. Doesn't hurt at all. But one of the things, like I said, it's a, it's a night and day difference. And I love that you really see, regardless of how tough the, uh, breaking into the industry was for you or what kind of developmental system you can see how, how similar in like work ethic that there, yeah, one of the things that I was going to finish saying, um, before you went off on your little no, you're fine was, um, If you watch the match between them, I'm pretty sure you saw it on socials, there's a moment where Javon goes to hit a move, it's a cutter, um, on Randy, and Randy misses it. Javon had, you know, poor timing, Randy wasn't in the right position for it, and it ended up just, you saw it happen, Randy hit the RKO, they ended the match. Well, You can see Javon apologizing. Oh, yeah. Oh, I definitely need to see that. In the ring at the time, because you can watch him say it. Oh, yeah. He said it's okay. Everything's fine. You did your best. He also went on socials and was like, uh, to anybody trying to bash this kid. No, like, oh no, I, I remember seeing all of this. This was on him, this was on me too. Like, the fact that he, as, as a vet was able to just take responsibility the way he was, where he could have threw Javon clean under that bus. Mm hmm. But he took, he, he owned up to his part and the fact that he really went out of his way to make sure he, Javon understood that, Hey, it happens. That's why we do this. This is why we put you through this system. This is why I come down. This, this was, you're still learning. You are still young. So the fact that he was able to not only probably like help rebuild that little bit of confidence or, you know. fortify it, just him being able to like, let him know things are okay. You didn't like, you didn't screw up as bad as you thought you did. Right. Like just to give him that, that affirmation or that like confirmation that he's still doing well, that goes a long way. Cause again, think about it, like You know, like 20 years ago you wouldn't have had that. Not even, you go back 5, 10 years ago. It wasn't, you know, that vet taking responsibility. It wasn't that. It was literally, it was either swept under the rug or I'm throwing you under the bus. Like, you messed up. You're a newbie. You're a newbie, so it's easier to pin the blame on you than admit that I messed up. Yes. Like, you really do think back 5, 10, 15, whatever. Yeah. X amount of years. Whatever. Vets then versus vets now are not the same either. I think The vets now are a lot better about helping mold that talent that they can see as a future. And Siobhan has one hell of a future. I agree. Well, that is the first tangent I think we've ever went on in a while. I think that's the first one we've gone on together. Yes. So it's not necessarily just a pyro rant for once. Ha ha! Well, usually, you're throwing a tangent, I'm throwing a tangent, or there's me, you're trying to reel me back in or whatever, and I'm just like, no, screw you. Yep, and then it goes on for another five minutes. But that does conclude the match card and everything for NXT Halloween Havoc. Uh, we will be back here for our recap per usual at the end of everything. We hope you guys enjoy the show and enjoy all the spookiness that comes along with it. Happy Halloween! Laters!