As a child of the Attitude Era, I have an affinity for wild brawls in pre-recorded segments in areas outside of areas, where the babyface and heel face off and it feels ever-so-slightly ridiculous. I thought that may have been the case here tonight, but instead, NXT Champion Grayson Waller sent his Halloween Havoc challenger, Tony D’Angelo, off on a wild goose chase. A wild goose chase that ultimately ended right back at the WWE Performance Center with just two minutes to spare in the show.
I thought we were off to a good start when Waller posted a video that played on the broadcast in the corner during the middle of a match, giving this a major sense of urgency that he was headed to D’Angelo’s home. I didn’t expect any craziness at the level of, say, AEW’s Swerve Strickland and “Hangman” Adam Page, but I at least thought it would be interesting. Seeing the video sent D’Angelo into a rage, and he left the PC to seemingly go defend his family against Waller, but when he showed up, the champion wasn’t even there, and it didn’t appear like he ever went inside.
The story then took us to what I believe was the same restaurant “NXT” filmed the D’Angelo Family segments in, which was a nice touch. That’s absolutely where a ridiculous, glass-smashing, pasta-throwing brawl could have taken place that would have been much more interesting. But, no, Waller just left him a paper telling him to “meet where it all began.” Even Booker T commented that Waller was just sending D’Angelo on a scavenger hunt at that point.
“Where it all began” meant the Performance Center, which I thought was pretty lame. Waller cut a promo on D’Angelo in the ring, and the challenger rolled up in his truck, and Waller stormed out to the parking lot for a brawl, with just a minute or two left in the show. It was all very much same old, same old, with security trying to separate them. Not a single meatball or wine glass to be thrown, a complete missed opportunity.
It feels like WWE just refuses to go the extra mile anymore, and “NXT” is usually the show that gets to do that. This seemed very half-thought-out, and I hated it because there was an opportunity to make this feel a little more fun and unique, and borderline ridiculous would have been just fine before Halloween Havoc.
Written by Daisy Ruth
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