NXT 2.0 Halloween Havoc: 2 things that went right on the show

After about a month of differentiating itself from the NXT that fans were familiar with (and mostly enjoyed), NXT 2.0 finally made it to its first big special: Halloween Havoc. The show effectively acted as a televised TakeOver show, with four championship matches filling the card.

In addition to the matches, WWE also filled the show with enough skits and cutscenes to remind people who is in charge of this show. That’s not an endorsement nor is it admonshment of the segments (that will come later); it’s just the reality of what this product is now.

In fact, there was a number of good things that the promotion peppered throughout Tuesday’s episode, so let’s talk about those moments.

These are two of the things that went right at NXT 2.0’s Halloween Havoc.

Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bron Breakker

This was Bron Breakker’s first big test in a main event, championship match setting, and aside from one spot, the son of Rick Steiner ended up with a pretty good grade. Sure, it helped to have Tommaso Ciampa as an opponent, but Breakker more than held up his end, and it resulted in a good NXT Championship match.

Given that the previous three title matches ended with new champions, there was good reason to expect one here to signify a changing of the guard in NXT 2.0. Instead, Ciampa hit two Fairytale Endings on Breakker to retain “Goldie”, which was a perfectly acceptable decision.

Eventually, Breakker will win the NXT Championship, but there’s a good story to told where Breakker gets closer and closer to winning before eventually reaching the promised land. Of course, this is WWE we’re talking about, so there’s always a good chance that said story wouldn’t match what AEW is doing with “Hangman” Adam Page, for example, but if done right, it could make Breakker feel like a bigger deal than he already does.

NXT Tag Team Championship match

Yes, the lumberjack stipulation was unnecessary considering that this feud wasn’t built around one team trying to run away from the other, but once the consumed wrestlers were removed from the equation, this turned into a show-stealer of a match.

It’s a testament to Imperium and MSK’s immense skills between the ropes that they were able to rise above the questionable booking to give the fans in attendance something special, even if some of them were allegedly sabatoging Wes Lee and Nash Carter for the pettiest of reasons.

Imperium winning the titles here is fine, as the rest of the tag team division is a bit of a mess right now, and that wouldn’t have changed whether they or MSK had the titles. Either way, the division is being led by great workers who can elevate whoever they face.