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

Tuesday’s episode of NXT 2.0 was the brand’s second under the Halloween Havoc banner (and the first since the overhaul). Much like last year, fans saw a mix of solid in-ring action and Halloween-themed cinematic skits.

Overall, it made for a fairly solid show, but one that also felt like an above-average episode of Raw. As such, this means we saw plenty of head-scratching moments that are commonplace on the main roster but not as much in NXT. And since we’ve already discussed the positives, so now let’s talk about some of the not-so-good stuff.

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

Having Carmelo Hayes enter a spookhouse to retrieve the NXT North American Championship.

Ok, before I incur the wrath of the folks who enjoyed the cinematic spookhouse segment, let me say this: there were a lot of good things in this tongue-in-cheek mini-movie. Everyone played their roles well here (especially Andre Chase during his cameo appearance) and had their share of funny lines.

However, booking a segment where the North American Champion, who won the title in a fluky manner and had his title stolen a week later, goes through a spookhouse to retrieve his pilfered title and gets spooked by people who are obviously wearing masks and/or makeup isn’t exactly the way to get his reign off to a hot start.

Of course, this won’t matter much if Hayes beats Gargano clean when they finally wrestle for the belt, but they still could’ve done more to establish Hayes’ credibility before doing this.

But, again, THIS WAS MOSTLY A FUN SEGMENT!

Wins and losses don’t matter in the new NXT, Example 345

Once again, WWE made the nonsensical decision to tell its audience that wins and losses are inconsequential in the retooled NXT. They did this by having Grayson Waller — a character that has become grating in a short amount of time — host Halloween Havoc.

In a vacuum, this is fine…until you remember that Grayson lost a match to LA Knight, a match in which hosting duties for the show were at stake. This spawns the usual question: If WWE wanted Waller to host, why didn’t he just win the match?

They still could’ve booked everything that happened with Knight and the debuting Solo Sikoa without diminishing the value of a stipulation. And if WWE doesn’t care about going back on a stip as silly as this one, what’s stopping them from doing the same with ones that carry more storyline weight?

Also, having two people argue about hosting duties for a show that was halfway over is ridiculous.