Some matches are full-on classics; they have perfect pacing, hit all of the right spots, and transcend even a perfect grade on the way to something even more special. NXT has multiple matches of this caliber, with Adam Cole, Tyler Bate, and/or WALTER/GUNTHER featured prominently in many of them, and will likely continue to have them moving forward if Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Shawn Michaels keep doing their jobs.

And other times? Well, other times, a match begins with a scene in a weirdly lit car, has three performers walk through a haunted house that would fit right in at Universal Studios Haloween Horror Nights, and then features about an hour-long break before it reaches its conclusion in a completely different location.

Mandy Rose's 10th title defense in almost a year, a bout versus Alba Fyre at Halloween Havoc, firmly fell into the latter category but do you know what? It was weirdly compelling; Rose and her Toxic Attraction buddies, Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne, took part in a live-action Scooby-Doo riff that featured jump scares, Chucky product placement, and in the end, a fakeout cliffhanger ending that would make an 80s slasher film like “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday” proud.

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Mandy Rose next to the blacked out silhouettes of Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne with the 2022 NXT logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Shotzi Blackheart in front of a hospital with the WWE logo on it.

Matty Breisch ·

Mandy Rose with a text bubble reading “My future?” with the AEW logo in the background.

Matty Breisch ·

Sure, once Rose and Fyre returned to the Performance Center in a move that surely allowed Wade Barrett to breathe a sigh of relief, the match played out about as one would expect from a Toxic Attraction NXT Women's Championship match, with Dolin and Jayne cheating and the champ doing her best Kenny Omega impression before securing the W but on a show themed around Halloween, WWE tried something new, and largely succeeded in doing so.