For a time during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cinematic match was all the rage in professional wrestling. The Undertaker took his last ride in the Boneyard Match, AEW ran a pair of Stampedes in TIAA Bank Stadium Field, and even NXT got in on the fun when Dexter Lumis wrestled Cameron Grimes in a Haunted House Of Terror match that largely went over well.
Though the medium isn't exactly new, as Matt Hardy‘s career has practically had a second life thanks to the cinematic matches of his Broken Universe, and the matches have all but disappeared once fans returned to arenas, the prospects of filming John Cena and Bray Wyatt through multiple scenes will forever have a place in wrestling if done correctly.
But does it have a place in NXT under new head honcho Shawn Michaels? Well, he gave a very interesting answer to that question during his post-Halloween Havoc media availability session.
NXT is open to cinematic matches in the right context.
When asked during his media availability after Halloween Havoc to talk about the cinematic match between the Toxic Attraction trio of Jacy Jaye, Gigi Dolin, and Mandy Rose versus Alba Fyre and her army of zombies, ghouls, and Chucky dolls, Michaels detailed his feelings about pre-taped matches with fantastical elements in addition to the potential for more down the line, as transcribed by Fightful.
“That's one of those situations where, the team here, our creative team, and the studio guys in Stamford do an absolutely fantastic job. That's people starting at about 8 at night and going until 3:45 in the morning,” Michaels said. “Mandy, Alba, Jacy, Gigi and about 20 other people working their tails off in the middle of the night. It is different than anything I've ever done, but Halloween Havoc…that's not something I see us doing a lot, but at Halloween Havoc, it feels like it works. Everybody understands we do that to a certain point and the rest comes into the building. I don't think that's something we would do on a regular basis by any chance, but when you have a thematic show like Halloween Havoc, and we've done them in the past, it feels like it's been an NXT thing with Halloween Havoc and we wanted to continue with that idea. It seemed to be the perfect match to do it with.”
Considering the success Lumis and Grimes found in their Haloween Havoc cinematic match, making a pre-taped contest a spooky season tradition would be a very welcomed addition to the WWE Universe as a whole. Just for the heck of it, someone followed up the question to see how HBK would have wrestled a cinematic match had he been afforded an opportunity, and needless to say, his response is beyond worth a gander.
“From my standpoint, I would find them difficult because I'm from a performing standpoint, in the moment,” Michaels responded. “To have to take a totally separate night and go out there and get myself to where I'm supposed to be on Saturday…the few bad movies I've done, I found that to be very challenging. That's what was so interesting about that, being able to turn that on and off without the crowd out there. I'm always very impressed when the talent can pull that off as well as the ladies did.”
As someone who has watched (the trailers for) The Marine 6 and Avengers of Justice: Farce Wars, it's safe to say Michaels' filmography has far fewer bangers than his in-ring efforts.
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