The 2022 NXT Halloween Havoc was the third annual Halloween Havoc professional wrestling event produced by WWE, and 15th Halloween Havoc event overall. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. Unlike the previous two years, which aired as television specials, the 2022 Halloween Havoc aired as a livestreaming event. It took place on Saturday, October 22, 2022, at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. SmackDown wrestler Shotzi returned to co-host the event with NXT wrestler Quincy Elliott; Shotzi previously hosted the 2020 event when she was still on NXT. In a cross-promotion with the Chucky TV series, Chucky returned to participate in the Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal segments.
There were six matches scheduled on the event's card, though eight actually took place, and there were two dark matches that occurred before the live broadcast. In the main event, Bron Breakker defeated Ilja Dragunov and JD McDonagh in a triple threat match to retain the NXT Championship. In other prominent matches, Mandy Rose defeated Alba Fyre to retain the NXT Women's Championship, and in the opening bout, Wes Lee defeated Carmelo Hayes, Oro Mensah, Von Wagner, and Nathan Frazer in a five-way ladder match to win the vacant NXT North American Championship.
Production
Background
Halloween Havoc is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE. As the name implies, it is a Halloween-themed show held in October. It was originally produced as an annual pay-per-view (PPV) by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1989 until 2000 as WWE purchased WCW in 2001. The 2000 event was the final Halloween Havoc until WWE revived the show as an annual event for their developmental brand NXT in 2020. The 2020 and 2021 events were held as television specials of the NXT program, but for 2022, it was held as a livestreaming event, airing on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets. The event was scheduled to take place on Saturday, October 22, 2022, at NXT's home base, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the 15th Halloween Havoc event overall and the third annual held for NXT. After serving as the host of the 2020 event, it was announced that SmackDown wrestler Shotzi would return to NXT to host the 2022 Halloween Havoc. NXT wrestler Quincy Elliott earned the right to co-host the event with Shotzi after defeating Xyon Quinn in a match on the October 18 episode of NXT.
Storylines
The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show, Level Up.
At Heatwave on August 16, Bron Breakker defeated JD McDonagh to retain the NXT Championship and defeated Tyler Bate at Worlds Collide to unify the NXT UK Championship into the NXT Championship. During this time, McDonagh would continuously taunt Breakker and the NXT Championship. On the September 20 episode of NXT, McDonagh defeated Bate to earn another title match against Breakker. Following the match, McDonagh was confronted by both Breakker and a returning Ilja Dragunov, who vacated the NXT United Kingdom Championship due to injury. The following week, during another confrontation between the three, Breakker suggested a triple threat match for the NXT Championship, which was made official for Halloween Havoc.
After defeating Carmelo Hayes to win the NXT North American Championship on the September 13 episode of NXT, Solo Sikoa, who replaced Wes Lee due to an attack by Hayes and Trick Williams, was informed by Shawn Michaels that he was stripped of the title because he was not sanctioned to compete in the match. After Sikoa was called up to the main roster on the SmackDown after debuting at Clash at the Castle two weeks prior, it was announced that Hayes and four other challengers would compete in a ladder match for the vacant championship. That same episode, Oro Mensah became the first to qualify by defeating Grayson Waller. Over the next few weeks, Lee qualified by defeating Tony D'Angelo, Von Wagner qualified by defeating Andre Chase, and Nathan Frazer qualified by defeating Axiom, which also served as the final match of their best of three series.