6 Ups And 1 Down From NXT Halloween Havoc (28 Oct)

3. Cameron In, My Pretties

Heading into tonight's show, only one thing was certain. Whatever the hell happened with the Haunted House of Terror match, Cameron Grimes would make it supremely entertaining. Two backstage skits leading up to it merely cementing that fact before we'd even started.

It's important to acknowledge that this will categorically not be for everyone. It's hokey, it's contrived, and it takes that sense of realism that some wrestling fans value so highly and... well... puts it in a shower with a screaming zombie girl. A lot of people are going to hate that because it takes something important to them and ostensibly makes a mockery of it.

But, and if you ever listen to one thing I have ever said in the over 400 pages of NXT Up and Downs I must have written by now, it is this; wrestling is at its best when its not taken seriously. It is big, dumb fun, and every once in awhile it needs to do the kind of things that real sports can't while having a laugh at itself in the process.

Cinematic matches were not birthed in the closed-arena era, but they have flourished in it and, while the results have been very hit and miss, a lot of them have been great entertainment. Where the Haunted House of Horrors ranks amongst them I'm not sure, but this was a pitch-perfect booking of both Grimes and Lumis as characters. One still running his mouth even as he's attacked by contorted zombies, the other simply appearing silently when he's least expected. Great fun.