-Goodness! What an opening match. The Creed Brothers vs. Humberto Carrillo & Angel Garza was a brawl that lived up to the tables, ladders, and chairs stipulation. This was great and The Creed Brothers looked especially polished. A very strong match for them to have coming out of their debut on Raw Monday night.
-Alright, it was called Tables, Ladders, and Scares to coincide with Halloween. I hate that garbage, but at least this didn’t feature fake pumpkins being smashed on people’s heads like the Trick or Street Fight showcased on Raw.
-We saw a nice little promo from Joe Gacy this week and it was more intense than usual, but he spouted similar blank tropes and nothingness when it came to the content of what he said. Gacy has to find context with his promos otherwise he’s destined for a directionless occupation of the middle of the card in NXT.
-Ahhhh a haunted house segment. Can’t it just be Halloween and then a regular episode of wrestling just happens along with it? The NFL doesn’t hurl around pumpkin shaped footballs the week of Halloween? Why must wrestling do this every single year? Meta-Four were beyond awful in getting scared in a haunted house that my five year old could have walked through without issue. This was silly, unbecoming, and likely turned away some viewers — especially the second segment of the same idea. Bad all the way around.
-Nathan Frazer vs. Dominik Mysterio wasn’t a bad match, but it wasn’t good either. It just kinda … was. Wes Lee attacking Mysterio is a nice nugget to build on moving forward and Lee’s quest to retain the championship will be a fun one to follow for fans.
-Good to see Bron Breakker decimate Mr. Stone in minutes. I’m glad Breakker got this win because there isn’t a context in which Stone should be beating Breakker. Von Wagner returning to cost Breakker the match would have cooled this down and instead, this match and Wagner’s return after the fact heated it up nicely. Von Wagner is as interesting as he’s ever been on the show and yes, it took a completely over the top angle to get him there, but they are there. Breakker has been good throughout — this week included. Next week’s showdown between the two has big time stakes.
-Jacy Jayne and Andre Chase at odds with another will put Thea Hail in the middle of Chase U once again. I’ve been in on the story and continue to be.
-Lola Vice winning the Women’s Breakout Tournament was the right call, but good thing this is over. Everyone that participate needs more time to develop — including Vice and Kelani Jordan. This tournament didn’t have the breakout stars in Tiffany Stratton and Roxanne Perez like the last one did.
-A very strong main event match. Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes have shown great chemistry in their first two matches together and this one was no different. Dragunov with the forearm smash through the table was the spot of the night, but the most intriguing happening was the return of Trick Williams. If you take facial expressions into account, Hayes looked petrified to see Williams, which clearly will lead to speculation that he was the one who attacked Williams two weeks ago on the show. Hayes played it perfectly by showing that tell, but not giving away the story right away either. Williams too. This is a fun storyline and my guess is Williams thinks it was Melo, but it really wasn’t.