CM Punk announces NXT title challenge at Halloween Havoc

CM Punk announced he will challenge for the NXT championship next week on NXT TV. The announcement came during the Halloween Havoc television special that aired on Saturday, October 31, 2026 from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. In the main event of the show, Grayson Waller defended the NXT title against Tony D’Angelo. Waller had won the championship from D’Angelo in a Fatal 4-Way at Heatwave by stealing a pinfall from Cruz Montana.

Waller opened the match with a shoot style promo in which he claimed to be resetting the standard for the division. His quick title win earlier had backed up those words according to observers. During the bout D’Angelo appeared to score a visual pinfall that the live crowd counted to around nine. The referee was knocked out at that point and unable to make the official count.

Waller capitalized on the referee being down by rolling outside the ring, retrieving a weapon, and striking D’Angelo in the skull with it. He then returned to the ring and hit a Rolling Stunner to secure the pinfall victory and retain the title.

Following the match it was revealed that Waller’s next defense will be against CM Punk. The title match is scheduled for next week’s episode of NXT TV, directly competing with AEW’s Blood & Guts event.