Bronson Reed And Raquel Rodriguez Reflect On Competing In NXT Halloween Battle Royals

Bronson Reed and Raquel Rodrigez reflect on competing NXT Halloween Battle Royals.

One of the most fun traditions in NXT is the annual Halloween Battle Royal. Wrestlers compete in costume at an NXT Live Event around Halloween time. In the past, that has led to such unique outings as Finn Balor competing at CM Punk, Rhea Ripley competing as Triple H, and Bronson Reed winning the 2019 Battle Royal as “Reed-kishi.” 

Speaking with Fightful’s Joel Pearl ahead of the 2023 WWE Elimination Chamber event, the former WWE NXT North American Champion reflected on paying homage to Rikishi and getting to do the Too Cool dance with Scotty  2 Hotty. 

“So the battle royal I won was 2019, and I knew the Halloween Battle Royal was coming up. Me? I’m a huge wrestling fan. Obviously, I’m huge into movies and stuff like that, but if I’m going to dress up as someone, I’m going to pay homage to someone else. I did that with Rikishi, I was Reed-kishi. At the time, Scotty 2 Hotty was a producer. So it seemed to sync up where I was like, ‘This is the perfect moment.’ Not only to be Reed-kishi in the battle royal, but we also got to do the dance together. He did the Worm. The whole thing was incredible,” said Reed. 

Raquel Rodriguez also shared memories of competing in the NXT Halloween Battle Royale while speaking with Joel Pearl in Montreal. She specifically reflected on dressing up like Jack Black’s character in Nacho Libre and Rhea Ripley and Lacey Evans dressing up like The Street Profits. 

“The people who choose the costumes are usually us,” said Raquel. “Creativity is all put on us for when it comes to those moments. So sometimes you choose to dress up like current superstars, past superstars, random animals, and things, for example. I think the best thing about these battle royals is whoever you were dressing up as. That was so much fun to emulate those characteristics into the match. Like if you had a baby, you could act like a baby the whole time. I know Rhea Ripley and Lacey Evans, I think they dressed up as the Street Profits one time. So they were out there dancing and doing all the Street Profits moves. I was like, ‘This is amazing!’ It was so much fun.

“I was Nacho Libre one of those years because I was like, ‘This just fits me.’ I love Ignacio. It’s what I do. I was Nacho Libre,” she added.

Bronson Reed is very fond of his time in WWE NXT but was recently quoted as saying that he has no unfinished business on the Tuesday night show. Read more here. 

Fans can also learn more about the phone call between Bronson Reed and the mastermind of WWE NXT, Triple H, that led to Reed returning to WWE at this link.