Poppy dressed as Yumeko Jabami, one of the characters from the cult anime Kakegurui for her performance at NXT Halloween Havoc.
For her performance during NXT’s special Halloween Havoc episode the musician Poppy co-spy as the legendary Yumeko Jabami, the main character in the cult anime series Kakegurui.
Poppy made an appearance at Halloween Havoc, as part of Io’s entrance taking her to the ring where she would face Candice LeRae, the current NXT women’s champion. During the entrance/performance, Poppy could be seen sporting the distinct red school uniform worn by Yumeko in Kakegurui. Poppy has been associated with WWE’s developmental brand and NXT previously. Poppy also appears to choose the right person since Shirai defeated LeRae at the end of the match to keep her title.
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Based on the manga Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura, the Kakeguruianime premiered in Japan in 2017 and was followed by the second season titled Kakegurui xx to be released in the year 2019. Both seasons are currently available to stream in the United States on Netflix. The show follows the character Yumeko, whose compulsive gambling interferes with her school’s social hierarchy. In addition to the animation, the manga’s original story is also being transformed into a live-action TV series that ran from 2018 to 2019, and a live-action feature film, which premiered in May of this year.
NXT: Halloween Havoc marked the return of a long-defunct professional wrestling brand. Halloween Havoc originally was a World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event. The first broadcast took place in 1989. WCW held 12 Halloween Havoc pay-per-views between 1989 and 2000. The last Halloween Havoc PPT aired on Oct. 29 in 2000. WCW went out of operation in March of 2001 and was then purchased by WWE. Halloween Havoc remained largely dormant following the purchase and was only utilized in a few WWE video games.
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But, NXT has revived numerous defunct WWE as well as WCW brands, and this year, Halloween Havoc possibly being the closest to July’s NXT: The Great American Bash, which was a special edition of NXT’s weekly show that revived the Great American Bash name that was previously used by both WCW and WWE. In certain versions of the TakeOver events, NXT also brought back WWE’s In Your House and WCW’s WarGames.
NXT airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. USA Network broadcasts ET.