For her musical performance during NXT: Halloween Havoc, Poppy cosplayed as Yumeko Jabami from the cult anime series Kakegurui.
To perform during NXT’s special Halloween Havoc episode, musical artist Poppy cosplayed as none other than Yumeko Jabami, the main protagonist of the popular anime show Kakegurui.
Poppy made an appearance at Halloween Havoc, as part of Io’s entrance, taking her to the ring in which she was scheduled to take on Candice LeRae, the reigning NXT women’s champion. During the entrance/performance, Poppy could be seen sporting the distinct red school uniform worn by Yumeko in Kakegurui. Poppy isn’t new to NXT and has worked with WWE and its developmental brand in the past. What’s more, the artist has been betting on the right superstar as Shirai ultimately defeated LeRae to retain her title.
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Based on the manga Kakegurui: The Compulsive Gambler, by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Nakamura. The KakeguruiAnime was first shown in Japan in the last quarter of 2017. A second season called Kakeguruixx will be released in the year 2019. Netflix offers both seasons in the United States. The series follows Yumeko and her obsession with gaming disrupts the social hierarchy of her high-end school. The original manga was adapted to become not just an anime, but also a live-action television series that ran from 2018 to 2019, as well as a feature film.
NXT: Halloween Havoc marked a return of a professional wrestling brand that was for a long time defunded. 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 12th and final Halloween Havoc PPV ran in October. 29, 2000, with WCW closing its doors and being later bought by WWE (then WWF) in March of 2001. After the purchase, Halloween Havoc more or less remained dormant and the brand was only being used in WWE’s video games.
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However, NXT has revived numerous defunct WWE and WCW brands in the past, with Halloween Havoc perhaps being most comparable to this past July’s NXT: The Great American Bash, which was a special edition of NXT’s weekly show, which revived the Great American Bash PPV name previously used by both WCW and WWE. For specific iterations of its 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.