Poppy Channels Kakegurui’s Yumeko in Cosplay Performance at NXT’s Halloween Havoc
For her musical performance during NXT: Halloween Havoc, Poppy cosplayed as Yumeko Jabami from the popular anime series Kakegurui.
Poppy who is a singer, cosplayed Yumeko Jabami from the popular anime show Kakegurui to perform her performance in NXT’s special Halloween Havoc.
Poppy appeared at Halloween Havoc, as part of Io’s entrance taking her to the ring in which she was scheduled to take on Candice LeRae, who is 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 is not new to NXT and has worked with WWE and its development brand in the past. The artist seems to be betting on the right wrestler as Shirai ultimately defeats LeRae to keep her title.
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Based on the manga Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler written by Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura, the Kakeguruianime was first shown in Japan in 2017 and was followed by a second season — named Kakegurui xx — arriving in 2019. The two seasons are both available for streaming in the United States on Netflix. The show follows the character Yumeko with a gambling addiction that interferes with her school’s social hierarchy. Alongside the animated, the original manga is also being made into a live-action television series, which ran from 2018 to 2019 as well as a live-action feature film that debuted in May of 2019.
NXT: Halloween Havoc marked the return of a defunct professional wrestling brand. Halloween Havoc originally was a World Championship Wrestling pay-per-view event. The first broadcast took place in 1989. WCW ran 12 Halloween Havoc PPVs from 1989 until 2000. The last Halloween Havoc PPT aired on Oct. 29 in 2000. WCW went out of business in March 2001 and was later bought by WWE. Halloween Havoc remained largely dormant following the purchase and was used only in a handful of WWE’s videogames.
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However, NXT has revived numerous old WWE and WCW brands in the past, with Halloween Havoc possibly being the 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 which was previously utilized by WCW and WWE. For certain iterations of the TakeOver events, NXT also brought back WWE’s In Your House and WCW’s WarGames.
NXT is broadcast on the USA Network on Wednesdays at 8 pm ET. ET on USA Network.