Backstage News On Original Plans For Person Wearing Scream Mask At WWE NXT Halloween Havoc

As noted, an individual in a Scream mask made two appearances during last night's WWE NXT Halloween Havoc show. After helping Johnny Gargano capture the NXT North American Championship, the masked person once again showed up during the main event Tables, Ladders & Scares match between Io Shirai and Candice LeRae.

The masked person nearly helped LeRae also win her championship match until they were taken out by Shotzi Blackheart.

According to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, the original plan was for Indi Hartwell to be the person in the Scream mask that did the run-in during the Shirai – LeRae match. However, those plans were dropped after Hartwell was placed under quarantine due to COVID-19. She may still end up being revealed to be the attacker since the attacker was never unmasked.

Meltzer noted that Hartwell was among the talents that was placed under a 14-day quarantine after one coach tested positive during the recent COVID-19 outbreak at the WWE Performance Center / Capitol Wrestling Center.

He added that Hartwell was "the only one booked for the show" that could not show up due to COVID-19.

Meltzer revealed that the outbreak started after one of the coaches was diagnosed with the virus on Friday. As a result, everyone that had trained in the gym on Friday were told to quarantine for two weeks, regardless of whether they tested positive or negative.

Fortunately for WWE, "most of the TV people were not at the gym," according to Meltzer, which did not totally ruin the plans for NXT Halloween Havoc. Meltzer added that most of the people under quarantine are newer developmental talents who are not regular fixtures on NXT TV.