Scott's Blog of Doom

The ‘Captain Hindsight’ Retro Review of Halloween Havoc 1998

By red29

This show was played on WWE Classics on Demand this past month and I remember being so excited for this Supercard back in the fall of ’98. The Monday Night Wars were still up for grabs although the tide was certainly turning to the WWF. I had been watching wrestling religiously for a year at this point (started oddly enough with Starrcade ’97 at a friend’s house). I watched this originally from my college dorm room on a live internet stream from WCW.com, using a login/password from some IRCnet chatroom I think. That was pretty big for 1998. The point of this review is to see how this holds up eleven years later using my cynical jaded wrestling eyes. . Actually I’m a pretty positive guy and I WANT to enjoy what I’m watching. Anyway, I rate matches on the typical 5 * scale with your average match weighing in at **1/2. I did not dig up Scott’s original rant on this from the 411 or Pulse archives so anything that sounds familiar is strictly due to osmosis from reading all his stuff for the last eleven years (started on Wrestline.com). Let’s cue up the 24/7 montage…

Live eleven years ago from Las Vegas

This “Supercard” kicks off with an interview from Mean Gene talking to Rick Steiner on the entrance ramp about the Brother vs. Brother match later. Buff Bagwell, who just returned the previous Nitro, comes out and explains to the crowd that we’re all sick of Big Poppa Pump. Buff wants to be in Rick’s corner and the crowd boos him, smelling the turn 10 miles away. Rick asks if he can trust him, and the crowd yells “NO!” Hilarious. Crowd boos as both men leave.

Finally we get to an actual match.

Match 1

Raven vs. Chris Jericho ©

Television Title Championship Match

Jericho is donning the hairstyle he would use when he debuts in the WWF about 9 months later. Raven is in the midst of a losing streak here and the Flock is disbanded at this point. Raven “went to bed at 11am, woke up to find out who his opponent was (See, it’s funny because it’s true) and doesn’t feel like wrestling” so he walks out. Jericho buries Raven on the stick, and calls him a loser. Well, it worked I guess as Raven has had enough and runs back to the ring and they slug it out with Jericho kicking him down, ripping off Raven’s jacket and then he whips him with it. Raven up and Jericho whips him off the ropes and hits a clothesline. Arrogant cover for a quick 1. Another shoot off and Jericho ducks and gets kicked. Raven clotheslines him over the top rope and both men fall to the floor. Raven sets up the steel steps and front suplexes Jericho onto the steps, right on his stomach. I can’t remember if I’ve ever seen the steps used like that before. Awesome. Raven runs up the now repositioned steel steps and hits a dropkick to Jericho! He rolls Jericho back in the ring and poses to the crowd. Shoot off and Jericho plants Raven and hotshots him face first onto the top rope. Springboard dropkick by Jericho sends Raven to the outside and into the rail. Jericho runs along the apron and dives at Raven, who ducks, and Jericho plants himself into the guardrail head first. Nice bump. Raven uses the steps again, slamming Jericho’s head into them. Jericho reverses an irish whip and sends Raven flying into the safety rail. Jericho rolls him back in the ring and kicks him in the head. Raven up with an eye gouge and takes Jericho into the corner, choking him with his flannel shirt. Raven bites at Jericho’s face then shoots him off and applies a sleeper. Jericho counters into a belly to back suplex. Senton across Raven’s chest from Jericho. Jericho removes the turnbuckle and they tease a whip into it but Raven reverses Jericho into the opposite corner. Jericho boots him and charges but Raven turns this into a wicked powerbomb, and then catapults Jericho into the exposed steel. Diving clothesline to Jericho and Raven covers for two. Shoot off and Jericho kicks him in the gut, misses a spin kick and raven hits a quick belly to belly for two. Raven sends him off the ropes, misses a punch, switches behind Jericho but Jericho rolls through it and applies the Lion Tamer. Raven makes the ropes and Jericho is pissed. He slaps at Raven and drags him up by his hair. Irish whip is countered by Raven into the Even Flow DDT and Jericho kicks out at 2 ½. Fans bought that as the ending. Jericho sneaks up behind Raven and tries to roll him up for two. Jericho gets a low blow, hits a belly to belly into a bridge…for two. Dang, this is a hot opener. They slug it out and Raven reverses a whip, sending Jericho crashing into Kanyon, who appeared all of a sudden on the apron. I think he missed a cue or something. Raven grabs Jericho and tries for the DDT again but Jericho reverses into the lion tamer and Raven taps (7:49).

**** Pretty much non stop action here, with some great bumps early and great pacing. Both guys were pretty over, especially Jericho and the Lion Tamer. This was really, really good.

Next up is more talking as Bischoff and Hollywood come out to pose in front of the giant pumpkin. Hogan talks about laying Horace to rest since he wasn’t a true NWO-ite. They show highlights of Hogan whipping his nephew with the belt on Nitro from the week before. This would be the second “turn” they are forcing down the fans throats tonight. Gee, wonder what is happening later in the show? I mean a promo about Horace? Well, its better then letting the Warrior rant on for ten minutes. The Nitro speech when he returned was so terrible, I remember flipping back and forth at least three times and he was STILL preaching. .

Match 2

Meng vs. Wrath

Before Wrath comes down they pan through the crowd and some kid has a WCW/NWO Revenge t-shirt. Sweet. Match starts with Wrath heading outside and dragging Meng through the ropes. Wrath throws him into the guardrail, then gets on the apron and hits a somersault dive. Back in the ring and Wrath throws him into the corner. Both men slug it out and Meng puts Wrath into another corner but Wrath gets the foot up when he charges. Meng gets fired up and Wrath climbs and hits a diving clothesline off the second rope for two. Massive shoulder block to Meng and Wrath goes for the Meltdown but Meng somersaults out of the way and hits a superkick for two. Meng slaps at him and picks him up into a backbreaker across his knee. This gets two. They trade eye rakes in the middle of the ring and Meng hits an elbow to the head and puts Wrath into the corner. They look a tad lost at this point. Wrath reverses Meng into the opposite corner and kicks at him before Meng pushes him off and hits a belly to back suplex. Meng whips Wrath into the corner and follows that with a weak lariat. Atomic drop by Meng and a shoot off with Wrath hitting a sunset flip. Meng goes for the Tongan Death Grip but Wrath slips out and hits a Uranage for two as Meng weakly gets his shoulder up. Wrath goes for the Meltdown again and Meng tries to fight out of it before Wrath gets him up and hits it for the pin and a decent pop (4:23).

** They got a little lost in the middle and couldn’t figure out where to go but this was a solid power match. Wrath was pretty over and his finisher got a nice pop when he finally hit it. Unfortunately he’d go on to tear his ACL early in 1999 and delay his momentum. He’d eventually make his way over to WWE during the Invasion as a part of Kronik and quit when they tried to demote him to OVW. Well, at least according to Wiki.

Match 3

Disco Inferno vs. Juventud Guerrera

This is for the right to face Kidman later in the show for the Cruiserweight title. Tony also jogs our memory and reminds everyone that the beef here is Juvy saying Disco didn’t make weight for their previous matches. Okay, then. Vegas crowd just loves the disco dancing. Ok they show a hot chick that I’m ok with doing it, but the dorky kids in the front row, just stop. IT’S DISCO INFERNO. Face-off and Disco starts with a kick to the gut and an elbow smash and puts Juvy in the corner. Kicks there and Disco poses. Disco sends him off and hits a side slam. Disco poses and THEN covers and it almost gets three. What a side slam apparently. Juvy’s up and slaps Disco down. Irish whip and Juvy hits a head scissors takeover and then a clothesline. Juvy tries to go up on Disco and they botch a move with Juvy slipping to the mat, which is described as a great counter by Tony for Disco. So they go for the spot again and Juvy hits a facebuster out of a fame-asser type move. Disco into the corner and gets slapped down. Disco charges off the ropes and gets monkey flipped onto the floor and Juvy follows him out with another head scissors. The fog from the fog machine has made its way to ringside. Well, it’s not pyro at least. Back in and Disco reverses a whip and hits an inverted atomic drop and then a lariat. Scoopslam follows and Disco goes up. Stone Cold double elbow drop hits and he covers for two. Now into a sleeper for Disco. Juvy fights out and ducks a clothesline, hits a diving roll up but Disco grabbed the bottom rope. Juvy ignored that and had pulled off him before the ref even told him about the rope break. Juvy reverses a kick into a reverse spin kick. Juvy charges and gets flipped to the apron but keeps his balance and springboards back into the ring. Disco bails outside and Juvy hits a slingshot crossbody block onto him. The two slug it out back in the ring and Juvy hit a rana and calls for the Juvy driver. Disco reverses and hits a swinging neck breaker for a double KO spot. Disco pulls him up by his hair, shoots him off but Juvy flips over and Disco punches him on the ground. Macarena time and Juvy flips him for a roll up for two but Disco grabs Juvy’s legs and hits a giant swing which leaves him dizzy and he falls into a low blow headfirst on Juvy’s crotch. Cover but Juvy has his leg on the ropes. They adjust and another cover gets two. Veritical suplex by Disco and he goes up the turnbuckle but Juvy pops up and crotches him. Juvy on top with him and hits a frankensteiner. Juvy goes to another corner and hits a spinning crossbody for two. Shoot off and Juvy slides in and hits a reverse bulldog. Both men up and Disco fights Juvy off his shoulders and hits a kick wham jumping piledriver for the pin (9:39).

*** This was kind of all over the place, especially with Juvy hitting all these big moves at the end only to get grabbed for the piledriver out of nowhere. It was a little sloppy early but solid nonetheless.

ANOTHER promo, this time it’s Big Papa Pump. I’m sure someone has this PPV all planned out down to the minute anyway. We’re fine. He runs down Marcus Bagwell. Scott wants to make this a tag team match for the titles with the Giant in his corner. Well, it’s the Big Show out now…with hair. JJ Dillon wants Scott to wrestle Rick one on one for 15 minutes if Rick’s team wins the tag match.

Match 4

Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright

Now we get European techno dancing. Back story here is that Alex’s father’s wrestling career was ended by Finlay. They circle and lock-up. Ref breaks and they do it again. Finlay grabs an arm and sweeps him down. Wright fights his way up, still in the hold, and runs the ropes and flips Finlay over him. Nice. Stiff European uppercuts from Finlay and both guys slug it out. Wright gets a knockdown and stomps on Finlay. Wright hotshots Finlay onto the top rope. Wright catapults Finlay, who is under the ropes, and then dances. Clothesline by Finlay and now he gets his own catapult, holding onto Wright’s legs and puts on a stretch hold. Looks like a modified surfboard. Schiavone admits they have no idea what that move is called. I made it up as well. Wright gets dumped outside, followed by Finlay with a sledge and posting into the ring apron. Wright drags Finlay to the outside and scoopslams him on the outside and then drops an elbow. Slaps and Finlay reverses into a fireman’s carry and drops him on the rail. That gets a one count when Finlay rolls him back in. Wright charges and hits a crossbody which sends both men over the ropes. Back in and Wright misses a missile dropkick off the top. Charge by Finlay into the corner misses and Wright hits a hangman’s neckbreaker for the pin (5:09).

** Pretty stiff, quick 5 minute match. There was nothing appalling here. Everybody is flying around so far on this card. Although really, the bookers need to break up their gyrating dancers so they don’t burn out the crowd too early.

Match 5

Lodi vs. Saturn

This is Lodi’s chance to make up for being Saturn’s bitch during their Flock days. Lock-up and Saturn grabs an arm. Saturn releases the hold so Lodi can run up the entranceway and grab his poster board signs (like Lodi likes Texas). It gets no reaction. Shoot off and Saturn leapfrogs him, hits a HHH facebreaker knee smash, followed by a leg sweep. Lodi bails again but Saturn suplexes him back into the ring. Slaps now to Lodi in the corner and Saturn whips him hard into the opposite corner and Lodi bails AGAIN. He walks out on the match but Saturn chases and slaps at him. Lodi runs back to the ring and finally gets some offense. It consists of two axehandle smashes before Saturn hits a vicious belly-to-belly suplex. Running lariat and then a t-bone suplex follows. Saturn hits a sit-down vertical suplex, calls for the Death Valley Driver and hits it for the pin (3:50).

½ * Complete squash. Deserved to blown off on Nitro.

Match 6

Disco Inferno vs. Kidman ©

WCW Cruiserweight Championship Match

Circle and a lock-up into a headlock for Kidman. Shoot off and Disco hits a hiptoss. Kidman up with a dropkick. Another headlock for Kidman, Disco shoots him off, hits a suplex but walks into a drop-toe hold and Kidman grabs an arm. Into a wristlock, Disco reverses with three hair drag takedowns on Kidman. Disco throws an Irish whip and Kidman gets one of his own. Kidman hits a headscissors takedown and stomps away. Another wristlock sequence and Disco hits his own drop-toe hold, sending Kidman into the bottom rope. Swinging neckbreaker by Disco and the cover gets 2. Hard throw into the corner and Kidman does the Bret Hart bump. Disco in control before Kidman charges and Disco lowers the top rope and Kidman sails to the outside. Kidman hits a running bulldog, off the stairs and ring apron to the floor. Nice spot. Kidman up top and misses a frog splash. Disco covers off his miss and gets two. He grabs a headlock as the pace slows down. Kidman hits a stiff clothesline after tossing Disco off the turnbuckle. Irish whip now and Disco hits a flapjack, which is described as a “great defensive move” by Tony. Disco kicks away at Kidman in the corner and then poses to boos. See the dancing has burnt out the crowd already, just like I predicted. Relax readers, its sarcasm. Belly to back suplex on Kidman gets two. Disco hits a scoopslam and climbs. He misses a double axe handle and Kidman hits a sit-down powerbomb. Kidman takes over and hits a powerslam for two. He whiffs on a dropkick and Disco goes for the POWERBOMB BUT YOU CAN’T POWERBOMB KIDMAN. I’ve always wanted to borrow that. However, Disco turns Kidman’s reversal of the powerbomb into a jumping piledriver. Just a sick looking move you won’t see anymore. He stalls too long and this gets 2 ½. Kidman hits a sloppy running bulldog off the turnbuckle which looks like Disco took the move wrong and landed on his back. Both men up and Disco hits a gordbuster for two. Offense is all Disco, despite him already wrestling tonight. Weird booking for Kidman. Disco tries again to powerbomb Kidman and Kidman counters into a facebuster. He climbs for the Shooting Star Press and it gets three. (10:49)

**3/4 Some obvious stalling with Disco already wrestling. The whole match was backwards with Disco as the heel, but the one tired from earlier. So instead we have Kidman (rested) laying around after all the heel’s offense, while Disco poses away. If you’re going to do a two match sequence, this would have worked better with a rested heel champ.

PART 2 – which is TV 14 instead of the TV PG PART 1 was

Match 7

Big Poppa Pump and The Giant © vs. Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell

WCW World Tag Team Championship

This is Bagwell’s first match back since his injury (caused by Rick Steiner). He did a weak face turn the Nitro before, saving Rick from Scott with a chair. Giant comes down to the ring smoking a cigarette. Match takes forever to start. Giant starts with Rick and tosses him around. Big slaps in the corner followed by a big punch. Hey, that move is his finisher nowadays. Atomic drop and a belly to back suplex on Rick. Scott Steiner in and keeps working over his brother. He throws Rick outside so the Giant can knock him around while the ref is inadvertently distracted by Bagwell. Bagwell chases and Rick is tossed back into the ring. Scott kicks him around until Rick finally gets some offense in, hitting an atomic drop and then a ten-punch in the corner. ANOTHER atomic drop and Rick tags Buff in and there you go. Bagwell turns on Rick, celebrates with Big Poppa Pomp and the Giant, and then he just runs out of the arena. Well that was abrupt. It’s 2-on-1 now. Slow beat down ensues as the crowd jeers. Tony says this surprised everyone, including everyone in the locker room. Well, no one said they were the brightest back there. It’s a handicap match now as Giant stands on Rick and chops him down. Rick rolls out of the ring and Scott beats him around outside. He rolls Rick back in and the Giant hits a side Russian leg sweep but pulls Rick off the mat at 2. Wow, moveset. Another tag now to Scott and Rick gets a punch in. His spurts of offense pop the crowd at least before Scott hits a low blow. Giant is tagged in and climbs, barely keeps his balance and Rick ducks his missile dropkick and it wipes out Scott Steiner. Clotheslines by Rick on the Giant. Steiner gets a big bulldog out of the corner and it gets the pin and the titles. (8:24)

Now the 15 minute one-on-one match is supposed to start. Scott tries to bail but Rick chases him down. The Giant is still out there and he gets involved to no surprise. Rick smashes Scott into the steel stairs and rolls him in. Rick hits some punches and a big clothesline. Rick hits an inverted powerbomb into the turnbuckle but Scott grabs the ropes to break the count. Scott now takes over. Steiner-line misses and Rick hits an overhead suplex. Now a belly to belly for Rick but the camera cuts to someone in a Bill Clinton mask beating down security. He comes in the ring, beats down Rick and the ref with a slapjack Stevie Ray gave him at ringside, and reveals to be…Buff Bagwell. He tries to count using the ref’s hand but Rick kicks out at 2. Frankensteiner by Scott and Rick again kicks out at 2 with Buff counting for the ref. Both whip Rick off and he clotheslines Scott and then hotshots Buff. Rick off the top for the Steiner bulldog and another ref runs in to count the three.

**1/2 for the whole thing. Wow, a clean finish after all that. I liked this a lot more then I thought I would. The crowd was really into it too which always sways me a little. So Buff races out after his turn, to apparently get ready to change and surprise everyone later JUST IN CASE Rick beats them 2 on 1 for the titles? Why not just stick around ringside and make sure Rick loses and gets beat down? It’s not like the heels needed the 1 on 1 match to get their licks in. Plus they lost their titles in the process. Anyway…

Match 8

Scott Hall vs. Kevin Nash

They play up Hall being a drunk in the promos as part of the reason for the breakup. He comes out to the ring carrying a drink, stumbling and apparently drunk. They talk about Scott needing to get his life together. I’m sure enough clichés have been used in the past to describe this angle.

Hall has a drink in his hand in the ring and throws it in Nash’s face to start. Hall punches and kicks Nash down and to the outside. Brawl outside and Hall takes the ringside microphone and clocks Nash. Choking with a ringside cable ensues and Nash looks to be bleeding the hard way in the mouth from that mic shot. Nash is laid out outside and Hall goes back in the ring and gets a mic to talk to the crowd and taunt Big Sexy, while a trainer attends to Nash on the ramp. Nash gets back in the ring and gets knocked down again. Discus punch and Hall looks pretty good for drinking all night. Scoopslam on Nash and he calls for the Razor’s Edge. Nash gets his first offense in – a push. He refuses to attack Scott despite letting him kick the crap out of him. Announcers finally catch on that he is not fighting back. Way to go guys, we’re five minutes in and you just pointed out a huge part of the psychology of the match. Hall whips him into the corner, followed by a clothesline. NOW, Nash comes alive with a couple hard irish whips and his big side slam. Double KO after that. They slug it out on their knees. I actually don’t mind that spot. Now both up trading slow punches. Nash now takes over with a running hip and punches. Jackknife attempt is avoided by Hall. Hall stalls outside and finally back in we have a lock-up won by Nash. Another lock-up and Hall grabs an arm and slaps Nash a couple times on the head. Nash takes over and hammers away in the corner. Nash sets him up on the middle rope and hits some running knees. Ref asks Hall if he wants to quit. Nash puts him in a corner and throws a couple hip smashes. To another corner and more of the same. Hall is out of it and Nash just toys with him. I guess all this wrestling has helped the alcohol takeover as Hall is stumbling around. He was fine 5 minute ago. All Hall can do now is just weakly slap at Nash. Big boot and the crowd is surprisingly still alive for this one. Nash sets him up for the finish, mocks his drinking with hand motions and fires off a sick Jackknife powerbomb, almost breaking Hall’s neck. Second Jackknife comes off better as Hall pulled himself up to at least take the move safely. Nash throws a couple crotch chops and leaves, getting counted out. (14:19)

*1/2 So Nash gets the crap kicked out of him early, apparently refusing to fight back for a good couple minutes, then he takes over as Hall goes limp and the match just drags to the end. They could have played up Nash’s refusal to hit his friend much better in the beginning so maybe the crowd could have followed along. Some simple hand gestures and posturing could have accomplished this. Then they could have cut to just wrestling after that. On top of this, I’m pretty sure the promos talked about Nash wanting to kick his ass, so why would he just slap and push Hall off until almost halfway through?

Match 9

Bret Hart © vs. Sting

United States Heavyweight Championship Match

Weird sign displayed by an old lady in the front row: “Sting gave Hart the Scorpion”. Like in the shower earlier? I’m not following at all. Sting is representing the Wolfpac here and has the bat with him. Stall to start with Bret rolling in and out of the ring, afraid to fight Sting. Finally the bell rings. Announcers think this will take Sting out of his game. It has taken the fans out of the game. Bret bails after the bell and jaws with some uglies in the crowd. Finally, after another tease of entering the ring, Sting chases Bret down and throws him into the entrance ramp guardrail and drags him back to the ring. That was just a BRUTAL opening. I guess the script said this would work the fans up into a fury. Epic fail. So back to the match and Sting gets a 10-punch in the corner followed by a clothesline. Sting whips him into another corner and stomps on his hand. Big atomic drop by Sting. Bret takes over and rakes Stings head along the ropes. Big DDT by Bret and he covers for two. Illegal choke in the corner that Bret breaks on 3 and clotheslines sting down. Headbutt to the groin by Bret followed by a leg drop to the face. Bret with a hard knockdown punch and an elbow smash gets a two count. Bret grabs a sleeper now and Sting fights out but gets caught with a knee to the stomach off his whip off the ropes. More choking by Bret. Big running bulldog by Bret as he chokes Sting out with his foot in the corner. Crowd is dead for this. These guys have 9 heavyweight titles at this point between them remember. Small package reversal by Sting gets two. Hart takes back control with his third eye rake and a side Russian leg sweep. To the second rope for a dropkick as Bret falls on his back so Sting locks in the Scorpion Deathlock. Bret has the ropes. Two count by Sting after a couple punches to Bret on the ground. Shoot-off and Sting hits a shoulderblock, ducks a leapfrog but Bret feigns a knee injury after his jump. Sting and the crowd are not buying it but the ref pulls him off and Bret has an object in his tights. Bret drops the object after Sting whips him into the corner. Sting now picks up the object but the ref stops him and Bret hits a low blow. Kick to the groin continues the assault and Bret hits a backbreaker. Now to the second rope for the driving elbows. This gets two. Bret dumps Sting outside and we get slow brawling by the entrance ramp. Bret hotshots him on the rail and breaks the count into the ring. Fans boo him and you get a nice shot of a “FUCK YOU” from Bret. Sting is back on the apron and accidentally back-elbows the ref. Bret kicks the ref too. Sting finds his second wind and starts taking it to Btet. Stinger Splash is blocked with a boot up by Bret. Bret punches Sting down and climbs but Sting crotches him on the top rope. This sets up a superplex with Bret’s legs smashing into the fallen ref. That had to hurt. Double KO now. Stinger Splash on Hart but Sting overshot it and knocked himself out. The announcer sell this like he cracked his head on the post but it looked like just the turnbuckle to me. Regardless, Bret goes outside and grabs Sting’s bat and beats the hell out of him with it and now brings the bat back into the ring. Bret now up to the second rope and drives the bat into Sting’s throat. Ref is still out from Sting’s back-elbow of doom earlier. Actually that kind of bump I could buy more then some of the splashes and stuff they normally do to put the ref down. Bret drags the ref up and locks on the Sharpshooter with Sting knocked out from the bat shots earlier. Ref raises Sting’s arm but he’s out and then the ref calls for the bell. After this, Sting does an uber long stretcher job as the announcers talk about how this is a huge black eye for wrestling. See, it’s funny because it’s true. (15:04)

*1/2 The build to this (via the announcer’s recap) was all about the respect both men had for each other and their similar finishing moves. So instead of the technical match promised, Bret stalls for five minutes in the beginning, brings in a foreign object and, if it were a real bat, kills Sting to retain the title. IIRC they would have a much better match at Mayhem a year later. Terrible letdown, even eleven years later.

Match 10

Hollywood Hogan vs. The Warrior

Before the match they show a replay AGAIN of Horace getting beat down by Hogan on Nitro. Now you have to be a real moron to not see where this is going. Good drinking game for this one - drink when they say “Return match eight years in the making.” You’d be dead by the time this show is over. Warrior poses while Hogan tells the camera that Warrior is out of his mind and that he could kill that guy. His words, not mine. That could pop a buyrate, you know? As is the theme of Part 2, we take forever to start. Hogan walks into a big right hand and the bell rings. Warrior screams he’s been waiting long enough for this. Does he mean revenge for Hogan submarining his first run as champ? Because Hogan technically has the revenge angle here. Anyway, Hogan grabs an arm and they wrestle around trading locks. Shoot off and Warrior hits a shoulderblock, followed by Hogan bailing. Minutes later Hogan is back in the ring again. Warrior calls for the test of strength. Hogan politely declines and they lock up and go into the corner, trading right hands. Hogan chokes at him with his knee and more kicks follow. Now we have a big game of mercy with Warrior on his knees. That sounded terrible actually. Warrior fights back and turns the move on Hogan, allegedly. I didn’t see any difference or switch. I guess it was a subtle squeeze. They stay in this hold , with Warrior on the ground, for another couple of minutes until Hogan grabs an arm and they reverse that around a couple times and then do a criss cross which leads to a Hogan scoopslam that Warrior no sells. Warrior hits his own scoopslam and pounds on the ropes, charges at Hogan and dumps him to the floor. Warrior eventually follows and they weakly brawl around with eye rakes and punches. I don’t mind the eye rake as a transition move and you really don’t see it much anymore. Back in and an ugly whip leads to a ref bump by Hogan. Hogan then knees the down ref in the head and starts to lay into the Warrior. He calls for the troops in the back and kills the ref again. Out comes the Giant but Warrior ducks a boot from him and it hits Hogan in the face. Now Stevie Ray and Vincent get knocked off the apron by the Warrior as well. Warrior goes for the cover after the previous boot but the ref is still down. See, the face is supposed to be affected from the ref bump, not the heel (see Orton/Cena Iron Man). Double axe handle by Hogan and he hit a back suplex on Warrior. This gets two as the ref is back. Knees to the back by Hogan. Both men slug it out and Hogan takes his belt off and whips Warrior near the face. Now Hogan chokes him with it and then whips him across the back. Ref lets the match continue as long as the belt goes away; ignoring that he was kneed in the back of the head earlier. I guess he was unconscious from the vicious push down. I’m surprised this wasn’t just No DQ. Warrior avoids a couple elbow drops and charges but misses his splash. Hogan punches at him but Warrior knocks him down and takes Hogan’s belt off. The Ref does not take this way and lets him hit him 3 times. Now pleading to stop and he rolls it up and clocks Hogan again. Hogan goes for something in his pants and it’s a lighter as he tries a fireball which whiffs terribly. Warrior no sells the miss and acts like he didn’t just see someone try and throw fire at him and slugs away. Pretty impressive acting by Warrior if he knew he was supposed to eat fire there. Hogan admitted he overbooked this angle and wanted Warrior to make his comeback blinded by the fire. Considering how sloppy the rest of this was with full eyesight, I’m thinking that would have been epically awesome, in a bad way. Warrior goes up and hits a awful looking axe handle/sledge. More like a slap to the top of Hogan’s bald head. Another double axe handle and Hogan blades. Now with a low blow on Warrior followed by a clothesline. Patented Leg Drop and Horace Hogan comes out with a chair. Bischoff is watching from the pumpkin as well. Hogan misses another Leg Drop and Warrior hulks up, no selling some axe handles. Running clotheslines from the Warrior and Bischoff is on the apron and grabs the ref as Horace comes in and clocks the Warrior with the chair in the back of the head. The best was Tenay saying earlier “Good thing the Warrior has Horace here”. He wouldn’t stop after the match with the shock either. Come on, yo. That chairshot gets three. Now my favorite part as Horace pours lighter fluid all over the Warrior. Since this was months after Foley, I remember wondering if they were really going to do some kind of stunt with lighting him on fire there. Security comes out and they fight the lighter away from them before they can burn him alive for the sold out crowd. (14:20)

1/4* For the entertainment of seeing this again only. I’ll go the quarter star for participation and everyone showing up (a plus from the Warrior). Crowd was dead for this. What a clusterfuck. Even both Hogan and Bischoff buried it on the Warrior DVD as a huge whiff and one of the worst matches EVER.

Match 11

Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg ©

WCW World Heavyweight Championship Match

At this point the PPV is way over the time limit and was shutoff to some buyers. They would go on and replay the entire match for free the next night on Nitro. Goldberg has a really long walk to the ring here. Great pop though. This is, of course, face vs. face. Bell sounds and both men meet in the middle for a staredown. Lock-up and Goldberg shoves him off, three times in a row. Lock-up and DDP gets an armdrag. Another lock-up and both men tumble through the ropes to the outside. Very nice. Ref breaks it up and puts them back in the ring. Lock-up into a headlock by DDP, Goldberg reverses him down, backflips to avoid a sweep attempt by DDP but the second time it trips Goldberg up. Back up Goldberg slams him and puts on a cross armbar. DDP gets the ropes and hits a jawbreaker. Two shoulderblocks by Goldberg which are no sold and then Goldberg shrugs off a Diamond Cutter attempt and pushes DDP outside the ring. Lock-up and Goldberg has the arm, they reverse around in some chain wrestling and DDP gets a drop toe-hold. DDP off the ropes and Goldberg get a shoulderblock that sends DDP out again. DDP with a hotshot on Goldberg from the outside and quickly in gets a spinning neckbreaker. DDP whips him into the corner and quickly hits a side Russian leg sweep. It gets two. Front headlock by DDP on the ground and both men trade knees until Goldberg reverses out of the lock with a nice swinging neckbreaker. Forearm shots and a whip by DDP but Goldberg punches him down. Goldberg follows this up with a big overhead suplex. Sideslam by Goldberg gets two. Back to the arm for Goldberg. DDP gets a break and shoot-off and hits a rana (!) on Goldberg but Goldberg quickly gets up and hits a side kick. Then he charges for the spear but DDP moves and Goldberg hits the post and falls outside. Page hits a diving clothesline from the top rope that gets 2 ½. Irish whip and Page reverses a hiptoss into a DDT. Sweet spot. Very quick double KO and Page is up first, calls for the Diamond Cutter but Goldberg spears the shit out of him. Goldberg sells the shoulder injury from the post hit prior too. Wow. He goes for the Jackhammer with just one arm but can’t get him up. He tries again but DDP flips out and hits the Diamond Cutter. Double KO now as Page crawls over for two and the crowd erupts at the kickout. Page tries a suplex but Goldberg reverses and hits the Jackhammer for three. (10:28)

**** I don’t think anyone at the time thought DDP was winning but this was a stiff and very well booked match. Watching it again it seemed more like MMA or boxing then “fake” wrestling. Both guys sold really well and the match had a main event feel to it.

BOTTOM LINE: Eleven matches for an average of 2.2 stars. Great opener and main event though. Maybe one day the WWE will release a box set of the Halloween Havoc shows. You haven’t witnessed professional wrestling until you try to understand the logic and booking in a Chamber of Horrors match. A couple of these matches are available on WWE DVD sets. Goldberg/DDP is on the Rise of Fall of WCW, Nash/Hall is on Legends of Wrestling 6: Heatseekers, Hart/Sting is on the Greatest Stars of the ‘90s and Hogan/Warrior is replayed continuously on 30 monitors at a smoky off-track wagering venue in hell. I would seek out the Goldberg/DDP match and that’s about it.

Thanks for reading and look for Charlie Reneke’s review of Batista: I Walk Alone this week on the Pulse.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.