Mike Reviews WCW Halloween Havoc 1998

Happy Spooky Saturday Everyone!

I’ve decided to keep my journey through 1998 WCW going by reviewing Halloween Havoc 1998. I’ve thankfully suffered through the horror that is World War 3 98 already, so we’ll skip that in November and then close out the year in December with Starrcade 98. Halloween Havoc 1998 is a mixed bag of a show, with it mostly being remembered for three things;

1 – The fact that WCW didn’t notify the pay per view companies that the show was going to run longer than 3 hours, meaning that a lot of providers cut the feed and a lot of angry fans ended up getting refunds whilst WCW had to placate them by putting the Main Event up for free on Nitro, which then annoyed fans who had bought the show and had had no problems because the match they ostensibly were most interested in paying to see was now getting thrown on free TV, thus kind of making their purchase redundant. This in-turn angered the pay per view companies as well, because it hurt the potential replay sales, meaning that WCW managed to anger absolutely everyone in the space of a 24 hour period!

2 – Hollywood Hogan and Warrior having a famously awful match

3 – Goldberg and DDP tearing the house down in the Main Event to essentially save the show

However, is there more to the undercard of Halloween Havoc 1998 to make it stand out from those three talking points? Let’s watch the show and find out!

You can view the card for Halloween Havoc 1998 by clicking below;

https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=1678&page=3

The event is emanating from Las Venturas, San Andreas on the 25th of October 1998

Calling the action are The Great Tony Schiavone, The Iron Professor Mike Tenay and Bobby The Brain Heenan

We get about 8 minutes of video packages and talking before the opening match gets in the ring, and I’m not going to sit through it save for a promo with Rick Steiner, as that’s actually pertinent to the rest of the evening. Rick joins Mean Gene Okerlund in the entrance way, and talks about how he’ll batter his brother Scott Steiner later on, but Buff Bagwell shows up and says that he’s had a change of heart when it comes to his alliance with Scott Steiner. Buff asks to be in Rick’s corner tonight, and the crowd boos that as they clearly don’t trust Buff based on his previous past of treachery. Rick is a doofus though and accepts Buff’s offer of friendship for later on.

Opening Match
WCW World Television Title
Champ: Lionheart Chris Jericho Vs Raven

Raven was in an odd period in his career where he wasn’t really a full-on Heel anymore but he wasn’t really a babyface either, with him essentially playing a troubled figure that seemed to be on a hiding to nowhere, thus causing worry for his friends and family. Raven whinges on the mic prior to the match starting due to his recent losing streak and the fact this match was booked for him without his knowledge. Raven tries to walk away as a result, but Jericho goads him back into the ring and the match takes place after all.

Raven sells a lot in the early stages, and he’s very good at that so the match is fun as a result. Raven fights back though and sends Jericho tumbling to the floor with a Cactus Clothesline before dropping Jericho mid-section first onto the ring steps at ringside. The fans aren’t really sure who to cheer for here, but they do enjoy the action and react to it positively. Like in some of Jericho’s other TV Title matches from this period, there’s a lot of back and forth stuff in this one, with both wrestlers trading momentum throughout the match and the wrestling being generally good.

There’s a good mixture of outside the ring brawling, wrestling within in the ring and character work, with both wrestlers having their characters down and the knowhow of how to put a match together to keep the crowd invested. In a good spot, Jericho undoes a turnbuckle pad and tries throwing Raven into it, but Raven sends up catapulting Jericho into it instead and then following up with a clothesline for two in a good near fall. Quite a lot of the fans bought that as a potential finish.

We get some more near falls following that, with both wrestlers timing their kick outs well for maximum drama, and that leads to a submission tease when Jericho gets Raven in The Lion Tamer. Raven fights the hold and manages to make the ropes though, thus breaking it, and that causes Jericho to lose his cool. Raven catches Jericho with his Evenflow DDT OUTTA NOWHERE following that, but Jericho is able to kick out at two and then hits Raven right in The Bowery before getting a German Suplex for two. Some of these near falls have been spot on. Raven’s only buddy, Kanyon, tries to help him, but Jericho fends Kanyon off and then locks Raven in The Lion Tamer again for the submission victory.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: CHRIS JERICHO
RATING: ***1/2

We get another promo, here on this wrestling pay per view we bought to watch wrestling on, as Hollywood Hogan heads down to the entrance way (which is a cool looking pumpkin being molested by a ghoul of some kind). Eric Bischoff is with Hogan here, and he manages to tear himself away long enough from kissing Hogan’s keester to do some hype for the match between Hogan and Warrior later on. Hollywood Hogan had beaten the crap out of his nephew Horace on Nitro, so he makes light of that and then says he’ll be ready for Warrior when they fight later on. This was the usual Hogan promo from this time period, in that it was long-winded, self-indulgent and generally quite dull.

Match Two
THE MONSTER MENG Vs Wrath

Wrath had been part of the lame Mortal Kombat inspired “Blood Runs Cold” division in 1997, but they repackaged him in the summer of 1998 as a big burly bloke that destroyed folk with his Pumphandle Slam finishing move called The Meltdown, and he started getting pretty over as a result. Meng was usually protected past a certain level due to his real life toughness, so a win here for Wrath would be another example of how Wrath was moving up the ranks.

Wrath comes out of the blocks hot, even getting a big cannonball splash off the apron at one stage, with Meng kind of just absorbing everything and not really doing a lot of selling. Wrath is taking the lion’s share of the offence, but Meng manages to roll his way out of The Meltdown and starts working over Wrath, with Wrath doing a slightly better job of selling things but also kind of just powering through.

Wrath actually tries a sunset flip at one stage, which gives us the rarely seen aloha-MENG, but Meng blocks it, only to then take a Rock Bottom for two. Wrath keeps coming though and eventually manages to muscle Meng up into The Meltdown and that’s such an awesome finisher that it actually causes the music dubbing people to let Wrath’s real entrance music play, with it being much better than the generic stuff they dub in for him on these shows.

WINNER: WRATH
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: This was fine, as it was two big lads throwing bombs with little in the way of selling until it was time for Wrath to take it home with his finisher. Watchable lower-card stuff for the time it was given

WCW Cruiserweight Champ Kidman is being interviewed by Lee Marshall. Kidman surprisingly doesn’t say that his hopes for victory lean on whether either of his possible opponents try to give him a Powerbomb or not.

Match Three
Winner Gets A Cruiserweight Title Shot Later On Tonight
The Disco Inferno Vs Juventud Guerrera

Disco had been doing a storyline where he was trying to lose enough weight in order to compete for the Cruiserweight belt, leading to numerous wacky skits where he’d fail to do so and miss out. If he wins here though then he’ll get a shot for the belt later. Juventud was the most recent previous Champion, so him being in this slot as well makes sense. Juventud had also played a part in stooging Disco off to the WCW matchmakers when he didn’t make weight, so Disco has a vested interest in defeating him here.

This one has the odd moment where they aren’t really on the same page, which leads to certain moves or counters not quite having the correct timing, but in general it’s a good match. Disco is the bigger of the two and works the match more like a powerhouse, whilst Juventud uses his speed to offset that, and that works well for the story they are telling. Disco keeps stopping to taunt on certain occasions and makes some cocky covers, which allows Juventud to sneak out of pin attempts when Disco might have won had he cinched it in more.

Heenan does his usual thing of saying that Disco is very talented but he needs a manager or coach in order to focus him so that he can reach his potential, which I think was just The Brain going into business for himself in order to put Disco’s character over rather than him teasing an eventual new manager for Disco that never came. Juventud eventually fights out of a chin lock and makes the comeback, getting a dive to the floor and then going for the Juvi Driver back inside, only for Disco to counter it.

We get our second aloha-somebody spot, with Juventud briefly getting the sunset flip before Disco rolls out of it. Disco goes to a Giant Swing not too soon after that, and ends up falling onto Juventud’s crotch due to dizziness. Disco again lets his cockiness cause him trouble, as he tries heading up top with something, but he spends so much time taunting that it allows Juventud to bring Disco down with a rana before getting a spin kick off the top for two. Disco manages to fire back with a Piledriver though and that’s enough for the three count.

WINNER: THE DISCO INFERNO
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: The occasional timing issue aside, this was a good match, with some solid character work from Disco and some tight near falls from Juventud until it was time to take it home

The Nitro Girls dance, even though this is a pay per view and not Nitro. Why is there so much filler on this show? If you’re already going over the usual 3 hours then why do you need to pile even MORE stuff on top of what you already have? I can somewhat handle the Steiner Brother promo segments as it’s actually setting something up, but the Hogan promo and Nitro Girls dancing isn’t doing anything other than padding out the run length.

Scott Steiner joins us and says that if Buff is going to be backing up Rick Steiner anyway, then they might as well make it a tag match, with Giant being Scott Steiner’s partner. The WCW Tag Titles will be on the line as well, as I guess the nWo had a Freebird thing going on at the time. James J. Dillon joins us and sanctions the tag match if the belts are on the line and if Scott will still fight Rick once the tag match is over.

Match Four
Das Wunderkind Alex Wright Vs Fit Finlay

The story here is that Wright was trying to prove he was the best European wrestler in WCW, so he’s beating up all the other Europeans, which is a storyline that shockingly makes quite a bit of sense for late 90’s WCW. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s hardly Shakespeare level storytelling, but it’s actually something with logic to it that you can follow and understand. There’s also a background story of Finlay once breaking the leg of Wright’s dad, just to give Wright even more motivation to give Finlay a good old fashioned German beating here. Or a “Gute altmodische Deutsche Prügelstrafe” as they call it in Germany…probably.

The wrestling here is quite good, although the crowd doesn’t seem to care that much about it. It’s a mixture of traditional European Style, Japanese Strong Style and classic American showmanship, with them applying some nice holds, hitting each other in a snug manner, and some showboating from Wright. Neither one really plays the Heel here, with Finlay being violent and unpleasant, whilst Wright is cocky and snide, so the crowd doesn’t really have anyone to cheer for.

The momentum switches between each wrestler, with neither one really getting a heat segment to build to a comeback for the other. They just trade stiff shots and take it in turns to control things, which continues to add to the Japanese feel it has at points. Wright eventually misses a dropkick off the top, but Finlay finds nothing but ring post on his follow up attack and that leads to Wright getting the Rude Awakening for the three count after a hard hitting battle.

WINNER: ALEX WRIGHT
RATING: **1/2

Thoughts: The crowd didn’t really care but the work was snug and hard hitting, so if you like that sort of thing then you should enjoy this

Ernest Miller is annoying Lee Marshall at the interview booth.

Match Five
Lodi Vs Saturn

The story with this one is that Lodi used to be in Raven’s Flock faction and he’s annoyed that Saturn broke the group up and set everyone free. There was also a further backstory where Saturn had to be Lodi’s servant earlier in the year, so Saturn is looking for payback for that. Thus both wrestlers have a reason to dislike the other. Saturn was kind of drifting in the mid-card following his big win over Raven at Fall Brawl 98, and then he’d get saddled with Ernest Miller in a terrible feud for the last two months of 1998.

Lodi gets distracted by one of the runners trying to take away his trademark signs, leading to Lodi rushing down the aisle to bring them back down to ringside. Saturn dominates whenever the action is inside the ring, with Lodi bailing once in a while in order to hold one of his signs up. Lodi does sell well whilst Saturn works him over, but the crowd isn’t really responding to the action. Saturn eventually puts Lodi away with the Spicolli Driver after Lodi barely gets anything resembling offence.

WINNER: SATURN
RATING: SQUASH

Thoughts: They tried to present this as a “snivelling Heel finally gets their comeuppance from the babyface, and you enjoy watching it” kind of match. However, the crowd didn’t really hate Lodi enough for that to work, so it ended up being a pretty heatless match as a result, even though both Lodi and Saturn performed their respective roles properly

The commentary team fills more time on a show that already has far too much filler on it. This leads to footage from Nitro of Buff Bagwell preventing a Scott Steiner chair attack on Rick Steiner.

The Nitro Girls dance again. Why did they make the decision to elongate the show artificially like this? This filler isn’t really adding anything to the show other than a longer runtime.

Match Six
WCW World Cruiserweight Title
Champ: Kidman Vs The Disco Inferno

Kidman has control of things to start, using his speed to keep Disco on the back foot, but Disco manages to give Kidman a drop-toe-hold to send the Champ throat first into the bottom rope for the cut off. Kidman sells well whilst on the defensive, as Disco looks good on offence and is entering a good performance here in his second match of the night. Disco low-bridges Kidman in order to send him to the floor, however that proves to be a mistake as Kidman gets a bulldog out there.

Kidman misses a top rope splash back inside the ring, and that leads to Disco working a chin lock for a bit. Kidman does a good job of fighting the hold and the crowd uses it as an opportunity to chant that Disco does the opposite of blowing. They tell a good story of Disco having an answer for most of Kidman’s offence, with Kidman getting a quick flurry here and there only to be cut off. However, Disco proves to be too cocky and focuses on taunting rather than pressing the advantage, which means Kidman is able to keep hanging on.

It’s somewhat similar to the D-Lo Brown Vs X-Pac match from the Judgment Day 1998 show we reviewed last week, where the Heel seems to have the babyfaces number, but he’s not got his eyes fully on the prize, and that eventually proves to be his undoing. Disco does manage to spike Kidman with a Piledriver, but he’s too loose with his cover and that allows Kidman to kick out, which protects the move at least. Disco continues to keep countering Kidman and going for pin attempts, but Kidman continues to keep kicking out. Disco of course makes the mistake many others do, which is that he tries to Powerbomb Kidman, and that ends with a face buster and a Shooting Star Press from the Champion for the three count.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: KIDMAN
RATING: ***

Thoughts: You don’t tug on Superman’s cape, you don’t spit into the wind, and you don’t EVER try and Powerbomb Kidman! The match told a good story with the cocky Disco having Kidman’s number but being too focused on his cockiness to press the issue and win the match, which gave Kidman the one opening he required in order to pick up the victory. The wrestling was good and both wrestlers played their respective roles well, which led to it being a good match overall. Fair play to Disco for working twice and, mostly, delivering as well (The second match was better than the first one with Juventud in my personal opinion)

Match Seven
WCW World Tag Team Titles
Champs: nWo Hollywood (Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner and The Giant) Vs The Dogface Gremlin Rick Steiner and Buff The Stuff Bagwell

The Steiner Brothers had broken up as a team all the way back in February 1998 and there still hadn’t been anything close to verging on a satisfying payoff to the storyline. They had tried to do two blow off singles matches between Scott and Rick at Road Wild and Fall Brawl, but at Road Wild the match hadn’t happened due to Scott pretending to be injured, and then the Fall Brawl match ended up being a short no contest due to Buff pretending to be injured. It had been nothing but bait and switches for months, but if Rick and Buff can win here then we’ll FINALLY get to see the singles match between Les Freres Steiner.

Rick gets worked over a bit at the start by both Scott and The Giant, but he fires back and gives Scott a bit of kicking before Buff calls for the tag so he can get him a piece of Scott. Of course Rick Steiner is one of the few people on the WCW roster dumber than Sting when it comes to trusting the wrong people, as Buff does a turn so obvious that you could have probably viewed it from space, when he betrays Rick to leave him in a handicap situation. The fans don’t even really boo it that much as I don’t think any of them actually bought that Buff had turned babyface. I think Intuits in igloos who had never even seen a wrestling show before could have seen where that was going.

Rick does sell reasonably well whilst Scott and Giant work him over in the handicap situation, as it again baffles me that Rick could sell this well when he seemingly never sold again once he turned Heel in 1999. Instead of Rick just not being a good enough worker to sell believably, it turned out he was just being an unprofessional jerk who was chewing up all of his opponent’s and ruining matches on his own accord. I am shocked that Rick Steiner of all people would be revealed to be person of questionable moral fibre. SHOCKED I SAY!!!

Eventually Scott holds Rick so that Giant can come off the top rope with a dropkick (?!) but Rick manages to dodge it and Scott takes the dropkick instead in a good spot. Rick quickly pounces with the Steiner Bulldog onto Giant, and that not only wins him the match, but he also gets the tag belts and a one on one match with his brother.

WINNER AND NEW CHAMPION: RICK STEINER
RATING: **

Thoughts: The silliness of the obvious SWERVE aside, this was a decent match and the crowd popped big when things went awry for the Heels

Match Eight
nWo Hollywood Vs WCW
Scott Steiner Vs Rick Steiner

Scott decides that he’ll try and walk away rather than wrestle Rick here, but Rick drags him back and gives him the beating the fans have wanted to see him give his brother since February. This is possibly the hottest the crowd has been since the opening bout, as this is an issue they are invested in and Rick is doing a good job of dishing out the payback. Scott hits Rick right in his doghouse in order to take control of the bout, which the commentary team points out is roughly the fourth time Scott has done that over the course of these two matches tonight. Why none of them were a DQ I can’t say. I’ll go with the referee being afraid of Scott murdering him in cold blood if he calls for the DQ.

Someone comes out in a Bill Clinton mask and attacks Rick and the referee with a slapjack (the object, not the move) and then takes the mask off to reveal Buff Bagwell. I ponder why Buff needed to disguise himself for that spot seeing as they’d already done the SWERVE earlier in the night. The bell rings to suggest a DQ, but Rick manages to fight both Scott and Rick off before delivering the Steiner Bulldog to Scott and another ref runs in to count the three.

WINNER: RICK STEINER
RATING: **

Thoughts: This was a total sideshow, but it was entertaining for what it was and we actually got two clean pins in a major rivalry match on a WCW pay per view from 1998, so I’ll be generous with the rating. The only really issue I had with it was the multiple low blows not being a DQ, although I suppose fear of Scott Steiner would go some way to explaining it. It would have been nice if they’d done a better job at getting that across though. Still, after 8 months we finally get a singles match between these two with an actual finish. It’s a Halloween Miracle!

We get a video package to hype up the next match. Our first one of the night actually. WCW were never as good at these as the WWF was, but this is one of the better ones they’ve done.

Match Nine
nWo Hollywood Vs nWo Wolfpac
Scott Hall Vs Big Sexy Kevin Nash

The Outsiders are another team that split up, this time back in May of 1998. Ironically, they had actually been the opponents of The Steiner’s back in February when Scott had turned on Rick. Neither of them actually wanted to do the feud in real life, but they were made to by Eric Bischoff. The storyline had been that nWo Hollywood had offered Hall more money, so he’d joined up with them as opposed to his old buddy Nash, which is something that the Nash character should have appreciated in all honesty because he would have probably done similar if given the same option.

Hall pretends to be drunk before the match starts, but then he throws his drink in Nash’s face and starts working Big Sexy over. Hall takes the fight to the floor and chokes Nash with a television cable, which seemingly leads to Nash bleeding from the mouth. They tease like the match won’t be able to go on following Hall’s attack, but Nash drags himself back into the ring and the match continues. Nash actually takes some very nice bumps for some of Hall’s punches, as the majority of this match has seen Nash on the defensive. It’s often forgotten sometimes that Nash is actually quite a good seller, mainly because he was so often beating the crud out of people due to being such a big man.

Nash eventually gets his patented side slam for a double down and the two former partners fight to their feet. The crowd has been into this whenever it’s looked like Nash might fight back, but they don’t seem to have much interest in seeing Nash on the defensive, possibly because Nash isn’t an especially sympathetic figure, so it’s hard to get people to care whilst he’s being beaten up, but they are into the idea of seeing him clobber folk. It looks like Nash is going to make a big comeback, but Hall bails and they essentially restart the match anew by doing lock-ups and whatnot, which is an odd way to structure things after you’ve done the jump start.

It’s like Nash didn’t get a babyface shine because they were doing the jumpstart leading into Nash selling and making a comeback, but then they just gave Nash a babyface shine anyway after the heat segment had already taken place. Eventually they settle into a groove of having Nash work Hall over, with Hall not really having much of an answer for it. Hall does a good job of selling things, whilst Nash does a believable job of methodically destroying his former friend. Why they couldn’t have just done a comeback and then moved into Nash killing Hall I don’t know, but that’s what we got. Nash is trying to “beat some sense” into Hall here, as he talks smack and continues to patiently destroy Hall before Powerbombing him and choosing to walk away, seemingly having made his point.

WINNER BY COUNT OUT: SCOTT HALL
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: The finish didn’t really work for me. I get what they were going for with it, with Nash not really caring about getting a pin and being more focused on giving Hall a beating in the hope that it would cause Hall to reassess his life decisions, but in that case why are we even having a match to begin with? Just promise a “confrontation” and then do this, rather than giving the crowd an oddly structured match with a flat finish. The wrestling wasn’t terrible here, and once they settled into Nash killing Hall it worked very well until the weird finish, but this match on the whole didn’t really do much for me. Your own personal mileage may vary depending on how you feel about the story it was telling

More Nitro Girls, as the term “overkill” comes to mind…

Match Ten
WCW United States Title
nWo Hollywood Vs nWo Wolfpac
Champ: Bret The Hitman Hart Vs Wolfpac Sting

Bret had been one of the many people to betray Sting after pretending to be his friend first, with the idea being that they both do the same finisher, so they should feud. In real life Sting was having some serious battles with his demons and he’d end up finding Jesus not too long after this and then getting half of the locker room in trouble with their wives by being too honest about how hedonistic things were becoming on the road. I don’t know why but I always think that story is hilarious for some reason. Not the battling personal demon’s part, but the stooging off all the boys bit. Hey, if you don’t want your wives getting mad at you lads then keep it in your pants!

Bret does the Memphis Stall™ to start until Sting eventually chases Bret to the floor and throws him into the ring for some punishment. Bret manages to go to the eyes in order to buy himself some respite and then works some heat. Two guys fighting over who does the better version of a finisher is a very Pro Wrestling issue to have, but it works well enough. Sadly we don’t get Riki Choshu running in to try and batter both men in order to prove HIS version of the move is the best one. All of Bret’s offence during the heat looks nice, including bigger moves such as DDT’s, with Sting doing a serviceable job of selling it all.

The match just feels flat for the most part, and I can’t really put my finger on it as to why. A somewhat muted crowd doesn’t really help on that front. Bret’s heat segment possibly goes on for too long as well, which combined with the less than thrilled crowd gives the match a feel like it’s dragging, even though it’s not an especially long bout. Sting does manage to wake the crowd up by catching Bret in the Scorpion Deathlock at one stage, but Bret is too close to the ropes and is able to grab them in order to save himself from having to cry uncle.

Sting starts making a proper comeback on Bret following that, leading to Bret going even more classic Mempho with things by begging off and trying to use an International Object in his quest for victory. Sting actually disarms Bret and tries to use the weapon himself, but the ref stops him and that allow Bret to take Sting out with a cheap shot and come off his rope with an elbow drop for two. Bret takes Sting to the floor following that and drops Sting onto the metal railings in the hope of winning by count out. Sting refuses to stay outside the ring though and climbs back onto the apron, where he accidentally elbows the referee when the ref tries to help him out.

Sting makes another comeback following the ref bump, with the ref lying in the middle of the ring, where he’s blatantly in the way, leading to Bret landing on the ref’s legs when Sting does a Superplex. I’m not sure who was more to blame for that. The ref should have really fed to the ropes from his bump to ensure that he was out of the way, but also you’d hope that Bret and Sting would be experienced enough to not do a spot like that when the ref was clearly in the way. Sting goes for a Stinger Splash following that, but he bonks his head on the ring post in the process, and that leads to Bret clobbering Sting with a baseball bat before locking in the Sharpshooter for the academic win from the revived referee.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: BRET HART
RATING: **

Thoughts: This match wasn’t bad as such, but it was immensely disappointing when you consider the talent of the two wrestlers involved. Having somewhat disappointing matches with people you’d actually be interested to see him wrestle if you read it on paper summed up most of Bret Hart’s WCW stint in all honesty. The stuff with the ref was ridiculous, and I have no idea whose fault it was, so I’ll blame everyone. For all you aspiring referees though, if one of the wrestlers bumps you then make sure you end up somewhere that’s out of the way, otherwise you might get Sting Superplexed onto you

Bret actually had special leaving music for his matches during this time, not unlike Mankind when he first wrestled in the WWF. Sting is out cold following those shots from the bat, and he is helped out on a stretcher. He would return in 1999, wearing his white face paint again.

Match Eleven
Hollywood Hogan Vs The Warrior

Warrior had defeated Hogan way back at WrestleMania VI and was looking to get back into wrestling after a falling out with Vince McMahon and the WWF in 1996, so WCW threw a big money contract his way so he would come in and give Hogan his win back. Hogan was actually trying something similar with Yokozuna at the time as well, but Yoko couldn’t get signed off to wrestle by the athletic commissions due to being too heavy, so Hogan never managed to get his win back for King of the Ring 93 (technically Hogan defeated Yoko at Mania IX so they were tied, but that was a quick match after Yoko had already wrestled, whilst Yoko dismantled Hogan at KOTR 93).

Not a lot happens in the early going, as Hogan stalls in-between the two wrestlers throwing lame looking punches at one another. The Mania VI match these two had is a lot of fun, but a big reason for that was because they planned it out meticulously and it was in front of an enraptured stadium of 60,000 people. By comparison, this one is being mostly called on the fly in front of a crowd who gradually decide that they don’t like it. It’s like comparing a delicious roast chicken dinner cooked from scratch with love and attention to one of those cheap chicken burgers that you stick in the microwave before adding a sachet or questionable sauce to it.

They eventually settle on doing a lame test of strength spot until Warrior fights back and gives Hogan one of the most precarious clotheslines to the floor that I’ve ever seen. I almost have to give Hogan credit for trying to take that bump in 1998, because he was far beyond the state of being physically capable of doing it with any sense of grace and he easily could have tumbled to the floor and hurt himself quite badly, but my did it look ugly. Hogan ends up bumping the ref back inside, and that leads to The Giant running down to help out his boss The Hulkster. Giant of course bungles that and gets clotheslined to the floor, taking perhaps the best bump in the entire match.

Stevie Ray is also fended off by The Warrior, but there’s no ref when he has Hogan pinned, and that allows Hogan to get, an admittedly quite nice, back suplex for two once the ref revives. We get some whipping from Hogan with his weight belt following that, which should keep the S&M section of WCW’s fan base happy at least. We then get an horrific looking spot where Warrior rolls out of the way of two elbows, only to then roll into Hogan, causing Hogan to tumble down to the mat straight onto his knees (which he’d eventually have surgery on in 2001, so I bet that didn’t feel good). I wonder if Warrior just adlibbed that, because Hogan didn’t seem to know it was coming.

Following that nonsense, we get the spot the match is probably best remembered for, as Hogan attempts to throw a fireball in Warrior’s face (seriously, is Jerry Lawler booking this pay per view or something? It’s like a Memphis tribute show) but he gets it terribly wrong and barely gets anything from it. To their credit, they just ignore it and keep chugging along, with Warrior making a comeback whilst Hogan is bleeding from something. We then get a WCW Special, as Hogan low blows Warrior in full view of the ref, thus making the poor ref look dumb by not calling for the DQ. That is the cue for Horace Hogan to join us, seemingly to get revenge on his uncle for beating him up on Nitro. However, it’s all a SWERVE as Horace clatters Warrior with the chair and that’s the three count for Hogan.

WINNER: HOLLYWOOD HOGAN
LOSERS: THE REST OF HUMANITY
RATING: DUD

Thoughts: This regularly gets called one of the worst matches ever, and though it was definitely an absolute clunker, I’ve seen far worse in my time. This did at least resemble Pro Wrestling at points, so it’s already a level above horrible stuff like Sharmell taking on the Survivor Chick or Giant Gonzalez trying to wrestle Nailz in Japan. It WAS awful though, and the crowd turned on it the longer it went on

Hogan and Horace try setting Warrior on fire following that, but security prevents it and the Heels just kind of leave in a huff. Eric Bischoff admonishing the security for having the temerity to prevent The Hogan’s from murdering a wrestler on a show he’s in control of is a level of cognitive dissonance that’s wild even for WCW in 1998.

Main Event
WCW World Title
Champ: Goldberg Vs Diamond Dallas Page

DDP had won the War Games monstrosity back at Fall Brawl to earn a Title shot. This one is babyface Vs babyface and the fans are into the idea of watching it, so hopefully they can get them going again after that previous contest. They do a good job of showing early on that DDP isn’t afraid of Goldberg, even though he is outmatched when it comes to the power game. DDP has some joy in the early stages from using speed and technique, but whenever it comes down to a game of strength he finds himself on the losing end, which does a good job of establishing the keys to victory for both wrestler.

Bobby Heenan does a great job of getting both wrestlers over here, with him regularly pushing the idea that DDP can do this if enough things go his way, whilst still getting across the idea that Goldberg is the favourite. Goldberg eventually misses a charge in the corner that allows DDP to have a period of controlling things whilst still being a babyface. They’ve gone about this in a clever way as neither wrestler has had to slip into the Heel role, but they’ve still managed to have sections where one wrestler has controlled the other without coming across as a bad guy, which isn’t always easy to do.

Goldberg manages to Spear DDP at one stage, but his shoulder is still hurting from running into the corner and that delays him in being able to follow-up with the Jackhammer, which allows DDP to snap off a Diamond Cutter for two. They made sure to lie around for quite a while before having DDP make the cover there though, which did a good job of protecting the move. DDP stupidly tries to go for a suplex on Goldberg following that near fall though, and that allows Goldberg to power DDP up into a last gasp Jackhammer and that leads to Goldberg getting the three to retain.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: GOLDBERG
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was a darn good match, and probably the best one Goldberg had had in his career up to this stage after his US Title win over Raven on Nitro in April 1998. DDP had believable looking chances to win and both wrestlers had periods where they controlled things, but neither of them ever came across as a Heel and you were left with the feeling that DDP might have won if he’d been able to make the pin just a little bit sooner following the Diamond Cutter. We got a clean Goldberg win, but DDP gained something in defeat nonetheless, which is the makings of a great Main Event!

Both wrestlers show respect to one another following that and we end the show on a positive note.

In Conclusion

This show exists as proof that less is more, as it would have been a much tighter and more enjoyable show if they’d cut out the majority of the filler and just run a traditional 2 hour and 45 minute pay per view event. The extra 30 minutes we got on this show was mostly unnecessary and made the show feel like it was dragging. I could live with the Steiner Bros promo segments as they actually told a story throughout the night that was paid off in a match later on, so they served a purpose. It’s not like there has to be 3 hours of just wrestling on one of these things, you can have promos and angles too, but they need to be used in moderation and they have to actually contribute to the show overall, otherwise they’re just flotsam in the ocean.

The Nitro Girls dancing, Hogan yakking about whatever, Konnan’s music video (which was cut from the Network/Peacock version), the commentary team waffling on during multiple lulls in the action and some moments of just outright dead air at points didn’t add anything of any real usefulness to the show and served only to drag things out so that WCW could get to a 3 hour plus run-time, as that was apparently so important to them. I can only assume that they thought that it represented giving the fans their money’s worth or something, but really all it did was take away from the show itself.

It’s a shame, as there was genuinely some good wrestling here. Raven and Jericho tore it up in the opener. Disco gave two creditable performances. The crowd might not have cared, but Wright Vs Finlay was a snug well-worked affair. The Steiner Brother melodrama was an entertaining Dog and Pony Show. Hall/Nash and Hart/Sting were hardly classics, but they weren’t terrible either, and the Main Event was an absolutely cracking outing.

Yeah, Hogan Vs Warrior II was utter cow dung, but it was the only really awful match here, with everything else being either okay or great. Had WCW presented a leaner more focused show, then Halloween Havoc 1998 could have been a genuine thumbs up, even with the infamous Hogan/Warrior debacle. As it is though, the show only gets a thumbs in the middle from me. There’s some good stuff here, but the show as a whole has too many problems for me to give it a recommendation.

Still though, at least it isn’t as bad as Road Wild 98, Fall Brawl 98 and World War 3 98, so it broke the streak of misery if nothing else!

Big shout out to OSW Review by the way, as I used a bunch of their running gags in this one. Check out their channel, where I believe they’ve actually reviewed this exact show in the past.