WCW Halloween Havoc 1995

When Halloween Havoc rolled around in 1995, Hulk Hogan had held the WCW World Title for 469 days, longer than anyone before him did, or anyone after him would. While WCW had failed to rebottle the lightning of Hogan’s success in the WWF during the 1980s, his introduction into the promotion still led to record buyrates and ratings. However, as 1995 was drawing to a close, fans started getting increasingly tired of Hogan’s predictable, repetitive act – a problem he would often incur as a babyface in WCW, as the majority of its core Southern fans grew up on Ric Flair and Sting, and not the New York based Hogan.

From Detroit, Michigan; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, and Bobby Heenan.


Opening WCW Television Title Match: Diamond Dallas Page v Johnny B. Badd: Badd comes out of the crowd to attack from behind during the entrances, and they quickly spill to the outside, and back into the crowd. Badd beats him back into the ring, and takes him to the mat with an armbar. Page tries to use the hair to reverse, but Badd wrestles back into control, and hiptosses him for two. Dropkick, and he tries a ten-punch - but Page rudely interrupts with a stungun. Page kicks the ribs, and hits a side suplex, followed by a forward-falling piledriver for two. Chinlock doesn't get him the victory, and Badd hooks a backslide to try to throw Page off of his game. Sunset flip gets two, and now Page is pissed - kicking him square in the jaw. Powerslam gets two, and he forces him back into the chinlock out of spite. Badd still won't quit to his fucking resthold series though, so Page chokes him with his wrist tape to help motivate him. Badd has choked on plenty of things before, though, so no go - and he powers into a side suplex of his own. Inverted atomic drop spins Page into the regular version, and a headscissors takedown sets up a flying axehandle for a delayed two count - as Badd spends time flirting with Page's wife. Sitout powerbomb for two, and he tries a belly-to-belly suplex, but get caught in the Diamond Cutter on the way down. Page tries the Cutter again, but Badd holds onto the ropes to block, and tries to complete the ten-punch. Page tries the stungun again, but Badd is ready this time, and uses a headscissors to dump him. The challenger follows out with a somersault plancha, and a slingshot splash gets two coming in. Dropkick gets two, so Page pal Max Muscle hops up on the apron for a heel miscommunication, and Badd wins the title at 17:01. A bit too long for the story being told (that chinlock could have been half as long, and equally effective), but a solid opener. * ½

Randy Savage v The Zodiac: Zodiac is replacing Kamala here, after he left the promotion. Savage immediately goes to work, as some random fan jumps the rail, likely after misunderstanding that the man in the ring was the Zodiac Killer, and wanting to stop him once and for all. They spill to outside to give security a chance to murder the guy (how ironic!), and right back in for Savage to finish with the Flying Elbow at 1:30. Pretty pointless, but the idea was that both Savage and upcoming opponent Lex Luger had to defeat a member of the Dungeon of Doom before they faced off, so Zodiac was shuffled in for Kamala. DUD

Hawk v Kurasawa: Hawk goes right at him, hitting a quick neckbreaker, and a fistdrop gets two. Hawk unloads with some chops, but misses a blind charge - and promptly no-sells it. Gutwrench suplex and a powerbomb, but Kurasawa manager Robert Parker gets involved, allowing Kurasawa to slam him. Flying elbowdrop misses, however, and Hawk dumps him with a clothesline. Back in, Kurasawa hits a backdrop driver, and drops him like a Samoan for the pin at 3:15 - with two feet on the ropes. Lacked any flow, but they both worked hard with the time allotted. Luckily, Animal would return from his three year hiatus from wrestling not long after this, and he and Hawk could resume properly Road Warrioring. *

Sabu v Mr. JL: This was during Sabu's (very) brief run through WCW, before returning to ECW, where he belonged. Interestingly, JL is future ECW-star Jerry Lynn, under a mask. Sabu tries to charge in, but gets enzuigiried to the floor. JL misses a baseball slide coming out, allowing Sabu a springboard moonsault, but he misses a charge into the rail, and JL hits a flying bodypress to the outside. In, Sabu misses a flying moonsault, but JL hits his version for two. Sit-out powerbomb gets two, but a blind charge misses, and Sabu gets two off of a slingshot somersault legdrop. He tries another moonsault, but Lynn pulls him off of the top with a German suplex for two. He then heads up, but Sabu follows, and brings him down with a victory roll. Another moonsault attempt (give him credit, he's determined), but JL dropkicks him to the outside - only to have Sabu comes back in with a slingshot moonsault for the pin at 3:25. Total spotfest, but nice back-and-forth pacing, and well worked - especially compared to the usual Sabu botch-fest. **

Lex Luger v Meng: Slugfest goes Luger's way, and smashing Meng's head into the turnbuckle actually works! Sloppy criss cross ends with Luger blowing him low, and a slingshot puts him in the corner. Meng with a small package (well, Luger had just blown him), but Lex starts no-selling, and clotheslines him to the outside for a couple of shots into the ringpost. Inside, Luger with a side suplex, but Meng reverses the momentum into a bodypress for two. Shoulderbreaker, and Meng goes after the part - completely abandoning even some token selling of Luger's shoulder work earlier with the ringpost. Piledriver gets two, and he hooks a chinlock. Well, the chin is close to the shoulder. What do you want, guys not a fucking doctor! Criss cross allows Luger a bodypress for two, but Meng casually side suplexes him, and dumps him to the outside. More plodding, until Meng misses a dropkick, and gets suplexed. Luger with a series of clotheslines, and a powerslam, so Meng grabs a pair of knux to wallop Luger for the pin, but Dungeon of Doom taskmaster Kevin Sullivan runs in, and kicks Luger, giving Lex a disqualification win at 13:14. That didn't make a shred of sense, as he just cost his own man the match, but we'd find out why before the end of the show. Dull, plodding, psychologically unsound match - with Meng in particular looking horrible here, not only uncharacteristically getting dominated, but notably sluggish and sloppy. DUD

Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman v Ric Flair and Sting: Very interesting, psychological angle building this one, as Flair had been having issues with his fellow Horsemen, and coerced Sting into tagging with him against them - even though Sting and Flair had been longtime rivals, and Sting openly acknowledged that Flair would likely again turn on him when given the chance. Still, he agreed to tag with him, in WCW's answer to 'The Scorpion and the Frog.' The fishy smell hits the nostrils before the bell even sounds, as Flair doesn't make it to the match - Anderson and Pillman 'jumping him backstage,' and leaving Sting to go it alone. Anderson starts with him, and they trade hammerlocks, as the crowd chants for Flair. Sting holds his own against some double-team fun early on, and hits an impressive delayed press slam on Pillman. Nice spot, as the Horsemen try a spike piledriver, but Sting counters into a slingshot, sending Anderson right into the top rope perched Pillman, and then slamming Pillman off, and into the rail. They'd modify that same spot the next month in the World War 3 battle royal, with Flair in Pillman's place, and the slingshot knocking him into elimination. Sting keeps fighting to hold them off, as Ric Flair shows up (in street clothes) to hop up onto the apron. Meanwhile, the Horsemen cut the ring in half, but Pillman gets crotched while landing a flying splash, allowing Sting to get inches away from the tag. Anderson pulls him back into the Horsemen corner, only to end up getting crotched, too, but Flair is conveniently busy chasing Pillman around the ring, and not available to tag. More double-teaming on Sting (with only token protests from Flair), until Sting literally bashes their heads together and makes the tag... only to have Flair immediately deck him for the DQ at 17:09. Afterwards, the Horsemen absolutely destroy Sting, three-on-one. Great psychological warfare, as the Horsemen play mind games with Sting - suckering him into a twenty minute beating. More proof Flair was dirtiest player in the game? By attacking Sting, he got himself disqualified, but since they were on the same team, also won the match. **

Sumo Monster Truck Match: Hulk Hogan v The Giant: These two are set to square off for the WCW Title in the main event, but it wouldn't be a proper showdown if they didn't have a sanctioned crashing of their monster trucks first. Basically, they're on the roof of the adjacent Cobo Hall - their trucks welded together at the front bumper - and the object is to force the other mans truck out of the circle. Anyway, not particularly exciting, but the real good stuff comes after Hogan forces Giant's truck out of the circle, as they start fighting, and Hogan literally throws Giant off the roof of the arena! Well, that's certainly one way to get out of jobbing a title. Too bad Shawn Michaels wasn't watching this one - imagine WrestleMania 13 if he had been. Okay, so Giant's dead. Next match.

Randy Savage v Lex Luger: Luger offers a handshake, but Savage knows better, and outright decks him. If there's one thing Luger won't tolerate, though, it's bad sportsmanship, and he goes ballistic on Savage in the corner, and dumps him. Savage reverses a shot into the rail, and adds one into the steps for good measure, then heads in for a flying axehandle - but Luger decks him on the way down. Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan manager Jimmy Hart gets involved - costing Luger a likely pinfall victory - and Savage hits the Flying Elbow to finish at 5:23. Kinda short for a blowoff, but they'd go on to meet again the next month. In another five minute match. DUD

Main Event: WCW World Title Match: Hulk Hogan v The Giant: This was, effectively, Giant's debut - as he had been appearing on WCW programming to antagonize Hogan throughout 1995, but had yet to actually step into the ring. Unfortunately, it's obviously off now, what with Hogan killing him, and everything. The best part of the whole thing (and there are a lot of best parts) is the announcers wondering whether or not Giant is going to be able to compete after falling to his death. Hogan comes out, and let's us know what happened was real, and wasn't 'supposed to go down that way' (I'm glossing over about six 'brothers' there), which is just one of many 'Hogan referencing kayfabe' moments from late 1995 - including actually tearing up a copy of The Observer in November. Giant shocks us all by coming out anyway, and even took the time to change out of his monster truck jumpsuit and into his wrestling gear. That's one hell of a no-sell. Not surprisingly, Hogan's offense doesn't work on a man who just shrugged off a five-story fall, and Giant hammers away. He chokes Hogan in all four corners (variety!), then locks him into a test-of-strength. Hogan feels the power of the Hulkamanics (Yeah! Feel those ten year old boys!) and powers up, but Giant just slams him. Legdrop misses, however, and Hogan unloads the fists of fury, and a ten-punch count. Series of clotheslines puts Giant on the floor, but that's only, like, a quarter-story drop, so he just heads in to Chokeslam Hogan. Hulk goes to the eyes to counter, but still gets caught with a backbreaker (with Giant hilariously forgetting, then remembering to sell the eye rake along the way), and he hugs the champion like a bear. Slam, as you can literally see the little kids in the crowd starting to nod off. Guess Hogan sucking their power away that close to bedtime wasn't such a great plan after all. Chokeslam, but more boy-sucking causes a full-fledged HULK UP!! Fists of Fury! Big Boot! Bodyslam! Legdrop! - but Hogan manager Jimmy Hart clobbers the referee, and that's a disqualification at 14:30. Hogan doesn't know what happened, so Hart whacks him with the title belt to deliver the message, as Giant gets him in another bearhug. Savage and Luger run in to make the save, but Luger quickly turns on Savage to join the DOD (making the Sullivan attack on him earlier a little more logical, although why he didn't 'attack' Luger in the first minute of the match to save his mole from a beating doesn't really make sense. If anything, Luger/Meng should have been a quickie with the same ending, and Savage/Zodiac could have gone ten minutes. Further, since Jimmy Hart was also turning to the DOD, why the fuck did he cost Luger his match with Savage?). All those colossal lapses in logic summon an actual mummy to the ring (The Yeti!) to bearhug Hogan from behind... while swiveling his hips. Talk about a double-team. The Dungeon beat Hogan and Savage down, as Giant takes the WCW Title, since Jimmy Hart had shoehorned a clause into the contract without Hogan’s knowledge, saying that the title could change hands by disqualification. Giant was stripped of it a week later, though, setting up the first World War 3 battle royal for it the next month. Match was not only poor from a workrate perspective (punchy-kicky, restholdy, downright awful selling from Giant, all on top of a horrible ending), but outright silly, embarrassing, and openly insulting to your intelligence as a viewer. -*

BUExperience: 1995 featured some downright horrible pay per view efforts from WCW, and while this one wasn’t a great show by any means – it was certainly leagues ahead of stuff like Uncensored, or Bash at the Beach. It has some historical significance with the end of Hogan’s record length title reign, Giant’s (who continues to find success in the business as ‘Big Show’) first match and title, and the well remembered Horsemen angle – but, really, none of that is enough to overcome the ridiculous, intelligence insulting stuff surrounding the main event, and the generally bad booking it caused all night. DUD