WCW Halloween Havoc 1998

From Las Vegas, Nevada; Your Hosts are Tony Schiavone, Mike Tenay, and Bobby Heenan.

Opening WCW Television Title Match: Chris Jericho v Raven: Jericho lures him into the ring by taunting him on the microphone, and stomps him as he slides in. Clothesline gets two, but a backdrop is blocked with a kick to the face, and a Cactus Clothesline sends them both out to the floor. Raven forward suplexes him onto the steps out there, and then uses the steps as a springboard for a dropkick. Back inside, Chris wins a criss cross with a stungun, and a springboard dropkick knocks Raven back out to the floor. Jericho dives out after him, but Raven sidesteps, and Chris crashes into the guardrail. Whip into the rail, but Jericho reverses, and rolls his challenger back inside. Raven chokes him with his t-shirt to block an attack, and tries a sleeper, but Jericho side suplexes out, and hits a senton splash. He rips the turnbuckle pad off (a spot they never did enough in WCW), but Raven blocks a whip into it, and powerbombs him. Slingshot into the exposed buckle sets up a bulldog for two, and a belly-to-belly suplex gets two. German suplex, but Chris counters into the Liontamer, so Raven grabs the ropes. Raven counters an Irish whip into the DDT for two, and Jericho schoolboys him, then hits a German suplex for two. Raven goes for the DDT again, but Jericho counters back into the Liontamer, and this time the ropes are too far - Raven tapping out at 7:49. Good opener. Just two guys who felt (rightly) misused by WCW, and wanted to go out there and kill it on pay per view. ** ½

Meng v Wrath: Meng refuses to allow Wrath into the ring, so Wrath sweeps him out to the floor, and rams him into the rail - following with a somersault bodyblock off of the apron. Back in, he tries turnbuckle smashes, but Meng no-sells. He no-sells a lariat next, but a 2^nd rope clothesline knocks him down for a two count. Wrath with a diving shoulderblock, but Meng blocks a pump-handle slam, and hits a savate kick for two. Meng with a backbreaker for two and a side suplex gets two. Cross corner clothesline and an inverted atomic drop set up a backdrop, but Wrath sunset flips to block, and hits a uranage for two. Pump-handle slam again, and Meng tries to block, but Wrath powers through it for the pin at 4:23. Better than I expected, as both guys looked motivated, and played to their strengths. *

#1 Contender's Match: Juventud Guerrera v Disco Inferno: Winner gets a Cruiserweight Title match later on in the show. Disco railroads him into the corner right away, and hits a quick sidewalk slam for two. Into the ropes, but Juvi baseball slides through his legs, and chops him. Headscissors takedown sets up a Rocker dropper, but they botch it, and have to repeat the spot. That didn't look good, but they tried their best to cover it as Disco blocking the move. They make up for it with a nice criss cross spot that ends with Disco getting monkeyflipped right out of the ring, and Guerrera follows him out with another headscissors. Back in, Disco hits an inverted atomic drop, and he sends Juvi somersaulting through the air off of a clothesline. Bodyslam sets up a 2^nd rope kneedrop for two, and Disco slaps on a chinlock. Guerrera powers up for another criss cross, and blocks a knee with a cradle for two. Spinheel kick sets up a springboard, but Disco rolls out to the floor to avoid it - only for Guerrera to dive out after him with a plancha as he gloats. Back in, a reversal sequences ends in Juvi catching him with a rana, but another reversal sequence sees Disco block the Juvi Driver, and hit a stungun. Both guys are left looking up at the lights, and Disco manages to cover first for two. Backdrop, but Juvi counters into a sunset flip for two, so Disco counters up into a giant swing - again leaving both men down. Disco with a brainbuster, but he takes too long getting to the top rope, and gets crotched up there. Juvi brings him down with a rana, and hits a flying somersault bodyblock for two. Bulldog gets two, but a victory roll is countered into a piledriver from Disco, and he gets the pin at 9:39. Nice match! Hard work from both guys, lots of neat reversal sequences, and well paced. ***

Alex Wright v Fit Finlay: They take a while sizing each other up, and Finlay easily overpowers him during the first lockup. He takes Wright down to the mat with a wristlock, but Alex springs off the ropes to armdrag his way free. Finlay responds by driving his elbow into Wright's face, and unloading a pair of European uppercuts. Wright fires back with two of his own, and he dumps Fit across the top rope in a forward-falling suplex. He tries a slingshot, but Fit guides him through a nice sequence where Wright gets shot into the ropes, and hooked into a modified surfboard. They trade rights on the floor, and Wright actually wins that with a bodyslam on the outside. Sunset flip on the way back in gets one, and Finlay pops right up with more European uppercuts. Backdrop, but Wright manages a bodypress - only to miss a missile dropkick. Finlay charges to capitalize, but Alex sidesteps him, and finishes with a neckbreaker at 5:09. Paint-by-numbers stuff, but not terrible, and resthold free. ¼*

Saturn v Lodi: Saturn controls with a wristlock to start (complete with Mike Sharpe level selling from Lodi), so Lodi grabs the ropes to break, and literally runs away. He gets talked into coming back in (by the voices in his head?), and tries a headlock, but quickly takes a kneeling facebuster, and ends up back on the floor. His pleas for a timeout are ignored when Saturn suplexes him back in, and Lodi runs again, but Saturn drags him back for an exploder suplex. Head-and-arm suplex and a modified brainbuster follow, and he finishes with the Death Valley Driver at 3:50. This was the definition of a TV match, and had no place on an already bloated pay per view. ¼*

WCW Cruiserweight Title Match: Billy Kidman v Disco Inferno: Kidman controls with a headlock early, and plants a dropkick on Disco's chin when he gets uppity. Drop-toehold leaves the challenger in an armbar, and Kidman hits a slingshot headscissors when Disco tries to backdrop him out of the ring. Another criss cross ends in Disco hitting a drop-toehold of his own to drop Kidman across the bottom rope, and he adds a swinging neckbreaker for two. Disco with a cross corner whip, and Kidman takes a great bump off of a misses bodypress - flying over the top, and halfway up the aisle. Disco follows and gets bulldogged on the outside, but still manages to roll out of the way of a flying splash on the way back in. He works a chinlock, but Kidman powers up, so Disco flapjacks him, and follows with a side suplex for two. He snaps Kidman's neck across the rope and hits a bodyslam, but a 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop misses, and Kidman hits a sitout powerbomb for two. Kidman with a powerslam for two, but a dropkick misses, and Disco hits the piledriver (smirking as he does) - but it only gets two! Frustrated, Disco drops him with a forward-falling suplex, but that still only gets two. Powerbomb, but Kidman counters into a facebuster, and hits the Shooting Star Press to retain at 10:48. This wasn't bad by any means, but probably would have been better had they given Disco a bit more time to rest between matches, as he looked noticeably gassed. I liked the callback to the piledriver spot from the earlier match though, and the frustration leading to Kidman countering his way to victory. ** ½

WCW World Tag Team Title Match: Scott Steiner and The Giant v Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell: Giant and Scott Hall are actually the tag champions at this point, but why bother worrying about details, right? Giant starts with Rick Steiner, but Rick is distracted with brother Scott, and gets clobbered. Giant with an atomic drop, and he offers to tag, but Scott's not ready yet, and tells him to add a side suplex first. NOW he's ready to tag, and he unloads on his downed brother, then tosses him to the floor for Giant to smack around again. Back in, Scott keeps hammering, but walks into an inverted atomic drop, and Rick shoves him into the corner for a ten-punch count and a short-clothesline for two. Tag to Bagwell, but he immediately turns on Rick (to the shock of literally no one - like, you can see the crowd just sort of smirk at how obvious it was), and then runs out on the match - leaving Rick alone against the makeshift tag champions. Scott works him over with more punch-kick stuff, but Giant misses a missile dropkick - knocking Scott into a heap in the corner off of it. That allows Rick to go to the top, and a flying bulldog finishes Giant at 8:23 - giving a partnerless Rick Steiner the tag titles. Match was a dramaless DUD, but that missile dropkick boosts it to ¼*

Scott Steiner v Rick Steiner: So now, as a result of prior stipulation, Rick doesn't only get the tag titles, but he gets a match with Scott. Big Poppa Pump tries to run, but Rick drags him back and unloads. He impressively does the inverted powerbomb into the corner spot on his huge brother for two, but ends up getting blown low, and overhead suplexed. Scott goes for the kill, but walks into a powerslam, and Rick hits a belly-to-belly suplex for two. Meanwhile, a dude dressed in a suit and a Bill Clinton mask pops out of the crowd, and destroys Rick with a slapjack - quickly unmasking as Buff Bagwell since apparently they hadn't disappointed the crowd enough. He puts Scott on top and counts the fall himself, but Rick still kicks out at two. Rana off the top turnbuckle gets two, so they try a double-team, but Rick clobbers both, and finishes his brother with a flying bulldog at 5:00. Overbooked crap. DUD

Kevin Nash v Scott Hall: Hall goes right at him, blinding him with a vicious toothpick toss, and knocking him to the outside for a shot into the (slightly more vicious) guardrail. Into the post next, and Scott actually grabs a microphone to whack Nash with. Oh, now they're just getting personal. He chokes him with an electrical cable, and that's enough... nobody could withstand that much punishment. Not even Kevin Nash. EMTs run down, but Nash shoves them off, and 'dramatically' heads back in - taking a series of rights from Hall. Scott with a bodyslam and a ten-punch count, but Nash does the 'I'm really beat up, but I'll keep waving you in because I'm so tough' sell through another series of punches. Cross corner clothesline hits, but Nash reverses a second one, and hits a sidewalk slam. Both guys are left looking up at the lights, and end up doing a slugfest on their knees - a spot that works twenty minutes into a hard-fought battle, but not so much with five minutes on the clock. Nash tries the Powerbomb, but Hall hits the deck, and rolls out to the floor to regroup. Back in, they keep trying (and failing) to turn this into an epic with a power-showdown off of a collar-and-elbow tie-up, and Nash levels him with a short-clothesline. Nash keeps control with a series of kneelifts in the corner, and the pictureframe-elbow leaves Hall staggering around the ring like last call. Big boot and the Powerbomb hit, but Nash isn't done. Another Powerbomb, but instead of covering, he makes a big show of walking out since his point was made (the angle here was that Hall was a drunk, and Nash was trying to stop him from hurting himself... by hurting him) - Hall winning by countout at 14:18. Man, remember only a few years earlier, when these two were motivated and had something to prove? Unfortunately, it wasn't 1994 anymore. This was just a total mess from start to finish: from the selling, to the pacing, to the non-drama. On any other show, this would likely easily take home worst (or, at least, most disappointing) match of the night honors, but oh no! Not Halloween Havoc 1998. DUD

WCW United States Title Match: Bret Hart v Sting: For kids my age, this was a real dream match growing up, so hopefully it's awesome. Bret stalls at the bell, refusing to get in, and annoying the challenger. He forces Sting to chase him on the floor, but doesn't even manage/bother to turn that into a sneak attack, instead just stalling some more. God, it's like he called Jerry Lawler up the night before the show for tips, or something. Sting finally gets him in for a ten-punch count, and Hart begs off as the challenger fires off a clothesline. Cross corner whip and an inverted atomic drop get two, so Hart shoots back with a pair of rights and a headbutt, followed by a DDT for two. Hart with an inverted atomic drop and a headbutt to the balls, followed by a legdrop for two. Pointed elbowdrop gets two, and he hooks on a chinlock. Sting muscles out, so Bret gives him a bulldog, but a suplex is countered with an inside cradle for two. Hart responds with a Russian legsweep, but a 2^nd rope dropkick is countered into the Scorpion Deathlock - only for Hart to grab the ropes. A criss cross ends in Hart hurting his knee by landing badly, but Sting isn't falling for the possum routine (worth a shot... it is Sting...), and kicks at it, so Hart grabs a set of knux. Sting sees that coming too, so Bret blows him low, and that works! Satisfied with the results, Hart stomps the nuts a second time, and follows with a backbreaker. 2^nd rope pointed elbowdrop gets two, and he dumps his challenger to the outside for a shot into the rail. The referee ends up going down as he tries to intervene, and of course, that's right when Sting fires up a comeback! Ten-punch count and a superplex set up the Stinger Splash, but he overshoots it, and ends up knocking himself out on the post. Hart quickly capitalizes by cracking him in the head with a baseball bat six or seven times, and slaps on the Sharpshooter as the referee regains consciousness - Sting ruled unable to continue at 15:03. Post Montreal Bret was just so disappointing for super fans like myself, and even today watching him lifelessly work is frustrating. This was just terrible. ½*

Hollywood Hulk Hogan v The Warrior: Despite WCW's repeated insistence that this is the biggest match in wrestling history, the crowd immediately starts shitting on everything with 'Warrior sucks' and 'Hogan sucks' chants. Hulk easily wins the initial lockup with a pair of kneelifts, and he slaps on a wristlock, but Warrior reverses, and hits a shoulderblock - knocking Hollywood to the outside to regroup. Inside, Warrior calls for a test-of-strength, but Hogan is having none of it, and shoves him into the corner for some chokes. With Warrior beat down, NOW Hogan is ready for a test-of-strength, but Warrior still powers up, so they work in the Royal Rumble '90 criss cross spot - Hogan winning with a bodyslam. Warrior no-sells and hits a slam of his own, followed by a clothesline to knock Hogan out to the floor. He follows to post Hogan, and the referee ends up going down on the way back in. Neither man seems to care, so Hulk just casually slaps on a front-facelock, and waves the rest of the nWo down. Giant is first, but Warrior kicks his ass. Ass kicking for Stevie Ray. Ass kicking for Vincent. Cover on Hogan, but the referee is still dead, so no count. That allows Hogan a side suplex, and the referee recovers in time to make a 'dramatic' two count. Hulk takes off the weight belt for a couple of shots, and a bodyslam sets up an elbowdrop - but Warrior moves. Splash, but now Hogan moves, as the crowd rapidly loses patience with this greatest hits bullshit. Warrior grabs the weight belt for a few shots of his own, and Hogan actually blades off of it. Hulk tries throwing fireball in Warrior's face (with Warrior hilariously waiting around while Hogan gets it lit), but they botch it. Moving right along, Warrior hits a pair of flying axehandles, but Hogan quickly shoves him down, and hits the Legdrop. Another one, but Warrior CRACKS UP!! Series of Clotheslines!... but that's as far as he gets, as Horace rolls in with a chair, and Hulk covers the clobbered Warrior for the pin at 14:18. Man, I think I need to eat more just so I can properly shit on this match. You know a match is pretty bad when it actually manages to ruin the legacy of the original, and this was that. Worth watching (along with the buildup) just because it's THAT bad (despite having the benefit of working off of the well remember original, the main focus was magic tricks), but it's overbooked, poorly worked, and basically just a big jerkoff so Hogan could get his win from 1990 back. DUD

Main Event: WCW World Title Match: Goldberg v Diamond Dallas Page: I should note that we're already over three hours into this show before the bell even rings, a problem that forced many cable companies to cut out on this match early - a huge clusterfuck for WCW that involved refunds, and having to air the match for free the next night on Nitro. Staredown to start, and Page rockets into a lockup, but Goldberg shoves him into the corner - three times. Page fires back with an armdrag, but that enrages the champ, and he knocks DDP over the top with a bodypress. Back in, they do a counter sequence that ends in Goldberg hitting a fireman’s carry into an armbreaker. Page powers up and goes right for the Diamond Cutter, but Goldberg sees it coming, and shoves him clear over the top rope. Inside, another reversal sequence ends in DDP trying a hammerlock, but getting shoulderblocked right out of the ring again. Dallas manages to pull him into a Russian legsweep on the way back in for two, and he slaps on a front-facelock to try and neutralize the champion. Goldberg powers to a vertical base, so Page tries a series of kneelifts, but gets shrugged off. He tries a spear, but Goldberg is ready for that with a suplex, and follows with a sidewalk slam for two. Armbreaker, but Page makes the ropes, so Goldberg tries the sidewalk slam again - only to take a headscissors. He plants a superkick on the challenger to retain control, but misses a spear in the corner, and goes flying out to the floor in a nice bump. Page is too battered to immediately capitalize, but manages to catch Goldberg off guard with a flying clothesline for two. Jumping DDT sets up the Diamond Cutter, but Goldberg is ready with a spear to block - leaving both men down. Goldberg gets up first and goes for the Jackhammer, but he has trouble lifting him, and Page counters into the Diamond Cutter. He crawls over for a cover, but Goldberg kicks out after a dramatic two count. Suplex, but now Goldberg counters, and it's Jackhammer time at 10:28. This was very well received at the time, and even today it holds up as a totally solid match - well paced, filled with nice (Curt Hennig-esque) selling from Page, psychology, and hard work from both. First match of the night that actually managed to come off as epic, and not forced, too. ** ½

BUExperience: If ever a show was needed to sum up all of WCWs excesses, this is it. Some decent matches here and there, but so much filler (in-arena interviews, Nitro Girl dancing routines, promos) – though, considering that the show ended up exceeding its allotted runtime, it doesn’t even qualify as ‘filler,’ but rather just mind-numbing excess. As noted, there are a couple of decent matches, but there’s just so… much… junk to sit through, that the show as a whole falls flat. *