Throwback Thursday: Looking back WCW Halloween Havoc 1998

WCW Halloween Havoc 1998

Date: Oct. 25, 1998

Venue: MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas

Match results:

- WCW World Television Championship – Chris Jericho def. Raven

- Wrath def. Meng

- Disco Inferno def. Jeventud Guerrera

- Alex Wright def. Fit Finlay

- Perry Saturn def. Lodi

- WCW Cruiserweight Championship – Billy Kidman def. Disco Inferno

- WCW World Tag Team Championship – Rick Steiner & Buff Bagwell def. Scott Steiner & The Giant

- Rick Steiner def. Scott Steiner

- Scott Hall def. Kevin Nash via count out

- WCW United States Heavyweight Championship – Bret Hart def. Sting

- Hollywood Hogan def. The Warrior

- WCW World Heavyweight Championship – Goldberg def. Diamond Dallas Page

Observations:

- Oh, the horror! It's Halloween Havoc 1998! Avert your eyes because this was one of the lowest points for WCW and it could not have come at a worse time. By October of 1998, the WWE was in the thick of the "Attitude Era." The "Austin Era" was in full swing and the company was on a steady climb to the corporate juggernaut that it is today. Meanwhile, WCW was taking in water, and was taking it in at a rapid pace. It was one thing to have WWE pick up as much steam as it did in 1998, but it was another to have as many missteps and miscalculations WCW had at this point. A prime example of the many missteps and miscalculations was this event.

- Let's get the obvious out of the way. The show boasted a main event of Goldberg defending his World Heavyweight title against Diamond Dallas Page, but the match that WCW put the most effort into building and talked about all night long was the rematch between Hollywood Hogan and The (Ultimate) Warrior. Yes, WCW built up a rematch between two guys that took place in a different company on a much larger scale eight years prior. That was misstep No. 1. On paper, putting two mega stars that put together one of the most iconic in wrestling history made sense, but in reality it fell flat. For one, the match that was constantly referred to took place in another company. Since it took place in another company, WCW obviously didn't own any footage to remind people how great their first encounter was. I guess people had to rely on their photographic memory or even better, buy a copy of the event (WrestleMania VI) and give money to the WWE.

Misstep No. 2 was that it was putting these two guys in the ring together eight years after their first encounter. That's nearly a decade for you mathematicians out there and neither Hogan nor Warrior were spring chickens at this point. Even in 1990, Hogan was well into his 30s. By 1998, Hogan was 45 and Warrior was 38, making both of them even more limited than what they previously were.

Misstep No. 3 was the match itself, which was an absolute stinker. Hogan and Warrior clearly had zero chemistry on this night, making their WrestleMania VI match look like a distant memory. Quite frankly, it was. Between Warrior rolling over Hogan's ankles and Hogan blatantly showing everyone in the world the fireball trick, this match was simply one collective face palm moment for wrestling. The finish was also horrible with Horace Hogan, merely days after having his head split open by his uncle, helping him win the match.

- Since the Hogan-Warrior debacle was only the semi main event, at least the fans watching on this night had the World title match between Goldberg and Page to look forward — a match between two fresh characters and capable in-ring performers, but wait, here comes another misstep and miscalculation, as WCW ran the pay-per-view a half hour too long and the carriers cut the show just as the main event was getting started. What an embarrassment. WCW gave away the best match on the card the next night for free, which only brought in more water on the company's proverbial ship. How crazy is that? The best match on the entire show that wasn't that great to begin with, the people couldn't even see.

- What people saw from Goldberg and DDP for free was fantastic and was arguably the best match in each of their careers to that point. It was definitely a high mark for Goldberg, who hadn't had the most competitive matches during his undefeated streak, which was by design. Not only did DDP give Goldberg a competitive match, he created real doubt that Goldberg would walk out of the match with his undefeated streak in tact, which at that point was at 154-0. It also didn't hurt that DDP and the diamond cutter was so over. When DDP hit the diamond cutter, the people in Las Vegas erupted.

- One of the biggest reasons the show probably ran too long was the number of talking segments it had. The show had a good two or three, none of which built up the match between Goldberg and DDP. The show started with a talking segment between Rick Steiner and Buff Bagwell because that's always a hot way to start a show. That should have been an omen that this was not going to be a good night for WCW. Why were they talking, you ask? They were setting up a WCW Tag Team title match for the middle of the show. The title match was so important that it had two talking segments. The other had Scott Steiner, which is always a plus, and The Giant (Big Show). We had all of this talking just for Buff Bagwell to turn on Rick Steiner and leave him hanging, only to return dressed as Bill Clinton and interfere in the match that he was officially a part of to begin with. You read that right. Bagwell took time to put on a costume to sneakily interfere in a match he was already in. It's almost laughable. At least we got to see The Giant smoke a cigarette and hit a missile drop kick.

- The other big matches on the show were Sting versus Bret Hart for the WCW United States Heavyweight title and Kevin Nash versus Scott Hall, both of which left a little to be desired. Were they awful debacles like the Hogan-Warrior match? No, but I expected more from four great talents. Let's start with the second of the two, as WCW turned Hall's real-life issues with alcohol and substance abuse into an angle. I'm sure that gave a lot of people warm feelings inside. The match itself wasn't bad, but I'm not too sure people really wanted to see Hall and Nash fight each other. Although they weren't related by blood, Hall and Nash were like brothers and to see the two go at it was just underwhelming. On top of that, the finish was head scratching. Nash jackknife power bombs Hall twice, but then just leaves and gets counted out. After all of the storytelling between these two before and during the match, you have it end with that flat ending?

- The Hart-Sting match wasn't terrible, but again, it left a little to be desired. For one, the two men were in the nWo, which should have never happened. Neither should have Sting's goatee, which looked odd on him. There's a reason why you haven't seen him wear it too many times.

- While the main matches underwhelmed, the undercard wasn't too bad, which was the case with most WCW events. It was the opposite of the WWE, which routinely delivered on its main events, but lacked depth on its undercard. WCW had a ton of depth on its undercard and it wasn't even full display on this show. Still, we got a good opening match from Chris Jericho and Raven and the matches involving Disco Inferno, Juventud Guerrera and Billy Kidman were solid outings as well.

- What wasn't good on the undercard was Fit Finlay's hair. That was terrible.

- What was always good to see was the Nitro Girls. I will never complain about seeing them.

- I also loved the inflatable gargoyle-pumpkin contraption WCW had for the entrance set. Maybe I'm the only one, but looking at it bounce around and blow smoke from its nose was pretty cool.

- Remember Wrath and Meng? No? You're not the only one, but you probably remember them better as Adam Bomb and Haku in WWE.