There’s definitely a lesson to learn from running way too many matches on a show—especially too many awful to mediocre matches. WCW didn’t learn that so let’s dive into Halloween Havoc 1998 and see if there’s anything good here.
This event took place on October 25 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena and features Goldberg defending his World title against DDP.
The Best of Halloween Havoc 1998
So, this is an easy one because there were only two bouts truly worth your time on this show. First up is the opening match between Chris Jericho and Raven for Jericho’s Television title. It was very brief but exciting enough that I wanted more or a rematch. I loved the pace of the match and it made for a decent defense in Jericho’s reign.
It took a while but Goldberg finally got his best match up until this point as he faced Diamond Dallas Page. This was a perfectly booked Goldberg main event. We have the right opponent, enough room to groove, and the action was natural for both men. I dig this match and it was a great one to end a largely skippable PPV.
The Rest
What a slog this is, folks. It’s not even an evenly mixed bag of decent and bad, either. Wrath vs. Meng? Put it on Saturday Night or the Worldwide, it’s a match that I know that no one was clamoring for.
The same could be said for Disco Inferno vs. Juventud Guerrera but that match wasn’t bad at all. I’d say it was solid enough to be in the first hour of the PPV and probably would’ve been exciting on the B-shows.
Alex Wright vs. Fit Finlay had a dollop of time but still should’ve been better than it was. Perhaps it needed a couple more minutes? Saturn steamrolling Lodi was as expected and didn’t put on airs with more time than necessary.
Disco did double duty and pulled out another decent match in a failing effort for Billy Kidman’s Cruiserweight title. The action was decent, they had enough room to groove.
You know, there was a Tag Team title match on this show that was part of the Steiner Brothers feud: skip that. Skip the follow-up one-on-one between them as well as both matches are butt cheeks. That’s the best way to put that storyline’s matches so far. They just didn’t turn out as expected.
Kevin Nash tried his best to make his match with Scott Hall work but it went too long and was just not fun to watch at all. I won’t say skip this one as well but if you did you wouldn’t be missing anything.
The last of the decent matches in this pile is a showdown between Sting and Bret Hart over Hart’s U.S Championship. It was a slow one and on the lengthy side but it was a solid match that would’ve made for a dope Nitro main event.
Rounding out the rest…Hollywood Hogan has his long-awaited rematch with The Warrior and vanquishes him in a slow, ugly, and boring bout that you could just skip. Or you could watch it if you like slow-motion trainwrecks.
WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 Verdict: Bronze Medal (2.23/5)
At least half of the bad and mediocre matches were on the short side, so “good job” I suppose? If WWE used a HeAT card to make up the card for Judgment Day 1998, WCW had to copy and paste a Saturday Night or Worldwide for the bulk of Halloween Havoc 1998.
Overall, this was not an enjoyable PPV and it was also the show that got cut off in multiple markets—before that good main event. Folks paid for that PPV, sat through a lot of meh stuff, and didn’t even get to see the best match of the show: Goldberg vs. DDP. At least they caught the runner-up with Chris Jericho vs. Raven and WCW would show the whole main event on the following Monday Nitro.
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