With less than 8,500 fans in attendance, we’re taking a look at WCW Halloween Havoc 1999 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas!
The Best
Eddie Guerrero taking on Saturn—no stakes just something resembling a story. This was pretty much the best match of the show but it gets mucked over by Flair coming out, attacking Eddie, and then we get Torrie out there and she is kissed by Flair—all of that wasn’t necessary and really screwed over the segment for the one actually good match on this show.
Then again, these are the dumpster juice days of WCW.
While the action in Goldberg vs. Sid wasn’t going to wow you, the interaction and character work was great. This was a basic power brawl, beast battle, or monster melee that was made much, much better by Sid bleeding like a destruction god demanding more blood and violence.
The match was short but Sid’s character work of just doing his regular facial expressions while wearing the latest in crimson mask fashion was just…I did a chef kiss when I saw this. This is what I want from heated matches and feud-ending matches!
The Rest
The opener saw Lash LeRoux challenge for Disco Inferno’s Cruiserweight title in a decent match! On Nitro this would’ve been…still decent. However, it would’ve been a treat on Thunder! With that said, this is very much like asking for McDonald’s only for your mom to say “We’ve got McDonald’s at home and it’s gas station burgers and chips.” I mean, that’s not the worst meal but it ain’t McDonald’s.
By this time, the standout that made the cruiserweight division sizzle were either involved in teams, getting their singles run outside of the division, stuck on Saturday Night, or gone from the company. The late 1999 cruiserweight division just wasn’t hitting the same at all.
Honestly, Harlem Heat taking on the First Family and The Filthy Animals for the vacant Tag Team titles wasn’t bad at all. It was a street fight that should’ve been up Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morrus’ alley as a unit but they still got trounced by the Heat.
What this match suffered from was an acute case of no one asking for this. If we just had to put Booker T back into a tag team combination, I’d rather the Harlem Heat just face the Filthy Animals.
Brad Armstrong beating Berlyn—really anyone—on PPV was wild. Mind you, it was a treat because I’m a fan of Armstrong’s work in the NWA and WCW but by the 1999s, Armstrong wasn’t on anyone’s radars and was mainly getting spanked on Saturday Night or the syndicated B-shows. His winning here against a capable Berlyn was really a treat as a fan.
As for the match’s quality: it was a decent, brief TV opener.
What’s amazing about the TV title match is that champion Chris Benoit just wasn’t feeling it but his “meh whatever” performance was still better than decent. He still looked as though he was being competitive even though you can tell that he was probably in “F**k this match” mode.
Meanwhile, Rick Steiner 1999 was Rick Steiner 1999 and won the title. This was a match that really should’ve happened in 1996 at the latest.
While no one’s going to write home and espouse the greatness of Bret Hart facing Lex Luger, the match itself was a better-than-decent TV encounter.
It just wasn’t good enough to wow on PPV at all. It’s one of those matches that is serviceable where it is but probably could’ve been better if it was elsewhere on the card. Being in the middle of the PPV, this match was in a very important spot and didn’t really deliver a pick-me-up for the crowd.
As a matter of fact, it was sandwiched between blah matches.
We have Ric Flair and DDP—I’m sorry, I skipped a match. Sting defeated Hogan in three seconds for the World title. So, we have Ric Flair and DDP in a strap match so you know it’s a brawl and you know Flair bleeds.
It wasn’t bad, just more of the same from Flair. The thing is that DDP should’ve been doing something else at the very top of the card and this just made me miss 1997 DDP and the JERSEY TRIAD.
Goldberg faces off against Sting for the Icon’s recently won World title and manages to spank him in roughly three minutes. It was a match.
WCW Halloween Havoc 1999 Verdict: Bronze Medal (3.5/10)
Listen, Halloween Havoc and Starrcade were my two favorite annual wrestling PPVs overall. WCW’s lack of consistency is just a fond memory killer. Like, this is a very steep decline in record time. It’s kind of ridiculous actually. Most of this card featured matches that could’ve been on TV or a Clash of the Champions—which had been ended by late 1999—but shouldn’t be on PPV.
The company should’ve forced collateral with superstars just in case they didn’t deliver either an exciting or entertaining match and taxed the ones who were killing these matches. At least Disco, Lash, Eddie, Saturn, Benoit, Sid, Sting, DDP, and Goldberg would’ve gotten their deposits back.
Anyway, the match of the evening was Eddie Guerrero vs. Saturn but I was very invested in Sid vs. Goldberg for the U.S title.
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