We’re looking at WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 on this “Into the Vault”. This one features Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper in one of wrestling’s most dangerous-looking cages.
The Best of WCW Halloween Havoc 1997
You know how WCW does it on PPV: come in with a hot, athletically pleasing opener. That’s Yuji Nagata taking on Ultimo Dragon. It was brief at under ten minutes but Nagata got to show off his stuff. Mind you, it wasn’t all Nagata but we know what Ultimo can do already.
Into the Vault: WCW Halloween Havoc 1997
The Cruiserweight title bout between Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero was a title versus mask affair. Rey had buzz behind him for some dope TV and PPV matches so it was unlikely that he was losing his mask.
Meanwhile, Eddie Guerrero could take a loss in the midcard and bounce back quickly. He was usually in the mix of title action outside of the main event in WCW. This match was an extremely good one and honestly the best of the night.
Curt Hennig defending his U.S championship against Ric Flair was good. It wasn’t dope but it was better than just “solid”. These guys really did their thing but after you’ve seen Rey vs. Eddie you want something just as exciting in-ring.
This one had more story to it than that bout. If we’re factoring in that it came after a mediocre match and a blah match then this was better than great. My runner-up for the match of the night goes to another Randy Savage versus DDP match! This time, it’s a Las Vegas Deathmatch—street fight—and they’ve always delivered the goods in a one-on-one brawl.
I’ve touched on enough of the matches in their feud and all but their tag match has been in “The Best”. This bout gets the same honors.
The Rest
Gedo wasn’t at his best in his match against Chris Jericho. They’ve faced off against each other in Japan and Gedo was actually pretty good at this time. There was just something about this particular match that did not vibe well.
I remember Alex Wright being involved in the whole thing between Debra and Steve McMichael. Mongo got involved in some odd midcard storylines and bringing in random Alex Wright was just as odd.
It probably would’ve been better if either WCW gave Alex Wright something to pique fans’ interest or paired Debra with a piece of beef to go at it with Mongo. This wasn’t it as a story. As a match, it wasn’t awful.
Jacqueline taking on Disco Inferno was entertaining on paper. The action sucked but I was definitely intrigued by how it would play out when I first watched it. After watching it again for the review, the action still sucked and the match went longer than it should’ve and wasn’t that entertaining at all.
Actually, the stuff leading up to this match was more entertaining than the PPV match itself. Better than that match but still not good was Lex Luger taking on Scott Hall—and I was surprised by that during my viewing for “Into the Vault”.
The match was long, plodding, and it’s like “Why? How did we get here?” If this was going to be the pace of the match then it could’ve been shortened and the extra time placed elsewhere. What happened here?
We’ve gotten back to another Hollywood Hogan vs. Roddy Piper showdown and this time it’s in a steel cage. Oh, but this isn’t any kind of steel cage, it’s my least favorite one: that flimsy ass cage that just seemed dangerous as hell.
Never mind the action in the ring, it was mostly meh but gets a nod for not being in the 20-minute area. I will say that it’s not Hollywood Hogan’s fault. Heel, brawling Hogan is my favorite Hogan but this cage was horrendous. It’s as if someone saw WWE Badd Blood, saw the Hell in a Cell match, told Hogan what they wanted to do with the cage, Hogan says “That doesn’t work for me, brother. I want the Big Blue cage”, and a compromise was made.
That compromise wasn’t a good one at all, folks. I feared for Savage seeing him at the top of the cage. Listen, the cage bent when Savage lept off of it! I mean, it bent like ring ropes. It just didn’t seem safe structurally.
WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 Verdict: Silver Medal (2.5/5)
Another dub for the Atlanta company as WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 managed to get silver. It’s been a while since I’ve given any promotion a silver medal in 1997. Actually, it’s been a battle of getting high and low bronze.
Despite the main event that I didn’t need and didn’t seem necessary for the most part, there were three strong matches that pulled this show up. The match of the show goes to Savage vs. DDP.
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