Halloween Havoc '95

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '95

October 29, 1995 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

The Giant has driven Hulk Hogan over the edge so bad (pun partially intended with what's happening on this show) that he's starting wearing all black nearly a year before that would take on a whole new meaning. It's gotten so desperate Hogan has even SHAVED HIS MUSTACHE OFF. I think there was a TV role reason he did that but I can't remember. Anyway, part of tonight's festivities is Hogan and Giant doing battle in monster trucks, and at the start of the show we get a clip of them already in their trucks and facing off. That's a long time to sit there and rev your engine at the other guy without doing anything. We're also told that Ric Flair was attacked in his dressing room by Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman ahead of their match tonight. Sting hasn't even arrived at the arena yet so he doesn't know what happened.

Funny bit leading into the next match- Badd won a shot at the US title at Fall Brawl, but when the time came for the match on non-Nitro weekly TV he no showed. Later in the night he finally got to the arena, telling Mean Gene he was the victim of a flat tire. Diamond Dallas Page and his entourage join to mock Badd. Maxx Muscle says "What a shame you got four flat tires". Badd says: "Who said anything about FOUR flat tires? I said A flat tire!" like he's Poirot deducing the butler did it or something and punches Muscle out. Unintentional comedy. That brings us to tonight.

WCW World Television Championship: Johnny B Badd def Diamond Dallas Page (c) (w/the Diamond Doll and Maxx Muscle) in 17:01- DDP has stolen Badd's blaster, but he violates the heel code by actually setting it off for the crowd. An imposter Badd shows up in his robe during his entrance so the real Badd can attack DDP from behind. I knew ZSJ and Fujita didn't come up with that themselves. DDP gets tossed to the floor. Muscle takes a shot and Badd gives them a double noggin knocker. DDP tries to escape through the crowd but Badd pulls him back. Badd found a bucket somewhere and puts it on DDP's head, then punches him. Back in Badd gets an armdrag and drop toe hold into an ARMBAR. They do some basic counter stuff and both guys pull hair. DDP complains to ref Nick Patrick "He's pulling my hair!" in a gloriously whiny voice. Badd goes "Like this?" and pulls his hair again! They go speed and Badd does a hiptoss straight into a cover for 2. He tries mounted punches but DDT drops him on the top turnbuckle. Badd Bret bumps and DDP back suplexes him off the rebound. DDP hits the "pancake" for 2. I honestly don't remember that move. Chinlock time. Badd tries to fight out but DDP hair pulls him back down. More chinlock. Badd blocks a hiptoss into a backslide for 2. DDP clothesline for 2. Badd sunset flip with counter and counter counters for near falls. Muscle helps DDP out of a wristlock fight. He distracts the ref so DDP can choke Badd with his wrist tape, then covers it up with MOAR chinlock. They do arm drops and Badd powers out. Another wristlock leverage fight and this time Muscle can't help. Badd back suplex. Inverted atomic drop. Regular atomic drop. DDP is in super selling mode. Badd flying headscissors. Double ax handle off the top. The Doll, who's job during matches is to rate all of DDP's best moves a 10 with her card, gives Badd a 10 for that. Badd sit out powerbomb for 2. Page hits the Diamond Dream, another one in his arsenal I don't remember. Badd uses the ropes to block the Diamond Cutter. That one I do know. I sure hope so. He goes for mounted punches again and through the course of counter events DDP gets tossed over the top to the floor. Somersault plancha on DDP and Muscle! Slingshot splash for 2. Badd runs DDP into Muscle and gets a roll up for 2 that the crowd bit hard on. Badd gets dumped to the floor. Another heel double team fails as Muscle clotheslines DDP! Badd covers and gets the pin and the TV title for the second time! Meh. Both guys had been having much better matches, have to chalk this up as a disappointment. *3/4

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def The Zodiac in 1:30- Savage and Lex Luger have been having problems recently with each other and with Hogan despite the fact they're all faces for a very logical reason- they all want to be world champion. With that in mind we've got a way overdone setup for Savage and Luger tonight. They're each facing members of the Dungeon of Doom, and if they both win they get to have a match with each other to try to settle things. Why the elaborate gauntlet, I have no idea. Zodiac is replacing Kamala, who left the company just before this show. Savage jumps Zodiac from behind. Before they can get anywhere a crazy and likely very drunk fan gets in the ring and tries to shoot fight everyone. Ref Randy Anderson holds the fan back while Savage and Zodiac take things to the floor to get away. Security drags the nut away off camera. Back in Savage dodges Zodiac off the second rope, goes up top while Zodiac obviously repositions himself, hits the elbow and it's already over. Garbage match, but they had major outside distractions to deal with. NR

We join Mean Gene in the back and he's got HOT NEWS that he can only share if you call the hotline. Apparently he overheard Jimmy Hart talking to someone he used to represent in "another wrestling federation" about coming to WCW. Yup, it's the Nitro era with the endless promotion jumping teases. Also Okerlund should stop listening in on other people's conversations.

 

Kurasawa (w/Col. Robert Parker) def Road Warrior Hawk in 3:15- Kurasawa is New Japan legend Manabu Nakanishi during his Young Lion excursion. This is a revenge match as Kurasawa (kayfabe) broke Hawk's arm at the last Clash of the Champions. True to that, Hawk jumps quick at the bell. Tackle. Neckbreaker. Fist drop for 2. Big Hawk chops. Kurasawa dodges and Hawk posts his shoulder. Kurasawa tries to go for the arm but Hawk says screw that and goes right back on offense. Powerbomb. Parker grabs Hawk's foot and Kurasawa attacks from behind. Hawk dodges an elbow off the top and clotheslines Kurasawa 360 to the floor. Flying clothesline off the apron, but not onto Kurasawa, onto Parker! Kurasawa posts Hawk. Back in Kurasawa hits a backdrop slam and Samoan drop, covers Hawk and puts his feet on the ropes, and Parker holds Kurasawa's feet for double extra leverage as he gets the 3 count. Hawk seemed like he had zero interest in letting the youngster do anything, but Hawk jobbing to anyone in a singles match, even with an illegal leverage pin, is a rare event. 1/4*

Savage joins Mene Gene for the famous "Your mustache is crooked!" promo that nearly goes completely off the rails before old pro Okerlund reins it back in. We make fun of Okerlund for all his forced hotline schilling in his WCW run, but there's never been anyone better at conducting interviews.

 

Sabu (w/The Sheik) def Mr. JL in 3:25- How about a little ECW action in the middle of this WCW PPV? Crazily enough both guys were signed to WCW at the time, but Sabu's tenure would only last a few weeks. JL is Jerry Lynn in a mask. Sabu charges the ring and it's on. JL hits an enzuguri that sends Sabu to the floor. Baseball slide. Sabu shrugs it off, whips JL into the guardrail, and hits a springboard moonsault that takes out both JL and Sheik! JL ducks a charge and Sabu splats on the floor. JL dive off the top rope to the floor! Back in JL dodges a moonsault and hits one of his own for 2. Sit out powerbomb for 2. JL crashes in the corner after a dodge. Sabu slingshot legdrop for 2. He goes up again but JL grabs him and German suplexes him off the ropes. Another top rope climb and Sabu does a victory roll with both guys on the top rope for 2. JL dropkicks Sabu off the top rope down to the floor. Sabu gets the edge again out there, rolls JL back in, and hits the springboard splash for the pin. After the bell Sheik throws a fireball in JL's face just because. Crazy ECW spotfest sprint that the WCW crowd had no idea how to react to. **1/4

Next up the Dungeon of Doom is joining us live. Yay. The Master's styrofoam throne has been transported into the arena. He shouts some stuff about a total eclipse and walking on galaxies or something. Kevin Sullivan sounds almost normal after by comparison, talking about how Hogan's donning of "evil" black gear is going to corrupt his soul or something. Well, in the long run he actually got that right by accident. Usual DOD crap. They do mention, and Tony does after, that their "insurance policy" is here tonight. I could go into detail now, but that would spoil the hilariously awful fun to come later. After that the black-clad and mustache-less Hogan joins Mean Gene and Jimmy Hart to present the motorcycle contest winner with their prize in a bit that goes on way too long.

Ad for the next PPV, the first ever World War 3. 3 rings! Because why have two when you can have THREE! SIXTY man battle royale! The winner gets a world title shot. Well, that would change between now and then.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def Meng (w/The Taskmaster) by DQ in 13:14- Meng's look sure has changed since he joined the DOD. Commentary is still speculating if Luger is a DOD plant or not. If he is he's sure is playing the very long game. Luger jumps before the bell. It's been all go tonight hasn't it. Gut stomp and he slingshots Meng into the corner. Meng pounds back and chops Luger. Luger gets a boot up in the corner and clotheslines Meng 360 to the floor. Meng and Sullivan have a discussion on the floor and Luger posts Meng. Back in Luger works the arm for about .6 of a second before Meng forgets about it. Luger ducks a clothesline, tries a back suplex but Meng twists in midair to cover Luger for 2. Meng piledriver for 2. Luger fights out of a chinlock and hits a hard crossbody that Meng also jumped in the air during for 2. Meng back suplex. Luger is tossed out. Sullivan goes over, but instead of attacking Luger he talks to him. More very slow Meng offense back in. Luger dodges a dropkick. He backdrops Meng onto the apron and suplexes him back in. Meng no sells clotheslines. Luger finally drops him with one. Backdrop and more clotheslines. Powerslam. Meng gets the GOLDEN spike out of his boot and pokes Luger in the throat with it. Luger drops like drunk panties at a frat party. Meng covers, but Sullivan comes in and breaks the pin up? It looked like he kicked Luger, but the ref DQ's him for kicking Meng and Luger gets the win. Commentary speculates that Sullivan wants Luger to wrestle Savage later tonight as Meng and Sullivan argue. 3/4*

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Champion Sting and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def Arn Anderson and "Flyin'" Brian Pillman by DQ in 17:09- Pillman attacked Flair during his match with Arn at Fall Brawl to get the win for Arn. We found out later that Arn had recruited Pillman to begin the reformation of the Horsemen. They're announced as the Horsemen for this match. Sting comes out by himself with Flair nowhere to be seen after the reported attack before the show and he starts the match off with Arn even though he's partnerless. Hammerlock exchange. The crowd chants "We want Flair". Sting agrees and Arn plays a little violin for the crowd. The Horsemen try a double team but Sting fights them both off and they regroup on the floor. Sting kips up out of Arn hair pulls. Kick and faceplant. Another double team is fought off and the Horsemen restrategize on the floor. Pillman tags in, slaps Sting and quickly bails to the floor. Sting chases. Arn tries to ambush but Sting is one up on him and clotheslines both guys. Back in Pillman offers a handshake. Sting takes it and kicks Pillman. Long delayed press slam. Pillman scurries to the corner to tag out. Arn is reluctant. They do a little more planning in the corner. Arn hits some clubbing blows. Sting counters a piledriver, slingshotting Arn into Pillman, who was set up on the top rope! Sting tosses Pillman off the top into the guardrail! Jabs for Arn. Arn goes deep in his old playbook, ramming Sting's head into his own partners to get Sting down. Flair's out! He's in street clothes and has a giant bandage on his forehead but he's here! Pillman works Sting over on the floor while the ref gets Flair under control and on the apron. Pillman chops Sting back in. Sting fights out of the corner but the tag is cut off. Flair comes in and hits Arn with his shoe. The Horsemen do a rocket launcher but Sting gets his knees up. Arn JUST cuts the tag off and back suplexes Sting. He tries for a leverage pin and gets crotched on Sting's knees. Again Arn manages to hold Sting back from tagging. Flair chases Pillman around the ring. Arn abdominal stretch. Pillman comes in and continues the beatdown while mocking Flair. Single leg crab and cover for 2. Flair charges in again. Arn hits the World's Greatest Spinebuster! Flair breaks the pin up. Pillman puts on a leg scissors as both Horsemen work on Sting's knee a bit. Arn hooks on a bear hug. After arm drops Sting bell rings out. Again the Horsemen just keep him from tagging. Corner beatdown. Sting fights out. Big collision and everyone's down except Flair. And the ref. Sting finally gets the tag! Flair charges in, does his usual warm up rope hit......AND PUNCHES STING! RIC FLAIR AND THE HORSEMEN HAVE TRICKED STING AGAIN! Holy crap I'm laughing so hard. Fool me once shame on me, fool me seventeen times....well, Sting should be expecting it by now is all I'm saying. Flair pulls the bandage off his forehead and he's just fine! The whole attack was a ruse. The ref calls for the DQ as the now three Horsemen beat Sting down before another ref comes in to get them away. Good match, great angle. Flair fooling Sting never gets old. ***1/4

Mean Gene is in full outrage mode. Flair grabs the mic away from him. "Now we go to school!". The band is back together, baby! They need a fourth to round out the numbers, and that would happen soon enough.

 

Sumo Monster Truck Match- WCW presents another one of the most awful ideas ever put on a wrestling TV show. Before Hogan and Giant have their scheduled world title match later tonight, they're doing this monster truck thing. So, they're up on the roof of Cobo Hall, five stories up, which is adjacent to Joe Lewis Arena, their trucks are welded together at the front bumpers, and the goal is to push your opponent's entire truck (both axles, not just one) out of the sumo circle that's been set up. There's also supposed to be two randomly placed "charges" that if run over will explode and "disable" a truck. This is being presented as live, but it was actually all pretaped the night before. Tony is the smart man and takes his leave for this match. Heenan is joined by Eric Bischoff and the creator of the original Bigfoot monster truck, Bob Chandler, who also is supposed to have designed Hogan's truck. Commentary goes through a whole bunch of truck gearhead stats. Put simply, they're big. Really really big. There's also a ton of "somebody's going to die" teasing, mostly centered around what happens if one of those randomly placed charges get run over. We get underway and it's explained that there's actually co-drivers in each truck controlling the rear wheels. Apparently their names and faces don't matter. They're even framed out of the in-truck shots. At one point the back of Hogan's truck is pushed out of the circle and something goes boom. I guess that was one of the charges. It doesn't do anything. Typical WCW. After way too long Hogan pushes Giant's truck out with no drama or fanfare. A pissed off Giant gets out and confronts Hogan on the edge of the roof. They start fighting. Hogan pushes out of a choke and Giant falls off the roof! He's dead, Jim. Commentary is aghast. Well except for Chandler who doesn't seem to know or care what's going on. Heenan asks the logical question, what side did Giant fall on, the street side or the water side into the river? Bischoff gives the infamous answer "You've got a parking lot and you've got a river, what difference does it make?". You can physically see Heenan's give a shit leave his body as he reacts to that sentence. Still, a man might be dead, oh well, the show must go on.

 

"Macho Man" Randy Savage def "The Total Package" Lex Luger in 5:23- Back to Tony and Heenan on commentary. The crowd is almost completely pro-Savage for this. There's a discussion after the bell and Luger offers a handshake. Savage attacks him instead! Luger clothesline out of the corner. Jimmy Hart comes out to ringside. Luger pounds away while commentary is still preoccupied with finding out what condition the Giant is in. Savage gets some gut punches but Luger stays in control. Savage gets tossed out. Luger double ax handle off the apron. Savage reverses and Luger takes guardrail and stair shots. Clothesline to Luger's back in the ring. Luger counters Savage coming off the top rope. Hart gets up on the apron and starts up a conversation with Nick Patrick. Luger tries a pin with illegal rope leverage but Hart is still distracting. Savage reverses a whip sending Luger into Hart, knocking him off the apron. The top rope elbow hits and we're done here. That was pretty pointless, especially with what's about to happen. 1/2*

Heenan is still freaking out over the Giant and leaves commentary. And he's back. For those of you that missed the end of the truck fight and roof fall 10 minutes earlier on the show that you paid to watch, here it is again. In full. After that Heenan freaks out some more, and brings some good continuity into it by saying how close he was with Giant's dad Andre.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: The Giant (w/The Taskmaster) def Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) by DQ in 14:30- Hogan comes out first looking distraught and takes the mic. He says "What just happened wasn't supposed to happen" and calls it a terrible accident. But never mind all that, the Giant is here! Without a scratch on him. Also completely dry so unless he hopped in an industrial dryer he must not have ended up in the river. How did he survive? Which side did he fall off of? Questions we'll never have the answers to, because shut up. One other thing to note here- this is Paul Wight's first official match ever. In the main event on PPV. Hogan takes his bandana off and he has paint on his forehead the same as Taskmaster's. Giant no sells a boatload of punches like he no sold that roof fall. After about a dozen Hogan finally starts to stagger him. Hogan tries a slam and of course it fails miserably. Giant goes to work with clubbing blows, back rakes, chops and corner chokes. Hogan fights back in a test of strength knucklelock. They dance around for a minute looking lost before Giant hits a back elbow and slam. Hogan dodges a legdrop and does a mini Hulk up. Buckle shots and mounted punches from Hogan. Here come the back rakes. Corner clothesline. Giant gets clotheslined 360 the floor and sells falling out of the ring more than he did falling off a five story building. Sullivan leads Giant to the aisle to leave. Hogan chases and runs them into each other. Shoulderblocks in the ring wake Giant up again. Giant backbreaker. Time for the inevitable bear hug. After a bit Hogan punches out only to have Giant pound him down again and back to the bear hug. Arm drops and Hogan powers out again. He runs into a goozle. Giant choke slam! Hulk Up time. 3 punches, big boot, big man slam, legdrop. The ref is down! Did Jimmy Hart do that? Hogan brings Hart in and Hart denies it. OK, everything's good. They help the ref back up. When Hogan turns around Hart pushes the ref down again and hits Hogan with the belt! Jimmy Hart turns on Hogan! Giant puts the bear hug back on. Savage and Luger run out to help. But wait! Here comes the "insurance policy". Yup. It's................THE YETAYYYYYY! THE YETAY IS HERE! (It's supposed to be Yeti but that's the way Tony pronounces it so I'm going with it) With all those bandages it should be the Mummy. He's even taller than the Giant. Meanwhile, lost in that madness Luger is attacking Savage. I guess he was with the heels after all. Giant and YetAY put Hogan in a double bear hug sandwich. YetAY is moving his hips around way too much for my liking. I don't want to know what's going on under those bandages. Luger puts Hogan in the torture rack to confirm his turn. Savage also gets sandwich humped and racked. The ref is back up and calls for a DQ. The announcement is Giant wins by DQ. But Hart attacked Hogan. Surely that means Hogan should have won, and don't call me Shirley. The "logic" here is that because Hart was on Hogan's side when the match started, Hart's interference means the Giant wins. Giant takes the belt with him while Buffer makes it clear that titles do NOT change hands on a DQ. Hogan and Savage put themselves back together as the show ends. 1/4*

Buckle up kids, this is where it gets complicated. The next night on Nitro Hart revealed he put a clause in the match contract stating that the title could, in fact, change hands on a DQ. Giant is now the world champion, ending Hogan's title reign at 469 days, the longest WCW/NWA world title reign since Ric Flair's '80s heydays. The lawyers conferred on this, and the week after that on Nitro Giant was stripped of the title due to all the controversy and it was determined that the winner of the inaugural World War 3 60 man battle royale would be the new champion.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The majority of the wrestling is still horrible and the Dungeon of Doom is shit beyond redemption, other than the Giant who does have potential even if they're pushing him too hard too soon, but outside of that this show has the first real glimpse of the "swerve a minute" main event philosophy that will become standard in WCW over the next year and help catapult them to #1. For a time. That's the problem with basing your whole product on constant shocks and surprises, it works in the short term but isn't sustainable over the long haul, something you'll be reading a lot more from me and in more detail as we get further into the era. Everything involving the Horsemen reformation is great though, something I'm sure Flair was handling himself without head booker Kevin Sullivan being involved. Historically this is a fairly important signpost show leading to what WCW will become in 1996, for better or worse.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+