Halloween Havoc '97

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '97

October 27, 1997 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes

For another year, this is Slim Jim's Halloween Havoc presented by Slim Jim in conjunction with Slim Jim a Slim Jim production. Funded by Slim Jim.

Yuji Nagata (w/Sonny Oono) def Ultimo Dragon in 9:42- Mike Tenay joins the booth for this one. Serious potential here. Dragon has been the best and most consistent in-ring worker in WCW for the past year or so. Nagata is one of my favorite New Japan wrestlers, though he was still developing at this point. He's on his final excursion before returning to New Japan and hitting the main event level around the turn of the millennium. This is part of Oono's feud with Dragon since their breakup and Dragon's face turn, Nagata is the new hired gun Oono's brought in to take Dragon out. Also, it looks like Nagata stole Glacier's vest and repainted it black. Unless I completely missed him on an earlier show, the absolute legend that is "Lil' Naitch" Charles Robinson is making his PPV debut in this match. He's easily one of the top 3 or 4 refs of all time, and still going today. Tommy Young, Red Shoes Unno, then it's a toss up between Lil' Naitch and Mike Chioda for me. Then Hebner. Some New Japan style exploratory kicks start us off. Nagata grabs a waistlock. Dragon grabs the ropes, but Nagata says screw your clean break and attacks. Shoulderblock standoff. Dragon changes direction to build up momentum and wins the second one. He does some crazy maneuvering around Nagata to hit a kick. Nagata ducks a clothesline and hits a fallaway slam-like suplex. Dragon does his handstand on the ropes and goes into the rapid fire kicks. He comes off the ropes, but Nagata grabs him in a rear naked choke. He teases going for Dragon's mask before Lil' Naitch stops him. Dragon does some more dodging and hits a Saito suplex. Nagata nails him with a couple of stiff PKs to the back, then hooks on a camel clutch. Piledriver from Nagata for 2. They have a suplex fight that the larger Nagata wins. If this was New Japan this would be a heavyweight vs junior heavyweight match. Nagata keeps Dragon grounded while trying to play to the crowd American style and not quite pulling it off. More Nagata kicks fire Dragon up. Dragon grabs a kick and gives Nagata a dragon screw! He kicks Nagata to the floor. Plancha attempt. Nagata kicks Dragon right out of the air! We get a quick shot of Raven and the yet-unnamed Flock coming into the crowd. Dragon's asai moonsault hits. Back in he goes for the handspring elbow. Nagata knees him in the back. Dragon blocks a superplex, flips over, and gets a sunset bomb for 2. Setup slam and the moonsault hits for 2. Dragon hits some chops. After a bit of grappling on the top rope Nagata grabs Dragon's arm and snaps it over the top turnbuckle! Stiff kick to the arm and Nagata starts picking it apart. He then switches to a belly to belly suplex for 2. Nagata Lock! But this is the original Lock that goes for the legs, not the arm, so not the best move strategically. They have a bit of a fumble when Dragon counters into the dragon sleeper. Nagata quickly gets his feet under the ropes in what would be marked out of bounds territory in a New Japan ring. Dragon sells the hurt arm and Nagata is back on him. Dragon hits an enzuguri. Open hand slap exchange. Dragon wins that. Another kick combo. Dragon hits the top rope hurricanrana! But the arm is still hurting and he can't follow up. The dragon sleeper is back on. Nagata counters into a Fujiwara armbar on the hurt arm! Dragon taps out almost instantly! After the bell Nagata holds Dragon so Oono can kick the hurt arm as well. Oono then presents Nagata with an envelope with his bonus for a mission accomplished tonight. Very good, very New Japan style match that would have been even better with a more experienced Nagata. ***3/4

Backstage, Jacqueline chases Disco Inferno out of the internet area. Damn, no one will be able to hear Disco on REAL AUDIO now. Yes, that really was a thing. Worked great after you gave it the usual 5-10 minutes of buffering it needed.

 

Chris Jericho def Gedo in 7:18- Gedo, future head booker and manager to the stars in New Japan, is making his WCW debut here. He hadn't fully established himself in New Japan yet at this point, he'd primarily worked in WAR as well as smaller Japanese indys. He's in all bright yellow tonight. Tenay stays in the booth for this one. He tries to correct Dusty and Heenan's pronunciation of Gedo but no one has it right. Lockup stalemate. Gedo slaps Jericho during a corner break, then hides in the ropes. After that is a basic arm wringer/hammerlock exchange with Jericho doing some fancy escapes. A combo from Jericho puts Gedo down. Jericho then gives him a slap receipt and Gedo powders. When he gets back in Jericho stays on the attack. Delayed suplex. Jericho hits some chops. Gedo tries to momentum toss Jericho out but Jericho skins the cat back in. Gedo comes right back with a 360 clothesline. Back in Gedo hits a couple of powerslams for 2. He hooks on a sleeper. Jericho lifts him on his back and drops him. Clothesline with a Gedo 360 sell. Double powerbomb from Jericho for 2. They go up top. Jericho tries a tippy TOP rope hurricanrana, but launches wrong and ends up landing on his head. Yikes. He recovers quickly, going for a plancha while Gedo is on the floor but Gedo kicks him midflight. That wasn't nearly as good as Nagata and Dragon doing the same spot earlier. Gedo dodges around back in and lifts Jericho up into a kneebreaker. He tries coming off the top. Jericho sidesteps, hooks in the full Liontamer, and Gedo taps out. That was as much as you were going to get out of Gedo. **

Mean Gene is with Debra, and for some reason he lets her talk. Debra refuses to spill the beans on who her mystery opponent for Mongo is tonight, other than it's not Jeff Jarrett. Well that would make sense as he'd just gone back to WWF. Mongo then charges in and they have the kind of divorce arguments their lawyers should be shouting at each other with Okerlund in the middle.

 

Title vs Mask Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Mysterio Jr def Eddie Guerrero (c) in 13:51- I'm sure you've heard of this match. Tenay officially goes into OT, working his third match of the night. Mysterio is in the purple Phantom bodysuit that has become synonymous with this match. He's all business heading to the ring. Guerrero is in full dick heel mode and isn't even trying to play to the crowd. Big "Eddie sucks" chant from the crowd after the bell. Guerrero jaws and takes a swing. Mysterio ducks, hits a quick springboard moonsault, and both guys fly around the ring in a crazy move/counter sequence to kick things off. No time wasting here. Mysterio crossbodys Guerrero over the top to the floor! He flips over the top rope trying to outmaneuver Guerrero, but Guerrero is one step ahead, grabbing Mysterio's legs and pulling him off the apron. He gets a huge head of steam and RUNS Mysterio into the ring steps. Slingshot senton from Guerrero back in, followed by chops and European uppercuts. Mysterio counters with a dropkick. He tries a cartwheel, but Guerrero catches him and gives him a back suplex! Brain buster for 2. Tiltawhirl backbreaker for 2. Guerrero tries to tear at Mysterio's mask. He hooks on an abdominal stretch and tries to tear the mask again. After a bit Guerrero turns it into a pumphandle backbreaker. He knucklelocks Mysterio and tries for a leverage cover. Mysterio fights back up, flips up top, and hits a MOONSAULT DDT! Holy shit. He dropkicks Guerrero out to the floor. After some apron maneuvering Guerrero dropkicks Mysterio off the apron. Mysterio gets whipped into the guardrail. Back in Guerrero hooks on a camel clutch, laser focused on the back. He goes for the mask again and this time succeeds in tearing Mysterio a new eye hole. An eye hole in the mask. This isn't The Horror Show at Extreme Rules. Gory Special from Guerrero. Mysterio armdrags out! Guerrero avoids a dropkick and hits a basement dropkick to the back. He drops Mysterio with a shoulder backbreaker, then stretches him out with a modified bow and arrow. Speed run and Guerrero hits a back elbow for 2. Mysterio slugs back in the corner. Guerrero gives him a knee to the gut, tosses him, and Mysterio does an absolutely perfect flip seamlessly into the tree of woe. After a basement dropkick Guerrero charges. Mysterio dodges and Guerrero slides crotch first into the SLIM JIM post! As Heenan says, it's not the slide, it's the stop. HUGE height on a Mysterio dive to the floor! Back in Mysterio flips out of another tiltawhirl backbreaker attempt and hits a flash hurricanrana with a cradle for 2! Clothesline from Guerrero. More dodges, Mysterio does the 619 spin and headscissors Guerrero to the floor. Mysterio does a tope con hilo INTO A FLYING HEADSCISSORS ON THE FLOOR! Holy shit again. Corkscrew moonsault back in for a long 2. He goes for a springboard moonsault but Guerrero gets his knees up. Powerbomb with a stack up for 2. Guerrero gives Mysterio a sort of buckle bomb. He charges, but Mysterio lifts him up and drops him face first on the top turnbuckle. Spinning heel kick. He goes for the springboard hurricanrana. Guerrero catches him and gives him a backbreaker! Holy shit again again. Guerrero tries coming off the top. Mysterio dodges, but Guerrero sees it and rolls through. Guerrero lifts and Mysterio gets crotched on the top rope. After a fight up top Guerrero sets up for Splash Mountain. Mysterio twists in midair into a hurricanrana, cradles, and gets the pin and the title! After the bell Mysterio makes the mistake of turning his back on Guerrero to celebrate in camera so naturally Guerrero attacks him from behind, and quickly leaves. A legendary match that deserves its status, with both guys playing to their strengths, both character and wrestling, absolutely perfectly. This is probably the best match of the NWO era, and maybe the best match of Bischoff's entire tenure running WCW (though personally I'd put Flair/Vader at Starrcade '93 a fraction higher). It's also THE seminal lucha style match ever held on US soil. ****3/4

Mean Gene has tonight's Hotline shill, a "clique (or Kliq) in WCW is getting a new member". Red hot scoop there. Worth the 900 number rates. Probably has to do with Raven's group. After that we go to an NWO black and white promo with Bischoff and Hogan and some late arriving music. Bischoff demands a "safe working environment" for Hogan and they threaten to walk out of the main event tonight unless JJ Dillon and WCW brass give them a contract in writing that Sting won't be in the building tonight.

 

Alex Wright (w/Debra) def Steve "Mongo" McMichael in 6:31- The crowd is not impressed with the reveal of Wright as the mystery opponent. They work some basic stuff. Mongo says screw your flippy escapes and hits a slam. Cover for 2 and Wright powders. After due stalling Wright hits an armdrag out of a lockup. He arm wringers Mongo down. European uppercuts. After some shoulderblocks Mongo hits a hiptoss and another slam. Wright gets a boot up in the corner and hits a spinning heel kick. Mongo completely fucks up a tombstone reversal, resets and hits it. Debra starts distracting Lil' Naitch. Why? Because BILL GOLDBERG is here! Yes, Bill. Being a former football guy they decided to have him feud with the other former football guy. Goldberg gives Mongo a gentle spear. He goes for the jackhammer, with Mongo's leg hitting Lil' Naitch in the back so there was no way he didn't know something was happening, and hits it. Then, again with Lil' Naitch clearly seeing what's happening, he drags Wright's carcass on top of Mongo. Lil' Naitch stops pretending, turns around and counts the pin. Debra gives Goldberg something after. It's Mongo's Super Bowl ring! He definitely never got one of those playing for the Falcons. How does she even legally have possession of that if they're not divorced? Wright tries to say something and Goldberg takes him out too because he's a KILLER. Before the run in commentary spent almost the entire match freaking out about Hogan's demands and paying zero attention to what was happening in the ring. Though, being Mongo and Wright, in this case it's about all they deserve. DUD

 

Jacqueline def WCW World Television Champion Disco Inferno in 9:39- Before Chyna was wrestling guys in WWF, WCW put Jacqueline in there with their #1 weasel heel at the time. I honestly don't remember what started this other than I guess Disco being a dick, which he was always a natural at. Commentary is still in full on freakout mode about Hogan when the match starts. The first literally 4+ minutes of this match is Disco stalling like hell, hiding in the ropes, hiding behind the ref and jumping out of the ring. Tedious to the extreme. Finally Jacqueline goes out to chase, hits a shoulderblock and sunset flip back in the ring for 2. Disco does a drop toe hold and one of Jacqueline's boobs comes right out of her top. One move is all it took. Another couple of minutes of time wasting stalling follows with a couple of lame "chases" around the ring. Jacqueline eventually hits a knee to the gut, forearm and goes nuts with some ground and pound. Disco powders again as I think we've now set a world record for the number of times a wrestler voluntarily leaves the ring in a single match. He tries to walk but Jacqueline stops him. Shoulderblock stalemates. Disco tries a hiptoss but Jacqueline lands on her feet. Disco gets crotched on the SLIM JIM ring post. Jacqueline suplexes him on the floor. Clothesline. She's still messing with her top. She manages to land a halfway decent DDT. Crossbody off the top. Disco rolls through it for 2. Jacqueline rolls him up and gets the pin. Someone explain to me why the sunset flip couldn't have been the finish and we could have cut this atrocity in half. Disco's refusal, even as a heel, to hit a woman took all the point out of this before it even started. On top of that Jacqueline, a veteran with a decade of experience, looked like a green rookie during most of this. To make it worse, absolutely nothing came out of this. Oh, and way to make the TV title look like a joke on top of everything else. Booking this at all was brain dead dumb. Giving it ten freaking minutes is almost a war crime. MINUS FIVE STARS

Kind of hard to imagine that Mysterio/Guerrero classic was earlier on this same show.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Curt Hennig (c) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair by DQ in 13:57- Hennig was given Arn Anderson's spot in the Horsemen, then betrayed them to join the NWO and smashed Flair's head in the War Games cage door as he did it. He defeated Horseman Mongo for the US title on the Nitro right after Fall Brawl. Of course these two were very familiar with each other from Flair's WWF run. Hennig has on Flair's red WWF era robe with the sleeves cut off on his entrance. Flair charges in robeless! He drags Hennig out and hits chops. Back in he gives us a bit of a strut and kicks Hennig's leg out of his leg. He charges and knocks Hennig off the apron into the guardrail. Hennig's knee gets posted on the SLIM JIM ring post. Flair gets a chair but misses a shot at the knee. Hennig begs off. Flair lays in the corner chops and jabs. The robe finally comes off and Flair puts it on. More chops and strut as the robe comes off for good. Hennig hits a clothesline, then the neck snap with a not very good Flair sell, like he wasn't sure what was coming. Now Hennig goes after Flair's knee. Meanwhile, commentary's completely out of town again having a massive bitch fest about Hogan's demands. The only time the last three matches they've paid any attention to what was happening in the ring was the last few minutes of the Disco/Jacqueline match. Really, really annoying. Flair and Hennig lose their place a bit before going into a slugfest. Hennig goes back to the knee. Flair eye pokes for some space. Chop exchange and Hennig hits a clothesline for 2. Flair Flip! To the floor! Hennig knocks him around a bit down there. Back in the ref hilariously FREAKS OUT at Hennig's closed fists and hair grabs. Sadly it's the best damn thing in the match so far. Hennig gets on a sleeper. Flair back suplexes out. Hennig positions Flair's head against the post and goes to get a chair, looking to do the War Games door shot again. Flair dodges and fires up on the floor. He slingshots Hennig head first into the SLIM JIM ring post. There's quite a bit of padding on there, not sure how much damage that should have done. Hennig gets the belt and walks. I'm just now noticing that's the wrong belt. It looks like the Cruiserweight belt. Did someone lose the US title belt? Syxx stole it again didn't he. That damn klepto. Flair jumps him and hits a kneedrop in the aisle. Hennig goes fists flying back in. He places the belt in the middle of the ring and tries to Perfectplex Flair onto it. Flair counters and hits a suplex in the general vicinity of the belt. He puts Hennig in the tree of woe, then wraps the belt around Hennig's head. Stomp to the belt! That's enough for the ref and he calls for the DQ. All the other refs hold Flair back from attacking more while fellow NWO members Konnan and Vincent save Hennig and drag him away. Another big time NWO/Horsemen feud letdown. Hennig continues to look awful since his WCW arrival, almost like just finishing a match is a struggle for him. We all know that Flair was in a bad place mentally in this period. *3/4

JJ Dillon has an answer for Bischoff's demands: a signed and notarized contract guaranteeing no Sting tonight, as requested. Not sure that's the best move. You start appeasing terrorists and all they do is push for more. Bischoff is furious, not expecting this to happen and looking for new ways to get Hogan out of the match. He also says "You don't have the stroke" a lot. Oooooooh, insider terms! Edgy! Dillon's body language this whole segment was something else.

Quick note before the next match because it's been something I've been following all year: a couple of weeks prior on Nitro the Steiner Brothers finally defeated the NWO to wrest the tag titles away from them for real. No screwjobs this time. I say NWO instead of the Outsiders because Syxx was teaming with Hall instead of Nash under Freebird Rules.

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger and Scott Hall (w/Syxx) no contest in 13:02- Larry Zbyszko is guest reffing this match, continuing his beef with the NWO in general and Hall personally. I'm no big NWO fan, but I have serious questions about the impartiality of a referee that clearly hates one of the wrestlers in the match. Hall and Zbyszko are already jawing at each other before the bell. Zbyszko wants the toothpick out. Hall gives it to him in his face. Luger attacks and the bell rings. Zbyszko physically pulls Hall off Luger in a corner break. In the next corner when Luger is on top it's more a straight separation. Zbyszko catches Hall pulling Luger's ponytail and reads him the riot act. Despite everything being settled commentary is *still* talking more about the Hogan situation than calling the match in front of them. They do some basic arm stuff and Zbyszko pulls them apart again on a rope break. Hall wants a test of strength. Of course it's a RUSE. He kicks Luger in the gut and stretches his arms out in a butterfly like hold. And the match grinds to a halt as they both just sit there. Finally Luger reverses it and Hall goes into super sell mode before getting in the ropes. Luger pounds Hall down in the corner. Hall counters with an inverted atomic drop and clothesline. Zbyszko and Hall have some disagreements again before Zbyszko catches Syxx trying to get a cheap shot in. Corner clothesline from Hall for 2. Hall's mad about a slow count and he's right. That was a super old school slow count from Zbyszko. Hall fallaway slam for 2. Sleeper. Luger sloooooooooooowly goes down. Arm drops and Luger fires up, back suplexing out. Hall drapes an arm over for a long 2. Hall punches Luger while Luger's on the apron. Again Zbyszko pulls him away. Hall's had enough. He swings, but Zbyszko ducks and backdrops Hall over the top to the floor! Bischoff is out and he's furious at the biased officiating. Zbyszko kicks him off the apron! Both Hall and Luger just get back in the ring before 10. Slugfest. Luger clothesline. He hits a trio of inverted atomic drops with Hall's usual oversell. Not steel plate assisted running forearm. Luger calls for the Rack. Bischoff distracts Zbyszko and Syxx kicks Luger in the head from behind. Hall (with his usual struggle) hits the Razor's Edge and Zbyszko very reluctantly counts 3 with a huge pause between 2 and 3. He then raises Hall's hand as it looks like the match is over. Then, after declaring Hall the winner, he wants to see the replay. Well tough, you already called Hall the winner, you're too late. We get the replay anyway and see Syxx's kick. Zbyszko overturns the call on VAR and demands Hall return to resume the match. Hall wants a fight with Zbyszko. Zbyszko shoves Hall right into the Rack! Syxx and Bischoff run in as Zbyszko calls for the bell. In the confusion it's never clear if Hall submitted or if the match was thrown out, but the official results say no contest so we'll go with that. Zbyszko takes Syxx out with a guillotine. Hall grabs Zbyszko and Bischoff takes him out with one of his karate kicks, probably a front spin rear ankle forward motion air sweep roundhouse kick. Then Bischoff covers Zbyszko with one foot and Hall counts 3. This was all about the Zbyszko angle, which was pretty stupid to start with. 3/4*

 

Ad for the next PPV, World War 3 with the huge 60 man 3 ring battle royale.

 

Las Vegas Sudden Death Match: "Macho Man" Randy Savage (w/Elizabeth) def Diamond Dallas Page in 18:07- After some time away from each other it's time for the rubber match in this feud that started red hot and was one of the best in WCW in years, but in true late era WCW fashion has been handled poorly and is going out with more of a whimper than a bang. Despite the fancy name this is a regular death match, with victory by 10 count. DDP has taped up ribs as he's had pretty much all feud. Savage won't get in the ring with him after the bell, so DDP hops over the top rope to come to him. Savage gets knocked around ringside before resorting to the old eye poke and taking over. DDP tears Savage's shirt off! Man, we haven't seen shirtless Savage in forever. Back in Savage drops DDP throat first on the top rope. He beats DDP down in the corner. DDP pulls himself back up and goes nuts, as Dusty would say, a'clubberin' Savage in the corner. Double clothesline. Swinging neckbreaker from DDP. He goes for the Diamond Cutter. Savage quickly escapes and goes to the floor. DDP plancha! Savage gets run into the guardrail. Desperation top rope clothesline from Savage. Double ax handle off the top to the floor! DDP gets knocked over the rail into the Flock as Stevie Richards mocks him. Crowd brawl! DDP flops over the rail into the stage area. Whip reversal and Savage gets whipped into the styrofoam tombstones. Slam on a tombstone and it breaks! He whacks Savage over the head with something that was in the area that sounded pretty damn solid. Dusty totally loses it. "HE WOBBLELEGGED HIM!". Savage gets up at 8 and DDP is right back on hm. He pounds Savage back down the aisle toward the ring. DDP goes into the rail and stairs. Head first into the stairs! Savage takes a TV camera! DDP gets his feet up and Savage takes the camera in the face! Sounded like it broke too. Liz comes up and nails the ref with a glass tray! Evil Liz! Then she chokes DDP with the camera cord! Kimberly runs out and stops her! Cat fight! She drags Liz away by the hair all the way to the back. The first ref's carcass gets hauled off as Nick Patrick takes over. Savage is up first, but DDP slugs first. Inverted atomic drop. Front slam piledriver. He calls for the Cutter. Savage uses the ropes to block it. Savage drags himself up to the top rope. He comes down with the elbow but barely. Fantastic selling from Savage. When DDP gets back up Savage slams him. He gets up top again, more easily this time. Fingers up. The full elbow hits! DDP BARELY gets to his feet before 10. Savage comes right up and knees him in the back into the corner. He scoops for a slam, but DDP's feet knock Patrick down. Cutter! What a counter. Patrick is back up and counting. Both are up at 8. Savage hooks for a backslide then low blows DDP. Oh GREAT the NWO Fake Sting is coming out. God forbid we get a clean finish in what had been a hell of a match so far. He whacks DDP in the back with his bat. Tony, finally, shows some brains and says there's no way that was the real Sting. DDP can't get back up and it's over. Savage gets a couple more shots in after the bell and DDP does the stretcher job. Fairly lame finish and the wrong guy won for the final blowoff. Despite that and the fact the feud had cooled off a ton that was damn good match. Everyone usually remembers the Falls Count Anywhere match at Great American Bash the most, but this was the best match of the trilogy. DDP was never the smoothest or most gifted wrestler, but he knew how to lay a match out and work it to maximum effectiveness as well as anyone, while this is probably the last time Savage got anywhere close to his classic WWF form as age and injuries continue to pile up. ***1/2

 

Steel Cage Match: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper def WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hollywood Hogan in 13:37- Speaking of rubber matches, here's another one, and one that pretty much no one asked for. Piper defeated Hogan in a non-title match at Starrcade, then Hogan got one back defending the title at Superbrawl. Piper's since settled into the Commissioner role with WCW, but he's getting back in the ring because Hogan. This being a non-title match again is a bit of a giveaway as to the winner. That also keeps the streak alive. The WCW World title has still been defended only three times on PPV this year, and only once since February. Buffer says during his spiel that "The survivor.....if there is a survivor....will be declared the winner". Soooooo is this to the death or something? If it means we never have to suffer through another Piper/Hogan match I might take those terms. This isn't just a regular cage, WCW got out the Hell in a Cell sized/WWF blue bar style oversized cage out for this one. The old Thundercage. Oh, Piper has the belt with him. Another "someone steals the belt" angle from WCW. That makes 3 or 4 times they've done that this year. Hogan does the usual chickenshit heel runaway while Piper poses with the belt and gets his entrance gear off. It does help in that it confirms the door is locked. Piper chases and Hogan tries to climb. That structure is not too stable and it's not securely anchored anywhere, I don't know how high I'd go up that. Piper bites Hogan's ass! That makes Hogan fall back down. The bandana is off! Now Piper bites Hogan's back. And his head. Hogan begs off in the ring. Piper does the two finger eye poke. Atomic drop. Right on the ass bite mark. Commentary points out there's no ref in the ring, making it even more unclear exactly how this match is supposed to be won. Hogan climbs again and Piper low blows him. Hogan blocks a cage shot and runs Piper into it. He shouts to "open the door". For all we know that's how you win. Yup, the door is now unlocked and open. Piper charges up and pushes Hogan out the door. OK, so escaping the cage is not a condition for winning. What is? Tony says "they both got out at the same time" even though Hogan was clearly out first. Hogan swings the door into Piper's face! Piper gets crotched on the guardrail. Hogan says "I'm outta here, I don't need this crap" and walks. Man, real point to having the cage. A Sting stops Hogan in his tracks. Pretty sure that's fake Sting but who knows. Trying to find logic in this match is like trying to analyze the plot of a Star Trek: The Next Generation season 1 episode. All you'll get is misery. Piper gets Hogan back in the cage and the door is locked again. Both guys flop around like they've been wrestling for 45 minutes but somehow I think it's not all selling. Piper takes more cage shots. Both guys climb up and fight near the top. Meanwhile, there's a second Sting! A second Sting has appeared! Somehow they get near the top and the whole cage structure doesn't collapse. Nothing happens and they both climb back down. OK then. Back in the ring Hogan whips Piper with hits weightlifting belt. He slaps Piper around while letting him know about it. Then Hogan decides to climb again. No, not there. Over here. He gets to the top and goes over. One of the Stings is waiting for him at the bottom. Piper climbs up and drags him back over. Slugfest on the top of the cage, which is honestly a good visual as tall as it is. There's more Stings! The whole arena has been invaded by Stings! They're like Doinks at this point. Now Piper gets on the cage exterior with Hogan inside. Hogan chokes him on the top bar and pulls him back over. We're still counting Stings as both guys come down and get back in the ring. Piper chokes Hogan with Hogan's own shirt. Hogan has the title belt and whacks Piper with it. Legdrop! Now Hogan calls for the ref to come in and count him out. Hogan drops another leg, covers, and Piper kicks out at 2. So if you can win by pinfall why was there no ref in there to start with? Savage makes his way out and climbs up the cage. Hogan holds Piper. Savage leaps off the top of the cage! He completely misses everyone but still, he came off the top of that cage, that was nuts. He was supposed to hit Hogan so Hogan goes down. Piper tosses Savage out and hooks on the sleeper! Three arm drops and Hogan's out! They got maybe 10% of the crowd reaction they wanted for that win. No pop at all. Dreadful match, nothing made sense, neither guy could or would put any effort into it, just atrocious on every level. The slugfest on the top of the cage and Savage's crazy dive is about all that saves this from MFS status. DUD

 

After the bell Bischoff comes in to help Hogan and Savage. Hogan grabs one of the Stings and tosses him in the cage. His mask comes off and it's clearly not the real Sting. The NWO group handcuff Piper to the cage and go to work on him. Hogan puts the Sting mask on just for the hell of it. A fan comes in from the crowd with Sting face paint on and climbs the cage. The unmasked fake Sting tackles him and holds him down. Hogan and Savage then go nuts on him. Doug Dellinger and the security crew come in and drag him out. After all the weirdness of the match, this might be the weirdest thing of all. It looks like a legit fan run in the way everyone wails on him, but the way they put focus on him instead of turning away it seems like it was planned. I think to this day no one knows for sure which it is. And then the show just ends.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- I don't think there's a single show in the history of professional wrestling that's more of a wild roller coaster ride, match quality wise, than this one is. You've got an all time classic in Mysterio/Guerrero and two really good matches in Nagata/Dragon and Savage/DDP. But then you've got absolute atrocities in Disco/Jacqueline and Hogan/Piper, and just a plain bad match with Mongo/Wright. Commentary being in full bitch fest mode about Hogan half the night instead of calling matches was also extremely annoying. Instead of trying to calculate anything out I'm giving this a grade right in the middle and moving on. Just be warned if you watch this whole show you might need a night in the hospital for severe whiplash.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C