WWE Network
THE BEST OF WWE:
The Best of Halloween Havoc

Does it come across to children that WWE is responsible for EVERYTHING on their network? Obviously to us old nerds, we know otherwise, but the way it’s presented, it looks WWE is creatively responsible for the world’s wrestling. IS IT JUST ME? I don’t know.

Love the intro – although it’s missing Tony Schiavone from Havoc ’93. They do admit WCW created Halloween Havoc at least.

We witness the cool setup of Lex Luger defending his NWA U.S. title against Brian Pillman at the first Halloween Havoc PPV. I don’t think Luger gets enough credit for making Pillman look as good as he did. Even though he had been trained by the Hart family and spent a few years as part of the revival of Stampede Wrestling in the late 1980s, Pillman had only been on WCW TV for about three months and had been given an “undefeated” push on the show. They show Pillman challenging Luger and putting him down with AIR PILLMAN that had put everybody down. Simple setup to the Halloween Havoc match that puts Pillman in a totally different light.

• NWA U.S. Heavyweight Championship: Lex Luger (c) vs. Brian Pillman – (NWA Halloween Havoc 1989)

Luger is in full-blown awesome heel mode, but people seem to LOVE him more in 1989 as a heel than they did as a face. Luger punks Pillman around to start, but Pillman retaliates and dropkicks Luger out to the floor. Back in, Pillman tries for AIR PILLMAN (springboard clothesline), but Luger avoids it. Pillman chases Luger around the ring, but gets nailed because Luger’s the first man back in the ring. Luger stomps away in the corner and then whips Pillman across the corner, but Pillman counters and springs back on top of Luger for two. Pillman grabs an armbar. Luger comes out with a knee to the gut, but then Pillman FLIPS OUT of an hiptoss and levels Luger with a dropkick. Back to the armbar they go. Luger powers Pillman back into the corner, but then runs into a boot! Pillman heads up top for a top-rope splash, but Luger moves out of the way! Crowd loves it. Luger goes to work on the midsection of Pillman. He even takes a few moments to talk trash to the crowd. Pillman tries to fight back with chops, but Luger drills him with a clothesline. Make it two! Luger connects with a stalling suplex and even claps for himself after he does it! He takes forever to cover and only gets two. Pillman tries to fight back again, so Luger just throws him to the floor. Luger hammers Pillman on the apron, but when he takes a moment to jaw at the crowd, Pillman surprises him with a sunset flip for 1-2-NO! Luger guns for the running clothesline, but Pillman ducks and Luger flies out to the floor. Back in, Pillman attempts a 10-count corner punch, but Luger fights out with an inverted atomic drop. Luger sets Pillman up in the corner for a superplex, but Pillman shoves him off! He leaps off the top for a sunset flip for 1-2-NO! Jumping back elbow by Pillman sets up AIR PILLMAN and it connects! HOLY CRAP! NEW CHAMP? NO! Pillman covers Luger while in the ropes. Pillman wants to go for it all now and drops Luger with a reverse neckbreaker to set up a Missile Dropkick, but Luger moves out of the way just at the last second. Luger whiffs on another clothesline, but then catches Pillman off a crossbody and delivers a quick hotshot for the 1-2-3! (16:49) Luger was to 1989 what Barry Windham was to 1988. By that comparison, I mean he was GREAT. Pillman was great too. ***½

Next up, we see the six-month set up for the THUNDERDOME CAGE MATCH including Ric Flair and Sting against Terry Funk and the Great Muta. Not enough shown of that post-match brawl between these four at the end of the Great American Bash. I love when Funk throws a chair at Flair and Flair goes running after him. Just epic.

• Thunderdome Cage Match with Special Referee Bruno Sammartino: Ric Flair & Sting (w/Ole Anderson) vs. Terry Funk and the Great Muta (w/Gary Hart)

Oh man, the THUNDERDOME cage match! It’s just like the hell in the cell but without a top. It’s also supposedly electrified at the top to keep you from escaping. The only way to win this match is for either team’s second (or manager) to throw in the towel signaling that his team has had all they can stand. By the way, Bruno Sammartino is the special guest referee for this one. Funk gets OWNED by the faces to start. Sting takes Funk out to the floor and rams him face-first into the cage. Back in, Flair whips Funk from corner-to-corner and chops him down to set up a rolling knee drop. He rolls right into Muta and slaps him off the apron! Haha. Sting dropkicks Funk into his own corner to tag in Muta. Sting goes crazy on Muta and tags in Flair. He connects with an inverted atomic drop and follows up with another rolling knee. Sting tags and takes Muta to the floor for some cage-bashing. He even tries to RAM Muta through the cage while Flair and Funk brawl around ringside. Back in, order is restored and Sting gets caught in the heel corner. It eventually breaks down as they pair off (Flair/Funk, Sting/Muta) and just pound on one another. In the ring, Muta hits a snap suplex on Sting. Flair makes the save and dumps Muta out to concentrate on Funk. Sting comes back and delivers face slams to both Funk and Muta. Flair and Sting double-team Muta to lead into the SCORPION DEATHLOCK, but Funk makes the save. They pair off again, as Flair and Funk end up climbing the cage and slamming each other’s faces into the cage! Funk falls down while Muta is climbing up on the other side. Sting brings Muta down, but gets nailed as they get back in the ring. Meanwhile, Funk and Flair are back to climbing the cage! Flair BRUTALIZES him by just beating the crap out of him while he’s hung up on the cage wall! Sting has Muta up in a Military Press Slam. He teases to toss Muta out to the floor, but then he just slams him down in the ring. Sting ends up going up after Funk while Flair trades some SERIOUS chops on the floor with Muta. Flair brings Muta into the ring and sets up for the FIGURE-FOUR while Sting swings from a rope into Funk that hangs from the top of the cage wall, trying to bring him down off the cage! Once Flair gets tired of the Figure Four and decides to help Sting, he takes a spin kick to the back of the head from Muta. Mutalock on Flair is applied as Sting and Funk are still fighting on the cage. Funk ends up using the same rope Sting used to swing on and ties Sting’s leg to the cage wall! Ole Anderson helps him break loose because Flair realizes he’s in big trouble. Funk and Muta deliver a Spike Piledriver to Flair! Sting finally gets perched and LEAPS from the cage wall onto Funk! Amazing! Sting chases Muta up the cage wall while Flair sets Funk up for the FIGURE-FOUR. Muta gets off the cage and fights back with a backbreaker on Sting to set up the MOONSAULT, but Sting crotches Muta up top. Flair finally applies the FIGURE-FOUR on Funk! Sting heads up top and SPLASHES Funk! Awesome. Sting returns to the top and does it again! Muta tries to nail Bruno, but Bruno slaps him back and knocks him out to the floor. Gary Hart heads into the ring, so Ole follows him in and pops Hart to cause his towel is to land on Bruno’s back to give Flair and Sting the win. (22:04) Fun match with some really great spots going down, but it still didn’t seem to be on par with some of the other stuff they were doing at the time. That doesn’t mean it was bad, because it wasn’t. In other ways, it felt like it should’ve been more chaotic with all the heat these four generated in other arenas. ***

They show the finish to the Steiners winning the NWA U.S. tag titles from the Midnight Express. The Nasty Boys come along as their top challengers at Halloween Havoc 1990. We get to see the contract signing, which of course goes real bad for the Steiner brothers. Halloween Havoc 1990 is one of my OLDEST recaps, so maybe one day I’ll give it a second look.

• NWA U.S. Tag Team Championship: The Steiner Brothers (c) vs. The Nasty Boys – (NWA Halloween Havoc 1990)

This thing breaks down IMMEDIATELY! While the ref is trying is in the ring with Rick and Knobbs, Sags nails Scott in the head with a steel chair down on the floor! These two go in the ring while Rick and Knobbs go out to the floor. This isn’t a No-DQ match, people. This is just nuts. Scott flips out of a superplex and jumps up at Sags for a super belly-to-belly suplex! Scott covers, but Knobbs breaks it up at two. Finally, we get some order which leaves us with Scott and Sags. The story to set up the match goes as follows: the Nasty Boys come into WCW and beat the ever-living crap out of the beloved Steiner Brothers so therefore, they get a US tag title shot. Sags ducks low off a whip to set up the tiger driver. The Steiners hit the double-team top-rope bulldog on Sags! Scott covers but Knobbs comes in to break up the pinfall with a steel chair, but the ref never saw it. Sags slides out as Knobbs covers for a near-fall. Knobbs begins to work on Scott’s lower back. Sags tags in and delivers a pumphandle slam and then a side suplex for two. Knobbs tags in again and applies an abdominal stretch. Rick comes in and breaks up the hold to allow another no-tag switcheroo by the Nasties. Sags grabs a bearhug, but Scott escapes with his belly-to-belly suplex. Knobbs comes in to cut off Scott from tagging Rick, so he takes a Steinerline. Rick tries another but Knobbs ducks, sending Rick crashing out to the floor. Inside the ring, the Nasties deliver a SPIKE PILEDRIVER to Scott! Sags covers, but Knobbs can’t be in the ring at the same time. While the ref is busy trying to get Knobbs out of the ring, Rick comes in and nails Sags in the back with a steel chair for a little payback. Sags makes the tag to Knobbs and he comes in to apply some more bearhug. He backs Scott into the corner, but then runs into a boot. Knobbs wisely tags in Sags and then holds on to Scott so he can’t make it the tag. This is smart tag-team wrestling that you didn’t see out of the Nasties in later years. Somehow, Sags has his forehead lacerated from that chairshot from Rick earlier, but he hit him in the BACK of the head? Sags applies a Boston crab which is a very smart move. Paul E is intrigued that Sags is busted wide open and it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. There are SO many signs to what he would be famous for in years to come on this commentary. Scott flips out of the Boston crab, but the Nasties prevent the tag once again. Knobbs applies a STEINER RECLIN-I mean, camel clutch to continue working on the back. Scott finally makes his comeback when Knobbs misses a double-team corner charge and Sags gets dropped with a Steinerline. Rick gets the long-awaited tag and destroys the Nasties with Steinerlines. He hits a belly-to-belly suplex on Knobbs for two. Scott comes in and then gets dumped to the floor by Sags, which leaves Rick all by himself with the Nasties. He gets dumped as well, but once the Nasties turn their backs on him, he leaps up to the top for double-Steinerlines! Scott yanks Sags out off a whip and slams his head into the ringpost. Meanwhile in the ring, Rick drops Knobbs with a Steinerline to set up the FRANKENSTEINER! It’s over. (12:27) I miss the days when your tag teams are just as over as your singles stars. Anyways, the match started fast and furious with some great action but then it died down tremendously once the Nasties took control. The Nasties used basic tag-team skills and almost took the straps, but the Steiners were just a little smarter at the tag team game. For some reason, WCW didn’t sign the Nasties to a full contract, so the WWF took them right in and gave them the tag belts at WrestleMania six months later. After the match, the Nasties attack the Steiners from behind as they celebrate with their belts. Rick even gets double-whipped into the steel ringpost! **¾

They show what happened when DOOM broke up and Ron Simmons came out looking like the man. After beating Butch Reed in a cage match, Simmons goes after Lex Luger and the WCW world title. Luger, Mr. Hughes, and Harley Race embarrass Simmons at every turn – but that could all come to an end at Halloween Havoc 1991!

• 2/3 Falls for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship:
  Lex Luger (c) (w/Harley Race) vs. Ron Simmons (w/Dusty Rhodes) – (WCW Halloween Havoc 1991)

FIRST FALL: Mr. Hughes has been barred from ringside to prevent any triple-teaming which had been a trademark of Luger’s title reign. Lots of stalling to start. Once they make contact, Simmons really tries too hard and makes a mistake by missing a dropkick. Simmons comes back with a Powerslam to set up the SPINEBUSTER for the three-count at 4:54.

SECOND FALL: They get a 60-second rest period in between falls and Dusty uses his time wisely to calm Simmons down so he doesn’t make a mistake. On the other side of the ring, Race doesn’t say much and looks back over at Rhodes every few seconds. The rest period ends and Luger is grabbing at his back and really selling the Spinebuster. Simmons counters a suplex and then whips Lex from corner-to-corner before delivering a backdrop. Simmons catches Luger with an elbow out of the corner and hits a bulldog for 1-2-NO! Luger goes low, but Simmons surprises Lex with a small package for 1-2-NO! Luger sells the back some more and then pulls Simmons out to the floor, but Simmons comes back in quickly with a sunset flip for 1-2-NO! Simmons tries a running clothesline, but Luger moves and lets Simmons fall out to the floor. Back in, Luger does some lazy stuff like eye rakes and choking. Elbow drop gets two. Luger gets a powerslam, but can’t cover immediately because of his sore back. This time Luger catches Simmons out of the corner and drops him with a clothesline for two. Luger manages a suplex and slowly covers for two. Luger grabs a chinlock and uses the ropes for leverage, but Simmons powers out and gets a rollup for 1-2-NO! Simmons gets a backslide for another near-fall. Simmons tries to come off the ropes, but Race grabs his foot. Dusty comes over and bionic elbows Race to death, but evidently not good enough as Race grabs Simmons as Luger charges at him and makes it look like Simmons gave Luger a backdrop over the top rope to get Simmons DQ’ed and earn the second fall for Luger at 16:26 total.

THIRD FALL: Another 60-second rest period goes back with Rhodes and Race doing the same thing as before. Luger gets in a cheapshot and pounds away, but then Simmons begins to NO-SELL and fire back with ten-count corner punch. Luger tries to come out with an atomic drop, but Simmons escapes and drops Luger with a clothesline for 1-2-NO! Backdrop gets two. Superplex gets two. Powerslam sets up a Flying Shoulderblock, but Luger rolls out to the floor. Simmons follows him out and tries a three-point stance up against the ringpost, but Luger moves and Simmons eats the steel. Back in, Luger hits the PILEDRIVER and that does it for 1-2-3. (21:59 total) While it told a good story, the action was rather dull. I don’t know if that spinebuster in the first fall knocked the wind out of Luger and he just never recovered or what, but he wasn’t himself here tonight. **¼

Hogan debuts and wins the WCW world title from Flair at Bash at the Beach, has a masked man destroy Hogan’s knee at the Clash of the Champions, and then Hogan forces Flair into a “retirement” match inside a STEEL CAGE at Halloween Havoc 1994. The WWE voiceover guy calls this is one of the best matches ever in WCW. Let’s be real — it’s not even the best Hogan and Flair match, much less one of the best WCW matches of all-time.

• “Career vs. Career” Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with Special Referee Mr. T: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. Ric Flair (w/Sensuous Sherri) – (WCW Halloween Havoc 1994)

This is the rubber match! Brother Bruti comes out for Hogan’s entrance, but returns to the dressing room because he’s got other things to do. Hogan gouges and clotheslines a lot to start. He grabs his doo rag and tries to shove it down Flair’s throat. Mr. T shoves Hogan back from the corner and people start to get excited and wonder if T’s going to deck Hogan, but it goes nowhere. Flair goes low and tries to send Hulk into the cage, but Flair tastes the steel instead. Flair goes after the knee and takes Hogan to school. Flair hits the Rolling Knee Drop, but Hogan reverses a cross corner whip and follows in with a clothesline. Hogan tries to choke Flair down with his t-shirt before Mr. T takes it away. Flair comes off the top with a double-ax handle to turn the tide. Flair delivers a vertical suplex and Hogan actually stays down for two. Hulk NO-SELLS some chops and fires back. Flair tries to climb out the cage and Hogan follows him up to smash his head onto the rim of the cage. Of course, Flair walks across the top rope and gets crotched. Hogan runs into a boot in the corner, but once again NO-SELLS chops. Hogan grinds Flair’s face into the cage. Flair tries to climb out again even though that’s not an option for you to win. Hogan pulls him back in by his trunks and smashes his face into the steel mesh some more. Out of nowhere, Flair counters a headlock with a shinbreaker and once again takes Hogan to school. Woo! The FIGURE-FOUR is applied in the center of the ring! Hogan sells for about twenty seconds and then reverses the hold. Hogan runs inadvertently into Mr. T and apparently knocks him unconscious. Guess by simply being a special referee, you contract that referee’s syndrome where you start to see the lights of heaven any time you make physical contact with another person inside the ring. Flair delivers a back suplex as Sherri starts to climb into the cage. Jimmy Hart tries to pull her down and winds up taking off her evening gown. Whoa we see lingerie. Sting ends up jumping the rail and tries to yank Sherri down by her feet this time. He gets her down, but the MASKED MAN comes from underneath the ring to whack Sting with a billy club. Jimmy Hart gets whacked too. Now Sherri can freely climb into the cage to help Ric Flair. The masked man starts to climb the cage too and wedges the billy club into the cage somehow for Flair to run Hogan into the billy club. Sometimes throwing your opponent into a steel cage is just not enough. Meanwhile, Sherri handcuffs Mr. T to the bottom rope. Hogan NO-SELLS a Flair suplex and then ducks a double-clothesline only to come back around and level both Flair and Sherri. Hogan delivers the Big Boot to Sherri and HULKS UP when Flair starts chopping. The Big Boot and the LEG DROP finish off Flair. (19:20) One of Hogan’s better WCW matches, but the politics are off the charts here. Flair controlled maybe 20% of that whole match. And that’s it. Other than a few mentions from Tony, Bobby and Okerlund, that was as far as the goodbye for Flair went. They do the best they can at making it look like Muhammad Ali is handing Hogan the WCW world title belt. **¾

For the sake of the Halloween Havoc special, we skip over the part where Hogan reveals the masked man as Brother Bruti because we’d all rather just forget it.

Next, we see the build to Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio in a “title versus mask” match. Eddie screwing with Rey and ripping off his mask on Nitro was pretty insane.

• “Title versus Mask” for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship:
  Eddie Guerrero (c) vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. – (WCW Halloween Havoc 1997)

Incredibly loud “Eddie sucks” chants. He tells Rey that he’s going to beat him and take the mask right off his face. Eddie goes to punch Rey, but Mysterio ducks and fires back. He tries a quebrada, but gets caught and armdrags Eddie away. Monkey flip takes Eddie over and now Rey puts him on the floor. He tries a fake dive and lands on the apron, but Guerrero yanks him down onto the floor! The dude is just MEAN. As if that wasn’t mean enough, Eddie grabs Rey and runs him head first into the steps. Back inside, the Hilo connects. Rey is on the move with a dropkick and tries a handspring into something, but Eddie grabs him in mid-air and drives him with a back suplex. Brainbuster and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker score nearfalls on Mysterio. As if the moves themselves aren’t impressive, the impact at which Eddie delivers them make them mean that much more. You’ve seen Eddie do those moves a thousand times, but it makes you feel something more when he does them in this match. An abdominal stretch allows Eddie to rip at Mysterio’s mask which is part of his purple body suit. Fans of WCW/NWO Revenge will remember the gear. Mysterio never hiptosses this hold away and instead receives a pumphandle backbreaker. Guerrero tries to hold down Rey down for a pinfall, but Mysterio manages to escape and leap onto the top rope for a QUEBRADA DDT. Holy crap. Tony says that was one for the highlight reel for the year. Just poetry in motion. Mysterio wants to fly out on the floor and Eddie knows it, so he quickly gets back in the ring and dropkicks Rey down when he lands on the apron. Guerrero whips Rey into the guardrail and brings him back inside for the camel clutch. Another hold he can easily rip at the mask. He switches over to the Gory Special, but Rey manages to get loose and armdrags his way out. Eddie swats away a dropkick though and then dropkicks Rey in the back of the head. Just nasty.

Canadian backbreaker leads to a bow and arrow submission. When Guerrero gets bored with that, he whips Rey in for a jumping back elbow for two. They trade blows over in the corner – which of course Eddie wins – and then tosses Rey into a tree of woe on the opposite side. Eddie builds up to a baseball slide, but Mysterio sits up and Guerrero posts his balls. As Guerrero rolls out to regroup, Mysterio is perched up on the top turnbuckle and planchas down onto Eddie. Back inside, Rey avoids another tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and catches Eddie with a jumping hurracanrana for 1-2-NO! Eddie runs him down with a clothesline, but then Rey goes on the move again and twists through the ropes into a headscissors that takes them both over the top rope and to the floor. Rey finally gets that somersault plancha, but this time HE UPS HIS GAME as he keeps going and twists Eddie around into a headscissors. Back in the ring, Mysterio continues his offensive ways with a corkscrew moonsault off the top for two. Split-legged moonsault hits knees allowing Guerrero to hit that DISGUSTING powerbomb for 1-2-NO! Eddie starts to show some frustration. He runs Rey into the corner and calls for a charge, but Rey launches him into the corner. Spinning heel kick takes Eddie down as Mysterio calls for the Springboard Hurracanrana. Eddie sees it coming and catches Rey with a backbreaker! That’s just cruel. Mysterio still manages to roll away from the Frog Splash. Eddie somersaults away as well, but catches Mysterio charging in the corner and launches him onto the top turnbuckle. Mysterio gets his feet taken out from under him as Eddie looks to end this with the Splash Mountain. Instead, Mysterio counters with a Hurracanrana and gets the HUGE upset victory to recapture the cruiserweight belt. (13:51) One of the greatest performances of my generation. Not just all the fancy highlight reel moves, but the way in which they were all executed to perfection. Eddie gives one of the best heel performances I’ve ever seen. He took everything to another level. Not saying that this was a broomstick match by any means, but all Rey Mysterio had to do was follow his lead. If you could find anything wrong with this match – and I’m open to criticism – I do not think you will win the argument. *****

We look back at the AWESOME 1997 feud between Diamond Dallas Page and Randy Savage that made DDP’s career. Well, besides the Diamond Cutter finish, but the move didn’t much matter until Savage got the Diamond Cutter, amirite?

• Sudden Death Match: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage

DDP’s ribs are taped. No surprise there. The rules are simple: there are no rules, but the only way to win is beat your opponent down until he cannot answer the ten count. Lots of in and out of the ring brawling to start because this is a BLOOD FEUD. DDP catches Savage with a swinging neckbreaker and tries the Diamond Cutter to no avail. Savage escapes out to the floor only to be met with a pescado from Page. That’ll do a number on your ribs. After Savage gets sent into the guardrail right over by Raven and company, Savage snaps DDP’s neck on the top rope and delivers the Flying Double Sledge to the floor. They take it into the crowd and all the way to the Halloween Havoc set. Savage gets whipped into some Styrofoam tombstones and coffins. Page picks up another piece of the set and breaks it over Savage’s head.

Dusty – “HE WOBBLE-LEGGED HIM! DID HE WOBBLE-LEG HIM? HUH? I LIKE DIS! HE WOBBLE-LEGGED HIM! HE PICKED UP THE WAITRESS TRAY AND BUSTED HIM WITH IT! OH MAN!”

Tony – “The waitress tray? I don’t see a waitress anywhere!”

Bobby [to Dusty] – “You’re talking from experience, huh?”

Dusty – “I’m telling you, yeah. I’ve used one a couple times.”

Savage is up at seven. Time to get back to ringside, guys. Savage manages to reverse a whip into the guardrail. He then sends Page into the steps as well. One time wasn’t enough though as DDP bounces his face off the steps again. When DDP starts moving, Savage tosses him in the ring and roughhouses the camera away from cameraman Jackie Crockett. As he goes to whack DDP, the feet come up and Savage eats the camera. As the ref starts to count, Elizabeth appears with another plastic tray she probably found in catering and breaks it over ref Mickey Jay’s head, which is strange and awesome because she never gets *this* involved. She walks over to DDP and starts choking him with a cable! AWESOME. Of course Dusty calls it an extension cord. Showing off her butt floss, Kimberly rushes down to ringside to save her man. This is *SO* rasslin. Although Elizabeth isn’t very good at slapping people, Dusty goes into JR mode before it became a thing by repeating the same word “catfight” over and over again for effect. Kimberly grabs Elizabeth by the hair and takes her back to the locker room. A trainer takes a still KO’ed Mickey Jay to the locker room as ref Nick Patrick comes out to replace him. Hmm, this smells fishy. DDP punches back, atomic drops, and Pancake Slams Savage. DIAMOND CUTTER? NO! Savage hooked the top rope. With very little impact, Savage delivers the MACHO ELBOW to the ribs. Savage tries again and this time gets a second wind to hit his target. DDP is up right before the ten count. Savage knees him into the corner and goes to slam him, but Nick Patrick gets wiped out as Page hits the DIAMOND CUTTER. Both guys are up at eight. Savage avoids a second Diamond Cutter and low blows Page – causing him to crash through the ropes to the floor. While Savage has a hold of Patrick (even though there’s no rules), a fake Sting (clearly Hollywood Hogan) walks out and blasts DDP in the ribs with a bat to keep DDP down for the ten-count. (18:09) DDP ends up doing a stretcher job out of here. Savage decks Nick Patrick to show that there’s no shenanigans going on there. I wonder what the effect would have been if Hollywood Hogan had just come out and whacked DDP in the ribs with a bat instead of having to put on the Sting gear. What difference does it make at this point? No one is buying it when a Sting character does something detrimental to WCW wrestlers anyways. Just stop it already. This was a great fight and unfortunately the final outstanding match of Savage’s career. ***

GOLDBERG. GOLDBERG. GOLDBERG. CAN DDP BEAT THE ODDS?

• WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Goldberg (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page – (WCW/nWo Halloween Havoc 1998)

Despite being HUGELY popular in 1997-98, this was DDP’s first world title shot on PPV. We see the classic Goldberg entrance where he’s escorted by police out the tunnel. DDP is JACKED as he would say for this match. He gets up in Goldberg’s face and gets shoved down after a couple tie-ups. On the time that he doesn’t get shoved down, they tumble out to the floor still tied up. Back in, Goldberg shrugs off a heel trip and takes DDP down in a cross armbreaker. Page goes for a random DIAMOND CUTTER and gets shoved off to the floor. After some regrouping, DDP goes after the arm. Goldberg comes back with a shoulderblock, but Page snaps off a quick hotshot and hits a swinging neckbreaker. DDP keeps up with the fast moves with a Russian legsweep for two. He continues to hold onto Goldberg with a front headlock. Goldberg knees out of that and hits that spinning neckbreaker he does. He follows up with a hiptoss and a side slam for two. He applies another cross armbreaker, but Page makes the ropes. Another side slam attempt is countered into a tilt-a-whirl headscissors! Reverse kick sends DDP back into the corner, but he leaps up to avoid a SPEAR, sending Goldberg shoulder-first into the ringpost. Back in, Page hits a flying clothesline for two. Goldberg is favoring his shoulder quite a lot here. Hiptoss is countered by Page into the DDT. Page motions for the DIAMOND CUTTER, but turns around into a SPEAR! Too bad Goldberg used his sore shoulder to pull that off. He tries for the JACKHAMMER, but he can’t lift Page up. He gets him up, but DDP flips out and turns Goldberg around into the DIAMOND CUTTER. Slow cover gets 1-2-NO! Page tries a suplex, but Goldberg kicks away and uses the momentum to lift DDP up despite the sore shoulder into the JACKHAMMER for 1-2-3. (10:30) Many call it Goldberg’s best match and for good reason. He did a great job selling the shoulder and had you believing Page had a shot at beating him because of it. ***¼

Final Thoughts: Some typical choices, some not so typical like the two Lex Luger matches. Definitely something fun to have going on in the background that will catch your attention from time to time as this has a runtime of three and a half hours. Recommended!