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WCW Halloween Havoc 1998 Review: Results, Analysis and Grades

By Michael Whitlow

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Screenshot via WWE Network

Negatives

  • There have been some botches that stick out more than others throughout pro wrestling’s long history. Halloween Havoc in 1998 might have brought one of the more famous botches. The plan for the end of the Hollywood Hulk Hogan-The Warrior match was for Hogan to lit a piece of flash paper on fire and burn The Warrior’s eyes to distract him and win the match. Well, things didn’t go as planned, and Hogan actually burned himself in the process. The match was already an all-time dud, and things didn’t get better when Horace Hogan — Hollywood Hogan’s nephew — improvised and hit Warrior with one of the worst chair shots in the history of wrestling.

The rematch from their WrestleMania VI main event was nothing more than a complete failure. How bad was it? Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter rated the match -5 out of five stars; the worst rating for a WCW match in history.

  • The Diamond Dallas Page-Goldberg main event was fantastic, but nobody knew until the next night. Yes, the finish of the match wasn’t seen by many fans until the next night on Nitro. How is that possible? Well, just like WWE pay-per-views now, WCW’s pay-per-views ran three hours usually. This pay-per-view ran closer to three-and-a-half hours, which means some pay-per-view feeds were cut off as the main event got going. It was yet another botch that led to the demise of WCW. Fans were given one of the worst matches of all-time and missed one of the event’s greatest matches in the process.
  • Scott Hall’s alcohol problem was brought to the light during this version of the Halloween Havoc pay-per-view. It’s been well-documented and it’s quite a sad story. Throughout the year of 1998, Hall’s drinking issues were brought on camera, which was an atrocious move by WCW. During the month of March in 1998, Hall actually showed up to an event intoxicated and under the influence of painkillers. Hall and long-time friend Kevin Nash had a great rivalry throughout the year — that involved Hall turning on Nash and aligning with nWo Hollywood — but it’s a sad fact that it revolved around Hall’s drug addiction.

Next: The Underrated Moment of the Night

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