This week’s episode is dedicated to the memory of Captain Lou Albano. Which is a nice touch.
And this week we’re looking at matches from various WCW Halloween Havoc PPV’s. This was WCW’s October PPV and survived from 1989 till 2000.
Our first match comes from Halloween Havoc 98 (Oct 25, 98). And its for the WCW TV Championship between Chris Jericho and Raven. Raven starts off talking about his losing streak & complains about forces working against him and refuses to wrestle. Then tries to walk away back down the ramp. Jericho grabs the mic and also complains about not wanting to be there too. And talks about jerichoholics who want to see him wrestle. Of course, he goes onto insults. and Raven is baited back into the ring. Jericho is beating on Raven, using his clothing as a weapon. Hits him with a clothesline, but Raven is able to get back here. Sending both of them over the top ropes. Raven drops Jericho with a front suplex onto the steel steps, and then uses the steps to help him launch onto Jericho. They go back into the ring, Raven showboats and we go to an ad break.
Back in, Jericho drops Raven neck first onto the top rope, and hits a springboard dropkick to knock Raven off the apron onto the ground. Jericho goes to launch himself onto Raven, who sidesteps, leaving Jericho to go head first into the railings. Raven uses the steel steps as a weapon again before Jericho turns it around slingshotting Raven into the railings. They go back in, and Raven uses a shirt to strangle Jericho, before locking in a sleeper hold. Jericho turns it around with a belly to back suplex, then drops onto Raven, and exposes the turnbuckle. Things go around until Jericho is powerbombed onto the ground & slingshot into that exposed turnbuckle. Jericho comes back again and it takes a belly to belly suplex to knock him down. They go at each other until Jericho tries to lock in the Liontamer (known these days as Walls of Jericho). Raven gets to the ropes, breaks the hold, and hits a DDT. They fight back and forth with a couple of near falls for each man. Jericho ends up smashing another man off the apron, and he locks in the Liontamer again and Raven taps. (have to admit that the bit at the end where Jericho is jumping around excitedly is worth watching this for).
Up next we’re seeing the debut of the WCW Halloween Phantom at the 1991 event (Oct 27, 1991) against Tom Zenk (who is known as Z-man by the commentary team). The Phantom starts off strong with punches, a clothesline and and a scoopslam. Z-man basically gets beaten around in lots of different ways here, from dropped elbows to punches. Z-man tries to come back, but no offense seems to hurt the Phantom, and he hits a double underhook reverse DDT (better known as Christian’s finisher, Kill Switch) to get the win.
And we go straight into Paul E. Dangerously cutting a promo where he is talking about introducing the only man who can destroy Sting. And we are shown the Halloween Phantom being unmasked. The Halloween Phantom is Ravishing Rick Rude. They’re basically talking a lot about how they’re trying to destroy WCW and it sounds like they want to start with destroying Sting.
We’re going to Halloween Havoc 96 (Oct 27, 1996). And we’re going into the invasion of the NWO. Who are trying to take over WCW inside & outside of the ring. Scott Hall & Kevin Nash (founding members of the NWO) are trying to get the tag team championships from Harlem Heat. Hall starts off in with Booker T, and Hall is working on Booker’s shoulder. Booker manages to get in a pretty impressive kick. Hall takes control here, knocking Booker down. They break and stare each other down again, Booker locks in an arm hold, but it only takes a few seconds for Hall to reverse and try and gain control. He gets hip tossed out over the top ropes and Stevie Ray & Sister Sherri beat on Hall outside the ring. They go back in, Booker tags in Stevie, and then Hall spits in his face & tags Nash in. They stare each other down, and Nash starts delivering punches, knees and elbows. Stevie comes back here and spits in the face of Hall once he knocks Nash down onto the mat. Into an ad break.
Straight back in, Nash is beating on Booker. and as Nash distracts the ref, Hall hits him with a clothesline, and then gets tagged in. Hall hits what looks like a chokeslam, and Stevie breaks up the pin attempt. Booker tries and fails here when Hall catches him in mid air and throws him. Sherri slaps Hall while standing on the apron, and Hall kisses her in… retaliation? A spinning kick knocks Hall down, but he gets up and locks in a sleeper hold. Booker manages to send Hall into the ropes, and then catch him in a sleeper hold of his own. But Hall lifts him up and crotches him on the top ropes. Both men get up, and then they knock each other down. Booker is the first to make a tag and Stevie delivers punches to both Hall and Nash. (Hall being the legal man). Stevie lifts Hall up, and throws him into Nash. Booker gets involved and throws Nash out of the ring. Harlem Heat hit a “Harlem Hangover”. But it doesn’t equal a win. Nash gets a cane from Col. Parker, smashes Stevie with it, and sets Hall up to get a three count and the win.
Our main event comes from Halloween Havoc 89 (Oct 28, 1989). Lex Luger is the champion, and is battling flyin’ Brian Pillman for the US Championship. Â The men lock up and go into the corner. They break up and then lock up again. They break for a third time and lock up again. Luger finally starts to beat on Pillman and hits a scoopslam. He throws Pillman out, and he flies back in. Pillman takes this opportunity to throw Luger around and out of the ring. Pillman delivers chops outside of the ring and throws Luger back in. They end up outside again and Pillman chases him around. Luger takes control when the men go back into the ring. And we go to an ad break.
Back into the action, Pillman hits a chop and tries to gain some control. Luger uses his power to knock Pillman down to the ground. Luger kicks him while he is down and drops forearms down onto him. Luger hits a standing vertical suplex to a two count. Luger starts dropping elbows but Pillman fights back. Luger gains control again throwing Pillman to the outside. Luger pulls him back in again, but Pillman tries a sunset flip back into the ring. Pillman sends Luger to the outside and when he comes back in, he delivers a series of punches. Luger takes over again with an inverted atomic drop and tries to set him up for a Superplex. Pillman pushes Luger down and flies down with another sunset flip. Pillman hits a flying elbow and tries to keep Luger down while he flies over the ropes. Pillman had him set for a three count but Luger manages to get his foot onto the ropes. Pillman hits a neckbreaker and climbs back up onto the ropes to try for a dropkick off the top rope. Luger moved out of the way and manages to slam Pillman neck first onto the ropes for a three count. Still the US Champion, Lex Luger.
That brings us to the end of the look back at things that can relate to Halloween. Next week we’ll be starting to look back at various matches from WWE’s Survivor Series PPV’s.
Hope everyone enjoys their Halloween!
