It may not contain the highest quality Wrastling of any Halloween Havoc. But the point of Halloween Havoc was to be a the Pro-Wrestling version of a fun Halloween Special or Halloween appropriate film. And I doubt any others (I have indeed not properly seen all of them) can compete with this one in that regard.
I've talked before about how I've never really been scared by any Horror movie so being genuinely scary isn't what I look for in a Horror film. And much of what I enjoy watching when I get in a Halloween mood is a lot of Campy ridiculous Trashy "so bad it's good" type of horror content.
Halloween Havoc 95 being the peak of the Dungeon of Doom story-line is as good as any Halloween Havoc ever managed to be at that. "THE YETI" is the perfect Halloween moment in my mind. I didn't get to see this event live when it first happened since I became a Wrestling fan mostly in 97, but I'd rented it on VHS back in the day and it was a riot, I loved it and I'll always have fond Nostalgic memories of it.
I'd also rented the previous Halloween Havoc once, it's Main Event being Hogan vs Flair in a Steel Cage retirement match felt more like a Starcade Main Event to me. They should have maybe done the first Hogan vs Vader here instead of putting it off (he was in Kayfabe already the Number One Contender) and had SuperBrawl be the rematch.
I was not watching Wrestling yet in 93, but from what I know about the Black Scorpion story-line I feel like it was probably originally conceived of with the idea of the blow off being at Halloween Havoc, the angle seems to have started back in August and it could have been a very fitting angle for the Halloween themed PPV. I don't know if the delay till Starcade was because of Executives wanting to milk it more or because of everything that went wrong behind the scenes with who it was gonna be, but my theory is it was originally for Halloween Havoc, and would have felt more fitting for it then just Sting vs Sid.
During the NWO era this mostly just became one of the few events Hogan would actually work at. The Warrior was doing some cool stuff in 98, I loved the build up to that match I don't care what anyone says, but the match itself was a dud.
My Birthday happens to be Halloween, because of that and when my brother was born, Halloween Havoc and Wrestlmania happened to be the only PPVs we had a chance of getting our parents to actually order. I wish I'd pulled the trigger on that sooner for 97 which is probably a more highly regarded event the two I did get to see.
I do overall still love Halloween Havoc 98 however. Bret vs Sting and Hall vs Nash did not disappoint, the Steiner stuff was a fun train-wreck and Goldberg vs DDP was probably the best actual match WCW put on in 98 as a Main Event (we were not one of the houses for whom it was cut off, we got the whole match).
But then I had the unfortunate luck to waste my last birthday of the 20th Century on the WCW debut of Vince Russo. I understand a lot of the arguments Russo apologists make, WCW was already on a downward spiral before this, but I was excited for Heel Sting vs Hulkamania, it was the main thing I wanted to get that PPV for, and Ruso ruined it.
My unique Nostalgia for Halloween Havoc makes me annoyed it's not one of the WCW PPVs Vince has ever brought back. Clearly what to do for the October PPV is something they struggle with, making it the stupid annual Hell in a Cell PPV.
It's kind of too late now since The Undertaker has it seems truly retired for good, and he should. What would have made a WWE Halloween Havoc in the Ruthless Aggression era great is seeing it headlined by the Wrestling Icon who most compliments it's premise. It could have been home to a Taker vs Kane match, or some new rival for The Taker.
Who knows maybe in the future some new Halloween fitting gimmick will get over.
I decided not to wait for October to post this since I don't know if I'll still be in the Wrestling mood I am now. If I am I'll remind people of it.
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