WCW Halloween Havoc 1995 - Joe Louis Arena, Detroit Michigan, October 29th 1995

The show opens with a hilarious campy video package promoting tonight’s double main event - Monster Trucks and a title match.

Commentators Tony Schiavone and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan tells us that Hogan and The Giant are warming up and show footage of the two of them already in their trucks and revving their engines, totally giving away that tonight’s sumo match is pretaped. In other news, Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman have attacked Ric Flair backstage ahead of their tag team match later and he is now a question mark as to whether he’ll be able to compete! More on that later.

WCW World Television Championship

Diamond Dallas Page © (w/The Diamond Doll and Max Muscle) vs. Johnny B. Badd

To my shock, this match gets a video package! It seems most of the build took place on WCW Saturday Night.

DDP has, in addition to the Diamond Doll (his real life wife Kimberly), Max Muscle and the TV title, the “Badd Blaster” which he stole from Johnny on Nitro a couple of weeks ago. That's the spooter which allows Johnny to shoot confetti into the crowd. Badd makes his entrance but it's a decoy - someone else wearing his cape - and the real Badd man comes through the crowd to jump Page from behind! 

This starts out quite heated with Badd beating Page up inside and outside the ring. They spill into the crowd and there’s a fun spot as he puts a metal bucket on DDP’s head and then claps on it! One of those spots which wouldn’t hurt but in the panto world of pro-wrestling was devastating I’m sure.

Johnny dominates it back in the ring but misses an attempted slingshot leg drop over the ropes, allowing Page to take over and control things. He slowly works over Badd with kicks and sleepers as Heenan and Schiavone discuss his $13 million? There’s been no mention of this on Nitro but fortunately I know the story - DDP’s gimmick is that he won the lottery! DDP demands Diamond Doll hold up a “10” score card for his efforts but she doesn’t look happy about it. She strongly disapproves of DDP’s recent change in attitude and heel antics. 

Johnny fights Page off from time to time but on each occasion he’s shut back down with a right hand of a clothesline. Badd kicks out of a suplex and an elbow off the ropes and fights back with a top rope crossbody which Diamond Doll gives him a 10 for! Page tries for the Diamond Cutter but Badd grabs the ropes to block it and they tumble to the outside. Badd hits a flipping senton up and over the ropes onto both Page and Max Muscle but Page continues to kick out. The fans are into this and it's definitely not a bad match but it's not very smooth either. 

Max Muscle tries to help and clothesline Badd while Page has him held but the challenger ducks and he hits his own man! Johnny B Badd punches Max Muscle off the apron and pins DDP to win the World Television Championship! The Diamond Doll looks very happy for Badd with a big smile on her face. Does she have a thing for him, or is she hoping that losing this match will force DDP to change his attitude a little? Not a bad opener. 

Randy Savage vs. The Zodiac

Wasn’t this match supposed to be Macho Man vs. Kamala? Why yes, yes it was but (spoilers for the finish) Kamala refused to lose to Randy Savage and so quietly left the company. We won’t be seeing him again. Savage goes after Zodiac quickly and as a fan gets into the ring. It’s hilarious how long it takes to get them under control as the poor referee is left grappling with them until security arrives. Randy and Zodiac just bail out of the ring and ignore the whole situation, returning to the ring once they’re gone. Zodiac misses a splash off the middle rope, Macho Man follows up with the diving elbow off the top and wins this match in about 90 seconds. Savage’s left arm is heavily, heavily taped up basically from wrist to shoulder. Is his injury real or not? Believe it or not even 30+ years later no one is sure.

Backstage Mean Gene Okerlund plugs his WCW hotline premium phone number with the tease that someone from the WWF will be jumping ship to WCW. I’m not sure who he means but we’ll see lots of people from the WWF come and go. He interviews the new World TV Champion Johnny B Badd who cuts a cheerful babyface promo about dreams coming true.

Road Warrior Hawk vs. Kurasawa (w/Col. Robert Parker)

Before this one there’s a quick recap of Kurasawa breaking Hawk’s arm last month. He did a terrible job of selling it, moving it around without a bother. Kurasawa is pretty awesome I think, I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen of him so far. Neither of these guys is super tall but they wrestle this as a big man vs. big man match. Kurasawa hits a sort of half-Samoan drop and pins Hawk while Col. Parker grabs his ankle from the outside for extra leverage. That gives Kurasawa the three count and he quickly leaves with his manager as Hawk protests in the ring. A quick and fairly pointless match, but I’m glad Kurasawa’s undefeated streak continues. 

Mean Gene is having a busy night and interviews Macho Man. One down - one to go. He’s looking forward to facing Lex Lugar later and says that no matter how friendly he is with someone outside of the ring, in the ring he’s all business. That’s a message to Sting and WCW Champion Hulk Hogan. He and Gene have a funny back and forth, accusing each other of having crooked facial hair. Macho Man ends this by saying that he and Hogan may be close but his focus will always be on winning the WCW World title.

Sabu (w/The Sheik) vs. Mr. JL

This match is a rematch from Nitro. This is the first (and I think only) time that Sabu has had his uncle the Sheik with him. He knocks JL down on the outside and hits a big springboard moonsault, taking out his own uncle. Back in the ring they continue with the mostly flips and rope based offense. Sabu gets a near fall with a slingshot leg drop and JL gets one with a german suplex off the middle rope. Sabu hits the same flipping slam off the ropes he used to win their first match but JL kicks out. He follows up with another springboard splash and that’s enough to pick up the win. A nothing match but Sabu is always fun to watch. 

Post match, The Sheik throws a ball of fire into JL’s face! Amazingly, that wasn’t a planned spot and he just…did that. I love his curved Ali Baba sword, it's a shame we won’t be seeing him again.

Before the next match, the two leaders of the Dungeon of Doom speak to us from the entrance way. The Master screams about the moon and fate while The Taskmaster (aka Kevin Sullivan) looks like he’s struggling not to laugh. No idea what he’s doing with his face during all of this. It descends into silliness as while he continues to talk about ancient powers and magic, the Master also has to casually mention that the Dungeon of Doom’s monster truck is far superior to Hulk Hogan’s. “Hogan’s demise is etched in stone! Mwahahahahaha!”

Elsewhere backstage, Hulk Hogan precedes over the giving away of a Harley Davidson bike. It was won by Mike Hill who is standing by with his family. It looks like two couples but one of the wives is very babyfaced so maybe it was his daughter? I have no idea. Hogan takes the opportunity to remind us of The Giant crushing his bike with a monster truck a couple of months ago. 

Interestingly, while Tony Schiavone talks about next month’s PPV - World War 3 - he mentions that the three-ring 60 man battle royal will be for the WCW World title but then has to correct himself and says it’ll be for a title shot. He might have mistakenly given away some of the future booking there! 

Lex Lugar vs. Meng (w/The Taskmaster)

At the start of this match, Heenan and Schiavone discuss how while the Dungeon of Doom have attacked all of Hogan’s friends they suspiciously keep leaving Lex alone. I’m not sure that’s exactly true - he’s been chokeslammed by The Giant at least twice. Lugar overpowers and throws Meng around the ring while the commentators continue to pick apart Lex’s mental stage. There’s something going on with him. Of note, Randy Savage has accused both Lex and Sting of being in cahoots with the DoD over the past month. 

This match is a lot longer than I expected as Meng works over Lugar with chokes, chops and a nice piledriver. There’s more storyline drama as Lugar is knocked to the outside and it would be VERY easy for The Taskmaster to get some cheap shots in with Meng distracting the referee however he doesn’t take the opportunity and leaves Lex alone. Meng more of less dominates this match and might actually just have the match won clean, locking in his Golden Spike hold but The Taskmaster gets in the ring and throws a weak kick at Lex Lugar, getting Meng disqualifided. That means Lex wins and will now face Macho Man later but what does it mean for Lex and his relationship with the Dungeon of Doom? 

Mean Gene interviews Race Car Driver, the 7”4 Giant. He cuts an angry shouty promo about Hogan which isn’t super interesting but he does end by saying that Hogan is going to put the WCW title on the belt, then realises he messed up and just starts shouting to draw attention away from it. 

Ric Flair and WCW United States Champion Sting vs. Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman

I commented on this on Nitro but once again Sting comes out without his US title belt. It's like he doesn’t even care. Ric Flair isn’t around to start the match and we’re left to wonder about his physical condition after Arn and Pillman’s sneak attack earlier today before the show. All three of these guys are great wrestlers so the action here is good but there’s nothing on the line, and this storyline is about Flair not Sting so I wasn’t that invested. 

Sting fares well against Arn with technical wrestling and throws around the smaller Pillman with ease. Sting wants Arn in the ring - they’ve been at odds for a long time, mostly as an extension of Sting’s forever-feud with Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen. There’s a really nice spot as Pillman and Arn try a double team but Sting reverses and catches Pillman on the top rope, launching him from there all the way down to the security railing. 

Finally, Ric Flair runs down to the ring but he isn’t even dressed to wrestle in his dress slacks and belt, a large bandage on his head from the attack earlier. He struts and Woos on the apron, cheering on Sting while the fans chant “we want Flair”. He hams it up hilariously threatening to hit Pillman with one of his shoes as Sting is worked over and ground down in the opponents corner.

Sting is awesome, dramatically twisting and diving to try and make the tag and falling just short time and time again. After a long, long bout of selling Sting finally manages to make the tag and Flair…immediately turns on him, rocking Sting in the mouth. Sting is hilarious here, fighting like he’s really angry and going furiously after Flair. He’s beaten down three on one and the match is thrown out as a no-contest.

Mean Gene catches the three of them leaving for an interview. Flair is awesome (obviously) but it's unclear on how long this conspiracy has been going and what the game plan was - it doesn’t appear that any of these three men have designs on Sting’s US title. The important thing is that the Four Horsemen are back together and I guess looking for a 4th? Mean Gene says this is “the worst thing he’s ever seen” but he isn’t too disgusted to promote the WCW Hotline. I don’t think this big turn makes a great deal of sense but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and see where it goes.

Backstage, Mike Tenay interviews Lex Lugar who says that there’s clearly other powers at play in WCW and someone wants to see him and Macho Man hurt each other. He’s happy to oblige because he’s had the same goal since day one and that’s to become the WCW World Champion. At one point, Lugar’s eyes kept darting down so I think he might have been reading this promo but I don’t want to be mean - it wasn’t bad. 

Sumo Monster Truck match

WCW World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan vs. The Giant

This video package goes all the way back to The Giant’s first appearance. My favourite details are that The Giant is “the son of Andre” and threw his father’s shirt at Hogan? Like he wouldn’t remember Andre without a shirt to remind him? Makes no sense whatsoever. Disclaimer - this video has a lot of talk about Monster Trucks.

On commentary for this match is Eric Bischoff replacing Tony Schiavone and Bob Chandler who is our engineer and monster truck expert. Up on the roof, a little blonde man with a mullet explains the rules to the participants. The trucks are locked together bumper to bumper and the winner will be the man who pushes the other truck out of the circle.

The trucks look cool but I have no idea who this appeals to. Heenan does his best to make this sound dangerous by asking about the pyro charges up on the roof as well as the amount of fuel. Shots fade together and the position of the trucks as well as the other people on the roof changes so just like at the start of the show, it's extremely clear that this was all pre-taped and heavily edited. The trucks go back and forth as Bob Chandler says that The Giant has an advantage because Hogan is new to Monster Trucks. After a few minutes of tedious back and forth, Hogan’s truck pushes The Giant’s out of the circle and “wins”. The two of them get out of their trucks and start to fight near the edge of the building, brawling up onto the wall that circles it. Hogan wins the fight and knocks him off the roof, falling five stories to the concrete. Hogan flips out and runs off to get some help as even he is worried about what’s just happened.

Back in the arena, the commentators are stunned and amazingly when Heenan asks Bischoff whether he fell off into the parking lot or into the river, Bischoff says “what’s the difference?”. Bobby can’t hide his exasperation at that. The difference is literally life and death, Eric. He and Bob Chandler pack up and head off so that Tony can take back over and the PPV can continue. I guess we might not see that World title match in the main event seeing as The Giant is dead. 

Lex Lugar vs. Randy Savage

Lugar and Savage get face to face and Lex offers a handshake and says “may the better man win” before attacking Savage like a man possessed. He seems to have snapped, stomping and kicking and hammering Macho down in the corner.

To everyone’s surprise, Jimmy Hart comes down to ringside to watch this match. He is Hogan’s manager so has a loose affiliation with both of these guys as they’re united against the Dungeon of Doom but Savage accused Jimmy Hart of being in cahoots with the DoD in addition to Lugar and Sting. Randy fights back with right hands to the stomach but is beaten to the outside. Heenan pays no attention to this match and instead goes on and on and on about The Giant, angrily demanding updates on his condition and talking about being unable to do his job. Tony tries to calm him down by saying that despite how it ended, it was an amazing battle. No Tony, it wasn’t. These two go back and forth while Jimmy Hart gets up onto the apron for some reason. He distracts the referee from counting a pin for Lex and then he and Lex bang heads which leaves him easy pickings for a Macho Man elbow and a victory for Randy Savage! He battled through an injured arm to win two matches tonight.

There’s a long stretch of down time before the next match as Bobby Heenan goes really overboard demanding updates, begging on his knees as Tony Schiavone looks exasperated. To be fair, it is annoying but on the flip side, Tony looks like an asshole who doesn’t care if The Giant is alive or dead. 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship

Hulk Hogan © (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Giant (w/The Taskmaster)

Michael Buffer gets in the ring to make the introductions for the main event. We don’t even know if The Giant is alive or dead and when he’s introduced first, Hogan’s music hits instead. He walks to the ring looking somber and serious in all black. Hogan gets the mic and starts to address the fate of The Giant. Michael Buffer looks enormously confused so I can only assume no one told him the storyline.

As he talks, The Dungeon of Doom’s music hits and The Giant comes out looking none the worse for wear. He is apparently super human and fell five stories to the concrete and shrugged it off like nothing. This is, incredibly, The Giant’s first match in WCW and only his second professional match overall. He got the job in WCW by being gym buddies with The Hulkster. 

Giant beats up Hogan mostly with chokes and clubs as we see Hogan has the same black devil horns painted on his forehead as The Taskmaster. Is he embracing the darkside, or falling to it? The fans rally behind Hogan…kind of. He’s been getting a healthy mixture of cheers and boos on Nitro for the past couple of months. 

The match is slow and there’s not a lot to talk about. Giant wears down Hogan with slams and a back breaker followed by a long, long bearhug. Hogan makes Giant look great, selling like his back is broken and complaining that “he’s too strong” to Jimmy Hart at ringside. Tony and Bobby talk about about Giant’s “father” Andre and their match at Wrestlemania III. WCW basically wants everyone to treat The Giant like he IS Andre, aura, name value and all. 

Hogan fights out with right hands and actually has to bite Giant to break the bearhug but runs right into a chokeslam! Hogan kicks out at two and starts to Hulk up. It doesn’t get a great reaction - the crowd are sick of this. I was a big fan of the way the referee pointed at Giant, just like Hogan. He’s rocked with right hands, a big boot, an impressive bodyslam and the big Immortal Leg Drop. We’ll never know if Giant could kick out as Jimmy Hart hits the referee, knocking him out? Jimmy sells like he doesn’t know what happened but then he hits Hogan from behind! Jimmy Hart has joined the Dungeon of Doom. The match is over - officially, The Giant wins via disqualification (because Hogan’s manager attacked the referee) and as he puts Hogan back in the bearhug, Macho Man and Lex Lugar run down to make the save. The Yeh-tay comes out next! It’s spelt Yeti but I’m trying to capture the way everyone in WCW says it.

There’s too much going on at once as Lugar turns on Macho, attacking him and apparently ALSO joining the Dungeon of Doom. Macho Man was right about him. The Yeti joins in with the bearhug and he and Giant both crush Hogan and Macho. It looks terrible - it's more like Yeti is massaging Giant’s shoulders from the front. Michael Buffer announces that Giant wins by DQ but he is NOT the champion as championships cannot change hands via disqualification or count out. Remember that for Nitro tomorrow night. He takes the title belt anyway and the Dungeon of Doom leaves Hogan and Randy laid out in the ring, leaving as a united force with Hogan’s WCW World title belt in their possession.