WCW Halloween Havoc 1997: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our globally celebrated loved/hated format! The first time we did this, we went back to WWE Badd Blood 1997; the second time, it was WrestleMania XXX. For our third offering, we're celebrating "WWE NXT's recent Halloween Havoc PLE (along with, you know, Halloween itself) by returning to 1997 (only three weeks after Badd Blood, in fact) — but for the first time, we're leaving WWE behind, jumping over to what was then its fiercest competitor, World Championship Wrestling. That's because Halloween Havoc was originally a WCW event, and there's no more famous Halloween Havoc than the one featuring the famous clash between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio.

Like our previous installments, Halloween Havoc 1997 occupies a unique place on the timeline of wrestling history. With the New World Order angle in full swing, 1997 is widely considered to be WCW's best year — and Starrcade 1997, with its controversial main event, is widely considered to be the beginning of the promotion's downfall. When Halloween Havoc went down, Starrcade was just two months away, meaning we're looking at something resembling peak WCW ... for better or for worse.

It's a shame our format doesn't allow us to cover the entire show, especially since several of our writers had never seen it before. Chris Jericho vs. Gedo, Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger, Randy Savage vs. Diamond Dallas Page — these are all matches we won't be discussing here — but only because we had so many feelings about everything else! With that in mind, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WCW Halloween Havoc 1997!

As someone who has never really gone back and watched a whole WCW event in its entirety, rather extensively research into the why behind everything and cherry picking specific matches or storylines to pay attention to, Halloween Havoc 1997 was something in itself a new experience for me. Nevertheless, there was an instant familiarity with the event from the get-go, picking up with wrestlers I have grown accustomed to watching like Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, and Chris Jericho. But before them, on the show opener, was an equally impressive and familiar outing from Ultimo Dragon and Yuji Nagata.

I am a long-professed fan of Nagata and his work in NJPW and more recently AEW, but admittedly I had never had a closer look at his WCW excursion until now. This was a great match to open the show, one with a clear story after weeks of damage to Dragon's shoulder, and one that was followed to the tee by the in-ring work. Everything that makes wrestling work was on display throughout this bout, the villains' brawn and brains – Nagata and Onoo – against the valiant efforts of the hero, rallying with the crowd behind them. But as would go on to be the theme of the show, there would be no victory for the babyface on this night. A match that served its role well and set the tone for the event, this wasn't going to be the night for happy endings.

One thing that particularly stood out with this bout, and the others in the opening third of the card, was that every move had a rhyme and a reason for its use. Contemporary wrestling, in comparison, can stand out and over worked and produced, and it's almost too clean to be a simulated fighting contest. That's by no means a slight on the modern product as a whole, as there are often outliers in every era in every regard. But this match in particular brought that idea to mind, not everything looked clean but it conveyed a degree of reality, a sense of psychology behind the offense, a live-action chess game of grappling, and an all-round clinic in professional wrestling. That is why both of these guys are wrestling around the world today and that is why they are so heavily revered, just an evergreen understanding of the squared circle.

Written by Max Everett

Rey Mysterio believes this classic WCW feud with Eddie Guerrero put him on the map, and this Mask vs. Title match is arguably their crowning achievement. Guerrero and Mysterio could have wrestled each other in their sleep, as they were frequent in-ring opponents with a trustworthy camaraderie behind the scenes. However, the pair went above and beyond for their bout at Halloween Havoc '97, setting the bar high for the company's innovative cruiserweight division.

Most fans will come out of this one remembering some of the impressive high flying, with Mysterio's rope flip/hurricanrana spot creating a highlight reel moment for the ages. That said, the bout is a masterclass in storytelling and psychology, with both performers playing their respective roles to perfection. Guerrero spends most of the match trying to keep Mysterio grounded while tearing away at his mask, aiming to humiliate his opponent and strip him of his cultural heritage. Mysterio, meanwhile, has always been the ultimate sympathetic babyface, and understanding the significance of his mask makes it impossible not to root for him here.

Mike Tenay also deserves credit for highlighting the significance of masks in lucha libre — a concept WCW struggled to understand given that Mysterio, Juventud Guerrera, and Psicosis were stripped of their head gear for the sake of it later on. Still, the Title vs. Mask match at Halloween Havoc '97 was the rare occasion where lucha libre traditions felt important in WCW, and we have Mysterio and Guerrero to thank for that.

Written by Kieran Fisher

On its own, the match between Steve McMichael and Alex Wright was quite solid. The appearance from Goldberg gave it that "big deal" feeling with just how much star power he carried at the time with his undefeated streak, and it was the perfect way to set up what was next to come between the three men with McMichael taking back the ring that Goldberg had stolen from him in the closing moments of the match and Wright facing McMichael in a rematch at WCW World War 3.

Having the commentary team spend pretty much the entirety of the match, though, discussing NWO business and hyping up the Steel Cage match between Hollywood Hogan and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper became extremely distracting while trying to watch the action going on in the ring. It took away from the match, as it felt like what was happening in the ring wasn't as important as the NWO when in fact the exact opposite should be happening and commentary should be doing what they can to get fans at home excited about watching the match.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

Full disclosure, this was the first time I've ever watched Halloween Havoc 1997, as four year old me wouldn't even remember, even if my family was watching WCW back in the day. I was pretty pumped to put this on to enjoy a retro show after covering "WWE NXT's" Halloween Havoc premium live event on Sunday, and the vibes between the two shows just worked for me, despite the almost three decades between them. My lists of potential "loves" was much longer than my "hates" for this show, but this intergender match was at the top of my "hated" column.

I'll keep my thoughts on present-day Disco Inferno to myself, but I also remembered that he was initially fired from WCW for refusing to lose a match to Jacqueline, as he believed he'd lose all credibility by losing to a woman, but looking back at it, how much credibility did a guy disco dancing looking like a stereotypical pretty boy heel have? Disco Inferno was hired back after he agreed to lose the match to Jacqueline at this show, so I suppose it's important to WCW lore in at least some form.

Disco said in a segment prior to this match he wasn't allowed to kick or punch Jacqueline, and not that I want to see any form of man-on-woman violence, I of course know the "fake" aspect of professional wrestling at my age now. So hearing this, I just knew even ahead of the match it was going to be a strong contender for a "hated" segment. After the bell rang, Jacqueline kept going after Disco Inferno in the ring, but he kept ducking under the ropes and took forever just walking around on the outside of the ring. The referee also kept Jacqueline away from Disco at some points, which didn't entirely make sense, as she was allowed to strike him in the match rules. The commentary team wasn't interested in this match in the slightest, and just kept bringing up the issue with "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan demanding Sting sign a contract to keep him out of the arena, or he wouldn't wrestle in the main event.

Disco hit Jacqueline with a drop-toe hold and a hip toss, but that was about the extent of his offense. Jacqueline got him down in the middle of the ring and sent him crotch-first into the ring post. She got all her offense in right before the match ended including a cross body from the top that Disco countered into a pin attempt. Jacqueline was able to get a roll-up and score the victory. This match was stretched out for quite some time with all the running around, going almost 10 full minutes of absolutely nothing. Disco Inferno moved on from feuding with Jacqueline after this loss, and in the grand scheme of things on a show that was already pretty long and full of actually fantastic matches, this had no business running on a pay-per-view.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Ric Flair and Curt Hennig are widely regarded as two of the best in-ring performers to ever lace up a pair of wrestling boots. They were arguably past their primes in the late '90s, but even declining versions of "The Nature Boy" and "Mr. Perfect" could deliver a solid bout on their worst days. This match for the United States Championship is perfectly fine as an in-ring spectacle, but it's tainted by Hennig bringing the wrong title to the ring.

According to wrestling folklore, no one in WCW could locate the whereabouts of the United States Title at the time, so Hennig had to make do with the Cruiserweight Championship — the same belt Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero fought for in a bona fide classic earlier in the night. Hennig and Flair probably assumed fans wouldn't notice the error, but it's hard not to when the cameras catch it in full focus.

What's more, the commentators demeaned the U.S. Championship more by insisting that Flair didn't care about it. Sure, his beef with Hennig was personal and rooted in him wanting payback for the champ betraying the Four Horsemen to join the NWO. But that point can still be emphasized without making the title seem worthless. Still, late '90s WCW wasn't exactly known for elevating its championships.

Written by Kieran Fisher

Coming in to this Halloween Havoc completely blind, I wasn't aware what the main event even was until the show began. I have a personal soft spot for "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, as he was my mom's favorite wrestler when he was in WWF. In recent years, I've found Hulk Hogan's heel turn as "Hollywood" Hogan pretty fascinating as I've started to watch more WCW. I've always been a cage match stipulation-lover and the absolute sheer ridiculousness of everything leading up to this match just made me chuckle to myself while I was watching. It's pure 90s goodness, from the way the way Eric Bischoff and Hogan's backstage promo was shot to start off the crazy that would continue throughout the night.

The main event was in question for a bit during this PPV, as Hogan wanted Sting to sign a contract to make sure he wasn't even in the building. If Sting didn't sign, Hogan wouldn't wrestle Piper. Which is all well and good, but was someone going to deliver the contract to Sting's hotel room? Have him grab and sign it driving by in his car? He'd need to be near the arena to sign it, at least. Maybe I was overthinking a silly storyline, but I found that bit amusing. Then, a WCW "executive" came out to tell "Mean" Gene Okerlund that the main event was going to go on ahead as planned, which was just more silliness on top of it all.

The match itself is absolutely nothing great and nothing really to write home about, other than the fact that Piper won by submission. Before that, Hogan pulled a "Hey, I'm out of here" act to the referee and started to storm up the ramp. However, he was met by a fake Sting (Hogan himself had portrayed a fake Sting earlier in the night to try and take out Randy Savage) and doubled back to the ring. Throughout the rest of the match, fake Stings kept appearing around the ring and from the crowd. It was so goofy, it was almost captivating, but certainly entertaining for someone who has never been that interested in WCW.

"Macho Man" also interfered in the match. He scaled the cage and attempted to hit Hogan with a hammer drop, but completely missed, but Hogan still sold the heck out of it. There's also a "fan" dressed up as Sting who scaled the cage and got involved, but in my research, there's no mention of who this fan was, if they were a plant, or what, which just adds to the absolutely delicious craziness of this all. Whoever it was got their butt kicked. There was nothing "good" about this match, outside of Piper winning, but with all of the crazy little storylines and interferences, as a kid who grew up in WWE's Attitude Era who loves some silly drama that makes no sense in her wrestling storylines, I absolutely loved this all. Halloween Havoc needed some chaos, and the main event delivered all throughout the night.

Written by Daisy Ruth