The Complete History Of The New World Order | Wrestling Timelines
October 25, 1998 - WCW Is A Joke
The rise of antihero Steve Austin does not happen without the nWo.
In another publicity stunt, it’s now Bischoff’s turn to borrow from the WWF, which is well into its second boom. Austin is the man, but the creative direction, teeming with sex and bad taste controversy, is a hit with young adult males. Bischoff believes that is the path WCW must take. He is catastrophically wrong.
As is the very idea of Kevin Nash Vs. Scott Hall. Hall’s alcoholism is now his gimmick, which plays into the match. It’s slow, plodding, drastically removed from a heated grudge match between two former friends. Nash trash-talks Hall and mimes opening a beer before hitting him with the Jackknife and walking away, losing voluntarily via count-out. The idea is that Nash cares more about teaching his friend a lesson than beating him, but it’s very rich of WCW to exploit Hall’s addiction and present a purportedly moving scene at the same time.
Halloween Havoc is a disaster.
In an even worse match than the Road Wild main event, Hogan beats the recently signed Warrior. In the ultimate stanza of poetry, a terrible, supernatural-leaning storyline quite literally blows up in Hogan’s face when he burns himself with the fireball he was meant to aim at his opponent. This follows some of the most wretched, phoney action ever presented in a marquee match. Hogan, cool by association for a couple of years, is now back on 1995 form.
There’s one very strong match at Halloween Havoc ‘98: Goldberg’s successful defence of the title in the main event. He goes over DDP, who gets over as a ring general for guiding Bill through it. Unfortunately for WCW, approximately 25% of the paying audience don’t see it, since several systems providing the feed cut it off early when the show runs too long.
An enforced replay of the main event on the following Nitro actually breaks the all-time cable wrestling ratings record, but it’s nothing more than a spectacular consolation goal.