10 Times Wrestling Companies Had To Apologise To Fans

6. Halloween Havoc 1998 Causes Chaos

Raven Sandman Crucifixion ECW
WWE.com

That image there is of Bill Goldberg pinning Diamond Dallas Page at Halloween Havoc 1998 after hitting his patented Jackhammer. While that should go without saying, it's an image that anyone who ordered the PPV never got to see live.

This '98 edition of WCW's famed October event is viewed as a disaster for numerous reasons. While Ultimate Warrior and Hollywood Hogan put on one of the worst matches in PPV history, that horror was outdone as the show entered its main event of Goldberg vs. DDP.

Just as these two were about to lock-up for Da Man's WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the PPV feed cut off and left fans confused and angered as they were robbed of the main event. The following night's Nitro opened by Tony Schiavone apologising for this mishap and announcing that the Goldberg vs. Page contest would air for free later that night.

The irony is, this DDP bout is largely viewed as Goldberg's best match of his career - yet those who tuned in to PPV to see it were left short-changed!

As an interesting footnote, that post-Halloween Havoc episode of WCW Nitro was the final time that the show would beat WWF Raw in the ratings. From there on out, Raw bested Nitro for every single week up until WCW was assimilated by Vince McMahon's promotion in 2001.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.