Why WWE Won't Touch WCW's Halloween Havoc
You will not believe the reason given by an insider...
WWE revived WCW's Great American Bash, Starrcade and WarGames ideas. They've also bid to trademark Wrestle War and probably several others, but it has always confused older fans why Vince McMahon has never touched the ready-made Halloween Havoc IP.
Bruce Prichard told why on his 'Something To Wrestle With' podcast.
According to the current Executive Director of Raw and SmackDown, Vince feels that Halloween is a largely North American concept and doesn't have global appeal. You have permission to let those eyes bug out of your head, because this makes no sense and is actually quite contradictory.
WWE previously tried to trademark the pay-per-view name in 2019 and regularly produce Halloween-themed episodes of SmackDown centred around the annual, ghoulish festivities. Also, as Prichard himself realised mere moments after giving his explanation, the Great American Bash has less international flavour than Halloween.
Oh dear.
WWE recently ran 'The Horror Show At Extreme Rules'. That pay-per-view theme would've been better later on in the year when people were wrapped up in Halloween spirit, but it happened in July. Obviously, Bruce was struggling to think of an answer so just gave the first one that came to mind.