Halloween Havoc 1995: The Yeti, the Roof, and WCW's Most Glorious Train Wreck

Johnny B. Badd and Diamond Dallas Page give Halloween Havoc its most conventionally satisfying wrestling match. Page controls long stretches with heel tactics and repeated chinlocks, which drags the middle, but Badd's comeback has enough pace to wake the crowd back up. Maxx Muscle's interference eventually backfires, allowing Badd to win the Television Championship and giving the opener a useful title change. CAGEMATCH currently rates the match 6.08, Thomas Hall graded it B-minus and TJR landed at two-and-a-half stars. The finish is overbooked, but the structure works and both men look like wrestlers worth investing in.

Randy Savage against The Zodiac is a squash designed to move Savage toward a second match later in the evening. Zodiac gets almost nothing, Savage hits the flying elbow and the match ends before any real story develops. A fan jumping the barricade briefly creates more tension than the wrestling, which is never a good sign for a pay-per-view bout. TJR rated it half a star, and the short runtime keeps it out of CAGEMATCH's matchguide. The brevity prevents serious damage, but there is no reason to treat this as anything more than a television angle occupying pay-per-view space.

Kurasawa versus Road Warrior Hawk has a legitimate storyline foundation from Kurasawa's earlier attack on Hawk's arm, but the match is too short to use it. Hawk controls most of the action with power offense, Parker creates the distraction and Kurasawa steals the fall with extra leverage. Thomas Hall was relatively generous with a C, while TJR rated it one star and criticized how little the match accomplished. The result protects Kurasawa enough to continue the issue, but there is no meaningful escalation. It is a three-minute heel win that feels more like Saturday Night filler than a Halloween Havoc attraction.

Sabu and Mr. JL produce a frantic sprint that is simultaneously entertaining and almost completely without connective tissue. Moonsaults, dives, a sit-out powerbomb and a German suplex arrive so quickly that the match feels edited even while watching it live. The athleticism is obvious, and in 1995 this style looks genuinely unusual on a WCW pay-per-view. Hall graded it C-plus, while TJR was much lower at three-quarters of a star because the bout never gets time to breathe. Sabu's win is secondary to the spectacle, and The Sheik's post-match fireball guarantees the segment ends even stranger than it began.

Lex Luger against Meng is a slow match built around getting Luger into a second bout with Randy Savage later in the night. Meng controls much of the action with deliberate power offense, while Luger sells, makes the standard comeback and never quite creates sustained urgency. The finish is pure storyline machinery: Meng has used the Golden Spike, but Sullivan enters and kicks Luger, causing the disqualification that sends Luger forward anyway. CAGEMATCH currently rates the match 3.34, Thomas Hall graded it D-plus and TJR gave it two-and-a-half stars. It is functional booking wrapped around thirteen minutes that feel considerably longer.

Sting and Ric Flair against Arn Anderson and Brian Pillman is the event's best story and one of its few matches with genuine crowd heat. Flair is missing at the start, forcing Sting to survive a long handicap stretch while the audience waits for the expected rescue. Flair finally arrives, begs for the tag and then immediately punches Sting, revealing the entire reconciliation as a Horsemen trap. CAGEMATCH currently rates the match 6.53 and the Observer gave it three-and-three-quarter stars. Hall graded it B, and TJR gave it three stars. The turn is obvious in hindsight and still works because Sting commits completely to the betrayal.

Randy Savage against Lex Luger is swallowed by the monster-truck aftermath before the bell. The announcers are understandably obsessed with The Giant apparently falling from the roof of Cobo Hall, leaving the match to function almost as background action. Luger targets Savage's injured arm, Savage fights back and Jimmy Hart's unexpected presence creates the collision that leads to the flying elbow. CAGEMATCH currently has the match at 3.35, TJR rated it one-and-three-quarter stars and Hall graded it C. The wrestlers are capable of more, but the surrounding angle ensures the audience is thinking about almost anything else.

The Giant versus Hulk Hogan is historically important and competitively poor. Giant is making his first major in-ring appearance and understandably relies on simple power offense, long bearhugs and Hogan's familiar comeback structure. Hogan eventually slams him and hits the legdrop before Jimmy Hart attacks the referee and turns heel. From there the match becomes an avalanche of angles: Luger turns, The Yeti arrives, Hogan is squeezed in the infamous double bearhug and the title situation becomes confused by a contract clause. CAGEMATCH currently rates the match 1.27, Hall graded it D-plus and TJR gave it two stars. The history is enormous. The wrestling is not.