Wednesdaymania 206: Halloween Havoc 2000

I love Halloween Havoc. It's one of the best ideas for a PPV, especially for professional wrestling, and I have no idea why WWE doesn't just make it their own. They've gleaned most of the good stuff from WCW already, so why not the best PPV?! They have a busload of Halloween-ready characters, last I checked (Finn Balor, Boogeyman, Asuka...)!

Here's what a Halloween Havoc should look like.

And then I watched Halloween Havoc 2000.

Strong contender for "worst poster ever"

I'd be willing to bet this garbage is why we don't have Havoc in WWE.

This was a trash pay-per-view. Just garbage. They didn't even have a Halloween set! Just one spiderweb curtain that no one in the crowd could see.

Though there were a few good matches!

The card went like this:

• Natural Born Thrillers (Mark Jindrak & Sean O'Haire) vs The Filthy Animals (Billy Kidman & Rey Misterio with Konnan) vs The Boogie Knights (Disqo/Disco Inferno & Alex Wright); 10 minutes of great tag team wrestling, though Disco is still terrible and O'Haire wasn't really able to shine and why they took Rey's mask off I'll never understand... [Thrillers maintain tag titles]
• Reno (who?) vs Sgt AWOL (who?!) for the Hardcore championship, which lead to a few funny lines about running out of tables and the impossibility thereof, but otherwise was a garbage match with very little interesting about it. I mean, the most interesting part was that AWOL came out at the end of the Tag match to clear and set up the ring... which sucked.
• The Misfits In Action (Lt. Loco & Cpl. Cajun) vs The Perfect Event (Chuck Palumbo & Shawn Stasiak) which was actually a pretty decent match that still felt boring because literally nothing was on the line and the announcers weren't paying much attention.
• The Filthy Animals (Konnan & Tygress) vs Shane Douglass & Torrie Wilson dressed as Wonder Woman, which was also a pretty meh match because Torrie & Tygress were... not very accomplished wrestlers at this time and the leadup was... dumb. "The Franchise" gimmick sucked. It really did. Konnan was great because he's Konnan.
• I know what a First Blood match is, but even after the half-hearted explanation from the commentary team, I have no idea what a First Blood DNA match is. Beyond stupid, that is. It's David Flair vs Buff Bagwell and it's terrible. David Flair could not wrestle his way out of a paper bag and looked seriously uncomfortable with his crimson mask in the end. Yikes.
• I hate watching kickboxing. I hate watching Ernest "the Cat" Miller. I hated the garbage Worked (fake) kickboxing match between The Cat & Mike Sanders. It was awful and a full 8.5 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Also, The Cat's theme on the WWE Network has to be the biggest Rib (joke) I've ever encountered. It's as garbage as the Cat's wrestling.
• Mike Awesome (with a That 70's Guy gimmick) vs Vampiro (before Lucha Underground) was actually a pretty darn good match. Mike Awesome was a pretty good wrestler, and when he was sober, so was Vampiro. They had a pretty great match that made me feel like I could actually finish this PPV without a migraine. Solid moves on both men's parts, good chemistry in-ring, and some truly mad moves to the outside. Also, I believe a fan got walloped by the security guys, so... that was entertaining.
• Gen. Rection = Hugh Morris, and I don't like him at all. I don't like his wrestling. I don't like his personality. I don't like that life has been cruel to him, though. I feel for the guy. I just don't like watching his matches. Watching him fight and somehow beat Lance Storm was not entertaining, though it did end up making me feel like the Cosmic Brownie I'd just eaten was truly Cosmic, since Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Mr. I Love America himself, was hardcore representing Team Canada here. What.
• Somehow, Jeff Jarrett vs Sting wasn't the main event. Thank goodness. There would've been riots. It is one of the worst gimmicky matches I've ever seen. Literally every incarnation of Sting appears to fight Real Sting (in his Crow gimmick), and it's intolerably stupid. At one point another Crow Sting pulls Real Sting through the ring, and Real Sting comes back from it. The only way this match would've worked is if Real Sting had defeated Jarrett at the end, but... it's 2000 WCW. Of course Jarrett won. And of course no one liked it.
• Next we have Booker T vs Scott Steiner, and it's bananas. It's not a good match, and it's made worse by being called by his brother Stevie Ray, who was never much of a talker. Stevie is still a better commentator than Mark Madden, who was horrifically bad. Of course, WCW being what it is, this anticipated (?) match ends in a disqualification, which is a lot like how things end with big matches in WWE these days. Why is this big name match not the main event? Because Booker T wants Goldberg to destroy the tag team Kronik at the end of the PPV. Why? I don't know. I doubt I'd understand even if I had watched every episode of WCW up to this point. It's dumb.
• Speaking of Dumb! We have the double-Bryan tag team Kronik (Brian Adams/Crush & Bryan Clark/Adam Bomb) trying to take down Goldberg, who has already lost his streak and the company are stupidly trying to build anticipation with a new streak, which... okay, people still love Goldberg, and he's still Goldberg so he's still impressive, but... you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice.

wtf why is Duggan on Team Canada?!

This was not a good idea if they were gonna have Sting lose.
Only have someone fight off the past if they're going to win.
Seriously.

The Bryans here are supposed to basically be guns-for-hire but I don't know who "hired" them to beat Goldberg?
There was some fun buildup for this match where Kronik try to get the Nevada Wrestling Commission to DQ Goldberg based on his neck injuries from a previous fight, but aside from that... meh.

My least favorite part about this whole Pay Per View has to be the commentary. Now, Tony Schiavone is a good commentary guy. He gives decent play-by-play, he's got a great voice for broadcast, and he knows what he's talking about when he's given a job to do. He's at his best, however, when he's put with another good talker, like Bobby Heenan. He's not given a Bobby Heenan to work with here.

He's given Mark Madden and Stevie Ray.

Mark Madden is an insufferable buffoon on commentary at the best of times, and this is not the best of times.

Stevie Ray is not a commentary guy. He's a wrestler. He's a great guy, but boy does he not belong behind a desk and on a microphone for an entire Pay Per View.

The commentary, therefore, is terrible.

I think my favorite part of this PPV, however, was desperately looking for the Young Bucks, because they were at this PPV and talked to Rey afterwards. I never saw the Bucks, but it was a heckin good time looking for them in the mass of 7500+ people who were in attendance at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Now, why does this venue sound familiar?

It's where Double or Nothing is going to be held!

I, for one, am very much looking forward to seeing the Lucha Brothers (who recently signed with AEW, from what I understand) and the rest of AEW tearing this venue up during their PPV!

I'm also looking forward to more news and more people signing!

Maybe KENTA?

Maybe Kitamura? (Okay, hopefully not Kitamura, I'm not much for beefy brawlers like him, but I still wish him the best since he's not with NJPW anymore and he's been recovering from that crushed leg!)

Maybe Dean?

This is an exciting time to love wrestling, I have to say!

That'll do it for me today!

Go Enjoy Something!!!

FC

[And yes, that's 3 YouTube links]