WCW Slim Jims Halloween Havoc '97 - Sunday, 10/26/97
WCW Slim Jims Halloween Havoc '97 - Sunday, 10/26/97
- As you are reading the show report, you may want to go back and see how it compares against our predictions.
- WOW!! The night before the show, I hung around the MGM Grand, where I was staying. This is a list of people I got within three feet of in the early part of the evening at one of the bars:
- Rey Misterio, Jr. without the mask. he was extremely nice to everyone, including me.
- Chris Jericho who really went out of his way to be nice. He is absolutely huge in person, TV doesn't do his size justice.
- Elizabeth, a fox.
- Eric Bischoff, who Doug Dillinger seemed to be shadowing a little bit.
- Eddie Guerrero. In street clothes, you can't tell how cut he is but he's still kind of big.
- David Penzer. I rode an elevator with him and we made small talk.
- Scott Norton. He was begrudgingly signing autographs for kids in the lobby. At least he was doing them, but he didn't seem happy about it. He is just larger than life. Even his head is huge.
- Doug Dillinger (whoopee)
- Terry Taylor. A very big guy in person.
- Konan who is very big and scary looking even in street clothes.
- The young looking gray haired guy from WCW security.
- Alex Wright, who is cut but is still lanky. He must have been a stick when he was 25 pounds lighter a year ago. Hmm, I wonder who Debra's surprise is...
- When I was checking in, Chris Benoit was a few people in line behind me. I gave him a little wave and he gave me a nod of acknowledgment. He's built, but he's pretty short compared to the others.
- Other people claimed to have seen Disco Inferno and Glacier (huh?) talking to fans and Vincent at the gambling tables.
- The whole scene was weird. I didn't approach anyone as I felt funny going interrupting the wrestlers' conversations with one another. However, it looked like I was the only one who was hesitant.
- So, I go up to my room for a while, and go back down to the bar. By now, the wrestlers had had a few drinks and were really mixing with the fans. It was a completely different scene. I saw some woman invite Rey Misterio, Jr. to touch her breasts. He politely declined the offer. I went up to Eric Bischoff and I shook his hand and told him he was the reason I was watching wrestling again...hey, I wasn't sucking up, it's true! Scott Norton seemed like he was being a lot friendlier, it may have had something to do with the good looking women around him, rather than a bunch of kids. In addition to the previous list, we now have:
- Curt Hennig and Syxx. Both of these guys skipped out just as I was getting there. Curt is big and Syxx, well, he had his bandana on and a ton of hair gel. 'Nuff said.
- Gene Okerlund. OK, I still think the guy is a buffoon but he was extremely gracious. Just as I was taking a picture of him from kind of far back from the side, he put a cigarette to his mouth. He jokingly got upset and said "You can't show anybody that! I'll be setting a bad example!" Now, he and I are even for him being a jerk to me twelve years ago.
- Kevin Sullivan was there with a woman around the age of 35 with biceps bigger than my thighs and was built like a brick s**thouse. I have no idea who she was.
- George Napolitano, probably the greatest wrestling photographer of all time. He was very nice. I was probably the only fan in the place that knew who he was.
- Disco Inferno. I told him that it was great to have him back. To which he replied with total sincerity, "It's great to be back."
- And...Arn Anderson!! As you might guess, this was an official Brush With Greatness. I told him about my Web tribute and I told him I had left a copy for him at the front desk. He was very nice and he told me to come back to the bar after the show and he'd talk to me.
- It's Sunday morning. I went down to the health club at the MGM. Didn't see anybody interesting there. No surprise, as that health club is not made for weightlifters. I would guess that the wrestlers know a gym in Vegas with a lot of iron that they go to every year. However, later, I did see Curt's dad, Larry "The Axe" Hennig. He was walking through the hotel pretty much unscathed. I recognized him but I doubt many other people did. As I was walking through the food court, I realized I was walking alongside Eddie Guerrero:
- Me: "I was at the Fairfax, VA show. You were absolutely fantastic."
- Eddie (giving me a hearty slap on the back and arm around the shoulder): "Thanks, man!"
- Me: "I think you've found your true calling."
- Eddie: "Yeah, they don't like me."
- I saw Larry "The Axe" Hennig later at a slot machine. I went up to him and told him how much I enjoyed watching him wrestle. He said thank you but it was clear he didn't want to be bothered. Boy, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?
- I saw The Axe later, wandering around, looking kind of lost.
- The autograph hounds are pretty smart. They were hanging out by the elevators. The MGM seems relatively unique in that all, or at least a good percentage, of the rooms are reached by elevators that leave from the same place. There's no way a guest in the hotel can avoid passing through that one area.
- Sitting at the bar before the show, I saw my first of what I'm sure will be many rainbow heads today.
- The last sightings before I went in were Konnan having an impromptu autograph signing near the theater and, again, seeing The Axe while I was sitting outside. He kind of wandered up to security, wondering how to get in with his VIP pass. Also, I saw Benoit again. By the way, I stand corrected, he's not built, he's a tank.
- You know, I thought there were a lot of young people with tattoos in Phoenix, but Las Vegas is unreal.
- There was a lot of confusion over the start time. The tickets said 3:30, which one would assume is the bell time. Well, 3:30 is when the doors opened. It got kind of ugly. The crowd was huge by 3:00 p.m. and at 3:15 they were chanting "We want in!"
- Before the show, Ben J. and I got a chance to meet. You may or may not find this interesting, but I haven't even ever talked on the phone with any of my guest reporters, much less met them, other than Ben J. as of now.
- By the way, I'm typing all this from memory some six hours after the fact. I may have a few details incorrect.
- Also, I'm typing this in a motel in Kingman, AZ where, no joke, the room is less than $20. The innkeeper came out in his pajamas to check me in.
- The first sign I saw in the arena was "Bischoff Takes It Up The Ass". Ouch, that's a litte harsh. On the other side of that guy's sign was "Kimberly 6:9". Oh, my.
- Stevie Richards took his place in the front row.
- I let the kid sitting next to me wear my Rey Misterio, Jr. mask all night. His parents probably thought I was a pedophile.
- Wildcat Willie did his thing to warm up the crowd. He screwed up his first jump, which got a laugh at his expense. There were no dark matches.
- Dave Penzer did his usual announcements. He came out way too early. He finished his announcements and had to adlib and chat with the crowd for about five minutes.
- I did not see any signs confiscated all night.
- Yuji Nagata made Ultimo Dragon submit to an armlock on a reversal of a sleeper in a clean job.
- Wow, none of the predictions were right on this one. This was definitely an upset.
- Everyone was more interested in Raven's Nest taking their seats during this match than the match itself.
- Nagata and Onoo mudholed the arm after the match, prompting the trainer to come out and help Dragon back to the dressing room.
- "Lionheart" Chris Jericho made Gedo submit to the Liontamer.
- I've never seen Gedo before. He was a fat Japanese guy with bleached hair.
- Gedo controlled most of the match.
- Jericho took a bad bump and hurt his neck in the match.
- Okerlund got booed at the beginning of the Debra interview. The boos got louder when Debra came on. Mongo interrupted the interview. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
- We got to see the feed that the people at home were seeing. The sole exception was that we couldn't hear the announcers even if they were being shown on the screens.
- Rey Misterio, Jr. pinned Eddie Guerrero with a hurricarana to win the WCW World Cruiserweight Title after Eddie missed a frog splash.
- I told you the pressure to lose the mask was all a work for the Internet smarks!
- Before the match, Misterio gave his extra mask to a kid wearing an nWo shirt.
- The match was incredible. There were a number of moves made for a highlight reel but the best was Misterio backflipping off the ropes to deliver a DDT on Guerrero.
- Okerlund referred to Halloween as being on Thursday.
- Hogan and Bischoff appeared on the monitors saying Hogan wouldn't wrestle unless J.J. Dillon produced a signed agreement that Sting wouldn't be in the building. Yeah, right.
- "Das Wundersurprise" Alex Wright pinned Steve "Mongo" McMichael after Bill Goldberg trashed Mongo and placed Wright, a victim of the Tombstone, on top of Mongo.
- "Faggot!" chants for Alex.
- The ending spots were totally blown by the referee. It was a ref I haven't seen before. Debra was supposed to keep distracting him and he looked directly at Goldberg trashing Mongo at least twice and had to pretend he didn't see it. It was terrible.
- Alex went to shake Goldberg's hand to thank him and Goldberg proceeded to trash Alex, too. The crowd loved it.
- Jacqueline pinned Disco Inferno with a roll-up. Doh!
- Disco only got amateur moves off on Jacqueline. Arm drags, a single leg takedown, etc. No punching or power moves. Jacqueline, on the other hand, put on a clinic, including a DDT, a nutcracker with the corner post, and Jacqueline's signature suplex on the floor.
- Disco almost won it on a reversal of a flying cross body block from the top turnbuckle.
- The high point of the match was Jacqueline falling out of her dress after the single leg trip.
- WCW U.S. Heavyweight Champion Curt Hennig defeated "Nature Boy" Ric Flair via DQ when Flair put Hennig in the tree of woe, put the championship belt on Hennig's head, and starting kicking the belt.
- Chants of "Make him bleed" during the match. For a minute there, I thought I was in a bingo hall in Philadelphia.
- Flair gave Hennig a kneedrop in the aisle.
- J. J. Dillon comes out with a signed "no Sting" agreement and says the match will happen tonight.
- "The Total Package" Lex Luger made Scott Hall submit to the Human Torture Rack.
- The match had ended previously. While Zbyszko was distracted, Syxx "hit" Luger with a kick to his head that actually was nowhere near hitting. I was about 50 rows back at the kick came closer to me than Luger.
- Hall then hit an Outsider Edge and Larry Z. grudgingly gave the three-count. As Hall and Syxx were going back to the dressing room, Zbyszko saw the replay on the big screens and ordered the match restarted. Luger got the submission in short order.
- After the match, Larry get punked in a big way. At first, he had Syxx caught in a submission hold.
- Randy "Macho Man" Savage defeated "Diamond" Dallas Page in a Las Vegas Death Match when a (presumably) fake Sting hit DDP with a bat.
- This match was incredibly hard hitting and spilled into the crowd. However, it was incredibly bizarre that while they were fighting on the floor, the crowd was eerily silent.
- A highlight of this match was the original referee, Mickey J., getting a huge platter shattered over his head by Elizabeth to knock him out. Elizabeth started choking DDP, and Kimberly came out. A catfight ensued and it went back to the dressing room. Nick Patrick replaced Mickey J.
- Also, DDP and Savage fought amongst the styrofoam tombstones on the set.
- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper put "Hollywood" Hulk Hogan to sleep with a sleeper to become the new WCW champion, I think.
- Michael Buffer did his thing before the match.
- This match was a replay in two ways, as you'll see.
- The odd thing was, very early in the match, Hogan left the cage through the front door. I would have thought the match would end at that point.
- Actually, Hogan had control during most of this match.
- As for the replay, first, in an effort to compete with the WWF, you'd think you were watching Badd Blood. At one point, Hogan and Piper were duking it out at the top of the cage.
- One by one, some seven fake Stings appeared around the cage and the arena. Whatever. One of them prevented Hogan from leaving at one point.
- When Hogan started getting in trouble at the end, Savage came to the cage to interfere. Instead of going through the door, which was open because the referee just went in, Savage started climbing the cage. It didn't make sense, until replay number two started. Savage attempted a flying axhandle on Piper from the top of the cage. Shades of Mankind. Actually, he missed and hit Hogan.
- Now, at some point, in all the confusion I'm about to describe, Piper hooked on the sleeper and Pee Wee Anderson did the three limp arm lists. Thus, it looks like we have a new champion.
- Anyway, now for the confusing ending. At one point, one of the fake Stings came into the ring to make a save on Piper. Hogan or Savage nailed him and his mask and wig come off, revealing an African-American in my brief glimpse of him. So, Hogan pitches him out of the ring and he stays down to stay out of the camera angle. Now, somehow Piper gets handcuffed to the cage, ala War Games. Now, it gets really weird. Someone in jeans and a t-shirt wearing Sting makeup starts climbing the cage. I immediately assumed that it was a fan because he was way too small to be a wrestler. No one that's part of the crew reacts, so then I assume I must be wrong. Then, the cage climber starts stomping a mudhole in the fake Sting, so I figure I'm definitely wrong. All of a sudden the fake Sting pops up and nails the guy good. Uh-oh! Now eventually, the goofball gets tossed back in the ring as the fake Sting has to go back out of camera range. Hogan and Savage start beating the hell out of the guy and then the Keystone Cops swarm in. They start trying to grab the guy and he starts fighting back. Eventually he gets dragged out. As he is getting dragged out, I see the credits rolling on the screens. I wonder if this guy screwed up a planned finish.
- After the show went off the air, Savage, Hogan, and Bischoff beat up Piper for another ten minutes.
- As I'm leaving after the show, Syxx and a buddy of his are rushing by in the opposite direction. Loud and clear in front of all the kids he's passing by, Syxx uses the f-word. Classy.
- So, in the bar after the show, I'm sitting at the table next to Okerlund. In addition to the people from last night, additional ones I saw were Dusty Rhodes, Lee Marshall, Tony Schiavone, Meng, Bill Goldberg (a monster), Raven (lots of tattoos), Perry Saturn (I said hi and he looked through me like I wasn't even there...real scary), Ric Flair (just eating up the attention), and Mongo (not nearly as big as you'd think). Okerlund confirmed that the guy who climbed the cage at the end was not part of the show and was going to the cooler.
- I felt bad for Disco Inferno after the show. Fans were busting on him. It was obnoxious.
- Anyway, I finally caught up with AA. He said it was obvious that I had done a lot of research and it was the nicest thing a fan had ever done for him. He seemed genuinely sincere. I have to tell you, this guy is a class act.
- I'll try to get the pictures from the show developed this week.
- See you for Nitro tomorrow night. I've heard rumors it is going to be three hours but on WCWSN they said it was going to be two.