WCW Halloween Havoc 2001
Sunday, October 28th, 2001
After a pretty solid month of Nitro tapings, World Championship Wrestling ideally looked to follow that up with a strong Halloween Havoc pay per view... As any long-time WCW fan could tell you, things are rarely ideal. WCW has often been guilty of creating its own problems. Of taking “can't miss” situations and finding a way to fail. Its a legacy that, to some, goes back more than a decade. For the most part, WCW managed to avoid that with this event. And the primary negative that did occur was mostly outside of the control of the WCW front office.
Four workers were offered full-time contracts after the September tapings in Philadelphia – Tommy Dreamer, C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible, and Tajiri. Both Anderson and Tajiri signed their contracts at the tapings. Dreamer signed his at the pay per view. Credible, somehow, never put his signature to the contract. The front office was supposed to get the finalized deal signed at the Chicago tapings, but again, it didn't happen. The front office should have recognized that there were issues when Credible no-showed two house shows held just prior to the pay per view. Sure enough, he did not show up for the pay per view either. It left WCW scrambling, as his match against Lance Storm was a cage match and had been elevated to the semi main event. It fell to John Laurinaitis to deal with the situation. The solution was to put Mike Awesome in the cage match against Storm – this was a match intended to be used on the next pay per view, but it worked with the storylines. It did cause a bit of last second shuffling of the rest of the card, but it worked.
The reason Credible no-showed Halloween Havoc was that he had signed a deal with the WWF. There had been rumors floating around since just after the September Nitro tapings that the WWF also had some degree of interest in doing “an ECW thing”. It is very possible that Credible intentionally avoided putting his signature on the paperwork to finalize the contract with WCW as he waited to see what would play out with the WWF. The approach certainly burned his bridges with WCW and left a sour taste with a lot of the other talent.
The first match on the card was not a cruiserweight match for once. It was instead Hugh Morrus defending the WCW Television Championship against Colt Cabana. Those expecting another comedy match out of the challenger would in for something much different. The 280-pound champion laid into the youngster for the opening moments of the match, hitting him with some stiff-looking shots. Then Cabana came right back with equally heavy offense. For ten minute, the two men unloaded heavy shots on each other and neither back down at all. Morrus ended up with the win, but the Chicago fans absolutely loved the hard-hitting opener. After being handed his belt, Morrus emphatically shook the hand of Cabana after the match.
The following match did not quite maintain the same degree of intensity, but it was more than adequate in that regard. AJ Styles and Jamie Noble took on Ace Steel and CM Punk. The two WCW youngsters took the victory after another hard-fought match that many felt was too short.
After the ring was cleared following the tag match, the lights in the small arena suddenly went out. After a few moments of near total darkness, a single spotlight cut the gloom and found a single figure in the previously-empty ring. A figure in a long dark coat, with slicked back hair and face paint. A man who could be only Sting. The Windy City fans roared. The figure stalked back and forth across the ring, then let out a trademark yell. Climbing to the second rope, they leaned out toward the crowd and yelled out two words that the microphones at ringside just manged to pick up... “I'm back!” Then the spotlight snapped out, bringing back the darkness. When the arena lights lit the ring up again, it was empty and the figure was gone.
The crowd – nearly 2,000 strong – were still excited when the next match kicked off. It was “Sugar” Shane Helms taking on Tajiri. The pair put on a match that would have been really good if not for a couple of blown spots. It was still solid and the crowd enjoyed it.
That was followed by a stylistic mismatch between Crowbar and Adam Pearce. Crowbar was a limited brawler, while Pearce was a more old school mat wrestler. Stylistic mismatches can work, but this one really didn't. Crowbar was the last second replacement for Mike Awesome, who was originally slated to be facing Pearce in this match. The match quieted the crowd down a bit, but it was fairly short. Crowbar came out the winner but “Scrap Iron” looked pretty good.
“El Chavo” defended his WCW Cruiserweight Championship next against Billy Kidman. The two longest-serving WCW cruiserweights put on a classic cruiserweight match – crisp, fast-paced, innovative, and exciting. It was everything that had made the cruiserweights a beloved part of WCW in the first place. Guerrero retained his title after a fifteen minute battle wrought with near finishes.
The WCW World Tag Team champions Kronik faced the Jersey Triad duo of Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Kanyon. With Stacy Kiebler at ringside for the champions and Diamond Dallas Page there for the challengers, it seems likely to become a mess. A back and forth brawl that moved out of the ring constantly, it did devolve into a mess that nearly saw both teams disqualified. When the dust settled, Kanyon had delivered Kanyon Cutters to both Adams and Clark, letting Bam Bam pin the latter. WCW had new tag team champions.
“The Franchise” Shane Douglas faced “The American Nightmare” Dustin Rhodes for WCW United States Championship in the following match. This was another messy, wild match. There was plenty of interference from Francine. Late in the match, Rhodes caught her on the ring apron trying to deliver a low blow and it looked like she might get nailed with some payback... but Douglas ended up flooring the challenger with a low blow of his own. Douglas retained and made himself just a little more hated with the fans.
Diamond Dallas Page was facing Sean O'Haire in the third-to-last match of the card. DDP had been used in a rather limited way by WCW since the sale in March, and the reason was a back injury suffered at the hands of Scott Steiner. Rather than sit out and heal for an extended period, DDP worked through much of it but he was limited in what he could. Finally feeling back to one hundred percent, DDP was tested in a match against the big O'Haire. The two men delivered. It was easily the best match of O'Haire's career and he played the heel bully to perfection while DDP worked every ounce of empathy out of the crowd as the babyface-in-danger. “The Bad Boy” ended up winning with some shenanigans from Stacy Kiebler, but the match proved two things – that Diamond Dallas Page was back to his best and Sean O'Haire gave WCW a star heel. If Steiner and Jarrett failed to return, it would leave the promotion very babyface-heavy at the top (especially with the return of Sting), but the emergence of O'Haire meant it could work.
Lance Storm had requested to face Justin Credible in a cage match, to keep the likes of Awesome, Douglas, and Francine from having any bearing on the outcome. Even though he was now facing Mike Awesome, the match remained in a cage for much the same reasons. The traditional WCW roofed cage was assembled and the war got underway. The match was kept simple, brutal, and intense. Storm played the fans almost as well as DDP did, fighting back several times and then dishing out serious punishment to his former partner. Both men ending up bleeding, though it was not a true bloodbath. Both Shane Douglas and Francine made their way down to ringside but they could do little to help Awesome. Douglas did slip his stable-mate a foreign object, which ended up being used to accidentally knock out the ref rather than Storm. When Storm got his hands on the object – metal knuckles – he waffled Awesome, then ended up punching Douglas in the hand when “The Franchise” tried to mess with the lock on the cage door. Douglas was left with a “broken” hand. As the ref recovered, Storm hit Awesome with a series of big offensive moves, culminating in a Power-Plex and gave Storm the win. The intensity of the match worked to perfection and it was another really solid match that was probably the best of the night.
Despite a strong semi main event, the crowd was still hyped for the main event. Still, the main event delivered and it was mostly due to the hot crowd. The match itself was okay but not that special. It started slow, with Booker basically trying to play keep away – his strategy seemed to be to drag out the match and test the challenger's stamina. So for the first five minutes, the match lacked the kind of intensity and action to match the crowd. When they did finally get going, Goldberg quickly overpowered the champion and began to dominate. An attempted Spear was avoided by Booker, sending Goldberg crashing into the corner. The champion worked to take advantage and he worked over the shoulder that had just hit the ring post. But Goldberg would not be denied. He battled back, took control again, and moved into the end sequence that was almost inevitable. He connected with his second Spear attempt and then delivered a ring-shaking Jackhammer and pinned Booker. In just under fifteen minutes, Goldberg was WCW World Heavyweight champion for just the second time.
In typical fashion, Halloween Havoc 2001 would still generate some criticism for World Championship Wrestling. Some of the common criticisms include the shock return of Sting being too understated, the main event being outdone by several of the undercard matches, and several of the early matches feeling “too short”. The most common issue brought up is Justin Credible and the amended card. Storm-Awesome was a match that many fans were anticipating, so to have it happen with no real direct build was a bit wasteful. But the match itself delivered. As did the whole event. It was, start to finish, the best pay per view event that WCW had put together to that point in 2001. Even with the criticisms, Halloween Havoc was exactly the kind of strong follow-up that WCW needed after their solid month of Nitro in October. Some stiff refuse to acknowledge the event as a success, with the hang-up being the rumored buy rate. WCW was not releasing the confirmed final buy rate numbers to the public at this point, but a number of industry insiders have pegged the final number for Halloween Havoc as falling below the low result achieved for Fall Brawl a month prior.
The old saying goes “Rome was not built in a day”, and it was becoming apparent that rebuilding the WCW empire would take more than just a few solid shows. It would take sustained quality over a period of time.
Four workers were offered full-time contracts after the September tapings in Philadelphia – Tommy Dreamer, C.W. Anderson, Justin Credible, and Tajiri. Both Anderson and Tajiri signed their contracts at the tapings. Dreamer signed his at the pay per view. Credible, somehow, never put his signature to the contract. The front office was supposed to get the finalized deal signed at the Chicago tapings, but again, it didn't happen. The front office should have recognized that there were issues when Credible no-showed two house shows held just prior to the pay per view. Sure enough, he did not show up for the pay per view either. It left WCW scrambling, as his match against Lance Storm was a cage match and had been elevated to the semi main event. It fell to John Laurinaitis to deal with the situation. The solution was to put Mike Awesome in the cage match against Storm – this was a match intended to be used on the next pay per view, but it worked with the storylines. It did cause a bit of last second shuffling of the rest of the card, but it worked.
The reason Credible no-showed Halloween Havoc was that he had signed a deal with the WWF. There had been rumors floating around since just after the September Nitro tapings that the WWF also had some degree of interest in doing “an ECW thing”. It is very possible that Credible intentionally avoided putting his signature on the paperwork to finalize the contract with WCW as he waited to see what would play out with the WWF. The approach certainly burned his bridges with WCW and left a sour taste with a lot of the other talent.
The first match on the card was not a cruiserweight match for once. It was instead Hugh Morrus defending the WCW Television Championship against Colt Cabana. Those expecting another comedy match out of the challenger would in for something much different. The 280-pound champion laid into the youngster for the opening moments of the match, hitting him with some stiff-looking shots. Then Cabana came right back with equally heavy offense. For ten minute, the two men unloaded heavy shots on each other and neither back down at all. Morrus ended up with the win, but the Chicago fans absolutely loved the hard-hitting opener. After being handed his belt, Morrus emphatically shook the hand of Cabana after the match.
The following match did not quite maintain the same degree of intensity, but it was more than adequate in that regard. AJ Styles and Jamie Noble took on Ace Steel and CM Punk. The two WCW youngsters took the victory after another hard-fought match that many felt was too short.
After the ring was cleared following the tag match, the lights in the small arena suddenly went out. After a few moments of near total darkness, a single spotlight cut the gloom and found a single figure in the previously-empty ring. A figure in a long dark coat, with slicked back hair and face paint. A man who could be only Sting. The Windy City fans roared. The figure stalked back and forth across the ring, then let out a trademark yell. Climbing to the second rope, they leaned out toward the crowd and yelled out two words that the microphones at ringside just manged to pick up... “I'm back!” Then the spotlight snapped out, bringing back the darkness. When the arena lights lit the ring up again, it was empty and the figure was gone.
The crowd – nearly 2,000 strong – were still excited when the next match kicked off. It was “Sugar” Shane Helms taking on Tajiri. The pair put on a match that would have been really good if not for a couple of blown spots. It was still solid and the crowd enjoyed it.
That was followed by a stylistic mismatch between Crowbar and Adam Pearce. Crowbar was a limited brawler, while Pearce was a more old school mat wrestler. Stylistic mismatches can work, but this one really didn't. Crowbar was the last second replacement for Mike Awesome, who was originally slated to be facing Pearce in this match. The match quieted the crowd down a bit, but it was fairly short. Crowbar came out the winner but “Scrap Iron” looked pretty good.
“El Chavo” defended his WCW Cruiserweight Championship next against Billy Kidman. The two longest-serving WCW cruiserweights put on a classic cruiserweight match – crisp, fast-paced, innovative, and exciting. It was everything that had made the cruiserweights a beloved part of WCW in the first place. Guerrero retained his title after a fifteen minute battle wrought with near finishes.
The WCW World Tag Team champions Kronik faced the Jersey Triad duo of Bam Bam Bigelow and Chris Kanyon. With Stacy Kiebler at ringside for the champions and Diamond Dallas Page there for the challengers, it seems likely to become a mess. A back and forth brawl that moved out of the ring constantly, it did devolve into a mess that nearly saw both teams disqualified. When the dust settled, Kanyon had delivered Kanyon Cutters to both Adams and Clark, letting Bam Bam pin the latter. WCW had new tag team champions.
“The Franchise” Shane Douglas faced “The American Nightmare” Dustin Rhodes for WCW United States Championship in the following match. This was another messy, wild match. There was plenty of interference from Francine. Late in the match, Rhodes caught her on the ring apron trying to deliver a low blow and it looked like she might get nailed with some payback... but Douglas ended up flooring the challenger with a low blow of his own. Douglas retained and made himself just a little more hated with the fans.
Diamond Dallas Page was facing Sean O'Haire in the third-to-last match of the card. DDP had been used in a rather limited way by WCW since the sale in March, and the reason was a back injury suffered at the hands of Scott Steiner. Rather than sit out and heal for an extended period, DDP worked through much of it but he was limited in what he could. Finally feeling back to one hundred percent, DDP was tested in a match against the big O'Haire. The two men delivered. It was easily the best match of O'Haire's career and he played the heel bully to perfection while DDP worked every ounce of empathy out of the crowd as the babyface-in-danger. “The Bad Boy” ended up winning with some shenanigans from Stacy Kiebler, but the match proved two things – that Diamond Dallas Page was back to his best and Sean O'Haire gave WCW a star heel. If Steiner and Jarrett failed to return, it would leave the promotion very babyface-heavy at the top (especially with the return of Sting), but the emergence of O'Haire meant it could work.
Lance Storm had requested to face Justin Credible in a cage match, to keep the likes of Awesome, Douglas, and Francine from having any bearing on the outcome. Even though he was now facing Mike Awesome, the match remained in a cage for much the same reasons. The traditional WCW roofed cage was assembled and the war got underway. The match was kept simple, brutal, and intense. Storm played the fans almost as well as DDP did, fighting back several times and then dishing out serious punishment to his former partner. Both men ending up bleeding, though it was not a true bloodbath. Both Shane Douglas and Francine made their way down to ringside but they could do little to help Awesome. Douglas did slip his stable-mate a foreign object, which ended up being used to accidentally knock out the ref rather than Storm. When Storm got his hands on the object – metal knuckles – he waffled Awesome, then ended up punching Douglas in the hand when “The Franchise” tried to mess with the lock on the cage door. Douglas was left with a “broken” hand. As the ref recovered, Storm hit Awesome with a series of big offensive moves, culminating in a Power-Plex and gave Storm the win. The intensity of the match worked to perfection and it was another really solid match that was probably the best of the night.
Despite a strong semi main event, the crowd was still hyped for the main event. Still, the main event delivered and it was mostly due to the hot crowd. The match itself was okay but not that special. It started slow, with Booker basically trying to play keep away – his strategy seemed to be to drag out the match and test the challenger's stamina. So for the first five minutes, the match lacked the kind of intensity and action to match the crowd. When they did finally get going, Goldberg quickly overpowered the champion and began to dominate. An attempted Spear was avoided by Booker, sending Goldberg crashing into the corner. The champion worked to take advantage and he worked over the shoulder that had just hit the ring post. But Goldberg would not be denied. He battled back, took control again, and moved into the end sequence that was almost inevitable. He connected with his second Spear attempt and then delivered a ring-shaking Jackhammer and pinned Booker. In just under fifteen minutes, Goldberg was WCW World Heavyweight champion for just the second time.
In typical fashion, Halloween Havoc 2001 would still generate some criticism for World Championship Wrestling. Some of the common criticisms include the shock return of Sting being too understated, the main event being outdone by several of the undercard matches, and several of the early matches feeling “too short”. The most common issue brought up is Justin Credible and the amended card. Storm-Awesome was a match that many fans were anticipating, so to have it happen with no real direct build was a bit wasteful. But the match itself delivered. As did the whole event. It was, start to finish, the best pay per view event that WCW had put together to that point in 2001. Even with the criticisms, Halloween Havoc was exactly the kind of strong follow-up that WCW needed after their solid month of Nitro in October. Some stiff refuse to acknowledge the event as a success, with the hang-up being the rumored buy rate. WCW was not releasing the confirmed final buy rate numbers to the public at this point, but a number of industry insiders have pegged the final number for Halloween Havoc as falling below the low result achieved for Fall Brawl a month prior.
The old saying goes “Rome was not built in a day”, and it was becoming apparent that rebuilding the WCW empire would take more than just a few solid shows. It would take sustained quality over a period of time.
Hugh Morrus © d. Colt Cabana for the WCW World Television Championship
Styles & Noble d. Punk & Steel
Shane Helms d. Tajiri
Crowbar d. Adam Pearce
Chavo Guerrero © d. Billi Kidman for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
The Jersey Triad (Chris Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow) d. Kronik © for the WCW World Tag Team Championships
Shane Douglas © d. Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Championship
Sean O'Haire d. Diamond Dallas Page
Lance Storm d. Mike Awesome in a Cage Match
Goldberg d. Booker T © for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
Styles & Noble d. Punk & Steel
Shane Helms d. Tajiri
Crowbar d. Adam Pearce
Chavo Guerrero © d. Billi Kidman for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship
The Jersey Triad (Chris Kanyon & Bam Bam Bigelow) d. Kronik © for the WCW World Tag Team Championships
Shane Douglas © d. Dustin Rhodes for the WCW United States Championship
Sean O'Haire d. Diamond Dallas Page
Lance Storm d. Mike Awesome in a Cage Match
Goldberg d. Booker T © for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship
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