Raw 133
It’s the Halloween show and all the announcers are getting in the spooky spirit! Vince is dressed up as a prison inmate (undoubtedly a tongue-in-cheek reference to beating the rap at his recent trial for steroids) while Jerry Lawler is dressed up like a doctor - specifically a proctologist. Vince quips, “You started at the bottom and you stayed there.”
I don't want to know where that finger's been.
Hmm, not quite as well done, but still pretty good!
Ok, Doc Hendrix just gave up I guess.
The first match of the night is the network television debut of Goldust. I’m so curious to know how Dustin Rhodes landed on such a bizarre character. I’d like to see Goldust get some mic time soon so we can start to unpack what exactly is going on there.
These guys don't care. They've seen enough to know that they are fully down.
The next few matches are of no consequence (Marty Jannetty VS jobber and the Smoking Gunns VS jobbers). The final match of the evening though features Owen Hart against Razor Ramon which gives us a brief cameo at the end by Ahmed Johnson who runs in to help Razor when Yokozuna interferes in the match. With seemingly no effort, Ahmed picks up and body slams Yokozuna. In kayfabe, that’s supposed to be pretty impressive so hopefully he’ll get some screen time soon to see what else he can do in the ring.
Nitro 9
Last night was WCW’s pay per view event Halloween Havoc. I won’t get into the specifics, but I will be sure to include anything that bears mentioning in regards to today’s episode of Nitro.
The first match features one of my current favorites Eddie Guerrero against Sgt. Craig "Pitbull" Pittman. This seems like a real mismatch to me because although Pittman does have an amateur wrestling background, he can’t match the high-flying style of Eddie. This means the spectacle we got in Eddie’s previous matches is completely gone. It’s also worth mentioning that (to me at least) Pittman seems like an unsafe worker, judging by several of his sloppy German suplexes that result in Guerrero landing on his side instead of flat on his back.
Next is Shark VS Scott Norton in a pretty uninteresting big man match. During the action though, we cut to Bobby Heenan as he sits down to a fancy dinner with a Japanese businessman who hands Bobby an envelope of money. This never gets brought up again and I have no idea what it was about.
We then get an interview with Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman, and Ric Flair. At Halloween Havoc last night, Flair double-crossed his tag team partner Sting, revealing that his feud with Double A and Flyin’ Brian had been a ruse all along. Pillman, it seems, is now a member of the newly reinstated Four Horsemen. From what I can tell, we’ll find out who the fourth member is next week.
If I get double-swerved and Sting ends up being the 4th member I'll lose my mind.
Speaking of double crossing, it turns out that Lex Luger was working with the Dungeon of Doom all along! At Halloween Havoc, he helped the Giant defeat Hulk Hogan while also putting the boots to the Macho Man. Jimmy Hart was also in on the double-crossing and is now managing Luger. It seems that the Giant is now the WCW Heavyweight Champion, regardless of the dubious circumstances.
Verdict: As far as the in-ring action goes this week, the two shows were relatively close. However, Nitro squeaks out the win by continuing to have more robust story-telling chops.
Winner this week: Nitro
Score to date: Nitro 8, Raw 0
(Television Ratings: Raw - 2.1; Nitro - 2.3)