[1998-10-25-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Bret Hart vs Sting

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Last few minutes. Bret decks the referee then drops a leg on him for good measure. It's too bad this match didn't measure up to what Sting had been doing in recent weeks. Sting sporting facial hair. He does a great top rope superplex. Bret just getting up to walk into the position to be Stinger splashed looked awful. Sting overshoots and hits the ringpost, then Bret works him over with the bat and gets the win with a sharpshooter. Sting even does a stretcher job. And just like that, Sting disappears for six months to save his marriage and get his life in order. Bret-Hogan clearly wasn't happening at this point, so I still don't understand why Bret didn't just officially join the NWO. By the way, no Wolfpac help when he's being stretchered out?

[soup23]

I thought this was a good way to write Sting off and I have actually forgotten that he disappeared here. The action looked pretty good with Bret targeting the head after Sting hits the post on the splash. Bret gets in some bat shots and Sting does an admirable stretcher job.

[Beast]

When Sting hit the superplex, Bret hit ref Billy Silverman's sprawled out legs. Looked brutal.

[Superstar Sleeze]

WCW US Champion Bret Hart vs Sting - WCW Halloween Havoc 1998

 

Sting feels the hottest he has been since before the Starrcade debacle and he has finally just gone back to the high-energy Sting we know and we love. Of course, just as he is about to get his mojo back he leaves, but understandably so to get his life back in order. At the same time, this feels like the most important Bret has had since the Flair match in January! I shit on the inception of this feud, but they did some great work to heat it up so kudos to them. WCW seems at its healthiest since the first quarter of 1998 with four marquee singles main events and a lot of energy behind each one.

 

I found the match to be a bit disappointing given Sting's resurgence and Hart's general quality of work. Part of it was the crowd was a bit dead and the other part was Sting was not as energetic as in his young days. He sold a lot better and was expressing himself well, but his energy on offense just was not conducive to getting the crowd involved. Bret tried pretty much every heel tactic in the book to get himself booed. From doing chickenshit stalling early to the trick knee to the foreign object and then finally low blow and none of it really worked all that well for this crowd. The crowd did go crazy for the Scorpion Deathlock to end the first heat segment. The crowd was looking for something to cheer for and since this was Sting's farewell, I think it would have been more fitting for Sting to kick some more ass in this match. The foreign object stuff was tough to see. Sting and Bret Hart were gesticulating enough for the live crowd. It all ends with a low blow by Hart. You know besides the one time Michaels called him out on commentary why don't announcers seem to ever realize that Bret Hart only applies lateral presses on covers, he never hooks the leg. It is too each its own, I think the way Bret covers in his lateral press would be hard to kick out. Sting accidentally decks the ref and Bret Hart lays a leg drop on the ref for good measure. Sting hulks up, but again where is the gesticulation, where is the chest beating and hollering Sting. Interact with the crowd let them know you are coming back! Sting superplexes Hart onto the ref's leg in a nasty spot. Sting overshoots on a Stinger Splash and hits his head on the steel turnbuckle. Bret Hart attacks him with the bat and the Sharpshooter is academic.

 

There is too much dead time and not enough energy from Sting to get this to excellent, but it is a pretty good match. Bret Hart was committed to weasly heel character and he is great at portraying the chickenshit heel. I liked the finish a lot especially as one to write Sting out. Now you are heating up Bret Hart and with Hogan gone, he is a great choice for your number one heel. Look at that loaded babyface roster: WCW World Champion Goldberg, the People's Champion DDP, Wolfpac leader Kevin Nash and the returning Ric Flair. Damn the possibilities are endless for your new number one heel that has taken out The Franchise. So Bret Hart gets one more PPV match before he disappears in early 1999. Fuck WCW!

[PeteF3]

Billy Silverman takes the most ill-positioned ref bump in the history of wrestling, sprawled out in the dead middle of the ring and constantly getting away of almost every spot the two guys try. Doing that superplex across his legs was just batshit crazy. Bret wins and now has new music which through some miracle is actually worse than his old theme. I had no recollection of this happening or Sting's disappearance at all, which shows just how effective WCW was at putting this angle over.

[G. Badger]

Hahaha! The best and I do mean the best part of this match is the stuff with the ref!! He gets the elbow...OK, I get it but, Bret drops a Kobashi or Sabu level leg drop to the back of his neck! Seemingly for no reason

 

Later Sting drops down out of exhaustion but obviously its to talk to the ref...probably to tell him to move. Schiavone blows the call saying he's checking on the ref...which makes no sense in terms of the "story" in the ring- he just got pummeled by Hart. Heenan tries to cover up and Tony withdraws the claim saying 'oh yes my mistake! He's on all fours in exhaustion.' Hahaha!

 

Then the superplex on the ref is where I fully cracked up laughing. Its brutal but serves no purpose and is totally circumstantial...and it is the highlight.

 

I watched the whole match, none other than the aforementioned wackiness is of merit. Both guys were on autopilot, the finish sucked, the layout sucked, Sting's look was killer though. Too bad...I was hoping for something better.

[stro]

Much like just about all of Bret's run, terribly disappointing. Wolfpac Sting was the WORST, Bret wasn't at his best, and it was just a dull match with needless fuckery that all big matches had to have then. Made all the worse because this was one of the bigger WWF vs WCW dream matches throughout the 90s, it finally happens and...Sting is in the laziest period of his career, Bret had no passion for wrestling, and it had to have a bullshit finish. Here's that ref leg drop, though, Badger.

 

[cowboy hats]

lmao at sting's goatee

[DMJ]

There are moments here when these two show that they could've delivered the ultimate mid-90s dream match. But there are just too few of them. For example, at one point, Hart counters a Stinger Splash with a boot to the face. It's a simple counter and one that's probably been done before, but I can see that spot, in a better, more dramatic match, being an amazing transition. I know people hate matches where both guys are just "trying to get their shit in," but in a dream match, when Hart pulls out nearly every one of his big moves, you want to see Sting bust out the Scorpion Death Drop, some knife-edged chops in the corner, or maybe even a press slam early.

 

As good as Hart is as a heel (and he's very good - he gets a ton of heat early with the fans at ringside), the context of this match hurts it a bit for me.

 

I didn't want to see Hart work as a face, but to me, WCW should've built up the idea that this is a dream match and that neither man has ever beaten the other and that this was to finally find out who the best there is, best there was, yadda yadda, truly is. Then, you can have Hart kinda goad Sting into waiving off his Wolfpack allies (I think Hart was out of the nWo by this point, but I'm not sure), demanding a fair fight. That way, you can get your dream match stuff where these two are evenly matched and busting out their signature offense but unable to put each other way (which is what the fans really want to see) instead of hokey weapon nonsense and a 4 minute ref bump.

 

in classic WCW fashion, they also tend to use weapons that just make your head shake. "Brass" knucks that look more like a leather strap? Bret using the bat makes sense considering who he's facing - but aside from the last shot with it, the others just looked weak (like when HHH uses the hammer in a way nobody has ever used a hammer). Would've preferred Hart using the ring bell - he always wielded that thing well.

 

Not the worst match on the show - but how could it be when Disco Inferno wrestles twice, Lodi's in action, and Warrior/Hogan follows it?