[1998-10-25-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Hulk Hogan vs Ultimate Warrior

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Well this was a disaster, which is pretty well known. You kind of need to see it in full to appreciate just how bad and disastrous it was. It's one thing to see a bad match where someone is dogging it, but to watch a bad match where the guys are trying and the match is just falling apart is always depressing. The announcers try to cover for all of Warrior's missed stuff but they aren't miracle workers. Way too many ref bumps on this card. Then there's the messed up fireball spot. The crowd doesn't respond to much of anything, as they weren't interested in either guy at all. This feud bombed and the PPV buyrate was lower than expected, which led to Hogan taking some time off to avoid further blame for WCW's decline. We'll get into Presidential candidate Hulk Hogan very soon. But this was the match where it was clear Hogan's Midas touch was finally gone.

[soup23]

Sad to watch. This may of honestly had at times and glimpses better work than the WM 6 match but no where near the atmosphere. Also, Warrior was much more inconsistent and everything they tried to raise the stakes on the hate backfired. Horace ends up helping his Uncle win the match. Blood, fireballs, a swerve, ref bump..... yeah this was overbooked. DUD

[PeteF3]

Yeah, both promotions but especially WCW are starting to fail at the most basic level of selling pro wrestling: What would happen if Wrestler X faced Wrestler Y and who would win? That shit's just completely academic at this point as the thought of booking a big match without a shit-ton of ref bumps and run-ins and angles and swerves is almost completely out the window. This was bad, but fireball disaster aside, I was honestly expecting worse. That could be because I took the opportunity to watch some MNF in the background even though I don't give a shit about the Eagles or the Bears. No one in the crowd gives a fuck about Horace's swerve, that's for sure.

[DMJ]

I had never seen this in full so I was kind of taken aback. I don't think the Worst Match Ever reputation is really deserved. Yeah, Warrior is gassed around minute two. Yeah, there's the logroll spot and Hogan botching the fireball, and the convoluted ending, but there's some positives here that I think get overlooked.

 

First, while it doesn't match the atmosphere of WrestleMania VI, very few matches ever have. I think this comes across as an important match - one that Hogan really, really wants to win. As Loss said, its not like either guy is half-assing it out there. Second, I'm not a "physique" guy but Warrior is shredded and Hogan is Hogan. The match looks right - which is more than one can say about Sting/Hogan at Starrcade. Its a minor thing but there's also something to be said for the relative speed/pacing of the match. As neither guy can really go anymore (Warrior is breathing pretty hard when he challenges Hogan to a test of strength), they actually do a nice job of covering for their age, getting the most out of very little, and popping the crowd for the bigger moments (Warrior bodyslamming Hogan and Warrior clotheslining The Giant out of the ring). They may not be on target 80% of the time, but those clotheslines Warrior throws do look like they'd legitimately hurt too.

 

Finally, intended or not, there are throwbacks to WrestleMania VI (I'm guessing unintended because they're the kind of tropes that happen in nearly every Hogan match) that make this more fun to watch than just your average match. At WrestleMania VI, Hogan got the visual pin. Here, its Warrior's turn. At WrestleMania VI, the test of strength made for an iconic moment. Here, Hogan fights dirty so that should-be iconic moment is tainted.

 

I'm not defending this as a good match (it clearly isn't), but in hindsight, I probably smiled more watching this match before its overbooked closing minutes, even with the absurd gaffes, than I do watching the cookie-cutter "you're turn/my turn" matches that have become the norm today.