Ryan's Dive into '95 - Part 44 (10/29-11/4)
THE YETAY! Monster truck sumo action! Flair turns on Sting again! Karate Fighters! MONDAY NYQUIL! Tons more!
If you haven’t read it already, please check out my introductory article that explains what this series is all about. As a reminder, footage is sourced from the Goodhelmet 1995 Yearbook, unless otherwise stated.
How ya now?
We made it to Halloween Havoc ‘95, kids! One week removed from In Your House 4, I get to talk about MORE hot garbage from the Big Two. At least there’s some good action on this week’s show, though.
Plus, ECW crowns its first ever triple crown champion, we have another famous Steve Austin segment, hot Karate Fighters action, plenty from the Tommy Rich/Buddy Landel feud, and more!
Well…
OCTOBER 29th
WCW Main Event
Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko vs. The Blue Bloods - Before we get to Halloween Havoc itself, we get a match from the Main Event pre-show. Steven Regal has fantastic chemistry with Benoit and should gel with Malenko, so this should be quite good.
Regal starts off with Benoit and they have a pretty sweet little match, blasting each other with stiff shots and hard-fought mat wrestling. Benoit hits a springboard rebound clothesline, then Malenko comes in with a fisherman’s suplex for two. Eaton checks in, but quickly falls victim to a rebound bulldog and a dropkick from Malenko. Eaton comes back with a HUGE backbreaker, but the future Horsemen double-team Eaton, leading to a powerbomb from Benoit. It looked like they were going for a double-team powerbomb/clothesline combo, but Eaton couldn’t get up for the bump.
Eaton quickly tags Regal back in, and we get some stiff European uppercuts and a slick pinfall reversal sequence. Awesome stuff from these guys. Malenko works a short-arm scissors for a while, latching onto it despite Regal’s escape attempts. Eaton finally comes off the top to break the hold. The Bloods of Blue work over Dean for a while, including a beautiful top rope kneedrop from Eaton.
Regal Stretch is broken up by Benoit, and The Crippler tags in and immediately leathers Regal with a chop. Stiff clothesline gets two, as does a snap suplex. HARD shoulderblock gets a close two for Benoit, but Regal comes back with a snug forearm. Tombstone reversal sequence is won by Benoit, who lands a massive flying headbutt, but Eaton breaks up the cover. Regal hits a top rope butterfly suplex for repeated two-counts, but Benoit hits a clothesline and gets his own repeated pin attempts. I LOVE that kind of stuff. Bobby breaks up a dragon suplex attempt, but a second one (with Malenko dropkicking Regal while in the full nelson) gets three!
***1/2 - This is a hell of a match to have on a pre-show. Great exchanges throughout, especially with Regal in there. One criticism you could levy on Regal was that his style often clashed with others, but when you put him in there with guys like Benoit and Malenko, they will COOK. Even Eaton, who feels like a stylistic square peg, did well here, other than the powerbomb spot.
Other stuff that happened on Main Event:
Eddy Guerrero pinned Disco Inferno after a springboard hurricanrana.
Paul Orndorff defeated The Renegade after two piledrivers in just over a minute. Quite the epic fall from grace for poor ‘Gade.
Sgt. Craig “Pitbull” Pittman pinned VK Wallstreet after taped-fistery. Bubba Rogers and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan also got involved.
WCW Halloween Havoc 1995
We have arrived at the seventh annual Halloween Havoc. Coming at you HOT from Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, they managed to draw in 13,000 fans. Sure, some of them were comped, but it still led to a $138,000 gate.
We pick it up near the end of Diamond Dallas Page (c) vs. Johnny B. Badd for the WCW World Television Championship. Badd makes his comeback with a couple of atomic drops, both of which feature DDP doing his best Rick Rude impression in terms of selling. Badd gets some punches and a headscissors, then follows with a double axehandle. The Diamond Doll gives him a 10!
DDP kicks out of the pin, then Badd hits a Ligerbomb for another near-fall. DDP counters a hiptoss with a DDT (the Diamond Dream)! Badd kicks out at two, then he thwarts a Diamond Cutter attempt. Badd dispatches DDP, then, after a tiger feint-style fakeout, hits a somersault plancha to Page and Max Muscle!
Badd hits the Bad Day (rotating slingshot splash) for two, but Muscle hops onto the apron. DDP almost slugs him by accident, but stops short. Badd dropkicks Page into him, though, and a roll-up gets another close two! DDP holds Badd in place for a Muscle clothesline, but Johnny dodges! Max hits DDP, then Badd punches Muscle off the apron and pins DDP for the win and the title! Diamond Doll seems to be pretty happy with this development.
Really fun finishing sequences there. You can really sense the improvement in DDP, who bumped and sold his ass off for Badd. Badd apparently had a rib injury, but he still looked fairly good in there. Unfortunately, they’d run this matchup into the ground as this feud lasted until Badd left the company in March 1996.
Ric Flair & Sting vs. Arn Anderson & Brian Pillman - I love these stupid pumpkin graphics.
The Man Called Sting comes out alone as the announcers are selling that Ric Flair was taken out by Pillman and Anderson. In a contrast from their Nitro match, Sting starts off by himself as the crowd chants “WE WANT FLAIR”. Sting starts off with the advantage, fending off the Horsemen with athleticism and punches. Pillman pisses off Sting with a slap and baits him to the floor, but Sting is somehow too smart for that as he ducks the attempted clotheslines and takes both guys down. Back in, Pillman offers a very sincere handshake.
Sting accepts, then pulls him in for a kick and a big press slam. Look at the big brain on Steve! Anderson tags in, but that doesn’t turn the tide as Sting continues fighting both guys, tossing Pillman into the railing for Brian’s trademark bump. Anderson finally gains the upper hand for his team by ramming Sting’s head into Pillman’s…but FLAIR COMES OUT! Clad in street clothes, Flair cheers Sting on from his corner.
The heels finally have a sustained advantage, working Sting over in their half of the ring. Flair whacks Anderson with a shoe to break up a chinlock, then Sting gets his knees up to counter a Pillman splash. We get the “Arn gets kneed in the nuts during a double wristlock” spot, but Pillman “goads” Flair off the apron to prevent the tag. We get an assisted abdominal stretch spot, always a classic.
Anderson and Pillman continue working over Sting with nefarious tactics and double-teaming. Arn hits that lovely spinebuster, but Flair prevents the pin. The baddies work over the leg as Flair yells at Sting to “STAND TALL”. The wearing-down continues until Sting fights off both guys in their corner! STING MAKES THE TAG…and Flair immediately decks him! OH MY GOD, RIC FLAIR HAS TURNED ON STING!
The ref throws the match out as Sting does what he can to fight off all three guys! The crowd is going apeshit here as the newly-reformed Horsemen take over and have their way with Sting.
***1/2 - Despite how obvious the payoff was, this was a strong angle, and the match was well-worked, too. Great crowd heat, terrific shine from Sting early on with great selling and bumping by Anderson and Pillman. There was good work during the heat segment from the heels, and the timing of the comebacks was excellent. In reality, Flair had an injured rotator cuff, so he wouldn’t have been able to wrestle a regular match, so this worked out well.
Everybody knew that Sting’s decision to team up with Flair was as questionable as Flair’s decision to create his own cryptocurrency, but Sting did kind of have an idea this was coming and threatened to beat Flair’s ass if he did, and that ended up happening. He wasn’t COMPLETELY oblivious in this case.
Flair, Anderson, and Pillman join “Mean” Gene Okerlund in the aisleway to crow about their plan as the fans toss garbage at them.
Alright, kids! Buckle up, because it's now time for the MONSTER TRUCK SUMO MATCH!
We get a lengthy video package recapping the brain-meltingly stupid rivalry between Hulk Hogan and The Giant, then we kick it to the announcers and Bob Chandler, the creator of Bigfoot (the monster truck, not the cryptid or the discontinued Pizza Hut offering) as they break down a bunch of numbers about monster trucks.
We now take it up to the roof of Cobo Hall (a building adjacent to Joe Louis Arena). The trucks are welded together, and the objective is to push the other guy out of the circle. There’s also explosive charges placed randomly, which is a great idea. The stunt drivers Hogan and The Giant push each other back and forth for a while. Bobby Heenan says that this is exciting. I respectfully disagree.
A little bit of this was live (around 5 minutes), but most of it was comprised of hours of pre-taping the day before.
After a lot of back-and-forth, Hogan’s Steroidmobile hits one of the explosive charges. Thankfully, Hogan is OK. Both trucks are consuming a lot of alcohol, which is the optimal way to watch this. Hogan finally pushes The Giant’s truck out of the circle for the win! Hogan and The Giant get into a spat on the roof, which naturally leads to The Giant falling off of Cobo Hall.
WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Giant - The Hulkster grabs the mic and says that The Giant falling many stories to the parking lot/Lake Michigan/a crash pad wasn’t really supposed to happen, DUDE. However, despite suffering from what would normally be a case of life-threatening death, The Giant makes it to the match! It’s a miracle! Hell, his hair isn’t even wet!
We thankfully clip closer to the ending as The Giant has Dark Hulk locked in a bearhug. Hogan fights out, but runs into a chokeslam! Hogan kicks out and HULKS UP!
Hulk hits the punches and the big boot, then BODYSLAMS THE GIANT! It’s like 8 years earlier when Hogan pressed the 950lb Andre the Giant over his head, spun him around like a propeller, and slammed him into the earth’s core, BROTHER. Legdrop looks to finish, but the referee mysteriously passes out! Jimmy Hart comes in, pushes the referee back down, and blasts Hogan with the belt! A later replay would show that Hart decked the ref from behind with the belt to set the events in motion.
The Giant applies the bearhug again while The Taskmaster gets some free backshots on Hogan (phrasing?). Lex Luger and Randy Savage run in, but aren’t successful in helping Hogan. Then out comes THE YETAY!
More akin to a huge mummy wrapped in toilet paper than an abominable snowman, the YETAY and The Giant converge onto Hulk Hogan and bearhug him from both sides, making Hulk the unfortunate meat in a dry-hump sandwich.
While the humping is happening (The Humpening?), Luger turns on Savage and beats him down! Luger hoists Hogan into the torture rack as the two big lads double-team Savage. Yes, dry-humping was involved.
The Giant is declared the winner by disqualification and is handed the belt as Michael Buffer reminds everyone that the title can’t change hands via DQ.
Well, about that.
It was later revealed that Jimmy Hart had a clause put in the contract that allowed the title to change hands via disqualification, so The Giant was awarded the title. The Giant was quickly stripped of the title, and the belt was put up for grabs in the World War 3 battle royal. We’ll get to THAT when we reach November.
Humping aside, the Luger and Hart turns were actually pretty well-done.
So, yes, that was THE YETAY. From what I read, the character was meant to be played by the former Giant Gonzalez, but he didn’t show up, so the gimmick was gifted to Big John Studd trainee Ron Reis instead. He had been given lifts and extra wrapping around his head to make him look even bigger than The Giant, though he’s only about an inch taller in real life. Figuring that the used toilet paper look wasn’t practical, he was inexplicably made into something even further from an actual yeti: a giant goddamn ninja.
Reis would later be repackaged as Big Ron Studd, but would get his most quasi-fame as Reese, the really big dude from Raven’s Flock in 1998.
As for Halloween Havoc, the show garnered about 120,000 PPV buys, 90k below the previous year’s show (though that one did have the retirement match with Flair and Hogan to drive purchases). It was up from Fall Brawl’s bad number, but still not great, especially since Hogan takes a pretty big chunk of the PPV profits.
Other stuff that happened:
Randy Savage pinned The Zodiac in about 90 seconds after his flying elbow drop.
Kamala was originally supposed to face Savage, but he left the company rather than do a job to Savage.
Savage was working through a detached triceps at the time. We’ll get into some of the bullshit surrounding THAT as we continue on.
Kurosawa defeated Road Warrior Hawk after a Col. Robert Parker-assisted suplex.
Sabu pinned the very mysterious Mr. JL.
The Sheik, Sabu’s uncle, accompanied his nephew to ringside.
He threw a fireball at JL, which didn’t endear him to Turner executives. This apparently played a role in the brevity of Sabu’s WCW tenure.
Lex Luger defeated Meng via disqualification after The Taskmaster attacked Lex. The whole thing makes sense later.
Randy Savage defeated Lex Luger via flying elbow drop after Luger ran into Jimmy Hart, who was on the apron.
OCTOBER 30th
WWF Monday Night RAW
The lone RAW contribution this week comes in the form of a promotional segment for Milton Bradley’s Karate Fighters. It's like a more sophisticated form of Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots. You just spin the dial back and forth to make your fighter flail around like a glitchy Skyrim NPC. I got that for Christmas around this time, so I guess the marketing campaign worked.
Today’s combatants: Barry Horowitz and Hakushi!
They engage in perilous plastic pugilism while Todd Pettingill does a terrible Howard Cosell impression. Horowitz comes out on top. Jim Ross’ classic “HOROWITZ WINS” call is played as Barry pats himself on the back. However, Hakushi challenges him to the best TWO OUT OF THREE! We’re left in suspense as the commercial ends. Sadly, the result of this epic war is not on Cagematch, so I can’t tell you who prevailed. If you no longer wish to continue reading my work, I understand.
WCW Monday Nitro
Tony Schiavone is soon joined in the ring by Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Brian Pillman.
Pillman brags about how everything went down at Halloween Havoc, then Arn says that Sting did his best against the Horsemen, but mathematics and physics won the day. Flair says that the Horsemen are BACK, and that Sting is like a lot of women they deal with in that they’ll tell them what they want to hear, but will do what they want to do. Yikes.
This was simple, to the point stuff that re-establishes the Horsemen as a united front.
Not much in the way of content from either Monday night show this week, but Nitro won for the second week in a row with a 2.3 against RAW’s 2.1. We’re now even at 3-3-2.
OCTOBER 31st
ECW Hardcore TV
On All Hallows’ Eve, Beulah joins us for an edition of Beulah’s Box. She throws it to Steve Austin, who looks kind of like Eric Bischoff. He welcomes us to MONDAY NYQUIL, where the big boys play with each other!
He introduces his broadcast partner, BONGO.
The main event is a BOTTLE OF GERITOL ON A POLE match between all the old codgers!
This is the BOTTOM LINE! We’re number one! He fired The Brain over the phone, just like they did with Steve Austin! We cut to commercial.
And we’re back with the boom mic operator nudging “Bischoff” awake.
He apologizes for putting everyone to sleep, then falls back to sleep himself.
Paul Heyman just letting Steve Austin run amok with these promos was a hell of a decision. A bit repetitive and bitter in places, but Austin had this great manic energy and delivery that carried it well. The fact that an actual Viagra on a Pole match happened in late-era WCW makes this even funnier in hindsight.
ECW World Heavyweight Championship, Ladder Match: The Sandman (c) vs. Mikey Whipwreck - Even though it’s billed as a ladder match, it’s still pinfall or submission to win. The ladder is just a legal object, kind of like in every other ECW match.
In a contrast to other ladder matches, the titular household object is already in the center of the ring. Before the announcements can conclude, “The Extreme Superstar” Steve Austin comes out to run everybody down. He ascends the ladder, looks down, and calls the competitors a couple of “jabronies”, then calls Woman some things I won’t type here. Yikes.
Austin respects Whipwreck’s never-say-die attitude, but calls him a loser. Joey Styles takes issue with that, but the kid literally comes out to a song titled “Loser”. Austin wasn't wrong in his assessment.
Sandman is cool, but Austin will wrestle circles around him. Steve challenges the winner to a title match and carries Woman away to the locker room. Among the chaos, Sandman clobbers Mikey from behind with a beer can to kick off the match.
Mikey comes back by ramming the upright ladder into Sandman’s head a couple of times, but Sandman soon counters a Rocker Dropper with a slam onto the ladder! Sandman almost slips, but recovers and hits a slingshot senton onto Mikey and the ladder. Sandman then tosses the ladder from the ring onto Mikey on the outside!
Whipwreck is suplexed gut-first onto the ladder, then Sandman follows with a guillotine legdrop. Mikey comes back with some brutal chairshots to the head, then a FrankenMikey onto the floor. Sandman backdrops Mikey into the crowd, then follows with an insane dive, see-sawing the ladder into Mikey’s face! Back in, Sandman goes for a slingshot elbow, but only gets the ladder. Mikey then absolutely BONKS Sandman in the head with the ladder! Egads.
Sandman is busted open as Mikey suplexes the ladder onto him! That only gets a one-count, but Mikey follows with a splash onto the ladder, laying on a prone Sandman. Mikey covers and gets the three!
Mikey Whipwreck finally wrests the ECW World Heavyweight Championship from The Sandman! With this win, Mikey becomes the first ever ECW Triple Crown winner, having previously won the TV and Tag titles.
Cactus Jack comes out to celebrate with Mikey, but the other babyfaces come out to chase him off. They put Mikey on their shoulders as the ref hands him the belt.
** - This had some crazy spots and brutality (seriously, it was like Sandman was going for a CTE speed run), but it was a bit too short for the story they were trying to tell. I typically have no umbrage with Sandman matches being kept brief, but they should have done more to build drama within the match itself in order to give Mikey’s win even more impact. The finish itself was pretty flat, too. Still a good moment for Mikey, though.
We then get a memorial video for Sandman’s title reign set to a really bad Sid Vicious cover of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”.
NOVEMBER 4th
WWF Superstars
We get a bit of Rad Radford training to be a Bodydonna. He’s doing sit-ups, but Skip and Sunny find CANDY in his singlet! Radford eats it off the floor! You guys can stop mining now because you’ve hit the comedy motherlode.
Jerry Lawler brings out Goldust for a chat. They have Goldust come out with blue lighting in the aisleway, which is just wrong. The in-ring lighting is thankfully gold, though.
Lawler asks Goldust about his “premiere” at In Your House, to which he replies by quoting House of Wax. Goldust then calls out Bam Bam Bigelow, who gets into Goldy’s face. Bammer challenges Goldust to a match ANYTIME, ANY PLACE. Goldust quotes Ben-Hur and leaves.
The lighting was dark throughout and Goldust’s music is still playing through the whole thing, so the segment didn’t come across as clearly as it should have. Pretty big pop for Bigelow coming out, though, despite his stock being greatly diminished at this juncture. This is pretty much Bigelow’s last feud before leaving The Fed.
USWA Championship Wrestling
Corey Maclin heads into the locker room to speak with Tracy Smothers & Jesse James Armstrong. The new tag champs run down the USWA, their fans, and PG-13, calling the latter a couple of “jabronies”. That word’s getting some usage this week.
Speak of the white hoodies and they shall appear, as PG-13 runs in and brawls it out with the SMW guys. Wolfie D smashes Smothers repeatedly with a hubcap as officials and Randy Hales try to break up the fracas.
Smoky Mountain Wrestling
We start with arena clips of Tommy Rich vs. Buddy Landel in a Barbed Wire match. This is part of the “Faces of Fear” series of matches these guys were having around the horn. Both guys are naturally busted open. Landel pounds away at Rich in the corner, but accidentally elbows referee Mark Curtis down.
Rich attempts some swings with a tennis racket, but Landel swiftly dodges. Budro procures the racket, wallops Rich with it, and pins for the win. Post-match, The Punisher and Jim Cornette run in. Corny tosses powder at Landel, and the Militia beats Landel down a LOT because GOD FORBID the babyface actually gets to look triumphant after one of these matches.
Even Mark Curtis gets beat down and busted open. What a pro.
Continuing with the arena clips, we now see The Heavenly Bodies (c) vs. The Thugs in a Double Chain match for the SMW Tag Team Championship. Robert Gibson is the special guest ref as has been established. It’s apparently 2-out-of-3 falls, and we pick it up with each team having one fall apiece.
Dirty White Boy kicks Dr. Tom Prichard right in the penis. THAT’S MY PURSE, I DON’T KNOW YOU!
Gibson gets bumped by Jimmy Del Ray, then Tracy Smothers hits a DDT. Jim Cornette attempts to interfere with his racket, but Gibson grabs the racket…and WHACKS SMOTHERS! Gibson counts the pin, awarding the match to the Bodies.
Gibson continues beating the crap out of Smothers with the racket after the match, shakes hands with Cornette, and leaves with the Bodies. Honestly, not a huge shocker, especially when you consider Gibson’s reaction when Smothers downplayed the Rock N’ Roll Express’ achievements a couple of weeks ago.
We cut to Les Thatcher, who is with Butch Cassidy.
Thatch asks Butch about his upcoming Thanksgiving Thunder match with Jim Cornette. Butch cuts an amped-up promo threatening to stomp Cornette’s head into the mat with his size nine boot. Speak of the misogynist and he shall appear, as Jim Cornette walks into frame. Tommy Rich sneaks up behind Cassidy as Cornette compares him to a shrimp. Rich holds the little guy in place as Jim douses him in ketchup! Ketchup on shrimp? Jail!
The Wolfman vs. Tommy Rich - At least, that’s what the match is originally set to be, but Buddy Landel comes out and asks Wolfman to leave, giving us…
Buddy Landel vs. Tommy Rich - This is how I like my Wolfman matches: wrestled by other people. Rich gets the jump on Budro to start, but Landel comes back with punches.
Rich headbutts Landel in the abdomen to take over, but Buddy fires back with an eyerake, then chops and stomps. Jim Cornette gets a cheap shot with a tennis racket to Buddy’s throat, but Butch Cassidy chases Jimbo away from ringside. Rich chokes away at Landel as we are OUTTA TIME! The cameras are rolling! We’ll get the conclusion of the match next week, folks!
And by next week, I mean RIGHT NOW. We pick it up with Landel pounding away at Wildfire, then landing a corkscrew elbow. Figure four from the Nature Boy, but Cornette returns and breaks it up with the omnipresent tennis racket, awarding the match to Budro by disqualification. Cassidy comes back out and takes out Cornette, but The Punisher comes to the rescue. Punisher doles out a couple of chokeslams to Landel, then chokeslams Cassidy!
Chip Kessler on commentary says somebody “better call 911”! Get it! Because a dude by that name in ECW uses chokeslams, too!
*1/2 - Really not much to the match here as it was basic punches and kicks before the fuck finish. There was no way we were getting a clean finish between these guys in an impromptu TV match, and it was SO not worth the cliffhanger. I like the idea of a Landel redemption arc, and Budro is holding up his end of things, but the Cassidy payoff and the repetitive heel beatdowns really don’t help things at all. This really feels like a company that’s waiting to be put out of its misery.
So, yeah, give Halloween Havoc a watch if you want a combination of good wrestling and a cheap laugh at the WrestleCrap at the end. Mikey finally pinning Sandman was a nice historical and storyline moment, but it really needed a better match. Steve Austin given free reign is always a good time, though.
NEXT TIME: Sting looks for revenge against Ric Flair, the WCW title controversy is addressed, more insanity from FMW, and more!
Smell ya later!