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MGM Grand Garden Arena
Las Vegas Nevada 10/25/1998 WCW Halloween Havoc WCW Television Champion Chris Jericho was a rising star, gaining much momentum leading into Halloween Havoc 1998. Raven had proven to be a successful cog in the machine wherever you put him on the card, having great feuds that helped stabilize WCW television for quite some time. I think this match had components of everything that made wrestling as popular as it was in this era, great mic work, great storytelling, and of course plenty of brawling on the outside to get the crowd warmed up. Most current wrestling fans would probably expect a match like this to be somewhere near the top of the card. This was not the case however. Jericho and Raven opened the event, something WCW had always tried to do up until this point was have opening matches that were going to get the crowd interested. Every time I think about this PPV I don't remember the awful Hogan vs (not so Ultimate) Warrior match, this is the match I remember. When I'm talking about how a great, short promo can add volumes of momentum to a match I always point to this match as an example. Raven plays his part perfectly, walking out of the ring like he isn't going to wrestle and getting the crowd booing him, followed by Jericho taunting him in only a way Jericho could get the fans immediately behind him, even though the fans still didn't trust him. What takes place from there is not a "classic" pro wrestling match in any sense of the word, but what you do get is the fans interested in who is going to win the "fight" because Jericho makes it sound like if Raven can't win then he might as well just pack his bags and head home for good. If you are someone who's never watched a lot of WCW but want to see what makes people who loved it so passionate about it, here is a match that shows exactly why in my opinion. |
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