[3.0] "There were some truly shocking matches here, but a handful of decent to good matches softened that blow enough to prevent this becoming an all-time awful show and instead made it simply a really bad one. Nagata vs Ultimo was unsurprisingly quite good, following a simple but really effective bruiser-vs-luchador formula. Ultimo had good agility, speed, and babyface fire, while Nagata had impressive power, stiffness, and general heel nastiness, and they brought that all together with strong chemistry and smart timing and set-ups. There was even a nice story of Nagata targeting Ultimo's arm, which played into the finish. ***1/4. Jericho vs Gedo was okay but rather uneven. Gedo did decently playing the underhanded and foul-faced heel, with good selling and offence to match. Jericho's offence was likewise good, but his rather squeaky clean character work was still really bland and held the match back because he simply failed to invest the crowd in his struggle. It's a shame about their big top-rope botch, but their chemistry was honestly solid apart from that, and they had a few cool ideas. **1/2. Eddie vs Misterio was very good but not quite as great as it's touted to be. Eddie was a great heel with his effortless yet well-tuned expressions and body language, and then his offence was nasty with his all-around aggression and well-timed cut-offs. Misterio, meanwhile, was really sympathetic as the suffering face-in-peril, and he had great fire and true magic in his flashy high-flying comebacks. The only slight limitations I saw were: Eddie's control work often slowed the match down for too long, Misterio's eventual win felt a bit disjointed by comprising of mostly isolated big spots, and I wished Misterio's mask was more directly targeted to play up the stipulation and build. ***3/4. Mungo vs Wright was just plain bad from the start. Wright as Debra's surprise replacement for Jarrett sucked, and Wright had little going on apart from being technically sound. Mungo, meanwhile, tried his best as usual, but his shouty over-selling, uncoordinated movements, and unconvincing offence left a lot to be desired. AND THEN GOLDBERG RAN IN AND BOTH MUNGO AND THE REF HAD TO PRETEND NOT TO SEE HIM WHEN HE WAS OBVIOUSLY RIGHT THERE. OH GOD THAT WAS AWFUL AND MADE THE MATCH SO MUCH WORSE. 3/4*. Goldberg maintained a bit of aura despite his lame interference by at least laying out Wright afterwards, but him seemingly working for Debra solely for Mungo's Super Bowl ring was incredibly, incredibly stupid. Disco vs Jacqueline had no reason to exist, neither as a feud nor a match. Inter-gender matches are inherently impossible to take seriously to begin with, but this corny, melodramatic pantomime was truly awful. First we had to sit through Disco's mind-numbing time-wasting, then we were subjected to Jacqueline's clunky and wholly unconvincing offence. At the absolute least I can say that what they were aiming for was executed as best as it could be, and that's the one non-negative I have. 1/2*. Hennig vs Flair started with the appropriate intensity reflected in the build, with Flair on fire and Hennig selling/bumping well. They even did a nice mirrored leg-targeting story for a bit. Unfortunately, their action soon became more generic and less intense, with their few more complex spots/sequences as well as their transitions to and from certain sequences and spots being a bit awkward or unconvincing. At least their selling was good for certain periods. Then we got an unsatisfying DQ finish after they finally followed through with their many teased weapon attacks. **1/4. Luger vs Hall was pretty lifeless. Aside from establishing his reffing prowess early on, Zbyszko was mostly just part of background until the interference around the finish, where he was mildly entertaining. Meanwhile, the work from both wrestlers was plain boring, with zero creativity or fire, plus a crowd that wasn't willing to play up the heel-vs-babyface stakes. Hall initially won but Zbyszko called for a replay then a restart, only for Syxx to quickly cause a DQ by attacking Zbyszko. *3/4. It's rather absurd that Zbyszko was apparently the one intelligent WCW ref capable of utilising replay to rightfully catch and punish the nWo, so while I appreciate that here, it sort of makes a mockery of WCW for every other time a ref hasn't done the same. DDP vs Savage was okay. I've never liked Last Man Standing matches much, since they're always formulaic and repetitive, and this wasn't much different. It was very brawl-heavy for the first 2/3rds, with some of that work actually being quite fun as they went into the crowd and into the PPV-themed props, and there was a nice focus as Savage went after DDP's pre-injured ribs. I also liked how both guys sold their mounting exhaustion and pain. Unfortunately, the final 1/3rd was overbooked with interference, ref bumps, and CONSTANT 10-counts from the ref, which took away some of the excitement, though their actual wrestling interactions were usually decent. **3/4. Hogan vs Piper was really, really bad. Their never-ending brawl work was super generic, Hogan's cowardly running away and cheesy over-selling undercut the drama, and the cage being escaped early on rendered the stipulation pointless. Piper won in super underwhelming fashion (to be fair, it would always be underwhelming due to this match's cheap booking of being non-title) after Savage's mostly botched axe handle off the cage onto Hogan (which was still pretty insane, to be fair), and then that win was undercut by yet another nWo "get our heat back" post-match beatdown. The multiple Stings prevented Hogan escaping in the match yet somehow couldn't stop that beatdown? *"

[5.0] "Both Yugi Vs Dragon and Savage Vs DDP are great and Mysterio Vs Guerrero is an absolute masterclass, but the rest of the card is mostly a stinker, particularly Jacqueline Vs Disco and Hogan Vs Piper cage match both being utter duds and garbage. Overall WCW Halloween Havoc (1997) is a middling show with a lot amazing stuff, but a whole lot of horrible stuff too."

[6.0] "I always enjoyed Halloween Havoc, even in the last years of WCW. Mysterio/Eddie put on a banger of a match, DDP/Macho was good, but Piper/Hogan grinded the shwo to a halt. Hard to believe WCW was making record numbers this year, but they were."

[1.0] "What a horrible PPV. Virtually every match was rotten and of the two semi decent matches on the card, Rey v Eddie is over rated and Savage v Luger was average and I think I wads very generous rating it a 6. The whole event was dominated by the NWO v WCW feud, which I understand from watching this event had already grown tired and way past its best by this point. I got sick of hearing that NWO music for every other entrance. Commentary Team was appalling all night and had obviously not been briefed of angles / outcomes before hand. Even Bischoff's promo stunk........ how many times did he have to say "you haven't got the stroke"......? Embarrassing."

[5.0] "What a weird show - it was jumping like a kangaroo in terms of the quality. On one hand you had a phenomenal Eddie vs Rey match that was a perfect example of how the high-flying match should look like and on the other you had Hogan and Piper in the main event trying to make climbing the cage exciting and falling flat horribly. There's also a terrible Disco vs Jacqueline match with Inferno's stalling having to be a rib and Mongo vs Wright, where Goldberg's interference was just laughable and buried poor Charles Robinson. But there's also a couple of highlights. Nagata vs Dragon was a very fun way to open the show, Hennig vs Flair was a pretty decent angle and Luger vs Hall was pretty good with Zbyszko doing a great job as the referee. Also Jericho vs Gedo and Savage vs DDP were disappointing, but at the same time they were digestible and nothing to get too mad about. Like I said then - a weird show, but you get some good stuff here and there."

[4.0] "Not even sure how to rate this exactly because you have the greatest match in WCW history on this card but also some of the worst WCW matches i can recall and that's saying something. There are some real highlights on this though so it's not all doom and gloom"

[7.0] "The first three matches, especially Guerrero vs Misterio Jr. and Page vs Savage are good to great. Everything else is skippable."

[7.0] "What a rollercoaster of a PPV, this show has some of the best matches of WCW history but at the same time some of its worst. Rey vs Eddie is the match of the night and to be honest its probably the best WCW match in the history. Savage vs DDP was also very good. The main event was very bad and the Inferno vs Jacqueline match was awful as well."

[4.0] "A rollercoaster of a PPV, the lowlights of which I think are more notable. The cruiserweights mostly hold everything together on their end with the exception of Gedo and Jericho whose match features a botch that could have potentially ended Jerichos fucking career. Disco Inferno has a match with Jacqueline wherein he runs from her for ten minutes only to end up losing anyway. Piper and Hogan were allergic to quality in-ring work at this point in their careers and this is the event that epitomizes their sheer incompetence as they cobble up what is potentially the worst and most dangerous cage match of all time. If nothing else, its certainly the most confusing with no one in or outside the cage even pretending to understand the rules."

[3.0] "Tony ending the show yelling "We're outta time! " as Hogan, Savage and a bunch of dudes beat the shit out of a fan that jumped the ring is iconic. Rey/Eddie is awesome and there's some other decent stuff but most of this was hot garbage but at least it was funny."

[5.0] "This was not great, some hot garbage throughout but at least the crowd was great. Match of the night is DDP vs Macho Man."

[7.0] "Most of the card is pretty good but then we got that Woman vs Man match, Alex Wright vs Steve McMichael was boring, and that steel cagematch was a let down but it slowly got better near the end, and then got confusing. Outside of that we got the greatest Rey Mysterio match of all time, it was the greatest match of 97 in general. Flair came back and took Henning to the limit and them continued beating him, I'm hyped for this feud."

[6.0] "Show started decent, then it started kicking ass with Guerrero and Mysterio, then it's a long streak of garbage matches before Savage and DDP help save the night. The main event was a dry turd, but the death match and cruiserweight match helped elevate this PPV to an easy recommendation! Just might want to FF through the garbage."

[5.0] "As much as I wanted to like this event, my WCW loving childhood nostalgia painted a way better picture than how it actually played out. Initially watching this event for the classic Mysterio vs Guerrero match, it was largely the only great part of this card. Hall vs Luger was almost unwatchable with the sheer amount of rest holds and tests of strength. Whether or not that was largely due to Luger's inability to wrestle or not, I wanted skip ahead but somehow found it within me to continue watching. The Piper and Hogan match was just... awful. I really tried to like it but as disjointed as this card was the negatives largely outweighed what few gems were here."

[4.0] "Oh, great, Hogan's back... His match is awful, one of the worst he ever had, and he weakens the rest of the show with repeated promos. There are some good matches here, including an absolute classic Mysterio/Guerrero match and Nagata's US debut, but there's also more awful ones than usual for this point. The good ones are worth seeking out, but the event as a whole was poor."

[7.0] "Some strange matches and finishes ruin this PPV for me a little, but it's still fairly decent. [1st match] Getting a little tired of the jilted ex-esque storyline. But Nagata is definitely Onoo's best charge to date. Yuji was still as methodical even this far back. Best non-title Cruiserweight match for a while here. **** [2nd match] Could almost be described as a squash (and I'm rating it as such) with how little offense Gedo got in. Gedo scarily misinterpreted Jericho's top rope Frankensteiner also. DUD [3rd match] Very fast-paced match with some scary-looking-but-safe bumps. Eddie got tons of heat for going after Rey's mask. Perfect finish also, absolutely amazing. ****1/2 [4th match] A poor match but showed Mongo's arsenal of moves. Unexpected run-in also. *1/2 [5th match] Quite a well booked intergender match that had some heat to it, I just wish I knew the storyline behind it, as the commentary didn't help someone going in blind. ** [6th match] Hennig's selling was a little comedic, but was nice to see some fire from Flair. *** [7th match] Nothing special, but for once WCW had a fair leaning-towards outright advantage for once. Zbyszko was a good but loud ref. ** [8th match] Their best encounter by far, enjoyed them destroying Halloween Havoc's elaborate set. Rare to see Liz getting involved physically also. ***1/2 [Main] Piper's offense is still awful, I think the Cage helped him immensely. The whole concept of Cage matches once again gets voided pretty quickly. And speaking of the Cage... I can't believe they climbed this thing, or that Savage dived off it... Crazy, all three of them. Still a very bad PPV Main however. 1/2* nothing really worth seeing except for 2 out of the 3 cruiserweight matches, everything else is skippable."

[8.0] "I relieved this month many of the Halloween Havoc shows that WCW had during 90s. Reliving it in retrospect, WCW was really great, I loved the pump and circumstances about WCW shows the product so "american" so larger than life and so colorful that WCW had, it takes me to a period in history of United States with a great economy and prosperity, before any economic crisis of the new millenium, and I think that this show represent it at its best, and it remids me why I fell so much in love for Sport Entertainment when I was Younger, for the Larger than life characters, the stories that Pro Wrestling tell and the bizzarre and colorful world that it is. I think that this show is probably the most famous Halloween Havoc mainly for one reason: The Match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio that imposed the standard for any Cruiserweight match in US to this days (incredible how at NXT Halloween Havoc Santos Escobar entered with a Tribute Wrestling Gear to the one that Rey Mysterio Had that night in Las Vegas). I personally don't enjoy that much the High Flying matches but I can recognize it as one of the best matches ever, one for the ages that will go on in history as one of the best matches in the carrear of both men. Beyond this match we had some other great matches. I am getting a culture about many thing I did not know about Pro Wrestling, I was in fact surprised to know that Gedo Wrestler in WCW! and his match against Jericho was good, as was good the opener between Yuji Nagata and Ultimo Dragon. One of the great things about WCW was the cooperation with NJPW and the ability to bring many of Japanese Wrestler to america brining that style that know is so popular to the US. Thats why in my opinion (and I am speaking as Huge WWE Fan), WCW back in the days was so much more complete and gorgeous than WWF: It had the Cruiserweights that delivered the fireworks in the ring, Japan and all the strong style and great and larger than life main eventers as Macho Man, Goldberg, DDP, Hogan, Piper and... Sting. Speaking of Sting I always said that 1997 was the biggest year in Wrestling History, we had the rise of the Austin Era, We had the first ever Hell in a Cell, the Montreal Screwjob, the first ever ECW PPV, this incredible and historic Halloween havoc and one of the biggest build up to a Main Event in History between Sting and Hogan for that year Starrcade. The Match itself will be remembered as a flop but the build up was fucking amazing and H. Havoc's Main Event was incredible not as a in ring point of view but as a Starrpower point of view with the Steel Cage Match between Piper and Hogan and the Whole Sting's Vigilant storyline surrounding it. It was Great, I loved and I am a love Hollywood Hogan as character, way more than the Yellow and Red classic Hulk Hogan... I love this show and in my opinion it is a must for any fan that want to get a culture about that historical period in Pro Wrestling variegated story."

[7.0] "Surprised to see this as the highest rated WCW event of '97, it has a lot of really good stuff but some pretty major drawbacks as well. Nagata/Dragon is a great opener, really enjoyed it, but it crashes badly in an incredibly boring Jericho/Gedo match. Gedo is clearly better as a booker than a wrestler, and Jericho was still a painfully bland babyface and didn't really have the pieces put together yet. Of course the most famous match of the event is the Mysterio/Eddie conflict which rightly holds claim as being one of the best matches in WCW history, superb contest. Wright/McMichael is an ok match and has an angle that looks strange in hindsight, with Goldberg interfering and acting very heelish. The event really bombs out with a painfully bad Jacqueline/Disco match. I am a fan of intergender matches done well but this was the farthest thing from, the entire thing is Disco wussing out and crying that he can't hit a woman, even though Jacqueline is about 10 times tougher than he is. If they had played it up like it was Disco's excuse that's one thing, but they didn't know what they wanted to do, and the result is awful. Luger/Hall is an ok bout but these two are capable of much more. Savage/DDP is a great match rounding out their feud, but sadly the main event sends us back into horrible territory. Slow motion brawling, and 9 fake Stings appearing, and the bizarre event of a fan getting in the cage and being treated as part of the match. Good event mostly but not totally."

[9.0] "WCW's hottest period doing its thing. Good stuff throughout - overbooked but effective main event between two old rivals in Hogan and Piper with the face-heel dynamic reversed from their past encounters, a great grudge match for the Hennig-Flair feud, a good installment in the Savage-DDP feud that "made" Page, a classic Cruiserweight Title match between Rey and Eddie, and lots of other good matches and hot angles. Even the worst of it - the Disco-Jacqueline match - was entertaining for what it was. This was the WCW I loved growing up at its best."

[9.0] "Arguably WCW's best PPV in 1997. Even though a few were disappointing, most of the matches on the card were solid. Guerrero vs Misterio Jr. is one of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history and I'll never get tired of watching it. There's an awesome black and white nWo promo from Bischoff and Hogan. Ric Flair gets his revenge on Curt Hennig in violent fashion. Goldberg shows up just to jackhammer people. The crowd begs for Sting as they watch the nWo wreak havoc once again, perfectly fitting to the name of the event."

[7.0] "Was a good show from beginning to end. Alex Wright vs. Steve McMichael was the low point of the show, however I can't help to laugh when the ref is distracted and they fall into him, then he looks as there is outside interference, but pretends not to notice. I won't judge it too bad for giving me a laugh. Jacqueline vs. Disco Inferno was actually good enough to watch. Curt Hennig and Ric Flair had a good old fashioned hard-hitting grudge match. Piper and Hogan was decent enough. The end of it resembled something you would have seen from ECW. Yuji Nagata/Ultimo Dragon and Savage/Page were both excellent matches. Rey Mysterio Jr. and Eddie Guerrero stole the show and put on a 5 star match. It is one of the best matches of all time! This PPV is a must see just for this match alone. A very good 7 of 10 for the show."