Leave it to professional wrestling to take one of our fondest childhood memories and twist it into something regrettable. As Fall settles in and Halloween approaches, I find myself revisiting the Halloween Havoc archives on the WWE Network. While there’s plenty of gold to be found—like Jake “The Snake” Roberts battling Sting in WCW, or the legendary Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio clash—there’s also a fair share of infamy. Standing out among WCW’s missteps in the Havoc series is undoubtedly the match between Hollywood Hogan and The Warrior at Halloween Havoc ’98.
The match was so disastrous that wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer awarded it negative five stars, an almost unheard-of rating that underscored just how poorly received it was.
In contrast to their iconic encounter at WrestleMania VI in 1990, where The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan to become both WWF World Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion—a moment forever etched in wrestling history—their WCW rematch is one fans would rather forget. The bout not only tarnished the legacy of their original encounter but also left a sour note on the end of the Hogan-Warrior saga.
The Warrior’s WCW stint was marred by a series of missteps: ridiculous camera tricks, a trapdoor in the ring that severely injured Davey Boy Smith, and an infamous botched attempt at a fireball stunt. Add to that the bizarre inclusion of Hogan’s nephew, Horace Hogan, and it becomes clear why this run was doomed from the start.
Like most of Warrior’s runs after his initial success in WWF, his 1998 WCW tenure was fraught with difficulties. Lengthy contract negotiations, disagreements over the “Warrior brand,” and strained interactions between Hogan and Warrior set the stage for disaster.
Ultimately, a million-dollar contract and the promise of Turner Broadcasting distribution for any potential Warrior-branded projects were enough to bring Warrior to WCW. Although a million dollars might seem like a lot, it becomes less impressive when you consider that Warrior only wrestled three matches during this run, including his infamous clash with Hogan at Halloween Havoc ’98. That’s $333,000 per match.
But why such a brief run? There’s no clear answer, but it seems that neither Eric Bischoff nor Hulk Hogan, who were heavily involved in WCW’s creative direction, had any long-term plans for Warrior beyond giving Hogan the chance to avenge his WrestleMania VI loss. Bischoff and Hogan later claimed that Warrior’s storyline ideas were too complicated to work with and that he was unwilling to adapt to WCW’s environment. Warrior, however, stated in shoot interviews before his death that after Halloween Havoc ’98, he flew to a Nitro event only to be told he had no storyline or role, leading him to conclude that he was only brought in to feed Hogan’s ego.
The Warrior’s arrival in WCW mirrored the 1995 Renegade storyline, another low point in WCW’s history. Much like that earlier attempt to capitalize on the Warrior’s mystique, the 1998 angle relied heavily on smoke and mirrors—literally. Warrior would materialize and vanish from the ring through a trapdoor, shrouded in smoke, leaving Hogan to wonder what supernatural powers his rival possessed. But instead of awe, this hokey mysticism just left fans scratching their heads. The Warrior character was never about magic in the WWF—his appeal was raw energy and intensity. This was more akin to the misfire of Papa Shango’s voodoo gimmick, and it got over just as poorly.
A tragic side note: Davey Boy Smith suffered a serious back injury after landing on the trapdoor used for Warrior’s entrances, an injury that exacerbated his drug problems and hastened his decline.
In addition to haunting Hogan, Warrior formed the “oWn”—One Warrior Nation—as a counter to the nWo. He made his in-ring debut at Fall Brawl ’98 as part of Team WCW alongside Diamond Dallas Page and Roddy Piper in a WarGames match against Team Wolfpac (Kevin Nash, Sting, and Lex Luger) and Team nWo (Hogan, Bret Hart, and Stevie Ray). The match was lackluster and ended with Diamond Dallas Page pinning Stevie Ray—far from the star power expected. Warrior even teamed up with his old Blade Runners partner, Sting, to take on Hogan and Bret Hart on Nitro, resulting in a DQ win for the Blade Runners.
Halloween Havoc ’98 was a disaster for multiple reasons. Believe it or not, the Hogan-Warrior match wasn’t the worst part of the show. The real debacle was WCW’s decision to extend the show by half an hour without notifying cable providers, causing many live feeds to cut out before the second main event: Diamond Dallas Page vs. Goldberg for the WCW World Title. While most viewers endured the entirety of the awful Hogan-Warrior match, they missed out on what turned out to be an excellent title match between Page and Goldberg, which WCW had to air in full the next night on Nitro.
But the Hogan-Warrior match itself was abysmal. Warrior claimed that Hogan showed little interest in planning the match, a stark contrast to their meticulously laid-out WrestleMania VI encounter, which was choreographed by Pat Patterson. Despite Warrior’s belief that he and Hogan had grown closer—he even stayed at Hogan’s house before signing with WCW—the camaraderie quickly soured once Warrior joined the promotion. Hogan became distant, leaving Warrior with minimal direction and a loosely planned match. Hogan’s lapse in calling Warrior by his WWF name during a promo and Warrior’s overly long promo that forced a Nitro rewrite are just a few examples of how disjointed the creative process was.
The match’s nadir was Hogan’s botched fireball stunt. Channeling the infamous Iron Sheik, Hogan attempted to throw a fireball in Warrior’s face, but the execution was laughable. Hogan fumbled with a lighter and flash paper, unable to get the fireball to ignite. By the time the paper finally lit, the moment had passed, and Hogan ended up throwing a handful of ashes at Warrior. Hogan later claimed he singed off his eyebrows and mustache, but this appears to be a gross exaggeration.
That Hogan, who is notoriously reluctant to admit fault, acknowledged this botch speaks volumes about how bad the match was. Even Hogan couldn’t spin this disaster into something positive.
With the fireball spot a failure, the ending was hastily improvised. Hogan’s nephew, Horace Hogan, hit Warrior with a chair, allowing Hogan to pin him. WCW promptly abandoned any further plans for Warrior, and his stint with the company came to an unceremonious end.
At Halloween Havoc ’98, Hogan finally got his win back, but in doing so, wrestling fans everywhere lost.
