WCW Halloween Havoc 1997

By October 1997, WCW had such a commanding lead in the Monday Night War that it seemed like they would never be caught by their rivals. WWE could present the first ever televised matches between two of the best wrestlers in the world if they wanted, but the WCW powerhouse could simply trot out the umpteenth meeting between two men in their 40s and easily trump the buy rate managed by WWE. That is exactly what happened during this month as WWE put on the first ever Hell in a Cell match (chronicled here in my review of In Your House: Badd Blood) which would see Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker go at it in what must go down as a true classic. That same month a few weeks later, Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan would have a match that was accurately described by Jim Cornette on WWE television as the ‘Age in the Cage’ featuring sub-par in-ring action, nonsensical rules and copious amounts of needless interference and yet still outdraw WWE in a big way with their main event at Halloween Havoc 1997.

WCW Fall Brawl 1998

During the height of the Monday Night War there was a Wild West feel to professional wrestling that is hard to fully explain to anybody who wasn’t watching at the time. Each week in 1998 in particular, both WWE and WCW were pushing themselves further, crossing new boundaries and in general, doing anything they could to gain an advantage in the ratings battle that would define the era. In order to stem the flow of WCW’s runaway success at the beginning of the year, WWE had brought in Mike Tyson, at an extremely high price, to help solidify Steve Austin as the next major crossover star in the sport. In response, WCW had split the epoch making NWO into two separate, warring factions and created myriad new possibilities for future matches and rivalries. WWE in turn had broken new ground in violence with the infamous Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Mankind at King of the Ring 1998, while WCW had happened upon Bill Goldberg and ran with this new surprise mega star by putting the World Title on him despite legitimate questions existing as to his suitability for the role, having debuted less than 12 months before that faithful night in the Georgia Dome.