Halloween Havoc 1999 - The Original Title Laydown

[SirLucas]

Bash at the Beach often overlooks the fact that Russo did a title laydown angle the previous year at Halloween Havoc.  Sting had turned heel at the prior month's Fall Brawl and was feuding with Hogan. Hogan comes out to the ring at Halloween Havoc in street clothes and lays down for Sting. Sting wins, the camera quickly cuts to a pretape of something else, and that's the end of it. 

I remember Hogan returned around Feb or March of 2000 and began feuding with Flair. This is where we got the infamous Yapapi strap match. But what was supposed to materialize of Hogan laying down for Sting?  Has it ever been brought up in any shoot interview or podcast? Obviously, it was a work because the title match was placed in the middle of the show, only for Sting to later return to the ring and face Goldberg in an open challenge.  By the time Hogan returned in 2000, Russo was on hiatus and the angle was never mentioned again. 

[CeilingFan]

2 possible scenarios :

Hogan didn't want to lose cleanly so this was a compromise.

It was the start of a storyline where Hogan is being held down by the Powers That Be, an imitation of Austin vs McMahon.

[Jindrak Mark]

Russo didn't waste any time when he got to WCW. This was a week after he took over and he's already recreating one of the worst moments in company history (which was only 9 months old at the time). Then he had Buff Bagwell wrestle lethargically against La Parka and lose then look into the camera and say something like did I do the job good enough for you Russo. Then the main event of Starrcade he recreated Montreal for some reason. Most of his infamous Russo WCW stuff was during the New Blood/summer 2000 spell but he did so much damage in late 99 too immediately after arriving.

The only time the laying down/willingly giving away a title thing worked was with HBK/HHH in late 97 because a) HBK was only giving away the European title, he kept the world title, b) it was his friend/stablemate he was giving it to and c) it worked in storyline because they outsmarted Sgt. Slaughter who thought he had a masterplan to make them wrestle and fall out with each other.

[Cry Me a Wiggle]

Aug 21, 2023 13:50:30 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

mThis was a week after he took over and he's already recreating one of the worst moments in company history (which was only 9 months old at the time).

It’s hard to believe only 9 months separated the Fingerpoke of Doom and Russo. While early ‘99 still felt like classic Monday Night War WCW, the company went through multiple eras in that timeframe. I know everyone jokes about WCW 2000, but 1999 was truly a death by a thousand cuts.

[cjh]

One of the first things Russo wanted to do when he got to WCW in October 1999 was take Hogan and Flair off TV.  Within two weeks of Russo being sent home in January 2000, Kevin Sullivan wrote Hogan and Flair back into the shows.

[XIII]

I saw a clip where Rick Steiner was asked about Russo and he said “I don’t think that he ever had a good idea” LMAO

[Starshine]

I suspect it doesn't get much coverage because there's just not much interesting to cover about it. BATB has the Russo shoot, Booker T getting his due, and the fallout with the lawsuit from said shoot going for it. This was just a bad idea that inspired no one, was done to write Hogan off the show, and only led to a tournament that could have been set up a number of different and better ways.

[Nr1Humanoid]

Do we actually live in a universe where anyone with even a dose of sanity believed a single living soul would buy Hulk Hogan as a man held down by a wrestling company?

[Jake, The Jake, Jake]

Like a lot of wtf wrestling moments I'm sure it was meant to he chapter one of a long term story that never came to fruition because one or all parties involved lost interest and moved on to something else.

[Renslayer]

1999 WCW sounds like the worst place in the world to work

[Hulkshi Tanahashi]

Aug 22, 2023 15:14:07 GMT -5 Jake, The Jake, Jake said:

Like a lot of wtf wrestling moments I'm sure it was meant to he chapter one of a long term story that never came to fruition because one or all parties involved lost interest and moved on to something else.

This makes sense. I have figured that the Halloween Havoc lay down was supposed to start an angle where Hogan would come back months later and claim that he was still the champ because he wasn't legitimately beaten. However, this never came to fruition because Russo got suspended because he wasn't pulling in the great ratings he had promise and because he wanted to make Tank Abbot WCW Champion after Bret vacated the title. So, while he's gone, Kevin Sullivan is put in charge and brings back Hogan without any reference to Halloween Havoc (I'm assuming; I was paying more attention to WWE at the time for obvious reasons). So, when Russo was brought back in April 2000, it was too late to restart it. Then, he gets a second chance to do the angle at Bash At The Beach. Of course, he ends up sabotaging it again because of his worked shoot promo on Hogan that turned the whole thing into an actual shoot.

[johnnyk9]

Interesting

[Jim Stansel]

Aug 23, 2023 19:35:55 GMT -5 johnnyk9 said:

Interesting

yet confusing

[Ben Wyatt]

Bret going along with a story where he recreates Montreal is one of the saddest aspects of everything.