83 Weeks - Halloween Havoc 1994 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Eric we’re going all the way back to 1994. Halloween Havoc...the first of many legendary “retirement” matches between Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan but let’s set the stage first.

At Fall Brawl Dusty & Dustin Rhodes teamed with the Nasty Boys to defeat The Stud Stable, Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck & Col. Robert Parker in War Games, Vader defeated Sting and the Guardian Angel in a triangle elimination match to become the #1 contender for the WCW Title at Starrcade, Kevin Sullivan defeated Cactus Jack in a Loser Leaves WCW match and in one of the most epic US title matches in WCW history … Jim Duggan beat Steve Austin in 35 seconds after Ricky Steamboat had to vacate the title.

There’s a lot to talk about as we get to the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. But let’s first start with Ricky Steamboat. He suffers a back injury that forces him basically into retirement. Did you get a chance to talk to Ricky regarding this and the end of his legendary career?

From the Observer: “WCW held a press conference on 9/19 in Detroit to announce the 10/30 PPV, featuring Muhammad Ali, Hogan, Flair, Jimmy Hart and Mr. T. It got carried on several newscasts because of Ali, and resulted in a $40,000 first day which is the biggest first day sale for WCW in years. During the week negotiations had broken down with T over money and they were going to drop the special ref gimmick, but the deal was put back together by the end of the week and it may include him working the Clash as well. They also added a mask stipulation in a return tag title match where if Bagwell & Patriot lose, then Patriot must unmask, which I guess means tag title change. Jim Duggan is replacing Steamboat on all house shows and will be programmed with Austin.”

Putting together Ali and Mr. T to go with Hogan & Flair is a big deal. How does the deal come together for this and did you have issues with T at the end as Meltzer reports?

Ric Flair is to return from his suspension to take on Hulk Hogan in a career vs. career match for the WCW Title. Why was it important for the career vs. career stipulation be added after the success of their first match at Bash at the Beach?

Did Flair have an issue with doing this match and putting Hogan over?

From the Observer: “As the story goes, the decision was made by the company and told to Flair on Monday, who may have either been given a contract extension as compensation or be negotiating a contract extension in exchange for cooperation, and was told that as a company employee he was expected to follow the proposed directions. Flair has stated several times that when the time comes for him to lose a retirement match, or simply retire, that he wouldn't come back and that would be it. Flair was given a scenario for an eventual return in around one year when Hogan would be double-teamed by two monster heels and ask Flair to come out of retirement to be his partner for tag matches, however it is said Flair turned down the scenario. It is believed that Hogan wants to go back to the booking situation he is most familiar with and believes he works most successful with, bringing in large monster heels for him to be fed.”

Did much of the creative change after Hogan actually arrives and beats Flair?

From the Observer: “It looks like WCW is falling into some yen from interesting negotiations. UWFI attempted to sign an exclusive talent agreement with WCW, and when New Japan got wind of it, they offered more money for a similar deal. From what I've been told, even though there is nobody in WCW that means a great deal in New Japan (Sting may work one or two shows a year, Nasty Boys, Steve Regal and Brad Armstrong have gone lately but none are that big a deal), New Japan doesn't want UWFI elevated to a serious level with traditional fans by signing a deal with the company that has Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair and it's more of a pride thing rather than a business thing where New Japan doesn't want to lose its status that it has in Japan of being the No. 1 group in the world.”

What do you remember of these negotiations and how did they all come together?

“Looks like Hogan vs. Vader at Starrcade, which means Hogan won't be dropping the strap. Vader insured them he was willing to work a lot lighter with Hogan which was one of the reasons Hogan originally balked at doing the program. The original plan was for Hogan to drop the strap to Sting at Starrcade, but you know how those original plans go.”

Were there plans to go with Hogan vs. Sting at Starrcade? Did it take some convincing for Hogan to work with Vader again?

Was Leon difficult to talk to regarding working Hogan?

From the Observer again: “The tumultuous tenure of Jesse Ventura as a WCW color commentator came to a close officially this past week when the group decided to drop Ventura from all broadcasts with five months remaining on his contract.”

How does the relationship with WCW and Ventura disintegrate? When Bobby Heenan comes in, is that really the writing on the wall for Jesse? Was it Hogan coming in that really rubbed Jesse the wrong way?

After being in the main event at Fall Brawl Terry Funk leaves WCW. From the Observer: “There is a strong chance Terry Funk is gone as he sent a fax to the company on 9/26 saying he couldn't continue to work the way things were going at the same money deal which was assumed to be him quitting since he missed television that night and is expected to be off all house shows and the PPV unless something changes later this week.”

Terry came and went more than a lot of guys did that in that time frame. Why was Terry different? Is this how you remember Funk leaving? Sending a fax?

“WCW did a Pro taping on 9/26 in Knoxville at the City Coliseum which is the home of SMW and put almost as many people in the building (4,500) as SMW did for the Night of the Legends, although it was about 90% freebies. There is enough real heat between Eric Bischoff and Jim Cornette that running a freebie show in Cornette's main city is more than coincidence even though WCW does try to do its TV's near Atlanta and they are pretty much all freebie shows.”

So did you book the free show to fuck with Cornette Eric?

It sounds like Hulk Hogan’s show … “Thunder in Paradise” is in limbo. Were you a part of these conversations?

As you’re promoting Halloween Havoc you’re also promoting AAA’s “When World’s Collide” pay-per-view that takes place a week after Halloween Havoc. How does this deal come together and do you think it would hurt the Havoc push?

“For the 10/8 WCW Saturday Night show, Jean Paul Levesque debuted wearing a Louie XIV outfit. “

Betcha that guy doesn’t end up doing anything.

“Craig Pittman, who worked a handful of opening matches on house shows many months back, is going to be WCW's rep to Ultimate Fight III. Apparently he's pretty tough and word we got is WCW management offered him $60,000 just to enter plus he could keep whatever prize money he could win. Meng turned down the idea. WCW apparently for curiosity reasons wants to find out just what is and isn't there with that show.”

Damn Eric $60,000 to get entered into the UFC? That’s a big investment. What were you hoping to get out of this?

“John Tenta is confirmed as the first of the monster heels Hogan is bringing in. Expect Tenta, who won't be called Earthquake, to do an angle at the 10/23 PPV show after the cage match.”

Who’s idea is it to bring Tenta in and why was it Hulk?

“Also confirmed that when Ric Flair retires after 10/23, that Sherri Martel will be moved to managing Steve Austin.”

Was there talk of putting Austin with Sherri and do you think Austin would’ve benefitted from that?

“Rick Rude filed a $630,000 lawsuit against WCW stemming from his departure and his injury. The reason Rude isn't going to WWF is because he's collecting disability on his Lloyd's policy and also because of the lawsuit.”

What was Rude’s lawsuit about and how did you get around this for him to return back in 1997?

“Eric Bischoff (who was pretty bad) and Dusty Rhodes (replacing Bobby Heenan who is out of action after neck surgery; word we get is he's questionable for the PPV and if he can't go on, then either Rhodes or Larry Zbyszko will do the show) did the announcing for The 10/9 live Main Event show”

Eric, were you pretty bad?

“Some controversy surrounding the Thanksgiving show at the Omni. With Hogan vs. Flair out of the picture and Vader booked for Japan, they had no match suitable for headlining a 16,500 seat arena, however a lot of the TBS brass wanted a show to take their families to see so it's going to take place. Current plan is Dusty & Dustin vs. Anderson & Buck on top in a cage at every house show in November but there is pressure to get Hogan to work the Omni show since those same brass want to see Hogan.”

How tough is this to please the TBS exces in this type of scenario?

“Actually one of the biggest topics of conversation in the company is the feud between Mark Madden and Gene Okerlund on the hotline, which certain moments of which may have been a work but decidedly isn't now. Okerlund, who is in charge of the Hotline, attempted to get Madden thrown off but has been unsuccessful since Madden has friends in high prices with the initials EB. Madden wasn't told, but requested, to lay off Okerlund. Okerlund took seriously Madden's knocks about not delivering what he teases on his television pitches and sarcastically saying that it wasn't because Okerlund was dishonest or trying to rip people off but because he just doesn't remember and joked it was the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and then joked that for his own good they need to take him off the television show because when the mind goes, it could be embarrassing and then Madden said he would be the best replacement for him. Apparently the directive didn't go both ways because Okerlund came back two days later and blistered Madden again, saying he wanted to apologize to listeners about Madden's behavior and said he'd be off the hotline pretty soon and said that he knows what Eric Bischoff tells Madden, but after he gets off the phone with Madden he tells me the truth.”

Eric...what in the fuck?

As we finish the build to Halloween Havoc: “From most accounts, the decision to retire Flair by WCW, was done more for the reasons of there being enormous pressure on the company to produce a huge buy rate on Sunday as a last-ditch effort to attempt to make the year-end bottom line (Starrcade revenue since PPV revenue comes well after the event, wouldn't come to the company this year) look better after all the additional money spent this year in signing largely Hogan and in additional publicity. Whatever ego and booking reasons were involved are said to be legit, but secondary to simply the company being desperate for a huge buy-rate to justify Hogan's deal and with a few weeks to go before show time, someone came up with the career vs. career idea which caused them to alter existing plans for the rest of the year and end the career of Flair.

Flair is insisting that even though this decision was against his wishes, he's not going to be one of these wrestlers who keeps making comebacks and that Sunday really is going to be his final appearance and to expect a classic match in his finale. For years Flair has said that he'd walk away from wrestling, at least as far as being an active competitor, the day he could no longer be Ric Flair, ie. be a headliner.”

Did you really think this was going to be Flair’s last match?

One of my favorite things in the Observer from this time period:

“Some heat with the booking team with Larry Zbyszko since Zbyszko refused to put over Blacktop Bully on an upcoming major show. Zbyszko said he couldn't believe they wanted a legend to put over a fan. Can you believe he really believes he was a wrestling legend?”

Tell me this story is real Eric. I need it to be.

Before we get to the show of Havoc there’s some Havoc going on the week before the show. From the Observer: “The biggest story during the week, although it was somewhat blown out of proportion, was that after all the hype, the Flair-Hogan match wasn't even going to take place and even that Flair would be through with the company. There was apparently a dispute early in the week in regard to the time frame of the agreed-upon contract extension Flair was getting to put Hogan over clean. This was settled by mid-week with Flair being under contract now with WCW at his current pay (rumored to be in the $425,000 per year range) through March of 1997.”

Where did this come from and was it Flair just angling to get more money and more time on a contract to do this stipulation?

Well we’re here at Halloween Havoc Eric. 14,000 people (well 8,595 paid) attendended the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit made you $189,000 at the gate just $1,000 short of the company record at the time.

“A. In the dark match, which aired live on WCW Main Event, Booker T of Harlem Heat pinned Brian Armstrong with a flying forearm in 6:20. It was scheduled as a tag match with Harlem Heat vs. Brian & Brad, but Brad wasn't allowed to go on by the ringside doctor due to high blood pressure. It wasn't a bad opener marred only by when Muhammad Ali came to ringside during the match which not only took the crowds attention from the match, but seemingly Booker T's as well. *¼”

I gotta be honest Eric...Booker T vs. Road Dogg was not something I expected to see here in 1994 but it’s here. Just a funny side note considering their futures in the business.

“1. Johnny B. Badd retained the TV title going to a 10:00 draw with Honkytonk Man. This was better than expected which attests to Badd improving and had really good heat. Too many restholds, particularly near the end and by making the 5:00 call in this and only this match, they pretty much telegraphed the draw. *¼”

It’s like two worlds colliding. Badd vs. Honky. Then again did anyone care at this point about either?

Why was Hogan so heavy on bringing people like Honky in at this time?

“2. Paul Roma & Paul Orndorff regained the WCW tag titles beating Marcus Bagwell & The Patriot in 13:47. Two average teams in another average match. There were some good spots, some slow spots and a few missed spots. Bagwell was worked on most of the way. He never did make the hot tag, and it wound up a four-way with Bagwell doing the fisherman suplex on Orndorff, but with the ref taking Patriot back to the corner, Roma came off the top rope with a high elbow drop and Orndorff rolled over for the pin. **¼”

We talked about Orndorff recently and this match in his career retrospective a few months back but still you can see how good he was. What say you Eric?

“3. Dave Sullivan beat Kevin Sullivan via count out in 5:17. Forgetting about workrate, this Dave Sullivan character, as much as people deservedly praise how great he is in the role, is the most not over pushed character that should be over I've ever seen. The crowd actually cheered when Kevin suckered him. Even though Hogan has the charisma to pull it off, Dave doesn't and people reject the force-feeding. Kevin was stiff on offense, but when Dave made the comeback, it was a disaster. DUD”

This...this is just...it’s just bad Eric. It does feature the debut of Dave...Evad...you know because he’s dyslexic, new entrance music “I Want to be a Hulkamaniac.” Yup. No one gives a shit and it looks ridiculous. But go ahead. Praise it.

“4. Dustin Rhodes cradled Arn Anderson in 9:50. Match was solid from start-to-finish although they didn't have a lot of heat at the beginning. The last 4:00 were very good with them brawling back-and-forth. Finish saw Anderson go for a pin using the ropes, he was caught by the ref, and while he was off balance, Rhodes cradled him. After the match Anderson gave Rhodes a clothesline and a DDT. Anderson attacking Rhodes after the match got a babyface pop from the crowd. ***¼”

Arn just keeps giving at this point in his career and Dustin is almost a top guy but stalls out not much longer after this. These two though seemed to always click. This comes off Bash at the Beach where Arn turned on Dustin but you know...never trust a Horseman.

“5. Jim Duggan retained the U.S. title beating Steve Austin via DQ in 8:02 for a backdrop over the top rope. Finish totally blew, especially considering guys took more blatant over the top bumps in two other matches. Duggan worked hard and Austin was very good, but the match was limited by how little Duggan can do. This beat to death their previous matches. **”

Yes, the finish here makes no sense whatsoever. Is this a booker issue? Agent issue? How does Duggan keep retaining the title over Austin?

“6. Vader pinned Guardian Angel in 8:17. Angel got no reaction coming out while Vader seemed to get almost a face pop. Angel attacked Harley Race early and often, which almost made no sense psychologically since Race should have attacked Angel a few times early so it was Angel getting revenge. Race took so much he almost turned into the babyface. Really, Angel's character is almost too obnoxious to get over as a face. This was a good match, but it was no different than the match they've had on television too many times. Finish saw Angel suplex Race into the ring and when he landed, Vader splashed on him for the pin. **¾”

Ray Traylor is just wandering along aimlessly in the mid card and it doesn’t make sense for him to be a babyface. It’s amazing how much Harley Race is taking bumps here as well. Vader vs. Big Boss Man is a match that you’d think would be excellent but here it’s just meh.

“7. Nasty Boys beat Terry Funk & Bunkhouse Buck in 7:56. Finish saw Meng hit Funk, who was then piledriven by Sags on a pumpkin he brought to the ring, and Knobs scored the pin. A nothing match, which was disappointing considering Funk was involved. *”

Yup. A piledriver on a pumpkin ends Terry Funk’s career in WCW until 2000. Pretty fitting end for him isn’t it?

“8. Hogan pinned Flair in 19:25 in the cage match. The match had a ton of heat. Most of the spots were what you'd expect, with Hogan not selling some stuff early and throwing Flair around, and Flair concentrating on working the knee While I'm not an advocate of blood, if they aren't going to do blood in the cage, they really shouldn't be raking someone's face on the cage either. Hogan came off the ropes for a tackle and Flair moved, so hit ref Mr. T. As Hogan went to help T, Flair back suplexed him from behind and went for the pin, but Hogan kicked out and Flair landed on T. Flair then began stomping T. Sherri started climbing the cage but Jimmy Hart climbed up after her and pulled her skirt off revealing black undies. Sherri then threw Hart into a camera or the guard railing to get him out of the way, and went climbing again. This time Sting, who was at ringside, climbed up after her. A guy in the Black Scorpion (Steve Keirn, although we are supposed to believe it was Brutus Beefcake) hand-me-down costume then hit Sting with a pipe. Sherri climbed in again. The masked guy climbed up and held the club for Flair and Sherri to run Hogan into. Sherri also began doing a tap-dance on T's head. Sherri came off the top of the cage onto Hogan, who didn't sell the move but Flair clipped him. Sherri handcuffed T to the ring ropes and Flair suplexed Hogan. Hogan popped up and made the superman comeback with clotheslines on Flair and Sherri, a bodyslam on Sherri and continuing to destroy both. Hogan slammed Sherri off the top rope and rammed Flair into the cage, followed by a foot-to-the-face, legdrop, 1-2-3 and it was over. Flair did the David Copperfield disappearing act while Hogan posed down. As he was doing so, the masked guy (a different one than the first one although that wasn't acknowledged) showed up again to attack Hogan, but Hogan stopped him and unmasked him, revealing Beefcake, who will use the ring name "The Butcher." As Hogan looked stunned, John Tenta, known as Avalanche, showed up and gave Hogan the old Earthquake splash before Sting made the save. Forgetting that as a main angle of the promotion using Beefcake, who is horrible, as one of the top two heels is vomit material, it was a great match and the angle was timed perfectly and was really dramatic. This match was absolutely perfect from the standpoint of getting Hogan over, since by the time it was over, he seemed to get 100% cheers from an audience that was split when he came out. However, a very large percentage of the viewing audience live and on PPV were pro-Flair and those fans were left more than just disappointed, they were turned off in a major fashion to the point many of them, particularly in the Carolinas, will be done with WCW. There is a very good shot that on PPV, there were more who were pro-Flair than pro-Hogan because in the Carolinas and Virginia based on a few cable company reports, the show drew more buys than any PPV show, boxing or wrestling, in history, and that group was probably 90 percent pro-Flair. This means that for a large percentage and possibly a majority viewing, the show was a downer, which was okay, but the trivial way Flair's career ending was handled trivialized their own interest and fandom. For many, it will signify the end of their interest at least for now, and as WCW and WWF have learned over the years, it is extremely difficult to get the old fans back once you've lost them. It's more than just for all Flair has done in carrying house shows and big shows on his back for the entirety of this so-called modern era that he deserved a great music video at the end. That's a bare minimum. He deserved one great wrestling match at the end from Hogan, a dramatic performance where in losing, he would be put over and get to leave with his head held high in the storyline, rather than slink away a defeated loser. He put on a very strong performance and Hogan worked hard. It was exciting while watching it. But even they missed the boat on this one.”

****¼

So much to unpack here. Martel getting stripped...Mr. T taking a bump for 10 minutes...Brutus “the fucking barber” beefcake. The end of a legend. But it’s a really something you need to go out of your way to see.

Now the epic write-up from Dave Meltzer on Ric Flair’s “retirement”

“The next morning thinking back on Flair's final match once the angle that was shot yesterday and forgotten by the next day came and went, the only impression one could get was that Flair was done and there was nothing special done to make it memorable. A bunch of jumbled b.s that was exciting but had no bite. Nothing worth remembering out of Flair's last trip down the aisle even though he himself put on a good performance. Flair likes to think of himself as a great sports star, and he deserves to be in the company of a Larry Bird or a Magic Johnson because in his athletic profession, he was the single best there was for more than a decade. Yes, it is a fixed and choreographed world, but still a highly competitive athletic arena. There were those blessed with more ability. None worked harder, more often and longer, both in and out of the ring. Unlike many others who weren't as good, and few were as good, or as lucky, and few were as well, by that hard work, he in turn got what he deserved out of the business in terms of fame, money and reputation. Even Larry Bird and Magic Johnson could never boast of being the single best in their profession nine nights out of ten for a period of more than ten years. But no company that was lucky enough to have a Larry Bird or a Magic Johnson would ever send them on their way in such a pitiful manner. Not for them. It made me laugh when people after the fact complained Flair deserved better, even though for all his hard work and all he meant to a company that wouldn't be in existence today without him, sure he did. But if he wanted it bad enough, he could have gotten it.

His fans deserved better on this night because they made up a sizeable, perhaps majority portion, of the record revenue the company will derive from the event. It was they, not Flair, who felt spit on Sunday night. In most cases, the careers emotionally of sports heroes mean more to their fans, short for fanatics, than they do to the person themselves. If you read this publication, you should realize pro wrestling is just a business and a form of entertainment. Some wrestlers are excellent athletes and some are excellent entertainers and a very few are both. But neither of those traits make those individuals worthy of idolatry. But it's also undeniable that whether worthy or not, idolatry is bestowed on them by their fans because of, usually luck and being in the right place at the right time, and sometimes, because of their talent.

But to most fans it isn't that complicated. Most fans of any entertainment form, are wrapped up and many, rightly or wrongly, idolize their favorite in that entertainment arena. Now that all is said and done, Ric Flair is nobody to feel sorry for. He got a great contractual deal at a time in his life when that should mean a lot. All he had to do was lose one wrestling match. It was forced on him, yes, but it was a business decision where they stripped him of something that he didn't deserved to be stripped of, but paid him well in doing so. If he doesn't come back, he got a million dollar payoff in essence, even if it is spread over a few years. As much confidence as he had in his ability, he would have never dreamed when he broke in back in 1972, or even when he first won the NWA title in 1981, that one day when he was 45-years-old, he'd get a million dollar payoff. With all the houses he'd drawn and all the matches he'd had, he never had a payoff of more than $25,000 for a match as late as 1990. The people to feel sorry for are the fans of Ric Flair, who supported him against all odds. When they were told not to support him. When he was never allowed to look good and his role was to make those less talented look good but his charisma, ability and above all, work ethic, kept those fans loyal to him because they knew he was the real star with the real ability. He had the most loyal fans in the business, because no scriptwriter gave them to him and none, no matter how hard they tried and they tried as hard as can be done, could take them away from him. The only illusion involved with his fans is the ones people tried to create to show that they weren't there. And if there was one thing they had in common, it was by idolizing what Flair supposedly stood for, hard work and building drama every night, it was hating what it didn't. Hated those achieving success without willingness to put in the hard work, but simply by being in a position to take and never having to give. And more than any other wrestler, maybe ever, Flair almost never let his fans down when it came to personal effort. Didn't matter what the booked finish was, didn't matter if he was sick, on the road 30 straight days, injured, had a terrible opponent, up all night the day before partying. Never claimed an excuse. Never needed one.

Never let them down. Until the end. Then he did big-time. By being a job boy to the only wrestler they could never accept him sacrificing himself for. Where Ric Fliehr missed the boat on Ric Flair is that Flair vs. Hogan was not a fake wrestling match to his fans where he could lose and it was okay because he carried another less talented performer to heights he couldn't reach on his own. It represented a lot of different things to a lot of different people, on both sides of the coin. Bragging rights to a historical era, what rightly or wrongly will 25 years from now be looked upon as the "golden age." Bragging rights for an ego who for ten years was haunted by the fact that when people would look back on the era, in hindsight, it was the other guy who will be remembered as the greatest and not as a clever, even fraudulent, marketing gimmick. If he doesn't come back, the one memory they'll carry with them for 20 years is no matter how great the matches with Steamboat and with guys with less than one percent of Steamboat's talent were, no matter how many great interviews he did, no matter how many years he was Wrestler of the year, no matter how many times after he was written off as too old he came back to, by his ability, laugh in the people's faces making the statements; is that their last memory of him was when the antithesis of him got to humiliate his reputation on all his terms, go over on him every time to an embarrassing degree, and then make him disappear so that his untalented best friend could get his top spot. Got to take a company that he carried and saved from extinction, and in the process humiliate the last vestiges of a dying audience that kept it from totally collapsing. He once again to the end was there to make someone else look good and make it look like that someone else once again was more popular and more over than he really was. But unlike the past, when it was over, he would still be there to do it all again. This time, when it was over, it was his job was to get out of the way as fast as possible.

The first reaction one would come to is to credit Flair in getting out of the way and letting them shoot the angle for the Clash as doing the right thing for business. Not in this case. People who think that don't think very long or very deeply. The right thing for business, for the 30% or 50% or more, who bought the show to cheer Flair even if he lost at the end, was to have a great match without outside interference, without the woman losing her dress, without the masked man with the led pipe, without the referee bumps and all the other b.s., like even Vince McMahon would have done it, and did it for Randy Savage in 1991 even though the last match was only a gimmick. McMahon had to switch from one heel to the next to feed Bret Hart at the last PPV, and had to do an angle to make the transition. But he let Bret and Owen have their match first. Bret didn't have to humiliate his brother in the process of going over. And not humiliating his opponent was also the right thing for Bret. It also would have been the right thing for Hogan.

Flair should have retired in Charlotte last December because the final memory is the one that lasts a lifetime. But he'll probably return and the David Copperfield act will be forgotten. But in the event he really doesn't wrestle again, one last thing needs to be said. Thank you.

Other notes. Did you notice the name "Crockett" on one of the tombstones where the wrestlers entered the building from? I guess there was symbolism as they buried the last star from the Crockett territorial era.”

Go ahead Eric. Go ahead.

The show from the Wrestling Observer readers were voted on as being a thumbs down as that got 50% of the vote. What say you Eric?

.95 is the buy rate which Meltzer speculates was a disappointment to the company that were internally expecting a 2 and down from Bash at the Beach. What do you remember of this?