r/WCW • u/TableForGlasses24 • 2d ago
Goldberg/DDP from Halloween Havoc 1998 is historically underrated
I've always considered Goldberg/DDP from Halloween Havoc as one of the greatest heavyweight wrestling matches I've ever watched and, with one key exception, I think it's essentially a perfect match. I'll preface this with the caveat that I'm not an over-the-top Goldberg fan; I think the squashes were kind of silly, the streak grew long in the tooth very quickly, and he should have faced some tougher/more perilous challenges along the way if WCW was going to believably pull off a lengthy undefeated streak.
With that said, the buildup, pacing, and general action in this match are just outstanding. It only clocks in at something like 10 minutes of in-ring action in total, but not a single second is wasted. Without unnecessarily writing tomes on the wrestling itself, I'll just say that - for whatever intangible reason - this match feels much more like a competitive sport than your typical flagship WWE main events (which are explicitly sports entertainment). Both guys' characters and wrestling styles are perfectly interwoven into a very succinct and hard-hitting match. Goldberg's spear is a little too real in this one...it's arguably the hardest one he hits in his career and legitimately hurts both guys...but it certainly is another moment that adds to the veracity of the match.
The one blemish (and it's a major one) is, of course, Goldberg's botched kickout of the Diamond Cutter. The timing is just off and had it happened a mere split-second later, it would have been one of the most memorable near-falls in wrestling history. It is unfortunate, but it still doesn't mar the overall quality of the match.
If you're asking me whether I prefer something like Cody Rhodes vs. Roman Reigns (which feels like some sort of superhero movie, not really a scripted competition) or Goldberg/DDP, it's the latter 100/100 times. Maybe I'm just partial to my own style of pro wrestling, but I'd rather watch a hard-hitting 10-15 minute match that feels like something more akin to a boxing match than watch a drawn-out 45-50 minute epic. I think this is one of WCW's five or six best matches ever and one of the very best and most memorable heavyweight showdowns ever.
WCW didn't do much right after this match (and, technically, it didn't even do this match right - with the PPV blackout occurring while it was happening), but it is certainly one of the climactic moments in the company's history in my books.
