Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 24th

Yikes, some things that other places consider memorable or history are truly some the most forgettable crap. This is what I found intriguing, enjoy!

• WCW Halloween Havoc (1999)

The debut of Vince Russo PPV booking, and as you can assume it was a mess. Hulk Hogan walked out in street clothes and literally just laid down for Sting, in a purposefully garbage worked-shoot angle. Later in the night Sting did an Open Challenge, Goldberg answered and defeated Sting in roughly three minutes. Charles Robinson erroneously awarded Goldberg the title during a non-title Open Challenge, forcing the title to be vacated, and we begin the very obvious avalanche of idiocy that was WCW 2000.

• AAA Antonio Pena Memorial Show (2008)

This began the annual tradition of the Antonio Pena Memorial Show. Aside from beginning the tradition the memorable aspect comes from a more successful worked-shoot angle. Cibernetico defended the AAA Mega Championship against Chessman and El Zorro before the main event. Since the main event was La Legión Extranjera (Electroshock, Konnan, Rellik, and Kenzo Suzuki) facing off against “Team AAA” (Latin Lover, Octagón, La Parka II, and Super Fly). Because Konnan’s team won, the control of the company was given to him and his heel ways. Cibernetico abruptly came out and relinquished the title and quit, because he refused to work for Konnan. Setting up story for the coming year.

• Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory (2020)

Ken Shamrock was inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame, which prompted a video congratulations from The Rock. EC3 and Moose had the odd cinematic Control Your Narrative match. Su Yung made a surprise return for the Deonna Purrazzo open challenge and defeated her to win the Knockouts Championship. Rich Swann also got the feel good moment when he defeated Eric Young for the TNA Heavyweight title. This was a big year for Rich and helped to keep Impact Wrestling relevant during the pandemic.

• GCW Shotzi Blackheart’s House of Horrors (2025)

This was Shotzi’s first marquee event since leaving WWE. This was very reminiscent of her Elvira style hosting of the NXT Halloween Havocs. She dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein going full macabre styling. Had a Trick or Treat Street Fight with Emersyn Jayne, Matt Tremont defended his Ultraviolent title against Josh Bishop. I Called Manders defeated Isaiah Broner in the most critically appreciated match. But this event helped to kick off Shotzi’s horror inspired Graveyard Shift gimmick and springboard her back into companies with TV, like MLW and TNA in 2026.

An odd worked-shoot thread on a few shows, but yeah. This was not a deep day since I can only tolerate going back to the NWA territory days so often. The Halloween themes are picking up in frequency, so let’s see when we get to the good stuff!