Today In Pro Wrestling History: October 29th

A beloved promo and two WCW Halloween Havocs that are definitely not remembered for their wrestling! Let’s see what else joins the day of history!

• MACW: Dusty Rhodes Hard Times Promo (1985)

This is a promo that has transcended time and become common parlance in wrestling fandom circles. Even if the common man message is lost to some people, most Duty Rhodes impressions include the words “Hard Times Daddy”. As for the reason, it was done to promote the contrast between Ric Flair’s ostentatious life style and Dusty’s Working Man approach. The rich versus the working poor concept, that is still a very well used trope and even more so when it’s as impassioned as Dusty would cut a promo.

• WCW Halloween Havoc: Monster Truck Sumo (1995)

Now this was a miserable show from a wrestling product perspective, but the Monster Truck sumo match is so weird that it lives as a moment separate from the event. The Giant and Hulk Hogan, on the roof, ramming each other with custom monster trucks. Hogan won the Sumo bout, even pushed The Giant off the building. He committed murder (similar to how Rey Mysterio was flung from the roof during MITB 2020). But Giant reappeared later in the night for his title match against Hulk Hogan. Giant won, became the World Heavyweight Champion…and no one will ever care because the show was a comedy of errors.

• NJPW GET A RIGHT!! BLACK VS. G-EGGS (2000)

This entire show was based around the Fighting Club G-EGGS faction against Team 2000. G-EGGS was Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Yutaka Yoshie and Brian Johnston fighting Masahiro Chono’s NWO Japan aka Team 2000. Team 2000 won the tour, but this event served as a catalyst for Yuji Nagata. He defeated reigning IWGP champion, Kensuke Sasaki, in a non-title match. So we saw the groundwork for Nagata becoming Mr. IWGP. Minoru Tanaka defeated Tatsuhito Takaiwa for the IWGP Junior Title away from the larger narrative of the tour.

• WCW Halloween Havoc (2000)

Going down as the final Halloween Havoc in WCW history, it definitely encapsulates the garbage that WCW was feeding people. This set is also widely detested because there was no Halloween decoration, it was bland, sparse and while that is because of budget cuts and WCW hemorrhaging money, it ruined the mystique of a beloved show. From the “First Blood Paternity” match between Buff Bagwell and David Flair, to see who got Stacy Keibler pregnant. The miserable “Kick-Boxing Match” between Mike Sanders and Ernest Miller and whatever the whole Jeff Jarrett vs 5 different incarnations of Sting thing…was supposed to be. This was a travesty. Easily one the most Historically awful shows in all of wrestling.

• NXT UK: UK Championship: WALTER (c) vs Ilja Dragunov (2020)

This match is on here for two main reasons. Firstly, due to the quality of the match, it brought more attention to NXT UK. When people were stuck home with only their televisions and devices to amuse themselves, every bit of interesting content became paramount. But the second reason this is on here, is as of writing this article, it is the highest rated match in WWE history on Cagematch.com after 1,097 votes. Meltzer also gave this match five stars, but the fact that it’s not just one man and a small echo chamber. It is a large number of fans who have given this 25 minute match, the distinction of being the best match in WWE history (at the time of this writing).

A classic promo, a classic match, some embarrassing WCW moments and a little bit of NJPW history that gets overlooked because that was during it’s dark years. Another nugget from the NJPW event was earlier in the year Masakazu Fukuda died after suffering a Fatal Brain Hemorrhage following his match with Katsuyori Shibata during the Young Lion’s Cup. He was a member of G-EGGS which prompted Brian Johnston to replace him. But it’s really crazy that Shibata had his own close call with a brain hemorrhage.