By Wade Keller, Torch editor

The following is the Cover Story of the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter #518 from ten years ago this week. VIP members can read the entire 12 page newsletter in both text and PDF format by clicking here. VIP members have access to over 500 complete back issues of PWTorch Newsletter including our new 20 Years Ago series.

Goldberg pinned Dallas Page to retain the WCW Hvt. Title in the main event at Halloween Havoc on Oct. 25 in Las Vegas, Nev. The match, though, didn't begin until after the three-hour allotted timeslot expired. More than three-quarters of the PPV customers were able to see the Page-Goldberg match, but up to 25 percent didn't as their cable systems switched off at the three-hour mark.

As a result, the next day WCW sent a letter to cable companies apologizing for their mistake. In their letter, they suggested that cable companies offer the Tuesday evening replay for free and offer customers a $5 rebate. By late afternoon, they decided to also air the Goldberg vs. Page match for free on Nitro.

Airing the match for free carried the risk of offending their viewers, some of whom spent $30 the night before primarily to see the WCW Title match. They also had to stress on Nitro that airing the match was a one-time deal and not to count on that happening again. On the upside, the quality of the match was very good and they inserted it during a competitive quarter hour against Raw.

It turned out to be a smart move from a television ratings standpoint as it was the most viewed wrestling match in the history of cable television. Viewership reached 5,367,000 homes, topping the July 6 Goldberg WCW Title victory over Hollywood Hogan, which was the first cable match to top 5 million homes, at 5,054,000.

The match aired during the first concurrent quarter hour on the Oct. 26 Nitro, reaching a 7.2 rating (the highest rated quarter hour in the Monday Night Wars) and a 10.2 share. During the same quarter hour, Raw managed to draw just a 3.3 rating for Vince McMahon's long speech.

Thanks to that 7.2 rating, Nitro ended Raw's winning streak over Nitro (comparing the concurrent two-hour time periods) at five weeks. Overall, Nitro's 4.8 rating beat Raw's 4.5 rating. Factoring out the first quarter hour, Raw outdrew Nitro by a 4.6 to 4.4 margin, so airing the Goldberg-Page match made all the difference.

The Goldberg vs. Page match was the best televised match in Goldberg's one year career. Although it lasted less than eleven minutes, it was a strong conclusion to an otherwise up-and-down average pay-per-piew. It also had to mark the high-point of Dallas Page's career. Page, because he has a long-running friendship with Eric Bischoff, has been considered in many circles terribly overpushed. He stepped up at Halloween Havoc and carried Goldberg to a taut, psychologically sound match where neither wrestler tried to do anything they couldn't do well. While not a match of the year candidate, it was a rare satisfying end to a WCW pay-per-view, supplying strong wrestling, crowd heat, and a clean, conclusive finish. Goldberg pinned Page clean with the Jackhammer by escaping Page's attempt at a second Diamond Cutter.

Even though Page didn't lose any clout by getting pinned by Goldberg, he received retribution the next night on Nitro as he pinned Bret Hart in the live TV main event to capture the U.S. Hvt. Title.

Hogan vs. Warrior was the co-main event at Havoc. Interestingly, it was not the final match on the show. In the semi-final slot, they worked hard to put on a decent match but they just don't have the athletic ability to have a passable match nor do they have the fan interest at this point in their careers to make up for the poor in-ring action. The crowd chanted "Warrior sucks" as soon as Warrior entered the ring and his music stopped. Fans didn't pop for any of the kick-outs or key spots in the match designed to get a reaction. The match hit a major snag when Hogan tried to use flashpaper to throw a fireball at Warrior, but the flashpaper fizzled. Warrior had to call an audible as the match briefly fell apart to even greater depths. In the end, Horace interfered with a chair on Hogan's behalf leading to Hogan scoring the pin.

WCW resurrected the tag team titles by having Rick Steiner capture the tag titles no thanks to his partner Buff Bagwell, who turned on him during an impromptu tag title match with Giant & Scott Steiner. Scott Steiner replaced Scott Hall, who was the partner of Giant in their long-forgotten tag title reign. Rick chose Kaos to be his championship partner the next night on Nitro.

Sting and Bret Hart had a disappointingly lackluster match that lacked much fire or crowd heat. Bret won after bashing Sting with a chair. Scott Hall and Kevin Nash told a solid story in their match, but it was even more void of fire and energy than Sting vs. Bret. Hall won when Nash walked out on the match rather than pin Hall, whom he dominated into oblivion in the final minutes.

The undercard seemed to be put together just days or hours before match-time. Raven even played off of that by saying he didn't find out about his match against Chris Jericho until just before match time, so since he didn't have time to prepare, he initially refused to wrestle. The match ended up taking place and the two had what was voted to be the best match on the entire event. Kidman retained the Cruiserweight Title against Disco Inferno.

Had WCW not included Fit Finlay vs. Alex Wright, Wrath vs. Meng, and Saturn vs. Lodi—none of which would have been missed—there would have been no timing problem. Instead, WCW planned to give viewers a "bonus half-hour." The information, which was supposed to be relayed by someone in WCW/Time-Warner pay-per-view department, didn't reach many cable affiliates. Direct TV did list the event as lasting three-and-a-half hours so they received the info on time, but about one-fourth of all cable systems didn't get the information or didn't react to the information sent by WCW. Some cable systems automatically block six hours (three for the live show, three for a replay), so their customers had no problem. Other systems only block three hours, but managed to manually switch the PPV back on. Another group of cable systems, though, cut off before Goldberg vs. Page and had to deal with complaint calls the next day. Many systems were giving full refunds to customers who complained.

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