Halloween Havoc (1997)

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Halloween Havoc 1997 was WCW’s Halloween-themed pay-per-view, held on October 26, 1997, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It was the ninth Halloween Havoc and drew about 12,457 fans with around 405,000 pay-per-view buys. The show is best remembered for the cruiserweight title match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio Jr., a mask-versus-title bout that Mysterio won by countering Guerrero’s finisher with a Hurricanrana. The victory is widely regarded as one of the best matches of the 1990s.

Other notable results:
- Alex Wright defeated Steve McMichael after Goldberg attacked McMichael and helped Wright; Goldberg then attacked Wright after the pin.
- Ric Flair vs. Curt Hennig for the United States Championship ended in disqualification when Flair used a belt against Hennig.
- Scott Hall vs. Lex Luger, with Larry Zbyszko as special referee: Luger won after Zbyszko restarted the match following interference from Syxx; chaos followed with Bischoff and Hall attacking Zbyszko.
- Randy Savage defeated Diamond Dallas Page in a Last Man Standing match after a decoy Sting (Hollywood Hogan) hit Page with a baseball bat.
- In the main event, Roddy Piper defeated Hulk Hogan in a steel cage match by technical submission with a sleeper hold. Afterward, Hogan and Savage beat down Piper, and a fan who climbed into the cage was also attacked.

Reception:
- In 2017, Kevin Pantoja gave the event a 6.0/10, calling it average-but-solid for the era. He praised Guerrero vs. Mysterio as must-see, and noted strong matches like Nagata vs. Dragon and DDP vs. Savage, while recognizing a few weaker bouts.

Availability:
- All WCW Halloween Havoc PPVs, including 1997, became available on WWE Network in 2014.