WCW had its fair share of insane storylines during the Monday Night Wars in the late 90s, but this one might take the cake.
According to former WCW wrestler Buff Bagwell, who was interviewed on Sitting Ringside with David Penzer this week, Eric Bischoff pitched an idea where Bagwell was going to die in a storyline involving a plane crash.
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“100 percent correct!” Bagwell said when asked if the rumor was true. “MGM Grand was one of the last Halloween Havoc‘s we did (in 1998), and he (Bischoff) wanted me to die in a plane crash and so he was going to do it. I have already called my parents to get them rady for this, my wife to let them know, and then they switched it. I did some kind of run in, I think in a Bill Clinton mask.”
During the show Bagwell walked out on his tag partner Rick Steiner during their match for the WCW World Tag Team Championships against Scott Steiner and The Giant (later The Big Show). Steiner managed to pull out the win on his own, which quickly led to a one-on-one match between he and his heelish brother Scott. But during the match a man dressed as then-President Bill Clinton jumped out from the crowd and attacked both Steiner and the referee with a slapjack. Bagwell tried to hand Scott the victory (they were both in the New World Order at the time) but Steiner was still able to rally to beat both men and win yet again.
Bagwell explained in the interview how the original plan would have worked with the plane crash storyline.
“He wanted me to come down like a ghost, on wires, after the plane crash,” he said.
As goofy as the idea sounds, it’s important to remember that this was the same pay-per-view where Hollywood Hogan took on The (Ultimate) Warrior in a rematch from WrestleMania VI. Warrior appeared to Hogan numerous times in the weeks leading up to the match like a vengeful spirit (including one promo where Hogan could see Warrior in a mirror but nobody else could). That match’s ending was a notorious dud as Hogan failed to properly light some flash paper and wound up having a fire ball light up in his own face. The ending had to be fixed where both Bischoff and Horace Hogan interfered to help the NWO leader win.
Yet for as clunky as that match was, the 1998 Halloween Havoc is still looked on fondly by many old-school fans for the Goldberg vs. Diamond Dallas Page main event and the WCW United States Championship bout between Bret Hart and the Wolfpac version of Sting.
H/T Pro Wrestling Sheet
