It’s almost Halloween, so to get you in the holiday spirit, we’re counting down five of the most memorable WWE Halloween moments of all-time. Every Friday between now and Halloween, we’ll revisit the best, worst and most unforgettable Halloween moments in wrestling, and if we run out, we’ll just post a bunch of pictures of matches with pumpkin graphics in the corners.
Iron Sheik And Nikolai Volkoff As Batman And Robin
Let’s start off strong with the Halloween party from Saturday Night’s Main Event, aired two days after Halloween in 1985.
Pumpkin Lord Mean Gene Okerlund hosts a pie eating contest in the “party room,” and we get some of the very best WWE Superstars of the 1980s dressed in the most absurd collection of costumes you could imagine. Macho Man Randy Savage and Miss Elizabeth are Tarzan and Jane — pronounced “Tarz’n” by Gene — and Hulk Hogan slums it as “Hercules,” but everyone else is ridiculous. King Kong Bundy dressed as Abraham Lincoln, the hillbillies are the Three Musketeers, and Bobby Heenan cosplays Davy Crockett by putting a dead weasel on his head.
The highlight is absolutely (absolutely) The Iron Sheik and Nikolai Volkoff as Batman and Robin. F*CK THE NO GOOD TINY DICK JOKER, I F*CK HIS ASS, NOT LIKE INTELLIGENT JEW THE RIDDLER. “Holy Cara Mia, Batman!”
Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Trick Or Treaters
Hey look, it’s the WWF TV debut of Stephanie McMahon! She’s one of those trick-or-treaters going to Rowdy Roddy Piper’s (read: Vince McMahon’s) house for Halloween.
The kids think it’s a great idea to wander into the mansion of a violent, insane man who can’t effectively communicate with other human beings without hitting them with the most racist thing possible and take some of his food. Piper uses oversized candy apples to destroy their trick-or-treating bags and sends them away with all the candy he doesn’t want. Vince just kinda stands in the background making upset faces. Piper gets his, though, when the kids reveal they’ve slipped him chocolate-covered red peppers.
John Cena Discovers A Gimmick, Sets Up An Incest Joke
Speaking of Stephanie McMahon and Halloween, here she is 17 years later as the general manager of Smackdown (and a busty witch), throwing a Halloween party for her employees.
The 2002 Smackdown Halloween party is most notable for John Cena in a Vanilla Ice costume, which introduced the world to John Cena’s freestyle rapping. That eventually allowed him to get over as a heel, transition into becoming the biggest star in the company, record a platinum rap album and (with some help from kids, and the troops) reign over WWE with an iron fist for over a decade. It all starts here, folks! Here’s a clip of his first on-screen battle rap from the same party. Billy Kidman burying him afterwards is especially great. Also, check out all that cultural insensitivity! Chuck Palumbo as a Native American! Tajiri in an afro wig!
The other highlight, if you can call it that, is Stephanie McMahon making out with Eric Bischoff while he’s dressed as her dad. They actually did this on television, and somehow we continued watching for 13 years.
Pete Rose vs. Kane
MLB legend Pete Rose and Kane have a long, storied rivalry that spans multiple WrestleManias, Raw appearances and a WWE Hall of Fame induction.
That rivalry continued in this commercial for No Mercy 2002, wherein Pete (who lives in a haunted house, I guess?) refuses to give candy to a bunch of kids dressed as pro wrestlers. That pays off with a trick-or-treat visit from Kane, which never ends well for poor Pete. You should’ve given an oversized candy apple to that Kurt Angle kid.
The Muppets Orchestrate A Halloween Battle Royal, And AJ Lee Becomes A Cult Hero
Finally, let’s take a second to remember why we all loved pre-Crisis A.J. Lee.
In 2011, the Muppets hosted Raw, and the Divas have a costume contest battle royal. Aksana killed it as Morticia Addams, Kaitlyn dressed up as Dog the Bounty Hunter, and A.J. Lee was Kitana from Mortal Kombat. That’d be fine on its own, but she earns infinite nerd street cred when the battle royal begins and she tries to do the Kitana fan lift. This one. It doesn’t work, but it’s enough to earn her the good will and support of dorks like me for YEARS.
