Paul Wight Explains How WCW Pulled Off Cobo Hall Fall At Halloween Havoc
There's infamous matches, and then there's the Sumo Monster Truck Battle between Hulk Hogan and Paul Wight, formerly The Giant, at WCW Halloween Havoc 1995. The unforgettable scene would culminate in Wight falling off Cobo Hall, a moment that Wight relived, along with other monster truck shenanigans, recently on the "Battleground Podcast."
"We did that that night on the roof of Cobo Hall, the monster truck battle," Wight said. "Now I had wrestling gear and wrestling boots under a fire suit because you had to wear a fire suit in those monster trucks, because of the high test gasoline ... that was one of those things. Well, what they don't tell you is that if your pant legs aren't secured to the bottom of your boot, the whole open under compartment of those monster trucks is just air. It was like -20 degrees out."
"So I was frozen inside of that monster truck suit. Hogan was freezing, I was freezing. We get to the battle on the wall, I fall off the wall, I dropped about 30 feet into an airbag if you want to know the truth. Now at my time in my career then, [I was like] 'Oh, fall in an airbag? Cool.' If you said to me now 'Hey, you're going to fall three stories into an airbag.' [I'd be like] 'No I'm not. You're out of your mind. No. We're not doing that.'" Wight would re-appear in the Halloween Havoc main event to challenge Hogan for the WCW World Title, with no explanation regarding his survival. The match, the first of Wight's career, ended with him winning the title, followed by a post-match scene where Hogan found himself in a compromised position between Wight and The Yeti.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Battleground Podcast" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription