Halloween Havoc '89

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '89

October 28, 1989 from the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia

Commentary: Jim Ross and Bob Caudle

After peaking an incredible year with the Great American Bash the inevitable (especially for WCW) slow slide down was beginning. I think I can see Jim Herd pushing that rock downhill. He'd been hired earlier in the year and was slowly starting to flex his muscles. This is another new addition on the PPV calendar, and one that would stay all the way until the final demise of WCW.

"The Z-Man" Tom Zenk def Mike Rotunda in 13:23- It's amazing how quickly Rotunda went from important cog in the #2 heel stable and year long TV champ to just another guy. His penchant for endless stalling, a great skillset for a heel TV champ but not much else, might have had something to do with that. Zenk made his WCW debut the month before at Clash VIII and was getting his first serious push after a few years of bouncing around AWA, WWF, and Japan. Rotunda's still in his Varsity Club gear. Philly, being Philly, boos both guys. Zenk slips out of an amateur takedown and Rotunda complains he's got oil on. Zenk takes him down with a shoulderblock and Rotunda plays statues for a few minutes. Big "Syracuse sucks" chant. Rotunda reacts to it and takes a walk. Rotunda with an eye poke and he throws Zenk out. Zenk sunset flip for 2. Every time Zenk tries to turn it up Rotunda slows down and stalls. Philly is getting restless. Rotunda plays rope cat and mouse with Nick Patrick on a headscissors. Well, that's a different hold for that at least. Zenk grabs a headlock and there's some scattered "boring" chants. Rotunda uses Zenk's rope run momentum to send him out and that gets a cheer. For the next few minutes it's Rotunda lets Zenk sit outside and recover, then as soon as he moves to get in he hits him, rinse and repeat. Finally he suplexes Zenk back in. Rotunda abdominal stretch. Basically the Rotunda Ortonlock. A clothesline kills Zenk's comeback attempt for a second, but Zenk dodges a dropkick after. Rotunda does a nice springboard reverse crossbody off the 2nd rope. Zenk uses momentum to roll it over and get the 3. It's a Rotunda match, where you can measure the gap between moves in geologic time. *1/2

The Samoan SWAT Team (w/Oliver Humperdink) def The Midnight Express & "Dr. Death" Steve Williams (w/Jim Cornette) in 18:23- The Samoan Savage had jumped over from WWF to join his Samoan brethren and make it a trio. Paul E was being moved away from managing and into commentary so Humperdink took the team over, who also called him "The Big Kahuna". No idea why Williams is hanging out with Cornette, but hey, he works stiff and the Samoans work stiff so it's all good. Lane and Savage start. No, they're teasing a brawl on the floor. And have a 3 on 3 standoff in the ring. NOW Lane and Savage start. Lane clotheslines him over and out, and Eaton gives him a straight right on the floor. Another floor standoff. Back in Samu chops the hell out of Eaton. Eaton dodges a corner charge and Samu eats post. Williams punches out all 3 heels and they go out to regroup. Williams runs over Fatu with football tackles. Fatu blocks a Lane hiptoss and clocks him. Williams and Fatu hoss it up some more. The faces work Fatu's arm. Savage counters an Eaton bulldog and he crashes crotch first into the corner. Fatu and Samu give Eaton a barricade shot. Savage hiptosses Eaton on the entrance ramp where there's no pad and Eaton splats on the concrete with a smack that echos across the arena. .9 Cactus Jack bump, with less body padding. But Eaton comes right back with a sunset flip for 2. Samoan Nerve Pinch of Light Viceness +/-0. It's not a good one. Eaton plays face in peril for a while longer and sells the hell out of it. He was so good. Williams saves a pin attempt. Eventually Eaton counters a diving headbutt and gets the hot tag to Williams. Williams press slams everyone. Well, not the ref. Lane and Savage mess up a swinging neckbreaker where Savage doesn't swing. Enzuguri by Lane. Donnybrook! Cornette gives Humperdink a racket shot. Savage pushes Lane into Cornette, they bump heads, and Savage drops on him to get the pin. The brawl tease standoffs at the start went on a bit too long, but once they got their teeth into the match they got going real good. ***1/4

"Wildfire" Tommy Rich def The Cuban Assassin in 8:29- Oh, Tommy Rich. Probably the least impressive NWA or WCW world champion this side of David Arquette. He held the title for 4 days in 1981 while Harley Race was driving through Georgia. According to Race it was all politics to make sure the NWA affiliated Georgia territory stayed on top during a territory turf war in the state. With a name like "the Cuban Assassin" you'd expect him to be wearing a mask, but he's not. Philly does not like Rich. Ambush by Assassin to start. Rich counters with slams and a Dusty elbow. Loud "Tommy Rich sucks" chant. Assassin does a nice springboard reverse crossbody for 2. Rich hits an ugly sunset flip. He didn't get high enough, almost hit heads with Assassin, then has to almost crawl around his back to complete it. Big boos for that. Rich and Assassin trade arm holds for a bit. The best thing I can say about this match is they're keeping it back and forth with no one staying in control. But to say the crowd's checked out is an understatement. The ring could explode and they'd still get no reaction. Finally Assassin goes for another springboard crossbody. Rich dodges it and pins him with a Thesz Press. 1/2*

NWA World Tag Team Championship: The Fabulous Freebirds (c) def The Dynamic Dudes (w/Jim Cornette) in 11:28- As you would expect, Philly hates the Dudes. Cornette had taken on an "advising" role with them, which was a lead in for him and the Midnights to turn back heel now the Paul E feud was done. Badstreet USA is still awesome entrance music (OK, I'm going to go ahead and stop with that. Just assume it's there for every Freebirds match because it's true.) The Freebirds get pyro! And a face pop. Hayes seems to have forgotten his belt, they only have one. Douglas and Hayes start. Hayes does his usual start of match strutting and gets cheered for it. Standoff start with no advantage. There's a miscommunication where Hayes jumps up but Douglas goes for a clothesline. That didn't work whatever it was supposed to be. Ace outspeeds Garvin to get an edge. The Dudes work Garvin's arm to a big "Freebird" chant. Douglas does a nice rope assisted flip out of an armbar. More arm work on Hayes and more boos from the crowd. The Dudes clean out the ring with a double team and get booed out of the building. Another Freebirds chant. JR: "Really enthusiastic crowd here tonight. I guess there's some Freebird fans here." JR cites Cornette's influence as the Dudes are trying some Midnight-like double team moves. Ace has Garvin in a headlock and taunts him not being able to tag. Hayes runs in and Ace backdrops him while still holding the headlock. A flying headscissors sends the Freebirds outside again and the crowd shits all over it. "You suck" chant. Ace gets a roll up, Garvin pushes off, Ace goes all the way to the ropes and Hayes decks him with a left hand. A knee sends Ace outside to a pop from the crowd. Hayes clocks Ace with another left on the floor and the crowd loves it. "Freebirds" and "DDT" chants. After a short FIP sequence Hayes signals for the DDT and the crowd goes nuts. Ace counters out of it and tags. The Dudes double team again to massive boos. A double knee sends Hayes out. The Dudes go for their Wipeout finisher, but Hayes grabs Ace's foot from the outside, allowing Garvin to fall on top of Douglas and get the pin and a big pop for the Freebirds win. The match was fine even though it never hit high gear. It's worth watching just for the smarky crowd. **1/2

Steiner Brothers promo. Rick is asked about Woman and he says that if she gets involved he's going to "GIVE IT TO HER". And making the belly to belly suplex gesture just makes it sound even more dirty.

Here's the story of how Doom came about, because it's long and pretty good: Missy Hyatt managed Rick Steiner, then both Steiners when Scott came in. Not long after they started teaming Woman started showing up in the crowd under the name Robin Green with a Rick Steiner shirt professing her love for him. Rick, never the sharpest bat'leth on the ship, fell head over heels and let her start being their valet for matches. Scott was dubious, and Hyatt left in a jealous rage. Woman showed her true colors by costing the Steiners a title match against the Freebirds. Woman promised to bring the Steiners' "Doom" at Halloween Havoc. The team Doom itself she stole from longtime Steiner rival (and Woman's real life husband) Kevin Sullivan.

Doom (w/Woman) def The Steiner Brothers in 15:32- Decent pop for the Steiners. Doom comes out in Sith Lord robes and are wearing masks. No one knows who they are. We know now that it's Butch Reed recently heel turned Ron Simmons. The Steiners Suzuki-Gun Doom as soon as they cross the ropes and we're on. They run Doom into each other and give them stereo German suplexes. Doom roll out, get back in the ring and the Steiners clothesline them right back out. They settle in with Simmons and Scott. Scott with a clothesline on the back of Simmons' head. Rick tags in. Steinerlines! Doom rolls out again. Back in, Rick and Reed look a tad lost on what to do. Doom works Rick over a bit until Rick counters a suplex with a nice suplex/one arm slam combo. Scott with a clothesline off the 2nd rope. Not the buckle, the middle of the rope. Simmons gets a jawbreaker on Rick. Rick counters a backdrop and tags. A Scott face first suplex gets 2. Scott ducks a clothesline, immediately puts on the brakes, turns, and gives him a German. While Scott's running the ropes Reed hits him in the back of the head. Doom gives him a couple of Rock-style barricade drops and Scott goes face in peril. Lots of distracted ref chokes. Scott gets a Rick-assisted sunset flip for 2. Doom power moves get a few near falls. Simmons gets Scott in a front chancery, Scott literally picks Simmons up and drags him to the corner to tag. But the ref was distracted and didn't see it. A spike piledriver on Scott gets 2. Finally Scott fights over to make a tag. Steinerlines! Donnybrook! Scott hits a Frankensteiner on Simmons while Rick ground and pounds Reed. While the ref is outside breaking up Scott and Simmons Woman gets on the apron and slips an international object into Reed's mask. Reed gives Rick a headbutt and pins him. Pretty good stuff, and you can tell they have an even better match in them once they get more experience. The Steiners already knew how to carry a match. The loss wouldn't hurt them as a few weeks later they'd beat the Freebirds for their first world tag titles on weekly TV just months after starting to team up. In fact, by the summer of 1990 both these teams will have had title runs. ***

NWA United States Heavyweight Championship: "The Total Package" Lex Luger (c) def Flyin' Brian in 16:49- Now this is an interesting matchup. Not just the clash of styles, but also the fact Pillman was getting this shot just months after joining the company. Pillman is accompanied by the world's oldest cheerleading squad on his entrance. Rough lockups to start with no one getting an advantage. The crowd sounds into it but unsure which side to take. Luger slaps Pillman around and throws him out. A pissed off Pillman runs right back in and football tackles Luger. A big backdrop and dropkick send Luger out, followed by a baseball slide that sends Luger into the guardrail. Pillman loads up a springboard dive but Luger bails before he launches. A reverse crossbody off the top rope from Pillman gets 2. Deep armdrag. Pillman flips out of a hiptoss and hits another dropkick. Luger tries a shoulderblock but Pillman gets a hiptoss of his own. No matter what Luger tries he ends up back in an armbar and he's getting frustrated. Pillman tries a splash off the top but Luger rolls out of the way. Luger works on Pillman's neck/throat area a bit while jawing with fans in between everything. Pillman dodges a clothesline and Luger goes over the top and out. Luger gets back in and plants Pillman up for a superplex but Pillman fights out. Sunset flip off the top for 2. Pillman hits a springboard flying clothesline! It's a sure 3 but they're too close to the ropes and Luger gets a foot up on it. Luger dodges a missile dropkick and hits a hot shot that gets the 3. This was well paced, virtually non-stop, and had a tremendous closing stretch. Luger was on fire in '89. Shame it wouldn't last. ***3/4

The Road Warriors (w/Paul Ellering) def The Skyscrapers (w/Teddy Long) by DQ in 11:39- The crowd is all LOD. Animal and Spivey start. Animal clotheslines him twice and Spivey was supposed to go over but doesn't and rolls under the ropes instead. Hawk and Spivey have a shoulderblock standoff. Hawk gets him down with a flying tackle. Hawk ducks a Sid clothesline (another possible botch there) and hits one of his own that Sid no sells. Now Animal and Sid crash into each other without budging. Hawk wants a test of strength with Sid. After Sid gets the advantage Hawk turns it into a monkey flip. Sid kips up out of a headscissors and clotheslines Hawk. Helicopter slam. Spivey with a side suplex for 2. Hawk manages to reverse a Spivey suplex but the heels prevent a tag. While Hawk is in a facelock he manages to get to his corner and tag but the ref doesn't see it. That was almost exactly the same spot as the Steiner match. Hawk gets a boot up in the corner and gets the real hot tag. While everyone's donnybrooking the managers start fighting. Long tosses his giant key (I wish I could remember the story behind that, key to the city or something) to Spivey and Spivey uses it to get DQ'd. After the bell the heels beat Animal down until Hawk makes the save with the key. The Roadies carried the Scrapers to an acceptable power match. **1/4

Main Event Feud Recap- This was set up by the big end of show brawl at Great American Bash '89. Muta defeated Sting to un-vacate the TV title at a house show in September. No big deal for Sting, he was already on his way to bigger things anyway. In fact, Flair had already promised him that he would be the guy Flair would drop the world title to when the time was right, a promise that would cause quite a bit of backstage consternation in the coming months. But more on that when the time comes, because as a wise man once said, tonight is about tonight.

So, what is a Thunderdome you ask? Well, in a lot of ways it's a precursor to the Chamber of Horrors. It's a Hell in a Cell style oversized cage that allows some floor access. It's a bar style cage like WWF's blue bar one. There's no roof but the top of the cage is slanted to prevent anyone climbing out. In fact, there's no door at all. Once the cage comes down everyone's trapped until the cage raises again. To keep with the Halloween theme there's all kinds of set dressing on the cage: chains, rags, branches, skull faces and gargoyle-like bats on the top. Also, the cage is supposed to be "electrified". That doesn't last. And specifically to this match, the rules are that it can only end when one of the seconds, called "terminators" (not T-1000s) throws in the towel. So it's a bit like War Games in how it can end. Gary Hart and Ole Anderson (Anderson had just come out of retirement to take over from Flair as head booker) are the seconds.

Thunderdome Match: NWA World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair & Sting (w/Ole Anderson) def NWA World Television Champion The Great Muta & Terry Funk (w/Gary Hart) in 23:46- WW(W)F legend and Pennsylvania's own Bruno Sammartino is your special guest referee. Funk jumps right onto the cage. I thought it was supposed to be electrified? Oh, now commentary covers and says the *top* is electrified. Some of the dressing on the top of the cage caught fire from the pyro and Tommy Young is trying to put it out. Muta goes up and green mists it! Fantastic. Now, if he had used the red mist would that have made the fire bigger? There's a lot of chaos in this one making it a bit hard to recap. Flair and Funk start as they try to stick to tag rules for now. Flair chops him and whips him into Sting. Big 2 on 2 standoff. Flair slams Funk over the top and out. Sting rams Funk into the cage. Flair with the rolling knee on Funk, and as he gets up he slaps Muta! Muta runs in and Flair chops everyone. Sting press slams Muta into Funk. Sting ends up in the heel corner and takes some hard shots from Funk. All four guys fight on the floor as they collectively say the hell with normal tag rules. Flair throws Muta over the top. Muta lands on his feet and casually strolls away. Sting ducks a spinning kick from Muta and face plants him. He goes for the Scorpion Death Lock but Funk breaks it up. Bruno tries to restore order but everyone ignores him, and to his credit he fades into the background and lets them have at it. Funk and Flair climb the cage and Funk takes a cage shot. Now Muta and Sting climb. Muta finds the one magic bar on the entire cage that's "electric" and jolts his hand back. Right after that Funk and Flair get up to the roof portion and commentary gives up on pretending anything on here is actually electric. Funk hangs from the top and Flair chops him, then gets his feet caught in a tree of woe like position on the way down. Sting and Flair swap. Muta sneaks under the ring and rams Flair into the cage. Flair recovers and hooks in the figure four but Muta gets out quickly. Muta kicks Flair in the back of the head. Mutalock on Flair! While this is going on Funk hogties Sting to the cage and gets in to help Muta. Anderson tries to get Sting free. Spike piledriver on Flair. Sting finally gets free and FLIES from the corner of the cage all the way to the middle of the ring onto Funk! Muta and Sting fight on the cage while Flair works Funk's knee over. Muta goes up for the Mutohsault but Sting crotches him. Figure four on Funk! Sting helps by hitting Funk with two splashes off the top rope. Muta gets back in and for some reason tries to take a shot at Bruno. Bruno dodges and punches him out. The seconds get in. Anderson waffles Hart, and while Hart's going down he drops the towel. Bruno sees it and calls for the bell. The heels are furious. It's OK. On the bad side, there was clearly not much thought or planning into how to use the cage (par for the course with WCW) and the hyped up "electrified cage" angle went nowhere. On the plus side, all four guys in the match were more than talented enough to paper over the cracks and turn what could have been a disaster into something at least watchable. This would lead to a reformation of the Four Horsemen with Sting joining the group (Arn Anderson would return from his WWF run in December), all part of the long term plan leading to Sting winning the world title from Flair. Meanwhile, Flair and Funk would have their final blowoff at the next Clash in one last Ric Flair '89 classic. **3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Not bad, not great. By WCW '89 standards it's definitely low on the list, but it's a decent watch. This was the start of a period where the tag division would get a lot of emphasis, hence all the tag matches on this show.
OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-