Halloween Havoc 1992

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '92

October 25, 1992 from the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

The original Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal. Since they're in Philly they get Bruno Sammartino in for the show again, this time hosting with Tony Schiavone. They discuss the fact that Rick Rude is scheduled for two title matches- defending the US title he's held for nearly a year now, and challenging for the NWA world title. Bill Watts has also seen a bit of reason, as top rope moves have been quietly unbanned. Still no mats on the outside of the ring though.

"The Z Man" Tom Zenk, Johnny Gunn and Shane Douglas def Michael PS Hayes, Arn Anderson and "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton in 11:02- Hayes was starting to transition into broadcasting and winding down his in-ring career, but he's working with the Dangerous Alliance as a "consultant". Gunn might be best known for his late '90s WWF run as Salvatore Sincere. Yeah, "best known" is a very relative term here. Philly starts right in with booing the faces on their entrance. Look at who's across the ring, you can't be surprised. Arn and Gunn start. Arn plays with him a bit and lays in a knee in the corner. Gunn counters with a pretty ugly dropkick. Arn goes to the top rope. Zenk runs in and dropkicks him off! The faces clean the ring out to a chorus of boos. When things settle down Arn schools Zenk a bit. Eaton pops Zenk with a hard right and gets an even louder pop from the crowd. Eaton blocks a hiptoss to another pop. Zenk hits a backdrop and the crowd boos. Hayes tags in to more cheers. He bitches about a phantom tights pull and actually gets the crowd to back him up. "Bobby" chant for Eaton. Douglas tries to get the crowd straight with a huge flying headscissors followed by a dragon screw leg whip, but the crowd's having none of it. Arn comes in to more cheers. Zenk locks in a sleeper. Arn suplexes out. DDT chant for Hayes. Eaton gets a sneaky tag to Arn, who sneaks behind Zenk and ambushes him. The crowd goes *nuts* for that. Douglas tries to suplex Arn, but Eaton comes in and clips his knee to another huge pop. Arn picks the knee apart, and when he tags out fully embraces what the crowd's giving him and goes full babyface on the apron. The crowd loves it. Eaton locks in a figure four with assistance from Hayes. Douglas reverses it but in the heel corner so Eaton tags. Douglas gets a desperation atomic drop on Arn, who ricochets off the corner and they both collide. Tags on both sides. Gunn works a "hot" tag sequence to zero reaction. Donnybrook! Gunn hits a Thesz Press on Eaton to win. The crowd boos that like Santa Claus just showed up in Philly. **1/4 match, ****1/2 crowd reactions

Harley Race keeps Missy Hyatt out of Rude's dressing room. Good, because that's a dead horse of a joke we did not need to revisit. Which is why I'm also choosing to ignore what Hyatt said afterward. Also, why is Race in Rude's dressing room anyway?

 

Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat def "Flyin'" Brian Pillman in 10:25- Pillman had just turned heel at the last Clash. They start with an early chopfest. Steamboat goes for quick covers and gets a skin the cat in. Pillman's booed early, giving this match a sense of normalcy with the smarky Philly crowd. Steamboat pulls a Bret Hart move, playing dead to sucker Pillman in. DEEP armdrag. Basic arm work that quickly makes the crowd restless. Steamboat cranks things up with some high impact moves. Pillman goes heel 101 with a near low blow and eye poke. The crowd's either chanting "Brian sucks" or "Cincinnati sucks". Didn't realize the Bengals were big Eagles rivals. Steamboat gets uncharacteristically aggressive with a big choke hold. Pillman goes limp on whip attempts, suckers Steamboat in and waffles him. Pillman with a tiltawhirl flying headscissors! Steamboat gets a backslide for 2. Pillman puts Steamboat on the top rope and goes for a superplex, but Steamboat blocks it and drops Pillman down face first. Steamboat comes off the second rope, but Pillman catches him in midair with a dropkick! He hooks a sleeper in. Steamboat runs him into the turnbuckles to get out. Pillman goes up top but Steamboat slams him off. Pillman powders. Steamboat chases and Pillman ambushes him getting back in. Chopfest 2. Pillman begs off and tries the same outside to inside ambush move again, but this time Steamboat counters it. Pillman gets a high knee and crossbody off the top for 2. Steamboat goes up top and hits a huge top rope sunset flip for 2. Pillman tries to counter, but Steamboat counters the counter into a cradle for 3! Not all it could have been. Pillman was still settling into his heel role. **3/4

Teddy Long is in the back with Masahiro Chono and his New Japan entourage. Both guys in the NWA title match can choose their own refs, and Chono's crew chooses Kensuke Sasaki. The whole thing's worth it just to hear Teddy Long stumble through Japanese names.

Bill Watts joins Tony. He announces that Harley Race is Rude's choice for referee. He also announces that Big Van Vader will be replacing Rude in the US title match.

 

No DQ Match for the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Big Van Vader def Nikita Koloff in 11:35- Vader is basically defending Rude's title for him. If Koloff wins, he's the champion. Rude and Race lead Vader to ringside. Medusa had already been barred from ringside, so Ole Anderson goes the whole hog and tosses Rude and Race as well. Flex off to start. Koloff's fairly popular in Philly. Bit of a surprise. If US fans had better access to tapes from Japan back then they'd probably be going nuts for Vader. Vader gets a potato shot. Koloff shrugs it off. More potatoes in the corner. Koloff near 360 sells a clothesline. Vader: "This is all you've got?" before hitting a headbutt. Vader plays to the crowd and Koloff jumps him from behind. Cross body to Vader's back! Koloff rolls him over and gets 2. More potatoes in the corner. Koloff dodges an avalanche and gets a roll up for 2. Another cross body for 2. Vader takes a breather. Koloff follows and eats barricade. Vader with a charishot. No DQ. Philly is warming up to Vader. Except that guy that just threw a full cup of beer in his face. At least it wasn't a battery. Koloff tries a sunset flip but Vader squashes him. Slugfest. Vader wins that. Choke slam! Vader with a big splash off the second rope. Koloff kicks out! Vader hooks in a chinlock and they do the arm drops. Koloff tries to suplex out but Vader drops on him. Koloff recovers and gets a DDT/suplex combo so set off a comeback. Flying tackle for 2. Bodyslam on Vader! The Sickle sends Vader over the top and out. On the outside Vader dodges and Koloff Sickles the post. Back in, power bomb, good night. Possibly Koloff's best singles match, at least outside of Flair. 1990s Vader was just a force of nature when let loose. Koloff was on his way out of WCW anyway, but suffered an injury in this match that sadly forced him to retire. ***1/2

Promo for Starrcade, which will feature Battlebowl again. Yay?

 

OK, I need to set up all the events leading up to the tag title match so stay with me here. Windham and Rhodes beat the Miracle Violence Connection for the unified tag titles on weekly TV a few weeks before this after the planned continuation of the MVC/Steiners feud was cut short by a Rick Steiner injury (leading to Scott turning heel and wining the TV title for his first singles title but I digress...). The MVC were All Japan talent and were uncomfortable working with WCW and their increasingly close relationship with New Japan. Loyalty is everything in Japan. Terry Gordy solved the problem, for him, by removing himself from the equation and no showing this event. It's announced on TV as a breach of contract and suspension. Steve Williams played nice and worked out his contract through the end of the year. Steve Austin was plucked out to be Williams' emergency partner for this match. On top of all this Windham and Rhodes were also showing tension, which would later lead to a Windham heel turn. Clear? Excellent.

WCW and NWA Unified World Tag Team Championship: "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham (c) and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams & "Stunning" Steve Austin go to a 30 minute time limit draw- William and Rhodes start. Ventura digs JR for Oklahoma losing to Kansas that weekend. Kansas?! The football team is just the basketball team killing time until their season starts. Shoulderblock standoffs. They do a couple of football line hits, with Williams leapfrogging and hitting a clothesline on the second one. Rhodes counters with a big clothesline of his own. Good Williams/Windham back and forth. The faces work Williams' arm. Philly gets restless and starts a "We want Flair" chant. Soon enough guys, soon enough. Austin pounds away on Windham. Nice Austin/Rhodes speed sequence. Those guys had already wrestled each other a ton during their TV title feud and had effortless chemistry. Rhodes with a sudden back elbow. Flying clothesline for 2. Williams ducks a Windham flying clothesline and he flies outside. The heels start getting their team chemistry going with some double teams. Windham tries a sleeper but Williams counters out. Windham is befuddled and tries to tag out in the heel corner. Powerslam from Williams for 2. Austin tries a superplex, but Windham counters out and Austin launches himself across the ring. Windham with a clothesline off the top! Midring collision. Windham uses his height to reach over for the hot tag. Rhodes cleans house. Bulldog on Austin! Williams breaks the pin up and blindsides Rhodes behind the ref's back to make him the latest Texan in peril. Avalanche from Williams. Boston Crab. Austin hooks in a Canadian backbreaker. Rhodes slides out and they do the bridge/backslide spot. 10 minutes left. Rhodes tries to come back but Austin pops him while he loads up the bionic elbow. Desperation small package for 2. Williams hits a couple of belly to belly suplexes. 5 minutes left. The heels start getting desperate. With 3 minutes left they do the phantom tag spot. The heels throw Rhodes over the top and out behind the ref's back. Windham keeps fighting and the ref gets knocked out. Windham rolls up Austin but Williams murders him with a clothesline. A replacement ref comes in and counts 3 for Austin! The bell rings. But the original ref comes in and waves it off because Winham wasn't the legal man. Rhodes rolls up Austin and Austin *just* kicks out, but the bell rings again! What a cluster. The crowd is confused as hell. The donnybrook continues. Rhodes gets another near fall. With 30 seconds left Rhodes counters Austin and hits a tombstone, then sits there until more time's gone before covering. Williams comes in to break it up. Time expires. Minus the badly executed false finishes it was solid enough, but it's also really got me hankering for some RNR/Midnight style tag wrestling instead of these endless grind it out matches that Watts loves. ***1/4

Tony is with Vader, Race and Paul E Dangerously. Paul E takes credit for mastermining the whole US title match substitution and happily gives Vader and Race the match's purse money. Medusa charges in and pushes Paul E out of the way to congratulate them. Paul E grabs the mic and he's had it up to here with her, and proceeds to cut an absolutely classic "You suck because I'm a man and you're a woman" heel promo, topped off with the legendary "The other hooker I had in mind for your job had a previous engagement" line. Paul E fires Medusa. Medusa responds with a kick to the head and a beat down.

It's wheel spinnin' time. Sting comes out. The wheel takes forever to rise up out of the floor, though the overall visual design of it is very good. Now we wait for a tech to hook up the big lever. Tony just stands around and proves as good as he is on commentary, he's no Mean Gene when it comes to interview work. Finally Sting pulls the lever, and off the wheel goes. And goes. And goes.....finally slowing down......and it stops....Ventura: "Coal miner.....?". Sting tries to look excited for half a second, then shakes his head in a WTF way and walks off. In true WCW bad planning fashion, no one rigged the wheel and it was a legit random spin, landing on about the least interesting option possible.

 

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: "Ravishing" Rick Rude (w/Medusa) def Masahiro Chono (c) by DQ in 22:23- Chono beat Rude in the finals of the tournament in Japan for the revived Big Gold Belt, which (unmentioned on TV) was also the 1992 G1 Climax, which back then had a bunch of different formats and was a 16 man single elimination tournament that year. It was the second of Chono's record 5 G1 wins. Philly seems mostly pro-Rude. He looks surprised and lays on his prematch promo super thick to try to get some heat back. Medusa is still with him despite her firing by Paul E earlier. There's a coin toss to determine the placement of the refs. Rude wins, so Race is the main ref inside, and Sasaki will be outside. Right at the bell there's a HUGE "We want Flair" chant. Cautious start with clean breaks. Chono Saito suplexes out of a headlock. Rude plays to the crowd. Some semi-listless mat wrestling and there's some WOOOOOOOOOOs floating around the crowd. Chono works Rude's back. Rude powders and Medusa tries to massage it until Sasaki stops her. Chono suplexes him back in. Young Lion Submission Hold 1A, the Boston Crab. Rude jawjacks out of a double chinlock. Swinging neckbreaker for 2. And back to the rest holds. Chono gets a drop toe hold and goes for the STF. Rude blocks it. Things finally pick up a bit with a slugfest. Rude hits a piledriver. Slow cover, and when he finally does Chono gets a foot on the rope. Rude puts on a sleeper. The crowd gets distracted by something happening elsewhere in the arena. Like the wrestlers needed an excuse to go even slower. Chono dodges a dropkick off the top rope. Rude dodges a charging big boot from Chono and Rude eats it! Chono throws Rude over the top and he lands on both refs! Rude recovers, gets back in, and hits the Rude Awakening! No ref to count. Chono dodges a top rope kneedrop and hooks in the STF. Sasaki comes in and calls for the bell. He declares Chono the winner. Rude argues and says Rude wins by DQ for the over the top rope throw. Either way, Chono's still champ, a fact seemingly lost on commentary. Not even being in the Tokyo Dome would save this turd. It was DOA with the crowd and between that and the screwy finish, they barely tried. *

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Ron Simmons (c) def The Barbarian (w/Cactus Jack) in 12:41- Simmons pulled off one of the biggest upsets in WCW history by beating Vader for the world title on weekly TV in August. On the B show no less. Speaking of the B show, that's where Barbarian getting a title shot should be, not a major PPV. Jack would have been a much better opponent. Or someone like Arn or Eaton, who could heel it up like crazy to get Simmons babyface sympathy, and have a great match to boot. Simmons has the full boxing-like entourage on his entrance with Teddy Long playing Don King and carrying the belt. Lockup standoffs. Big boi collisions. Double clothesline with no sells. Simmons finally gets Barbarian down with a flying tackle. Barbarian pounds away in the corner. Simmons counters with double ax handles. Barbarian powders. He drops Simmons throat first across the top rope. Simmons gets posted. Quick sunset flip from Simmons for 2. Barbarian locks in a cobra clutch. After forever Simmons backs him into the corner to get out. Barbarian goes for an elbow off the top but Simmons dodges. Ugly spinebuster for 2. Barbarian has been selling like shit this whole match. Simmons hits a football tackle. Jack's up on the apron so Simmons takes him out. That lets Barbarian get a big boot to the back of the head. Barbarian hits his headbutt off the top finisher but Simmons kicks out. Barbarian hits the ropes. Simmons hits the powerslam outta nowhere, and that wins it. It's bad, but no worse than you'd expect. 1/2*

 

Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal Coal Miner's Glove Match: Sting def Jake "The Snake" Roberts in 10:34- Roberts debuted in WCW in August and immediately went after Sting. This is an unsanctioned lights out match, but they don't turn the lights out before it starts. Does that mean it's sanctioned after all? I know Roberts has never been a body guy, but he looks completely out of shape. He tricks Sting into checking out the crowd so he can try the pole first. Fortunately for Sting the pole is about 50 feet tall and he catches Roberts easily and pulls him down. Roberts grabs the ropes so Sting misses a dropkick and he throws Sting out. Sting dodges a charge and Roberts gets posted. Sting rams Roberts' arm into the post several times. Sting tries the pole, but Roberts pulls him down and suplexes him. He hiptosses Sting over and out, but Sting lands on the apron. Roberts tries to climb again, but Sting crotches him on the top turnbuckle. They go outside again and Roberts gives Sting a chairshot. Back in he chokes Sting with wrist tape. Roberts dodges the Stinger Splash. Short clothesline. DDT! He adjusted and hit it with the left arm, but the right one that Sting posted earlier still got hurt more and he can't follow up. At least the psychology is holding up. Roberts goes for the pole, but Sting runs across the apron, flies around the pole, and hits him. As Sting climbs the pole Cactus Jack runs out and gives Roberts the bag with the cobra in it. Sting gets the glove, but Roberts has the cobra out. Roberts' back is still to Sting. Sting punches him with the glove, but Roberts doesn't react to it at all. Instead he puts the cobra to his face, begs it to bite him, falls down, and Sting pins him. That, folks, is one of the ugliest finishes to a wrestling match there's ever been. Afterward the cobra finally gets some traction and draws some blood. Roberts stumbles out with Jack's help. Sting stays in the ring and looks embarrassed to have ever been a part of that. Like Victory Road '11 embarrassed. This was one of Roberts' worst times for battling his personal demons. He would be out of the company a few weeks later and wouldn't appear again for a major promotion until his WWF return in '96. 3/4*

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- It started decent, had a couple of good matches in the middle, then crashed and burned hard down the stretch. Like when Jim Herd was in charge, the wheels are starting to come off the wagon for Bill Watts.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-