Halloween Havoc '94

Legacy Review

Halloween Havoc '94

October 23, 1994 from the Joe Lewis Arena in Detroit

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

WCW World Television Championship: The Honky Tonk Man and Johnny B Badd (c) go to a 10:00 time limit draw- Just what WCW fans were clamoring to see, the Honky Tonk Man, another Friend of Hogan coming in and taking a spot. This is his first run with a major company since leaving WWF in late 1990. Badd takes some swings after the bell and Honky hides in the ropes. Badd wins an arm wringer tradeoff. He ducks a Honky punch and hits an atomic drop. Then he musses up Honky's hair! That's almost DQ worthy. Honky has to roll out to recover after that one. Sting is on the hotline to tell you how he feels about Eric Bischoff not bothering to book him tonight not wrestling tonight. Honky takes over with the same slow '80s heel offense he's been doing since time immemorial. Back elbow and it's chinlock time. He cuts off a Badd comeback with a knee to the gut. Badd sunset flip for 2. Honky hooks up for the Shake, Rattle and Roll but Badd backdrops out. Dodge and Badd flies full speed into the corner. Cover from Honky with a foot on the rope for 2. Badd's tossed to the floor and Honky hits a double ax handle off the apron. Back in Honky hooks on his fourth or fifth chinlock so far in the match, I've lost count. 2 minutes left. Badd tries elbows to the gut to get out again, he should be an expert on breaking chinlocks at this point, but Honky gives him a knee to the back. Buckle shots and mounted punches from Badd. One minute left. Badd gets a kneelift and Honky begs off. Honky ducks the Tutti Fuiti punch and hits a back suplex. Both guys choke each other and have an all out roll around mat brawl as time expires. That was as much as you were going to get out of Honky. And way to make Badd look strong after finally winning his first title. Not just drawing with Honky, but he was on defense for 75% of the match. 1/2*

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Pretty Wonderful def Stars & Stripes (c) in 13:47- Stars & Stripes failed to take the tag titles from Pretty Wonderful at Fall Brawl, but then defeated them on weekly TV just the week after. S&S run to the ring and try to fire the crowd up but don't get much response. They're good with chanting USA and booing the heels but rooting for these specific guys is another matter. Orndorff and Patriot start. Rough lockup. All four guys are quickly in and brawling. Orndorff tosses Patriot outside while Bagwell clotheslines Roma 360 and out. Rail shot for Orndorff and Patriot hits an ax handle off the top back in the ring. The faces knock Orndorff around then go to work on Roma's arm. Roma with a slam and fistdrop off the top rope on Bagwell for 2. Bagwell crossbody for 2. S&S double team and work Roma's arm some more. Bagwell sunset flip off the top for 2. Orndorff tags in and runs into a drop toe hold. Bagwell and Orndorff collide with each guy clearly having different ideas on what they were supposed to be doing. Bagwell recovers to hit a slam. Orndorff powders, lures Bagwell into the heel corner and gets him in peril with some double teams. Bagwell gives Roma some forearms, works his way over and tags. Patriot corner clothesline for 2. More arm work on Roma. Roma pulls Bagwell's tights to send him face first into the heel corner. Orndorff breaks out the dreaded boogie woogie elbow. Think he's toned that down a bit since the last PPV, this one couldn't be mistaken for an epileptic seizure. Bagwell completely fucks up a simple whip and Orndorff walks over and gives him some possibly get your shit together stiff shots. Roma rolls through some power moves. Bagwell hits a springboard "crossbody" off the second rope (his leg hit Roma right in the face) for 2. Roma cuts a tag off. Orndorff dropkick and elbow to the gut. Bagwell blocks and hits a suplex. Instead of tagging he covers for 2. Backslide from Bagwell. Roma breaks it up. Bagwell boot up in the corner and he hooks a sleeper on Orndorff. Donnybrook! After a few minutes ref Randy Anderson finally gets Patriot to listen to him. Same thing happened at Fall Brawl. It has to be the mask. Bagwell hits Orndorff with the perfectplex, but Roma hits him with an elbow off the top and Orndorff covers for the pin to get the titles back. That was 15 minutes that felt like 30. Bagwell is not progressing like the super hot rookie he was touted as back in '91, which is possibly why he's been kept in the tag division with random partners. For comparison, Badd debuted the same year at about the same level of experience and has come miles since then. *1/2

Dave Sullivan def Kevin Sullivan by countout in 5:17- After dispatching Cactus Jack to the Shadow Realm Kevin grew tired of his brother Dave's Hulkamania experimentation and set off a brother vs brother feud. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart, which carried WWF for most of this same year, this is not. Dave comes out to a new song called "I Want To Be A Hulkamaniac" and it's a saccharine coated earworm nightmare. Think the It's a Small World song, but even worse. I'm a Disney World fanatic but I categorically refuse to ever ride that ride because I don't want that song in my head for the rest of time. Kevin tries to jump but Dave beats him to the punch. An elbow sends Kevin to the floor. Corner chops from Kevin back in. Dropkicks. Dave blocks a buckle shot and pummels Kevin with them. Horrible backdrop. Kevin pulls tights and sends Dave to the floor again. Dave gets posted. Kevin beatdown in the ring. He grabs Dave's Hogan bandana and stuffs it in his mouth, then hits double stomps to the gut. Kevin goes up top but Dave slams him off, then puts the Hogan bandana in his mouth. Clothesline and big boot. Kevin begs off and uses the bandana to pretend he really likes Hogan now, honest. Of course it's all a RUSE. Brawl on the floor and Dave is posted again, but he manages to roll back in to beat the count while Kevin takes his time and gets himself counted out. Woof. As bad as this is, it's only the warmup to the horrors that are to come. A little something called the Dungeon of Doom. 1/4*

 

"The Natural" Dustin Rhodes def Arn Anderson (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) in 9:50- The long Rhodes/Stud Stable feud was blown off in War Games at Fall Brawl but we've still got some end of war skirmishes to mop up, like Dustin getting one on one revenge on Arn for turning on him. Like he should have expected anything else. Lockup stalemate. Arn blocks a hiptoss and gets an amateur takedown. Dustin counters with a headscissors and another stalemate. Arn frustrates Dustin by complaining about phantom hair pulls, like he's got anything back there to pull. Cheap shot by Arn on a rope break. Dustin responds, blocks a kick, spins Arn into an atomic drop and clotheslines the back of his head. Dustin goes up top but Arn smacks one of his legs out from under him, crotching him. Arn goes for a superplex. Dustin blocks and headbutts out. Lariat off the top for 2. Dustin loads up a bionic elbow but Arn cuts it off with a straight right. He tries coming off the second rope. Dustin gets a boot up but Arn sees it, lands on his feet out of harm's way, and drops an elbow. He goes for a figure four but Dustin pushes him all the way to the floor. Brawl on the floor and Arn ends up posting his shoulder. Dustin goes to work on it. Arn pulls hair but Dustin hangs onto the arm and hooks on an armbreaker. Inverted atomic drop from Dustin. He charges, but Arn dodges and Dustin flies over the top rope all the way to the entrance ramp! Gut punch from Arn back in for 2. He tries a leverage pin but Dustin gets him in a body scissors. That was the spot where Arn normally crotches himself, nice change up. Arn uses it to drag Dustin and slingshot him up into the bottom rope! Slugfest. Double clothesline. More slugfest. Dustin kick combo and lariat for 2. Arn tries to counter a backdrop into a DDT. Dustin blocks it by grabbing the rope and immediately follows up with an elbow drop. Dustin hot shot! He pulls his kneepad down and tries to kneedrop Arn's hurt shoulder. Arn rolls out of the way. He goes for a piledriver. Dustin backdrops out, but Arn rolls through it into a sunset flip. He puts a foot on the rope but the ref catches him. Dustin stacks him up and that gets a pin! After the bell Arn punches Dustin out and gives him a DDT. Good stuff with two old veterans (Dustin had been around long enough already to be called that) doing their thing, with some tight psychology. ***1/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan (c) def "Stunning" Steve Austin by DQ in 8:02- This is a "rematch" from Fall Brawl, if you could call the farce that happened there a match. Austin jumps Duggan before the bell. He's still got the "US Champ" tights on. Duggan responds with clotheslines and a slam. Duggan with a sleeper! Who knew he even knew how to do that? Austin flips out and goes to work on Duggan's knee. Duggan pushes, Austin flies all the way into the post, and Austin rolls him up for 2. Austin does the good ol' eye poke and goes back to the knee. Duggan atomic drops Austin out to the floor. Austin stalls and whips out the insincere handshake offer back in. Duggan has none of it. Austin hits a couple of double ax handles off the second rope. He goes for a third but Duggan clotheslines him in midair. More punches and Austin tries to hide behind the ref. Low blow! Nick Patrick reads Austin the riot act. Austin stomps a mudhole in Duggan but passes on walking it dry. Elbow drop off the second rope for 2. He tries coming off top but Duggan dodges, with Austin taking an incredible bounce off the mat that's only partially caught on camera. Pillar to post beating. Duggan gets in the 3 point stance, charges, and Austin backdrops him over the top rope for a cheap DQ. Duggan chases him off with the 2x4 after. Like Honky Tonk earlier, Austin got all he could out of pretty much washed up Duggan. *3/4

Mean Gene brings unbooked Sting out. He's going to sit ringside with Muhammad Ali, who's been there the whole show.

 

Vader (w/Harley Race) def The Guardian Angel in 8:17- Another feud that won't die, and it's starting to get past its sell by date. Remember Vader winning a #1 contender's match for the world title at Fall Brawl? Neither does WCW. Angel has a bunch of Guardian Angels come out with him. Vader gets in Ali's face during his entrance. Angel gets a preemptive strike on Race before the bell. Vader helps Race up on the floor. Bell. Vader plays to the crowd before locking up. Angel slaps Vader in the corner. That's bold strategery, Cotton. Vader lays in the corner potatoes. Short clotheslines. Angel goes 360 to the floor. Vader gets whipped into the guardrail and clotheslined. Angel chases Race into the ring and takes him out again. Angel slams Vader onto Race! The mask is off. Avalanche from Angel. More potato shots from Vader. Angel gives Vader a suplex and big boot. More punches from Vader, straight shots right to Angel's jaw that are seriously nasty looking and get gasps from the crowd. Vader does his usual spot of coming off the second rope and getting slammed. Angel headbutt off the top for 2. Enzuguri. Angel clotheslines Vader 360 over and Vader lands on his feet. Clothesline from Vader. He appeared to hurt his arm, but Angel is also out. Not sure what happened there but it didn't look like everything went to plan. Vader bomb! Slow cover and Angel kicks out. Vader goes for another. Angel gets his knees up. Angel big splash for 2. Spinebuster for 2. Boss Man Slam. Race distracts again. Angel goes over and suplexes Race off the apron into the ring. But as soon as he lands Vader nails him with a big splash! Vader gets the pin! Brilliant finish, as Angel's obsession with Race ends up costing him the match. It's nice to see a top heel win by legitimately outsmarting his opponent every once in a while. Vader won a couple against Sting that way too. ***

The Nasty Boys def Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) in 7:56- The Stud Stable attacked the Nastys in their locker room after Fall Brawl to set this up. Knobbs has no shirt on during the attack which is practically an affront to humanity. I mean, he looks like I would and I know no one wants to see that. They Nastys bring a carved pumpkin to the ring because it's Halloween. As soon as they hit the ring the brawl is on. The Nastys clear the ring as the heels roll out wrapped up together in a heap and try to fight each other. Long stall, then reset with Knobbs and Funk. Funk gets pummeled and falls through the ropes. Sags sits on Funk and the Nastys give him the dreaded pit stop. Funk is furious. Sags gets beaten down in the heel corner but fights out. Buck gets knocked around and Funk is whipped into him as the heels fall to the floor again. Funk grabs a chair and hits himself in the head with it literally about a dozen times, then wanders into the crowd. I think Funk is going completely off script here. Back in Funk grabs a headlock, works himself up the ropes in the middle of the ring, and gets chopped off down to the floor. Now I think Funk is just trying to amuse himself. Buck chokes Sags with a rope. The heels try to double team Sags but he faceplants them both. Buck trips Knobbs from the floor. He puts on some knucks but the ref catches him. Meng tries to take a shot but hits Funk instead. Sags piledrives Funk through their pumpkin because it's Halloween, and it's over. What a mess, and I'm not talking about cleaning up the remains of the pumpkin. Way to make the Stud Stable look like a bunch of geeks. Funk left WCW almost right after this. DUD

 

Career vs Career Steel Cage Match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (w/Sensuous Sherri) in 19:25- Mr. T is the special guest referee for this one. The main story here, apart from the career vs career stipulation, is Hogan's knee that's been wounded by attacks by a mysterious masked man over the past couple of months. Buffer, will you shut up and let the match start, people aren't here to see you even though you clearly think they are. The cage isn't lowered until after entrances and everyone is in the ring. There's pyro galore as the cage is lowered. I mean TONS of pyro. Flair looks annoyed at it. Hogan's got his shirt tucked in his trunks to keep and use later. Flair goes to lock up but Hogan says screw your lockup, kicking Flair and eye raking him. Flair blocks a cage shot. Hogan backdrop and clotheslines. Flair begs off. Hogan with mounted punches, and he uses the cage to stomp Flair. T pulls him down and gets on him. Flair uses the opening for an eye poke. Chops. Flair takes the first cage shot. Flair Flop! Flair punches Hogan's bad knee and starts working on it. He gets in a shoving match with T. Hogan's run into the cage. Snap mare/kneedrop combo. Hogan reverses a whip and hits a corner clothesline. More cage shots for Flair. Hogan chokes Flair with his shirt. T gets on Hogan again and again Flair uses that opening. Delayed suplex from Flair. Punches and Flair struts around a bit. Hogan responds with punches and chops of his own. Flair tries to climb out. Hogan follows and gives Flair a cage shot on the top of the cage. Flair falls and gets crotched on the top rope. Back down Flair gets a boot up in the corner and goes for the figure four. Hogan reverses into a small package for 2. More chops that Hogan no sells. Flair goes into the cage again. Hogan gives him the cheese grater, which doesn't really work when there's no blood. And there should be blood in this match of all matches. Hogan back suplex for 2. Flair tries climbing again and Hogan chases. Flair dangles upside down over the top of the cage and Hogan rams his face into the cage. Hogan chops and Flair falls. Hogan grabs a headlock. Flair uses it to give Hogan a kneebreaker! Now we're going to school. Flair pulls the tape off the knee. Figure four! Hogan sells it, then stops and reverses it. Flair quickly lets go. T takes a ref bump. Flair hits a back suplex. Cover, Hogan kicks out and Flair lands on T. Flair stomps T! Sherri starts climbing the cage. Jimmy Hart pulls her down, pulling her skirt off in the process. Sherri hits Hart, climbs again, and this time Sting comes out of the crowd to stop her. The masked man comes out from under the ring! He hits Sting and Hart with his lead pipe. Sherri climbs and comes off the top of the cage onto Hogan's back, which he no sells. Hogan points at Sherri. Flair chop blocks Hogan! Sherri and Flair handcuff T to the bottom rope. Hogan gets run into the masked man's pipe. Flair and Sherri have some trouble coordinating what they want to do. They settle for Flair hitting another suplex while Sherri stomps T. Hogan no sells the suplex. Double clothesline for the heels. Hogan slams them both. Then clotheslines them both again. Sherri tries to escape and Hogan slams her off the top rope. Flair climbs and Hogan gives him more top of the cage shots. Big boot for Sherri. Flair chops Hogan, only causing him to Hulk Up more. Point, 3 punches, big boot, legdrop, T counts 3 while still handcuffed and good night. I've got a lot of thoughts on this one. Good match? Sure, though spectacle might be a better word with all the crazy overbooking. Best Flair/Hogan match so far? Probably. But I've got too many quibbles to put this into the upper tier: no blood; too much Superman Hogan; all the overbooking when all you need for Hogan vs Flair is Hogan vs Flair; and the career vs career stakes never felt as huge as they should have, continuing the trend of this epic feud of, at that point, the two greatest and biggest wrestlers of all time not quite feeling like the earth shattering event that it should be. Close, but not quite. To the surprise of no one Flair's forced retirement from the stip would last about as long as a real life retirement and he'd be back at the first of the following year. Fortunately his pairing with Sherri ended here, they never clicked together. ***1/2

While Hogan's celebrating the masked man runs out again and tries to attack, but of course Hogan beats him to the punch. While he's laid out Hogan finally gets the mask off......and *gasp shock* it's Hogan's BFF Brutus Beefcake! Oh wait, we can't use that copyrighted name. Er, Brother Bruti. Hogan is SHOCKED. Bruti pleads for his life. Kevin Sullivan runs out, as does the WCW debuting EARTHQUAKE! Except that name's copyrighted too so we can't use it even though he's still wearing his WWF gear. Commentary just calls him "the big man" but it's obvious they know who he is, they don't pretend he came out of nowhere which is good. Quake lays Hogan out with his powerslam and gives him the Earthquake splash. Sting runs in to make the save. The show ends with Hogan getting carried out, so kudos to them for that at least. Well gird your loins folks. You think it's been rough the last few PPVs? You ain't seen nothing yet. The Three Faces of Fear, the precursor to the Dungeon of Doom, are here.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A very rough start, an up and down middle, and a good but not great main event to end the Hogan/Flair feud for now. The transition to the Hogan era roster continues with more Friends of Hogan getting spots, leading to a general marked downturn in quality that's not going to get any better for quite a while.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C-