WCW Halloween Havoc 1990 – Terror Rules the Ring (10.27.90) review 

 

October 27, 1990 

 

We’re Chicago, Illinois at the UIC Pavilion. Hosts are Jim Ross and Paul E. Dangerously. What kind of a stupid name is “Dangerously”? You’d never catch me running around with that kind of ridiculous moniker. This is a proper PPV, so we’ve got a near three hour long show and a bunch of matches to get through. I have managed to locate the FULL PPV version, not the VHS tape release version that was on the Network. Which means we get everything here. Everything. Be afraid.  

 

Midnight Express vs. Tommy Rich & Ricky Morton 

Robert Gibson got injured and won’t wrestle again until July 1991. So, the Rock N’ Roll Express is finished (or will be for a while). The next RNR match will be under the stewardship of Jim Cornette in the Smoky Mountains! MXP get a huge pop, but this is literally their last night in WCW.  

The ring has a different look tonight. A red canvas (representing blood, presumably) and there’s orange and black taped ropes for Halloween. It’s an interesting look but vast swathes of red look bad on camera.  

 

MXP are clearly in a lower gear tonight. While I can understand a ‘go out hot’ mentality, I can also understand anyone saying “fuck Ole Anderson” and dogging it. Cornette is the only one putting any snap in his bumps. The whole thing makes me feel sad as this is the last hurrah for one of the greatest tag teams in wrestling history. How could WCW fumble this? It’s so fucking dumb. 

 

As the match goes on Eaton’s muscle memory kicks in. He just cannot dog a match. He’s incapable of it. Ricky Morton plays Ricky Morton and MXP give him the Rocket Launcher ON THE RAMP. They just can’t help themselves. Bless. Bobby Eaton throws in an Ace Crusher here, but he does it like the Diamond Cutter. He saw Ace’s shitty move and made it better. Meanwhile Stan Lane is borrowing spots from JYD. It’s clear who’s carrying this match.  

 

Bobby hits the Alabama Jam and demands a 10 count to emphatically beat their old enemy. It doesn’t work. Alabama Jam looked ace though. Eaton has been incredible here, again. Rich spends 95% of this match standing on the apron. If there’s ever a “playing Ricky Morton” match it’s this one. The Southern Boys turn up to mock Jim Cornette by dressing as him. Which sets up…nothing because MXP are leaving. Rich hits Sweet Stan with Cornette’s racket for the win. 

 

I’ll give this **¾. It was decent but the first half dragged, and this isn’t an ideal way to see off WCW’s best tag team. This is the end of Stan Lane as a star in wrestling, which is crazy. He’s 37 years old here and surely had a few years to give someone. Bobby Eaton fucking rules though.  

 

Video Control gives us the “wicked witch” who forecasts defeat for all the babyfaces. You can then hear the producer telling her she’d done a good job and her saying thank you. You couldn’t pre-tape that? Or maybe it was pre-taped, and they still left the botch in! WCW lads. It’s great.  

 

Bill Irwin vs. Terry Taylor 

Oh, fuck me, this is one of those BONUS matches you only get from watching the full show. It’s nearly 12:00 long. JR has a guest commentator in Jack Brickhouse. A legend in Chicago broadcasting, who had lived through most of pro-wrestling history to this point. He starts reeling off names of guys who would be proud of what wrestling had become. His voice is like a luscious syrup. I could listen to it all day long. It’s a shame it’s accompanying this a drab match.  

 

You can hear someone yell “boring” as Irwin hooks a chinlock. You can see why this didn’t make tape. Brickhouse talks about the origins of the names in wrestling. The early commentators just made them up! I have heard stories before but it’s nice to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth. This is one of those matches where you wish they’d called a quick audible and got them out of there after 4 minutes or so. Irwin works the neck, but the finish is a spinebuster from Irwin, a sloppy cover and Taylor reverses the pin.  

 

It was nice to hear Jack Brickhouse’s voice during this match and it’s the only thing that kept me awake. The match was a real snoozer. Especially with them spending the entire match working a body part for it to go nowhere at all and not even feature into the finish.  

 

Video Control takes us to Tony Schiavone who has Sting for an interview. He’s certainly popular. No title belt on him here. “I don’t want Sid to make the mistake of his butt overloading his you-know-what”. What? Sting is cracking under the pressure of this title run. Sting’s shitty interview is interrupted by Black Scorpion who drags some poor fan, in obvious WCW gear, and makes her disappear. God, this was so lame. Ross and Heyman try very hard to sell it, because this is Ole’s dumb idea, but it SUCKS, and no one cares.  

 

“Candyman” Brad Armstrong vs. JW Storm 

Storm is Jeff Warner. He’s one of those huge, jacked guys who would have had a great career if he had anything beyond look. In his defence, Storm can do the basics better than a lot of similar roidheads. Heyman calls him the “consummate wrestler of the 90s”. He never booked him in ECW, although he was available. Storm starts to expose himself as the match continues. There’s a lot of talking and rest holds so they can have another chat. Ross calls him “6’6”, 285lbs”. He’s a couple of inches taller than 6’ Brad. Not six. Storm botches a roll up, which is the finish as Brad was supposed to counter it. Brad promptly catches an inside cradle for the win. Storm was unbeaten before this but clearly WCW had seen enough already. He’s probably better than Dan Spivey and Sid though, albeit not as tall. 

 

We cut to ringside where Norman (the Lunatic) and the Juicer are throwing sweets to the kids in the crowd. The Juicer is Art Barr under a Beetlejuice inspired gimmick. Let’s just say it didn’t catch on. His next move was going to Mexico, rebranding himself as “Love Machine”, and becoming a huge star down there. Barr was a troubled individual. He pled guilty to rape, got kicked out of the Portland territory before coming to WCW, had issues with drugs and died aged just 28, while on the verge of becoming a serious star. He tagged with Eddie Guerrero and was one of the most hated rudos in all of Mexico at the time of his death in 1994. His early 1995 schedule was a Tokyo Dome match against Jushin Liger for NJPW and a run in ECW. Neither of which materalised due to his untimely demise. One of those ‘what could have been’ careers. Also, a rapist, so I’m not going to overly praise him, but he had a crucial involvement in the evolution of wrestling in the 1990s.  

 

Master Blasters vs. Wild Eyed Southern Boys 

Al Green has already replaced Master Blaster Iron. Southern Boys are still in rebel gear. Jim Cornette joins commentary to talk shit about the Southern Boys and their heritage. “Bullet Bob Armstrong. Chicken of the sea, they used to call him”. “The whole family tree; gypsies, tramps and thieves”. “Why do you think they call him Tracy, his uncle’s name was Ethel”. It’s mad they let Cornette slaughter the Southern Boys on commentary when he’s leaving the company tonight.  

 

Al Green is an improvement for the Master Blasters and Nash is trying to be the ‘modern wrestler’. So, he’s out there doing leapfrogs and shit. There’s a clear improvement from the first time I saw him, but he just doesn’t know what kind of wrestler he wants to be. Nash gets embarrassed by the referee, who holds him back at one point. Cornette distracts and Nash clotheslines Armstrong in the back of the head for the pin.  

 

The Southern Boys beat Cornette up to get some heat back and that’s it for James E. He’s off to the Smoky Mountains to start up his own promotion. In 1991? Not ideal timing. To say business was “down” would be an understatement. We’re about to enter a shitty couple of years for the North American mainstream.  

 

Renegade Warriors vs. Fabulous Freebirds 

Chris and Mark Youngblood are the Renegade Warriors. Boy, do they suck. Freebirds are in their Little Richard Marley phase. The Freebirds generate decent heat, but the crowd don’t care about the Renegades. It doesn’t help that they do a combination of stupid and boring spots. The crowd is DEAD for it. The crowd get audibly restless with how boring the Renegades are. They control with headlocks and armbars. Just have the heels control instead. PS Hayes isn’t in much better condition. His bumping in this is horrid. 

 

And the match just goes on FOREVER. The Freebirds take over, doing the same rest holds. How long is this fucking thing? 17:28!!!! What the fuck Ole? I can forgive Black Scorpion, but this is torture. The crowd want to see Hayes hit a DDT. They chant “DDT” and get excited at any tease of it. The 17 minutes continue to rumble by. This is so boring, I don’t know how Ross and Heyman manage to commentate on it. Hayes gets the DDT after sneaking in behind the ref’s back and it’s FINALLY over. DUD 

 

The Freebirds are going to be in WCW for another 18 months. Dude. 

 

WCW US Tag Team Championship 

Steiner Brothers (c) vs. Nasty Boys  

Finally, we get something heated here. It’s a big old brawl, sticking to the Nasties strengths. Scott gets his ass kicked for a couple of minutes and comes back with an OVERHEAD BELLY TO BELLY SUPERPLEX!! On big man Jerry Sags. That’s mad powerful. When the Steiners were cooking there was nothing like them. The crazy brawling of the Nasties suits that intense in-ring style of the Steiners too.  

 

Sadly, the manic pacing slows down into old fashioned heat on Scott. Which would have been more effective if it didn’t follow the chore of the previous match. They hit each other with chairs and stuff, and it feels like it should go to a crazy double DQ, leading to a street fight rematch. Therefore, eliminating the needless heat in favour of wacky walk and brawl.  

 

The last few minutes are suitably cool again. Rick gets a hot tag and hurls Knobbs across the ring. There’s a lot of Steinerlines. Scott’s selling is particularly impressive. He looks every inch the star and it’s amazing his singles push is almost a decade away. It’s even crazier than how long Bret got stuck in the Hart Foundation. Frankensteiner finishes with Knobbs head-spiking the bump. This was great at the start and great at the end but sluggish in the middle. The bookends are good enough for a recommendation. *** 

 

“This feud will never end” says Jim Ross. The Nasty Boys 1990 contractual situation however would say otherwise. Basically, WCW never signed them to contracts, because Ole wasn’t a fan, and they jumped to the WWF immediately. Becoming huge stars in the WWF and winning the tag titles at Wrestlemania. That’s five months from now. Boneheaded stuff from WCW.  

 

Moondox Rex vs. Junkyard Dog 

This also got clipped off the Network version. With good reason. JYD hits himself in the head with a chair 4/5 times to ZERO reaction. JYD is a weird guy. There are so few wrestlers who were this washed 10 years into their careers. That’s a little unfair, as he’s a 13-year pro, but the first few years don’t really count. Rex goes after his bone, the referee takes it off him and JYD wins with a headbutt. Awful match.  

 

Video Control gives us the “Good Fairy”, which is Missy Hyatt, who calls herself the “good princess”. Was it her earlier? She was better as a heel. She throws back to ringside where Scott Steiner is doing an interview and the Nasties jump him. “The war has just begun” they yell. Was the blow off to this supposed to be at Starrcade?  

 

NWA World Tag Team Championship 

Doom (c) vs. Ric Flair & Arn Anderson 

There’s a lot of tag matches on this show. The trouble with tag matches is a lot of them follow a formula so if you do a lot of them in a row…it gets very samey. The good news is that the Horsemen are fantastic, and Doom are great at this role. Especially Ron Simmons. Although Butch Reed feels like he’s gotten a new lease on life during this Doom run. Reed was terrible for literally the entire rest of his career but in Doom…he’s pretty great. He does throw too many punches though. 

 

Simmons is different sauce. He has the presence, the look, the moves and everything seems geared here towards making Ron Simmons a top guy in WCW. He would win their world title in 1992 incidentally, so maybe that’s what the aim was. The Horsemen do a good job of cutting the ring in half and isolating Ron. The match would definitely benefit from Doom getting either more shine at the start, or more frequent spells of babyface fire.  

 

They try more complicated stuff near the finish. Arn does a good job of holding all that together. The selling goes out of the window as it turns into a donnybrook and everyone gets counted out. Ah, the Herb Abrams UWF classic conclusion when you can’t book a finish. The match was very solid but nothing special. *** 

 

Amazingly, there are 30:00 left on the PPV and the two main events have not yet started.  

 

WCW United States Championship 

Lex Luger (c) vs. Stan Hansen 

WCW needed a temporary fill in guy for Luger to feud with while they worked towards Luger-Flair next year. Step in Big Stan Hansen. He’s here almost exclusively to feud with Luger. It’s weird seeing Hansen look an opponent right in the eye. Luger was a big dude. Luger’s bad rap stems from the miserable run he had in the 1990s where he just didn’t give a fuck. He’s still motivated here. This is an untidy affair though with little to no chemistry.  

 

Hansen controls the match with his brawling and power. This is over in Japan because he’s been out there doing that with top guys for years and years. He made his All Japan debut in 1982. The shtick just doesn’t translate well here, and I love Stan Hansen. Luger just struggles to keep up with the brawling and Hansen is just boring when he’s mat wrestling.  

 

The match never gets over. Luger can’t figure out how to sell for Hansen’s lumbering strikes. Dan Spivey shows up and we have ALL JAPAN CONTINUITY!! Fantastic. They work in a ref bump, but Stan doesn’t benefit from it at all and then he just beats Luger clean with an awkward lariat. Fans don’t like the finish at all, which they shouldn’t because it sucked. There are a number of reasons why Hansen didn’t translate to WCW and Vader did but let’s just say this run was ill advised and forgettable and leave it at that. *¼ 

 

World Heavyweight Championship 

Sting (c) vs. Sid Vicious 

This is announced as “world heavyweight championship” not the NWA world title, as we’re about to stop that. There has been a suspicous lack of NWA branding on the entire show. Both guys are over, so they’ve at least gotten the contest right here. It feels like a 1990s main event. Does that make sense?  

Sting isn’t experienced enough to carry Sid to something watchable, but he does understand his own character needs to look strong against the big man. Unfortunately, this means wristlocks. The crowd stay hot, mostly, while both guys do nothing at all. Sid had so much presence, so much aura about him, that he could get away with doing nothing but posing and the odd clothesline and people still loved him. 

 

If Sid had gotten a few more impactful looking moves, he could have been the GOAT of big men. Most of his offence was unconvincing clubbing looking blows, which required an opponent to sell big for. Sting gets the crowd fired up with his frequent comebacks. None better than him diving off the ramp into the ring. It’s a shame Sid was woefully out of position for it.  

 

WCW are incapable of booking Sting. The Black Scorpion bullshit has to override everything else. The Ole Anderson mastermind at work. Here we get something especially dumb as Sid bails, Sting gives chase, and they just reappear with Sid easily pinning “Sting” for the title. The crowd goes wild, thinking Sid is the champion and everyone loves him.  

 

However. 

 

That wasn’t Sting. It was Barry Windham dressed like Sting. So, Sid is out here celebrating with the belt and Sting just runs back in, hits the Stinger Splash and retains. The bell rang. If you were actually thinking about this you would have had Sid claim to be champion, Sting never gets the pin here and the title is held up. Then they can get the belt off Sting without bullshit. HORRIBLE booking. Just disastrous all around. Although it should have given WCW licence to put the belt on Sid. The match is like *½ but the ending is so, so shit. -* 

 

The 411: 

Minimal success here. A couple of decent tag matches. The overwhelming sense on this show is of total incompetence though. The production has stupid errors in it. The booking is bad. Sting is feuding with a guy who doesn’t exist. The crowd wanted Sid to win the title. Hansen’s run is a total failure, but they stuck with him beating Luger anyway. The booking of that match is horrendous.  

 

Then there’s the endless SHIT on the undercard. Freebirds vs Renegade Warriors going nearly 20:00. JYD. Master Blasters. Terry Taylor and Bill Irwin going nearly 12:00 on PPV. I hate to say it but they’re making the WWF look good here and the WWF sucked in 1990. A disaster of a show. Even one of the few positives, the performance of the Nasty Boys, was negated by WCW not signing them to contracts so they just walked to WWF before the year was out.