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Kevin’s Random Reviews: WCW Halloween Havoc 1991
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Loading...WCW Halloween Havoc 1991
October 27th, 1991 | UTC Arena in Chattanooga, Tennessee | Attendance: 8,900
It’s the infamous Chamber of Horrors show. 1991 WCW isn’t something I have fond memories of, but this is one event that I’ve heard a lot about. It’ll be interesting to see it for the first time ever. There’s plenty of talent on the card, from Cactus Jack to Sting to Vader to Steve Austin to the Steiners. This was the third of twelve Halloween Havoc events.
You can’t help but be amused by the attempt at a spooky intro for this show. Anyway, in a rare case, the commentary team here was Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone.
They cut outside after announcing that Barry Windham was hurt and would have to miss the Chamber of Horrors match. Earlier today, Eric Bischoff welcomed Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher as they arrived, and the same went for the Diamond Studd. Finally, when Windham arrived, Larry Zbyszko and Arn Anderson ran up and slammed the car door on his hand.
Chamber of Horrors Match: Abdullah the Butcher, Big Van Vader, Cactus Jack, and the Diamond Studd vs. El Gigante, The Steiner Brothers, and Sting
For those unaware of this infamous gimmick, it’s a four on four cage match with no tags. To win, you must put a member of the opposing team into a chair and pull a switch that will electrocute them. I’m not kidding. Cactus brought out a chainsaw, foreshadowing his WrestleMania XIV tag partner. Also, El Gigante is the Giant Gonzalez. With that out of the way, we’re onto the match. Lots of brawling to kill time at the start. The chair can’t come down until about five minutes in. There were caskets around the ring too, because why not? Some of the match was shot by a camera on the referee’s head. As the chair finally came down, Sting and Cactus had some fun interactions outside. A few guys were put in the chair, but not strapped in. Rick came closest to getting put in, as Cactus stood by the giant lever to set off the electricity, which continued to fall on its own and not set off the electricity. Rick turned it around on Abdullah, and Cactus flipped the switch, thinking it wasn’t his teammate. That signaled the end at 12:33, as Abdullah got cooked. The stipulation and electrocution stuff sure was goofy, but it’s not the abomination of a match I heard it was. The match itself was a harmless brawl, though it was hard to follow. [*½]
After the match, Abdullah woke up and attacked everything moving, before needing to be helped to the back by Cactus. Strange.
Big Josh and PN News vs. The Creatures
What the hell is this? On a positive note, the Creatures had Psychosis’ future theme. There was a white dude in the crowd who danced to PN’s rap like Kurt Angle dancing to Shawn Michaels’ theme. Since the Creatures are just masked nobodies, this was basically a squash. However, it was an extended one. Big Josh hit his version of the Earthquake Splash, but it was called Northern Exposure. Eww. That set up PN News to hit a splash off the top to win in 5:16. This happened. It wasn’t good. [¼*]
Bobby Eaton vs. Terrence Taylor w/ Alexandra York
THE COMPUTERIZED MAN OF THE 90S! JR hyped this as a match between two guys ranked in the top ten, which was rather cool. Taylor tried getting in Eaton’s head early, but quickly got overwhelmed. I loved Taylor going outside to get new info from York and her computer. Things picked up when Eaton hit a top rope knee drop while Taylor was on the ramp. That’s quite the spot for 1991. Taylor used some classic heel tactics to turn the tide and would stop to get more tips from the computer. They decided to keep upping the 1991 ante, when Taylor busted out a Doctor Bomb on the aisle. WHAT? Taylor wore down Eaton for the next segment of the match. Eaton made the big babyface comeback and scored with the Alabama Jam to win in 16:00. Where did that come from? No frills, just two guys putting in the work. I enjoyed the character stuff from Taylor and some of the impressive spots they busted out. Give me more stuff like this. [***¾]
Jimmy Garvin w/ Michael Hayes vs. Johnny B. Badd w/ Teddy Long
The Freebirds were playing the faces here. They brought out a fair amount of the tomahawk chop chant, like this was a Braves game or something. They worked some quick exchanges to open, with Garvin outclassing his less experienced foe. A distraction from Teddy allowed Badd to choke Garvin with a towel and take control for a bit. After they collided with one another, Garvin hit the dreaded DDT. Long distracted the referee again, making him miss the count. That set up Badd to win with the TUTTI FRUTTI PUNCH at 8:16. Big drop off from the previous match. They had the right idea with some of the veteran against young guy stuff, but it didn’t come off well. [*¾]
In the back, Missy Hyatt bothered Bobby Eaton to try and find out who the WCW Phantom was. He was annoyed.
WCW Television Championship: Steve Austin [c] w/ Lady Blossom vs. Dustin Rhodes
STONE COLD VS. GOLDUST! ATTITUDE ERA, BABY. Anyway, these guys opened on the mat, until Dustin did what he could to pick up the aggression. The crowd seemed to like it, but I never could get behind “The Natural” gimmick. They brawled outside, with the referee choosing to ignore the over the top rope DQ rule. Dustin got busted open following a spill to the outside. As they neared ten minutes, JR mentioned the TV Title time limit stuff, giving away the finish. As time winded down, Dustin truly got going and busted Austin open. He hit a big clothesline and came close, but Austin was too close to the ropes. The Bionic Elbow triggered a sting of offense and Dustin hit a big flying clothesline. He covered but time expired at 15:00 just before the referee counted three. It started slow, but got pretty good near the end. The time limit stuff was overused for this title, though. [***]
Bill Kazmaier vs. Oz
BIG SEXY OZ. I must stop opening these with caps attacks. This was rough. Oz wasn’t any good and neither was Bill. Lots of lackluster looking power stuff, until Bill won with the Torture Rack in 3:59. Yes, the same move the World Champion uses. [DUD]
Doug Somers vs. Van Hammer
No caps for this one. Hammer was surprisingly over and this was at least kept short. He won with a shit looking slingshot suplex in 1:13. [NR]
WCW Light Heavyweight Championship: Brian Pillman vs. Richard Morton w/ Alexandre York
Both men got to cut promos in the back about wanting this vacant title. This match was apparently not important enough to make the tape version of this show (neither was the great Eaton/Taylor match). Pillman brought the energy from the start and sent Morton packing. It’s odd seeing Morton in singles matches. This felt like a mixture of a styles clash and a guy in a miscast role, as Morton just didn’t work as the heel. He slowed the pace to cut off Pillman’s “flying” offense. His stuff felt awkward and out of place. Pillman made the babyface comeback and captured the title with a flying cross body in 12:45. This could’ve been better, but the roles didn’t work and it made for a drag of a match. [**]
The WCW Halloween Phantom vs. Tom Zenk
This Phantom stuff has been the night’s big mystery. He wrestled in a mask and had his entire body covered. The Phantom dominated and won with a reverse neckbreaker in 1:27. Dumbass Tony Schiavone noted that the finisher looked like the Rude Awakening, thus giving away the entire angle ahead of time. [NR]
WCW World Tag Team Championship: The Enforcers [c] vs. The Patriots
The Patriots are Firebreaker Chip and Todd Champion. They held the US Tag Titles heading into this. Despite that, it felt clear from the start who the superior team was. Basically, this match saw Arn and Larry stretch these green champions at every turn. Well, Champion was big enough to fight off the Enforcers. However, they outsmarted him on several occasions. It’s quite entertaining. Arn won for his guys with a Spinebuster in 9:51. It was kind of an extended squash, but there was some fun moments from how ahead of their opponents the champions were. [*¼]
Eric Bischoff brought out Paul E. Dangerously and Madusa for a promo. Paul said that he was fired by WCW for being too controversial, but having a manager’s license gave him some sort of loophole. Paul promised revenge on WCW, starting with their franchise, Sting. That made him bring out the Phantom, who revealed himself to be Rick Rude. This set up the Dangerous Alliance, one of my favorite things from the early 90’s.
WCW World Heavyweight Championship Two Out of Three Falls Match: Lex Luger [c] w/ Harley Race and Mr. Hughes vs. Ron Simmons w/ Dusty Rhodes
JR couldn’t wait to get his football references in. He brought up everything from Simmons’ alma-mater being ranked #1 at the time (as if that had any relevance to the match) and their time as teammates in the USFL. The first fall saw a fair amount of stalling. Once they got going, it was a power based battle. Simmons fought through a headlock to hit a spinebuster and take the first fall in 4:53. I appreciated how they spent the time in between falls getting advice from their managers. More stalling from the champion as we entered the next fall. Luger looked to be dogging it and not putting in his best effort. He wore down Ron for a long time, before we got some of the babyface fire from the challenger. Race tripped Ron, causing Dusty to come over and elbow him. Luger charged at Ron and went over the top, with the referee declaring that Ron threw him over. That gave us a DQ fall for Luger at 16:24. Shit way to end that fall. Luger continued to do a lot of nothing, so Simmons threw a ton at him. Simmons made a crucial mistake by missing a charge and Luger planted him with a piledriver to retain in 21:59. All the credit in the world to Ron Simmons, for putting in one hell of an effort. He wanted to go out there and have a good match. Luger didn’t seem to care and was happy to drag this way down. The action left a lot to be desired, though I felt it told a solid story. [**]
