The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Halloween Havoc ‘94

The Furious Flashbacks – WCW Halloween Havoc ‘94

After two years of “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” main events we’ve now moved on to a pre-planned cage match with the careers of Hulk Hogan & Ric Flair on the line. Yeah, right. Jim Duggan and Johnny B. Badd defend their lesser titles on this show with Duggan facing a re-match with Steve Austin and Badd defending against the Honky Tonk Man. The fact that the card is so littered with old WWF guys and Hogan’s buddies doesn’t make this a pleasant prospect. The really depressing thing is that 1993’s Halloween Havoc was main evented by a great Vader v Cactus Jack match. One year on Cactus has left the company and Vader is stuck in a dead end feud with Ray Traylor despite winning a #1 contenders match at the last PPV.

We’re in Detroit, Michigan at the Joe. Hosts are Fat Tony, Bobby Heenan and on interviews is Scheme Gene. Heenan talks about the history of sports in Detroit and how all that will be forgotten when Hulkamania is destroyed tonight. I fast forward the American national anthem.

BACKSTAGE HTM & Badd have an interlaced pre-recorded interview segment. Apparently Honky’s assorted girlfriends want him to win the belt because they’re into leather. While Badd promises to check him into the Heartbreak Hotel tonight while gesturing to his fist.

TV title – Johnny B. Badd (c) v Honky Tonk Man

Badd has fangs in and looks like an idiot because of it. Badd can’t quite decide what part of the crowd to shoot his load over so pulls out another Badd Blaster for another corner. HTM is instantly scared by Badd’s swinging fists. “I’m a BAAAAAAAD man” Badd screams at the crowd. HTM slows it down by working the arm. Badd reverses and HTM goes all chickenshit and hides in the ropes. HTM nearly gets himself caught by punching Badd in the mouth so Badd messes his hair up. You can’t mess up Honky’s hair! Look it just dropped back into place! It’s like a twinky. HTM lays in a back elbow and poses over Badd’s fallen body. Badd comes back with a sunset flip for 2 so HTM lays in with short range strikes. HTM with a chinlock but Badd fires up and comes back but HTM moves out of the way of an elbow drop and goes back to the chinlock. Only a 10 minute match apparently as the time is halfway done at 5 minutes. HTM calls for the Shake, Rattle and Roll but Badd backdrops out of it. Badd misses in the corner and HTM uses the ropes as leverage for 2. HTM goes back to the chinlock. It’s only a 10 minute match, come on! Time limit is nearly up. Badd starts throwing punches so HTM begs off. HTM ducks the Kiss That Don’t Miss and hits a back suplex. No pin as they start choking each other and it turns into a brawl with the time limit expiring at 9.53, which is fairly close. ½*. Well, it’s Honky Tonk Man so it was never going to be good. Thankfully he’d get into a disagreement with WCW and leave shortly after arriving.

CLIPS From Clash 28 where Hogan got his knee bashed by the Mystery Masked Man. Don’t worry there’s a reveal on that coming very soon and sadly, a pay off match at Starrcade. At STARRCADE. I’ll moan more about that later. WCW, being WCW, did a second masked man angle within the angle by having two masked men at the same time although the second one wasn’t explained. To add suspicion to another of Hogan’s cronies Mr T was seen with Ric Flair at a restaurant last week.

Tag titles – Stars & Stripes (c) v Pretty Wonderful

Last year Bagwell teamed with Scorpio for a short title run. Now he’s won gold with the Patriot too. In fact that was at Halloween Havoc LAST YEAR so they’ve practically recycled the entire angle only with one shit heel team replacing the other shit heel team and Bagwell’s partner getting worse. Heenan thinks the Patriot is Al Gore. Hey, could have been! Roma does his rope running into a fist drop. Heenan suggests he’d make a fine cat burglar. They do a brief spot of reverse heat on Roma as the champs show their continuity and tag team ability. Bagwell gets a blind tag and hits a sunset flip for 2. Roma manages to get a tag but Orndorff runs into trouble as well getting his arm picked off. Bagwell hits a few slams, the first one looking really awkward. Bagwell gets a beat down off Roma and Orndorff adds in a boot to the head but Bagwell has the smarts to get a quick tag out to the Patriot. He starts working over Roma’s arm but when Bagwell comes back in he gets himself picked off and isolated. Now PW don’t let him get the quick tag and Orndorff breaks out the Boogie Woogie Elbow to a huge reaction. They completely fuck up an Irish whip and I have no idea how they managed that but it looked really bad. They work over Bagwell in the definitive heat segment of this match. Bagwell clocks Roma with a crossbody out of the corner but Roma prevents the tag by grounding Bagwell with the BORE-HUG! It works so well that he’s able to get a tag to Orndorff. He busts out the dropkick and elbows at the stomach. Bagwell tries to force him back into the babyface corner but Orndorff whips him into Roma throwing a knee off the apron and clocks him with a clothesline. Bagwell blocks a suplex to follow up though and hits his own for 2. Orndorff cuts the ring off but concentrates too much on that and takes a backslide for 2. Bagwell jumps on his back with a sleeper. Roma just walks in and knocks him off. Patriot has seen enough and we get a huge four man brawl. The ref has been remarkably tolerant here. Bagwell hits the Fisherman suplex but while the ref is busy getting Patriot out of the ring Roma hits the Savage Elbow to allow Orndorff to get the pin at 13.46. **. Fun little match that avoided formula for just long enough to make it not seem like a formula match. Stars & Stripes would get the belts again before Starrcade before losing them to Harlem Heat. So Paul Roma’s career is almost over. Not quickly enough for my liking.

BACKSTAGE Scheme Gene gets a word with Ric Flair who’s with Sherri Martel. They’re planning the biggest celebration in the history of the planet, or something, when Hulkamania comes to an end tonight. Flair says this match is to determine the greatest of all time. Flair shouts something about “the price is right”, which Tony takes as meaning they’ve bought Mr T off.

CLIPS showing Kevin Sullivan getting really upset with his brother Dave trying to follow the course of Hulkamania.

Kevin Sullivan v Dave Sullivan

This is pretty much the height of Evad’s push. The only good thing about this is it gives Kevin an excuse to hate Hulk Hogan because he’s turned his own brother against him. Evad meanwhile does a bad Hogan impression. Hey, that whole Eugene thing was stolen from here. Only Nick Dinsmore is much better at the character. Evad is just crap. Kevin gets the rope ride while Tony can’t fathom how Kevin can be so mean to his own brother. It’s wrestling! They aren’t even related anyway. Kevin does the double stomps but can’t be bothered to pin. He goes up top but Evad throws him off. Big boot. Is he hulking up? Oh good gravy. Kevin pretends to like Hulk Hogan to try and stop this. Evad, like a total sucker, walks into a punch. They spill outside and brawl around the ringside area. Evad beats the count but Kevin doesn’t and gets himself counted out at 5.16. DUD. Good lord. Just an awful match. I kind of like the storyline but Evad was so useless I just can’t see the payoff being worth the wait.

CLIPS showing Dustin bringing in Arn Anderson as his partner against the Stud Stable. Then Arn turns on him in an instant at Bash at the Beach. Dustin got a measure of revenge at War Games thanks to his Dad, Dusty Rhodes coming in. So now its time for Arn to face a one on one.

Dustin Rhodes v Arn Anderson w/Colonel Rob Parker/Meng

To the mat at speed and Arn complains of a hair pull. Dustin does a snapmare and Arn complains of another hair pull. Arn then sucker punches Dustin only for Dustin to fight back. Dustin goes up top but Arn crotches him while Heenan calls him a showboat. Arn sets for the superplex but Dustin shoves him off and hits a diving lariat for 2. Dustin goes for the flip, flop and fly but Arn just punches him square between the eyes. Heh, awesome. Arn goes for a leglock but Dustin kicks him off through the ropes. Outside Arn goes for a punch but Dustin ducks and Arn punches the ringpost. Or was it the shoulder that connected more? Hard to say. Anyway Dustin works the arm. Sidenote – wrestling managers never light their cigars. What’s up with that? Dustin goes for the lariat but Arn ducks and Dustin FLIES over the ropes, over the steps and keeps rolling. DAYUM! Arn just clubs away and Dustin’s selling has been incredible here. He’s brought the workrate. Dustin gets a bodyscissors but Arn swings him round under the ropes and catapults him into them. Nice spot. They slug away at each other and hit clotheslines for the double knock down. Arn is up first but he loses another slugfest. Dustin calls for the bulldog but for some reason sets for the backdrop instead. Arn is set up perfectly for the DDT but Dustin has the ropes to block it. Hot shot from Dustin and he knee drops the arm but Arn moves. Arn looks for the piledriver but the backdrop out leads to a sunset flip. Arn makes the mistake of grabbing the ropes when it could have been enough without them. The ref spots the infringement and kicks the arm away leading to a Dustin roll up at 9.50 for the pin. ***. Lots of fun but I can’t believe they cut it that short.

POST MATCH Arn takes Dustin apart and hits a DDT. Officials prevent a further beating.

BACKSTAGE Hulk Hogan is with Jimmy Hart and “the big brother”, which is Brutus Beefcake only they can’t use that name. Hogan talks about Hulkamania running wild at his hotel last night. He says it’ll be like Wrestlemania 3 all over again. Gene talks about how Mr T doesn’t seem to add up. Hogan says he saw him the other day and he was still, er, strong? He says Mr T will call this match down the middle. Hogan says he doesn’t trust Flair and he might sucker Mr T in, thus calling his friend an idiot.

CLIPS from Fall Brawl where Steve Austin managed to lose his belt to Jim Duggan. Oh, the humanity. Austin’s ridiculous over the top selling and strong promo where the only good things about that. Austin says he’ll punch Duggan in the mouth every time he hears a “USA” chant.

US title – Jim Duggan (c) v Steve Austin

Heenan takes a few comedy shots at Chris Cruise while Austin jumps Duggan ahead of the bell. Duggan comes firing back and hits a few slams. Duggan with a sleeper but Austin escapes a backdrop and boots Duggan in the knee. Austin gets kicked off into the buckles and rolled up for 2. Austin goes to the eyes and then back to the knee but misses the sit down off the ropes. Austin is atomic dropped out of the ring onto the steps. Move those fucking things! Crowd chants “USA” and Austin calls for a time out before offering a handshake. Duggan, believe it or not, isn’t that stupid. Austin into the corner and Duggan attacks him there anyway. Poor sportsmanship there. Austin comes off the ropes but gets clocked with a clothesline. Austin begs off and holds the referee thus allowing him to position Duggan for a low blow. Austin stomps away and chokes Duggan with his foot. Duggan swings wildly but Austin steps back to avoid the punches and chokes him on the ropes again. Austin drops the second rope elbow for 2. Austin misses off the ropes the second time after taking too much time up there. Duggan wails away and Austin begs off some more. Duggan calls for the Three Point Stance but Austin backdrops him over the ropes for the DQ at 8.03. *1/4. Cheap finish there but Austin put so much effort into making Duggan look like a credible star again that the actual match wasn’t that bad.

BACKSTAGE Duggan says he’s happy to be champion but puts over Austin. Meanwhile Austin says he made a mistake but he’ll get Duggan again and win his belt back.

ELSEWHERE Scheme Gene gets a word with Sting. He’s out here to check out the top tier matches tonight. Quite why you wouldn’t put him on the show I don’t know.

Vader w/Harley Race v Guardian Angel

Tony points out that Vader is the #1 contender for the title. We get a few clips showing the lengthy history these guys already have. Muhammad Ali REALLY enjoys Vader goofing around in front of him. Great to see him smiling and enjoying himself. Meanwhile Angel kicks the crap out of Harley to stop him interfering. Vader clubs away in a revenge beat down in the corner. That’ll learn him. Vader clubs Angel clean out of the ring. Vader follows and gets whipped into the rail. Race is back up so Angel throws him into the ring again for a slam. Vader jumps back in and Angel slams him on Race. Well, he’s dead. Angel looks for a low blow and hits it with a legdrop to the groin area. Headbutts and punches from Angel and a Stinger Splash in the corner. Crowd has suddenly gone quiet. Vader has lost his mask. He goes for a suplex but Angel blocks into his own. Big boot, which has been an ongoing theme tonight, but Vader fights back and clubs Angel down. Vader goes for a dive off the ropes but gets caught and slammed. Angel with a diving headbutt for 2. Angel gets a head of steam and clotheslines Vader outside. Vader hurts his arm on a clothesline because he clocks Angel so hard. Angel is out so Vader slams him in position for the VADERBOMB. Delayed pin gets 2. Angel looked dead beforehand so that’s the miracle of channelling the crowd. Vader goes up again but this time the Vaderbomb gets knees. Angel doesn’t have a lot left but he manages a spinebuster (called a sidewalk slam by Tony who’s now starting to lose it). Vader runs into a sideslam but Harley Race gets in his business so Angel bails to chase him thus costing himself the match. He suplexes Race into the ring and Vader just runs into position to splash him for the easy win at 8.15. Ray only has himself to blame for that. **1/2.

BACKSTAGE Scheme Gene gets a word with Tommy Hearns. He says tonight reminds him of his matches with Sugar Ray Leonard. Hearns sounds like he has brain damage and can barely string together a few sentences telling us he’s looking forward to this fight and that the two wrestlers are probably very concerned. About, something.

ELSEWHERE Brian Knobbs gets really excited about the “nasty sensation” he’s about to unleash. That jogging on the spot is really annoying. And having the mic in shot is also pretty irritating.

Nasty Boys v Stud Stable (Terry Funk/Bunkhouse Buck w/Colonel Rob Parker/Meng)

Instead of listening to the introductions I blast out Rick Rude’s music that the very generous Jimmy K emailed me a few weeks ago. Beats watching the Nasties walk around with pumpkins on their shoulders. “He’s bold and he’s cocky and he struts like a king” AND they made that rhyme with “ain’t no way to stop the Rude Awakening”. Genius. This starts with a brawl and it seems the rules are quite relaxed. Funk gets confused and nearly wails on Bunkhouse Buck. Bobby Heenan breaks out the Beavis & Butthead impression. “Hehehehehe, Nasties suck”. Funk bails for a chair. The crowd is fairly pro-Nasties but much like the last time they put on a meaningless tag match before the main event there’s a general apathy. Worrying how the crowd chants more for these guys than Cactus & Kevin Sullivan. Oh boy, the Pit Stop makes an appearance in WCW. The brawl goes outside and Funk bashes himself in the head until he’s nearly unconscious. If anyone has any idea what he’s doing then feel free to let me know. Funk knocks himself so stupid he climbs into the crowd. What the hell is that? This being WCW everyone just seems to accept that it’s happening. Saggs makes the mistake of going after a man who just stood there bashing himself in the head with a chair. Funk makes no bones about just legitimately pounding his opponent. Knobbs tags in to no reaction whatsoever and it seems they’ve overstayed their welcome. Knobbs gets tripped up and Buck loads up his glove. Impartial referee Nick Patrick impartially spots it. Meng jumps on the apron but accidentally blasts Funk and the Nasties piledrive him on a pumpkin, of all things, for the pin at 7.54. ½*. Well that was dumb and bad but at least it had a little heat and they kept it short.

BACKSTAGE the Nasties cut a promo interspersed with clips from the match. Whatever.

PRESENTATION – They get Muhammad Ali in the ring for a presentation. Also in there are Bill Shaw and Eric Bischoff to make a presentation to his charity. Okerlund stumbles over a few words but nowhere near as many as Shaw who is Linda McMahon bad on the mic. At least he isn’t a character. Bischoff shows his mic skills off with a clean and smooth delivery on presenting Ali with a plaque. Bobby Heenan goes off on a rant about how Flair will end Hogan’s career tonight.

BACKSTAGE Hogan cuts a promo in a somewhat reserved fashion. He talks about how he’s been talking to Brutus and they’ve been working on tactics and Sherri and the cage and how he’s going to prepare. Hogan is convinced he’s ready because his preparation has covered all bases. Actually a GREAT promo from Hogan. It was subdued and suited the moment.

WCW title/Cage match – Hulk Hogan (c) w/Jimmy Hart/Brother Brutus v Ric Flair w/Sherri Martel

Both careers on the line. The loser has to retire. Special referee is Mr T. He sucks up to the crowd with a Red Wings jersey on. There’s an audible “Hogan sucks” chant and Flair’s reaction just walking out here is a strong mix. Hogan’s reactions are also strongly mixed and drown out his music. Well if you wanted a strong crowd it is here. Hogan starts fast and backs Flair down with punches but Mr T stops him suggesting that perhaps he’s in Flair’s pocket. Flair starts bouncing around like Randy Savage and tries to beg off but Hogan lays in more punches in the corner and uses the cage to kick at Flair’s head in the corner. T really gets in Hogan’s grill for that so Flair goes to the eyes and throws some chops. Flair takes a header into the cage a couple of times. Hogan pounds him so Flair goes low and then clips the bad knee. Flair goes after the knee with a passion and stomps the hell out of it. Hogan gets caged too and the crowd is great here just getting into everything. Hogan fires up and clotheslines Flair in the corner. Hogan decides to use the cage and hits a javelin into it. Hogan chokes away but T stops it. Flair climbs up top while Hogan argues with T and Flair hits an axe handle on Hogan off the cage. Flair hooks up a vertical suplex for the first near fall. Sherri is so animated she collides with the cameraman. Flair chops away but Hogan retorts with his own chops and Flair decides to run. He can’t get over the cage and Hogan gets up on the ropes too. Hogan back rakes him and Flair falls onto the rope. Ooh, right in the gooseberries. Flair gets his foot up in the corner and Hogan charges into it. Flair gets hurled into the cage again and then has his head grated across it. Hogan back suplexes him for 2. Flair goes to climb out again and Hogan thinks about pushing him over the top while bashing his head off the outside of the cage. Hogan looks REALLY motivated here and chops away on the ropes before posing. Hell, if you worked this hard all the time all the people would like you! Flair hits a shinbreaker on the showboat and adds in a kneedrop. Flair zeros in on that knee for the second time in this match and picks at it while removing the strapping. Flair pisses T off and gets shoved over by him. Flair is like a shark now though and gets right back on Hogan’s knee. FIGURE FOUR! It’s on the wrong leg but the crowd are still going nuts. Heenan tries to call for the bell but Hogan is still hanging on. He points to the ceiling for some form of inspiration and turns it over. Flair gets out straight away but he resulting collision sees Mr T bumped. Flair is the one that takes advantage with a back suplex and he drags T over to count and when he doesn’t Flair puts the boots to him. Sherri tries to climb in there but Jimmy Hart pulls her down. Well, pulls her skirt off. HELLO! Look at that ass! WOO! She knocks Jimmy on his ass and Sting jumps the barrier to stop her getting it but THE MASKED MAN IS HERE! He has a pipe and beats Sting and Hart down with it. Sherri is in and hits a DIVING BACKRAKE OFF THE CAGE! YUS! Hogan no sells that but T is now handcuffed to the cage. Sherri is walking around in her underwear out there and she looks HAWT. The Masked Man chucks the pipe in and Hogan is run into it. How in the hell is T going to count anything cuffed to the ropes? Flair with another suplex but Hogan totally no sells that. Hogan knocks both heels down with the double clothesline. Hey, leave Sherri alone! Asshole. Sherri tries to climb out but Hogan, ever the gent, slams her. What a dickhead. Up top and Hogan bashes Flair’s head off the cage. Everyone is gone bar the participants and Sherri. She takes a big boot. Flair chops away but Hogan totally no sells it. YOU! Big boot. He drags Flair over to T and drops the leg for 3 at 19.20. So Flair is retired (yeah right) and Hogan retains the title. ***1/2. Really fun match albeit a little overbooked.

POST MATCH The cage rises, T is unlocked and Hogan poses. So it’s all happy endings, right? Well, not quite because here comes EVIL ED LESLIE! A savage pipe beating would ensue but Hogan sees it coming and takes his mask off and reveals that it’s Brother Brutus. Oh poor Hogan betrayed by his bestest buddy. Kevin Sullivan is out here too as well as the debuting Earthquake. This would be the post-Flair feud idea. Not wanting to be critical of WCW’s booking policies but the logical thing to do would be put Vader in there. Seeing as he won a #1 contenders match at the last PPV. Eventually Sting runs down to make the save and end the show on a happier note. Leslie would be renamed “The Butcher” as highlighted by Bobby Heenan repeatedly calling him “a butcher” during this segment. Tony mentions how the big man, Quake, felt like an “Avalanche” when he came out thus naming him also. Jesus, they put some crap into the main event scene after Flair retired. Luckily he’d be back.

The 411: Much like Fall Brawl there was one big epic match. There it was Vader-Sting; here it’s Flair-Hogan. Arn-Dustin was decent on the undercard although not as good as Badd-Regal on Fall Brawl. So I would say this is marginally worse than Fall Brawl. It doesn’t have such a solid undercard but the main event is comparable. There’s a load of crap on here. Nasty Boys, Evad, Duggan, Honky Tonk Man. You just don’t want to pay to see those matches. Thumbs in the middle as a result although this is one of Hogan’s best matches after the WWE.

Final Score:  5.5   [ Not So Good ]