NWA (WCW) Halloween Havoc 1990

Continuing our Halloween Havoc series with the ’90 show.

I always loved the ‘feel’ of this (and many) of the Havoc shows. While it doesn’t have the great, big, overblown sets like the WWE uses today, it has a lot of nice touches that the production teams today miss, such as an orange mat, black/orange ropes and turnbuckles, pumpkins, etc.

From Chicago, Illinois, your hosts are Jim Ross and Paul Heyman, with Tony Schiavone doing interview duties dressed as the Phantom of the Opera – which is somewhat ironic, considering Jim Ross is right there.

Opening Match: The Midnight Express v Tommy Rich & Ricky Morton: Morton and Bobby Eaton start off, trading hip tosses until Eaton cracks him one good across the jaw. Big criss cross sequence allow Morton a backdrop, and a dropkick puts Bobby on the floor. Back in, the Midnights hit a nice looking double team powerslam, and Lane attempts a springboard clothesline, but only in the loosest sense of the word. Ricky gets dumped, and Eaton tries a flying... something... to the floor, but again, he executes it so poorly, I can't even tell what the move was. Slam on the rampway, and Eaton hits a Lane-assisted launched splash out there. Back inside, that gets two. Chin crusher, and a slingshot backbreaker get two. I know Ricky Morton needs to play... Ricky Morton, but Rich hasn't even TAGGED IN yet, damn! He tries to mount a comeback with a rana, and an inside cradle for two, but the Midnights are just all over him, like... The Midnight Express on Ricky Morton. Eaton with the Alabama Jam (an impressive looking flying legdrop), but a flying splash hits the knees, finally putting Tommy Rich into the match. Thesz press onto Lane gets two right away, so Jim Cornette tries to get involved with his tennis racket, but it backfires, and Rich pins Stan at 20:49. God, Rich literally worked about a minute of that entire match. Not a bad match, by any means, but far too long for what it was, and could easily have trimmed about ten minutes off of it. *


Bill Irwin v Terry Taylor: This was shortly after Taylor's return from the WWF. Slugfest goes Taylor's way, and they back off to size each other up. Irwin tries to hustle him into the corner, but misses a blind charge, and Taylor hits a missile dropkick for two, then goes to a side-headlock. Backslide gets two, so Irwin outright decks him, and flattens him with a big boot. Clothesline for two, and he works a chinlock. Taylor makes the ropes, and hits a jumping clothesline out of a criss cross. Atomic drop into a side suplex gets two, so Irwin tombstones him for two. He wanders around - looking legitimately lost - until Taylor suplexes him, and hits a sunset flip for two. Small package for two, so Irwin rakes the eyes. Another blind charge misses, allowing Taylor a swinging neckbreaker, and a modified crucifix finishes at 11:47 Dull, and didn't do much to engage the crowd, but not technically bad. ½*

Sting comes out to cut a promo, but the mysterious, masked Black Scorpion shows up to taunt him. He then grabs a 'fan' (see: paid actor) and does a disappearing act (complete with pyro!) to mess with the WCW Champion, as he stands idly by and lets his fans vanish. Wow, that’s almost like a parable for WCW’s existence. The Black Scorpion fiasco is considered one to the stupider things to come out of either of the big two at such a high level (they headlined Starrcade with this), but honestly, I can see where they were going with the idea on paper, as both promotions drew comparable numbers in the adult demographic, but when it came to kids - WCW was well behind. Putting their pace painted superhero against a scary masked villain sounds good in theory, but WCW just botched it so badly that Scorpion ended up looking like a goofy amateur magician who had issues with Sting (maybe he didn't pay him in full for doing his kids birthday party?), rather than a legitimate threat.

Brad Armstrong v J.W. Storm: Storm overpowers him to start, and grabs an early chinlock. Armstrong tries to power out, so Storm stunguns him, and hits a dropkick. Snap suplex gets two, and a powerslam hits. Gutwrench suplex for two, but he misses another dropkick, and Armstrong levels him with his own, then gets an inside cradle to finish at 5:04. Decent little back-and-forth match. ½*

The Southern Boys v The Master Blasters: Steve Armstrong and Blade start, with Armstrong using his speed to dodge the big man. Clothesline puts Blade on the floor, and Armstrong tags Tracy Smothers. They dominate Blade with a quick double-team, so he tags to Steel (Kevin Nash - in his debut gimmick), but gets quickly double-teamed, and tags back to Blade. A cheap shot allows Blade a sidewalk slam, and they cut the ring in half. Blade misses a flying axehandle to allow the tag, and Armstrong is a house of arson. Four-way brawl breaks out, and the Boys look to finish, but Jim Cornette's tennis racket gets involved, and Blade scores the pinfall at 7:17. I can see the logic behind the Master Blasters - trying to recreate a Road Warriors/Skyscrapers vibe - but having their faces painted like 'roided up extras in Cats wasn’t helping anyone. ½*

The Fabulous Freebirds v The Renegade Warriors: The Warriors are Chris and Mark Youngblood, and all four guys look like bad extras from Waterworld. The Freebirds get knocked around in the early going, and Garvin gets caught in a standing side headlock. Side suplex turns the tide, and he dumps Youngblood for Hayes to abuse him on the floor. Back inside, Garvin and Hayes take turns grabbing chinlocks, though they look like they would prefer to take turns just grabbing each other. The 'heat' segment goes on forever, as the Freebirds just basically keep him in a chinlock, occasionally stopping to do a slam or something, and then going right back to the chinlock. Youngblood finally turns the tide, catching Hayes on the top with a slam, and getting the 'hot' tag. The Warriors double team (as Chris has apparently completely recovered from the entire beating in just moments), but gets DDT'd and pinned by Garvin in 17:28. You might not think from that description that that was a seventeen+ minute match, but, yeah, there was literally a twelve minute chinlock. Again, this is another one that could have used a good ten minutes trimmed off of it. DUD. 

NWA United States Tag Team Title Match: The Steiner Brothers v The Nasty Boys: Big brawl to start, in and out of the ring. Sags catches Scott with a chair shot, and tries a superplex, but gets countered with a super-Northern Lights suplex for two, when Knobs saves. Sags bulldogs him, but eats a double underhook powerbomb off of a criss cross, and the doomsday bulldog looks to finish, but Knobs makes the save. He catches Scott with a sidewalk slam, and a powerslam gets two. Sags in with a pumphandle slam, and a tilt-a-whirl slam, then work the back with restholds as the Nasties play the switcheroo game behind the referees back, dramatically slowing the pace of the match down. Spike piledriver looks to finish, but Rick saves with a chair, and both men struggle to their feet. Sags manages to make the tag first, and we get more restholds - though they do manage to at least work the part correctly, and cut the ring in half properly. Slingshot corner splash misses, however, and we get a hot tag to Rick. Noggin knocker, and a belly to belly on Knobs gets two. Flying clothesline takes out both Nasties, as Scott lays on the floor in agony. He manages to trip the Nasties up on a criss cross, and get back in to hit a rana on Knobs to retain at 15:24. This one has gained something of a legendary reputation, and while it is quite solid - particularly the opening bits - the heat segment is far too long, and unenticing, as the Nasties worked almost nothing but restholds. ***. Afterwards, the Nasties lay the Steiners out, and then jump to the WWF.



Moondog Rex v The Junkyard Dog: Dog wears a festive mask to the ring, but Rex is a simple fellow, and gets scared right out of the ring. He summons the courage to climb in, but Dog unloads headbutts. Rex tries to grab a chair, but Dog wrestles it away, and starts bashing himself in the head with it to demonstrate that he's insane. Rex nails him in the gut (the Achilles’' Heel! The impossible to miss Achilles’' Heel!) with a bone (a literal bone), but Dog no-sells, and tramples him for the pin at 3:15. Short enough to stay inoffensive. DUD

NWA World Tag Team Title Match: Doom v Ric Flair & Arn Anderson: Ron Simmons and Anderson start out. They play head games with each other, but Simmons is no match for the Horsemen, and gets quickly double teamed, leading all four men to get involved, leading to both Horsemen getting press slammed. Flair's chops fail to affect either man, so they get into a proper slugfest, easily won by Butch Reed, and the Flair Flip puts him into the aisle to battle with Simmons. Back inside, the Horsemen catch Simmons with a double team, and cut the ring in half. Arn eats a faceslam, however, and Reed gets the tag. Clotheslines all around, but a big brawl (including Simmons hitting a great looking flying shoulderblock, and Anderson nearly taking his head off with a DDT for a couple of near-falls), before eventually leading to a double count-out at 18:20. On paper, this looks like a dream match, but in reality, not so much. It had pacing issues before the hot portion at the end, and the cop-out ending didn't help anybody. * ½.

NWA United States Title Match: Lex Luger v Stan Hansen: Luger controls to start, as the more I look at Hansen, the more I think if he showed up at the WWE's front door today (or, like, wherever you show up for tryouts), he'd likely just get his parking validated. I mean, seriously, your first impression of him is someone's redneck dad in his undies, probably still half loaded from the night before - not exactly a WrestleMania main eventer. And that's actually a lot of what's wrong with the system today. We need more fat, half drunken dads (or even granddads!) in their undies slugging it out from time to time. It's an economic issue as much as it is anything else, really. And, plus, they'll get some exercise, even! Anyway, Luger gets a kneedrop for two, but gets caught in a suplex, and Hansen slams him. Bulldog gets two, but Luger comes back with a ten punch count in the corner, only to take an inverted atomic drop for two. 2nd rope elbow misses, and Luger feeds him a dropkick. Suplex gets two, and he hits the running forearm smash, but the referee gets bumped, allowing Hansen to get a hold of his cowbell. Luger still manages to hit a bulldog, only to get caught with a lariat and pinned at 9:30. Well... that was... interesting... use of the cowbell, then. Match was nothing, but inoffensive. ¾*.

Main Event: NWA World Title Match: Sting v Sid: This could have probably headlined Starrcade, if, you know, they didn't go with the ridiculous Black Scorpion angle. I understand the dilemma - but I also understand that in any such situation, the correct choice is never, ever picking a fucking magician. Sting gets caught on a bodypress attempt to start, and eats backbreaker, but no sells, and dumps Sid to the floor. He posts Sid, and back inside, works an armbar. Sunset flip gets two, and Sid gets sick of all this movement, and just clotheslines him instead. Powerslam gets two, and he goes to the more direct route: choking the life out of him. See, that's what the Black Scorpion could never understand. There was no point in all these silly head games, and parlor tricks. Just grab the kid, and squeeze his throat until he literally stops living. That's victory, dude. Sting with a flying bodypress for two, and a bulldog. He walks right into a big boot, however, and we spill outside. Sid slams him on the rampway, and goes back in to wait for his countout victory (because, apparently, he does not want the World Title), only to be met with Sting leaping from the ramp, over the ropes, with a clothesline. Dropkick puts Sid out, and Sting follows with a slingshot dive. They brawl to the back, as Flair and Anderson show up at ringside. Back in, Sting goes for a slam, but his legs give out (which is odd, as Sid hadn't been working the part), and Sid falls on top for the pin, and the title, at 11:15. The crowd is in shock, but they're not unhappy, and WCW actually drops balloons from the ceiling and pops fireworks. They remember he's a heel, right? But hold on! Here comes Sting from the locker rooms, and he's got rope tied to his wrist! It turns out the Horsemen tied him up, and sent fellow Horsemen Barry Windham out dressed as Sting (in a pretty neat angle, before the late 90s ruined that bit), so the referee restarts the bout, and Sting quickly puts him away with the Stinger Splash at 12:38. Honestly, this would have been a lot more interesting than the Black Scorpion stuff, and they could have kept the belt on Sid, and done a re-match at Starrcade, but, hey, there are MASKED MAGICIAN CAGE MATCHES to be had, so, you know. Match was fine for what it was, but nothing special. ¾*.

BUExperience: Well, the box promised a ‘Night that Will Haunt You Forever!’ and, in many ways, they were right. The show has a fun atmosphere, but other than Steiners/Nasties, there isn’t much to see here. A lot of the bouts run overlong, and even that one match, while solid, isn’t good enough on its own to hold up an entire card. Tag team wrestling is featured heavily throughout (they had two titles for it!), though not in its best form, so be warned, if you’re not a fan, this is definitely not for you. *