Posted on by bdamage1
Brian Damage
Recently, it was announced that WWE/NXT will revive a once popular event that was on WCW’s calendar annually….Halloween Havoc. Today on the blog, we look back at some of the “tricks” or lowlights and “treats” aka highlights of this creepy, campy pay per view extravaganza.
Before we get into all the tricks and treats of this Halloween themed event, let’s give a little backstory to Halloween Havoc itself. It was created under the NWA banner even though the company had already changed over to WCW by 1989. The very first event was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and saw a main event of Ric Flair and Sting teaming up to face Terry Funk and The Great Muta in a cage match called…ironically…The Thunderdome. It also saw Bruno Sammartino as the special guest referee. The very last WCW produced Havoc, took place in Las Vegas, Nevada and featured a handicap main event pitting Goldberg against KroniK in 2000.
According to Eric Bischoff, while Starrcade was promoted as WCW’s annual signature event of every year…Turner management considered Halloween Havoc to be the biggest show of every year. The reasoning was it was an event where the company would sell WCW to major advertisers. That is where the company made its money and that is also why the show was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for the last five years of its existence.
The company would invest the most money into the production of Halloween Havoc over all other events during the year. The sets, the graphics, the talent were all top notch. It was also Eric Bischoff’s favorite event he ever promoted due to his affection for the ghoulish holiday.
Some other little tidbits about the event….Dusty Rhodes nearly convinced Bischoff to have ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page beat Goldberg cleanly and end his undefeated streak at the show in 1998. The only reason it never happened, was because Goldberg had done various cover shoots for magazines including TV Guide and they didn’t want to disrupt that.
The very first pay per view booked under Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara was Halloween Havoc in 1999.
At Halloween Havoc ’95, Randy Savage was originally booked to wrestle Kamala. According to James ‘Kamala’ Harris, WCW had not paid him for his appearances in previous weeks and quit the company the day of the show. Savage ended up wrestling the Zodiac as a last minute replacement.
Nikita Koloff’s final match of his career was at Halloween Havoc ’92. Koloff faced off against Big Van Vader in a very stiff match. Koloff suffered a herniated disc in his neck after a Vader clothesline and thus retired from wrestling following the match.
Halloween Havoc ’91 aired on the same night as the seventh game of the 1991 World Series which saw the Minnesota Twins take on the Atlanta Braves (The team owned by WCW owner Ted Turner)
The Treats
Eddy Guerrero versus Rey Mysterio Jr. is perhaps the greatest match in Havoc history and arguably one of the greatest matches in WCW history overall. Rey Mysterio put his mask on the line against Guerrero’s Cruiserweight title. A match worth watching with both wrestlers at the top of their game.
Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham successfully defended both the NWA and WCW world tag team titles against Stunning Steve Austin and Dr Death Steve Williams in a 30 minute time limit draw. An excellent tag team match, which also happens to be the longest match in Halloween Havoc history.
Halloween Havoc ’91 saw the mysterious masked Halloween Phantom defeat Tom Zenk. That wasn’t the highlight…but when the Phantom unmasked himself to be revealed as Rick Rude certainly was.
Lex Luger versus Brian Pillman for the United States title at the inaugural show in 1989 was an excellent match which saw Luger retain the championship.
Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal in my view was a great idea. Basically, it was a wheel with 12 different gimmick matches on it. It included matches like First Blood, Coal Miner’s Glove, Prince of Darkness, Dog Collar, Barbed Wire and I Quit. The concept was first introduced for Halloween Havoc 1992 between Sting and Jake Roberts and done again the following year for Cactus Jack and Vader.
The Tricks
The Chamber of Horrors Match was bad, bad, bad…but to some fans they might consider it so bad that it was good. Basically a cage match where someone (Abdullah the Butcher) gets electrocuted.
The Giant falls off the top of the arena seemingly dying…only to miraculously return. Not only did he survive the fall, he defeated Hulk Hogan for the WCW world title….by disqualification. Ugh.
The Yetaaaaay (Enough said) Actually, the Yeti was originally booked to be the returning El Gigante, but due to health reasons had to be replaced by Ron Reis. It was probably better if they didn’t go ahead with this angle.
Hulk Hogan versus The Ultimate Warrior: The Rematch. A rematch nobody was clamoring to see. WCW was starting to lose its dominance over the WWF..so they signed Warrior. Horrible match and Warrior was as good as gone after it.
Despite all the tricks and treats of Halloween Havoc as a pay per view event…most fans look at it fondly. Many fans begged for either WWE or AEW to revive the dormant show. After a twenty year absence…it finally returns.