The Halloween Havoc Experiment: Part 1 Halloween Havoc '89: Settling the Score

With RPG a Day winding down for another year, and my desire to write about nerdy things not being fully satiated, I've decided to take it upon myself to view and review every WCW Halloween Havoc PPV. There were twelve such PPVs in all that ran from the good ol' days of 1989 up until the dying days of WCW in 2000. With the advent of WWE Network and the ability to see these PPVs as they happened--sans some of the entrance music WWE would have had to pay royalties to use--I arrive armed with optimism and a free one month subscription to the network. Finally, I'll be able to watch all the stuff I missed as a kid...and some of the stuff I wish I had missed as a teen/young adult. Obviously, if you have the network you can follow along. My reviews will be soft, thoughtful and hopefully funny. Without further ado...Haloween Haoc 1989: Settling the Score.

What was happening '89? I was a fifteen year old going to school in Riverdale, GA in the United States. The summer blockbusters of '89 included: Batman, Ghostbusters II, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Lethal Weapon 2, The Abyss, and the great Weekend at Bernie's. As to horror...since it is Halloween and all...we had the fifth entries in the Elm Street and Halloween series as well as a trip to Manhattan for Jason. As for TV: The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Family Matters, and Saved by the Bell all got their start. The only song that mattered was 'Buffalo Stance' by Neneh Cherry. In politics? We sure weren't as PC as we are today. George H.W. Bush had just taken office in January '89 after eight consecutive years under Reagan. The Berlin Wall came down and we lost Japanese Emperor, Hirohito.

Into that mixed up world came the inaugural Halloween Havoc PPV. The announce team was Bob Caudle and Jim Ross. Backstage interviews were presided over by Chris Cruise and the Dean of Wrestling, Gordon Solie (January 26, 1929-July 27th, 2000)  Aside from the Halloween font, a couple of shots of fans wearing masks, and some light decorations on the "Thunder Dome" cage, there wasn't much 'Halloween' in the havoc. As we go through, I expect the level of 'Halloweenieness' to increase.

The Card:

1. The Z-Man (Tom Zenk) vs. Mike Rotunda
2. The Samoan Swat Team with Sir Oliver Humperdink vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death Steve Williams with Jim Cornette
3. "Wildfire" Tommy Rich vs. The Cuban Assassin
4. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Dynamic Dudes with Jim Cornette
5.  Doom with Woman vs. The Steiner Brothers
6. Lex Luger vs. Flyin' Brian Pillman
7. The Road Warriors with Paul Ellering vs. The Skyscrapers with Teddy Long
8. Ric Flair and Sting with Ole Anderson vs. Terry Funk and the Great Muta with Gary Hart in the Thunderdome Cage match with special referee Bruno Sammartino

  The Z-Man vs. Mike Rotunda (13:23 all timings via Wikipedia)

We begin with the Z-Man (November 30, 1958-December 9, 2017) who was probably best known for his WWF run as Tom Zenk wherein he teamed with Rick Martel in the 'Can-Am Connection' versus Mike Rotunda who is arguably better known for his run as Irwin R. Schyster (I.R.S.) in the WWF. I'm a huge NWA/WCW fan, but time after time I find that these guys are more famous for their 'wacky' WWF(E) gimmicks than their more reality based runs in my preferred organization. I should also note that Rotunda is the father of current WWE superstars: Bo Dallas and Bray Wyatt, and the brother-in-law of Barry Windham.

It's a game effort from both guys, but sitting here in 2018, I know that neither of them really go anywhere...especially not in WCW. Rotunda was coming off of a fairly memorable run as the 'captain' of the Varsity Club faction, but this is more of an attempted push for Z-Man. As a kid he was one of the ones we didn't pay any attention of. My brother and I called him the Zzzzzzz-Man. Z-Man does pull out a win when he reverses Rotunda's backwards (?) flying body press from the second rope. **1/2 

The Samoan Swat Team with Sir Oliver Humperdink vs. The Midnight Express and Dr. Death Steve Williams with Jim Cornette (18:23)

Running down the participants of note: wrestlers known better as Rikishi and the Tonga Kid/Tama of The Islanders fame are a part of the SST faction--Tonga/Tama being billed as the Samoan Savage. The final member of the group, Samu is a part of the same wrestling family albeit lesser known. Their manager Sir Oliver Humperdink (January 16th 1949-March 20th 2011) gained a bit of fame as a manager. I remember him managing Bam Bam Bigelow during his initial run in WWF. Here he's often referred to as The Big Kahuna. I've also heard him referred to as "Big Daddy Dink" on an occasion or two. On the other side you have the molten hot Midnight Express--the Beautiful Bobby Eaton and Sweet Stan Lane combination--along with Steve "Dr. Death" Williams (May 14th 1960-December 29th, 2009). Dr.Death was awesome. It's too bad that for the most part his run in WWF(E) and later run during the "Monday Night Wars" period WCW didn't show what all the hype was about. For those of us who followed him in the UWF and this early NWA/WCW time frame, we saw how badass he could be. His career was much bigger in Japan, and now with the aid of the internet, interested parties could do worse than to look him up. The team was managed by Jim Cornette, who of course is a well known manager from the '80s. 

There is a lot to say about this match-up. The storyline is that Jim Cornette had begun to advise the 'Dynamic Dudes' (Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace) tag-team. His longtime team, The Midnight Express, had been losing lately and started to accuse Cornette of spending too much time with his new proteges. They faced the SST who were actually a pretty hot act coming out of the World Class Championship Wrestling territory and were being built up as monsters in WCW at this time. The Express were totally over putting on great matches all the time. Tag-team wrestling in general was hot during this period with over half the card consisting of team matches in one form or another. The near 20 minute match is action packed and doesn't slog until perhaps the approach to the end game. The ending sequence itself sees Humperdink climbing the apron to interfere, he's intercepted by Cornette who inadvertently costs his men the match due to an accidental collision. ***1/2

'Wildfire' Tommy Rich vs. Cuban Assassin (8:29)

It's the former world champion 'Wildfire' Tommy Rich vs. The Cuban Assassin. The Assassin who had been all over the place by this point, is best described with the old 'jobber to the stars' enhancement talent label as he would win here and there, but never became a household name. Rich, who was supposedly making a comeback, looked terrible and sloppy. I'm not one of those 'armchair quarterback' wrestling guys, I'm just a long-time fan, and this looked really bad. The body language and everything in Rich's performance just looks off. I don't know if they had any real big plans for him or not in this comeback, but a nearly ten minute jobber match didn't do him any favors. He later gained fame in ECW managing The Full Blooded Italians which was comedic, meta, and overall very good. 

The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Dynamic Dudes with Jim Cornette (11:28)

This was for the World Tag Team Titles. It's the second part of the Cornette story tonight as he is managing his new team 'The Dynamic Dudes' in a title match while his old team 'The Midnight Express' was in the "throw away" six-man match earlier. This is how you subtly tell a story and plant seeds. You don't get enough of this today. Unfortunately, there is something here that you do get a lot of today--the most recent examples being Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte and Roman Reigns vs. anybody--and that is miscasting of face and heel roles. 

The Dynamic Dudes consisting of Shane Douglas and Johnny Ace were supposed to be the faces here, but the crowd hated them. They were booed very audibly for almost everything that they did. Meanwhile, The Fabulous Freebirds--this time consisting of Michael P.S. Hayes and Jimmy Jam Garvin--were supposed to be the heels, but had practically the entire arena on their sides. Beware of the Mandela Effect here, but I remember at this point The 'Birds being a near nostalgia act that was very over, good luck getting them booed especially vs. competition like the Dudes. Anyhow, from the start the roles were being played as "written" but the crowd wasn't having it. Don't get me wrong, they were hot for the match, just not the roles. For their parts, Hayes and Garvin kept doing heelish things to try to save the Dudes from getting booed our of the building. The announce team had to admit that the Freebirds "had their fans" with either Jim Ross or Bob Caudle adding that Hayes had spent some time growing up in Philadelphia. By the end, the 'Birds embraced the crowd and played to them for cheers. The Dudes went for their finisher called, "The Wipeout" which was basically a double backdrop off the ropes. Hayes grabbed one of the Dudes by his foot not allowing him to complete the double-team finisher. Meanwhile, Garvin landed on top of the other Dude and got the pin. *** you get to see a crowd in revolt, an early example of a "Philly Crowd", and a good match for the 'Birds. Full disclosure I'm a mark for Michael P.S. Hayes and have watched him almost literally since I was in diapers. I finally met him one day in the early 90's when he was at the Hot Topic in Southlake Mall in Morrow, GA buying clothes for The Hardy Boys whom he was managing at the time . I nervously approached him and said, "P.S. Hayes, you've always been one of my faves!" he shook my hand and replied, "...Alright, Brother!" A brush with greatness...another one is coming right up. 

Doom with Woman vs. The Steiner Brothers (15:32)

Right away this one is too long. The tag-team matches in this show have been great, and this one is pretty entertaining too, but from a modern sensibility stance, you can have too much of a good thing. Doom consists of 'Hacksaw' Butch Reed, a long-time favorite in various southern territories who was just coming off of a somewhat memorable WWF(E) run as 'The Natural' Butch Reed in Slick's stable--Slick himself was something of a "pimp"/hustler character who managed the likes of: Reed, Big Bossman, Kamala and The One Man Gang/Akeem. The second member of Doom was none other than Ron Simmons. Simmons would later become the first black world heavyweight champion for a major promotion in WCW, lead the first incarnation of 'The Nation of Domination' in the WWF(E), form the Acolytes/A.P.A. with John Bradshaw Layfield also in WWF(E) wherein his "Damn!" catch phrase was born. I shouldn't neglect to mention that brief period in WWF(E) when he debuted in a silly looking Roman helmet and was manged by Sunny (Tammy Sytch) or maybe I should. 

The Steiner Brothers--Rick and Scott--are world famous and need no introduction from me. Scott of course, morphed into the Big Poppa Pump incarnation during the hot period of wrestling and the NWO angle. He's had his problems as you can all read about on the Dirt Sheets Brah!, but Rick seems to be alright. However, for storyline purposes, Rick plays the mentally challenged one. 

In this story Rick was dating a superfan named, Robin Green. Green turned on the Steiners bringing in her own tag-team, Doom, to take them out and eventually win the tag-titles. In the broadcast they note that she wanted to make a splash in the business and that's why she targeted Rick in the beginning. Woman was played by the late, Nancy Benoit (May 17th 1964-June 22nd 2007). I'm not even sure if the family wants the 'Benoit' surname to apply--as if any of them happen to be among the ten people who read my blog--I'm going strictly by her Wikipedia entry. For those not in the know, Chris Benoit who was eventually a well known superstar in WWE snapped and killed both his wife, Nancy and their son. This was another brush with wrestling greatness--and nefariousness--as I met both Nancy and Chris in the old Gold's Gym in Fayettville, GA. I can literally say that I worked out with Chris Benoit. In addition, I helped him to find some Easy Mac for the very family he'd later kill when I worked for a Publix grocery store in the same county. Sad stuff, and Nancy was such a tiny lady. It doesn't come across when she's on screen, but she was really small :(

Anyhow, ugliness aside the tag match was once again hot. The young Scott Steiner was awesome pulling off all kinds of crazy moves while Rick did a lot more of the power end of wrestling. Doom weren't stiff themselves putting on a great brawl with power moves of their own. The finish came when Woman "loaded" the mask of one of the Doom members who then head butted Rick for the win. That's 'Rasslin physics and kind of a dumb ending. *** boarding on ** 1/2 due to length and silly ending. The Steiner Brothers did become famous in wrestling circles, but I wouldn't call them household names. New fans may not even know them. Simmons went on to great things, but the Doom team really didn't. I remember as a kid wishing that they would have continued. 

 Flyin' Brian Pillman vs. 'The Total Package' Lex Luger (16:49)

This was for the U.S. Championship and all of the announcers kept putting Brian Pillman (May 22nd, 1962-October 5th 1997) over as he was due for a championship win. In my youth, I didn't care for Brian Pillman until many years later when he became "The Loose Cannon" as a part of The Hart Foundation in WWF(E). My brother and I always called him "Sighin' Brian" because we'd be sighing whenever he came out. Lex Luger, even when he was World Champion always seemed like a second banana to me. He was clearly a superstar and was pushed to high heaven in the "Lex Express" WWF(E) storyline, but he never quite captured stardom in the way of a Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair. I'd say he's comparable with a Randy Orton or Dolph Ziggler today, and I don't mean that to be insulting. You need guys at all levels to fill the roster. Luger was very entertaining over the years, and he's another guy on the long list of guys from the 80's I wish were still able to go. 

In this match they pulled out a lot of the stops, if not all of them. Unfortunately at this point, in a problem that persists even more so today, the PPV was starting to run long in the tooth for me. Luger gets the win in a bit of a fluke fashion and that doesn't help matters. I still give it ***, but to go through nearly 20 minutes and then have Luger go over like that is kind of a let down.

The Road Warriors w/ Paul Ellering vs. The Skyscrapers w/ Teddy Long (11:39)

Another tag match. Of course the Road Warriors: Hawk (January 26, 1957-October 19, 2003) and Animal along with Paul Ellering continue to be world famous and are fondly remembered as one of the toughest teams ever. Except when WWF(E) stuck them with Rocco...

He kinda looks like Eric Bishoff

...and then did it again when they stuck them with Sunny as L.O.D. 2000

Sunny much better looking than Rocco or Easy E.

The Skyscrapers may not be as well known as a unit today, but the individual members were certainly memorable among the wrestling fans. This incarnation features Dan Spivey--late of the Varsity Club faction with Mike Rotunda among others. He had earlier teamed with Rotunda in WWF(E) in the New U.S. Express wherein he replaced Barry Windham and he would later become cult favorite, Waylan Mercy which was an emulation of Robert DeNiro's character in 'Cape Fear'--and Sid Vicious A.K.A. Sid Jusitce/Sycho Sid in his WWF(E) runs. They were managed by Teddy Long who is well known as the long-time GM of WWE Smackdown. The 'Scrapers would have a second incarnation down the line when Spivey is replaced with Mean Mark Callus...better known as The Undertaker.  

The 'Scrapers were one of many monster teams that were built up to face the Road Warriors over the years, and this appears to be early in the feud. It's a hard hitting affair with lots of back and forth exchanges of power moves. In the end the Scrapers lose by DQ when one of them nails one of the Warriors with the heavy metal key that Teddy Long used to carry around. The Warriors eventually wrestle the key away and use it to help beat down the Scrapers. **1/2 I don't know if there is a science to rating these things but the match was entertaining up until the DQ finish. I assume bigger things were in store for the feud down the line, but as I sit in 2018...I sure don't remember much coming out of it. 

 Ric Flair and Sting with Ole Anderson vs. Terry Funk and the Great Muta with Gary Hart in the Thunderdome Cage match with special referee Bruno Sammartino (23:46)

Look at the running time on this one...Ric Flair may well be the 60 minute man and can entertain in the ring to be sure, but this one is a mess. In what would become a Halloween Havoc tradition, we get a lot of shenanigans in the main event. This time it's in the form of the Thunderdome cage match. I know you're all thinking, can't we just get beyond Thunderdome? Well, in this case we cant. The cage, which this photo doesn't do justice to, is somewhat inverted at the top and plus 'electrified' to keep anyone from climbing out. It also has Halloween decorations all around the top. The good guys are Ric Flair and Sting--no need for background on these legends, and they are fighting Terry Funk and The Great Muta--the same holds true here, except I'd mention that Muta was one of the first 'real' "Japanese style" Japanese grapplers...if you can decipher what I'm trying to say. Before Muta most Japanese guys were fat dudes, usually past their wrestling primes doing a couple of karate chops and kicks from time to time. Muta brought real flair to his performances using many acrobatic moves and his infamous spray mist. 

Anyhoo...storyline wise it made no sense to try to climb the cage as the only way you could win is if the opposing corner man threw in the towel for his team. The good guys had Ole Anderson while the bad guys had Gary Hart (January 24th 1942-March 16th 2008). Hart managed a lot of bizarre wrestlers throughout the territories and he was no different in his WCW days. I always liked him and feel he was greatly under rated as a manager. 

This review is running very long in the tooth, so I'll just say that all four men did what they could in the confines of the cage. Inexplicably,  Muta tried to climb out a couple of times and got "shocked" at least once for his effort. Meanwhile there was a rope hanging from one of the corners which Sting swung around on like Tarzan. The end came when Hart and Ole got into a scuffle and Ole was able to make it appear that Hart threw in the towel. Hart--being evil--would have never thrown in the towel on his own in spite of his men being dominated and stuck in "career threatening" submission holds. 

The bout was officiated inconsequentially by the legendary Bruno Sammartino (October 6, 1935-April 18, 2018) who was primarily there to stick it to the WWF(E) which had had a falling out with the legend at the time. In spite of the participants involved the best I can give this is **1/2 stars. It was entertaining in spots but the entire gimmick of the match--the angled cage, the electrified portion of it, and Bruno's involvement--added nothing. The fact that the ending was another wacky finish didn't help matters any. 

Joe Bob Briggs Memorial "Drive-in Totals": 

1- squash match

1- DQ finish

5-Tag matches--various forms including Thunderdome

6-wrestlers and valets who are no longer with us: R.I.P.

My match of the night ends up being the six-man with the SST vs. Midnights and Dr. Death. The PPV on the whole was entertaining, but I really can't recommend it. I've even got nostalgia vibes going for me which younger fans will not.