WCW Halloween Havoc 1993

[Crippler]

WCW Halloween Havoc 1993
New Orleans, Louisiana
October 24th, 1993​

This shit right here ​

So the PPV opens up with Eric Bishoff dressed as some General, as he introduces Tony Schiavone dressed as Jesse Ventura and Jesse Ventura dressed as a gynecologist. They hype up the main event.

Harlem Heat & The Equalizer vs. The Shockmaster, Ice Train & Charlie Norris
SHOCKMASTER oh wait he’s no longer in mask gimmick, fuck this guy. Holy Shit everyone but the PHX’s are FAT! UGH! I really don’t even wanna watch this, Booker and Ice Train start and I still don’t care. Ice Train uses his power to gain the advantage early on but Booker out smarts him but makes the mistake of attempting to go power vs. power, which allows Ice to beat him up more. Booker tags in his brother who does nothing until Ice tags in Norris which allows Stevie to jump him. He tags Booker in but he gets caught with an hammerlock, before Shockmaster tags in. He drops 2 legdrops on Bookers arm, as the face team begins to make quick tags working on Booker's arm. But the Heat bros take the advantage when Stevie knees Ice in the back allowing Booker to dropkick him. Okay so now, it’s the heel team working over Ice and it sucked but only when Equalizer was in he is beyond awful, ice tags in Norris who sucks just as bad as Equalizer, and they both know they suck so Shock comes in for like 10 seconds. FUCK I CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE! I’m just gonna skip to when Booker and his brother do stuff, sadly that doesn’t happen for like another minute or so when the Heat brothers nail Norris with a double elbow and Booker hits a shitty looking Axe Kick for two, he heads up and misses the headbutt allowing Shockmaster to get the hot tag, killing everyone. NO THE FINISH So Shockmaster has Booker in a bearhug and Bookers brother was right next to him, but instead while he’s looking at Booker being pinned he runs to attack Ice Train. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! FUCK THIS. ½*

Eric Bischoff interviews the 2nd ref for the Rick Rude vs. Ric Flair match, Terry Taylor. Eric asks him why used his politics to get to be the 2nd ref and Terry says he wants to be the ref because this is such a big match. And even though, he’s done some bad things in the past this is his time to make up for it.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Paul Orndorff (w/The Assassin)
Steamboats Dragon wings are so AWESOME! He’s even got the fire blowing too. Steamboat makes a mistake right off the bat turning his back to Orndorff and gets jumped for that, Orndorff pretty much beats the shit out of him targeting the head, but Orndorff makes the same mistake by looking at the crowd so Steamboat schoolboy rolls him up for two, well Orndorff is pissed and kills Steamboat with a clothesline sending him to the floor. He scoop slams Steamboat on the ramp, before taunting the crowd. Orndorff and the ref exchange some words allowing Steamboat to catch his breather but he tries the running crossbody and Orndorff simply walks away Orndorff hits a belly to back suplex for two, but out of desperation Steamboat hits a armdrag and begins to work the arm. He works over it for a good amount of time, until Orndorff headbutts him but Steamboat hits a crossbody and goes right back to the arm. Steamboat wraps the arm around the post, before throwing him head and arm first into the post. For some reason, Steamboat is backing off in the but all of a sudden he gets pissed and slides out of the ring and begins chopping Orndorff before sending him arm first into the rails. OH SHIT! Steamboat is acting heelish, even putting his hands on the ref. More arm work by Steamboat when he makes it into the ring, he begins to split the fingers like he’s trying to break them one by one Orndorff’s cowering and stalling during this was epic, the way he would coward in the corner whenever Steamboat got aggressive was great. He even at one point tried to crawl up the ramp but again Steamboat sends him head first into the ramp. Then for some reason, Steamboat was about to hit a hammer fist off the apron onto Orndorff but the ref physically stopped him by hugging Steamboat from behind that allows Orndorff to yank Steamboats legs from under him smacking his chin off the apron. OH SHIT! Orndorff trollin’ the crowd now acting like all that offense Steamboat did to his arm didn’t hurt Orndorff begins slamming Steamboats head into everything, apron, post and rails. It’s now all Orndorff as he targets the head and neck area but both men go for a crossbody and they both get whipped out. TERRIBLE SEQUENCE WITH PINNING COMBINATIONS Suddenly Steamboat hits him with the axe handle onto the apron before hitting the atomic drop sending Orndorff back into the ring, he huts the chop off the top for two. We get some real good counters and combinations leading to some close near falls, until Steamboat hits the crossbody off the top but the Assassin distracts the ref long enough for Orndorff to kick out. Steamboat shoves the ref out of the way and goes charging at Orndorff but he ducks sending Steamboat to the floor. We cut to the Assassin putting something in his mask as Orndorff has the ref distracted and the assassin headbutts Steamboat knocking him out allowing Orndorff to win via countout. SWERVE! This was real fun, nice to see the heel get the shit kicked out of him and to see Steamboat heel it up at times. Finish was TV level though, not PPV worthy. **3/4 - ***

WCW World Television Championship: The British Bulldog vs. Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William)
LOL @ Steven stalling cause he doesn’t even want to touch the commoner and cause of all the oil he has applied. Real great mat wrestling early on, just counter for counter. Reversal for reversal they just went back and forth for like 4 minutes and it’s on par with some of the best stuff since Eddie/Benoit or even Eddie/Dean, naw not Eddie/Dean level yet. At one point, Regal escapes a Mexican Surfboard and pummels Davey with stiff uppercuts. Allowing him to work over Davey’s midsection after a perfectly placed knee to the gut, he follows up with a Regal roll which is just a sunset flip to the ribs for two. Regal send him hard into the buckle before hitting some picture perfect strikes including uppercuts to the mid-section, he applies several holds just stretching Bulldogs midsection but I’ve noticed with every hold he would leave the mid-section wide open allowing whenever Bulldog tried to break out, Regal would elbow him. 10 minutes have gone by as Bulldog makes his comeback, but runs into a high knee before he applies a half nelson with his own legs tying up Bulldogs so he can’t move at all. Brilliant! But Bulldog uses the power to break, but before he can do a thing Regal elbows the gut and locks in a Tazzmission Bulldog powers out but Regal keeps coming and kicks his ass. He gets another near fall. But now he’s fired up with one minute left. Regal tries to bail but can’t. Powerslam only gets two, 15 seconds and Bulldog connects with a Piledriver as the bell sounds. IT’S A DRAW! back-to-back screwy finishes. This was another real good match; I love young Regal so much as he is just smooth with everything. ***1/4

Eric Bischoff is by the wheel and informs us that due to his attack on Harley Race, the WCW Board has disallowed Cactus Jack from spinning the wheel. Vader & Harley come out to spin the wheel, you can clearly see how rigged this is cause even when it’s slowing down or suppose to have stopped by now it’s still going Anyway, it lands on Texas Death Match so YEAH! I’m pumped even more now.

WCW United States Championship: Dustin Rhodes vs. “Stunning” Steve Austin
Col. Rob Parker was the one that gave Austin this title shot, Austin is still part of the Hollywood Blondes team but Brain isn't here for support. Hard lock up to start and Austin slaps him twice before bailing to the floor, when he make his way back in he goes right to attempting a Boston crab but Dustin flips him out of it. After some more feeling out process Austin knocks him down with a back elbow, before working away at the head and neck area looking for the Stun Gun. Out of desperation Dustin hits him with a dropkick, before bouncing his head off the turnbuckle but Austin comes back with chops but he comes charging in looking for a high knee but Dustin ducks and Austin hits the buckle and falls to the floor, he begins to limp around ring-side. But does eventually make it back in and Dustin tries to attack it by Austin limps away until he gets caught in a shin breaker and Dustin begins to work over the injured knee. The ref makes him break a leg hold allowing Austin to low blow, and then tricks him into trying a leverage move, which allows Austin to use the momentum to hit a pump splash on Dustin. Austin starts slapping which just wakes up Dustin, who comesback with a clothesline before attempting a bulldog but Austin catches and throws him into the buckle. Austin begins kicking the shit out of Dustin while he’s on the floor which pumps him up more, and he hits two quick roll-ups for two. Dustin counters the stungun with rights. Austin tries for a jackknife pin and the ref counts three, but changes his mind afterwards and says he saw Austin’s feet on the ropes. While Austin raises his arms in celebration, Dustin comes up behind him with a rollup. Post-match: Austin pops right up, grabbing the US Title and NAILS Dustin hard across the face as he was turning around. Dustin sells it great and gets busted open from the wound left over by War Games. Austin raises the belt and leaves with it. Fuck yeah. Safe screwy finish aside this was another real solid match and the rematch should only be better. ***1/4

Tony Schiavone announces before the next match that the Nasty Boys filed an injunction against Teddy Long because he no longer had his manager's license and had no business at ringside on WCWSN, so he's not allowed to manage Scorpio & Bagwell tonight, or until he renews his license.

WCW World Tag Team Championships: The Nasty Boys (w/Missy Hyatt) vs. 2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell (w/Teddy Long)
What are the chances this match ends in a screwy finish Man I always forgot how much of a killa Hyatt use to be back in the day, JESUS! Bagwell trying to dance it legit the worse thing I’ve ever seen. Take a look.

Okay back to the match, it has to be the greatest opening 30 seconds in WCW tag history. So the Nasty boyz pose with the tag belts which allow 2 Cold and Bagwell to attack them from behind sending them to the floor. Bagwell grabs Missy and forces himself on her by kissing her on the apron as the crowd chant “Whoop, there it is” Sags is pissed and starts beating Bagwell in the corner before tagging Knobs to beat on him for a bit. But that doesn’t last long as the face tag use their quickness to send the Nastyz to the floor. As they pander to the crowd 2 Cold dives onto both of them, as we get a nice breather. Knobs and Bagwell get back in the ring now as it’s the face team getting the better well its basically 2 Cold being AWESOME! As Bagwell did some stuff and looked good on the apron. They begin working the arm of Sags well 2 Cold does but as soon as Bagwell tags in that allows the Nastyz to double team him by dropping him throat first on the top rope cause the ref was talking to 2 cold. Missy slaps the shit out of Bagwell, for revenge but he tries to crawl towards her allows Sags to back body drop him on the floor. The Nastyz cut the ring in half and begin targeting the back, and I must say it’s pretty good. It’s 2 big men just slamming the shit out of this “pretty boy dancer” and he sold it really good. This goes on for a good 3 to 4 minutes, and they included some real good cut off spots and dick heel tactics. But out of desperation Bagwell pulls Knobs hair down allowing 2 Cold to get the hot tag but Sags had the ref distracted and gets him out AWESOME! Bagwell doges a charge and again manages to tag 2 Cold and the refs it. 2 Colds hot tag was great, he even hit a sweet moonsault but Missy gets on the apron and so does Teddy they begin to hit each other but Bagwell shoves Sags into Teddy knocking him off the apron. He then does the meeting of the minds between Sags and Missy as 2 Cold goes up and hits the 450 but Bagwell is distracted with the ref allowing Sags to take off his boot and hit 2 Cold in the back of the head as Knobs covers him for the win. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Unless his boat was loaded with a brick or some heavy shit that finish was bad and so lame. But it’s so territorial days of a finish, and it’s a shame because I really enjoyed that a lot. Oh well. ***1/2

Backstage: Eric Bischoff interviews Col. Parker and Sid Vicious, Sid he’s gonna make sting wake up from his nightmares and into reality. Some call him the grim reaper and he’s gonna chokeslam him down to the mat cause he rules the word. I wonder how many takes it took to do that :hm:

Sting vs. Sid Vicious (w/Col. Rob Parker)
This match is here to determine who is the “Franchise” of WCW, Stings jeans jacket with green and sparkles jacket is AWESOME! Sid jumps him from behind but Sting comes back and gets the better he manages to suplex Sid into the ring before they begin to brawl through the crowd. Sid’s bumping during those 30 seconds of crowd brawling was great especially when he jumped onto the rails. Sid gains the advantage moments later when Parker grabs Stings leg allowing Sid to chokeslam him, but instead of going for the cover he taunts the crowd. He still has the advantage thought as he begins to work on the back. Parker gets few cheap shots in, as Sid would hit a move-taunt-hit a move-taunt-Parker interference- This went on for a good few minutes, the best part of the match thought was Sting was elbowing his way out as the crowd began to shout Sting but Sid power slams him and the whole arena just went dead for 5 seconds. THAT WAS GREAT! They did a few more of those cut off spots but it didn’t touch the first one they did, we all knew the cut off was coming but as soon as Sting got the full comeback in. It was so hot, as the crowd went insane. LOL @ Parker grabbing Sid’s leg by accident allowing Sting to school boy him for the win. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Those made Rob look dumber than fuck. Him and Sting don’t even have the same boots on let alone attire fuckin’ WCW. Match was pretty poor, I only enjoyed the 30 seconds of crowd brawling when Sting was in control. *3/4

WCW International Heavyweight Championship: Rick Rude vs. Ric Flair
Man this was depressing as fuck to watch, mainly ‘cause they didn’t click at all. Before the match Rick gets on the mic and does the usual make fun of all the fat losers in the crowd and tells them to show him respect as he takes off his robe. Hit tights are fuckin’ awesome though as it has the works “Trick and Treat” on them with the pictures of Flair and Fifi. Rude begins to hit on Fifi, so that allows Flair to jump him and gain the advantage. Flair beats on him for a good few minutes with Rude’s only offense being a high knee. Rude misses a knee drop allowing Flair to lock in the Figure-Four, it’s locked in the middle of the ring and Flair has it applied for a good 40 seconds until Rude grabs the ropes. Flair wraps the ankle around the ring post twice, before clipping the knee in the ring. He now begins to work it and it looks vicious. At one point Rude grabs Flairs tights and sends him to the floor, he gets back on the apron and tries a sunset flip but Rude blocks and grabs the ropes but Taylor breaks allowing Flair to jump him again this time he does this sick crossbody and both men die on the floor. Mostly Rude, Tony says he’s shocked Rude is not dead Flair beats on him some more and even hits a top rope sledge to the floor. He goes for it again, but this time he punches him in the gut. Rude grabs a chair but Terry stops him, Rude smashes Flair’s head into the rails then follows up by hanging Flairs head up on the top rope. So after 10 minutes of getting his ass kicked it’s now Rude’s turn to take over as he works he head and neck area. The match is now, really slow but at least Rude is selling the shit out of the knee. WHAT A GUY! Rude suplexs him in and heads up top for a 3rd double sledge which is hilarious cause when he hit the 2nd one was when he knee “gave out” yet he’s still doing it. I did like that Rude was so injured that during every cover he looked like he was about to die so during the cover he would cover him twice or even 3 times just in hopes Flair would stay down or use all his energy to stay down. Flair hitting the Rude awakening for two was pretty cool as it allowed him to begin his comeback and it’s was different. Oh great, ref bump leads to Terry getting in the ring and Rude punches him. Rude takes out some “knucks” but Flair counters into a back drop. Flair picks them up and hits Rude with them. Flair covers him and Terry goes to count the three, but the original ref stops him and tells him Flair used the weapon Post-Match: Flair grabs the belt so Rude grabs Fifi, Flair sees this and locks Rude in the figure-four until refs break it up. Just like every other match this night another screwy predictable finish. As for the match, I loved Flair beating the shit out him for 10 minutes to start but when Rude took over the pace got way too slow for me and it’s just seemed off. **3/4

Texas Death Match For the WCW Heavyweight Championship: Cactus Jack vs. Vader (w/Harley Race)
So here are the rules, its no-DQ, pinfalls do not count, but you have to pin your opponent in order for the 30-second rest period to begin. The winner is the wrestler that can’t get up by the 10 count. They go right at one another and Vader takes off the mask, meaning shit is gonna get real He punches the ring post when Jack moves, they go back and forth for a while with Jack getting a fans camera and smashing it over Vader’s head, he follows up with a chair shot to the head. Jack rolls Vader into the ring but walks into a boot then a killa clothesline that made me cringe; Vader now begins to tee off on Jacks head with sick open and closed punches. Vader tries to suplexs him back into the ring but Jack counters and suplexs him onto the ramp. I’ve just noticed that Jack has been busted open from those Vader punches JESUS! Jack hits a belly to back suplex on Vader on the ramp and begins to stiff the fuck out of Vader’s face. He sees Race coming and takes him down; he grabs the chair Race and nails Vader a few times with it as they roll into the grave they had set up. Jack is the first one out and we see Vader coming out and now he’s busted open. Jack comes flying down the ramp and clotheslines Vader for a 3 count, we get a 30 seconds rest period but gets to his feet by the 4th count. Jack knocks him off the ramp and nails the flying elbow to the concrete floor He pins Vader again, and again we get the 30 seconds which is STUPID! Cause during the 30 seconds Vader is already making his way to his feet this company. VADER IS PISSED! As he grabs Jack by his hair and connects with some of the most beautiful punches I’ve ever seen. They brawl to ringside now as Jack brings a table in. the Ref then sets up the table correctly: lmao allowing Jack to whip Vader into it for a two count. HOLY SHIT! Jack tries a sunset flip to the floor but over shoots it and hits the floor barley holding onto Vader’s legs but Vader tries the sit down crush but Jack moves and both men act like that didn’t happen and move on to the next bit which is Jack front suplexing Vader onto the rails, he tries to cannonball into Vader over the railing, but Vader stands back and lets Cactus hit the concrete Back over the barricade, Vader nails Cactus with a chair. Race has a tazer with him OH SHIT! As Vader hits his moonsault for three. After the rest period, Jack is up at three and immediately kicked into the corner for more SICK punches to the face. They go back to the ramp way where Cactus jumps on Vader’s back, so Vader hits the infamous “falls back on top of Jack” spot RIP! Jack somehow gets to his feet and Vader kills him with a chair to the face and follows up with a DDT on the chair on the ramp. How are both these men even still walking, thankfully the trainers come out but Vader throws them away. He finally pins Jack. Vader interrupts the rest period, but Cactus punches back and now Vader receives a DDT on the chair. Once the rest period is over, the ref starts the count on both men. Cactus is almost to his feet when Harley Race whips out his tazer and stuns Cactus as Vader gets to his feet to win the match. This was on another level and only gets sicker by age and for me has aged perfectly. The only thing that somewhat ruined it was the poor finish with the tazer, oh and the silly 30 seconds of rest. But other than that, I love this so much I think that makes me a sick person. Oh well, I NEED MORE JACK/VADER! ****1/2

Overall: Did everymatch need a screwy finish? I doubt it

 

[Deezy]

Wasn't a tazer, it was a cattle prod.

 

[Crippler]

whatever it was called it was so unneeded 'cause Jack would get up 10 seconds after the match and double arm DDT Race on the ramp

 

[Deezy]

whatever it was called it was so unneeded 'cause Jack would get up 10 seconds after the match and double arm DDT Race on the ramp

Gotta get yer heat back BROTHER :RUSSO:

 

[Crippler]

Gotta get yer heat back BROTHER :RUSSO:

Need a Dusty smiley cause Russo SWERVE! wasn't a thing yet.

DEM DAMN DUSTY FINISHES MAN!

 

[Deezy]

Also, my biggest knock on Flair was he never worked babyface when he was supposed to be. There is the whole "cheat 2 win" tactics, but being the aggressor and feeding a comeback isn't what a babyface does.

and Bagwells dance moves seem like any reason to see this.

 

[Crippler]

Yeah Flair did the same during his later WWF run, i can't remember who but i remember someone podcast from this past week said it.

 

[Keith]

Nice review.

On the whole this was one of the better Havoc PPV's which is saying something as 93 was a pretty bad year.

Bulldog/Regal and Main Event (the finish was poor though) the highlights for sure.

Flair/Rude 2 was an improvement, and actually Sting/Sid wasn't as bad as you would expect.