As we begin the month of October, I fondly remember Halloween Havoc, WCW's annual fall extravaganza. Halloween Havoc was the one pay-per-view I looked forward to every year since it seemed like the company was inventing some weird gimmick. Some of them worked very well (The Thunderdome or Thunder Cage before the threat of lawsuit), others had mixed results (Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal) and others made me cringe (Chamber of Horrors, Sumo Monster Truck Match). Today, I want to talk about the one Halloween Havoc that didn't have some weird or insane gimmick match: Halloween Havoc 1990 with the tagline "Terror Rules the Ring". The card emanated from The UIC Pavilion in Chicago, a location that had held two previous NWA PPVs: Starrcade 1987 and The Chi-Town Rumble. At The Great American Bash, Sting defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Championship in a fantastic main event, but there was a slight problem after the event ended. WCW really didn't have an opponent for Sting after Ric Flair. For example, when The Ultimate Warrior won the WWF Championship at WrestleMania VI, he had a sizable list of opponents: Ted DiBiase, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect and Randy Savage just to name a few. WCW lacked that depth at heel and was actually forced to turn their number two heel Lex Luger face after Sting blew out his knee in early 1990. At live events, Sting teamed with Luger against Ric Flair and Barry Windham (Harley Race replaced Flair after he blew out his knee and suffered a staph infection) and faced Flair in August and September. Going into the Halloween Havoc event, the company needed somebody who could be presented as a threat. Enter Sid Vicious... and The Black Scorpion to a certain extent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjPdsYm3HEU Billed from wherever he damn well pleases, was Sid the greatest wrestler of all time? Well, he wasn't Lou Thesz, but Sid had a look that made promoters swoon and a powerbomb that looked downright deadly. I'll be quite honest; I am an unabashed Sid fan, he was one of my favorites to watch growing up. I believe that it comes from watching him squash WCW's roster of enhancement talent: Lee Scott, Keith Hart, Marc Mero, Greg Sawyer and the list goes on. If there was one guy who could topple the monster in the fans eyes, it was Sting. In what was a nifty move, WCW actually held the contract signing at the UIC Pavilion and the first thousand kids got a free Sting watch! Before we could get to Halloween Havoc, a mysterious man named The Black Scorpion began appearing at WCW events and taunting Sting. He claimed to be his former tag team partner and alluded to 1986 and the state of California (Ultimate Warrior). He wanted to outright kill Sting and his promos had a distorted voice that gave a creepy tone. In a case of overcomplicating things, WCW had the character perform magic tricks like making fans disappear and turning fans into tigers. A potentially interesting character became a second-rate Vegas act with one dumb decision. In the fall, Sting faced the mysterious man at live events with various lower-card workers playing the role. Sting won the short matches but The Scorpion usually escaped being unmasked as Sid would usually take the champion out. Sting and the Scorpion faced off at WCW's September Clash of The Champions and the event drew a 5.0 rating, the highest since the November 1989 edition.
Halloween Havoc 1990: Terror Rules the Ring was one of the better WCW PPVs that nobody really talks about sadly. You have two excellent tag matches (Steiners vs. Nasty Boys, Midnight Express vs. Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton), another solid tag match (Doom vs. Arn Anderson and Ric Flair), and a surprisingly fun brawl between Stan Hansen and Lex Luger. Terry Taylor vs. Bill Irwin is a solid match but the crowd didn't react well. If the card ever pops up on WWE Classics, I recommend you give it a watch. Sure you have some bad matches (Freebirds/Renegade Warriors, Junkyard Dog/Moondog Rex, Master Blasters/Southern Boys) but the good outweighs the bad with this card. The card was also a financial success drawing 8,000 fans (1,000 freebies) with an $115,000 gate at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago. With this being the early 1990's, the WWF/E actually ran opposition at the Rosemont Horizon that night with The Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage on-top drawing 8,335 (159 freebies) but losing the battle at the gate $102,446. An interesting note, Sid drew as much cheers from Sting when he made his entrance. The match itself wasn't the greatest, but they were smart to mask Sid's limitations with long rest holds. Sting had a pretty impressive dive into the ring from the entrance ramp and I might add that the WCW entrance ramp was great. Tell the people in TNA to make better usage of it. Sting and Sid brawled into the crowd and disappeared into the back. Both men would emerge, but Sting was two inches taller and looked like he one too many polish sausages. Sting picked him up and collapsed as Sid won the title. In what was not a good sign of how well Sting's run with the belt was going, the crowd went nuts when Sid won as balloons fell. After much confusion, the real Sting appeared, clocked Sid with the belt and rolled him up to win the match. You get that? It was actually a creative finish and Dave Meltzer compared it to the famous twin Hebners angle from 1988. There was a problem with doing such a finish and that stemmed from WCW having a history of screwy finishes. Most of the time, it resulted in the belt going back to Flair which slowly lead to fans being burned one too many times. I'll give you an example. WCW ran a card that year in Toronto that drew a surprisingly good number of 3,000 fans with no television. Toronto was WWE town, so this could be the start of something big for WCW. The main event was Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger in what was billed as a championship match. Luger puts Flair in the torture rack, Flair submits and the crowd loses it. The announcer then announces that the NWA World Championship cannot change hands in Canada. Of course, it didn't matter that the NWA World Championship changed hands five times in Toronto. WCW drew 500 people the next time they came to Toronto. WCW had run into a problem, as they couldn't have Sting lose the belt and they had protected Sid rather well up to this point. If they had gone with a DQ finish or a non-decisive finish, it could burn the Chicago crowd again similar to Starrcade 1987. Another problem was that the company was running short on PPV time and had to rush everything or risk the feed being cut off. For those who don't know, the fake Sting was Barry Windham who was actually recovering from some injuries at the time so it made sense to use him in the role. The finish left a bad taste in the mouths of fans and that is probably why nobody talks about Halloween Havoc 1990 being one of the better cards. It was not a good sign of things to come as the company headed into Starrcade 1990 or the Curse of the Black Scorpion. Next week: The Curse of the Black Scorpion!