Lots of wasted potential this time around...
Written: Aug 05 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A couple of matches with good, solid wrestling
Cons: Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal; Barbarian wrestling for the World Title
The Bottom Line: Not excellent, but definitely interesting. Worth at least one viewing.
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| cactus_matt's Full Review: WCW Halloween Havoc '92 |
I recently wrote of a review of Halloween Havoc ’91, a tape I picked up during a trip to the flea market. Well, on that same trip, I also got my hands on the ‘sequel,’ Halloween Havoc ’92. I thought I was very fortunate to have accumulated such an impressive library of Halloween Havocs in such short time.
Honestly, though, how often is it that we see a sequel turn out better than the original? Well, Halloween Havoc ‘92 didn’t have to try too hard to do that. Does that mean it’s a good event? We’ll have to wait and see…
This pay-per-view took place during a period where WCW was sort of struggling. One of their main attractions, Ric Flair, had since run off to the WWF. In order to get some fresh competition for their other main attraction, Sting, they sought the services of Jake ‘the Snake’ Roberts, who had just left the WWF himself. Unfortunately, Jake was heading downhill quickly with drugs and booze, so he didn’t last long. This tape highlights one of his few, embarrassing performances with the company.
The tape opens up with the same goofy haunted house graphic from last year, only with different wrestlers superimposed. Tony Schiavone and ‘The Living Legend’ Bruno Sammartino welcome us to Philadelphia and Halloween Havoc ’92. Oh, no – are these our commentators? Tony’s bad enough, but I’d hate to have to put up with Bruno pretending to be into it the whole time. The two spend a while hyping the all the matches. Come on, guys, we already bought the pay-per-view.
A video is shown of Cactus Jack helping the Barbarian prepare for his world title shot against Ron Simmons later in the evening. The Barbarian takes repeated scoop slams from three jobbers to toughen himself up for Ron’s powerslam.
Tony and Bruno come back and hype some more. Then they luckily send us to the real commentators for the evening, Jesse Ventura and Jim Ross. JR proceeds to hype the matches as well.
Match 1: ‘Flyin’ Brian Pillman VS Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat
Steamboat a curtain-jerker? What are they thinking? Pillman comes out acting cocky, but he still looks like a clean-cut babyface. The match is labeled as a ‘Special Challenge Match,’ whatever that entails. The two start off trading chops. Steamboat takes control and works Pillman’s arm. Pillman fights back with every oldschool dirty heel trick he can think of. A good technical exchange all the way through. Steamboat grabs the win during an exchange of pinning combinations. Two high-grade workers give us a decent opener. 3 ½ out of 5 stars.
Tony is with ‘Cowboy’ Bill Watts, commissioner of WCW. They talk about Rick Rude being allowed to pick Vader as a surrogate to defend his US title. They also discuss the choosing of referees for Rude’s later match with Masahiro Chono.
Match 2: Surrogate US Champion Vader VS Nikita Koloff – No DQ and Madusa barred from ringside
Vader comes out accompanied by Rick Rude and Harley Race, but ‘enforcing’ referee Ole Anderson forces the two to leave. JR and Jesse talk about Koloff trying to defect. Vader dominates early on. Koloff flusters Vader with multiple pin attempts. On the outside, Koloff sets Vader up against the ringpost and goes for his ‘Sickle’ clothesline. Vader ducks, and Koloff runs into the post. Back inside, Vader gets the pin after a lazy powerbomb, retaining the US title for Rude. A relatively short match and not excessively interesting. 2 out of 5 stars.
Teddy Long is in the back with ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams and ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin. A brief and pointless interview. Austin has less hair than last year.
Match 3: Unified Tag Team Champs Dustin Rhodes and Barry Windham VS Steve Williams and Steve Austin
Williams was supposed to be wrestling alongside Terry Gordy, but Gordy breached his contract somehow and Austin was brought in. Amusingly, Austin’s real name is Steve Williams, too. They could’ve called their team Steve Williams Squared. Or maybe not. Ring announcer Gary Capetta’s voice keeps cracking as everybody comes out. Rhodes and Williams start off trading football tackles as JR shills Oklahoma. Rhodes and Windham maintain the upper hand for a while. I can’t tell who the heels are. There’s supposed to be friction between Rhodes and Windham, but I don’t see it. Windham goes for a flying clothesline on Williams, but Williams ducks and Windham goes flying out of the ring. Windham plays face-in-peril for a while Williams and Austin take turns working on him. Williams applies a sleeper, but Windham reverses it into a jawbreaker. Williams drools profusely on the mat and tags Austin. Windham gets the hot tag and Rhodes cleans house. Rhodes with a bulldog on Austin. Williams stops Rhodes cold by plowing him down with a clothesline. Rhodes’ turn to play face-in-peril. Austin puts a sloppy over-the-shoulder backbreaker submission on Rhodes. Rhodes turns it into a backdrop, but Austin turns that into a sunset flip. Rhodes drops on top of him and tries for a pin, but Austin bridges out and turns it into a backslide. Rhodes reverses the backslide for a two-count. Awesome spot. I wish Austin still wrestled like that.
Austin regains the upper hand, and Rhodes plays face-in-peril for a bit longer. Rhodes gets busted open. Rhodes makes the hot tag to Windham, but referee Randy Anderson doesn’t see it. Windham enters anyway and scoop slams Austin. Anderson gets blasted with Austin’s foot and falls out of the ring. Windham tries to roll-up Austin for some reason, but Williams hits Windham with a clothesline. Austin covers Windham and substitute ref Nick Patrick makes the count with 2 minutes remaining in the half-hour time limit. Anderson comes back in and forces the match to continue, as Windham was not the legal man. Rhodes works on Austin but can’t keep him down. The time limit expires and Rhodes and Windham retain their titles. All the drama was lost after the decision was reversed. Otherwise, despite the overabundance of clotheslines, this was a very well-worked match. Austin looks especially good out there. My rating may have been higher had the time limit not expired, though. Stupid archaic WCW rules. 3 ½ out of 5 stars.
Tony is with Paul E. Dangerously, Vader, and Harley Race. Paul E. talks about how great he is. Madusa comes and Paul berates and shoves her. Madusa kicks Paul E. in the face. Race and Vader walk away. Officials come out and restrain Madusa.
JR says it’s time to ‘Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal’ to determine the stipulation for Sting’s non-sanctioned match with Jake Roberts later on. Sting comes out in a hokey glitter jacket. Sting tries to act intimidated as a large, saw blade-shaped wheel ascends from the floor amid sparks and strobe lighting. Sting pulls a large lever, and the wheel starts spinning. The wheel stops suddenly and conspicuously on ‘Coal Miner’s Glove Match,’ decidedly the least-exciting of all the choices possible. Why was this dumb match even on the wheel?
Match 4: NWA Champion Masahiro Chono w/Hiro Matsuga VS ‘Ravisihing’ Rick Rude w/Madusa
Each competitor was allowed to choose their own referee – Harley Race for Rude and Kensuke Sasaki for Chono. Rude taunts the crowd. A coin toss is made that declares Race the in-ring referee and places Sasaki on the outside. Chants of ‘USA.’ Rude and Chono exchange weardown holds early on. Rude executes a piledriver and Race lays down a painfully slow two-count. JR confuses the names of the Japanese guys. Sasaki tries to act important by lambasting Madusa for screeching. The crowd goes wild for something happening on the other side of the arena, but we can’t see what it is. Gary Capetta seriously exaggerates by saying 20 minutes have passed at roughly the 10 minute mark. Chono goes for a kick, but Rude ducks and Chono hits Race. Race falls out of the ring. Chono throws Rude out and Rude lands on Sasaki, who is checking on Race. Back inside, Rude reverse’s a suplex by Chono into the Rude Awakening. Big pop by the crowd, but there’s no ref to make a count. Rude misses a knee of the top rope and Chono locks on the STF. Sasaki comes in and calls for the bell. Race reverses the decision, declaring that Rude wins by over-the-top-rope DQ after being thrown out earlier. Sasaki attacks Race. Sasaki rips off his referee shirt so that only his bowtie, collar, and wrist tape remain, causing him to look like a chubby Chippendales dancer. Chono and his newly found Chippendales friend celebrate a moral victory inside the ring. Two false finishes in a row? Come on. Just an average match, anyway, and pretty short, despite what Gary Capetta says. 3 out of 5 stars.
A video is shown of Cactus Jack breaking cinderblocks over the Barbarian’s back with a sledgehammer. This will apparently help make Ron’s powerslam ineffective.
Match 5: WCW World Heavyweight Champ Ron Simmons w/Teddy Long VS The Barbarian w/Cactus Jack
Simmons, with a ridiculous security entourage, comes across as a pompous musclehead rather than the determined underdog he was last year. Both guys pound on each other for a while. Cactus distracts the ref and the Barbarian runs Simmons into the ringpost outside. Simmons temporarily sells a shoulder injury, but apparently forgets about it. Simmons takes control. Cactus distracts Simmons and the Barbarian delivers a big boot to the back of Simmons’ head. The Barbarian climbs the turnbuckle and delivers the flying headbutt from so far away that Simmons has to nonchalantly roll over a few times so that it can connect. The Barbarian only gets a two-count. The Barbarian goes for another big boot, but Simmons reverses it into a powerslam for the pin. Apparently, all those toughening exercises didn’t do jack crap. Short match, but I’m thankful it was. The Barbarian doesn’t belong this high on the card. 2 out of 5 stars.
Match 6: Sting VS Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts – Coal Miner’s Glove Match
JR assures us that both men signed liability waivers ahead of time. The ‘steel-encased’ coal miner’s glove sits atop a pole fastened to one of the ringposts. The first man to climb up and grab it can use it. Jake enters sans snake. Sting enters and appeals to the crowd. Jake tries to get the glove as Sting poses. Sting finally notices and pulls Jake down. Jake takes control. Outside, Sting rams Jake’s shoulder into the ringpost a couple of times. These WCW wrestlers love using that ringpost. Sting works on Jake’s shoulder. Jesse tries to delve into the shallow psychology of a coal miner’s glove match. Jake hits Sting with a chair and chokes him with the tape from his wrist. Jake hits Sting with his shortarm clothesline and signals for the DDT. Jake hits the DDT and starts climbing the pole. Sting gets up, knocks him off, and starts climbing instead. Cactus Jack runs out and gives Jake a snake handling glove and his ‘lethal’ cobra. Jake grabs the cobra as Sting returns with the coal miner’s glove. Sting hits Jake in the arm with the glove, causing the cobra to ‘bite’ Jake in the face. Sting rolls Jake up for the win. Jake struggles trying to get the snake to bite him and runs out of the arena in mock drama. Extremely lame match, as might have been expected. Poor Jake looks sloppy, and Sting just wants himself to look good. 1 out of 5 stars.
Off in the distance, Bruno speculates that it won’t be over between these two men, and Tony agrees.
Back at ringside, JR speculates that it won’t be over between these two men, and Jesse agrees. Nice production, guys.
This card isn’t as near as bad as that of Halloween Havoc ’91, but it still doesn’t measure up otherwise. Some matches had better potential, only to end with lame DQ and time expiration finishes. Others could have gone on longer. All the matches could have turned out at least decent, but WCW seems intent on delivering a lackluster performance. As a result, this one is just average. I can still name many better pay-per-views, but Halloween Havoc ’92 isn’t a total loss.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
cactus_matt
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Location: Florida
Reviews written: 40
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