Mike Reviews Shows Considered To Be Stinkers – WCW Halloween Havoc 1992

Happy Stinky Spooky Friday Everyone!

Back with a Halloween themed Stinker Review today as we look at Halloween Havoc 1992

I’ve picked Halloween Havoc mainly for the terrible Masahiro Chono Vs Rick Rude and Jake Roberts Vs Sting matches it has at the top of the card, but lets see if the rest of the card is Stinky as well or if the overall odour improves when you get into the rest of the bouts on offer

You can view the full card for Halloween Havoc 1992 by clicking below

WCW Halloween Havoc 1992 Card

Pics come courtesy of WWE

Halloween Havoc is emanating from the Philadelphia Civic Centre in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on the 25th October 1992

Calling the action are Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura

Tony Schiavone and Bruno Sammartino run down he card for us, as heaven forefend that WCW start out a pay per view with a match without a longwinded pre-amble. I can only imagine what Bruno thought about the Spin The Wheel stipulation

Missy Hyatt is outside Rick Rude’s dressing room with nothing to say

We then get some more waffle from Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura, with the fans cheering when Jesse makes fun of how Ross looks

They show us an assortment of weapons, along with a cage, backstage to hype up the Main Event, which is pretty funny when you realise what the stipulation in that match actually ended up being

Opening Match
Six Man Tag
Michael “Purely Sexy” Hayes, “The Enforcer” Arn Anderson and “Beautiful” Bobby Eaton Vs “Z Man” Tom Zenk, Johnny Gunn and Shane Douglas

Team Hayes are supposed to be the Heels, but they’re all gruff men who look about 15 years older than they actually are whilst Zenk, Gunn and Douglas are all differing levels of both young and handsome, so the cynical Philly crowd decides to cheer for the bad guys instead, as they were want to do. Vladimir the super fan and Hat Guy can all be spotted in the crowd, although the grey haired sunglasses guy doesn’t appear to be with Hat Guy tonight. They’ve turned the arena lighting way down for this one, which I’m guessing was partly an intentional design approach and also a necessity due to Bill Watts gouging the production budget when he came in as a way to cut costs, because who cares if your show is aesthetically pleasing to look at when you can turn the lights down and try to pay the majority of the roster with low quality sandwich meat?

This is a good choice for the opener, as the Heel trio are all canny veterans who know how to work whilst the babyface trio can do the basics efficiently whilst showing some babyface fire, so the match itself is well-worked and is fought at a reasonable pace. The fans not playing along with the Face/Heel alignment of the wrestlers isn’t ideal, but there’s not much the six wrestlers can do about that really. The babyfaces use standard babyface offence such as arm bars and back body drop’s in the early going, with the Heels eventually using blind tags and assorted subterfuge in order to cut Zenk off, with the crowd cheering with raucous zeal when Arn takes down Zenk with a clothesline. Zenk sells well in the heat, although he’s not going to draw any sympathy from this crowd.

Douglas gets the coldest hot tag of all-time at one stage, but Eaton quickly cuts him off with a chop block and we get our second heat segment, with the crowd of course roaring in approval whenever the Heels do anything nefarious to inflict some pain onto the future Franchise. Douglas also sells well, but again, it’s kind of for naught when the crowd is actually on the side of the Heels. Gunn eventually gets our second hot tag and things breakdown following that, with all six wrestlers in the ring for a genuine PIER SIX! Gunn catches Hayes with a Thesz Press and that’s the three count as the crowd boos long and loudly after roughly 11 Minutes.

WINNERS: ZENK, GUNN & DOUGLAS
RATING: **3/4

Thoughts: This was a decent opener, with everyone playing their respective role well, but the crowd wasn’t playing along, because Philly. Douglas was probably the star of the match on the babyface side whilst Arn and Eaton were probably tied for that honour on the Heel side. A good start to the show, as you’d have to try and have a bad match with the talent that was in the ring, as even Gunn was competent, if not especially exciting

Missy Hyatt still can’t get into Rick Rude’s dressing room, but Harley Race does manage to get in there, even though he doesn’t manage Rude

Match Two
Flyn’ Brian Vs Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat

Brian had recently gone Heel whilst Steamboat was coming off a great summer feud with Rick Rude that saw them tear the house down at Beach Blast. The action here is great right from the opening bell; with Brian focusing more on throwing strikes and being a jerk whilst Steamboat tries to use speed and wrestling moves/holds in order to put his younger Heel opponent on the back foot. It’s an age old tale and they tell it well, with Brian doing a great job as a brash cocky youngster whilst Steamboat is strong as ever when it comes to being a gallant babyface. Brian manages to draw a “Brian Sux” chant from the crowd, as the Philly fans seem happy to play along with Face/Heel alignment in this one due to their respect for Steamboat as a wrestler.

Brian keeps dropping to his knees in order to block an Irish Whip and then cheap shots Steamboat after that for the cut off, with Steamboat doing his usual trick of always making sure to attempt to fightback throughout the heat segment so that the crowd doesn’t lose faith in him. It’s a really good heat segment, as Brian gets to control things and work some heat but Steamboat never stops trying to fight back, so the heat feels like a constant struggle between the two and doesn’t get boring as a result. There’s no lying around in a hold for multiple minutes without doing anything here; they are WORKING throughout and it plays a part in the crowd sticking with the match.

Steamboat eventually starts fighting back with chops, leading to Brian trying to run away. In a really good sequence; Brian catches Steamboat with a knee lift when Steamboat tries getting back in the ring after a brawl on the floor, but when Brian tries it again a bit later on Steamboat is ready this time and is able to dodge it. I love stuff like that, as it rewards those paying attention but it also makes the babyface look intelligent because they didn’t fall for the same Heel shenanigan twice. The two do a pinning hold reversal sequence and Steamboat catches Brian for the three count after about 10 Minutes.

WINNER: RICKY STEAMBOAT
RATING: ****

Thoughts: This was a fantastic match, as the wrestling, character work and storytelling were all on point and the crowd was into it from start to finish. They packed a lot into 10 minutes but it never felt like they were overdoing it, and the pace of the match always remained at a high tempo, so the match was never dull. Brian was tremendous as a cocky young punk whilst Steamboat was great as the veteran who gradually got more and more annoyed at the antics of his opponent until he tapped into the veteran smarts to catch the younger opponent with a simple counter. Great stuff and well worth watching if you’ve never seen it before

Teddy Long is trying to interview NWA World Champ Masahiro Chono, who is joined by Hiro Matsuda, Seiji Sakaguchi and Kensuke Sasaki. Matsuda is the Japanese translator and reveals that Kensuke Sasaki will be the Japanese choice as one of the guest referees tonight

Bill Watts has joined Tony Schiavone, and announces that Harley Race will be Rick Rude’s referee later on. Watts also lets us know that Rick Rude has been allowed to pick a replacement for his US Title match up next, with Vader being Rude’s replacement

Match Three
No DQ Bout for the WCW United States Title
Big Van Vader w/ Harley Race Vs Nikita Koloff

Vader is defending the belt on behalf of Rick Rude, as Rude as an NWA World Title match later on at Halloween Havoc. Clean shaven Rick Rude looks quite a bit like clean shaven Ron Swanson actually, although I think Ron would have rejected Rude’s use of bureaucracy as a way of getting out of this contest. Ron would have probably insisted on wrestling for both the US and World Title’s in the same night, provided he was allowed a quick break between matches for a sip of whiskey and a flank steak. Vader dominates this one for the most part, which leaves the match feeling flat as the crowd seems into Koloff and Koloff getting more of a shine would have probably drawn some good reactions. Instead Vader spends the majority of the match clobbering Koloff, with Koloff not having much of an answer for it, and the crowd sits on their hands for most of the contest as the wrestlers aren’t really giving them anything to get invested in.

The work itself is fine, as Vader’s offence is as hard hitting as always and Koloff’s selling and bumping is decent. They don’t really make much of the No DQ stipulation, as you’d think that could be a way for Koloff to establish some parity against the monster, but they never really go there. Also, Count Outs apparently still exist in this one even though DQ’s don’t, which seems like a weird ruleset to be honest. Vader clonks Koloff with a chair outside the ring once, and that’s about it as far as the No DQ stipulation goes. Koloff eventually gets a bit of a comeback with a sloppy suplex and a nice looking bodyslam, but Vader shrugs all of that off and treats it more as an annoyance than anything else. Vader does take one notable big bump over the top rope to the floor from a Koloff clothesline, but when Koloff tries to follow-up on the floor he ends up clotheslining the ring post instead of Vader. Seriously, how slow and inaccurate must you be to miss freaking VADER with a running attack? Vader gets a Powerbomb back inside the ring and that’s the three about after about 12 Minutes.

WINNER: VADER
RATING: *3/4

Thoughts: The wrestling itself was mostly fine, outside of a few moments where they weren’t on the same page, but Koloff got basically nothing here and it killed the crowd the longer it went on. It’s not like they couldn’t have Vader dominate the match and win in order to make him look big and scary, but it would have worked better at a snappier 6 minutes than the 12 we got, as it started dragging after a certain point. It was also kind of weird that Koloff got so little because the crowd was into him and if he’d been allowed to get a bit more in there then I think the crowd might have gotten quite invested in the match. Even with Koloff getting so little, they still made pockets of noise, but the match just couldn’t maintain it due to Vader always regaining the control so quickly and selling so little

Teddy Long interviews Steve Williams and Steve Austin backstage. Williams doesn’t say much of any significance and just yells a lot, as wrestlers are sometimes want to do

Missy Hyatt interviews Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes. Windham and Rhodes insist that there are no issues between them. I’ll just make a note of that for later in the year

Match Four
NWA/WCW Unified World Tag Team Titles
Champions: Barry Windham and “The Natural” Dustin Rhodes Vs “Stunning” Steve Austin and “Doctor. Death” Steve Williams

Austin is filling in for Terry Gordy here. Steve Austin’s real name is actually Steve Williams of course, making this one a fun curio for that reason if nothing else. Dustin and Big Bazza had been having issues during the build to this, with it all building to Windham eventually turning Heel and becoming the “Lone Wolf” in 1993. Rhodes and Windham control things in the early going, as you’d expect as they are both the babyfaces and the established team, so it makes sense that they would start on the front foot due to the Two Steve’s having to get used to one another as partners. The work is really good, with Rhodes and Austin in particular working well together, which they’d replicate in a series of matches for the United States Title in 1993. Williams and Windham have some nice snug exchanges as well, as everyone is working hard here.

It feels more like a Japanese match at points here, with the crowd not making a tonne of noise in the early stages, but they are watching intently and appreciating the quality of the wrestling on display. I think fans politely watching a solidly wrestled match is pretty much Bill Watts’ dream come true in all honesty. I can just picture him watching the match on a monitor and nodding saying “that’s what I’m talking about right there”, likely followed by “I wonder if I could pay these guys with some buttons and a bar of soap in order to cut some costs”. Ross of course works in the story of Steve Williams getting stitches but then coming back to wrestle the next day or something, which is great but probably didn’t sell a single extra ticket.

The challengers eventually manage to cut Windham off and work some heat, with Windham selling it all well and the Two Steve’s looking good on offence. Windham eventually manages to collapse into his corner, leading to Rhodes doing a quick hot tag segment that ends with Williams taking out Dustin illegally behind the referee’s back, leading to our second heat segment of the contest. I might have let Rhodes get a little bit more before that second cut off, just because it didn’t feel like the crowd had enough time to be excited before it was time to flatten them out again. This does mean that we now get the old Midnight Express Vs Rock ‘N’ Roll Express double heat structure, which makes sense here seeing as they’re going to be putting in a considerable amount of time in this one.

Austin actually busts out the Canadian Backbreaker at one stage, which isn’t a move/hold I normally associate with him, but Rhodes doesn’t submit and that leads to some pinning hold attempts from Dustin until Austin is able to cut him off again with a clothesline. Rhodes’ selling is good throughout the heat segment, with the Two Steve’s starting to gel reasonably well as a team. You wouldn’t know this was their first time teaming watching this. The challengers try to open a hard way cut above Dustin’s eye at one stage, because it’s a WCW show from 1992 and Bill Watts is booking, so we’ve got to show how TOUGH we are and apparently this thing being a work is optional.

Windham ends up getting a tag, but the referee misses it, leading to things breaking down and the referee getting bumped. This leads to Williams hitting Windham with a clothesline and Austin getting a two count from the replacement referee, but the original referees notes that it’s still Dustin that’s legal, so the bout continues. At this point both teams have chances to win it, but neither can get the job done in time and the time limit runs out, meaning this one will end in a draw with the Champions retaining their belts. The crowd is bit flat at the finish but they don’t totally hate it either, because it was a good match up to that point and I think the crowd appreciated that we got 30 minutes of good wrestling where shenanigans were kept mostly to a minimum

30 MINUTE TIME LIMIT DRAW
RATING: ***3/4

Thoughts: This was proper meat and potatoes wrestling, as these four just went out and worked until the time limit ran out. The only downside to it was that I never really felt like we were actually going to get a finish, especially when they put the remaining time up on the screen when they hit the final two minutes, which is basically a neon sign shouting that the match is going to a draw. It might have worked a bit better if they hadn’t been so strict mentioning the time and then the bout just ended. The Two Steve’s worked well as a team, and they probably could have done some rematches too, but Williams went back to the singles ranks after this and Austin started tagging with Brian Pillman instead

Tony Schiavone interviews Paul E. Dangerously, who takes credit for coming up with Vader as Rude’s replacement against Koloff. Madusa interrupts though and actually thanks Vader and Race, as Paul E was too busy gassing himself up to do that. This leads to Paul E going on a misogynistic rant at Madusa until she clocks him and the crowd explodes. This was a fantastic performance and classic Paul E. Dangerously. I loved how Harley and Vader basically noped out of it as well, because this was something that didn’t involve them and they didn’t need the hassle. I really can’t give this segment enough credit, it was fantastic Pro Wrestling and seeing the big mouthed jerk with small dick energy get his comeuppance from a woman who was tired of his nonsense was top notch stuff. Paul of course wouldn’t be allowed to go as far today, but he’s probably got one last offensive rant in him if they ever want to turn Seth Rollins babyface by having Paul do a similar rant to Becky Lynch so that she can batter Paul and Rollins can stand up for his woman (I wrote this before Rollins got kicked out of The Vision of course). Bill Watts was apparently devastated that this got such a great reaction because he hated Paul Heyman and had no respect for women in Pro Wrestling, so Paul and Madusa going out there and killing it like that offended him greatly

We now Spin The Wheel To Make A Deal ahead of the Main Event; as the wheel appears with 12 different stipulations on it, including cage matches and barbed wire matches. However, it ends up landing on Coal Miner’s Glove, which is probably the least interesting match they could have gone for. I’ve no idea if this was the plan all along or if they actually left it up to chance. I can only imagine that they planned for this as they’d need advance notice to set the pole up. The music they played during this segment was very cool at least. I will give Jesse Ventura credit for doing his best to sell the Coal Miner’s Glove as a really dangerous stipulation at least. It beats him complaining about someone walking out of the door in a cage match!

Seiji Sakaguchi and Manabu Nakanishi are watching in the crowd. Nakanishi and Jun Akiyama were actually peers on the amateur wrestling scene around this time, with Nakanishi joining New Japan whilst Akiyama went to All Japan

Match Five
NWA World Heavyweight Title
Champion: Masahiro Chono w/ Hiro Matsuda Vs “Ravishing” Rick Rude w/ Madusa

These two met in the Final of the 1992 G1 Climax and had a fantastic match where Chono won to win the NWA World Title, with this being the rematch. Each wrestler has been allowed to pick a referee, with Harley Race being the referee for Rude whilst Kensuke Sasaki is reffing for Chono. Sadly Rude neglects to call the crowd “Pennsylvania Pissants” which would have been both a great insult and also some fun alliteration. Ole Anderson, in-house WCW referee, decides to be the Mark Clattenberg and make it all about him by searching the guest referees before the match starts. They have a coin toss, where Race wins the right to referee inside the ring whilst Sasaki will referee from outside of the ring. This always struck me as an odd match for a WCW pay per view like Halloween Havoc, as Chono barely wrestled in North America during this time and Rude was firmly a Heel, so the crowd doesn’t really have anyone to cheer. It would have made more sense to bring in Chono as a generic foreign Heel and booked him against a well-liked babyface such as Steamboat, as the crowd would have just cheered for Steamboat and Chono could have played the hits to rile the fans up.

The actual quality of the wrestling isn’t terrible here, as both Rude and Chono are competent mechanics who can do the basics, but it’s just an extraordinarily dull match where they wrestle it at a mostly glacial pace and the crowd doesn’t remotely get into it. Viewed purely from an execution standpoint, there’s not really anything bad about the way the moves are being delivered and the holds are being applied, but the match itself is just flatter than a pancake and the crowd alternates between sitting on their hands and amusing themselves by chanting for Ric Flair. I can only imagine that Bill Watts and the New Japan representatives thought this dry patient presentation was how a serious World Title clash needed to be contested, but it’s totally the wrong match for this show and the bout just feels like it meanders, with both seemingly moving at around 20% their usual speed.

Chono has some joy working over Rude’s neck and back area with a Camel Clutch and THE DREADED YOUNG LION BOSTON CRAB, and again all of the holds are being applied correctly and executed properly, but it just feels like the two wrestlers are moving around in treacle and there’s absolutely zero urgency from either competitor. Rude replies by going to the neck of Chono, giving us a thrilling chin lock that eats up time and little else, as it’s not like they’ve been working at a high enough tempo in order to need a rest yet. Watching Rude tear it up whilst working a quick clip with Steamboat in a 30 Minute match back at Beach Blast, to seeing him work this slow plodding bout with Chono here at Halloween Havoc is a serious case of tonal whiplash. I can’t imagine what it would be like to watch both matches directly back to back to one another, and I’m not going to find out because I’m going to try and avoid ever watching this match again once I’m through with it this time out.

In a moment that sums the match up quite well; Rude locks Chono in yet another interminable rest hold and the fans decided to amuse themselves by watching a fight in the crowd, with said fight getting the biggest reaction of the whole bout. Eventually Chono accidentally kicks Race, leading to Rude getting thrown out over the top rope and landing on Sasaki, means that there is no referee to count when Rude gets the Rude Awakening. Rude misses an attack from the top rope and Chono locks in the Step-over Toe-hold Face-lock for the apparent submission victory, but Race states that Rude is the winner by DQ due to Chono throwing him out over the top rope. Well, if you’re going to try and end an eye wateringly dull 22 Minute match in the worst way possible, then that finish is certainly a candidate.

WINNER BY DQ: RICK RUDE (CHONO RETAINS)
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: One of the most boring wrestling matches I’ve ever watched. It wasn’t actively bad purely from a mechanical perspective, as it wasn’t like they were blowing spots or performing moves badly, but they wrestled at a really slow pace and mostly just sat around in holds doing nothing whilst the fans quickly lost interest. It’s probably the worst “okay” match I’ve ever watched, as it was miserably dull, it was totally the wrong match for the Halloween Havoc crowd, and the cherry on top was the disgusting cheap finish that made the whole previous 22 Minutes worthless

Sasaki sends Race and Rude packing following that, which does wake the crowd up a little bit at least because they’re just exciting to see something interesting happen

We see clips of Cactus Jack training Barbarian ahead of the next match

Match Six
WCW World Heavyweight Title
Champion: Ron Simmons w/ Theodore R. Long Vs The Barbarian w/ Cactus Jack

Simmons had won the belt from Vader in a big upset and the promptly injured Cactus Jack in one of his first big Title defences, so Cactus had brought in Barbarian as his new charge to take the belt from Simmons. Defending the belt in the semi-main against mid-carder Barbarian wasn’t doing a lot for Simmons’ standing as Champion, as Sting, Rude, Vader and probably even Steamboat were all more over with the fans than he was and would have made better candidates for the top belt. Barbarian’s music here doesn’t suit him at all either, with it being a high tempo track that you’d hear in the menu screen of a 1 Vs 1 fighter video game or something, not the sort of music you’d give an imposing islander barbarian. Don’t get me wrong; it’s reasonably catchy, but it doesn’t suit Barbarian at all. I guess the Faces of Fear production music hadn’t been recorded yet? They have Long carry the belt down to the ring for Simmons here, which is kind of a Heel move in my opinion but that’s more because I associate it with Paul Heyman doing it for his Heel charges.

WCW gets around with this not being the Main Event, despite it being a World Title match, by saying that it’s the last “sanctioned” bout of the match, and thus technically the “Main Event” in the same way that a Fillet ‘O’ Fish is technically food. The opening exchanges are all about how the two wrestlers are equally strong and tough, until Simmons uses his noodle to throw off Barbarian’s timing on a rope running segment, thus allowing Simmons to bump Barbarian a couple of times. It works just fine as a sequence, but the crowd doesn’t really react much to it. Indeed, that’s the story of the match really, as they put together a competent “two bulls run into one another” contest but the crowd doesn’t see it as a match that should be near the top of the card and don’t get invested in it as a consequence. Barbarian eventually knocks Simmons out to the ringside area and throws Simmons into the ring post, which would appear to be the cut off.

Simmons sells reasonably well in the heat, whilst Barbarian sticks mostly to basic brawling tactics. It all makes sense from a storytelling standpoint, and the work itself doesn’t look too bad, but the lack of crowd interaction really takes away from it. Barbarian eventually misses an elbow drop from the top rope and Simmons starts hulking up (oh the irony) delivering a weak looking Sidewalk Slam for two, in one of the only occasions in this match that a move didn’t really look all that good. Cactus provides a distraction and that leads to Barbarian kicking Simmons in the head before leaping 2/3 of the way across the ring with a very impressive looking diving headbutt for two in a decent near fall. Simmons catches Barbarian OUTTA NOWHERE with a Powerslam soon after though and that’s the three count after roughly 13 Minutes. It probably didn’t help Simmons’ standing that he got battered for so much in that match and only got a last gasp win against a career mid-carder.

WINNER AND STILL CHAMPION: RON SIMMONS
RATING: *1/2

Thoughts: They had a totally fine “Powerhouse” match between two big guys here, but it wasn’t up to the standard of a World Title match you’d expect to see on a pay per view like Halloween Havoc, and the crowd responded in kind. Stick this on the undercard without the World Title attached to it and it would be a totally fine card filler, but by the standards of what you’d expect near the top of the card, this didn’t deliver at all. I also think that Simmons needed a stronger win here. You can catch a Main Event guy like Vader in the role of an underdog if you’re the World Champ, but Barbarian was a mid-card guy and seen that way by the crowd, so if he’s the challenger of the month then you have Simmons beat him cleanly and decisively, rather than having him eek out a last gasp win like they did here

Erik Watts joins Tony Schiavone and Bruno Sammartino for some interview time on the podium and the fans boo the younger Watts mercilessly. Look, I get Bill Watts wanting to push his son, I do, but maybe a smarter idea would have been to sign him to a WCW contract but then loan him out to a Smoky Mountain or USWA type promotion for a year where he could get some reps before you tried him on the main roster? Bill surely had to know that throwing Erik in the deep end with a big push like this right out of the gate was going to tank and tank badly? Anyway, Ron Simmons heads over and Bruno tries to give Simmons a rub by putting him over, but even that wasn’t going to help Simmons at this stage. It also didn’t help that Bruno was traditionally a WWWF/WWF guy, so WCW fans weren’t going to see that endorsement as being much because Bruno wasn’t “their” guy

Main Event
Coal Miner’s Glove Bout
Jake “The Snake” Roberts Vs Sting

Roberts had given his notice in the WWF on the promise of a big contract from WCW, but in-between him finishing his WWF commitments and heading over to Atlanta, Bill Watts took control of WCW under orders to cut costs, meaning that Roberts’ sweet WCW deal got immediately watered down. Jake couldn’t really go back to the WWF so soon after getting written out the way he was by getting crushed by Undertaker at WrestleMania VIII , so Jake was basically forced to take the less impressive deal with WCW, where he began a feud with Sting after beating Sting up on a Clash of the Champions special. Talk about bad timing huh? The rules here are that there’s a pole set up with a Coal Miner’s Glove hanging at the top, and if you grab the glove you can use it as a weapon. I’m sure somewhere Vince Russo was watching in his video store and hastily taking notes. Roberts enters to “Satan’s Sister” here, which was a theme that would probably be most famously re-used for The Hollywood Blondes in 1993.

This is another match where it’s mostly worked fine but it just ends up feeling dull. It’s meant to be this big heated feud, but it of just feels like two fellers having a match. There’s a distinct lack of intensity to it all, which is odd considering how this was a big rivalry at the time and you’d think they’d use the stipulation to have a violent brawl in order to play into that, but instead they just feel like they’re going through the motions and doing a House Show Main Event rather than closing the show on an event like Halloween Havoc. Roberts uses a chair shot and chokes Sting with some wrist tape, but they make a hash of a Knee Lift spot as it looks like Sting is supposed to counter it, but he doesn’t, so both wrestlers just collapse down to the mat following it like they should both be hurt, when really it just looked like Roberts kneed Sting. Roberts snaps off a DDT when Sting misses the Stinger Splash and then heads up for the glove, but Sting recovers pretty quickly and tries swinging around the pole to hit Roberts, although he doesn’t “quite get all of it” as Jim Ross would say. Sting gets the glove, but Cactus Jack runs out and hands Roberts his snake, leading to a terrible finish where Sting lamely punches Roberts in the lower back with the glove and Roberts acts like the snake (a cobra) is biting him and that allows Sting to make the three count after about 11 Minutes.

WINNER: STING
RATING: 1/2*

Thoughts: This started out as a pretty unremarkable match, but one that was at least serviceable. However, the final few minutes were awful, as the match totally fell apart and the finish didn’t work one iota. A finish where Roberts gets bitten by his own snake and it leads to his defeat is something that could work in the right setting, but the snake didn’t really want to play ball here and the shot with the glove looked so lame that it made all the build-up to it all the more egregious. WCW had some pretty awful pay per view Main Events and this one is near the top

Is It Really A Stinker?

The Brian/Steamboat and Tag Team Title matches were good enough that I couldn’t go for a full on Stinker rating for this show, but none of the three backend matches delivered, and it caused the show to end with a stumble rather than a flourish. There was a distinct lack of energy in some of the matches, which is pretty inexcusable for such a big pay per view event like this, with the NWA World Title match in particular feeling like it was wrestled in slow motion.

Still, there was enough on the show that I considered good or passable that I don’t think I can call it a Stinker in good conscience. Halloween Havoc 1992 may not be a Stinker, but it’s certainly Stinky, and that’s the score I’ll go with.

Final Score – Stinky
(Scores done on a scale of Stinker/Stinky/Odourless/Pleasant/Fragrant)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ctdv8yXBf0