WCW Halloween Havoc 1992 was the third installment of the brilliantly-cartoonish Halloween Havoc event. This year’s pay-per-view was built around the “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” main event featuring Sting taking on newly-arrived Jake Roberts.
WCW was a secure second-best by 1992, with the WWF themselves too under the strain of the murmurs of the Steroid Trial. Although the WWF saw a successful last PPV to this point in the shape of SummerSlam 1992, the company was starting a slow decline – spurred on by departures from Hulk Hogan, Sid, and Roddy Piper in that year alone to later be followed by The Ultimate Warrior, The British Bulldog, and Mr. Perfect gone by the time the year was out.
With that in mind, WCW was a surprisingly stacked company in comparison, with present and future stars on the Halloween Havoc 1992 card of snakes, substitutes, and stipulations.
Show Open
Halloween Havoc opens with some cool cartoon graphics, where Sting howls at the moon, Jake Roberts cackles as we see a wheel spin, and a haunted house features the ghosts of Ron Simmons, The Barbarian, Masahiro Chono, and Rick Rude – all of whom are in world championships matches tonight. At least WCW always tried with Halloween Havoc.
Tony Schiavone and “The Living Legend” Bruno Sammartino open the show. The unsanctioned “Spin The Wheel, Make The Deal” match is promoted, with 12 options for the match in which Sting wrestles Roberts. Anti-venom is present, it is later mentioned, in case Sting gets bitten by Jake’s snake.
The Barbarian has been building an immunity, training by having other wrestlers hit him with Ron Simmons’s powerslam finisher in preparation for his match. Also, The Miracle Violence Connection’s Terry Gordy is not here so Steve Austin will take his place in a tag title match. Moreover, Rick Rude is competing twice to defend his US belt and to challenge for the NWA belt, the latter of which has two referees.
A scantily-glad, golden-wearing Missy Hyatt throws to your commentators Jesse Ventura and Jim Ross. Ventura wears a mask whilst Ross doesn’t, though “The Body” makes the obligatory joke about Ross wearing an ugly mask. Jesse has the Damien Demento haircut, completely bald except somehow the remainder of a ponytail.
Johnny Gunn, Shane Douglas & Tom Zenk vs Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton & Michael Hayes
Halloween Havoc’s opening match and what starpower as the cool trio of Anderson, Eaton, and Hayes walk out. Although they are the heels, the crowd give them a huge ovation.
Out come the babyfaces to much indifference. It is very clear by their clean-cut attires they are the babyfaces but Douglas is actually wearing his heel ECW flair jacket. Zenk and Douglas are well-known enough as permanent lower-midcard faces but who is Johnny Gunn? Ex-ECW tag champ Gunn would later go on to compete in the WWF as Tom Brandi/Salvatore Sincere.
The match starts with oily Gunn and white trunks Anderson. He backs him off into the corner and tugs at Gunn’s cheek before a sneak knee, which pops the crowd. The faces come in and wipe out all the heels with dropkicks, leaving the heels fleeing to the outside.
Bobby Eaton gets a huge reception from the audience before Hayes is showered with praise after Freebird strutting. I do question the heels playing to the fans, as it further serves to hinder any babyface effort. Douglas comes in and it looks like a glam metal gig as the blonde-haired competitors tie up. “Pretty Sexy” is described by Ross as “one of the first athletes to use the high energy entrance music in the sport of wrestling,” how do you do, fellow kids, indeed, JR!
Hilarious commentary from new political candidate Jesse Ventura who barks “the one thing I don’t like about Shane Douglas though, he looks to me like he’s a right-wing Republican. I just bet that’s his political affiliation!” Indeed, he did support Trump’s election bid.
Huge cheers continue for the bad guys including after Arn escapes a Zenk sleeper and sneaky double team assault. Douglas makes a comeback but it is snuffed out by an illegal chop block to the knee. The heels target Douglas’s knee, including an Eaton diving attack. Seems as if top rope offense is not a DQ in WCW at this point in time.
A schmoz (wrestling terminology for a multi-man brawl) breaks out, during which Gunn hits the Lou Thesz Press on Hayes, as the referee counts, Douglas hits a belly-to-belly on Eaton. One, two, three…Gunn pins Hayes. The crowd are mixed in their reaction, to say the least. 
Johnny Gunn gets the pinfall win on Michael Hayes.
The match was fairly bog-standard, not too much special about this one. Great to see the veteran put the young ones over – even if the crowd disagreed. The crowd really made this one, wholeheartedly supporting the heels, the aside, not much of note for this one; it was fine.
Star Rating: *½
(For reference, this means one-and-a-half stars)
Hyatt tries to get into Rick Rude’s locker-room. Harley Race enters but refuses her entry as she remarks that that has never happened to her before. Everyone acts stupid to the reason Race is there.
Ricky Steamboat vs Brian Pillman
Flyin’ Brian comes out followed by Ricky Steamboat in an attire I’ve never seen him in before; it looks cool and fits with the Halloween Havoc theme. What a match this should be. After all, as Jesse pointed out, they’re not the biggest men but are some of the most talented. It pans to a fan with a sign saying Bill Watts’s WCW is real wrestling so nice to see company-based propaganda is not just a WWF thing.
A chop exchange to kick things off followed by some pinfall attempts. Steamboat draws in Brian by playing possum then applies armbars and armdrags. An eye poke and hair-pull proves Pillman to be the heel, starting a “Pillman sucks!” chant.
The formula is that the technical Steamboat dominated until a dirty move by Pillman, after which he can take over. Pillman hits a fabulous rebound head scissors which only gets a two. A mid-air dropkick by Pillman after placing Steamboat on, and being fought off of Bret’s rope.
Pillman applies a backpack sleeper but Steamboat escapes using a Dynamite Kid-esque technique before bielling Pillman from the ropes. Steamboat tries to re-enter the ring but is cut off.
Steamboat kicks out of a crossbody and hits a backbreaker followed by a diving set-up for the sunset flip. Pillman rolls through for his own cover, but is flipped into a tight sit-out, which gets the three! A botched ending does little to damage the match.
It was a serviceable bout but should really have been more. Eric Bischoff attributed this on 83 Weeks to new WCW limitations on diving offense, even in spite of the finish involving a diving move. It was good but it could have been so much more.
Star Rating: ***
Teddy Long stands backstage with NWA champion Masahiro Chono and colleagues. Interpreter Hiro Matsuda gestures and whispers when asked about who Chono’s guest referee would be as Long comments “Now you heard it, fans!” We hadn’t but it turns out Kensuke Sasaki is his guest ref.
Billy Watts is alongside Tony Schiavone. He reiterates the referees as Sasaki and Harley Race. Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy has been replaced with Steve Austin for his no-show as Watts suspends Gordy in the classic “you didn’t quit, we fired you!” approach. Watts announces Rick Rude and Paul E. Dangerously have utilised their attorneys to file an injunction stopping Rude competing in two matches. Gosh, this is sudden, was it in the buildup or alluded to at all previously? No. Another substitution as Rude has brought in Vader as his proxy. If there is one things wrestling fans love, it is court-based legal battles(!)
Vader (c)* vs Nikita Koloff – WCW United States Championship
Out comes a face Nikita Koloff, now from Lithuania all of a sudden as he needs to be a face as the Cold War has concluded – officially, at least. Fun fact: Lithuania was the only state to leave the Soviet Union, hence why it was adopted for face gimmick by Koloff in WCW and Nikolai Volkoff in the WWF. Big cheers as Nikita is now announced as residing in the USA.
Out comes John Hamm…now wait, it’s a clean-shaved Rick Rude. He just looks so weird without his signature stache, if he removed it last year, at least The Halloween Phantom would have been somewhat more mysterious. I can’t express how odd it looks, he looks like the digitally altered no-moustache Henry Cavill Superman. Rude comes out with Race and Vader, wearing the US title outside of his robe. Vader poses with the belt despite not being the champion even if he wins the match.
A lot of sizing up as these powerhouses collide. Nikita forces Vader back but nobody puts Vader in a corner and hits a load of snug strikes. The faux Russian was knocked to the outside but gets back in quickly and hits a crossbody on a reverse-facing Vader – I have never seen that before. Koloff continues using his speed, trying for a roll-up before “The Mastodon” rolls out. The bait is taken by Koloff, who is then assaulted with use of the barricade and a chair. Some twat throws a beer at Vader’s head, which he no-sells and Jesse Ventura rightfully chastises it.
“The Russian Nightmare” is overpowered by his larger opposition, including a weirdly-executed chokeslam but tries to fight valiantly. Vader sets up for a middle rope body splash, Nikita – shockingly – does not move out of the way as Vader hits it. It slows down by a long headlock spot. Things are slowed down big time as Vader and Nikita seem to be calling spots more (we’ll get to why) and Nikita spikes Vader with an accidental brainbuster instead of a suplex which a fan in the front row holds his head in his hands at, same.
Koloff starts his comeback which includes 10 punches, shoulder blocks, and a bodyslam. No DQ for a clothesline over the top rope from Koloff. Perhaps out of ideas both men go to the outside where Nikita Russian Sickles the post. Koloff is too injured to fight pretty much as Vader hits a horrific-looking Vader Bomb for a three. It may be Halloween Havoc but that bump was legitimately terrifying. He poses with (not) his belt.
About the match; It was a semi-enjoyable hoss brawl. I’ll be rather conservative in giving it a 2.5-star rating as although it was a brilliantly sloppy mess, it was also a dangerous sloppy mess. To address the elephant in the room, this match had huge implications for Nikita, with this his last match. Vader had significantly injured other stars that year such as Sting, jobber Joe Thurman, and Cactus Jack – the latter most prevalently – and this was no different. A stiff clothesline herniated a disk, on top of getting a hernia attempting to lift Vader, ended his career. That said, props to Nikita to finishing the match duly enough with a performance only noticeably hampered if you are actively looking for the signs.
Star Rating: **1/2
We get a brief backstage promo with Gordy’s replacement Steve Austin, alongside Steve Williams. Yes, two people called Steve Williams. They are facing the troubled tag team of Rhodes and Windham who have had raised tensions between the two.
Barry Windham & Dustin Rhodes (c) vs Steve Austin & Steve Williams – NWA/WCW World Tag Team Championship
Williams arrives in his finest silk nightie, a silver robe with a red inside lining. “What Bar?” is he? He is a Nestle Chunky. Coming out with what sounds like ZZ Top’s “La Grange”, out come the uneasy babyfaces in spangly jackets. “Dr Death” has large tights with a very distracting skull mask on the back to fit with the theme here at Halloween Havoc.
Rhodes and Williams start, attempting American football moves before a series of clotheslines. No team gets a clear advantage, tussling for position with technical offense.
“Stunning” Steve comes in and he looks so weird in his blue tights, blonde hair, and no kneepads. Ventura chastises the faces for using closed fist punches, a nice admonishment over the rules, which leads into a rant about incompetent doctors. Great further storyline building by “The Body” who comments how he and ex-partner Adrian Adonis struggled to co-exist but could still perform well in the ring despite personal differences.
Windham comes in and has a big ole hoss brawl with “Dr Death”. The lads unfortunately botch an O’Connor roll before Austin takes over as the heels start their lobsided domination. It must be the third match we have seen so far featuring a rebound sleeper escape! Ross recalls that Williams once got 108 stitches but wrestled the next day.
The ex-Horsemen knows his own move too well so prevents an Austin superplex and hits a diving lariat for a near three. In comes Rhodes who sets the crowd on fire with an impressive series of strikes on both of his opponents a la his father. A bulldog but the pin is interrupted by Williams. A Boston crab is applied on Rhodes to wear him down. Austin impressively lifts his taller foe for Ventura’s own Argentine backbreaker and later pops the crowd with an impressive bridge before Rhodes nearly gets him with a backslide.
Austin hits one hell of a hook before Williams tags in and performs a float-over suplex. Rhodes keeps trying to make the tag but is constantly weakened and tag teamed by the heels. Five minutes are remaining as Williams locks Dustin in a chinlock. Classic heeling as the referee misses Rhodes’s tag thanks to Williams before Rhodes is thrown out of the ring as this referee must have the worst peripheral vision ever.
A collision knocks down the referee. Windham tries an O’Connor roll but a clothesline from the illegal Williams. They try the spot where the pinning wrestler is knocked back so the pinned wrestler is now on offense, it fails but looks fine enough. A new ref emerges, a cover: one, two, three! New tag champions! The first title change on this year’s Halloween Havoc.
The original referee comes in and the match continues. A near-fall but the bell rings which confuses everybody but we still have just under two minutes left. The booking is all backwards here. Dustin desperately tries for a pin but why? They are already the champions, surely Austin should be booked to be the one desperate to get pinfalls. A tombstone piledriver, a kick-out, and the match eventually just ends, running out of time as 30 minutes have elapsed.
Maybe my marking is harsh but over the course of 30 minutes, basically nothing happened. You expect that in the first 25 but at least the last few should be exhilarating stuff. The only exciting things happened in the last two minutes and only then due to a confusing non-finish. Even the end was a damp squib. Instead of a deadly final move or a pin just as the bell rings, there was some downed kicks as the time ran out. All four men in this are truly great workers but this was just unimaginative and, to be honest, fairly dull.
Star Rating: *1/2
A promo with Paul E. Dangerously. Apparently, the mulleted, phone-wielding manager is only 27 here – needless to say the man has aged better. A leather-wearing Madusa comes out and almost entirely faces away from the camera. Dangerously calls Madusa a woman and goes on a rant about the superiority of men. She was only there to serve Rude’s needs and tells her “the reason that I hired you for that job is because the other hooker I had in mind had a previous obligation.” He fires and pushes her, to which she responds with a pretty great roundhouse. “Security,” as Jim Ross calls it, comes out but it is just a broke of glasses-wearing, middle-aged men with mullets who come out to half-heartedly pull the two apart. It really makes you hate Dangerously so it worked, being a vile, sick segment.
Sting arrives on the stage, as we see the 12-match wheel with pyro shooting off next to it. Some stage hand delays things to set it up, could they not have done that during the previous segment? It lands on a “Coal Miner’s Glove” match. Sting awkwardly talks to himself before walking away, not cutting a promo as expected because…well, what is a Coal Miner’s Glove match?
Now the story here is that the wheel was allegedly a shoot and nobody had any idea what would come up. It appears this and the “Prince of Darkness” match had little thought put in by WCW. The trouble is, each choice has a (rounded) 8% likelihood and it just so happened to land on one they seemingly had not planned.
Ventura explains it is a steel-embedded glove which will be placed on top of a pole.
Rick Rude (w/Madusa) vs Masahiro Chono (w/Hiro Matsuda) (c) – NWA World Heavyweight Championship
Ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta first introduces some foreign dignitaries. These include NWA president Seiji Sakaguchi, Olympian Manabu Nakanishi, and special guest referee Kensuke Sasaki, as well as Rick Rude’s referee Harley Race.
Rick Rude comes out to conduct his usual pre-match, heat-gaining promo, where he reclaims he will re-win his title. With him…Madusa? Come on WCW, she was fired earlier that night. Just switch the order of the segments or have at least some shred of consistency! Rick Rude wins a coin toss. This means Harley Race will be the interior referee and Sasaki on the ring exterior.
As the two lock up, Ventura comments that Rude, as all Minnesotans do, knows Japanese as a second language and asks: “Why do you think our economy’s so good up there?”.
Slow in the early going as it quickly becomes clear than neither man has their working boots on. Some hot-doggin’ and grand-standin’ from “Ravishing” Rick. Five minutes have gone by and nearly nothing has happened thus far.
A long abdominal stretch on the mat from Chono and has great effort putting on a Boston crab. Measured downwards clubs is Rude’s main offense. Rude applies a lengthy facelock with his palms clasped across the face of the NWA titleholder. The most interesting thing so far as a drop toehold leads into an attempted STF from the man from Japan. Rude turns into a turtle, going into his shell – and not in a self-conscious way!
A fumbled Rude piledriver to which the camera angle does not do the guys any favours. Chono gets a foot on the rope. Rude applies another facelock – God, this match moves slower than an erosion. It is around this point that the crowd get real interested in something happening way off-camera. About half a minute later, a standing audience start cheering at whatever is going on.
Rude goes to the top for a dropkick but Chono moves. Jesse “The Body” chastises Chono as he inadvertedly big boots Race out of the ring. In what can only be described as a comedy of errors, Chono throws Rude over the top and onto both referees. Inside, a Rude Awakening is hit but nobody can count the pinfall. Rude tries a diving knee from the top but it misses and Chono applies his patented STF. Sasaki raises Chono’s hand after the bell rings but main referee Harley Race raises Rude’s hand for a DQ. Sasaki beats up Rude and Race, taking off his tear-off referee shirt.
Yes, 22 minutes of nothing garbage and a DQ. Happy Halloween, fans!
God, this was nothing. Dave Meltzer “the match that destroyed the NWA title in the United States,” and a candidate for the worst match of the year despite a match of the year candidate earlier that year in the G1 Climax match for the vacant NWA belt, as such Dave rated it -3 stars.
Star Rating: -**
Prior to the next match, Ventura says he does not approve of this “Japanese nationalism.” Jim tells him to calm down as this Halloween Havoc, not the UN.
Ron Simmons (c) vs The Barbarian (w/Cactus Jack) – WCW World Heavyweight Championship
As well as taking power plant trainee powerslam for immunity, The Barbarian has also trained with Cactus Jack smashing cinder blocks over his back with a sledgehammer.
Onto the match, yes: world title champion challenger The Barbarian. Admittedly, he looks awesome here, The Barbarian always had a brilliant look. Gary Michael Cappetta announced there is a one-hour time limit…can you imagine? Champion Simmons gets a Goldberg-esque entrance, led to the ring by various men in suits. “The All-American” is bedecked in a blistering banana-like yellow.
The two athletes lock up and clash with neither man getting an immediate early advantage. Simmons eventually hits a big shoulder block and wispy dropkick, knocking down his larger foe. After retreating to the outside, The Barbarian gains an advantage, utilising rather one-dimensional offence such as hammering clubs. I find it weird how The Barbarian can communicate or understand Jack when he’s supposedly a foreign, domesticated savage.
The Barbarian throws Simmons into the ring post but the referee is distracted so it is not a DQ. Inside the ring, The Barbarian applies a Million Dollar Dream, which Jim Ross notes “had a million different names,” with none sufficiently unmentioning of the WWF, seemingly. It goes on for a long time. Weird spot where The Barbarian misses a diving elbow but no sells and continues on offense.
Simmons sets up for a three-point stance which he hits. After a distraction by Jack, The Barbarian follows up. He goes for a headbutt but Simmons is way too far away so generously moves much closer. It hits. One, two…shoulder up. A powerslam as The Barbarian rebounds off the ropes and is caught in Simmons’s admittedly shoddy-looking finish to little reaction; it nonetheless gets the win.
An unrealistic champion did not help the already uninspired match. I will deduct it another half-star for being the literal world title match and also not a solidifying or legitimising win for “The All-American”. A PPV, even as “minor” as Halloween Havoc should see better than this. Do not go out of your way to watch it.
Star Rating: *
Failed push Erik Watts comes out to speak with Schiavone and Sammartino. Tony says Ron had a tremendous match, which is just bare-faced lying. It seems as if WCW are trying to rub some of Simmons’s popularity off on Watts. Will it work? No. Sammartino puts over Simmons, which is far more likely to work.
We get a first look at the Coal Miner’s Glove pole and it looks absolutely massive. This is not the traditional height reachable from the top rope, with wrestlers needing to climb up the pole to retrieve it. Pretty funny as Ventura threatens to grab it and hit Jim Ross with it, for no reason. There may be a reason Halloween Havoc 1992 is the only major coal miner’s glove match in wrestling…
Sting vs Jake Roberts – Coal Miner’s Glove
Jake Roberts come out. He was going through some serious drug issues at the time but he is looking really rough. Perhaps some of his roughest during his full-time run in a major company. Ross comments how WCW officials have been researching anti-venom, which Ross pronounces “anti-ventom,” and there is a snakebite antidote backstage.
Sting has a spangly, glittery entrance jacket of blue, gold, and white. “What Bar?”: A Cadbury Dream bar.
When the match begins, Roberts sprints for the glove but Sting gets “The Snake” with some slams before himself rushing for the glove only to be caught. Wow, this is really quite exciting. The two are then tentative for any chance to give one another the upper hand. Sting manipulates the no DQ rule by repeated ramming Roberts into the ring post. Sting fails to get the glove as it becomes clear Roberts’s shoulder will be a focus of the bout. A stiff-looking hip toss over the ropes, tries for the glove but is crotched and takes a Harley Race-like bump.
Psychology as the heel Roberts acts dirty, clunking Sting with a chair before maliciously choking Sting with his ring tape. Ventura rightly reprimands the referee for trying to stop it when it is not only without rules but unsanctioned by WCW. Sting misses a Scorpion Splash and then Roberts hits the short-arm clothesline and DDT – two of his more prominent moves which result in an exacerbation of his arm issues. Roberts tries to climb but Sting swings around the pole for an incapacitating strike which gives “The Stinger” enough time to climb the pole, the crowd are excited big time for it.
Sting hits Roberts in the ribs with the glove as the cobra, delivered to him by Sting’s long-time rival Cactus Jack, bites Roberts – in reality, the snake does not bite him and Roberts forces it onto his own face. Sting gets the pin and the win. It legitimately looks really scary as the snake dangles from the bloodied face of Jake as he screams in agony. This fear is exemplified further by lively and concerned Sting and a terrified Cactus Jack.
It is going to be unpopular and contrary to popular viewpoints but I actually really enjoyed this. Psychologically, it was a sound, fundamentally strong match in which the heel proved his evil and Sting too showed off his skills. I thought Roberts’s adaption of the arm injury and selling of the shoulder were ace, even in spite of his declining abilities. The concerns of all made the ending better, with the ending feeling more raw. The panic and terror really ramped up the seriousness but shame on WCW for just going: “Yeah…he may be dead but in other news, goodbye.” I’m obviously paragraphing for “comic” effect but that aside, I found this wholehearted likeable and think others should give it another go before chastising it.
Star Rating: ***
Commentators repeat this is only the start of the Sting/Roberts rivalry but it is the end. This is Jake’s only WCW PPV as he is released shortly after due to worsening drug issues, tepid backstage relations, and likely other factors.
Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura sign off.
Epilogue
Overall, Halloween Havoc 1992 was largely an enjoyable watch, even if the matches were largely unremarkable.
Firstly, always lovely to see the fabulous bollocks of WCW animations as the cartoonish, gimmicky graphics are truly iconic.
There was a mixture in match types. The good have errors to note but the likes of Steamboat/Pillman, Vader/Koloff, and Roberts/Sting were all enjoyable for me although no great or above matches. Rude/Chono, Simmons/Barbarian, and the tag title match were duds.
Unfortunately, the show is weighed down by bad or unremarkable matches. Booking also hampered this show, although some issues were out of WCW hands such as Terry Gordy’s no-show, the Rick Rude saga caused confusion and the eventual match led to a career-ending incident. That is not to mention a blisteringly predictable WCW title bout and stupidly unrigged wheel which likely hurt both matches, as much as I unironically and controversially liked the main event – perhaps the right main event given the two stinker world title matches.
The Wrestling Observer readers gave it 84% thumbs down with the show whilst the show had a vast impact on WCW “killed the town,” according to Conrad Thompson. Due to fans dissatisfaction with this show, with buyrates in the aftermath never hitting above this show until July 1994 and the debut of Hulk Hogan. As future WCW mastermind Eric Bischoff stated: “It was just boring to watch.”
