Halloween Havoc rewatch...

[guiltyparty]

Luger move count update: double ax handle, pin with feet on ropes.

Savage wins after Luger collided with Jimmy Hart on the ring apron. I remember Macho and Luger having some good matches in this era, this wasn't one of them. The announce team was totally distracted by the Gisnt falling off the roof bit, and Savage was clearly working hurt (his left arm was more heavily wrapped than the Dungeon of Doom's Yeti).

[guiltyparty]

And now we arrive at Hogan vs The Giant... Non-monster truck version.

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Wow... Just wow. That main event was really special.

Giant, in his first professional match, wins by DQ. Jimmy Hart turns on Hogan in the process.

The Yeti runs out and he and Giant double bear hug Hogan, a move which Gold and Stardust should totay bring back. Luger and Savage run out to make the save, and Luger makes the heel turn they've been teasing all night.

Okay, final thoughts:
Match of the night: Sting & Flair vs Anderson & Pillman
Worst match: not counting the sumo monster truck thing, probably Hawk vs Kuresawa.
MVP: Lex Luger.
Counter programming note: WWF this month presented In Your House 4: Great White North. Highlights of that event were Dean Douglas winning the IC title from HBK by forfeit only to lose it to Razor Ramon moments later and British Bulldog beating WWF champion Diesel by DQ... October 1995, dark days indeed.
Okay a roll of the dice to decide the next Halloween Havoc I watch results in....
1992... Spin the wheel, Make the deal.

[tax]

Hawk was good with Flair (but who wasn't in the 80s) but yeah, otherwise I'd rather not.

[guiltyparty]

Okay... Havoc 1992 time!
Okay out of the gate the booth is Jim Ross and Jesse Ventura... Oh hell yes.

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Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, & Michael PS Hayes. That is one heck of a six man tag team.
Their opponents: Shane Douglas, Tom Zenk, and Johnny Gunn, aka Salvatore Sincere.
The Philly crowd shits all over the babyface trio and cheer the Midnight HorseBirds.
Unfortunately, for humanity, Gunn pins Hayes.

[guiltyparty]

Ricky Steamboat vs Brian Pillman is next...
This is heel Pillman, but not fully formed. Very solid match.
Steamboat wins.

[guiltyparty]

So up next is Big Van Vader vs Nikita Koloff, with Vader defending Ravishing Rick Rude's United States title.
This story doesn't make a lot of sense....
Rude was going to have two matches, a US title defense and an NWA title challenge, the second one for which he gets to pick one of two referees.
He picks Vader's manager Harley Race as his referee and, seemingly as payment, Vader gets to act as Rude's proxy for this match... Or something.
Anyway Vader wins a boring brawl.

[guiltyparty]

Pausing havoc to spend some time with the kids.

[guiltyparty]

Back to it.
There are a lot of ways to tell if you're watching a Bill Watts era WCW event. Erik Watts would be a red flag. So would a black Babyface pushed to the top. But for my money, the surest sign you are in Bill Watts country is a broadway.
So, yeah. Dustin Rhodes & Barry Windham vs. Steve Williams & Steve Austin is next, for the "unified tag team championship" or some such.
My understanding is that this one was sort of thrown together at the last minutes. It was originally booked as Williams and Gordy defending the titles against The Steiners, but Rick got hurt. So, Windham and Rhodes beat MVC for the belts, changing the match to a rematch and writing Rick and Scott out of the story... Then Gordy quit, and Austin was tapped as his replacement last minute.
Anyway, the match is a really good 20 minute match. Unfortunately, the match goes 30 minutes. There's a lot of stalling here, a necessary evil in a time limit draw, and Austin and Williams don't have a lot of chemistry as a team.
Still this is probably the best match so far.

[guiltyparty]

So the second act of the Rick Rude story unfolds next, with Rude challenging Masahiro Chono for the NWA world championship (big gold belt). This match has two referees, which works exactly as well as Catholicism with two popes. The referees are Harley Race and Kensuki Sasaki. Probably the most entertaining part of the two referee gimmick is that they are dressed differently, with Race in the zebra stripes and Sasaki in a powder blue shirt and bow tie. Anyway, Race DQs Chono for tossing Rude over the top rope... cause Bill Watts.
The problem with WCW's use of guys from Japan in 1992 was that it was 1992. There was no YouTube, no Wikipedia, no internet at all. Unless you'd played an imported Fire Pro game, odds were you didn't know or care who Chono or Sasaki were. It showed in the crowds lack of reaction to this match. Rude had enough heat to draw the crowd in some, but they were largely flat and the match suffers for it. Also, when Sasaki brawls with Race after the match, it comes off kinda heelish. As he's an unknown and Race is a hapless old man.

[guiltyparty]

Barbarian, managed by Cactus Jack, challanges Ron Simmons for the WCW title in the semi-main event.
...
That sentence really stands on it's own, doesn't it?

[guiltyparty]

In our main event "lights out" match, we see Sting vs Jake "The Snake" Roberts in a coal miners glove match.
Christ, what a cluster fuck. The glove was a total non-factor, as sting pins Jake after Jake's own cobra bites him in the face.
I've read over the years that the wheel which picked this match wasn't rigged. I can believe it, because this had to be the worst option on the thing. I know coal miners glove matches were to Don Owen's Portland what cage matches were to Vince in the garden, but since the death of the territories, had anyone seen a coal miners glove match?

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Final thoughts on Havoc 1992...
Match of the night: Austin & Williams vs Rhodes & Windham. Far from perfect, but the highlight of the night for sure.
Worst match: coal miner's glove match. Bad concept, bad execution, bad finish.
MVP: Jim Ross. Good ol JR actually manages to sound convincing when saying The Barbarian could win the belt.
Counter programming note: the next month would see WWF's "New Generation" really get going, as Survivor Series 92 would be main eventer by Bret Hart Vs. Shawn Michaels. Oh, and it too would have a weapon on a pole match, the nightstick match between Bossman & Nailz. That wasn't good either, but at least it wasn't the main event.
A roll of a die to determine the next one in viewing order gives us: 1997.
I remember loving this event when I saw it live. Let's see how it holds up.

[tyguy]

You're going to be all done with 2 1/2 weeks still left in October.