Halloween Havoc (1990)

Halloween Havoc
VHS cover featuring Sting and Sid Vicious
Promotion	National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling
Date	October 27, 1990
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	UIC Pavilion
Attendance	8,000
Tagline(s)	Terror Rules the Ring
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous The Great American Bash Next → Starrcade
Halloween Havoc chronology
← Previous 1989 Next → 1991

The 1990 Halloween Havoc was the second annual Halloween Havoc professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) under the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) banner. It took place on October 27, 1990, from the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois. This was also the final Halloween Havoc produced by WCW under the NWA, as in January 1991, WCW split from the NWA.

On the original VHS release, only 6 of the 10 matches of the main broadcast were included as the fourth, fifth, sixth, and ninth matches of the show were not included. In 2014, all of WCW's Halloween Havoc PPVs became available on WWE's streaming service, the WWE Network; however, the WWE Network version of the 1990 Halloween Havoc is also edited and not the complete version as is usual for WCW's other PPVs on the Network from this period. ^[1]

Production

Background

On October 28, 1989, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) held a Halloween-themed pay-per-view (PPV) event titled Halloween Havoc. A second Halloween Havoc was scheduled for October 27, 1990, at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois, thus establishing Halloween Havoc as an annual PPV for WCW. ^[2]

Storylines

The event featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Professional wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. ^[3]

Other on-screen personnel

Role:	Name:
Commentator	Jim Ross
	Paul E. Dangerously
	Jack Brickhouse (Taylor vs Irwin Match)
Referee	Nick Patrick
	Randy Anderson
	Mike Atkins
Interviewer	Tony Schiavone
Ring announcer	Gary Michael Cappetta

Event

Prior to the start of the event, there were two dark matches in which Tim Horner defeated Barry Horowitz and Rip Rogers defeated Reno Riggins.

In the opening match Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane), after Lane hit Rich with Jim Cornette’s tennis racket.

In the following match, Terry Taylor defeated Bill Irwin. Brad Armstrong then defeated J.W. Storm.

Following this match, The Master Blasters (Blade and Steel) defeated The Southern Boys (Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong). Armstrong attempted to attack Jim Cornette to stop him from interfering in the match, which allowed Steel to hit a clothesline on Armstrong and pick up the victory via pinfall.

In the following match, The Fabulous Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) defeated The Renegade Warriors (Chris Youngblood and Mark Youngblood).

The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner) then defeated The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags) to retain the NWA United States Tag Team Championship. This match featured the Steiner Brothers using the double team bulldog off the top rope for the first time. Scott ultimately picked up the victory via pinfall on Knobbs following a Frankensteiner. After the match, The Nasty Boys attacked the Steiner Brothers with the championship belts, as well as the referee.

During the next match between the Junkyard Dog and Moondog Rex, Rex attempted to use his bone as a weapon. When the referee grabbed the bone, Junkyard Dog used the opportunity to hit a headbutt and pick up a pinfall.

In the next match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship, the champions Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) along with the challengers Ric Flair and Arn Anderson, wrestled to a double count out.

The second to last match, for the NWA United States Championship, saw Stan Hansen defeat Lex Luger to win the championship.

The main event, for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship saw Sting retain his title against Sid Vicious. Sid originally thought he won the match, after Sting hit a bodyslam off the top rope, with Sid falling on him to pick up the victory via pinfall. As fireworks went off and balloons dropped from the ceiling, Sting came out from the back and revealed the man in the ring was really Barry Windham. Windham had traded places with Sting during the main event, after Sid attacked him backstage before the match. The real Sting entered the ring, hit the Stinger Splash and picked up the victory. The show ended following Sting’s interview with Jim Ross regarding the match and The Black Scorpion.

Aftermath

The 1990 Halloween Havoc would be the final Halloween Havoc produced by WCW under the NWA banner, as in January 1991, WCW split from the NWA.

Stan Hansen ended Lex Luger's record 523-day reign as United States Heavyweight Champion, then returned to Japan shortly after dropping the title back to Luger at Starrcade. The Black Scorpion angle continued until Starrcade when it was revealed that Ric Flair was behind the character, in an attempt to regain the NWA World Heavyweight title.

The Midnight Express broke up after the PPV, Jim Cornette was tired of his and his team's treatment by Jim Herd so he and Stan Lane left to form Smoky Mountain Wrestling in 1991, but Bobby Eaton remained in the promotion and began a short singles career (even having a short reign with the WCW World Television Championship) before joining Paul E. Dangerously's "Dangerous Alliance" and teaming up with Arn Anderson.

Results

No.	Results [4] [5]	Stipulations	Times
1D	Tim Horner defeated Barry Horowitz	Singles match	08:35
2D	Rip Rogers defeated Reno Riggins	Singles match	03:57
3	Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton defeated The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton and Stan Lane) (with Jim Cornette)	Tag team match	20:49
4	Terry Taylor defeated Bill Irwin	Singles match	11:47
5	Brad Armstrong defeated J.W. Storm	Singles match	05:04
6	The Master Blasters (Blade and Steel) defeated The Southern Boys (Tracy Smothers and Steve Armstrong)	Tag team match	07:17
7	The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin) (with Little Richard Marley) defeated The Renegade Warriors (Chris and Mark Youngblood)	Tag team match	17:28
8	The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) (c) defeated The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs and Jerry Sags)	Tag team match for the NWA United States Tag Team Championship	15:24
9	Junkyard Dog defeated Moondog Rex	Singles match	03:15
10	Doom (Ron Simmons and Butch Reed) (c) (with Teddy Long) vs. Ric Flair and Arn Anderson ended in a double count-out	Tag team match for the NWA World Tag Team Championship	18:20
11	Stan Hansen defeated Lex Luger (c)	Singles match for the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship	09:30
12	Sting (c) defeated Sid Vicious	Singles match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship	12:38
(c)  – the champion(s) heading into the match D  – this was a dark match

See also

• 1990 in professional wrestling

References

1. "Every pay-per-view available on WWE Network". WWE. February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
2. "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1990". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 135.
3. Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications . Retrieved 2015-11-15.
4. "NWA Halloween Havoc 1990 - "Terror Rules The Ring" « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". www.cagematch.net. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
5. "Halloween Havoc".