Sunday, December 21, 2014

WCW Halloween Havoc 1991 Part 2 and 3


Part 2 begins with Garvin and Hayes coming out in zebra print gear. We're getting Garvin-Badd here, and Garvin's got grey in the stache already. According to Pat McNeill, Dusty hired Mero as a jobber and took him off to repackage him. Garvin gets a nice running forearm smash. Teddy is dressed in an early '90s-ish getup, but not too bad - it's just a bit purple-heavy. Badd's gear has a set of lips on the ass and a pseudo thong in the back with fringe - so it's among the more subdued outfits. One of the great subtle bits with Badd here is that they gave him credibility at all times referencing him as a golden gloves boxer. Normally, you'd just make this guy a fruitcake with no credibility, but like with Adrian Street, having an air of toughness really helps.

Birds are faces here, but the injured Hayes clocks Badd. Super sunset flip "hits", but Garvin's way too far out. Badd kind of grabs him, but Garvin trips on him - this is Garvin's fault. Double axe off the top is met with a Garvin shot to the gut. Garvin's double chins really hurt this deal too. Badd's mouth is busted up somehow. Garvin misses a sloppy elbow. Leapfrog leads to a double head bonk - I could see that getting over again now, because you don't see it anymore. Garvin gets the DDT, but Teddy distracts the ref. Badd gets the left and that's it. Hayes takes off the sling, so he's fine or something, but he can't wrestle Hammer later...I'm honestly fine with that.

Missy Hyatt's cleavage is backstage as a showgirl. Eaton has a pumpkin, okay then. Stunning Steve's out with his wife at the time, Lady Blossom and her notable cleavage. Steve's black and red robe looks good. Really, every part of his gear and presentation worked early on except for the wacky super-'90s gear with random neon and bright shit on them.  According to Pat, Austin shaved his head to be more like Bruce Willis - it worked. They do some random matwork before going into some fast action and Dustin nails a perfect snap lariat. Dustin's grandmother is on-screen for a bit in a red sweater. Austin is so smooth with his dropdowns and then he does this sweet kick to the gut while spinning around to keep on him. Hiptoss leads to an Austin elbow missing. Back suplex gets 2 for Steve. They zoom in on Lady Blossom's cleavage, and she eats it up. Crowd is half-papered and bored. They fight on the floor and Dustin blades. Double axe off the top to the floor from Austin. Gutwrench gets 2 for Austin. Really nice overhead shot looks cool. Hilarious bit of them zooming in on Jeanie's face and then going right to her tits.
 


Sweet flying lariat from Austin gets a flip bump. They announce 4 minutes remain and the stream just dies. At least on X1, it can restart right away with the recently viewed section. Small package gets 2. Dustin dropkick misses and Austin gets 2. Crazy to think that Austin's only a couple of years in the business here - he's so good. Jeanie just slaps the shit out of Dustin. Austin does the rope hop spot and just decided to crotch himself because Dustin moved too early. 2 minutes left and they brawl on the floor here in a TITLE MATCH. Double juice here for a TV Title match with no heat. Bionic elbow hits for 2. Love the ref hopping on the ropes to count along with the punches. Diving lariat hits, but the time limit expires.

 Starrcade is hyped and then Oz comes out and crashes the stream. He gets no real intro here and is facing Bill Kazmaier, carrying a giant inflatable globe. Oh my God. Bill's hair is running from both the front and back of his head, leaving him with a bizarre mullet. Shitty lockup leads to a shitty side headlock. Kaz gets a slam. Oz of course wants a test of strength with THE STRONGEST MAN ON EARTH! Oz kicks him in the gut. Kaz fires up. Oz's black gear with neon green star and lightning bolt is amazing - it can almost be perfectly made in FPR in theory. Hiptoss to Oz. Oz gets back clubs.  Kaz takes a nice bump off a back suplex. Oz skins the cat and gets a rack for a win.
 


Van Hammer will wrestle for HIS HAMMERHEADS later. Hammer's got GUYS WITH JACKHAMMERS for his intro. Great bit with Pat saying that when he and his friends went to WCW shows, they'd sing MC Hammer at him. Doug Somers is his opponent and he's got a bit of a gut and is whiter than fish meat. Great guy to put in there with Hammer since Hammer looks even better with him in the ring. Big legdrop from Hammer sets up HAMMER HYSTERIA - ha! and leads to a slingshot suplex that is just awful. It was almost a snap brainbuster there. Somers kicks out at 2.5 here and it's just over. Pillman's feathered mullet is backstage talking about the LHW belt. Richard Morton and his partially-dyed mullet are backstage with the brunette Alexandra York.

They show a fan with a Flair shirt in the front row. Nick Patrick has the refer-eye. Morton's business gear has fewer wraps around the legs. I love the LHW belt design - it was fleshed out a bit more as the final WCW TV title, but I like the red look to it more. Refer-eye misses the action. Morton goes to the floor and oh, his gear has back pockets - goodie. The "computer" is seemingly turned off. Spinkick from Pillman. Pillman does a fakeout, asks for silence, gets it and gets a double sledge - nice. Pat talks about in SC, an arena being built simply to hopefully house WCW events. Wow. Fewer than 100 fans showed up for it in 1993 for an Austin-Flair match. Fantastic shot of Nick's arm from the refer-eye camera, then one of the mat. Morton gets a back elbow. Side headlock takedown leads to fans folding their arms and yawning. Inverted atomic from Morton hits nicely. Morton as a dominant heel is fine, but he's weird as one of the best faces ever.

Pillman gets backhands and back elbows. O'Connor roll gets 2 for Brian. Morton clotheslines him for 2. Armbar to Pillman. LONG armbar here that does nothing of note. A guy in a neon pink hat with neon pink trim on his shirt is folding his hands kindly. Morton moves to an overhand wristlock and Pillman fights back. Pillman clotheslines Morton down. This is the slowest-paced LHW title match ever. Grounded choke leads to an enzuiguri. Pat compares the camera to Homer's giant hat cam - yes! They bounce to the floor and Pillman gets posted. Pillman goes up top and gets a flying crossbody for the win and the title. We get a slow-mo of the action shot and one of the ref counting.
 

Part 3 starts off with Ross and Tony and Pat saying "this is one of the best PPVs in October of '91." Zenk's out to face THE PHANTOM! Phantom's got a half-white and half-black mask and is covering his face with a cape as well and a giant Taker hat. Phantom has a bushy stache and punches just like Rick Rude. Running knee hits just like Rick Rude. Gutbuster is new. Elbow to the back of the head just like Rude. Rude Awakening hits. Tony says that there a few signature moves, but one is the Rude Awakening and BOY CAN HE EXECUTE IT! Another Starrcade plug.

WCW World Tag Team Title match is up next. OH MY GOD, IT'S THE SPECIAL FORCES and they're US Tag Champs. NWA belts are used for Larry and Arn, with dark blue leather. Chip has tiny blue trunks, yellow and red knee pads, and red and yellow boots. Chip gets put in an abdominal stretch, but counters it into one. Backslide gets 2 for Chip. Arn comes in, claps for himself and seemingly says YUP, I GOT THIS with his finger in the air. Arm wrenching double sledge hits for the faces. Arn stomps him down.  Knee to the jaw from Arn. Outside-in launcher from Arn takes Todd in, but he counters it again to send him to the floor and then Arn eats a backdrop out of a piledriver on the floor. Pat talks about firebreaking actually being a term and not just being WCW screwing up firefighter. Pat talks about Larry being famous for a feud with Bruno, which he mentioned a time or two in his career. Nice boot rake sets up a knee drop. Larry tags in for a slam. They attack the chest of Todd - bad idea. Todd fires back with awful punches. Larry jumps him with a double sledge. Larry gets up from a slam with a cool pop-up squat. Chip comes in with dropkicks and an awkward lift up into a slam. Chip bonks into Larry, eats a spinebuster, and wins. Larry takes the safest bump ever for the ramp fall by hooking the ropes and lands on his knees. Arn gets up top and lets everyone know they're better than the faces - well, he's not wrong.

Bischoff the vampire is here with a gigantic silver mic pack on his belt. Heyman and Madusa are here. Boy did he age a ton from the late '80s to here. Madusa was apparently married to Greg Valentine here and Heyman cuts a promo declaring war on WCW, Sting, and the committee in charge. He brings out THE PHANTOM as the man to take Sting out, which crashes the stream. Rude is unveiled and promised to be the NEXT UNITED STATES CHAMPION because of course, that title mattered. Pat talks about a friend of his having Rude play with him due to him being a family friend. Rude cuts a fine promo, and this is about the peak of his overall career. He's a legit main eventer and portrayed as a killer. Ron Simmons video crashes...really now? This is a nightmare on the Xbox One and there's no good reason for it. Time to fire up the PS4 and finish this event off.

JR and Tony hype up the Dangerously stable. Ron Simmons video package puts over him being a football icon. Ron is in his jersey and some super-short shorts. Ron does a ton of football drills to prep for this wrestling match. Ron is not champion here, and Pat goes over how Bearcat Wright and Bobo Brazil holding recognized world titles before Ron. Ron's music is generic, but not DON'T STEP TO RON just yet. Dusty is out in tie dye to counteract Race for Luger. Luger's got his badass theme that is one of the best ever, and some giant silver paper LUGER letters. Luger has Race and Mr. Hughes with him. Hughes is dressed EXACTLY like Big Bubba Rogers, who Dusty also made as a character. They were apparently going to fire Harley in WCW, but Luger stood up for him and ensured he had a job - good for Lex. This is a 2/3 falls match for reasons we aren't told.

Luger's got shiny blue gear and Ron's in red and orange for Florida state with a lightning bolt in orange. Ross talks about these men having wars in football. Pat talks about this being the feud where Race was implied to say a very bad word but actually said "boy" and they muted it. Luger wasn't anywhere near the exchange at the time because he didn't want to be a part of it. Long tieup. Ron goes up high for a dropkick and Lex holds onto the ropes. Nice running elbow to the neck from Lex. Lex ducks for a backdrop, but eats a face plant. Ron gets the powerslam. Spinebuster hits for a fall. This was more like a falling Batista one and not the usual Ron CHUCK THAT MOTHERFUCKER THROUGH THE MAT version. Race and Dusty give advice in the corner like it's real. Dusty's forehead in closeup with all those gig scars are nasty in '91 and in SD.

Luger's selling the back and Ross puts over that he couldn't even get to his feet during the break. Luger is coated in either sweat or oil. Lex goes for a suplex, but can't get it, so Ron snap suplexes him for 2. Lex gets an eye poke, but eats a funky bulldog for 2.  Ron gets 2 off a small package. This is really just a bunch of moves match - even with the back being a key. Ron gets an outside-in sunset flip for 2. Lex sends Ron to the floor. Boot rake from Lex leads to a face rake on the ropes. Lex gets a horrid elbow for 2. Ross puts over that Ron won the first quarter. Lex gets a suplex for 2. They're in first gear, and that's being liberal. Lex gets a kneeling sleeper with the ropes. Lex transitions it into something that would be a chinlock if Lex's arms were near the chin and uses the ropes, kind of. They put over Race sweating bullets out there and Pat talks about him working house shows if his charges weren't there. Ron gets 2.5 off a backslide. Ron gets a shoulderblock and doesn't follow up. Dusty attacks Race. Harley holds Ron while Ron kind of backdrops Lex, so Lex gets a fall via DQ. Wow did that suck. "Ron is very disappointed with the booking of this match, as you can tell!" - greatness from Pat.

Pat talks about Ron's ass being normal-sized and not giant like it was in WWE. Okay. Ron gets pissed at Lex and attacks in the corner. Luger has a hardway cut near his eye resulting in a trickle. TV Title match had double juice. World title gets some minor blood. Ron gets him up for...an inverted atomic. Why not just spinebuster him? Ron gets a superplex for 2. Ron gets a loose powerslam and goes up for the second rope shoulderblock, but Lex goes to the floor. Ron gets poked in the eye and goes for the 3 point stance and eats the post. Lex gets the worst piledriver in history for the win. They slow-mo the piledriver and it looks even worse - although at least Ron's head hits the knee. Pat and Jim talk about the Lawler-WCW rumors and go over how Paul Heyman was suspended for Eddie Gilbert leaking that, and then having his expense accounts examined and that being the official reason for the suspension. Love WCW having credits.

This really wasn't a great show, but it was an interesting time capsule. Next up is the '90 Survivor Series.

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