[1991-10-27-WCW-Halloween Havoc] Sting & El Gigante & Rick & Scott Steiner vs Big Van Vader & Cactus Jack & Abdullah the Butcher & Diamond Studd (Chamber of Horrors)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Is this the most WCW match of all time? Good action, silly gimmicks and setting, some good ideas, some bad ideas (Refer-Eye?). Abdullah getting electrocuted is a near-legendary finish, and if nothing else, this was an interesting way to open a pay-per-view. Pretty much everyone involved worked hard, and they did try hard to do something unique. I don't think this is Wrestlecrap worthy. It's just weird.

[soup23]

I always go back and forth between this match and Rodman vs. Savage fighting in a porta potty at a bike rally being the most "WCW" match in history.

[s1rweeze]

Is this the most WCW match of all time?

I think you're right. I remember watching this on scramble-vision the night it aired. This was my first PPV impression of WCW, since I wanted to know what made them different from WWF. This match uh... answered that question, more or less.

[ajtroma]

I'd say the most "WCW" match ever would be that Uncensored 1996 Triple Decker Cage fiasco

[BackToBionic]

I like that this match was the 2nd most hyped match on the card but they had to put it on first cos it was probably such a clusterfuck to construct. And oh, that switch.

[PeteF3]

This is possibly the lamest, cheapest entrance set in the history of wrestling PPVs. It shouldn't be a big deal but it's a big point of difference in the presentation of the Big Two. Also there's a "MINN. TWINS" tombstone which only highlights the idiotic, WCW-esque decision to put this PPV up against Game 7 of the World Series.

 

Amazingly(?) I've never seen this match before. Nice to see Vader again, getting absolutely no fanfare that we can see prior to this show--had to hype up Barry Windham's presence here instead. Cactus Jack is out with a chainsaw that I'm guessing doesn't get used as one of the Instruments of Torture. Big pop for the Steiners. Clusterfuck of a match follows with the main highlights being Mick Foley busting his ass trying to get this concept over. Inexplicable events abound like guys in masks popping out of caskets and "The Ghouls," then Cactus Jack waits by the switch for 45 seconds before flipping it, allowing Rick Steiner to put Abby in the CHAIR OF TORTURE for the win. Abby flips out after being released and Schiavone gets off the Line of the Year: "When he awoke, I guess he thought he was in heaven and he knew he shouldn't be there!"

 

That was...yeah. There's barely anything else to say.

[Kevin Ridge]

This opened the show?! They did a poor job explaining this one on the buildup. Leatherface should be taking notes from Cactus how to use a chainsaw. Scott Steiner is back. What a mess. Just way too much going on to follow. It's not a terrible match by any means but this was too excessive on what they were trying to do. Guys all bloody and the reaction the finish gets in me is laughing with Abdullah getting electrocuted.

[soup23]

I still don't know what quite to think of this match. Campy fun but some really great bumps mixed in and some big time legends inside the match. The refer-eye should be renamed the reefer-eye because someone was high when they thought of that one. Finish is still dumb with the lever dropping but this is certainly the good and bad of WCW in one snapshot.

[Beast]

It seemed like everyone was working hard and that a lot of great hard-hitting action was going on, but due to the "refer-eye" camera shots, shots from outside the cage, and way too much going on at once (both wrestlers and gimmicks) this definitely deserves its label as "Wrestlecrap". Even just for the horrible ending with Cactus delayed switch hitting.

 

Sad part is 75 percent of the participants were capable of putting on an all-time classic brawl.

[PhilTLL]

What else can I say, except that the ghoul medics are top-notch WCW crap, and I think this is the first Sting/Vader exchange, which I never realized before for some reason. Nor that Windham's injury was legit, which presumably means they were really going to put him in here after his 3-month face turn, his teaming with Dustin for 2 weeks, and the company acknowledging through the broadcasters that they didn't understand why he would team with the heels. Yikes.

[garretta]

The match portion of this wasn't as bad as I thought it would be after reading the comments. Considering that the gimmick itself was insane, the action wasn't bad. It was kind of like WarGames without the teamwork, and almost everyone I've read, myself included, thinks that WarGames is the ultimate cage match.

 

I could have lived without the Chamber of Horrors being smack dab in the middle of the ring, but where else could it have conceivably gone? The only thing I might have done differently would have been to eliminate the small cage and just have the chair in the middle, but that would have increased the chances of guys tripping over it or inadvertently sitting down in it before it was time for the finish.

 

We didn't need the ghouls or the guys popping up out of caskets. They should have put weapons in the caskets instead and have regular officials be the stretcher bearers, though I have to admit that it was fun to see Abby and Mick beat the ghouls up after Abby escaped the chair.

 

Kudos to Tony for pointing out how dangerous this match was for Sting and the U.S. title, even if you ignore the fact that he was also the soon-to-be number one contender for the World title.

 

So it was Mick who wasn't supposed to be in the match, according to JR. We all assumed it was Vader because he wasn't part of the buildup. I thought Mick was the reason for the match, that it was something that only people as crazy as Cactus Jack and Abdullah the Butcher could be at home in. I wonder how they would have justified Windham actually being on the heel side; maybe since Abby was so big, Barry would have joined the faces and the match would have been fought five-on-three.

 

I didn't mind the Refer-Eye; as crazy as this match was anyway, why not have Patrick wear a camera on his head?

 

The puns and references to electricity were there right from the ring announcements, and they sort of trivialized the match, at least in my eyes. If the action hadn't been so gritty, talking about the match that way would have made it seem like even more of a gimmick than it was.

 

I saw the tombstone for the Twins; it was a cute (but ultimately fruitless) inside joke. I don't think they had much choice on the date if they wanted the card to be done before Halloween, especially if Vince was still enforcing the clause in his contract prohibiting the likes of Viewer's Choice from running competing pay-per-views within thirty days of a WWF event. This one just made it over the line; October 27 was thirty-one days before the November 27 Survivor Series.

 

If the line about Abby not wanting to be in heaven was Tony's best of the night, "He's well done, guys!" was second, especially considering Larry Shreeve's choice of a second career. This may be Tony's best pay-per-view performance to date, regardless of role or promotion.

[dawho5]

I liked that everyone was trying to work hard and make this less of a dog than it could have been. Foley really wanted this to be a big deal, you could tell. That was all I liked. No fan reaction to Vader. At all. Was he even mentioned on TV in the lead-up? Ref-cam? One and done please. Putting that monstrosity in the center of the ring and handcuffing the wrestlers more than they already were? Great call on that one. Foley waiting on Steiner to put Abby in the chair was all kinds of stupid, but I guess we can chalk that one up to the crazy guy being nuts. All I'm going to say to finish off is that if i had bought a PPV for whatever Havoc cost and this was the first match I saw, I would never have ordered another WCW PPV again.