WCW Halloween Havoc 1989 Results and Review Better Wrestling VHS Series

In an effort to go back and watch more and more wrestling, I have decided to review older VHS tapes. As you may or may not know, at the height of my tape collecting, I had 1400 wrestling videos. I had amassed a huge collection before getting married and selling it all off. Now with the network, you can relive the action. As such, here we go, a review of the 1989 classic Halloween Havoc from the Philadelphia Civic Center in Pennsylvania. Before a crowd of roughly 7,000, this was one hell of a night for wrestling, and here are my thoughts.

Halloween Havoc 1989 (October 28, 1989)

Tom Zenk defeated Mike Rotunda

You may know Mike Rotunda as IRS in the WWF but here he was part of the Varsity Club. As for Zenk, he’s known as Z-Man and he didn’t really get to far in WWE as far as I know. However, he has some serious talent. He reminds of Rick Martel, and well he was part of the Pan Am connection. This was a 13 minute, finesse wrestling match, with some good spots overall, and classic old school wrestling action.

The Samoan Swat Team defeated The Midnight Express and Dr. Death Steve Williams

This wasn’t half bad. It was a match that was fast paced, hard hitting, and featured a lot of crowd interaction. The crowd was going insane for everything that each team did, especially when Jim Cornette got involved.

Tommy Rich defeated The Cuban Assassin

Not a good match. Rich was looking old. Cuban Assassin was on his way out, so this must’ve been the bathroom break match.

The Fabulous Freebirds defeated The Dynamic Dudes (Tag Team Title Match)

Holy crap, Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas coming out with skateboards and neon gear! This was hilarious to see, and a bad idea. However, the match featured The Fabulous Freebirds, and they were the champions in this match. Michael Hayes came out without the tag title, and Garvin had one around his waist. That seemed odd to me. Overall, the match wasn’t half bad, and the Freebirds were way over with the crowd, and of course after around 11 minutes, they won this one.

Doom defeated The Steiner Brothers

Holy crap, The Steiner Brothers were over, and they were so fast in ring. Doom is Butch Reed and Ron Simmons and they had a hard time keeping up with the Steiners. Also, note, Nancy Benoit was the manager of Doom. Whatever the case is, the Steiners lost this one after getting distracted. However, they put the boots to Doom, and Scott Steiner was really impressive in this one. Holy crap, the dude can move, and the Frankensteiner is a thing of beauty.

Lex Luger defeated Brian Pillman (United States Championship)

Lex Luger and Pillman tore the house down in my opinion. This match was just under 17 minutes, and the two put on a classic. Pillman was flying around, but Luger was doing power moves and trying to ground and pound his way through this one. Eventually Pillman missed from the top rope, and Luger capitalized. A great overall match in my view.

The Road Warriors defeated The Skyscrapers

This was another hard hitting tag team match. Holy crap was it hard hitting. The Road Warriors weren’t selling as much, and you could tell. It was very noticeable that Sid Vicious was NOT as tough as Hawk or Animal. The match went by nicely, but it was The Road Warriors that got the win with a DQ finish. A young Teddy Long was here, so that was interesting.

Ric Flair and Sting defeated The Great Muta and Terry Funk in a Thunderdome Cage Match with Bruno Sammartino as special guest referee

And away we go, the main event was an insane wrestling match, that was very strange. The Thunderdome cage match was supposed to have an electrified top. I didn’t really see that come into play much. However, this match turned into a brawl fast, and you will absolutely be surprised how ripped Terry Funk was in 1989. Furthermore, Sting and Flair teaming without Flair turning on him. Muta was undefeated at this point, and the four guys in this match absolutely fought a hard hitting brawling cage match. Not a lot of blood or anything, but a lot of just straight chops, suplexes and Sting flying off the top rope a lot. Good overall main event, but a little old school for many tastes.

Halloween Havoc 1989 Overall rating: 8 out 10

The best part of this show was the U.S. Title match, alongside the Steiners and the Samoan Swat Team. This type of wrestling was far and away better than the WWF product at the time, that’s for sure. I had a blast with this one, and the crowd reactions are the best with this. The crowd was distinctly involved with all the matches, and the main event had them going absolutely insane.

I recommend buying Halloween Havoc 1989 on VHS, because it's unedited. If you see it on the network, the music, and some of the signs, and broadcast has been edited for time, and WWE's only standards! Click here to get the UNEDITED version. 

Overanalyzing Wrestling: Christian Edition

The funniest thing to come out of wrestling this week didn't happen on any show. The funny thing about wrestling behind the scene's is stranger than anything that can be presented on screen. So check this out, Boogeyman and Booker T are hanging out together and they go to a sports bar to watch an NFL game. They get asked to leave because Boogey has a cross necklace on and its against the dress code. Before anything could go down however, Booker and Boogey leave. Sad huh? Can you imagine if the bar owners fought Boogeyman and Booker T? That would be incredibly hilarious to me. Look for Boogeyman to make his return on Halloween...or not.

Did you hear about Evan Bourne? Kid's done for 4 months thanks a legit injury on ECW. That's right, Evan Bourne suffered a legit injury. He tore ligaments in his ankle. This means that Vinnie Mac is once again going to ground the cruiserweights, as if there were many to talk about. This is a sad thing for Bourne, he was getting a good push through the WWE ranks. I wonder how it is that the mexican Lucha Libre stars are able to have a high flying offense and yet they don't have nearly as many injuries as the WWE stars. It's just funny to me.

In recent comments made by Y2J, he said that punching Shawn Michael's wife was tough but that it all worked out. I remember when that went down, it was nuts, Chris Jericho got real heat on that one, that's for sure.

This week in wrestling has been lackluster so far, to say the least. I mean there was a few good moments, but overall I'm not as excited as I once was. I am not sure if I ever will be marking out as much as I did when I was a little kid watching Hogan and Andre battle it out. However, I'm still here, don't worry.

Here's a classic match for you guys from vaults of WCW:

War Games 1989 from The Great American Bash:

The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express and Steve Williams vs. The Fabulous Freebirds and The Samoan Swat Team



and Part 2:



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