One of
the highlights of the new WWE Network is the ability to access all
old Pay-Per-Views from WWE, WCW, and ECW. One of the first events I
wanted to watch was WCW's 1991 Halloween Havoc, simply for the
Chamber of Horrors match. This match has been considered one
of the worst gimmick matches of all time. It is essentially a gimmicked cage
match. The main cage is set up so the combatants have room to brawl outside. At some point during the match, a small cage containing an electric
chair is lowered to the center of the ring. The match contains eight
wrestlers. The goal is for one side to get an opponent in the
electric chair and pull the switch.
Before
we get into this match, the commentators are Jim Ross and Tony
Shiavone. The entrance stage set up looks like something from an
elementary school play, with fake tombstones that read things such as
“Mike got lost on his bike”, and a painted “haunted house” in
the background. Then again, back in 1991, there really weren't
elaborate stage set ups we've become accustomed to.
Onto the Chamber of Horrors. One one side, you had the Steiner
Brothers, El Gigante, and Sting. Their opponents were The Diamond
Studd (Scott Hall), Big Van Vader, Abdullah the Butcher, and Cactus
Jack. One the surface looking at who was competing, you'd think the
match be somewhat decent. Unfortunately, though, due to constraints
on the match (see second cage with electric chair in the ring),
hampered it.
This
match was basically a brawl fest. There were foreign objects the
competitors could use, including wooden casket tops, chains, and
kendo sticks. This match was basically punching, kicking, and
whacking each other with weapons. The good guys were the winners.
Cactus Jack was by the switch to turn the electric chair on while
Abdullah and Rick Steiner were brawling in front of it. Steiner was
able to get Abdullah into the chair, and Cactus hit the switch,
frying his own teammate, and causing them to lose.
Another
thing with this match was the Refer-eye camera. Basically it was a
camera strapped to referee Mick Patrick's head. The shots would
switch to this mode quite often during this match, which made it
difficult to see what was going on at times, and made a choppy view.
While I give them credit for trying something different production
wise, it didn't work well.
Even
in concept this match was ridiculous. The execution of it (no pun
intended), failed. The match was punch, kick, choke someone with a
chain, punch, kick, hit someone with coffin lid... Not exactly
gripping viewing. The fault of this lies in the electric chair. It
took up a lot of ring space, so the wrestlers couldn't do much inside
the ring. The performers were definitely doing the best with what
they had, but this match is no doubt one of the worst gimmick matches
ever. Sure it is good for a laugh...
The
rest of the card wasn't very good either. However, the Terry Taylor
versus Bobby Eaton was an excellent match, and recommended viewing.
The rest of the card you could skip, and not miss a thing. I would
recommended viewing the Chamber of Horrors match simply for the
historic badness of it.
