NXT Halloween Havoc, then and now: 35 years of in-ring frights

Halloween is the one night a year where adults and children alike can step out of their normal routines, their regular attires, and their public personas to become something darker, more sinister, more daring, and be rewarded for it. Unless those adults are professional wrestlers, in which case substitution and subterfuge aren’t just encouraged, but are necessary daily to engage the crowd and earn their keep.

So it makes sense to pair the scary scene with the squared circle. In 2020, "Halloween Havoc," the pay-per-view event born 35 years ago, was once again solidified as an October viewing staple, now under the direction of WWE's NXT brand, led by Shawn Michaels and crew. Throughout its history, the event has had its monsters, its mulligans, its Macho Man maulings of too-eager customers, but mostly, it’s embodied one of the best tenants of pro wrestling: This is supposed to be fun. Halloween Havoc, in feeling and fighting, continues to be one of the most enduring staples in pro wrestling.

So ahead of Sunday's 17th franchise offering, this year at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania, join Uncrowned as we gaze back into the rear-view at more than three decades of in-ring frights.

At first fright

The initial Halloween Havoc event debuted under the National Wrestling Alliance umbrella in 1989 as a production of World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Hailing from the Philadelphia Civic Center, the show itself steered clear of the scary and supernatural, save for the main event. But its spirit is still felt to this day; eight of the competitors on that inaugural card have children, nieces, or nephews on the current WWE roster.

It’s fitting that the opening match to the inaugural spooky spectacle featured Mike Rotunda, father of WWE’s most prominent boogeyman post-Undertaker, the late Bray Wyatt, as well as Bo Dallas under his “Uncle Howdy” persona. Looking back on shows from this time, it's difficult to process the amount of star-power involved; there are five tag-team matches, with four of them inevitably featuring someone’s greatest tag team of all time. The Steiners, Doom, both Expresses, the Freebirds, and The Road Warriors were all featured in lengthy bouts, with two irregular but incredible teams headlining the show.

Continuing his forever feud with Terry Funk, Ric Flair enlisted the help of Sting to combat Funk and The Great Muta in the first ever Thunderdome match.

The rules were appropriately archaic: The teams competed in a cage adorned with tree branches, ropes skulls, electricity, fire (that Muta himself put out pre-match), but were required to tag in and out, with the only way to win coming when one of their managers (Ole Anderson and Gary Hart, respectively) threw in the literal towel. Watching prime Funk feels like stealing — he’s simply a master at making you hate every single thing he does. Every choke, every grunt, every slap to the face induces absolute vitriol. Aesthetically, he’s Flair’s greatest opponent; the same vision in a broken mirror.

The match itself is a 24-minute sprint that culminates with Flair locking Funk in the Figure Four, allowing Sting to land multiple top rope splashes, uninterrupted. Ole then clocks an interfering Hart, causing him to release the towel into the air, giving Flair and Sting the win. Another fulfilling chapter in the Flair-Funk anthology, it’s a plus mark on one of the most star-studded group projects ever built as a pay-per-view.

Phantom of the top rope

Eight years later, the event’s 1997 edition also featured a cage in its biggest match, but to a far different reception. WCW leaned more into the lore of the show's namesake, constructing a foggy cemetery entryway with twin mausoleums and Slim Jim logos flanking a glowing demon’s head. At its apex, the blindingly popular New World Order (nWo) stable made for great weekly shows and monthly incompletes. Hulk Hogan would lose but not lose, win through wild interferences, or just have non-title grudge matches while keeping the WCW World Heavyweight Title in his group’s grasp.

He went with the latter here, reigniting (reheating dryly) his longtime feud with his first WrestleMania opponent, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.

Piper won the slow, plodding affair, highlighted by Hogan and an interfering Randy Savage beating up a "fan" who seemingly forgot the show was a show. But whatever the main event lacked, the third match on the card had already established the evening’s good will.

Most kids aren’t bold enough to change costumes and go to the same house asking for candy, but most kids will never be Rey Mysterio. WCW’s cruiserweight division consistently boosted up the company’s programming, providing the bell-to-bell excitement needed to still classify "Monday Nitro" as a wrestling show. Talents like Último Dragon, Dean Malenko, and Juventud Guerrera stunned live audiences with the athleticism and breakneck speed of their bouts. But no one captured the crowd like Mysterio.

Spider-man in attire and attitude, a man with no ties to the nWo and around half the size of its average member, Mysterio had kids of all ages donning his masks and gasping at every new maneuver.

Eddie Guerrero was the perfect Harry Osborn to Mysterio’s Peter Parker, matching his leaps and bounds with unmatched tenacity and precision. While WrestleManias and non-WWE events have seen Rey Mysterio at his most creative, WCW Halloween Havoc 1997 was the real birth of it. With Mysterio's mask on the line against Eddie’s Cruiserweight Championship, Mysterio donned the piercing purple of The Phantom, Lee Falk’s comic strip crime-fighter who’d been reintroduced to audiences the previous year in a campy Billy Zane vehicle Mysterio and very few others went to see. He was one of the few who leaned into the spirit of Halloween that year, further cementing himself as a come-to-life superhero in the ring.

Most good scary movies have a jump scare, a moment that takes you out of your comfort zone and makes you forget what you’re seeing is only meant to entertain. After dominating early, Guerrero lifted Mysterio to his feet, giving Mysterio the chance to jump to the top rope — his fingers still interlocked with Guerrero's — then turn a backflip into a DDT. It completely changed the tone of the announcers and the crowd, who rose to their feet at the sight of something so incredible. Guerrero’s visible frustration at his inability to put the challenger away after tearing away at his body and mask, paired with every Mysterio comeback, told a story unlike any other on the card. In the end, in a sequence straight out of a video game, Eddie attempted a top rope Splash Mountain, which Mysterio turned into a Frankensteiner in midair, leading to a one-legged pin — and a win in the most breathtaking WCW match of all time.

Skeleton keys

Since becoming part of NXT’s yearly schedule, "Halloween Havoc" has fully leaned into the meaning of the season. Ghosts, ghouls and graps all get their fair share of screen time, with the supernatural figuring into the backstage area and the ring alike. Gimmick matches like “Tables, Ladders, and Scares” puts a demonic twist on the Attitude Era’s crowning contest, as does the “Devil’s Playground," a wretched remix of a No Holds Barred match. But regardless of the backdrop, the actors will always play the biggest role.

Ethan Page seems hell-bent on reclaiming the NXT Title, and he’ll get that chance Sunday against Trick Williams, who recently regained the title by defeating him. The biggest question going into the match is pretty simple: How will Trick be treated? The champ has matched athleticism with Carmelo Hayes. He survived the onslaught that is Ilya Dragunov. But when things get crazy? When Page digs down deep to his most demonic, is Williams ready to delve into real sadism to keep his crown?

For the better part of her tenure, Roxanne Perez has been the young veteran, able to ward off challengers through experience and know-how. Now she’s teaming with Cora Jade against international superstars Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer, both of whom have seen and done it all in their respective stops. It’ll be interesting to see what adjustments she makes matched up with talents of similar experience. Kelani Jordan and Oba Femi, two of Michaels’ favorite new talents, are also both in singles title matches on the big stage — will they continue to show why the NXT boss is so high on them? And after multiple starts and stops, can Ridge Holland solidify himself as a singles talent the crowd will invest in?

Thirty five years later, Halloween Havoc, fully realized with modern technology and young talent willing to lean into the darker dance, is still scaring up good showings on the devil’s day.