WCW Halloween Havoc '90

A lot of newer wrestling fans are probably under the impression that WCW just sucked in 1999 and 2000. Of course, they couldn't be more wrong. With the very notable exception of some hot years throughout the 90's, the promotion basically forcefed fans total crap. Sure, they gave us Flair-Steamboat, the nWo, and some other great stuff - but seemingly for every spectacular moment, we had to sit through six Norman vs. Oz fiascos.

One thing that has been in constant through the years is that Halloween Havoc ALWAYS sucked. There was the Chamber of Horrors. There was the return of the Ultimate Warrior. And there was the fake Sting incident of 1990.

What? You've never heard of this? You think that the first fake Sting was in the nWo? Tsk tsk. No, such tomfoolery took place years before the nWo even came about.

	The year was 1990. Arnold Schwarzenegger was teaching us how to laugh, love, and blow things into tiny pieces in Total Recall. The worst video game in the history of mankind (Pit Fighter) made its way to arcades. Bill Clinton was years away from the White House - and a bit longer from getting nookie from a tubby intern with a goofy beret. And WCW had a big money feud on its hands - Sid Vicious vs. Sting.
Things were bad before the bell even rang for the title match, as our old pal The Black Scorpion showed up and caused all kinds of mischief. When a promotion starts building up the next PPV DURING a PPV, well, that's never a good sign. When they do a build up with a completely idiotic angle like the Scorpion, it's even worse.
	On with the match. It was actually unreasonably good, considering one of the contestants was named "Sid Vicious." Unbelievably enough, Sting was actually getting a pretty decent match out of the big lug, when Sid led him away from ringside for some reason...
Sid came staggering back to ringside, followed by Sting, who had suddenly grown 6 inches and put on about 50 pounds during the fight in the back! A good rule of thumb when booking a "fake" angle (aside from DON'T DO IT - IT NEVER WORKS) is to at least try to find someone CLOSE to the same physique.
	WCW didn't follow that advice. Sid pinned "Sting" and won the WCW World Title.
Of course, "Sting" wasn't Sting at all - it was really Barry Windham, who had chopped off his hair and dyed it blonde!!
	The real Sting came back to the ring, shocked that he had lost the belt.
Sting confronted Windham, and ran him off.
	Sting then came back to the ring, and the ref immediately figured out that the Sting that had been pinned wasn't the real Sting at all, thus making him the smartest referee in the history of pro wrestling. Sting hit the Stinger Splash, and covered Vicious to retain the WCW belt.

This match accomplished two things. First of all, it completely killed the push of Sid Vicious, who, after doing the job to El Gigante in the worst stretcher match in the history of mankind, left the company to head to the WWF. Of course, he's return to WCW years later so he could hook up with an evil midget by the name of Cheatum, then try to make paper mache out of Arn Anderson.

More importantly than Sid's fate, however, was that this bout led right into the Black Scorpion angle that we've all come to know and love.

Anybody else want to egg Ole Anderson's house this Sunday?