Halloween Havoc

Halloween Havoc
Halloween Havoc
	NXT Halloween Havoc logo used as of 2022
Promotions	World Championship Wrestling (1989–2000); WWE (2020–present)
Brands	WCW/nWo (1998); NXT (2020–present)
First event	1989

Halloween Havoc is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE. Since 2020, it has been held annually for the company's developmental brand, NXT. As the name implies, it is a Halloween-themed show held in October.

It was originally produced as an annual pay-per-view (PPV) by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1989 until 2000. The first two events were held when WCW was still affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) before WCW split from the NWA in January 1991. The final five events under WCW (1996–2000) were held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada.

WWE – at that time still known as the World Wrestling Federation – purchased the assets of WCW in March 2001. Nineteen years later, Halloween Havoc was revived as an annual event for WWE's NXT brand in 2020. The 2020 and 2021 events were held as a television special of the NXT program, but it was made a livestreaming event in 2022. It then returned to being a television special in 2023 but expanded to a two-part special of NXT.

History

In 1989, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) scheduled a Halloween-themed pay-per-view (PPV) event for October 28, 1989, at the Philadelphia Civic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event was aptly named Halloween Havoc.^[1] A second Halloween Havoc was scheduled for the following year, thus establishing Halloween Havoc as an annual PPV for WCW. This second event was also the final Halloween Havoc produced by WCW under the NWA banner as WCW split from the NWA in January 1991.^[2]

The 2000 event was the final Halloween Havoc produced by WCW, as in March 2001, WCW was acquired by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF); the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2002 ("WWE" became an orphaned initialism in 2011).^[3] After 19 years since the acquisition of WCW, WWE revived Halloween Havoc for their developmental brand, NXT. Both the 2020 and 2021 events were held as television special episodes of the NXT television program, which aired on the USA Network.^[4]^[5] The 2022 event, however, was held as a livestreaming event, airing on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets.^[6] The event returned to being a television special in 2023, but was expanded to a two-part special of NXT on the USA Network.^[7]

The 1994 and 1995 events were both held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan^[8]^[9] before becoming a main stay at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Las Vegas, Nevada from 1996 to 2000.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] Since the event's revival in 2020, it has been held at NXT's home venue, the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.^[4]^[5]^[6]

In 2014, all WCW PPVs, including Halloween Havoc, were made available on WWE's streaming service, the WWE Network.^[14] Since March 2021, they are also available on Peacock in the United States as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock at that time.^[15]

Events

	WCW/nWo co-branded event		NXT-branded event

#	Event	Date	City	Venue	Main event(s)	Ref
National Wrestling Alliance: World Championship Wrestling
1	Halloween Havoc (1989)	October 28, 1989	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Philadelphia Civic Center	Ric Flair and Sting vs. The Great Muta and Terry Funk in a Thunderdome match with Bruno Sammartino as special guest referee	^[1]
2	Halloween Havoc (1990)	October 27, 1990	Chicago, Illinois	UIC Pavilion	Sting (c) vs. Sid Vicious for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship	^[2]
World Championship Wrestling
3	Halloween Havoc (1991)	October 27, 1991	Chattanooga, Tennessee	UTC Arena	Lex Luger (c) vs. Ron Simmons in a two-out-of-three falls match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship	^[16]
4	Halloween Havoc (1992)	October 25, 1992	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Philadelphia Civic Center	Sting vs. Jake Roberts in a Coal Miner's Glove match	^[17]
5	Halloween Havoc (1993)	October 24, 1993	New Orleans, Louisiana	Lakefront Arena	Big Van Vader vs. Cactus Jack in a Texas Death match	^[18]
6	Halloween Havoc (1994)	October 23, 1994	Detroit, Michigan	Joe Louis Arena	Hulk Hogan (c) vs. Ric Flair in a Steel Cage match for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship with Mr. T as special guest referee	^[8]
7	Halloween Havoc (1995)	October 29, 1995	Detroit, Michigan	Joe Louis Arena	Hulk Hogan (c) vs. The Giant for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship	^[9]
8	Halloween Havoc (1996)	October 27, 1996	Las Vegas, Nevada	MGM Grand Garden Arena	Hollywood Hogan (c) vs. Randy Savage for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship	^[10]
9	Halloween Havoc (1997)	October 26, 1997			Roddy Piper vs. Hollywood Hogan in a Steel Cage match	^[11]
10	Halloween Havoc (1998)	October 25, 1998			Goldberg (c) vs. Diamond Dallas Page for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship	^[12]
11	Halloween Havoc (1999)	October 24, 1999			Sting (c) vs. Goldberg for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship	^[13]
12	Halloween Havoc (2000)	October 29, 2000			Goldberg vs. KroniK (Brian Adams and Bryan Clark) in a Handicap elimination match	^[3]
WWE: NXT
13	NXT Halloween Havoc (2020)	October 28, 2020	Orlando, Florida	WWE Performance Center^[a]	Io Shirai (c) vs. Candice LeRae in a Tables, Ladders, and Scares match for the NXT Women's Championship	^[4]
14	NXT Halloween Havoc (2021)	October 26, 2021			Tommaso Ciampa (c) vs. Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship	^[5]
15	NXT Halloween Havoc (2022)	October 22, 2022			Bron Breakker (c) vs. Ilja Dragunov vs. JD McDonagh for the NXT Championship	^[6]
16	NXT Halloween Havoc (2023)	October 24, 2023			Becky Lynch (c) vs. Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women's Championship	^[19]
16	NXT Halloween Havoc (2023)	October 31, 2023			Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship	^[20]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

Notes

^ The main arena of the WWE Performance Center was known as the Capitol Wrestling Center from October 2020 to September 2021.

References

Stone Cold Steve Austin and Jim Ross (2003). The Stone Cold Truth. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-7434-7720-0.

^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1989". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 134.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1990". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 135.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 2000". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 153.
^ ^a ^b ^c "NXT Halloween Havoc to take place Oct. 28". WWE. October 4, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c Guzzo, Gisberto (October 5, 2021). "NXT Announces Halloween Havoc For 10/26; Tommaso Ciampa Set To Defend NXT Championship". Fightful. Retrieved October 6, 2021.
^ ^a ^b ^c Defelice, Robert; Tessier, Colin (September 20, 2022). "Solo Sikoa Forced To Relinquish NXT North American Title, Ladder Match Set For Halloween Havoc". Fightful. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
^ Lambert, Jeremy (September 30, 2023). "NXT Halloween Havoc Set For October 24 And October 31". Fightful. Retrieved September 30, 2023.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1994". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 141.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1995". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 142.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1996". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 144.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1997". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. pp. 146–147.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1998". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. pp. 148–149.
^ ^a ^b "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1999". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 151.
^ "Every pay-per-view available on WWE Network". WWE. February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2014.
^ Spangler, Todd (January 25, 2021). "NBCU's Peacock Pins WWE Network Exclusive U.S. Streaming Rights". Variety. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
^ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1991". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 136.
^ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1992". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 138.
^ "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts: Halloween Havoc 1993". Wrestling's Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 139.
^ Moore, John (October 24, 2023). "NXT TV results (10/24): Moore's review of Becky Lynch vs. Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women's Title, Tony D'Angelo and Stacks vs. Andre Chase and Duke Hudson for the NXT Tag Titles". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 24, 2023.
^ Moore, John (October 31, 2023). "NXT TV results (10/31): Moore's review of Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship, Dominik Mysterio vs. Nathan Frazer for the NXT North American Title, Bron Breakker vs. Mr. Stone". Pro Wrestling Dot Net. Retrieved October 31, 2023.