The 1991 edition of World Championship Wrestling’s Halloween Havoc is most remembered for being the debut of a very unique new match concept. An eight-man tornado tag team cage match equipped with a secondary smaller cage that would sit in the middle of the ring and contained an electric chair. This would be the debut and final appearance of the now infamous Chamber Of Horrors.

RELATED: 5 Rarely Used WWE Gimmick Matches We Want To See More Of (& 5 We Don't)

UPDATE: 2022/12/10 07:30 EST BY DANNY DJELJOSEVIC

A Complete History Of WCW's Chamber Of Horrors Match

Over the years, WCW delivered a number of innovative gimmicks that promotions have lifted ever since, from stipulations types like the War Games match or storylines like the New World Order invasion angle. But the promotion also came up with its fair share of misfires, including the Chamber of Horrors Match. While it certainly seemed like something new, it didn’t work out as WCW hoped and remains mostly a curiosity for fans delving into the various novelty matches in the history of pro wrestling. Let’s take another look at the Chamber of Horrors, including some context for how it came up.

The Result Of A Cactus Jack/Sting Feud

During his 86-day run with the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship, Sting began to enter a feud with Cactus Jack — otherwise known as Mick Foley — by the end of the summer of 1991 — though they’d have a higher-profile encounter at June 1992’s Beach Blast pay-per-view.

Cactus Jack vs. Sting

During this initial rivalry, however, Jack introduced some backup when he gave Sting a birthday present in the form of a giant gift-wrapped box that contained the infamous Abdullah the Butcher. With a legitimate innovator of pro wrestling violence involved, WCW opted to innovate its own violent match type in the Chamber of Horrors.

The Rules Of WCW's Chamber Of Horrors

All eight wrestlers would start in the ring, and after about five minutes the secondary cage would descend from somewhere above. Once that happened the objective would be to put one of the opposing team members into the electric chair and then flip the amusingly large electric switch that hung on the cage wall. The primary cage itself looked suspiciously familiar to the cage used during the Electrified Thunder Dome Cage match at Halloween Havoc 1989 that saw Terry Funk and The Great Muta battle against Ric Flair and Sting, just without the hanging vines and tree branches. The cage was also equipped with one-sided handcuffs attached at each wall of the cage and were to be used for incapacitating the other team long enough to electrocute a single member.

The teams for the match were originally scheduled to be very different, among many other things Barry Windham was attacked during the opening of the show by Arn Anderson and Larry Zbyszko, taking him out of the match. The match that ended up happening in the cage was Sting, The Steiner Brothers, and El Gigante versus Big Van Vader, Cactus Jack, Abdullah The Butcher, and Scott Hall during his Diamond Studd era. One Man Gang and Oz were also advertised to be in the Chamber Of Horrors at some point.

RELATED: 10 Things Fans Forget About Kevin Nash In WCW

The eight-man Chamber of Horrors would be the first match on the Halloween Havoc broadcast despite being built like a main event, and was seemingly put in that position to not lose PPV time while assembling the cage later in the show. After the spooky opening package, fans would watch backstage interviewer Eric Bischoff attempt to snag a word from various participants outside Chattanooga Tennessee's UTC Arena as they first arrived at Halloween Havoc. This is where fans would see the arrival of DDP with the Diamond Studd, the attack on Barry Windham, and especially worth noting, the arrival of Cactus Jack and Abdullah together in a four door family Sedan.

WCW's Horror Show Begins

When it was time for the match to begin, Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone were on commentary as WCW Ring Announcer Gary Michael Cappetta Announced the rules as follows:

“The first contest of Halloween Havoc from Chattanooga, Tennessee is the Chamber of Horrors. This special attraction will involve two teams, each team consisting of four team members. The match will be confined to the Chamber Of Horrors, which is equipped with several Instruments of Torture. The object of the match is to put a member of the opposing team in the Chamber of Horrors’ Chair of Torture, and then to pull the Fatal Lever. Which will render one of the teammates helpless. Now the participants in our electrifying first contest.”

One by one a member of each team came out back and forth until all men were inside the chamber. The opening brawling outside and into the chamber was chaotic, but a high point of the match in retrospect. A minute or so in, a masked man pops out of a coffin and gets body slammed by Scott Steiner, and it wasn’t played up to be anything more than a hazard of the cage itself. Five minutes in, the second cage descended containing the electric chair as spooky music, and electricity sounds played and things go south pretty fast from there.

via youtube.com

The match is filled with some all-time great wrestlers, as well as El Gigante and Abdullah, but the amount of room the second cage takes up immediately limits what they can do in the ring. Shortly after the Electric Chair is seen, a dozen or so ghostly medics make their way down the ramp with a long white stretcher, and just sort of hang out on the ramp. The switch mounted on the cage wall that was waiting for some lucky guy to activate it by flipping it downward, actually fell down itself multiple times during the match, including when Rick Steiner was sitting in the chair at one point. Another time it would be Sting sitting in the chair, and as Jim Ross begins to explain how the switch needs to be flipped the camera changes to a close-up of said switch already flipped in the ELECTROCUTE position, and Ross sort of cools off on the switch flipping explanation.

RELATED: 5 WCW Concepts That Were Actually Good (And 5 That Were Terrible)

When it was time to flip the switch for real, Cactus Jack would ascend the cage towards the switch as his partner Abdullah placed Rick Steiner in the chair. Cactus looks back and gets the go-ahead sign from Abdullah, so he give us a “Bang Bang” and places his hand on the switch. It would be a long 25 seconds as Rick slowly belly-to-bellied The Butcher into the chair and hastily attempted to hook him up. Finally Mick Foley was able to flip the switch and what followed was a jiggling electrocution of Abdullah, in what has to be the most memorable visual from the entire match with flashing lights, pyrotechnics, and fire appearing on the ring canvas.

chamber-of-horrors-halloween-havoc-abdullah-the-butcher

Cactus Jack approached the smoking carcass of the man who he had both driven to the show with, and accidentally electrocuted on this night. After a few moments The Butcher shot back up to life, and shoulder tackled Cactus before making his way to the ramps to destroy the ghostly medics for some reasons. Cactus Jack would be in the middle of joining his friend Abby in beating up the flour-covered nurses, when it was suddenly time to move on. Thus ending the one and only Chamber Of Horrors.

*The Match Was Not Well Received

Abdullah the Butcher in WCW's Chamber of Horrors

Ambitious as it seemed, the Chamber of Horrors didn’t exactly land with its intended audience. Its placement at the very beginning of the show, however necessary in the interest of time, likely wasn’t the best choice. What’s worse is that WCW’s production crew seemed ill-equipped to shoot the match, so the final product for viewers at home is simply a confusing, surprisingly slow-paced brawl that drags on for 12 minutes. While it certainly has its share of admirers, if Cagematch is any indication, most tend to agree that it’s a misfire.

Mick Foley Himself Has Commented On The Match

Mick Foley in the ring talking into a microphone

In August of 2022, Mick Foley discussed the match on his podcast, Foley Is Pod, summoning up its success with the extremely funny “There’s a reason why there was no Chamber of Horrors 2.” While most would agree that the Chamber of Horrors was a mess, Foley did have some positive things to say about it, pointing out an interesting bump he took that he only ever took once (and wouldn’t recommend doing) and praising Abdullah the Butcher for making his electrocution look cool.