10 Things Wrestling Fans Didn’t Know About The War Games Match
Before the Elimination Chamber, before Hell In A Cell, the War Games cage was the most ominous structure in wrestling. Two rings put together and surrounded by a mesh steel cage with a roof on top of the thing. No escape, no pinfalls, no disqualification, only submission, surrender, or knockout to win the match. Over the years and iterations, pinfalls were introduced, and the roof has come off some variations to allow for spectacular stunts.
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Now that NXT has one, MLW has one, and as soon as the friggin’ Coronavirus gets a mudhole stomped in it, AEW will have one, War Games will again be appreciated for what it is: the most dangerous match in wrestling. Here are 10 things fans didn't know about the War Games match.
10 A Horsemen Gimmick Match
Of the 31 War Games matches to take place under the NWA/WCW banner, the Four Horsemen participated in 16 of them. Created by the American Dream, the War Games was created to be a match for the Horsemen to compete in. Like true heels working to put the babyfaces over, they only won one of their War Games matches. Their NXT counterparts, The Undisputed Era have followed suit, and, to date, have also only won one match.
9 The Variants
You’re not supposed to fix what isn’t broken, right? With that philosophy in place, does anyone remember any good variants to War Games? WCW tried several with 1998’s event, featured three teams of three.
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Team WCW vs. the Wolfpac vs. Team nWo all vying for a shot at the WCW Championship. At least they used the same cage. Russo’s Revenge, War Games 2000, unfortunately, took place inside the Ready To Rumble cage.
8 Inspired The Elimination Chamber
With competitors coming into the match at the same interval structure and demonic-looking design to the cage, you might think that the Elimination Chamber is a distant relative of War Games—and you’d be right. The massive roadblock on the Road To WrestleMania that is the Chamber was directly inspired by War Games. It wasn’t just storyline, and Eric Bischoff said as much 18 years ago when the match was first introduced.
7 WWE Brass Aren’t Fans
Especially with the Survivor Series concept, one might think that the WWE would have immediately coopted War Games for their very own nearly the moment that they purchased WCW. However, Vince McMahon is seldom a fan of concepts that he didn’t create.
Furthermore, WWE’s producer/guru Kevin Dunn has never been a fan of increasing the ring space and seat spaces for the audience. With both Dunn and McMahon against the idea, any time Triple H pushed for it, he got pushback—hence why he started NXT—War Games was a project of his to bring to the Black And Gold brand.
6 It Started As A House Show Concept
After watching Mad Max, Dusty Rhodes got the grand idea to create wrestling’s version of Thunderdome: War Games. But, with few pay-per-view events around back in 1987 to promote such a match, the NWA and Crockett took the new concept to the House Shows.
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Many of the first War Games encounters took place during the Great American Bash Tours. It wasn’t until WCW started that War Games became part of the annual Fall Brawl event.
5 Big Dust Never Lost
Figures that the Booker would book himself to win, doesn’t it? But, seriously, Dusty Rhodes never booked himself to lose a War Games match. You can’t blame him; the guy loved John Wayne, and the crowd popped when the big guy would make that massive comeback against the Horsemen or whoever he was facing. Considering how much Dusty was responsible for creating, he loved War Games, and, if you can find the early matches, it’s fun to see the Dream run wild.
4 The Match Beyond
The match carried the fearful moniker, “The Match Beyond.” That’s because of how the entire War Games unfolds. The match starts with a five minute period and then alternating two minute periods as the team members entered the ring and took turns gaining the advantage and pounding on each other. Only once all team members were in the ring would The Match Beyond begin. That’s when a team would be able to try and win the match.
3 The First Women’s War Games
NXT and the Women’s Evolution have had plenty of firsts for the WWE. Despite touting and marketing this past November’s War Games as having the first-ever female War Games, that honor actually goes to Women Superstars Uncensored.
Nearly a decade ago in 2011, Team WSU, led by current NXT Star, Mercedes Martinez would take on the Midwest Militia, led by Jessicka Havok. The event took place in one cage, but, other than that, the match retained all of the rules and all of the violence—even more so, as a machete played a part in the finale.
2 The Enforcer Started Every One
Whether he was a member of the Stud Stable, the Dangerous Alliance, or, naturally, the Four Horsemen, Arn Anderson was involved in 19 of the 31 Crockett/WCW War Games matches.
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For everyone that low-key still thinks Double-A is one of the best ever, here’s your proof. He started every single match he took part in. With each match lasting at least 25 minutes, that’s a long night for the Enforcer. Oddly enough, Ric Flair’s only victory in War Games came when Larry Zybysko substituted for The Enforcer.
1 It Almost Debuted In WWE Several Times
Over the years, Triple H and several others have made the push to bring War Games to the big stage. First, it was one of the possible new names to replace Judgement Day thanks to a fan vote. It also might have served as the new name for Battleground around 2013. Considering that event featured the Shield against Goldust and Cody Rhodes with Dusty in their corner, it would have been a great time to bring the cage back.
