The Contentious Ten 9.3.12: Top 10 War Games Matches

I’ve been watching wrestling since I was about 5 years old, give or take a few months. My earliest memories of wrestling involve Greg Gagne and another guy whose name is lost to time clearing the ring during a wild brawl on an AWA telecast on ESPN back in about 1985 or so. From there, I saw World Class Championship Wrestling on Saturdays afternoons before graduating to the NWA. The WWF was last on my list of discoveries, which may explain why I’ve always gravitated to other products instead of theirs. They were the most cartoonish of the landscape back then, and I tended to be drawn towards the more realistic shows that looked like actual fights were taking place. What can I say? I was an odd kid.

At this point, the nWo had been running roughshod for a while. A lot of fans were thinking the same thing – why haven’t the Horsemen done something about it? Well, the obvious answer to the question is that the power structure in WCW didn’t see a use for the “old guard” to serve as opposition to the hottest thing in wrestling at the moment. The Horsemen’s momentum had admittedly been stalled by the fact that Arn Anderson was forced into retirement by an injury. There seemed to be a solution on hand, though, as Curt Hennig joined the Horsemen. Hennig and Flair had progressed through an on and off relationship during their shared time in the WWF, and Hennig was a natural fit for the group. He was a second generation star. He was a great technical wrestler that exuded arrogance and class. He would be a great mentor for Chris Benoit, and wouldn’t impede Mongo’s role as the muscle of the group. Everything about Hennig in the Horsemen fit. Finally, WCW seemed to have a Horsemen unit that could go to war with the nWo for a while. It wasn’t meant to be, though. This match is all about the ending. This was one of the last moments in wrestling that truly shocked me from a storyline perspective. I never saw Hennig’s swerve coming, as the internet age was still very young, and I sat stunned as emergency personnel tended to Ric Flair to end the pay per view. The match itself was just sort of “eh”. The ending was one of the most memorable, personally, in my 27 years or so of watching professional wrestling.

We were only a couple of months removed from Hulk Hogan joining Hall and Nash to form the new World order, and WCW decided to take their best shot. Flair, Sting, Luger, and Arn all represented not just the best that WCW had to offer, but the heart and soul of the promotion. The buildup to the match, and much of what the nWo would continue to do for a long time to come, featured the nWo trying to convince people that Sting had joined them. The plan worked as even Sting’s closest friend, Lex Luger, didn’t trust him going into this match. The crowd was white hot for this match, and even Big Sexy had his working boots on. When the nWo’s version of Sting joined the match, the crowd sort of hushed and WCW’s commentary team sold it like it was the real deal. Whereas most War Games are an ending, this was a beginning. Sting came in and cleaned house, then asked Lex Luger if that was good enough for him. Then he just…left. The nWo capitalized with the 4 on 3 advantage for the win, and the era of “Crow Sting” was underway. The crowd was left shell shocked and WCW would be off to the races for a couple of years.

If you need a history lesson on the feud between Dusty Rhodes and the Four Horsemen, then you’re either very young or not a very good wrestling fan. Dusty’s feuds with Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, and Ric Flair both individually and collectively were the stuff of legend. It was, in all honesty, a big part of what made the era from 1984-1989 such a golden era for professional wrestling. The NWA had Dusty vs. The Horsemen; the WWF had Hogan vs. Piper, Orndorff, Savage, and Andre; the AWA had Nick Bockwinkel, Curt Hennig, and Jerry Lawler; World Class had the Von Erichs vs. the Freebirds. Things were good all over. This was a rematch from earlier in the Bash tour, with one notable exception. Due to an injury sustained in the original War Games match, JJ Dillon couldn’t be a part of this one. The quick fix was to put Big Bubba Rogers in a spandex bodysuit and mask and call him War Machine. Who knew that taking a manager out of the match would actually make it worse? Ellering and Dillon served a definite purpose in these matches, and this one just didn’t feel the same without JJ. All told, though, this match featured the top 8 guys in the NWA in one match, and was still incredible to see. War Machine took the submission, letting Dusty and company come out on top without making any of the Horsemen look weaker.

This match owes a lot of its reputation to the ending of the match. That’s somewhat unfair, as the action leading up to the decisive moments wasn’t bad at all. It’s not quite up to par with other War Games matches, but those are some of the best matches in wrestling history so there’s no shame there. What really hurt things was the absence of Arn Anderson. Due to his injury, the Horsemen were forced to replace him with Larry Zbzysko. Larry Z was always a capable worker and a fantastic heel, but he just wasn’t Arn, especially for the purposes of being a part of the Horsemen. This match was also the boiling point of several angles running through WCW at the time. Flair and Sting had obvious history. Windham and Pillman had been feuding, and Arn and Windham had been running roughshod through the tag ranks that included the Steiner brothers. Additionally, this was right after Scottie had taken Flair to the limit on a Clash of the Champions in a singles match. The final, most important piece of the puzzle was Sid Vicious, who learned a very important lesson: powerbombs are not for War Games. Ever. Period. Sid went to powerbomb Brian Pillman, it got botched because of the low ceiling on the cage, and Brian Pillman almost died. Not to be deterred, Sid tried it again before El Gigante charged in to surrender on behalf of Flyin’ Brian.

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The setup is a little different than a traditional War Games, but that’s okay. The concept remains faithful. There’s one ring instead of two, and the entire ringside area is fenced in. It allowed the competitors more room to maneuver, allowed for better visibility given the arena, and allowed a little more freedom with the weapons that littered the cage. The team concept was in full effect, as two promotions that represent completely different ideals were battling for superiority. Both factions had fans in attendance, and both groups were just as vocal as you’d expect. While I’m not a huge fan of either CZW or Ring of Honor, I’ve seen my fair share of both of them through the years, and I feel comfortable saying that this is easily the best thing that CZW has ever been a part of. For that matter, until Steen dethroned Davey Richards, it was the best thing that Ring of Honor had done, too. It’s that good. The “mystery partners” were legitimate mysteries, and added a measure of suspense to things. There’s a good bit of history in this match, and it features some guys that have gone on to become major players in wrestling since that point…or at least bigger now than they were. Bryan Danielson makes an appearance, and you’ve got the now 5 time NWA World Champion Adam Pearce in the ring. Necro Butcher was a star in The Wrestler, Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli are under contract to WWE, and mystery man Eddie Kingston is in Ring of Honor full time now. Don’t write it off just because it didn’t happen in the “big leagues”. This match delivers in spades.

Bonus points to BJ Whitmer for dressing for a fight instead of a wrestling match. That’s what War Games should look like, much less something named Cage of Death.

Well, they were in something of a holding pattern. Hawk and Animal had been built up to square off with the Powers of Pain (Warlord and Barbarian), but they jumped ship to the WWF. Hawk and Animal then took on the replacement team of Ivan Koloff and The Russian Assassin, and competed in the huge triple cage match that blew off the Jimmy Garvin vs. Kevin Sullivan feud. Think of that – a lower midcard feud like Jimmy Garvin vs. Kevin Sullivan warranted the inclusion of The Road Warriors and the entire Varsity Club, as well as a three story cage match. The equivalent to that in today’s wrestling world would be The Prime Time Players taking on The Usos in a Hell in the Cell match at Summerslam, with no titles whatsoever on the line. Anyway, this match had a perfect dynamic. Dusty’s team was loaded with physically imposing guys like Nikita, Doc, and Luger, but the Horsemen controlled the World, United States, and World Tag Team titles at the time. Fans were desperate to see the Horsemen take a beating, but ending their title runs would have been bad for business. This gave the fans what they wanted without ruining the Horsemen’s momentum. The best part? JJ Dillon was back, which meant there was someone to take the loss without hurting the Horsemen again. This has been WWE’s best use of the Crockett libraries, pulling out stuff that has never been seen and including it on DVDs as extras. Hopefully there’s more of this in the future.

Christian Cage’s run in TNA isn’t just my favorite part of his career, it’s far and away my favorite part of TNA’s history. He was entertaining as both a face and a heel, and he proved that he was worthy of being a legitimate main eventer anywhere he went. He turned in great matches and promos month in and month out, and I wish he were still there. Oh well. This match featured a ton of big names and great workers blending together for one of TNA’s premier matches. Angle, Sting, Jarrett, Steiner, and Christian all brought a big time feel to the match, while Samoa Joe and AJ Styles added a homegrown feel to things. Rhyno, Tomko, and Abyss all served the purpose of throwing guys around and covering the impressive power spots. All in all, this couldn’t have gone much better. Through the years, TNA has used this match several times, but this has really been the only Lethal Lockdown worth watching twice. If TNA could ever capture the magic they had here for a sustained run, they’d really be on to something.

The Dangerous Alliance managed to do what no other heel stable has truly done; they captured the same magic that the Four Horsemen had. They were spearheaded by a clear leader in Rick Rude, had a great tag team component in Arn Anderson and Bobby Eaton, a great secondary singles star in Austin, and an “enforcer” in Larry Zbzysko. They waged a relatively successful war against the top faces in the promotion, feuding with Sting, Rhodes and Windham, and Steamboat. It didn’t last as long as the Horsemen’s run (obviously), but for a few months, they had the same feel. They even had a loudmouthed manager to put things over the top, as Paul E. Dangerously was a fantastic heel in his own right. This match started the beginning of the end for the Dangerous Alliance, as Zbzysko’s submission ended his part in the group and they just sort of faded away after this. For a while, though, WCW was really on to something. Seems pretty typical in retrospect.

The closest thing to a feud that this match encapsulated was the Midnight Express managed by Jim Cornette taking on Paul E. Dangerously’s Samoan Swat Team. This was a follow up to the Midnight Express taking on the “Original” Midnight Express, and was a much better program overall. The SST had been built to look like unstoppable monsters, and were on the verge of being considered viable opposition to the Road Warriors. The Freebirds were experiencing a bit of a renaissance after dropping Buddy Roberts and adding Jimmy Garvin. Gordy wasn’t doing much wrestling at this point, but was key part of helping Hayes and Garvin win matches. He’d be instrumental in them winning the NWA World Tag Team titles later on, and this ended up being a nice footnote in Gordy’s personal history with “Dr. Death” Steve Williams. Doc and Gordy spent time either teaming or beating the crap out of each other in the UWF, Japan, and NWA/WCW through the years. This match ended up having way more heat with the crowd than it had any right to, and was a likely combination of the gimmick itself and the quality of the workers involved more than any feud that existed between the characters. Upon watching and rewatching, the match holds up remarkably well and stands out among the crowd for me.

In 1987, the blowoffs to feuds essentially included cage matches, I Quit matches, and Texas Death matches. Dusty Rhodes had a vision for something else entirely. He figured out a way to put together a match that wouldn’t just blow off one feud, but several at once. It was a pure spectacle, and nothing like it had quite been attempted before. Ten men would do battle in two rings that were completely enclosed by a steel cage. Pinfalls were out the window, this match only ended when someone surrendered or submitted. It was about pride, guts, ability, toughness, ego, a little bit of everything rolled into one. It took what the WWF would do a few months later with Survivor Series and added an edge to it, and became one of the iconic matches in wrestling history. The original installation of the match is still the best, as the crowd was going bonkers for literally everything that happened. Dusty was near the height of his popularity, and Nikita Koloff was a freshly turned face. The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering were perpetually over, and the Horsemen were really hitting their stride after replacing Ole Anderson with Lex Luger. Everything came together for this match to give it the perfect atmosphere. Seriously, just LOOK AT THOSE LASER LIGHTS! In all seriousness, this match is one of the greatest of the NWA/WCW era, and I’m not sure that anything outside of the Royal Rumble has ever topped it in terms of gimmick matches. Often imitated, never duplicated, the original is still the best.

I have no doubt that I’ll catch hell over including imitation War Games matches on a list of the Top War Games matches of all time. I’m okay with that, because I believe in those matches. Also, even if people scream their heads off about the list or the order they’re in, I’m happy to dig up these matches and share them with the masses. And as a bonus, I even got the column submitted on time this week! Leave your feedback below, and I’ll join in the discussion at some point. See you in 7.