Everything You Need To Know About The War Games Match In Wrestling
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WWE is bringing back WarGames at Survivor Series this year, featuring The Bloodline taking on The Brawling Brutes with Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens, while on the women's side of things, Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Mia Yim, and Becky Lynch will take on Damage CTRL, Nikki Cross, and Rhea Ripley. This will be the sixth and seventh time this match has taken place under a WWE banner, along with only the second time women have had a match.
Dusty Rhodes Created WarGames
Dusty Rhodes created “The Match Beyond” after viewing Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The match was developed with The Four Horsemen in mind to have all of them involved in fighting against Dusty and his band of Babyface friends.
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The rules for WarGames are as follows.
1) A coin toss to determine which team will have an advantage throughout the match.
2) Two men start in the ring.
3) After 5 minutes, the next wrestler enters the match.
3) Every 2 minutes, another team member enters the match, either evening the teams or giving the coin toss team another 2-minute man advantage.
The MATCH BEYOND begins once all 10 men are in the rings. The only way to win is to submit or surrender.
The First WarGames Took Place In 1987
The first WarGames match took place at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia during the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) Great American Bash '87 tour, where it was known as War Games: The Match Beyond. The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Road Warrior Hawk, Road Warrior Animal, and Paul Ellering) took on The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and JJ Dillion). The Dream Team was victorious when JJ Dillion surrendered after taking a Doomsday Device from the Road Warriors and separating his shoulder. This would be his final pro wrestling match ever.
The return match that took place in Miami, Florida at the Orange Bowl would feature the future Big Bossman still known as Big Bubba Rogers under a hood and called WarMachine When Turner Broadcasting purchased JCP in 1988, they kept the tradition alive, as they would once again take the double steel cage match around the country during the Great American Bash tour in both 1988 and 1989.
WarGames Really Took Off In WCW During The 1990s
In 1991 and 1992, WCW presented WrestleWar, which featured WarGames as the main event. 1991 saw the team of Sting, Brian Pillman, and The Steiner Brothers take on The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Barry Windham, and Sid Viscious, along with Larry Zbyszko, who was filling in for an injured Arn Anderson). The match ended when El Gigante (later known as Giant Gonzales in WWE) threw in the towel for Brian Pillman, who had been powerbombed by Sid.
1992 is held in high regard by most wrestling fans as being the best WarGames match ever. Sting's Squadron took on The Dangerous Alliance. This was the culmination of what had been many long-running feuds.
Sting won the WCW World Heavyweight Championship after defeating Lex Luger in the main event at SuperBrawl II. At the event, Dangerous Alliance member Rick Rude successfully defended the United States Heavyweight Championship against Ricky Steamboat, while Barry Windham and Dustin Rhodes defeated Alliance members Steve Austin and Larry Zbyszko in a tag team match. On the March 7th episode of World Championship Wrestling, Sting revealed his prospective rivals for the championship during a SuperBrawl II press conference. The Dangerous Alliance interrupted him and Rude tossed a drink in Sting's face, resulting in a brawl between Sting and Dangerous Alliance.
Nikita Koloff made his comeback to WCW by coming to Sting's aid. Steamboat maintained his feud with Rude, while Windham and Rhodes’ rivalry with Austin and Zbyszko was also reignited. Big Van Vader assaulted Sting following his bout on the March 21st episode of Worldwide, leaving Sting with a rib injury and out of action. On the April 25th program of Saturday Night, Koloff would proclaim his allegiance to Sting by calling Sting his favorite wrestler. This would lead to WrestleWar 92 and a WarGames match between Sting's Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Dusty Rhodes, and Ricky Steamboat) and the Dangerous Alliance. To say this match was stacked would be an understatement.
RELATED: WCW: The 10 Highest Rated Matches Ever (According To Dave Meltzer)
WCW Fall Brawl became the event to host WarGames in 1993. The only big change and probably the worst would be in 1998, when three teams would compete in the match beyond. nWo Wolfpac vs nWo Hollywood vs Team WCW faced off with three men representing each team instead of the traditional five. Diamond Dallas Page would win the match in another first for them, pinning Stevie Ray after a Diamond Cutter. Pinfalls were added for the first time and this win would allow DDP to have a WCW World Title match at that year’s Halloween Havoc.
RELATED: 10 Worst WarGames Matches In WCW & WWE History, Ranked
WWE NXT Brings WarGames To The Modern Era
In 2017, WarGames was brought back as part of NXT TakeOver: WarGames, a support show for Survivor Series from 2017 to 2019. However, in 2020, it was shifted to December. The Undisputed Era would take over as the constant heel team, taking part in 4 of the 5 matches that took place in NXT. The WWE version disqualifies the entire team if one member of a team escapes the cage. The 2019 event featured the first-ever women's WarGames match, which had previously just been men.
The most recent took place on December 5th, 2021, where Team 2.0 (Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller, and Tony D'Angelo) defeated Team Black & Gold (Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne, and L. A. Knight) with Bron Breakker defeating then NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa to gain a title shot at the upcoming New Year’s Evil.
In a 2022 interview with The Ringer, Triple H explained the removal of the cage's roof, which the original NWA/JCP and WCW versions had. Triple H said:
When we first started redoing [the match], people were upset that we didn't have a top on the cage. And I was like, "Well, we already have one with the top on Hell in a Cell." And the other thing is, it used to drive me nuts when I was a kid that the cage was too short. You'd see like what happened with Brian Pillman, where he got put up for a powerbomb, and it wasn't enough space. [Taking the top off the cage] allows you to do so much more stuff. Look, in the old generation, no one was about to jump off the top of that cage. The times have changed, the business has evolved, and the cage that WarGames is held in needed to evolve, too.
NXT WarGames will be replaced this year with NXT Deadline.
