War Games: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches Disc 1

This Blu-ray set is hosted by “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes.

~Results and Star Ratings~

1. NWA The Great American Bash Tour 1987 Part IV, 7/4/1987: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk & Road Warrior Animal), Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff & Paul Ellering defeat The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard & J. Dillon) at 26:00 in a War Games Match. ****½
2. NWA The Great American Bash Tour 1987 Part XXVII, 7/31/1987: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk & Road Warrior Animal), Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff & Paul Ellering defeat The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard) & The War Machine (w/ J. Dillon) at 19:38 in a War Games Match. ****¼
3. NWA The Great American Bash 1988: The Price for Freedom, 7/10/1988: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk & Road Warrior Animal), “Dr. Death” Steve Williams, Ron Garvin & Jimmy Garvin (w/ Paul Ellering & Precious) defeat Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Russian Assassin & Ivan Koloff in a Tower of Doom Match at 19:07. DUD
4. NWA The Great American Bash Tour 1988 Part XVIII, 7/16/1988: Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Nikita Koloff, “Dr. Death” Steve Williams & Paul Ellering defeat The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard & J. Dillon) in a War Games match at 21:07. ****
5. NWA The Great American Bash 1989: Glory Days, 7/23/1989: The Road Warriors (Road Warrior Hawk & Road Warrior Animal), The Midnight Express (Bobby Eaton & Stan Lane) & “Dr. Death” Steve Williams (w/ Jim Cornette & Paul Ellering) defeat The Fabulous Freebirds (Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy & Jimmy Garvin) & The Samoan Swat Team (Samu & Fatu) (w/ Paul E. Dangerously) at 22:18 in a War Games Match. ***½
6. WCW WrestleWar 1991, 2/24/1991: The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Sid Vicious & Barry Windham) & Larry Zbyszko (w/ Arn Anderson) defeat Sting, Brian Pillman & The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner & Scott Steiner) in a War Games Match at 21:50. ****¾
7. WCW WrestleWar 1992: War Games, 5/17/1992: Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat & Barry Windham) defeat The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin, Larry Zbyszko & Rick Rude) (w/ Paul E. Dangerously & Madusa) at 23:27 in a War Games Match. *****
8. WCW Fall Brawl 1993, 9/19/1993: Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes & The Shockmaster defeat Sid Vicious, Big Van Vader & Harlem Heat (Kane & Kole) (w/ Harley Race & Robert Parker) in a War Games Match at 16:39. **¾
9. WCW Fall Brawl 1994, 9/18/1994: Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes & The Nasty Boys (Brian Knobbs & Jerry Sags) defeat The Stud Stable (Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck & Robert Parker) at 19:05 in a War Games Match. **¼

~JZ Says~

Having Dusty Rhodes host this set was the perfect choice. I’m also in favor of starting off with the first War Games match ever, on America’s birthday in 1987. The crowd is going crazy for almost the entire match. I mean look at the star power out there! Plus the buildup to everyone getting to enter the match, finally seeing all sides even and “The Match Beyond” starting, this is exciting stuff. The fans really appreciated seeing the Road Warriors and Ellering destroy and bloody J.J. Dillon, even hitting him with the Doomsday Device. I also see that Flair and Dusty are bleeding, which is no shock. Animal and Hawk continue to beat on Dillon (who had a legit broken collarbone from the Doomsday Device) until he gives up. For the first time out they did an amazing job with this, bringing everyone into the match in an order that made sense and kept the crowd buzzing. It was violent and chaotic, and if I had seen this closer to the time it happened, it would’ve blown my mind.

The second-ever War Games match opened with the same two men as the first, with Arn Anderson locking horns with Dusty Rhodes. The teams were exactly the same as the first, just with War Machine (Big Boss Man) replacing the injured Dillon. This one is quite a bit of fun too, as this crowd likely hadn’t seen the prior version of this match, so they react to basically everything. Animal got the win this time; he jammed spikes repeatedly in Machine’s eyes, causing him to quit. Not quite as good as the first one, but still violent and cool in its own right.

I have no idea why the Tower of Doom match would be included on the War Games set. It’s not the same thing, and it should be in the special features along with the other slightly different versions of War Games presented by ither companies. Aside from that, the match just sucks. It’s basically the triple cage from Ready to Rumble, and without main event level guys involved, the whole deal just looks hacky and silly. It’s hard to see, it’s hard to follow, the rules are complicated, and I hate it. Looks like the good guys won but it’s hard to tell. Burn this one with fire.

Next up is a proper War Games match from 1988, featuring the IV Horsemen against Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Lex Luger, Steve Williams, and Paul Ellering. That’s quite the crew there. They really had the formula down here, bringing the wrestlers in at the right times and maximizing the return from the crowd. Lots of blood and plenty of action here, but it felt similar to earlier versions involving the Horsemen. Dusty gets the win for the good guys with a figure-four leglock on Dillon.

I love the Horsemen, but it’s nice to move on to some other teams for a while. You know, I say that, and then I remember that Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes are in the 1989 version of the match and that’s a pretty steep drop in quality from the Horsemen days. On the plus side, they have a camera in the cage for the first time, and that make the action so much easier to follow. Unfortunately there just isn’t as much happening in there as in prior matches. It’s not bad or anything, just a step down from the high standards of its predecessors. Hawk gets the win after hitting Garvin with a couple of neckbreakers and then putting on a neck submission to coax the surrender. Garvin is pretty bad.

After no WarGames matches in 1990, the Four Horsemen returned in 1991 to face the amazing babyface quartet of Sting, Brian Pillman, and the Steiner Brothers. The blood starts flowing early when Pillman busts Windham open. This match was awesome from the start, and it didn’t take me long to figure out the reason – this was the first one involving Sid. They also really use the two ring set-up to their advantage here, staging plenty of action on both sides. Flair is the second man to bleed, and it’s a gusher, of course. The crowd just goes nuts for everything the babyfaces do here. Leave it to Sid to almost kill someone out there, as he goes for a Powerbomb on Pillman, but the cage ceiling is so low that Pillman didn’t get extended all the way and Sid drops him directly on his head. Looks just as brutal now as it ever did, and Pillman is lucky to have not gotten severely injured. El Gigante comes out to check on Pillman and basically quits for him, giving the win to the Horsemen. The finish needed about 100% less El Gigante, but the match was exciting and brilliant all the way up to the unfortunate finish.

Many lists ranking the WarGames matches has the 1992 version at the top, and with good reason. It blew off the lengthy run of the heel supergroup The Dangerous Alliance, often cited as one of the hottest times in WCW for the pre-nWo days. Plus, just look at the talent lineup – Sting, Steamboat, Koloff, Dusty, Windham, Double A, Austin, Rude, Eaton, and Zbyszko. That’s an embarrassment of riches for one match to have. Lots of blood and action here, as both teams brutalize each other. Austin is sporting a particularly bright crimson mask. Things really get wild when one of the top turnbuckles becomes detached. Eaton holds Sting for Zbyszko to hit him, but Sting moves, and Eaton takes the steel right into his shoulder. Sting capitalizes with an Arm Bar to force Eaton to give up. Everything about this match is perfect, and I think it’s hands down the best WarGames match ever

The 1993 version felt like a big step down just in presentation – this match is remembered more for the introduction of the Shockmaster a few weeks before the match. How is he even a Shockmaster? His sparkly helmet is gone here and he’s just wearing jeans, a cut off shirt, and a hard hat. Someone in WCW must’ve had big plans for him, because he gets one of the guys in Harlem Heat (the one who would later be known as Booker T – they were called Kane and Kole at the time, and I can’t recall which was which) to submit to a bearhug. The crowd wasn’t exactly quiet, but they weren’t going crazy either. And they really put the Shockmaster over instead of… literally anyone else.

WarGames continued to trend downwards for 1994, when the decidedly non-main event Stud Stable took on the Nasty Boys and Dusty & Dustin Rhodes. It’s sort of neat to see Dusty and Dustin together in a WarGames, but the match is pretty dull outside of that. Dusty gets the win with a figure four leglock on Col. Parker. Total snooze.

I shudder at the thought of these matches getting worse as the years go by, but we’ll have to finish watching Disc 2 to find out for sure!