It was back in the summer of 1987 when the NWA debuted the concept of the War Games, a double-steel cage match pitting teams against one another with chaos and violence taking center stage.
There were few rules. Each team would have someone start the match as they would square off for five minutes followed by a fresh body entering the fray every two minutes after that. There were no pinfalls, count outs, or disqualifications.
The match couldn’t end until all members from both teams had entered the barbaric structure with “The Match Beyond” officially beginning at that point. Only when someone quit at that point would the volatility end and the victors declared.
MORE: Paul "Triple H" Levesque talks NXT TakeOver: War Games
When WCW went out of business, the War Games was gone too. After nearly two decades, the War Games finally returned in November 2017 at NXT TakeOver. While the rules were a little different (there were three teams instead of two and there wasn’t a roof on the cage), violent pandemonium had returned inside the side-by-side steel cages.
NXT is bringing back the match for the second year in a row at this Saturday's NXT TakeOver: War Games II event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles in what looks to be an annual tradition.
Here a look at some of the best War Games matches in history.
7. WCW Fall Brawl 1996 — Team WCW (Sting, Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and Arn Anderson) vs. Team nWo (Hollywood Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, and “Sting”)
The nWo was running roughshod over WCW and something needed to be done. So, Sting and Luger decided to do the right thing for the company and team up with two members of The Four Horsemen in Flair and Anderson.
In the weeks before the match, someone who looked like Sting attacked Luger and when the real Stinger declared his innocence, the others never truly believe him. Of course, the nWo was behind it all and their strategy worked as they were completely in Team WCW's head.
When the match came, the fourth member of Team nWo was Sting. However, again, it was a fake Sting. And when the real deal hit the ring, he cleaned house but was still upset with his teammates. Rather than sticking around, he stormed off. That left the advantage with the bad guys who finally made Luger give up.
Quite the story with the ultimate WCW guy turning his back on the company. And the action was good too in front of a red-hot Winston-Salem crowd firmly behind Team WCW.
6. NWA Great American Bash ‘89 — Road Warriors, Midnight Express, and Steve Williams vs. Fabulous Freebirds, Samu, and Fatu
Jim Ross perfectly described this match on commentary when he said, “It’s like a demolition derby with human bodies!”
There were some big bodies and even bigger haymakers being thrown left and right. When Hawk entered as the final member of his team, the place erupted as he went wild hitting a double clothesline off the top rope onto the Samoans.
Hawk ended up hitting Jimmy Garvin with a devastating flying clothesline off the top rope and attacked his neck including holding the Freebird in a Hangman’s neckbreaker until he gave up.
5. NWA Great American Bash ‘87 Night 3 — Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Road Warriors, and Paul Ellering vs. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and War Machine
Back in 1987, The Great American Bash wasn’t just a one-night event but instead three big shows in the month of July.
The third took place outdoors at the Orange Bowl in Miami and was the scene for the second ever War Games match. This was a rematch of the first one minus JJ Dillon on the heel side after he was injured during the debut match earlier in the month.
With him out, the Four Horsemen thought they had the perfect replacement that would tip the scale in their favor — War Machine! Mind you, he was simply Big Bubba Rogers — later known as The Big Bossman — in a skin-tight black outfit and a mask.
It was hot and humid night when these ten men went to battle and, believe it or not, the War Machine did not prove to be the difference as he ended up submitting when Animal tried to gouge his eye out with a spiked armband in quite the gruesome scene.
4. NXT TakeOver: War Games 2017 — Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly) vs. The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong vs. Sanity (Alexander Wolfe, Eric Young, and Killian Dain)
There had been rumors and speculation for years about a War Games return but it wasn’t until the fall of 2017 before it came back under the NXT brand.
There were plenty of skeptics heading into the match who wondered if they could recapture the magic of the early matches. Of course, there were some tweaks with their being three teams of three rather than the traditional two teams of four or five. Plus, you could win by submission as well as pinfall. And — gasp — there wasn’t a roof on the cage either!
It was worth the wait as the teams tore it up, using tons of weapons including tables, chairs, trans cans, and kendo sticks as they beat the holy hell out of one another. In the end, Undisputed Era scored the win after Adam Cole hit Eric Young with a kendo stick followed by a Shining Wizards into a chair. Make no mistake about it — all of them were hurting for weeks to come after this one.
3. WCW WrestleWar ‘91 — Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham, Larry Zbyszko vs. Brian Pillman, Sting, Rick and Scott Steiner
This marked the first time that the War Games took place outside of The Great American Bash and it was as violent and tense as any before it in this four-on-four encounter.
A young Brian Pillman stole the show using his athleticism to come up with innovative moves inside the steel structure including swinging from the roof into a hurricanrana onto Barry Windham.
However, the roof would come back to bite Pillman as the low structure prevented Sid Vicious from hitting him with a proper powerbomb late in the match. Instead, Vicious dropped Flyin’ Brian hard on the back of his head and knocked him out cold. And you wonder why this match doesn’t need a roof.
It was El Gigante (Giant Gonzalez later in WWE) who would come into the cage to check on Pillman and carried him away with officials calling for the end of the match.
2. NWA Great American Bash '87 Night 1 — Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Road Warriors, and Paul Ellering vs. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and JJ Dillon
An electric crowd in the Omni in Atlanta were treated to the first-ever War Games, the creation of “The American Dream” Dusty Rhodes. Maybe this wasn’t the most thrilling of the War Games matches but the crowd was on fire throughout the match as they witnessed to its debut.
When the Road Warriors threw Tully Blanchard from one ring to the other and Nikita Koloff hit a double clothesline, the crowd roared in excitement.
This was unbridled bloody violence in a concept that no one had ever seen before. JJ Dillon was the fall guy as he came in last for the heels but the Road Warriors separated him from the rest of his team and nailed him with a clothesline off the top rope with the manager coming down hard on his shoulder as he surrendered shortly after that.
1. WCW WrestleWar ’92 — Sting's Squadron (Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Barry Windham) vs. Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin, Rick Rude, and Larry Zbyszko)
This was the second year in a row that WrestleWar featured the War Games in what was an instant classic.
This was a bloodfest as a blonde-haired “Stunning” Steve Austin was spilling the red just minutes into the match. The Jacksonville crowd went berserk later in the match when ultimate good-guy Ricky Steamboat entered the cage starting chopping everyone in sight.
Outside the ring, Paul E. Dangerously (you know him now as Paul Heyman) had the gameplan all mapped out for the Dangerous Alliance as he directed Madusa to climb on top of the steel structure armed with his oversized cell phone. But before she could drop it down inside the cage, Sting climbed up the cage and chased her off.
Late in the match, Larry Zybysko had undid one of the top ropes and was ready to use the big steel end to smash Sting. But the Stinger ducked out of the way and the “Living Legend” nailed his teammate Bobby Eaton in the shoulder. Sting then slapped on an arm lock with Eaton writhing in pain and forced to submit.
