WAR GAMES: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches – Disc Three

 

-Dusty welcomes us into the third and final disc, by talking about how guys like Hogan are such historians (heh) that they would have loved to have been a part of the early matches and taken pride in participating.

 

September 17, 1995

Hulk Hogan, “Macho Man” Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting vs. Kamala The Ugandan Giant, The Zodiac, The Shark and Meng

Sting and Shark start off the match.  Shark quickly begins to beat away at Sting.  Of course, Shark is now biting at Sting. Sting dodges a corner charge and follows Shark into the second ring with a clothesline between the rings and a body slam.  Sting fails on a second.  Shark puts on a bearhug.  That lasts a while.  Shark fails to go ring to ring and gets caught up on the ropes.  Sting puts some kicks to his gut.  Sting kicks at the leg and chop blocks Shark.  Scorpion Deathlock, but Zodiac enters.

Sting beats at Zodiac before Shark returns for some double team elbow drops and a legdrop.  A double clothesline puts Sting down.  Sting slams into the cage and Savage enters.  Savage gets doubleteamed as Sting is held back by Dungeon of Doom members on the outside.  Shark hits a slam on Sting.  Savage is attacked by DoD members who hold him at the cage.  Kamala enters and the pace continues.  Shark hits an atomic drop as I realize that there has never been a team as tan as Hogan’s team is here.  Slow, plodding brawling continues as Luger finally enters and hits some clotheslines.  Savage and Luger throw Zodiac into the cage and Savage comes down with a double axe handle on Shark.

Luger accidently hits Savage with a clothesline and Sting has to separate them.  Meng comes in and cleans house.  Zodiac tears the shirt off of Luger, because that’s important.  Meng continues to kick ass and be a badass, so that’s one good thing about this match.  Hogan enters and throws powder into the heel’s faces.  Coward.  Zodiac’s movements while doing anything exposes the business so terribly.

Hogan saves the day and the slow, plodding brawling continues.  Sting and Meng look to be having a fun battle, but the camera is on Hogan.  Luger and Hogan throw Kamala and Zodiac into the cage.  Hogan flinches as Luger slaps him on stomach in camaraderie.  What a tough guy.  Hogan isolates Zodiac, tosses him into the cage and casually throws on a Camel Clutch for the submission at….who cares, really?

Final Thoughts:  Sting and Shark had an entertaining start to the match, and then the quality dropped quickly.  Everyone, especially Savage, was going through the motions.  He just ran around and stayed in the background for the most part.  Sting and Meng had a decent duel happening, but the camera was fixed on Hogan.  Also, less Ed Leslie would have helped this match.  Much less.  *

 

-Dusty talks about how the New World Order and how their presence brought intrigue to War Games and also an element of surprise.  The faction helped breathe life into the match, naturally.

 

September 15, 1996

“Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and A Mystery Partner vs. Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger and Sting

Arn and Hall start.  Hall invites Arn into his ring, and attacks him as he enters.  The two slug it out, with Arn tossing Hall into the cage and stomping.  Hall hits a corner clothesline and drags Arn’s eyes against the ropes.  He follows up by smashing the back of Arn’s head against the wall.  Arn chops at Hall’s knee and puts on a spinning toe hold.  Hall fights back after retreating.  Patrick incorrectly says that he’ll eliminate Arn right now.  Of course, he became the referee of the New World Order.  Arn fights back and puts on a sleeper hold.

Hall powers out with a belly to back suplex.  Off the whip, the crowd pops big as Arn hits the Spinebuster.  He puts on a half crab before Nash hustles down and enters the ring.  I swear that Nash hustled.  Arn gets taken down after Hall holds him for Nash’s big boot.  They throw Arn into the cage and stomp away.  Nash hits Snake Eyes and Hall follows with a clothesline.  Luger enters fifteen seconds early and cleans house, putting Hall and Nash both into the cage wall.  Luger hits a couple of flying forearms and picks up Hall.  He drives him face first into the cage.

Hogan is the next to enter.  He attempts to clean house, but is without his babyface powers.  The numbers catch up, with Luger going into the cage and Hogan isolating and working on Anderson.  Nash hits the corner elbows while Hogan punches away at Arn.  Hogan drops the leg on Arn right before Flair enters the opposite ring and invites them over.  Hogan meets him.  Off of the whip, Flair slugs out Hogan and dishes out some low blows for Hall and Nash.  Luger doles out some atomic drops while Flairs puts the figure four on Hogan.

Looking back, Fake Sting didn’t look much at all like Sting.  I’m sure that the crowd noticed this at this show and felt really stupid.  The Imposter enters to confusion and cleans house with Sting’s offense.  Hogan drops the leg on Flair and Fake Sting hits a couple of splashes.  The real Sting heads out and charges in.  Sting quickly dispatches Fake Sting and takes out the entire New World Order.  He hits Stinger Splashes on everyone.  It’s glorious.  Then, Sting leaves, asking if the damage he did was good enough for his teammates.  The babyfaces quickly fall afterwards, with Luger submitting to the Fake Scorpion Deathlock at just over 18:00.

Final Thoughts:  Compared to the year before, this one feels like the edition from 1992.  This was an awfully entertaining match that had a nice payoff to the fake Sting angle.  The two minutes or so where Sting singlehandedly deals with the New World Order while everyone just stands around and watches him do it is pretty damned cool.  Also, Luger is an idiot for thinking the guy that attacked him was indeed Sting and deserves to lose.  ***1/2

 

-It takes me a while to translate just what the hell Dusty is talking about in these.  He talks about how Bischoff’s checkbook and the Monday Night Wars lead to every resource being exhausted at all times for the success of events.  And, he goes back into talking about how it led to there being the draw of the future being unknown.

 

September 14, 1997

Kevin Nash, Buff Bagwell, Syxx and Konnan vs. Ric Flair, Steve McMichael, Chris Benoit and Curt Hennig

Bagwell and Benoit start the match.  Buff decides to flex for the camera, and Benoit sends him into the cage in response.  Benoit hits a suplex up and into the cage and then stomps away and slaps Bagwell.  Chris misses the headbutt from the top.  Bagwell fights back and chokes away at Benoit.  Chris takes a back body drop into the cage and Buff goes back to chokes.  Benoit fights back in the corner, and a short time later, Konnan enters.  Benoit hits a snap suplex on Konnan and hits a slam on Bagwell, throwing him on top of Konnan.

He tosses both of them into the cage.  Bagwell hits a kick to the gut and Konnan follows with a DDT.  They stomp away after Bagwell poses for the camera.  I don’t like that.  McMichael enters and hits a couple of clotheslines and slams.  Mongo hits the chop block and clubs away at Konnan.  Konnan and Bagwell avoid each other on a corner whip, but go down to a big boot and a clothesline.  Benoit and McMichael isolate Bagwell and Konnan.

Benoit chops the hell out of Bagwell’s chest before Syxx enters.  Benoit waits for him with strikes and tosses him into the cage and into Bagwell.  He follows with a clothesline.  Mongo presses Syxx into the roof of the cage.  The numbers then catch up, with Konnan holding Mongo at bay.  Hennig comes down to the ring in a sling, presumably attacked earlier on in the night.  Flair is next in, and takes down the three heels.

Flair grinds Syxx’s face into the wall and beats at Bagwell in the corner.  Mongo hits a backbreaker on Konnan.  Nash enters the ring and hits a sideslam on Flair off of the whip.  Nash catches Benoit and drives him into the wall.  Buff mugs for the camera again, as Nash goes after Mongo in the corner.  Flair hits low blows on both Syxx and Bagwell.  Hennig enters the ring.  He takes off the sling, to reveal a couple of pairs of handcuffs and immediately turns on the Horsemen.

Mongo and Benoit are cuffed to the cage as Flair gets a five on one beatdown.  Nash asks Benoit to surrender and gets a face full of spit in response.  Bagwell asks Benoit, and Benoit spits again.  Nash hits a Jackknife on the bloodied Flair.  They don’t get the response they desire, so the New World Order threatens to smash Ric’s head in the cage door.  Mongo finally submits at nearly 20:00, but Curt still slams the door on Flair’s head.  They’re just heels like that.

Final Thoughts:  Buff Bagwell undermining the serious nature and intensity of War Games with his incessant preening, and mugging for the cameras, was not enough to really hurt this match.  Benoit always made sure to tag him with stiff shots every time.  I realize that McMichael was never a good wrestler, but he also did nothing to embarrass himself here.  It did take for too long for Nash and Konnan to cuff Benoit and McMichael to the cage, but the effort and intensity was here.  Bobby and Tony being overdramatic is a drag on the final stages of the encounter, but I’d say this was still a *** affair.

 

-Dusty talks about how even though the match stopped being about the fight between eight men for one common goal, the talent can overcome flawed booking.

 

September 13, 1998

Diamond Dallas Page, Rowdy Roddy Piper and The Warrior vs “Hollywood” Hulk Hogan, Steve Ray and Bret “Hit Man” Hart vs. Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger

Alright, in this match, they’re all fighting over a title shot.  So, these teams don’t mean much at all.  This is pretty much their World War III match with a different cage.  Also, pinfalls are acceptable before everyone else enters the match.  Yeah, I don’t like it, either.

DDP and Hart start the match.  They have a large video wall set up for the entrances, of course.  It’s times like these, with their generic entrance videos, you see how far behind WCW was behind WWE in production values.  I really think that they just took a Nitro or Thunder entrance, threw it into slow motion, slapped in some text, and called it a day.

They circle to begin and lock up.  They trade some arm work and DDP gets a quick shoulderblock for one.  Page hits a belly to belly for a near fall.  Bret gets away from the Diamond Cutter and stun guns DDP against the turnbuckle.  Hart chokes Page in the corner.  Page turns it around and hits some punches in the corner.  Hart fights back and hits the backbreaker and follows up with a headbutt to the stomach.  DDP blocks the suplex and hits an armbreaker for a two count.  It’s so cute that WCW is still calling these time periods, like it actually matters.

Hart hits the Russian legsweep for two.  Bret gets a small package for two.  DDP hits his spinning clothesline and Stevie Ray is now on the way out.  Stevie breaks up a pin on Hart and stomps away at Page.  Dallas hits a double clothesline on Stevie and Bret.  Ray goes right back to choking Page.  Ray hits an atomic drop and clotheslines Page.  Sting is out next and takes aim at Stevie Ray, flying between the rings to hit him with a clothesline.  Meanwhile, Hart and DDP are down after Dallas goes low.  Sting drives Ray against the cage and hits a splash, sandwiching Stevie.

Piper is out next and starts to punch and kick everyone.  Piper comically pokes Bret in the eyes and moves on to bite Stevie in the forehead.  Piper tackles Stevie into the first ring, with Bret and DDP joining them.  Luger comes out, and in what is just a pretty damned funny moment, Bret waves hello to him as he enters the cage.  Luger stomps away at Ray, and says hello to Bret as well, slugging him.  Luger fights out of the sleeper from Piper, but Piper heads over and puts it on Stevie Ray in the first ring.  Kevin Nash lumbers down to the ring and goes after Piper, hitting the knees in the corner.  Hogan wanders out a minute before he is due and teams up with Stevie Ray, hitting everyone with a blackjack, except for Bret Hart, who Stevie hits with a chop block.

Now, it gets goofy as Ray and Hogan go after Nash.  They drag him out from the middle of the ring and to the corner so that Warrior can make a silly entrance through the ring.  Nash lies on his back for about a good minute without moving, and Hogan doesn’t even think about covering him.  Smoke filters into the ring, interrupted Hogan’s cover somehow.  The Warrior shows up, and Hogan attacks.  Smoke refills the ring and I wonder what silly shit is going on in ring number two that is keeping Bret Hart from covering someone that is already unconscious.

Warrior runs out from the entrance.  HOW’D HE DO THAT??  Warrior takes them both down, but Hogan bails and locks the cage, keeping Warrior away from him.  At this point, The Warrior could just fill the ring with smoke again and pop up back at the entrance to the arena.  But, I guess that using a smoke machine thrice would be bad business.  Warrior doesn’t think about covering anyone, and instead walks around, taunting Hogan.

Next time, just use a gimmicked chain and let Warrior snap it, as Bret has to sell a knee injury for ten years.  He lets Warrior walk right on by, when he could just cover someone during the confusion.  Really, there’s just a pile of unconscious bodies in the corner.  Anyways, Warrior kicks a hole in the cage and follows Hogan out and onto the floor.  Security breaks them up.  This isn’t a damned blood feud.  Back in the ring, everyone is getting back to their feet.

Even Bret has, but he’s actually lost his leg by the point.  They had time to amputate and give him a rehabbing video package and everything.  DDP gives Stevie Ray a Diamond Cutter for the victory at around 20:00.  Oh yeah, Stevie Ray stayed on the mat for a few minutes following just a toss into the cage wall…and decided to roll into the second ring instead of covering the unconscious Nash.  Oh, and Piper vanished when The Warrior showed up.  My theory is that he decided to lie between rings and then got up for the finish, rolled into the second ring, and lost consciousness again.  Everyone is down again, except for Bret, who limps away from this match with haste.  Good call.

Final Thoughts:  Everything before Hogan’s appearance is fine, really.  Then, the more you think about what you’re watching, the more angry and confused you become.  * and I feel that I’m being generous.

 

-Dusty is upset with how War Games ended, with just the name being slapped upon anything.  This naturally leads us to WAR GAMES 2000.

 

September 4, 2000

Sting, Booker T, Goldberg and Kronik vs. Kevin Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner and The Harris Brothers

So, in this match, it’s a Tower of Doom match with the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt hanging above the third cage.  Guys enter, grab the belt, and have to leave the bottom cage with it.  This is, The War Games 2000.

Sting and Jeff Jarrett start the match and Sting quickly takes over with a dropkick and clotheslines Jarrett outside.  Sting runs Jarrett into the cage on the outside.  Back in, Sting leans a ladder in the corner.  Jarrett takes over, but gets whipped a couple of times into the ladder.  There’s no five minute first period, as Steiner is already on the way out.  Sting hangs on the roof of the first level as Jarrett and Steiner drive the ladder into him.  Sting falls and then takes a press slam drop from Steiner, afterwards.

Sting gets whipped into another ladder and is clotheslined by Steiner.  KroniK both enter as Steiner goes to the second level.  Scott grabs some bolt cutters to open the door on the second level.  I didn’t know that the proper use of bolt cutters was needed to become champion.  However, the door doesn’t open easily, and he needs help from a referee.  KroniK head up the second level and beat on Steiner.  KroniK press Steiner into the cage roof right before Vince Russo enters the match with The Harris Brothers.  Of course, he’s wearing a hockey helmet and carrying a baseball bat.  At the bottom, Sting beats up on Jarrett.  KroniK battle with The Harris Brothers on the second level.

Sting hits the Stinger Splash on Russo and throws on a Scorpion Deathlock.  Russo doesn’t even tap.  Nash is out next and slowly walks down to the ring.  Nash goes to help Steiner and gets Stinger Splashed.  They move on the second attempt, and Nash then chokeslams Sting.  Nash teases a chokeslam on Russo, and then teases it again.  Then, he teases one on Jarrett.  Then, teases on Steiner.  He even teases an Iron Claw.  What a big, sexy tease.

Booker T is out next and hits an Axe Kick both Jarrett and Steiner.  Russo gets one of his own.  Nash comes back in and gives Booker T a big boot.  Russo and friends beat on Sting and Booker before Nash teases a Powerbomb on Russo for some reason.  Goldberg comes out and hits the double clothesline before taking a baseball bat shot from Russo.  That knocks him out.  Russo and friends handcuff Goldberg to the rope as Booker T climbs, with Steiner in pursuit.  The cage door gets stuck again on the second tier as everyone goes up to battle.

Nash just chills at the bottom, next to the door.  Booker gets to the top and takes the belt.  On the way down, he clocks Jarrett and Steiner with the belt.  Meanwhile, Sting has been handcuffed somehow.   Jarrett smashes a guitar on Booker and they cuff Booker to the second cage, joining Sting.  Russo has the belt on the first level.  Then, The Cat comes out of nowhere, kicks Russo and takes the belt.  Nash powerbombs him.  Seeing Nash with the belt gives Goldberg the strength to easily break out of his handcuff and superkick him.

Goldberg lays everyone out and grabs the belt.  Goldberg Is about to walk out of the cage, but Bret Hart pops up out of nowhere and slams the door on Goldberg before Steiner attacks him from behind.  It’s a good thing that they didn’t have those doors switched.  Steiner Recliner on Goldberg as Russo hugs Nash and hands him the title belt.  They’re all BFFs as Nash leaves with the title and the win at about 19:00.

Final Thoughts:  Everything about this match was dumb, but I found it less insulting than what happened in the previous match.   By this time, WCW was being watched ironically by quite a few people.  A big problem with a match like this where you just need to escape the cage is that while standing at the cage door might work out fine, someone could just get desperate for the title and fall from the cage wall and to the floor outside.  Also, Nash standing at the door made the entire match concept pointless, anyway.  Goldberg didn’t think about going after Hart after the door was slammed on his face, and I have problems with that.  And also, if Nash and Russo were always in cahoots and the plan was to always let Nash walk with the belt, why have the match in the first place.  Lastly, Vince Russo was in this match.  My head hurts.  ½*

 

-We finish the set with Dusty talking about how, in modern times, WWE’s Elimination Chamber is an evolution of War Games and how it isn’t about imitating concepts as it is about improving them.  He sees War Games as a place where feuds end while being terribly violent.  It’s just good versus evil, he says, simply.