Thursday, September 7, 2017

War Games Wrestle War 1992

I'm going to take a different path for a while. More accurately, I'm going back to the beginning.

War Games was probably the greatest "gimmick" match in wrestling history. At least, it was the best one in WCW history. Hatched from the fertile imagination of the late "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, two wrestling rings were set up side-by-side, then enclosed by a cage with a top on it. Two teams of four or five men (not including managers, valets, advocates, seconds, or what-have-you), one babyface and one heel, send a man into the cage, where they fight for five minutes. After that, a man from one team enters, making it two on one. Every two minutes there after, the teams alternate, sending a man in. This end up as 2-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-on-2, and so forth. When all members have entered, the match officially begins. The only way to win is to make a member of the opposing team give up. Submission or surrender!

The War Games match at Wrestle War 1992 is probably the all-time best, and maybe the best match WCW ever offered up. The babyfaces are Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Barry Windham, Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat and Nikita Koloff. The heels are the Dangerous Alliance: "Ravishing" Rick Rude, "Stunning" Steve Austin, "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton (I'm noticing a trend), "Enforcer" Arn Anderson and "Cruncher" Larry Zbyszko. Seconding the Dangerous Alliance is Happy Heyman himself, Paul E. Dangerously and Madusa Miceli.

Backstory was important back then, especially since there was a lot more time between big events to build it up. The Dangerous Alliance had made its purpose plain: put Sting down. For GOOD. And take any title they could get by any means available. They were a heel's heels. Guys that were so good at being bad you couldn't help but admire them even as you wanted to see them get their butts kicked. And that's exactly what you're gonna see!

These guys use all of the special circumstances available in creative but psychologically-sound ways. They use the care roof as a weapon. Guys get lost between the rings. And don't miss the finale when a ring hook comes into play. (I can't describe the context. It has to be seen to be believed."

And you can see it and all the other War Games Matches filmed, hosted by Dusty Rhodes himself, right here:


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