A – Excellent
B – Good
C – Mediocre
D – Avoid
Release Date: 1st July 2013
Available From: www.wwedvd.co.uk
Price:
DVD £19.99
Blu-ray £22.99
Format Reviewed: DVD (3 Discs)
(Also Available on Blu-ray (2 Discs)
What It’s About:
WCW’s WarGames were the predecessor to WWE’s Hell in a Cell and Elimination Chamber, usually a feud ending match which was first used by NWA and then WCW. Usually pitting two teams of five who would then enter in order, WarGames was held inside two rings with both rings covered by an adjoining steel cage where the match could only end after all participants had entered and then only via submit or surrender.
Billed at ‘The Match Beyond’ this WWE compilation of WCW’s most notorious match is compiled with a sit-down interview with the WarGames’ creator Dusty Rhodes and features complete matches from the WarGames ranging from 1987 – 2000.
Strengths:
Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff and Paul Ellering vs Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger and J.J Dillon (The Great American Bash, July 4th 1987) takes a while to really get going but hits its stride when Road Warrior Animal enters the match, showing some impressive stealth and performing some stirring power moves. One of which includes supporting Tully Blanchard’s weight mid slam and then driving his face into the cage behind. Sadly the commentary on the match is so inaudible that it leaves you to work out what is coming for yourself but this as usual is a minor grievance. As usual, Ric Flair is flawless in everything he does from offence to selling and Lex Luger shows off some of that untapped talent which made WCW officials sit up and take notice of him in the late 80’s. It’s just a shame it didn’t last. The match features a vicious spike piledriver which is a treat to see again since WWE have banned the move due its dangers. Whilst the action is entertaining the ten men in the ring fail to use the space provided in both rings to its full effect cramming a good slice of the action into one ring – which makes the match seem more bust than it needed to. Hawk and J.J Dillon provide a priceless comedy moment towards the business end of the encounter and the match ends suddenly due to Dillon surrendering thanks to a broken collarbone as the effect of a crushing Road Warriors ‘Doomsday Device’. It’s a good first entry into the WarGames and as it was the very first WarGames match in existence it set the bar for all that followed.
Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering vs Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard and The War Machine (The Great American Bash, July 31st 1987) is almost an exact re-run of the first match on the card, featuring the same wrestlers but one, entering in almost an identical order. Once again Dusty Rhodes and Arn Anderson begin the match producing an electric inaugural five minutes before the next man enters. A sense of Déjà Vu is present here as only the terrible War Machine is the odd man out between the two bouts but it never detracts from a very good showing. Hawk’s usual ‘no sell’ spot gets a massive pop from the audience as does the popular exchange between Ric Flair and Nikita Koloff. The match, billed as the rematch to the first encounter on the release has a thrilling atmosphere thanks to the hyped up crowd and there is a lot of blood on show. No one bleeds more than Rhodes who looks like he’s been in a fight with Freddie Kruger before the match concludes. Whilst nothing of note really happens which we haven’t seen in the first match, it is still a very good effort from all except the dire War Machine who is clearly too fat and lazy to be in a match of this calibre. The highlight of the match comes when Animal throws Blanchard over both sets of ropes and then completes the sequence with a dive, clearing both ropes and landing in the opposite ring.
Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams, Nikita Koloff and Paul Ellering vs Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and J.J Dillon (The Great American Bash, July 16th 1988) rolls along the same lines as the previous to matches but highlights how good Barry Windham could have been as a long time main event player. Dusty once again bleeds heavily thanks to an awesome and gruesome spot in which Arn Anderson digs a pair of wire cutters into ‘The American Dream’s’ forehead. Luger gets a heroes reception upon his entry into the match and looks very impressive. But then he always did when in the ring with Ric Flair. Only Flair and Sting ever made Luger look good in the squared circle. Tully Blanchard brings a steel chair into play which gives the match a different edge and a fresh look which is needed as by the time one reaches this point on the release it’s increasingly difficult to tell what is good and what is not. This is the one match on the release which has no commentary on it at all and thus benefits from the omission, giving the whole brawl a legitimate edge. Lex Luger’s body looks like it’s made of plastic by the end of the match and with short hair; Dusty Rhodes looks the spitting image of his son Dustin. On the whole, the match is as expected and whilst there’s nothing novel in it, all involved make sure it is saved from the drop into the next category by some fine performances.
Sting, Brian Pillman and The Steiner Brothers vs Barry Windham, Ric Flair, Sid Vicious and Larry Zbyszko (WrestleWar, February 24th 1991) begins with a bloody five minute opener between Windham and Pillman which is nothing short of proficient and features a death defying and dangerous head first bump over both ropes in which Windham nearly breaks his neck. Brian Pillman was very sound in the early 90’s and should have gone further in WCW. Sting’s ovation when he gets into the cage to save Pillman from Windham and Ric Flair is thunderous and it’s easy to see why he was so popular with the fans and booking crew in the back. Looking at this match, the way Sting wrestles, moves, paces himself and sells proves that he learnt well from Ric Flair during their singles feud. Sting’s most memorable contribution to this fine scrap is his flying shoulder block from one ring to the next which looks dazzling. Once again, Ric Flair is faultless portraying the cowardly champion who is fine when his opponent is down but wants no part of them when they’re on their feet. Selling like a trooper, Ric Flair makes Pillman look a million dollars and more importantly, his equal. Considering Pillman was way down the WCW food chain at the time this is some achievement. This WarGames spectacle thankfully contains more actually wrestling than previous editions which is a welcome sight after nearly an hour and a half of just brawling. The quadruple figure four leg lock on Flair’s team is a highlight and Scott Steiner drops Zbyszko with a classy looking double underarm sit-down suplex which is the Steiner’s only real contribution to the match and Sid Vicious even manages to look respectable considering his huge limitations as a wrestler. Though he shows his lack of wrestling knowledge on a grand scale when Vicious tries a Powerbomb on Pillman, knowing he could not possibly complete the move thanks to the very low ceiling on the cage. Thanks to Vicious’ height and the aforementioned low ceiling, Pillman ends up in a vertical position for the move. Instead of an impactful finisher, Vicious hideously drops Pillman on his neck in one of the nastiest moves on the entire release. How Pillman escaped without a broken neck I shall never know. Vicious should have been banned from using this move by WCW in this type of match. Sadly this is where the match comes to an end via referee stoppage when El Gigante runs in to check on Pillman and the referee decrees that ‘Flyin’ Brian cannot continue. So much for the Submit or Surrender rule. It’s a bad ending to a first-class match.
Sting’s Squadron (Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes and Nikita Koloff) vs The Dangerous Alliance (Arn Anderson, ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko) (WrestleWar, May 17th 1992) is an excellent match all around boasting some top class action and legitimate wrestling moves for a change. The man who would rocket to fame in WWE as Stone Cold Steve Austin and Dustin Rhodes put on some classic exchanges including a double clothesline from ring to ring and Austin puts his body on the line in the name of entertainment at various other points in the match to great effect. Other thrilling moments inside this WarGames include a great double Boston Crab on Steamboat by Rick Rude and Arn Anderson, a perfectly executed piledriver by Steamboat on Rude, an excellently delivered electric chair by Rhodes on Austin, Barry Windham trapping Arn Anderson’s head between the two rings in a novel manoeuvre and Sting’s backdrop into the cage on Austin. Of the competitors, Arn Anderson moves like a greyhound between moves, slickly executing every move with pitch perfect precision. Rick Rude looks buff and strangely blue as the match goes on, he really was a terrific talent and he and Ricky Steamboat deserve a standing ovation for their thrilling exchanges throughout the match. This match is both bloody; the mat is stained with claret before the final bell tolls and sublime. A highlight of the release.
NWO (Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan and Fake Sting) vs Arn Anderson, Ric Flair, Lex Luger and Sting (Fall Brawl, September 15th 1996) is a real main event and has the feeling of one thanks to the level of talent involved. Something which many matches on this release lack. The match comes after several consecutive dud encounters on the release and is a welcome relief. Lex Luger enters the match looking better than he has done in previous outings – which can you read more about below – and moves very well, something he only did in the late 90’s when he could be bothered. For his age, Arn Anderson hadn’t lost the ability to be one of the best all rounder’s in the company. Here, ‘Double A’ hits a great spinebuster and sells competently. The entire NWO play their part to near faultlessness, though the jeers Hogan was hearing were more to do with the fact that he was taking the spotlight away from younger and better wrestlers who could have kept the company afloat in 2000 and 2001 had WCW bothered to do anything with them. Ric Flair provides a huge reaction and comes across as the warrior of the group, not the first time on the release, when he refuses to stop fighting even when all is clearly lost and this match may be the one and only time that Fake Sting actually looked identical to the real Sting. The trouble with this match is that nothing memorable comes out of it, so you’ll probably forget all about it once the release has been watched and on your shelf. It doesn’t necessarily hamper then overall product as this is a better brawl than several which have gone immediately before it. This WarGames fight is only the second on the whole release to feature a heel victory.
Ric Flair, Chris Benoit, Steve McMichael and Curt Henning vs NWO (Kevin Nash, Syxx, Konan and Buff Bagwell) (Fall Brawl, September 14th 1997) is the first match on a WWE release since 2007 to feature Chris Benoit, since Chris, Nancy and Daniel Benoit passed away and this release is all the better for it. Regardless of what Chris Benoit may or may not have done on that day, the fact remains that he is still and will always be one of the greatest technical wrestlers to ever grace the industry. Let’s hope this is beginning of WWE phasing Benoit back into releases – certainly he should be included on the Money in the Bank Match Anthology later this year as well as others. The match begins with a solid five minute period between Bagwell and Benoit in which Bagwell shows some life, more than he ever did during the rest of his career and Benoit bumps really well. Chris Benoit and Steve McMichael perform a refined double team move out of each corner on Bagwell and Konan in a match which Steve McMichael does very well to hide his huge limitations and look like a wrestler and not a football player come wrestler. Syxx (Sean ‘X Pac / 123 Kid’ Waltman), like Benoit bumps very well even though he does very little else which sums up his time in WCW perfectly, though considering the amount of talent in the ring who could wrestle Lucha Libre, this match really should have been a high flying encounter or at least as much as the low cage roof would have allowed. The team leaders get their fair share of exposure as well, with Ric Flair bringing down the house as the valiant hero and Kevin Nash running through his opposition like a dominant monster. Curt Henning’s heel turn on the Horsemen is well sign posted from the outset and doesn’t come across as the shocking twist WCW would have liked us to believe it was. Flair, Benoit and McMichael are passed off as valiant heroes who refuse to quit when Benoit and Mongo are handcuffed to the cage whilst the NWO decimate ‘The Nature Boy’. The match ends with the famous scene of Curt Henning ramming the steel cage door into a prone Flair’s skull.
Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan and Stevie Ray vs Diamond Dallas Page, Roddy Piper and The Ultimate Warrior vs Sting, Kevin Nash and Lex Luger (Fall Brawl, September 13th 1998) is billed as every man for himself with the winner receiving a shot at the WCW Heavyweight Champion, Goldberg. However it would have been a better idea for WCW to book this as a nine man free for all WarGames instead of making it teams, who wrestle each other anyway. Bret Hart and DDP start the match with a good back and forth tussle but the bout takes a turn for the worse when Stevie Ray enters first. Ray, formerly of Harlem Heat adds nothing to a stoic match up which borders on dull but is pulled back from the edge by Hart and DDP who provide the majority of the best action when combating each other. Sting receives a huge ovation and completes the obligatory dive over both rings which by this time in the release has become just another spot. Though here, Sting botches the moves and nearly lands on his head. The match takes a welcome and different turn when the ring fills with smoke and when it clears an Ultimate Warrior imposter is standing in the centre of ring 1. The imposter takes a beating when the ring fills with smoke again. When the smoke clears the imposter is gone and Warrior comes tearing down the aisle to huge approval. The problem I have with this is that the commentators don’t acknowledge the imposter instead trying to make us believe that Warrior somehow got from the ring into the back without anyone seeing him in mere seconds. A claim which would be much more plausible if the imposter wasn’t visible several times on camera between the two rings after Warrior enters the match. Bizarrely, referees separate Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior as they fight up the aisle, yet they were both apart of the match so why separate the pair? This isn’t a horrible match but it is by far not the best. Watchable at best.
As host of sorts, Dusty Rhodes does touch upon a few good points both about the WarGames concept and wrestling in general. Saying he wouldn’t put WarGames on television where people could watch it free, Rhodes alludes to a match of WarGames standard should be kept for pay-per view as a feud ending gimmick. Of course he’s correct and it’s something WWE and TNA should bare in mind. Too often have WWE given away huge, high profile, feud ending matches on free television when they would have done so much more business had they been promoted for an upcoming pay-per view. Rhodes states that people should pay to see those types of matches. Once again, he is correct.
Giving an honest opinion of Road Warrior Hawk, Rhodes touches upon the reason the booking committee would often leave him until last to enter the WarGames matches. The reason Rhodes gives is that Hawk would hurt people. Rhodes doesn’t say it out loud but reading between the lines and what you actually hear is that Hawk was a sloppy worker who like Goldberg, would treat his opponents like rag dolls to be injured and thrown around. This is an honest segment by Rhodes who could have easily sugared the pill, as it were, and lied about Hawk’s roughness in the ring.
In a surprising conversation, Dusty Rhodes touches upon the corruption that went on in the National Wrestling Alliance. Open about the subject, it is refreshing to hear on a WWE release which usually likes to cover up certain facts about the industry in order to protect itself. That WWE allowed Rhodes to be so open and honest about the subject points to a change in game plan by WWE. Maybe they realise that honest is the best policy and they will be applauded for leaving the truth in their releases much more than they will omitting them or washing over them. In the same breath, Rhodes rightly credits Eric Bischoff for saving WCW in the early 90’s but seems a little bitter than Bischoff didn’t rate the WarGames as highly as Rhodes did and proceeded to water the match down.
Thankfully, Rhodes is truthful on another subject and that is – when talking about the talent change in WCW and wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage – WCW being the end of the line for wrestlers like that. Rhodes has the sense to see that their time in WCW was going to be the end of the line for those wrestlers, even when the wrestlers in question didn’t see it and wouldn’t admit it themselves. If only WWE allowed their other hosts to be this honest then their releases would have an air of authenticity about them.
At the end of the release, before we witness the final ever WarGames match which is a triple decked cage, Dusty Rhodes seems annoyed and sad that the WarGames had come to this under the watchful eye of Vince Russo. Rhodes is correct when he states that the last WarGames match wasn’t WarGames at all and had become just a name in WCW in which to hype a match they clearly had no other ideas for.
Weaknesses:
The Road Warriors, ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams, Ron Garvin and Jimmy Garvin vs Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Ivan Koloff and The Russian Assassin (The Great American Bash, July 10th 1988) in the ridiculous Tower of Doom Match is utterly absurd and dire. For those who aren’t familiar with the rules to a Tower of Doom match allow me to elaborate. The triple decked cage states that each wrestler from each team make their way up two ladders on the outside of the cage and one from each team begins the match in the top and smallest of the three cages. At predetermined intervals the referee opens the trapdoor to each cage and it’s a frantic struggle to get down into the next cage. Those who don’t make it have to stay in the first cage and combat the next entrant. Members of each team must climb through each cage and out the legitimate cage door. The winning team is the team who has all their participants out of the main cage door. Honestly, this match is a total mess. To begin with, the ring area looks like a construction site and the sight of referee Tommy Young climbing the ladder with sheer terror on his face has to be seen to be believed. The top cage is unstable and moves every time a wrestler crashes against it making the whole match look completely amateur, not to mention the cage is so small that when there are more than two wrestlers in it at a time they can barely move. Ron Garvin appears to be too scared to drop down into the second cage and takes an age to disappear below almost halting the action completely whilst Garvin complete his planned spot. The match reeks of illogical decisions as instead of trying to escape down the trap doors wrestlers simply ignore it and carry on fighting not to mention the sight of the cage door fully open whilst Ivan Koloff and The Russian Assassin just stand there like a spare pair at a wedding. Not one of the competitors in this match does anything meaningful or memorable which makes the match drag at a hideous snails pace. The camera cuts to a wide shot when all three cages are in use, the downside to this is that you can only see what is happening in the middle cage as the other two are out of shot. This match is an absolute farce of epic proportions.
‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams, The Midnight Express and The Road Warriors vs The Fabulous Freebirds and The Samoan Swat Team (The Great American Bash, July 23rd 1989) should have been much better than it originally turned out. The highlight of the bout is the pre-match promo by Michael P.S Hayes which is extraordinarily good. For my money, Hayes was as good if not better than any of the great talkers in the industry. For some strange reason, Steve Williams seems to have borrowed his entire ring gear from Hulk Hogan. The match itself suffers from a slow and uninvolved beginning featuring Bobby Eaton and Jimmy Garvin, which the whole encounter never recovers from. Williams breaks the monotony with three press slams on Terry Gordy into the ceiling of the cage but that is about as exciting it gets. None of the participants seem to shine or take the match to the next level and at times it comes off as sloppy, resulting in a real slog for the viewer to get to the end. Hayes has the most charisma out of all the participants though by the time he enters it way too late to save the match. The Samoan Swat Team (WWE’s Headshrinkers) couldn’t have left any less of an impression had they stayed at home and the same goes for the insignificant Midnight Express. Hawk’s shoulder block over both ropes and into the next ring is the most impressive thing he does across the DVD and Blu-ray, though it’s a move you will see in almost every other match on the release. By the time the final few minutes of the match transpire you get the feeling there’s nothing here you haven’t see before.
Sting, Dustin Rhodes, Davey Boy Smith and The Shockmaster vs Vader, Sid Vicious and Harlem Heat (Fall Brawl, September 19th 1993) is a boring lull and a match which you can either fast forward, skip or have a quick break throughout because you will not miss anything of value in this. Vader and Rhodes contest a sleepy opening five minutes in which Dustin shows all the enthusiasm that got Goldust his marching orders from WWE the first time around. Very little happens after Kane (Stevie Ray) enters the affray and if anything the match becomes slower, that WCW couldn’t have found anyone other than Stevie Ray to compete here is a joke. Sting livens the match up for a very short while and a small chuckle from Vader’s over pants which are so big that the name on his trunks reads ‘ADER’. Illogically it takes both Vader and Vicious to lift Sting up because, you know, it’s too much for a 400 pound man to hoist up a 240 pound man on his own. Smith slamming Vader from the middle rope looks impressive but that is as exciting as it gets. The Shockmaster, one of wrestling’s greatest calamities, is utterly atrocious as expected, compared this guy John Cena looks like Ric Flair. WCW should have canned this moron when he accidentally fell through a fake wall wearing a sparkly Darth Vader helmet on WCW television. He had disaster written all over him from day 1. I suppose we shouldn’t have expected too much of this match, with Stevie Ray, Sid Vicious, The Shockmaster and Dustin Rhodes involved what hope did it ever have of succeeding? Absolutely horrible.
Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and The Nasty Boyz vs Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, Terry Funk and Col. Rob Parker (Fall Brawl, September 18th 1994) is one of the most pointless matches on the entire release. WarGames was designed to feature headline talent ending high profile feuds, I can’t honestly say that in September 1994 one of the men in this match fell into that bracket. With the exception of Arn Anderson and possibly Dustin Rhodes the rest of the supporting cast are pointless additions. ‘Double A’ and Dustin Rhodes provide a respectable first five minutes until Bunkhouse Buck enters the ring and that’s when the match falls apart. Buck, one of WCW’s most dismal talents zaps all life from the match five minutes in and it noticeably begins to affect everyone involved. Dustin Rhodes’ one legged Boston Crab on Anderson looks as effective as John Cena’s STF. The Nasty Boyz’s offence is comical at times and for a team who had been in wrestling for as long as they had, it’s amazing they still didn’t know how to execute the simplest of moves. Terry Funk marches around the ring resembling a drunken uncle at a wedding and Dusty Rhodes was simply clinging to the spotlight for all it was worth. The one high point in the match is Jerry Sags’ piledriver on Funk which then losses the ‘Funker’ down the gap between the two rings. Dustin Rhodes and Arn Anderson repeat a lot of manoeuvres from previous matches like they’re incapable of thinking for themselves and Col. Rob Parker’s involvement is repulsively bad. Opting for the comedy element, Parker goes down like Justin Bieber on an oil rig. Before the match Dusty Rhodes ridiculously states in his sit down interview that when the Nasty Boyz hit Parker he ‘literally’ crapped himself. No, he didn’t. It’s clear that WCW had given up on the WarGames idea by 1994. From beginning to end this is just rotten.
Sting, Lex Luger, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage vs The Shark (John ‘Earthquake’ Tenta), Zodiac (Ed ‘Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake’ Leslie), Kamala and Meng (Fall Brawl, September 17th 1995) is the pits. Whilst Sting’s slam on an overweight Shark, Shark diving across the two rings and getting caught between both top ropes are small highlights, the whole match runs at a tediously slow pace beginning with The Shark and Zodiac vs Sting. Zodiac’s selling is cringe worthy at best and Sting looks a complete tool when he’s forced to lie on the mat and take the dodgy offence from Shark and Zodiac. What makes this match even more laughable is that features Luger and Hogan on one team – two men who never had the best patter inside the squared circle – against four former WWE rejects, two of them too overweight to do anything of note. Earthquake and Brutus were only hired because they were Hogan’s friends, Meng (who was Haku in WWE) has at least some talent, but it boggles the mind why WCW ever hired Kamala. Sadly Randy Savage and Sting are wasted in this match and not even their skills can save this trash which is embarrassing to watch. Luger blows up super quick, Kamala is repugnant to watch as he waddles around ring and Shark and Zodiac are an embarrassment to wrestling here. Hogan heats up the match on his entry into the match but even his offence is weak in its execution. I still don’t know what WCW were thinking when they came up with this drivel.
Sting, Booker T, Goldberg and Kronik vs Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash, Scott Steiner and The Harris Brothers / Vince Russo (WCW Monday Nitro, September 4th 2000) is the final ever WarGames match and judging by this, it’s probably best that it was. Instead of a traditional WarGames outing, Russo – WCW’s lead writer – thought it best to try and relive the Thunder Dome scrap and had three cages stacked on top of each other. Thankfully, the same rules didn’t apply. Instead, the WCW Heavyweight Championship is suspended above the top cage. The rules are simple, the competitors have to climb up through the cages and unhook the WCW Championship. Then they must work their way back down the cages and exit the way they entered. The rules are rubbish because they state the wrestler who walks out of the cage the gold is the Champion, meaning a wrestler could do all the work of climbing the cages which are a considerable height, unhook the gold and then get the belt snatched out their hand by someone who has been standing by the door. That person can then just walk out with the gold and be champion for doing nothing. I mention this, because it’s exactly what happens in this busy, yet pathetic effort at trying to retrieve some viewers from WWE. The ruling of the match state that this should have been every man for himself, and not a team effort. Sting and Jeff Jarrett trade some good moves at the beginning, unfortunately that’s the best this match gets. Russo, the man who is meant to be competing gets into the ring and then has the Harris Brothers wrestle it for him – a team who may have well as not turned up as they and Kronik wrestle into the crowd and you never see them again. Kevin Nash stands by the door like a statue until the final few moments when he gets levelled by Goldberg who is handcuffed to the ropes for the majority of the match. Scott Steiner tries to be relevant but it doesn’t work for him and Booker T is the only man who looks like he’s remotely bothered. In the end this is another shoddily booked, Vince Russo penned angle which made it easy to see why WCW went out of business. Infuriatingly, Booker T does all the work of climbing the cages, retrieving the belt, only for Steiner to take the belt from him, drop it down to Kevin Nash to allow Nash to leave as champion. Dumb and infuriating.
As host, Dusty Rhodes is mostly incoherent and adds nothing new to proceedings. His stories are too short to give any depth to the WarGames matches he’s talking about. Rhodes states the same facts over and over and over until it becomes worthless to watch him because you don’t learn anything new and the feeling is that he’s trying to fill time. Rhodes is deeply self absorbent, talking at length about himself and Dustin but rushes through everything and everyone else at such a pace you get the feeling the release would have been much better had it been just the matches accompanied by a short highlight package of the points WWE needed to get across.
Dusty Rhodes credits himself solely for creating the WarGames. Rhodes never mentions that as a mere wrestler in NWA and Jim Crocket Promotions, he needed the financial backing of both companies to get the match onto the screen. Rhodes never once credits those who gave him the green light to create this match or those who stuck their neck out on the line and took the risk of booking the match in the first place. To hear Rhodes speak one would think he were in charge of everything that happened in NWA and JCP. At least Rhodes gives a nod to Klondike Bill who built the WarGames structure.
When broaching the subject of WarGames only being used once a year, instead of several times a year as it was in the 80’s, Rhodes sounds both annoyed and disappointed that his creation wasn’t wanted more by the growing WCW. The truth is, WCW had the right idea by booking the match once a year as it had a limited shelf life. The early matches on the release prove there were very limited things one could do inside the structure. Had WCW booked it more than once a year then it would have been disastrous and dull and its shelf life would have expired sooner than it actually did. Strangely, Rhodes doesn’t acknowledge this, instead citing that WCW was more about making money than booking matches like WarGames as the reason it was only used once a year. WCW was a business, it had to make money and I didn’t hear Dusty Rhodes complaining when his sizable cheque cleared each month.
Blu-ray Exclusive Extras:
Smoky Mountain Wrestling – May 1993
Rage in the Cage Match
Brian Lee, Jimmy Golden, Ricky Morton, Robert Fuller and Robert Gibson vs Kevin Sullivan, Killer Kyle, The Tazmaniac, Stan Lane and Tom Pritchard
ECW December to Dismember – December 9th 1995
Ultimate Jeopardy Steel Cage Match
Tommy Dreamer, Public Enemy and The Pitbulls vs Raven, Stevie Richards, The Eliminators and The Heavenly Bodies
ECW CyberSlam – April 3rd 1999
Ultimate Jeopardy Steel Cage Match
The Dudley Boyz and Mustafa Saed vs New Jack, Axel Rotten and Balls Mahoney
War Games Fantasy Booking With Dusty Rhodes
Conclusion:
WarGames: WCW’s Most Notorious Matches is another decent release from WWE in 2013 even though there are huge, glaring problems with it. Dusty Rhodes is inadequate as host preferring to talk at length about himself and his family instead of the wrestlers who took part in the WarGames matches and when he is forced to talk about them he couldn’t look less interested if he tried.
Dusty Rhodes is also the source of repetition when it comes to the WarGames matches themselves. Starring in several of the included matches, Dusty’s time on the release is either worthless or identical to the one which went before. An example of this is that three out of the first four matches feature almost the same teams, entering in the same order, performing the same moves. These matches always begin with Dusty Rhodes and Arn Anderson where Rhodes applies the figure four to ‘The Enforcer’ at the same point in every match.
As this release is about the WarGames, one type of match, there is no variety across the release, but then again I doubt those buying WWE’s latest offering will be expecting variety should they know every match takes places inside the WarGames structure and is heavy on the same moves happening in every match. However, as a release, DVD Disc 2 (Blu-ray Disc 1 – one hour and fifty minutes into the running until the end) is as good as pointless as it features most of the dud matches across the whole subject. WWE, to their credit have tried to make this an anthology of every WarGames match in history, yet this is one release which would have been entitled ‘The Best of Wargames’ and cut it by a disc. That way WWE could have omitted the very worst and given us a collection which was virtually flawless.
When it’s bad it’s unbearable, but when it’s good then it’s a wonderful reminder of a trailblazing match and a trip down WCW’s memory lane which features some great matches and a host of talent which has either been forgotten or are no longer with us.
Rating: B
Next Time in Review Corner: WWE Live in the U.K: April 2013 DVD
Onwards and upwards...
