The War Games stipulation created one of the most beloved matches in wrestling history. Dusty Rhodes coming up with the idea in WCW made it the calling card of the promotion. War Games gave WCW a true attraction match that WWE never replicated until years after WCW ended. Vince McMahon reportedly didn’t want to use a WCW concept, but Triple H kept pitching it.NXT ended up getting the boost of the War Games trademark being used for an annual TakeOver event. The men and women in NXT received opportunities to add to the history of a match many grew up watching. WCW’s legacy is still more tied to War Games, but NXT may have already passed WCW as doing the War Games concept better.
WCW’s War Games
The War Games match history in WCW is a mixed bag of both the best and worst of the match stipulation. WCW witnessed War Games become a top attraction in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s with the Four Horsemen feuding with various face teams including Sting, Dusty Rhodes, the Steiner Brothers, the Road Warriors, and many others. Paul Heyman’s Dangerous Alliance faction facing off with Sting’s Squadron has often been considered the peak of War Games matches in WCW.
The progression of WCW saw them trying to keep the War Games stipulation alive on the annual Fall Brawl PPV. It was primarily used to advance stories like Sting’s farewell before introducing the Crow character or to have heel turns like Curt Hennig leaving the Four Horsemen for the New World Order. The last two matches ended up hurting the legacy of showing WCW trying to keep it alive for name value.
Fall Brawl 1998 featured a different stipulation of three teams of three wrestlers with the person to score the pinfall winning a future WCW Championship title shot. The confusion would grow worse when War Games returned in 2000 on Nitro when the WCW Championship was on the line. Even the earlier years provided some confusion with some War Games matches ending in an “I Quit” stipulation and others via pinfalls.
NXT’s War Games
Triple H’s booking of War Games shows his wrestling fandom when he was running the NXT brand. Any longtime fan will see the influence of all the best things from WCW War Games without the negatives. The Undisputed Era faction became NXT’s version of the Four Horsemen as the constant heel team that multiple faces would rally together to challenge.
Four of the five male War Games matches in NXT featured the Undisputed Era as a credible group to create instant appeal. The only other male War Games match had an even better organic story of the NXT 2.0 newcomers teaming up to face the black and gold NXT veterans. Each match was a huge success with few complaints in any way.
NXT even upped the game after the first two years by having the women’s division also have a War Games match every year for the event. Team Ripley vs Team Baszler, Team Candice vs Team Shotzi, and the recent group of faces vs Toxic Attraction all helped the women’s division come out stronger as a successful idea.
Did NXT Do It Better?
The overall match quality of War Games shows that NXT has had more success with the stipulation than WCW. Cagematch tends to prioritize the match value with their ratings, and five of the six best War Games matches featured NXT dominating, with just one WCW match. The match quality went down in WCW with five matches receiving under a 7.00 on Cagematch compared to just one NXT suffering from the same disappointment.
WCW was trying to figure out the stipulation as it went, but NXT had the advantage of history on its side. Triple H booked the best things about War Games like the individual storylines for the slower start to the match and culminating with big spots involving the weapons at the end. The War Games matches of NXT also focused on building new stars with star-making performances.
The first few years of War Games matches in WCW could be argued above NXT since it created the formula. However, WCW was still trying to perfect the idea, and they jumped the shark in the latter years with too many wasted uses of the stipulation. NXT has a bulletproof track record so far and has found the ideal way to implement War Games as a special attraction.