Goody Bag XI: WarGames

 

WarGames Match: Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and JJ Dillon v Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Paul Ellering, and The Road Warriors: This is the very first WarGames, from July 4 1987 at the Omni in Atlanta. Arn starts with Dusty, and he tries to shoot for the leg to turn it into a wrestling match, but Rhodes knocks him back. They both end up in separate rings as they size each other up, with Rhodes grabbing onto the ceiling of the cage to use as monkey bars to dive onto Anderson! He capitalizes with a series of jabs before going down low, drawing protests from the Horsemen, which Dusty responds to by giving them all the finger! Ha! He hits Anderson with a DDT, then gets him up onto the top rope for some grating against the CEILING! Nice! That draws first blood, so Arn goes after the knee, and Dusty wisely skedaddle back into the other ring to keep his distance. Anderson follows, but gets sent into the cage, and locked in a figure four! The period ends bringing Tully into the mix, and the Horsemen try cornering Dusty, but get swatted away with double-elbowsmashes. They manage to overwhelm Rhodes long enough to take control, and immediately go after the bandaged knee with a figure four. The Horsemen are like sharks here, as they double-team Rhodes, and make him bleed. The fun comes to an end as Animal enters, however, and he grabs Blanchard for a ride into the cage, then blasts him with a jumping shoulderblock. He grates Tully's face to draw the third bladejob of the bout, and Rhodes comes over to help him. Arn tries to save, but gets cracked with a clothesline from Animal, as Dusty tosses Tully into the cage again. The beatings go on until Ric Flair enters, and he goes right for Animal with chops, but gets no-sold! Arn clips the knee to give him a hand, however, and they work together to launch Animal into the cage to bust him open as well. Man, can't say anyone's phoning it in here. The Horsemen are able to use their numbers advantage to control until Koloff enters the mix, and he shrugs off a double-team from Flair and Anderson with clotheslines. He sends Blanchard into the cage for good measure, as Flair joins the blade club following a press-slam. This might be easier to recap if I just tell you who DIDN'T bleed. Dusty and Animal nail Anderson with a tandem dropkick as Luger joins the fray, and he pops off a powerslam for Koloff. He adds a bodyslam before moving on to hammering Animal, as Flair and Blanchard deliver a spike piledriver on Koloff. They give him a second one to grow on, before Hawk enters the mix, and pounds Luger with a clothesline. Press-slam for Blanchard, as poor Koloff staggers around the ring holding his neck like that solider looking for his blown off arm in Saving Private Ryan. Hawk hits Tully with a neckbreaker as Dillon joins the fray. He goes right for Hawk, but that proves to be a big mistake, as the Road Warrior no-sells him, and unloads in the corner. Flair comes over to save, but ends up getting his face grated against the cage, until Luger is forced to come over and save! The numbers advantage is enough to allow the Horsemen to take over, but they're barely holding them back at this point! Lex pounds on Koloff's neck, but Hawk saves by giving Luger a shoulderbreaker, as Ellering enters to round out the field. He goes right for JJ, as Lex continues to fire off shot after shot at Nikita's neck, until Koloff gets tired of him, and drills him with the Sickle! One for Blanchard as well, as the Warriors pick Dillon up to repeatedly ram onto the cage. They follow-up with a makeshift Doomsday Device (which legit breaks poor JJ's shoulder), and he surrenders at 21:20. Yeah, well, can you blame him? Suitably epic and chaotic for what it was promised to be, though not quite as good as some of the future WarGames matches we'd see. Still, it's the original, and well worth checking out, regardless. *** ½ (Original rating: *** ¼)

WarGames Match: Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and War Machine v Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Paul Ellering, and The Road Warriors: The second WarGames, from July 31 1987 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. War Machine is Ray Traylor under a mask, replacing JJ after he got hurt during the first version. Once again, Dusty starts with Arn, and Rhodes blitzes him with rights and lefts. He tries for a figure four, but Arn manages to block him this time, and he hammers Rhodes with rights, until Dusty blows him low, and grates his face against the mesh to draw blood! Arn tries bailing into the opposite ring, but Dusty holds onto him for a vertical suplex, and he gets the figure four applied! In comes War Machine as the first period ends, so Dusty wisely runs into the other ring to force him to follow. Both heels do, and Rhodes gets quickly overwhelmed against them, and busted open. They weren't shy with the blade in the 80s, were they? Hawk is in next, and he goes right at Machine with a dropkick, then powerslams Anderson. Bodyslam for Machine, but a legdrop misses, so Dusty comes over to lend a hand, and Hawk is able to drop Arn with a neckbreaker. Flair's in next, and he cracks Hawk with chops, but a double-team with Arn gets shrugged off, so the Nature Boy goes low. Hey, alls fair in love and war, and this is WarGames, so the love stick is fair game! Arn drives Hawk with a piledriver, but gets no-sold, as Machine just stands around there like an idiot and does nothing. Could he not see through the mask properly, or something? Hawk dropkicks him as Koloff enters, and Arn tries to go after the neck right away with a piledriver, but also gets no-sold. I'm guessing a lot of these guys didn't work Memphis much, did they? In comes Tully, and he manages to bash Hawk into the cage, but loses a slugfest with Dusty. Flair saves to turn things around, and the Horsemen control, until Animal enters, and starts throwing everyone around. Blade jobs galore here, of course. Lucky War Machine is wearing a mask, and doesn't have to join in. That didn't stop Flair at Starrcade '90, though. Luger enters, and makes some quick waves against the Warriors, but runs into a jumping shoulderblock from Animal, and Blanchard ends up getting launched from one ring to the next! I'd love to see a WarGames today, only with cruiserweights. Ellering enters to round out the field, and he looks like he just came off the set of Cruising. All the faces gang up on Machine, and Animal uses one of the Warriors' spiked wristbands to grind into Machine's face until he surrenders at 19:38. Not all that different from the first version, though not quite as wild and intense. You'd think with all the coke floating around in MIAMI in the NINETEEN EIGHTIES this would have been like the last half hour of Goodfellas, or something, but it was actually a lot more subdued than the original. ** ¾ (Original rating: ** ½)

WarGames Match: Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, and JJ Dillon v Lex Luger, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Steve Williams, and Paul Ellering: From July 16 1988 in Greensboro, just after the Great American Bash pay per view. Arn starts with Dusty (sense a pattern here?), and he's all bluster until he gets close enough to Rhodes, and eats some elbows. Rhodes/Anderson was never a particularly engaging match on its own, I don't know why they felt they had to go with this combo to start so many times. They proceed to work the same match as the previous WarGames (like, almost spot for spot), though there is a hilarious spot where Dusty chucks a bloody Anderson into the cage so hard that his blood splatters all over Luger and Koloff on the outside. Heh. Lex nonchalantly brushing it off is pretty amazing, too. Wrestling's a weird thing in so many ways, and not least of all how comfortable wrestlers seem to be with being covered in other people's bodily fluids. Both guys bleed before the first period is over, Windham joins in. Man, those babyfaces don't have a whole lot of luck with the coins, do they? Maybe Phoebe manages them? Barry gets Dusty in the Clawhold, allowing Rhodes to play his favorite game of 'sit around sell' for a while, until Williams gets in, and blitzes the Horsemen with multiple three-point stances. He pins Anderson down for some mounted punches as Rhodes tosses Windham into the cage a bunch, until Flair gets in, and starts blowing guys left and right. I mean low blowing, of course. Anderson hits Williams with a DDT, as Ric and Barry double up on Dusty, and boy, Rhodes is bleeding a real gusher here tonight! Luger comes in to a big pop, and goes right at Flair, of course. Powerslam hits, and one for Windham as well. He gets Flair in the Torture Rack, but Barry uses a low blow to save, as Dusty starts unloading elbows on anything that moves. Luger gets Flair in the corner for a ten-punch before launching him into the cage, then mounting Anderson for some punches on the mat. In comes Blanchard, and he brings a chair with him! He uses it on Luger right away, allowing Anderson to hold Lex for Flair to hit with a kneedrop. Arn adds a DDT, as Koloff enters. The Horsemen immediately pile on him at the door, but Nikita no-sells, and starts passing out clotheslines. In comes Dillon, and he joins hands with Windham to tandem clothesline Luger, then goes after a battered Koloff alone in the corner. That doesn't go too well for him, of course. Ellering enters to round out the field, and the Horsemen are on him like white on rice. They destroy him, but Williams is choking JJ out in the corner, and he comes close to submitting before getting saved. He slugs it out with Ellering, but loses, and eats an atomic drop - allowing Dusty to apply a figure four for the surrender at 21:07. It never ceases to amaze me how hard these guys worked. While this wasn’t the best WarGames match I’ve ever seen, you have to take into consideration that this wasn’t even televised! This was strictly a house show match as part of the Bash tour, and these guys were still going balls out. You have to respect that. ** ½