FIGHTS: REVIEW - War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches DVD

THE GREAT HIGH-STAKES MATCHES FROM EPIC EVENT FINALLY COMPILED IN ONE DVD
by
Bowie Ibarra

I don't think I'm in the minority here when I say I have been waiting for this dream DVD compilation for years since the McMahon family bought up the entire video library of the many defunct wrestling organizations he soundly crushed with his business plan.  Now, he finally put together the complete collection of every War Games: The Match Beyond events on three discs.  McMahon and HHH might be sonsabitches, but thank you for finally making this collection.

The discs are narrated by Dusty Rhodes, the man credited with conceiving the event.  He details every aspect of the shows, from creation, to construction, to his multiple participations.  He's a good 'decompress' from the intensity of each of the matches.

Disc one has the original two from the Great American Bash '87 events, featuring The Four Horsemen, JJ Dillon, The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Paul Ellering, and War Machine.

Disc One even has the 'Tower of Doom' event, featuring the Road Warriors, Dr. Death, Ron Garvin, Jimmy Garvin against Kevin Sullivan, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, The Russian Assassin, and Ivan Koloff.  Hell, it was the 80s, you had to have commie bastard Russians participating.

The last two on the disc are both War Games matches featuring the same names, but one of the matches includes The Midnight Express, The Freebirds, and the Samoan Swat Team.

Disc Two features a War Games match with Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham, and Larry Zybysko vs. Sting, Pillman, and the Steiners.  This is the infamous one where Vicious hurt someone.  If you don't know, you need to watch it.

A really good one was next, featuring Sting, Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Steamboat, and Windham vs. Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin (!), Larry Zybysko, and Rick Rude.

Next up is a War Games match featuring Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes, and Shockmaster, vs. Vicious, Vader, and Harlem Heat.

Then, father and son, Dusty and Dustin, join with The Nasty Boys to take on Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck, and Col. Robert Parker in what turns out to be a hilarious finish.

Disc Three's first War Games match features Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Lex Luger, and Sting vs. Kamala, Zodiac, Shark, and Meng!  Yeah, I know, right?

Then we get some NWO era War Games matches.  The first features Hogan, Hall, Nash and 'Mystery Partner' vs. Flair, Anderson, Luger, and Sting.

That match is followed by the War Games match that produced the most emotion I've ever felt in a pro-wrestling event that haunts me to this day:  Nash, Bagwell, Syxx, and Konnan vs. Flair, Mongo McMicheal, Chris Benoit, and Curt Hennig.

The following year, 'Diamond' Dallas Paige joins 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and The Warrior vs. Hogan, Stevie Ray, and Bret Hart vs. Nash, Sting, and Luger.  WTF?

Then the last one ever was garbage, sadly enough, featuring Sting, Booker T, Goldberg, and Kronik, vs. Nash, Jeff Jarrett, Scott Steiner, and the Harris Brothers.

All in all, it was completely worth the purchase.  I enjoyed every one of the matches on there, even the last one.  There's reasons to enjoy every match, that's for sure.

The WWE War Games DVD is ZombieBloodFights.com approved.

And if you like War Games, you'll love both 'Pit Fighters: Baptism by Fire' and 'Pit Fighters: Double Cross'.  Both are combat sports-themed books that feature a lucha libre star crossing over into MMA.  You've got to check them out, and they're available on Kindle or paperback today.

BOWIE V. IBARRA is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuster.  His latest story, 'Tejano Star and the Vengeance of Chaplain Skull' is a Tex-Mexploitation superhero story in the tradition of 'Machete' and 'Black Dynamite'.

Bowie earned a BFA in Acting and MA in Theatre History from Texas State University.  Network with Bowie for updates and news at his official website, ZombieBloodFights.com.

FIGHTS: RETROSPECTIVE: 'War Games-The Match Beyond' and the Four Horsemen, WWE HoF '12

by Bowie Ibarra

As Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, and manager James J. Dillon walk to their induction into the WWE Hall of Fame 2012 on April 1, 2012, I think it's very important to take a look back at one of the biggest matches in pro-wrestling history that defined the cruelty of the Four Horsemen and the kind of fight that their rivals had to face.  Especially if they faced them in this signature match, created to destroy The Horsemen:  War Games-The Match Beyond.

Though the Horsemen are known for many things and accomplished many great feats during the first incarnation of the stable, it is this match that stands out to me as one of their best, and a legacy to the team.  I think its important for the current WWE Universe to watch and understand how true rivalries were settled back in the classic 80s era of wrestling.

The match was held in a steel cage that was placed over two adjacent wrestling rings.  The cages were lined up right against the rings, with no outside area like in a 'Hell in a Cell', so there was nowhere to run.  There was also no referee in the ring, so anything could happen on the inside.  Very dangerous.

The match consisted of 8 periods.  The first period was five minutes, with one guy from each team starting the fight.  Then a ref conducted a coin toss to determine who would go in next, giving that team an advantage throughout the periods until 'The Match Beyond'.  During the periods where competitors entered, there were no pinfalls or submissions, 'it was just a fight'.  It was until the final competitor entered the ring that 'The Match Beyond' began, in which the winner was determined by one of the competitors quitting, submitting, or getting knocked out.

The first match set the bar for every other War Games match, and was the progenitor of such matches as 'Hell in a Cell' and especially 'Elimination Chamber'.

This particular team of the Four Horsemen, composed of Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger, and J.J. Dillon.

The team lead by Dusty Rhodes was Dusty, Hawk and Animal of the Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff, and Paul Ellering, who was the manager of the Road Warriors and former wrestler.

The first competitors ever in a War Games match were legends Dusty Rhodes and Arn Anderson, who mixed it up for five minutes.  They threw rounds at each other, with Rhodes even popping Anderson in the nuts with a punch.  Dream took control, planting Arn with a DDT and aggravating a head laceration by raking Arn's injured head against the cage.

It was also here we got the traditional 'throw the man face first into the cage' bit, which is mandatory for cage matches.  Dusty did it here before slapping on his vaunted Figure Four.  Since there was no submission yet, Rhodes broke the hold to see who would win the coin toss.  It turned out to be the Horsemen winning the coin toss, bringing Anderson's Texan tag partner, Tully Blanchard, into the ring to double team Dusty.  And boy did they go at it.  Blanchard slapped on a Figure Four on Rhodes before having to break the hold getting ready for the odds to be even by the next member of Dusty's team.

And boy did the odds get even.  Animal of the 'Road Warriors was brought into the ring, who proceeded to pendulum swing Blanchard into the fence and give Dusty a chance to attack Arn.  Animal gave Blanchard the fence treatment before Dusty came in to add more abuse to Blanchard.

Before long, however, the next Horseman made his way into the ring, and Dillon sent in Ric Flair, who went after Animal with Arn.  Animal got the fence face toss as the Horsement took control and did it again.

It was back and forth before the teams were even again when Nikita Koloff jumped in to wreck shop.  Flair tried to gouge his eyes to stop his progress, only to make the big Ruskie mad.  And there were Russian sickles to go around.  Animal even press slammed Flair.  With the odds even, Rhodes team was tearing it up.

But the Horsemen regained the advantage with Lex Luger entering the cage, going after Koloff and Animal.  After being punched in the nads by Flair, Koloff was hit with two spiked pile drivers from Flair and Blanchard.

It's important to understand that the pile driver was not your average move.  It was considered very devastating back in the day.  A spiked pile driver was enough to end your career.

Koloff took two.

Then Hawk came in to even the odds and went right to work against all of the Horsemen, giving his friends a chance to regroup and counterattack.

But after attacking the genitals of two Rhodes teammates, Flair slapped on the figure four on Rhodes before the Horsemen were to take the advantage.

Next in was J.J. Dillon.  Like an idiot, Dillon went right on the attack against Hawk, the freshest dude in the fight.  That didn't sit well with Hawk, who returned fire on Dillon.  With Dillon a liability, the Horsemen still had to fight to keep the advantage.

Finally, Paul Ellering entered the ring, thus initiating 'The Match Beyond', submission or surrender.  It was now at this point that the match could be won by one of the teams.

Ellering was wise and went right to work against Dillon.  At this point, with the Horsemen occupied, Paul Ellering was using a spiked wristband against Dillon, splitting him open.  It was then that the Road Warriors double teamed Dillon.

You had to know Dillon and Ellering were the weakest links on each of the teams.  Why the Horsemen didn't go on the offensive against Ellering like the Road Warriors did against Dillon is beyond me.  The Road Warriors set up Dillon with a variation of their 'Doomsday Device' and planted him into the mat.  Hurt, they forced him against the cage and stomped him until cageside ref Teddy Long (yes, that Teddy Long), heard Dillon surrender, ending the match.

There was another match in this same wrestling year with a similar result.  And though the match seemed to run the same way, it is this match that will be remembered as the first and the best ever.

More 'War Games' matches were to follow.  Many matched the brutality of this one.  But like Shawn Micheals/Undertaker in 'Hell in a Cell', this one set the standard for the ones to come.

ZombieBloodFights.com would like to say congratulations to the members of The Four Horsemen who will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame 2012.

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Bowie Ibarra is the author of the 'Down the Road' zombie horror series from Permuted Press and Simon and Schuster.  His combat sport themed books, "Pit Fighters: Baptism by Fire", and "Pit Fighters: Double Cross" feature a Mexican luchador who crosses over into MMA.

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