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10 Greatest WarGames Matches Ever | partsFUNknown
WAAAARGAMES!! WarGames is this Sunday so when better to count down the 10 best WarGames matches ever? Let us know your favourite in the comments below!
00:00 - Start
02:43 - Honourable Mention
03:23 - 10
04:37 - 9
05:43 - 8
07:07 - 7
08:12 - 6
09:18 - 5
10:26 - 4
11:30 - 3
12:47 - 2
14:03 - 1
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Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
10 Greatest WarGames Matches Ever | partsFUNknown
WAAAARGAMES!! WarGames is this Sunday so when better to count down the 10 best WarGames matches ever? Let us know your favourite in the comments below!
00:00 - Start
02:43 - Honourable Mention
03:23 - 10
04:37 - 9
05:43 - 8
07:07 - 7
08:12 - 6
09:18 - 5
10:26 - 4
11:30 - 3
12:47 - 2
14:03 - 1
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00 War Games!
00:07 So after years of waiting, WWE is finally set to bring the classic War Games stipulation
00:12 match to the main roster with this week's Survivor Series.
00:16 No longer just an NXT exclusive, WWE is probably going to start off with a banger (almost a
00:22 guarantee considering Sheamus is involved) but they are not the only ones to house the
00:26 match over the years.
00:27 There have been War Games matches in one form or another in most major promotions in North
00:32 America dating back to the Stip's inception in the NWA courtesy of the Mind of Dusty Rhodes.
00:38 It's one of wrestling's great creations, a double cage with two or more teams entering
00:42 at alternating staggered intervals.
00:44 It has built in psychology with the heels having an advantage for the babyfaces to overcome
00:48 except for when they f*** that bit up but that is a tangent for another list.
00:53 And the more modern matches have evolved to also include some of the biggest high spots
00:57 of the year for NXT and AEW.
01:00 Let the War Games begin!
01:02 I'm Tempest hailing from PartsFunKnown and these are the 10 Greatest War Games Matches
01:06 Ever!
01:07 But before we get on with this list, make sure of course that you like this video and
01:11 subscribe to PartsFunKnown so you can never miss another fun wrestling list just like
01:15 it.
01:16 We've done lists of other great stipulation matches like the Elimination Chamber and Money
01:20 in the Bank so check those out, check out Money in the Bank, that one's really good.
01:48 And if that's not enough, Raid's got a full lineup of events along with a new season
02:06 of the Forge Pass where you can get your hands on some of the most powerful gear the game
02:10 has ever seen.
02:11 Also, if you're an Amazon Prime member, you can get your rewards in Raid right now.
02:15 And if you haven't started playing Raid yet, click our link in the description or
02:18 scan the QR code on screen and you can get rewards worth $30, a free epic champion tirel,
02:24 200k silver, 1 energy refill, 1 XP boost and 1 ancient shard so you can summon awesome
02:28 champions as soon as you get in game.
02:30 The rewards will be available only for the next 30 days and only for new players.
02:35 Clicking that link or scanning the QR code also helps support us here on PFK so download
02:39 Raid Shadow Legends today.
02:43 Honorary Mention, The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle, AEW Blood and Guts 2021
02:48 AEW's first foray into the double cage just misses the cut not because it isn't a great
02:53 match, just watch it, you'll see that it is, but unfortunately when people talk about
02:57 this match they don't talk about how great it is, with FTR brawling with Santana and
03:01 Ortiz, Wardlow having a Haas fight with Jake Hager, and Sammy Guevara doing excellent high
03:06 flying.
03:07 No, they talk about the finish, that on paper sounds great, The Inner Circle surrendering
03:11 on behalf of Chris Jericho as MJF threatens to pitch him off the top of the cage only
03:16 for MJF to push Jericho off anyway, but in practice Jericho fell onto a bed and Twitter
03:21 had a laugh about it.
03:23 The Four Horsemen vs Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering,
03:28 NWA Great American Bash 1987, Atlanta
03:32 The earliest War Games match to feature on this list is a sight to behold.
03:36 Has it aged the most gracefully?
03:37 No, not really, but how much of the wrestling from 1987 has?
03:41 These early War Games matches set the bar very high for their time, and there is still
03:45 plenty of enjoyment to get out of them today especially when you consider the level of
03:49 talent involved in them.
03:50 The Road Warriors are the most ridiculously over-tagged team in history, the pops they
03:55 get being unstoppable badasses are ludicrous, and they have the best heels in the business
04:00 to play opposite them as well, with Ric Flair and the Four Horsemen bumping around for the
04:04 two monsters as well as Dusty and Koloff.
04:07 What the match really has going for it is Jim Ross on commentary and the fans being
04:11 at a fever pitch for minutes on end.
04:13 Properly elevating this match to great territory as this ends up being one of those early matches
04:17 in a stipulation's life where not a lot of exciting things happen, but it works for its
04:22 time because it's still revolutionary and the people involved are the top stars of the
04:26 business.
04:27 The good guys won by ramming J.J.
04:28 Dillon into the cage until he quit, and I mean, yeah, that'll do it, but not before
04:32 a woman screamed when Animal was thrown into the cage.
04:36 Amazing.
04:37 Number 9.
04:38 The Midnight Express, Road Warriors, and Dr. Death Steve Williams vs. The Fabulous Freebirds
04:42 and the Samoan SWAT Team, NWA Great American Bash 1989.
04:46 A lot of what I just said applies to this match from the Great American Bash in 1989
04:50 as well.
04:51 If you love to hear an arena full of people losing their shit for some big meaty men bumping
04:56 meat, these matches are for you.
04:58 The Road Warriors and Dr. Death are so much fun to watch as they beat the shit out of
05:03 the Freebirds and the Samoan SWAT Team.
05:05 Oh, hey, Rikishi.
05:06 Meanwhile, you had the Midnight Express, the best working team of the 80s, doing the lion's
05:10 share of the wrestling, which is also an excellent viewing experience, especially when you get
05:15 to watch Bobby Eaton, one of the best and most underrated performers of his and any
05:20 other generation, start the match and get some one-on-one time with Jimmy Garvin.
05:24 You had the extra fun of Michael Hayes not wanting to get into the match, but this match
05:28 really is carried by the insane performances of the Baby Faces, which culminate with Animal
05:33 getting the win for his team with a neck crank.
05:35 A bit more climactic than the last one, but we were not yet at the point where we would
05:38 see the finish be a super creative moment like we would in years to come.
05:43 Number 8.
05:44 Team Angle vs. Team Cage TNA Lockdown 2007
05:48 Look at the spread on Jeremy Borash's collar.
05:51 That's the collar of a man that knows how to f***.
05:53 Yeah, we don't get to talk about TNA in a positive light on this channel very often,
05:57 and they certainly are the biggest offenders when it comes to f***ing up the man advantage
06:00 stipulation, but they really nailed their Lethal Lockdown match on one occasion in 2007.
06:06 Lethal Lockdown is the one match on this list that doesn't feature a second ring, but the
06:10 rules of the match remain the same.
06:11 Well, that is, except for TNA being TNA, and making this a bit more complicated.
06:16 The person who got the pin in this match would earn a world title shot against Christian
06:20 Cage, because it wouldn't be TNA without some infighting in a big tag match.
06:24 Goofiness aside, this match is f***ing chaos.
06:27 However, it is chaos with all the biggest stars in the company.
06:31 Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Sting, Rhyno, Scott Siner, Christian, Jeff Jarrett, just
06:37 battering each other.
06:38 You had Angle and Styles being the two best workers in the ring to start, and then just
06:42 non-stop action (huh, maybe that's where they got their name) and carnage throughout.
06:47 There's tacks, there's guitars, there's tacks in a guitar.
06:50 Madness.
06:51 TNA gets ready to fly off the cage and drops like a stone.
06:54 It's not the work of psychology that other matches on this list are, save for the finish
06:59 where Jarrett sacrifices the title shot to Sting, but it is the kind of bat sh*t insanity
07:04 that gave TNA its charm in the mid-2000s.
07:06 The fans, strangely, aren't into this match as much as you would expect until the moment
07:19 that changes, and changes fast.
07:22 This match is best remembered for being the one where Kevin Owens makes his surprise return
07:25 to NXT in one of the coolest moments in NXT's War Games history, and from there the match
07:30 is white hot.
07:31 Undisputed Era enter draped in gold while Tommaso Ciampa enters wearing Reaper's Mask.
07:36 There isn't quite so much plunder as there was in the women's match from the same show,
07:40 and we'll get to that match shortly, but this match delivers where the women only teased,
07:44 with tables, and tables, and tables, and tables.
07:48 We got a fun mix of Dominik Dijakovic and Keith Lee's "Big Man Does Thing Big Man
07:52 Shouldn't Do" style, and the super indie style of Kevin Owens in the Undisputed Era.
07:56 Kevin Owens back in NXT was a lovely moment that really elevated this match, but they
08:01 ended this match with the climax, with Ciampa hitting the Air Raid Crash on Cole off the
08:06 cage through two tables, furthering Ciampa's story as he tried to regain Goldie from Adam
08:11 Cole.
08:12 Number 6.
08:13 Undisputed Era vs. Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan, and Danny Burch.
08:18 NXT TakeOver WarGames 2020.
08:20 It's crazy that the best WarGames match that the Undisputed Era had was the one with the
08:23 football player.
08:24 Yup, it's the Pat McAfee match.
08:27 WarGames once again went with the tables upon tables upon tables approach, with the bad
08:31 boys presenting a table for each member of the Undisputed Era, only for the UE to turn
08:35 the tables on their opponents and put each of Dunne, Lorcan, Burch, and McAfee through
08:40 said tables.
08:41 This was a ridiculously ambitious performance for Pat, even if he could hide himself surrounded
08:46 by super workers.
08:47 He fit right in here and never looked out of place, hitting the big spot of the match
08:51 with an insane Swanton Bomb off the cage.
08:54 It's no secret at this point that McAfee is a natural at this wrestling thing, but this
08:58 was a gutsy performance and he made this match better by being in it, and that absolutely
09:02 was not a guarantee.
09:04 A parade of finishers saw Lorcan finally pinned, and if there had been real fans in the building
09:08 and not this Elseworld reality where there is just white noise cheering and "this is
09:13 awesome" chants when you can clearly see no one is chanting, this might have taken
09:17 the top spot.
09:18 Number 5.
09:19 Sting, Brian Pillman, and the Steiner Brothers vs. Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Larry Zbysko,
09:24 and Sid - WCW Wrestle War 1991.
09:27 This is where the early War Games matches really started to take a turn into a more
09:31 story driven style, evolving past the simple but effective story beats of the man advantage.
09:37 In this match, Brian Pillman goes against his team's wishes to enter the match as the
09:41 first babyface despite being injured to get his revenge on Barry Windham.
09:45 He's a house of fire and the most modern performer of the bunch in this match, but this was not
09:49 a good idea for the lad as his injury and the man disadvantage put him and his own team
09:54 down early.
09:55 This match featured three dick kicks and four simultaneous figure four leg locks, one of
09:59 the first times that everybody involved got together in a coordinated spot and it really
10:04 showed that these matches were indeed evolving.
10:07 In the end, Brian Pillman gets powerbombed on the top of his head by Sid when his feet
10:11 hit the top of the cage and then powerbombed again only for my fever dream to kick in as
10:15 Giant Gonzalez came down and called the match off on behalf of Pillman.
10:20 This match got five stars and it involved Sid and Giant Gonzalez.
10:25 God, ratings are fun.
10:27 Number four, NXT 1.0 versus NXT 2.0, NXT War Games 2021.
10:33 This match really benefits from not involving the Undisputed Era, which is a weird thing
10:37 to say about four of the most talented wrestlers in NXT history.
10:41 Renewed energy is through the roof in this match and they start with the best worker
10:45 from each team, Johnny Gargano and Carmelo Hayes squaring off.
10:49 Making the Young Stars the heels against the Old Guard is a move straight out of WCW, but
10:53 if you ignore that fact and enjoy this match in a vacuum, it's pretty beast.
10:57 Brawn Breaker is one of the greatest products the Performance Center has ever produced and
11:01 this match furthered his rivalry with Tommaso Ciampa the most of the various pairs of rivals
11:06 involved in this match.
11:07 Grayson Waller's swan dive is scary and chaotic, perfectly serving as the high point of the
11:11 match.
11:12 This match just feels fresh.
11:14 It's exciting and new and you get to see Johnny Gargano wrestle in War Games for the first
11:18 time.
11:19 NXT 2.0 might not have been everyone's cup of tea, but this War Games event was genuinely
11:24 great and it put a bunch of young talent over strong, which is not something you can often
11:28 say about WWE.
11:30 Number three, Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Tegan Nox versus Shayna Baszler,
11:35 Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and Kay Lee Ray, NXT TakeOver War Games 2019.
11:40 Holy s*** this match goes so hard.
11:43 I'll be perfectly honest guys, TakeOver War Games 2019 was the one TakeOver I missed and
11:48 I never went back to watch it until I sat down for this list.
11:51 I knew the match was great, but my lord I didn't know it was this great.
11:56 This was the peak of the NXT women's roster and the best of that roster was on full display
12:01 here.
12:02 I remember the story of Candice LeRae and Rhea Ripley as the ultimate underdog babyfaces,
12:05 not only having to deal with the War Games disadvantage throughout the first half of
12:09 the match, but then having to continue the match two on four when Dakota Kai turned on
12:13 Tegan Nox.
12:14 Rhea and Candice essentially had to wrestle two handicap matches at the same time, with
12:19 each woman taking on two of their opponents in each ring.
12:22 These matches can feel a little cluttered at times, but this was the perfect blend of
12:26 pacing and spacing that really makes this match stand out among the rest.
12:30 These women were beating the shit out of each other in the perfect mix of violence and incredible
12:34 spots with Io Shirai hitting a picture perfect moonsault off the cage before Rhea handcuffed
12:39 herself to Shayna and hit the Riptide through some chairs.
12:42 I truly did myself a disservice not watching this match sooner.
12:47 Number 2, Blackpool Combat Club, Santana Ortiz and Eddie Kingston vs. The Jericho Appreciation
12:53 Society - AEW Blood & Guts 2022.
12:56 It took a while for All Elite Wrestling to get to put on their Blood & Guts match in
12:59 front of a massive crowd, but boy did it ever feel worth it when we finally got Blood & Guts
13:04 in Detroit earlier this year.
13:06 The crowd is so electric in this match, cheering for the newly star-made Wheeler Yuta to enter
13:11 the match early, and then of course the monstrous reaction to Eddie Kingston finally entering
13:15 the cage last.
13:16 AEW's Blood & Guts matches are a lot less structured than NXT's War Games matches.
13:21 It feels like a lot more of the spots in the NXT matches are laid out ahead of time, whereas
13:25 this match in particular felt incredibly chaotic.
13:28 That's not to say either one of those approaches is better than the other, but right from the
13:32 jump, Claudio and Sammy Guevara run at each other and it feels like a real fight, with
13:36 bodies just colliding with one another.
13:38 This also has the benefit of being much more violent than any of the other matches on this
13:42 list, with Moxley using glass, tacks, spikes, and every weapon he could get his little death
13:47 match loving hands on.
13:49 It is a shame that this wasn't the end of the Jericho-Kingston rivalry, because this
13:53 ending of Claudio stealing Eddie's win from him really could have been the start of something
13:57 awesome between them going forward, but alas, it is merely a great finish to an incredible
14:02 match.
14:03 And number one, The Dangerous Alliance vs. Sting Squadron, WCW Wrestle War 1992.
14:10 I'd always heard about how good the early War Games matches were, and I'll be honest,
14:14 while still very fun, I did think that they weren't holding up quite as well as I had
14:18 hoped, until I watched this match.
14:21 Holy s***, this match f***ing bangs.
14:25 The Dangerous Alliance is a murderer's row of awesome wrestlers.
14:29 Rick Rood, Steve Austin, Bobby Eaton, Arn Anderson, Larry Zbysko, and you have Paul
14:34 E. Dangerously spending the match going over a game plan like an actual sports coach, making
14:39 the decisions of who starts and what they do actually feel meaningful.
14:44 There were so many new elements thrown into this match.
14:46 Medusa climbed the cage and dropped Paul E.'s giant brick cell phone into the cage for the
14:51 heels to use, not realizing she'd be spawning the finish of every Shark Kage match in WWE
14:56 some decades later.
14:57 Nikita Kolov and Sting had a great enemies-turned-friends moment as they were forced to decide if they
15:02 were going to stand together or not, and Kolov shoved Sting to the side to save him from
15:06 a heel double team, before they eventually hugged in one of the bigger pops of the night.
15:10 The heels unscrew the top rope from one of the rings, giving the match a feeling of chaos
15:14 that you only really get when the ring starts getting destroyed, and Zbysko used the turnbuckle
15:18 hook to try and hit Sting, but missed and hit Eaton, allowing Sting to lock in an arm
15:23 bar on Eaton's injured shoulder for the win.
15:26 It is a shame that this would be the last truly great War Games match WCW would ever
15:30 produce, but holy hell did they save the best for sort of last.
15:36 And that's our list!
15:37 If you enjoyed it, make sure to like this video, subscribe, and enable notifications
15:39 to always on so you never miss a fun list just like it, including the 10 worst War Games
15:43 matches that may or may not be coming this Thursday.
15:46 Make sure to keep an eye out for that, and until then, I've been Tempest, Jam That Jam.
15:50 Peace!
15:56 (upbeat music)