Gimmick Some Lovin': WarGames

My Rating

This poster makes the bout look less like ten men performing various atrocities on one another and more like a lighthearted 1980s frathouse comedy.

Picking apart the finish is pointless because the finish is the least important part of the match. It's not hyperbole to say that this is some of the best storytelling the men in this match have done in their careers.

Often, people are able to hide in multi-man matches, letting them coast on the accomplishments of the other performers in the ring(s). Nobody, however, hides in this one. Beyond the fact that the ring setup means that they can't, wrestlers are rarely inactive here and play up their biggest strengths.

Dusty takes a massive beating and keeps getting up, the LOD pummel and throw their opponents from one end of the structure to the other and through both rings, the heels use every dastardly trick available during their windows of numerical advantage, and Flair taunts, begs, cheap shots, and gyrates through a shower of blood with a level of charisma that even a massive cage cannot contain. Add in Koloff, redeemed from his dastardly days of heeldom, and the two managers, and not a single ingredient here is wasted.

It'll be hard to imagine WWE's reboot of the match coming even close to this match's use of the stipulation. There's a level of brutality on display that makes it seem like this one may not have been a work, and that intensity doesn't really seem to exist in the three-way feud between SAnitY, the Authors of Pain, and The Undisputed Era; even if it were, the company that stopped Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor multiple times due to Joe's bleeding eye would surely not allow their match to rival this one's intensity (although the fact that it was booked by Triple H, the world's biggest fan of Dusty's booking, does show some promise).

9.75/10

Meltzer says

Meltzer gave five stars to the version of this one airing on the July 31, 1987, edition of the Great American Bash (that year it was a series of three events throughout the month of July), but I watched the July 4 edition; I'd wager his opinion of this one would be the same, but I'd need to further study that July 31 match to know for sure (the two teams are nearly identical, only with War Machine replacing Dillon).

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