Wwe: War Games - Wcw's Most Notorious Matches [Blu-ray]

This three disc DVD is a match compilation that includes every recorded War Games match the NWA/WCW ever did. It's hosted by Dusty Rhodes who is a lot more interesting and has more to offer than he sometimes does when he hosts WCW compilations. The War Games match usually involves two teams and two rings surrounded by a large cage. Two men start and after set periods of time a member of one team would join the fight. Once everyone is involved it's normally submission rules.The Super Powers(Dusty Rhodes, The Road Warriors, Nikita Koloff and Paul Ellering) vs. The Four Horsemen(Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Lex Luger and J.J. Dillon) - This was the first recorded Wargames match. It's a good match that sets the standard for War Games matches to come. The Horsemen get the man advantage which was the best way to let this match play out. The action is non-stop and the amount of men in the ring stops the match from getting slow like some NWA/WCW match sometimes do when watching them back today. It gets more and more chaotic as more men enter and quite a few of the participants end up bleeding. One small problem that can't really be helped is the amount of people in the ring all fighting made it slightly hard to see who was actually submitting when it came down to the finish. The commentary on this match is too quite to actually hear it on this match. It's not anything that hurts the watching experience though.The Super Powers(Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors and Paul Ellering) vs. The Four Horsemen(Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson and Lex Luger) and War Machine - This was a rematch from the same tour but J.J. Dillon was injured so replaced. It was a similar match to the first one, but that's not a criticism. The layout wasn't quite as good as Dusty Rhodes got the advantage even when the numbers were against him which made it less important when the sides were evened out. That bugged me a bit, the action was of the same quality of the last match though. The finish had a similar problem as well and it looked pretty anticlimactic. The match overall though was still very good. The commentary was much clearer on this one.The Road Warriors, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, Ron Garvin and Jimmy Garvin vs. Kevin Sulliven, Mike Rotunda, Al Perez, Russian Assassin and Ivan Koloff - This one was a bit different as it was a Tower of Doom match. It made use of three cages stacked on top of each other over a single ring. The winner would be the first team to have fully escaped the Tower of Doom. It started with just two men in the top cage, just like War Games and took place on the Great American Bash Tour but other than that, and the team aspect it wasn't really a War Games match. The top cage was too high and small for the action to be that exciting and a lot of the time you can't really see what's happening or who is on which team. It's an interesting match to include and I don't regret watching it but you can see clearly why this match didn't catch on and the real War Games did. The match was far too convoluted which made it hard to wrestle a good match in and there was very little to like about it.Dusty Rhodes, Lex Luger, Nikita Koloff, "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Paul Ellering vs. The Four Horsemen(Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and J.J. Dillon) - Back to the original style of War Games here and back to the entertaining, chaotic brawls. It was similar to the first couple of matches so you might not want to watch them all back to back but it was still enjoyable. The finish actually came with a submission hold this time so, while it was still hard to see the submission happen, it felt like a better finish to the match as it was obvious right away who would have submitted and to what. There's no commentary to this one at all but it doesn't negatively affect the match.The Road Warriors, The Midnight Express and "Dr. Death" Steve Williams vs. The Fabulous Freebirds and The Samoan Swat Team - There are promos by every participant before this match starts. It's another good match with chaotic brawling all over the place. It didn't quite live up to the War Games matches involving the Four Horsemen but it was still an enjoyable match and much better than the tower of Doom. It felt less violent than the other matches as, unlike the Horsemen's time in the cage, no one bled and so it came across as less brutal. The finish was clear as it was again, down to a submission hold, although it doesn't hold up as an exciting finish looking back today.The Four Horsemen(Ric Flair, Sid Vicious, Barry Windham and Larry Zbyszko) vs. Sting, Brian Pillman and The Steiner Brothers - I wasn't expecting much here because, in introducing this match, Dusty Rhodes said that War Games was never the same again once we entered the 90s. I didn't understand his comment though as this was at least on the same level as the earlier matches, if not better. The brutality was back, with Barry Windham being busted open before a third man had even entered the ring. The finish looked pretty brutal too, although I didn't like how it the surrender was called by a wrestler not involved in the match they shouldn't have got involved and it should have just been 100% down to the official. Other than that though it was one of the better War Games matches so far.Sting's Squadron(Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and Barry Windham) vs. The Dangerous Alliance(Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin, Larry Zbyszko and Rick Rude) - This one was possibly even better, so I really don't know what Rhodes meant. It was one of the most violent and bloody War Games matches. The action was entertaining and fast moving. I really liked the finish of this one as they used a submission which made it clear what was happening but also added a little something extra to it to fit with the brutality of the fight.Sting, Davey Boy Smith, Dustin Rhodes and The Shockmaster vs. Sid Vicious, Harlem Heat and Vader - This was a War Games match so it was a fun and enjoyable enough brawl. However it did feel like it was missing something, it never felt that important in the way that the previous War Games matches had felt. This one felt a lot less special and more ordinary. It didn't have the brutality that previous matches had had. The Shockmaster felt lost in there and didn't do a lot. The match ended almost immediately after the final man entered which was a shame too. It wasn't a bad match but it wasn't up to the standard of previous War Games matches.Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes and The Nasty Boys vs. Terry Funk, Arn Anderson, Bunkhouse Buck and Colonel Robert Parker - This one had the very basic stuff that a War Games has to make it watchable. After that though this was a disappointment and doesn't live up to they hype of a War Games match. There was a unique spot when Arn Anderson's head was trapped between the two rings but that's the only unique thing this match brought to the table. The inclusion of Colonel Parker took away any chance of this having an exciting conclusion as it was obvious right away who would be the one to submit. A lot of the participants didn't feel like they were bringing anything to this one either. Dustin and Anderson were good and Terry Funk added something to the match as a loose cannon but Dusty Rhodes wasn't in as good a condition as he was in the early War Games matches and The Nasty Boys, Bunkhouse and Parker didn't add anything. The finish was decent though even if the person involved was predictable.The Hulkamaniacs(Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Lex Luger and Sting) vs. The Dungeon of Doom(Kamala the Ugandan Giant, The Zodiac, Meng and The Shark) - While you already kind of know going in to this one who's going to get the win, it's still a surprisingly enjoyable match. It's still a back and forth brawl and the action is entertaining. The War Games chaotic atmosphere makes an entertaining match where any singles matches between any members of these teams really wouldn't be. The star power on the babyface team makes this feel more important than it probably was and that helps the match a lot. I wasn't expecting much going in but it ended up being a better match than the previous two matches.Team nWo("Hollywood" Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash and a Mystery Partner) vs. Team WCW(Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger and Sting) - The story with this match was all about nWo's mystery partner was. nWo were heavily hinting that it was Sting so that's what the match was building to, whether Sting would be the final man for the nWo or WCW. The match's action was entertaining and enjoyable even if it wasn't always technically the best. I liked the Sting payoff as the story added something different to the match. It also made the match feel like a big deal as the biggest rivalry in the company was being settled inside the War Games. The atmosphere did really help and the action was entertaining enough to pay it off. The finish wasn't quite as brutal as it needed to be but it worked.Tean nWo(Kevin Nash, Buff Bagwell, Syxx and Konnan) vs. The Four Horsemen(Ric Flair, Steve McMichael, Chris Benoit and Curt Hennig) - This is another good match. The nWo side feels a bit diluted and Steve McMichael doesn't really fit as a Horseman but they make the most of what they had. The action is entertaining and it's as chaotic as you expect from War Games. The swerve was interesting as something that we hadn't seen in this match type before so I liked that part. The finish, with most of one team handcuffed to the cage, was the kind of thing I normally wouldn't like as the nWo did that kind of thing too often but it actually worked with the chaos of the War Games match so I enjoyed it as a finish. Overall a pretty good match.Team WCW(Diamond Dallas Page,"Rowdy" Roddy Piper and The Warrior) vs. Team nWo Hollywood(Hollywood Hogan, Bret Hart and Stevie Ray) vs. Team nWo Wolfpac(Kevin Nash, Sting and Lex Luger) - This War Games match was the first one to feature three teams. To me the match looks like a good example of how diluted the nWo story had become. Stevie Ray felt like an odd choice to be here, Sting was a part of the nWo, Warrior was representing WCW despite only being there for about three matches and Roddy Piper was part of WCW's front line in 1998. From an outsider's perspective it wasn't looking good before the match started. Also it was apparently every man for himself even though they were split into teams. The action was alright and like all War Games matches it was fun. Everything after Warrior entered was a bit stupid and took away from the match but other than that, while not exactly a good match, it was fun. Also the rules were different for this one as it was won by pinfall not submission.Sting, Booker T, Goldberg and KroniK vs. Kevin Nash, The Harris Brothers, Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo and Scott Steiner - This was the War Games 2000 match and it was in three cages on top of each other over a single ring. The winner was the person who got the championship from the top of the top cage and brought it out the door. It was a really strange match as there was no incentive for anyone to really go and get the belt as they could just wait at the bottom and take it from there. Also it being a match for the World Heavyweight Championship was weird as it was for one belt and there would only be one champion so the team thing didn't work here. It involved a load of shenanigans such as Vince Russo being involved, a load of handcuffs being used and overall strange booking. If I was a fan at the time I would have absolutely hated this. However watching it back now it is a pretty fun match. Sure it makes no sense and is just a chaotic mess but it's an entertaining mess too and I enjoyed myself watching it.This was an enjoyable DVD set. War Games matches often deliver fun, chaotic brawls so there's a lot of entertaining action to be seen here if you're a WCW fan. Some of the matches are a bit of a mess but they're still mostly fun in their own way. The matches can get repetitive watching all three discs together but you can easily space them out so I didn't find that to be a problem. Overall an entertaining release.

Classic WCW gets five stars from me

Another brilliant wrestling dvd. Fantastic matches. Well worth buying

Love the brutality of it.

Excellent

Was delivered as promised and my partner was delighted, thankyou amazon!!

good

Highly recommended