Wednesday, April 5, 2006

WCW WrestleWar 1992: War Games

This is a show I've been wanting to re watch since I was a child. The War Games is a very cool concept that WWE wishes they came up with. 2 teams of 5, locked inside two rings, with a low ceiling cage encasing you. The only thing to do is drain your arteries of it's life giving blood and hope no one on your team submits or surrenders! Very good television.
1 The Freebirds v. Greg Valentine/ Terry Taylor- 6- Wow! Did I just write that? A 6? Well, Just because I didn't like "Hard Times" doesn't mean that I can't say Charles Dickens wasn't a master of prose. The names in this match read like a who's really never was, but they were all seasoned vets and they could work a crowd better than David Lee Roth. This match had the true essence of tag psychology and the crowd ate it up. The match was well paced and all the punches landed solid and looked legit? That's all you can ask for. It also had a great finish.
2 Ron Simmons v. Mr. Huges- 3- This was supposed to be a tag with Cactus Jack and JYD as partners! I love this show. What a great idea to have those two opposite a ring from each other. Cactus knocked Dog off the long rampway WCW had( which was a great idea) and dropped the elbow off of it, and Dog sold it like his heart just exploded. So, to singles action we go. Huges sold big for Simmons and Ron tried to keep pace slow for Huges. Decent match to put over the legendary Seminole.

3 Brian Pillman v. Tom Zenk- 6- This match told a story. Former partners, now with a belt in the middle, and the classic who was better? Who carried the team? And this wasn't all high flying; there was some real wrestling spots that was saying to each man "yeah, I'm showing you up and you know it? What do you have?" Pillman was the 90's Kurt Angle. He took to wrestling so quickly and just made it exciting to watch. He tried something new almost every time out there and really had a brilliant career ahead of him and should have been a huge star still today. Zenk held his own too, and I'm really not sure why he didn't wrestle longer. Anyways, these two tore down the house.
4 Steiner Brothers v. Tatsumi Fujinami/ Takayuki Iizuka- 7- Now, this is a tag match! None of the four of these men were going to give an inch and my god, I loved watching them try and take that inch like it was the last piece of steak at the George Foreman household. Let's really set the stage: The Steiner Brothers were the best tag team in the world, scientifically and physically. Fujinami was perhaps the best wrestler in Japan at that time or any other. Iizuka was a young pup who could stiff with the best of them and he wanted to prove it. There were some spots in this I hadn't ever seen and have never seen since, including a belly to belly to Iizuka who was jumping off the top rope towards Rick who was on Fujinami's shoulders! Unbelievable, except I saw it!
5 Sting's Squadron( Sting, Ricky Steamboat, Barry Windham, Dustin Rhodes, & Nikita Koloff) v. The Dangerous Alliance( Rick Rude, Steve Austin, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, & Larry Zybyszko) w/ Paul E. Dangerously & Madusa (War Games: The Match Beyond)- 9- This was by god the greatest War Games that ever took place. There was so much story in this, inlaid into each team, every one played an archetype, and then there was the action and the violence and the blood! I don't know where to begin. Let's see, Austin, Windham, Rhodes, Anderson, & Rude were all bleeding badly, which in this case means goodly. Sting was flying over both rings, Steamboat was hanging from the cage, Austin was eating steel, Anderson was hitting spinebusters, Windham was being old school and throwing great punches, Rhodes was being the rookie who wouldn't die, Larry Land was selling awesome, Rude was being spectacularly heelish, Eaton was fighting for his life, and Koloff was teasing a turn on Sting that didn't happen and then he got really stiff, plus they finished by taking the turnbuckle hook completely off and Larry accidentally bashed Eaton in the arm with it, and Sting won with an armbar! An armbar! A wonderful, feel-good, meat and potatoes, tingling, electric, soda pop fizzing, orgasm bursting, Star Wars ending armbar! God, I need a cigarette. This was a great old school tape and I loved every second of it. I want to thank our fellow writer, Adam for providing it. Good looking, bro.

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