This is it, here we are. The match so cool it had to happen twice, then a bunch of other times. The match so cool they made it the tagline of the the Great American Bash 1987 VHS tape. The match so cool it’s still around today, though being held under slightly less chaotic circumstances.
THIS… IS… WARGAMES!!!
The Match Beyond.
The Four Horsemen were in the middle of their infamous run in the summer of 1987: Ric Flair was still the World Heavyweight Champion, Tully Blanchard was the World TV Champ, and Arn Anderson recently made it known he wants the World Tag Team Titles again. Rounding them out were their dipstick manager JJ Dillon and newcomer Lex Luger, recently introduced as the replacement for Ole Anderson who was never really making it out of 1987.
Combatting them was The Dream Team. After Magnum T.A.’s car accident, Nikita Koloff went from Evil Russian to Proud American and aligned himself with the Horsemen’s eternal rival Dusty Rhodes. When Jim Crockett announced a two-ring two-cage match, Dusty and Nikita called on the team of unhinged badasses known as The Legion of Doom to back them up.
THIS… IS… WARGAMES!!!
The Match Beyond.
1. WarGames: Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors & Paul Ellering vs. Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger & JJ Dillon w/ Dark Journey
The first WarGames took place at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 4th, 1987 and through a lot of odd camera angles and grimy camera lenses it delivered everything it promised. It’s an awesome, ugly, chaotic bunch of well laid-out super fun brawling – there’s a reason Cody still clings to it.
Dusty Rhodes vs. Arn Anderson for five minutes kicks it off, a little face-raking and Arn bumping, before Tully Blanchard comes in and this gets real. He nearly trips and I don’t care if it’s planned or not, it works. Dusty briefly flips the folks out with a few Bionic Elbows to both guys, complete with great comic reactions, before the double teaming begins. The 2-minute intervals work, filling any lull their possibly could be until everyone was in. Animal rages in ready to kick ass before Dusty starts bleeding and Flair runs in.
The Horsemen are awesome in how targeted all their beatings are throughout, but it’s Tully Blanchard who sells this thing: he uses the cage top to propel himself for a knee drop right away, is the first to take a big toss across the two rings, and has the crowd on their feet for a spot where Animal lifts him out of a bodyscissors and repeatedly rams his face into the cage.
Nikita Koloff enters and pops the crowd with a big double clothesline, Lex Luger enters and clubs away, and Hawk enters to the mightiest pop before throwing the bad guys around. When JJ Dillon has to creep in, the first thing he does is a Bionic Elbow to Hawk’s head – the pause is incredible.
By the end everyone is bleeding Tony Schiavone tries to follow the action and Jim Ross has restored to screaming in dismay. It doesn’t feel exactly like you’re in the middle of a crazy bar fight, but it almost does, and the characters carrying it are some of the greatest of all time. The finish is as simple as it needs to be: soon after Paul Ellering enters and The Match Beyond begins, The Road Warriors simply corner JJ Dillon and scrub his face into the cage until he surrenders. THIS – THIS!!! – is awesome. ****3/4
2. NWA Western States Heritage Title: Barry Windham [c] vs. Rick Steiner
This took place earlier in the night at The Omni and there really isn’t much to see here beyond the curiosity of young lion Rick Steiner and Barry taking a wild spill through the second rope, as he was known to do. Steiner suplexes him back insie but Windham reverses it with a questionably executed cradle for 3. *1/2
3. Steel Cage Match – NWA U.S. Heavyweight Title: Nikita Koloff [c] vs. Lex Luger w/ JJ Dillon
This and Flair/Garvin later weren’t a part of the “big 3” shows of the Bash ’87 tour, though they did take place in the JCP hotbed of Greensboro. Both were also held inside Steel Cages and shown on the 6:05 TV show just a week later as they had Storyline Ramifications.
The match is mostly a bore, with Nikita in a neck brace and Lex immediately endearing himself to generations of wrestling fans by kicking the cage match off with a 5-minute chinlock. He does another one later on too. They do OK working to Nikita’s comebacks and get the pops they need, but it’s been done better by a lot of others. A Russian Sickle from Nikita bumps Hebner, JJ hands Lex a chair, and Lex smacks Nikita before putting him in the torture rack to win the U.S. Heavyweight Title.
If anything, I loved Luger using the cage to lift Nikita’s dead weight up in the torture rack. Someone made sure that finish worked. **3/4
4. Texas Death Match: Steve Williams w/ Magnum T.A. vs. Dick Murdoch w/ “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert
Back at The Omni – great punches and charisma from Dr. Death, great punch reactions and wobbling around from Captain Redneck. The match is quick and Murdoch’s beatdown isn’t much besides his use of a – uhhh – hammer? But they get to where they need to, as Murdoch jumps into Dr. Death’s cast and takes a typically hilarious bump in the ropes. Williams gets up at 9 and despite Murdoch’s attempt to trip up referee Tommy Young at 10, he loses. Hot Stuff runs in and throws hands but Magnum T.A. slips in a cane and Murdoch ends up outside on a chair, defeat admitted. **1/2
5. The Fabulous Freebirds vs. Ivan Koloff, Ragin’ Bull & Paul Jones
A quick cameo from all the Freebirds at The Omni, as Paul Jones begs off from Terry Gordy and everybody starts brawling before a Bam Bam elbow in the middle of it gets 3. *
6. $100,000 Lights Out Barbed Wire Ladder Match: Dusty Rhodes w/ Barry Windham vs. Tully Blanchard w/ JJ Dillon
This is the lone match on the tape from Charlotte on July 18th, and if it was any better we might be hearing about it alongside WarGames. Maybe. It was hyped big and certainly stands out, but even though the crowd was into the ladder climb drama there were too many gimmicks for it to get any rhythm. NOBODY sells a match gimmick like Tully Blanchard and he is awesome reacting to the barbed wire early on, but they settle into an eh brawl with the occasional awesome thing like Dusty’s eye being ripped open or Dusty doing the most incredible one-legged fat man dropkick there ever was. His hesitation right before is why we still talk about this man. **
7. Steel Cage Match – NWA World Heavyweight Title vs. Night with Precious: Ric Flair [c] w/ JJ Dillon vs. Jimmy Garvin w/ Precious
Ric Flair goes all in here – selling, screaming, bleeding, bumping. He’s always trying to escape the cage and even shows his actual ass. But Gorgeous Jimmy Garvin, a guy I LOOOOVE, just doesn’t show up for the big match. I buy him as the down-and-dirty brawler fighting for his girl, but that guy only shows up a couple minutes here. Otherwise he’s selling knee work and it’s just OK. The finish works as Garvin’s knee gives out on his brainbuster finish, then Flair locks on the figure-four and holds onto the ropes as Garvin desperately tries to endure it, eventually tapping with ALL the emotion. Another boring match in Greensboro with an awesome finish. **3/4
8. NWA World Tag Team Title: The Rock & Roll Express [c] vs. The Midnight Express w/ Jim Cornette and Big Bubba Rogers
To be at that show on The Omni on July 4th… MAN. This is classic stuff, four (or six) of the greats at work. It feels like more of a showcase than a complete match, but that’s no problem: these guys run through bit after bit with all the tricks, sequences that build and build until the big pop that makes the bad guy look like a total asshole. This is exactly what Stone Cold is talking about when he says on his podcast how great tag team wrestling is, how much cooler it is when there are more dance partners the ring. They take advantage of all of it.
Gibson takes heat for just a couple minutes before a wild finish where Big Bubba smoothly slides in and tackles the shit out of Ricky Morton as Tommy Young is scolding Stan Lane for a hair pull. Young turns around, looks down at Bubba’s fallen hat, takes a beat, and DQ’s The Midnight Express. So good. ***1/2
9. WarGames: Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors & Paul Ellering vs. Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger & The War Machine w/ JJ Dillon and Dark Journey
The sequel is rarely as good as the original, and that happens here. It’s fun, chaotic, and wonderfully ugly – but with JJ Dillon injured in the first one, the Four Horsemen introduce War Machine (an obviously masked Big Bubba). That means there’s no JJ Dillon eating shit, and they also don’t really take advantage of the raw power that is Big Bubba. They run a lot of the same beats with Dusty vs. Arn kicking it off, Hawk and Animal swapped, and Tully coming in later instead of JJ. It works; I just saw a much more awesome version of it at the start. ****
Happy Thoughts: The original WarGames is must-see, and though everything else on this tape isn’t it still provides a quality look at prime time Jim Crockett Promotions. 8/10
