[1991-07-03-WCW-East Rutherford, NJ] Sting & Lex Luger & Yellow Dog & El Gigante vs Barry Windham & Nikita Koloff & One Man Gang & Kevin Sullivan (War Games)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

That so many guys all over the card are involved in this shows how directionless WCW's booking was at this point. I am pleasantly surprised to see all the babyfaces coming out to Luger's music, since Luger and Sting usually came out to Sting's music.

 

Best quote picked up from a fan on the handheld: "Oh, here come the fan favorites!" But then the fancam guys start doing mock Jim Ross commentary, which oddly enough amuses me.

 

Windham and the Yellow Dog (Pillman incognito) start it off and try to recreate the magic of their earlier opening five minutes, but don't quite hit that level this time. The crowd isn't shitting on the match, but the "WE WANT FLAIR!" chants are loud. This is interesting and shows how hardcore the WCW faithful were at this point, considering that Flair's departure hadn't even been announced on TV yet.

 

I found this hard to follow because of the constantly shaking camera, but still enjoyed watching it. Hardcore fans sort of shitting on/sort of cheering a decent match, a weird mish-mash of wrestlers, chants for Flair, silly gimmicks and War Games ... this is WCW at its WCWiest.

[Bix]

Capetta explained the Flair situation at the beginning of the show. It's on the handheld and the crowd reaction is nuts.

[Childs]

Between the jittery camera and the Jersey smark commentary, this was pretty hard to watch. This really did feature an odd mishmash of wrestlers, which undermined the idea of War Games as the ultimate grudge match. As Loss said, very WCWish. Windham appeared to be the best guy in the match but it was hard to judge given the viewpoint. Still glad it made the set as an oddity.

[PeteF3]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6lrdi_an...rt#.UWuJ67WceDg - Here's the announcement.

 

As a consequence of said announcement, Flair is out of WarGames and Sullivan is in, according to the camera guys. I dreaded having to hear them talk throughout this whole match but I actually found them pretty entertaining. Even if there was a smarkish tone these guys were clearly devoted fans. The work throughout is pretty house-showy and half-speed. The highlight may have been Sullivan going nuts with the ring bell hammer, including whacking the Yellow Dog right in the groin with it. The heels in general are much higher-energy, even Nikita. Fairly tepid Match Beyond that nonetheless has some good heat to it. Gigante kicks powder into Sullivan's face and claws him into submission, a finish that I think you could have predicted before the match started.

[Kevin Ridge]

That video of Flair being stripped of the title is something else. The fans are not happy with the announcement.

 

Never seen this match and makes sense as it is fan cam so boo. The dudes videotaping this are trying to do commentary at the same time. This will be tough once they starting using both rings when multiple guys get in there. Heels don’t need a JJ Dillon to win the coin toss. Hard to get into with it being a fan cam.

[shoe]

Seemed like a solid War Games bout. That we want Flair chant was loud.

[soup23]

Interesting to see a Wargames like this. PIllman looked a little off to me and light in his segments in this match. I don't know if it was the suit or what. Shockingly my favorite guy in this was One Man Gang clubbing people from behind and being a general dick all around. The camera and action was hard to follow at times which makes me think that War Games may not be the best live experience but eventually the faces get the win on a prone Sullivan. Fun find.

[garretta]

I gave up trying to follow the action in the ring fairly early on; WarGames needs to be professionally shot for it to make any visual sense. The commentary was fun with a few hidden gems, my favorite being that WCW has an agreement with the WWF that both promotions will ban Pillman if he's unmasked. Sully actually brings weapons, which we don't see in this kind of match as often as we should, quite frankly. He does well with the bell hammer, almost castrating Pillman with it, but falls victim to a combination of his own powder and Gigante's claw.

 

No one really stood out as good in here, but it's a shame to see Gang not treated like the monster he still could have been. He was knocked around way too easily by the faces from what I could see, and I don't know why Dusty brought him in if he wasn't going to use him as an unstoppable five hundred pound asskicker. As I said back in the June forum, the whole gimmick with the facepaint and Gang's seeming lack of intelligence bring Kamala to mind, and I wonder if that wasn't who Dusty was originally intending to bring in.

 

Finally, a booking question: If Sully, who ostensibly replaced Flair, was the guy who did the job in this setup, who was originally going to do the honors if Flair had stuck around? It sure wasn't going to be Flair himself, and Nikita needed to be kept hot for his win over Sting at the Bash. That leaves either Windham or Gang, and I'd think they'd have kept the Horsemen together somehow, which means Barry would have had to have cred as (arguably) Flair's second-in-command. Poor Gang. Maybe Vince and his Easter egg outfit didn't seem so bad by now.

[dawho5]

Passable match and commentary. The camera work left a lot to be desired, but handheld and all, so I'll take it. Crowd is demanding Flair already. Sting got a pretty fucking big pop. Finish was so not worth the journey.