Greatest Match Round 1: HHH/HBK/Benoit WMXX vs. WarGames 1992

[Everlong]

SquaredCircle's Greatest Match of All Time!

(1) Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Benoit, WrestleMania XX



VS

(8) Sting, Barry Windham, Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat and Nikita Koloff vs. Steve Austin, Rick Rude, Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton and Larry Zbyszko, WAR GAMES, WCW WrestleWar 1992



VOTE NOW for which you liked better. Voting will last three days. In the event of a tie, the winner will be decided by which match had more people commenting in its favor.

[Circled Square]

Interesting. Never saw the Wargames match. I'm going to watch it now.

[Everlong]

Interesting. Never saw the Wargames match. I'm going to watch it now.

You're in for a treat.

[Viazon]

Quick question. How long are these two next rounds going to be open for discussion? Because I have never actually seen the war games match, nor have I seen Hart/Austin and I would like to watch them before I choose. However, I am leaving for Italy tonight and I don't get back until Wednesday. Will the vote still be open them on these two rounds?

[Messiah]

nor have I seen Hart/Austin

wat

[Viazon]

nor have I seen Hart/Austin

wat

I didn't start watching WWE until 2000.

[Messiah]

I'm just messing with you. It just caught me off guard is all.

[Viazon]

With the Network now, I fully intend to watch all of these classic matches I have yet to see.

[Everlong]

Quick question. How long are these two next rounds going to be open for discussion? Because I have never actually seen the war games match, nor have I seen Hart/Austin and I would like to watch them before I choose. However, I am leaving for Italy tonight and I don't get back until Wednesday. Will the vote still be open them on these two rounds?

If you want, I can add your votes once you've had a chance to watch them. Chances are the vote might not make a difference but feel free to post here with what your vote was going to be, and I'll count you as excused since you were out of town.

[Circled Square]

Just watched the war games match. Everybody was doing some sort of cool shit. I remember they had a dude wishbone'd on the ring ropes. Got a kick out of that. Dustin Rhodes came in and beat some ass which was good to see. I loved the bit where Nikita pushed Sting out of the way when he was about to get attacked. Madusa climbing up onto the cage made me smile, seeing Sting meet her up there. Good camera work by the crew, that event must have been a bitch, the two rings weren't as awkward as I thought they'd be. I liked how they all ended up bleeding pretty much, made it intense. Dustin's face was pretty fucked up in that match. Steve Austin and Barry both took a hell of a beating.

It took me by surprise how good that match was. I'll rewatch HBK/HHH/The Man Who Shall Not Be Named later on because I think it might be closer than I thought.

[SortaCreative]

Wargames is a fucking mess man. I've never understood the hype around it.

[Str8Shooter]

Wargames is a fucking mess man. I've never understood the hype around it.

I remember showing you this match a while back and you liked it

[SortaCreative]

Wargames is a fucking mess man. I've never understood the hype around it.

I remember showing you this match a while back and you liked it

It's not bad per say. It's just a mess. I liked it yeah, greatest match of all time? Fuck no.

[Daz]

WCW era War Games just doesn't appeal to me. It's too produced. War Games only worked when it felt gritty and dirty, and when the Horseman were getting beat up.

[Tom]

WCW era War Games just doesn't appeal to me. It's too produced. War Games only worked when it felt gritty and dirty, and when the Horseman were getting beat up.

I understand what you are saying but this War Games match is pretty gritty and brutal. It's always fun going back and watching it, and it's a great old school brawl. I think WCW in that period put on some very good matches. The likes of Austin, Steamboat, Rude, Flair, Vader, Cactus etc were having some highly entertaining matches in WCW around that period.

War Games is something I always felt was entertaining. However, one thing I never really liked about it was the fact that the match would be over once one member of the team submit or quit. I would have preferred if they enforced elimination rules in the concept, though I understand why they didn't. And I felt that this kind of took away from this match. The finish seemed off, and less brutal than a lot of the action that had took place before it.

This War Games match though, overall, may be my favourite. It was incredibly brutal, the pace was awesome and it created some great individual moments that played a good part in the storytelling of the match. I also agree with CircleSquared that the camera work on this one was excellent too.

It's also great to go back and see Austin in that era. I honestly think people forget how good of a technical wrestler Austin was. Yeah, it wasn't really showcased in this match but his athleticism surely was. It's a pity a combination of his neck injury and, in ways, his WWE persona took away some of that (until 2001) but still I think we can forgive him and WWE on that one. I think the best of Sting from an in ring perspective came around these years too. His strength at the time always amazed me, the shot of him gorllia press slamming Arn Anderson off the top of the cage was an awesome one.

As good as the action was in War Games, I don't think I can look past the triple threat match at Wrestlemania 20 though. It may actually be my favourite triple threat match ever (it's probably tied with Joe/Daniels/Styles). The action was great, and the finish was incredible. It's one of those rare moments where I was incredibly satisfied with how Wrestlemania ended. It was the right way to conclude the show at the time and it felt like I was watching something awesome. It's just unfortunate that years later when Benoit did the unthinkable that it kind of tarnished the reputation this match and moment had on many people.

Maybe if I had seen War Games live then I would have been more impressed with it at the time and it may have stood a chance of winning this vote. But I can't look past the triple threat match. It's one of few matches I remember watching live and being completely satisfied with the match itself and the finish. I even remember listening to Benoit's theme song on my discman whilst I was going to the dentist the following day . So I can't look past the triple threat because it was one of those matches and moments that remains up there as one of my fondest in wrestling!

[Circled Square]

So yeah after watching the triple threat it's safe to say that it's aged well. My God. That superlex, the blood, atmosphere, commentary. Triple H was pretty weak in this match, but eh. Seeing Eddie come out, man...



Going with the triple threat.

[KaiserGlider]

I've never seen a Wargames match before, so I'm going to watch this one based on Tim vouching for it and do a sort of live review as I go along. I highly, highly, highly doubt it's going to beat the HHH/HBK/Benoit triple threat, but stranger things have happened...

I liked the introduction to the match. Had a very cool and big-time feel to it. Based on the rules, this is basically TNA's Lethal Lockdown match, but hopefully less of a clusterfuck than that usually ends up being. Hey, it's Stunning Steve Austin! I don't see him having much of a future. Sting's Squadron is a cool name. Paul Heyman thoroughly discussing strategy with his team at ringside was a cool touch, you don't see that these days and I kinda wish we do. Makes things feel more realistic. Barry Windham looks like 80's Hulk Hogan. Well that's enough blabbering from me, let's get to the action.

Standard fare with Stunning Steve and Hogan to start, good spot with the clothesline into the second ring. Bobby Roode enters second and goes right after Hogan. I feel like the blood is appearing too quickly here, even though it's been pretty standard wrestling so far and nothing memorable/violent has taken place to warrant it. Steamboat coming in like a house on fire, damn. Things are picking up as Goldust enters. And it's THE VIGILANTE STING at last.

Backdrop into the cage was nice. Stunning Steve and Goldust are bleeding like stuck pigs. One of the commentators said that almost everybody is bleeding. I guess it sells the brutality of the match, but so far the match has been pretty normal aside from a few guys getting their heads slammed into something. I don't think the blood is taking anything away from the match, but at the same time it's not really adding anything either. So far it's been a pretty standard match and it hasn't felt like a brutal war to me. I guess things were simpler back then and I've been spoiled by too many hardcore matches.

I wish I knew what the Kolov/Sting storyline was going into this thing so I could get into the angle that was playing out. I guess there were tensions between them, which they put aside to work together in this match. If that's the case, it felt glossed over. When Zybisko brought out the pipe it looked like things were about to get good, but then he apparently hit his own partner instead of Sting. The commentators were selling it like it was an accident, but the camera angle was bad (or they didn't move fast enough) and at first it looked like Zybisko hit his own partner on purpose. Sting applies an armbar on the injured guy and... that's it? Meh.

Okay, that was actually pretty disappointing. I guess it was an okay match for what it was, but nothing really stands out or was memorable. By the end it was devolving into a bit of a clusterfuck, and then the finish came quite fast and I wasn't a fan of it. It's a match that would fit snugly into the middle of a current WWE PPV, not in this tournament.

THE VERDICT: Nope. Benoit/HHH/HBK still better, gets my vote as expected.

[Str8Shooter]

Based on the rules, this is basically TNA's Lethal Lockdown match,

No, TNA's Lethal Lockdown match is basically a Wargames match

[KaiserGlider]

Based on the rules, this is basically TNA's Lethal Lockdown match,

No, TNA's Lethal Lockdown match is basically a Wargames match

Are you almost done with that PCW interview?

[Str8Shooter]

Based on the rules, this is basically TNA's Lethal Lockdown match,

No, TNA's Lethal Lockdown match is basically a Wargames match

Are you almost done with that PCW interview?

Touche!

I still feel bad about that! Sadly I don't think my words would have saved PCW