Skip to main content

Wargames 97 warrants another look

Hello Me. Keith. 

I just watched the Wargames Set, start-to-finish, and I gotta say watching them in order like that, I really grew a new appreciation for Fall Brawl 97's Wargames of The Horsemen v.s. NWO.  93 was garbage, 94 did have some good Southern Brawling, 95 lets never talk about, 96 was a-ok, but re-watching it it certainly didn't have as much of a spark as you would think considering it was WCW's big stand against the NWO, although points for the beginning of the Sting booking.  And I watched it without thinking of whatever happened the days, weeks, months afterwards, I just really god damn enjoyed it for what it was.  I'd say atleast a **** affair.  Besides the lack of blood, Some key arguments:

1. Benoits total intensity and ass-kicking he gave to the "nWo B-Team" throughout
2. Many cage bumps and cage-spots that I am surprised didn't draw some blood
3. It felt like it went by QUICK
4. Proper booking as Mongo, Konnan & Bagwell didn't really slow the pace down, everyone who entered turned it back into a fresh brawl
5. The Heels using Heel tactics instead of the usual NWO "we are just cooler than them, they don't matter" personality
6. Horsemen's out-heeling them to pop the crowd and Benoits spit and "bite me" to the mic

And finally, I remember as a Kid i didn't seen the Henning turn coming, and was equally heartbroken.  But they pulled it off well, right up until he punched Mongo, and I would totally have backed it all except...who the fuck booked the remaining crap angles after that?  a fucking 5-year old knows you leave Flair off tv till Starrcade where he returns and beats the living shit out of Henning for turning not only on him, but The Horsemen.  So like I said, on its own, I really friggin dug Wargames 97, and I can't be the only one.  Thoughts?

Thank you and keep up the good work

I'm not sure why it wasn't included in the Wargames retrospective on WWE 24/7 (oh wait, actually now I know, never mind...) but I remember it being pretty OK with some bitterness on my part possibly weighting it down.  I'd be open to checking it out again, although the Hennig turn did not take me by surprise in the least.  It was the stupidest thing WCW could have done with the match so I knew that was exactly what they'd do and I was right.  I honestly don't recall it being a great match, though, and although it was a long time ago I haven't heard many people bitching about my rating of it so it must be reasonable.  Meltzer gave it something like **1/2 so I'm not the only one who wasn't blown away by it.  

But hey, as always, I'm never one to argue against someone enjoying a match I didn't.  

Comments

  1. I've actually never seen the match but turning Hennig heel was dumb and that Nitro the night after War Games was one of the most depressing wrestling shows I've ever watched. I'm surprised they included that on the War Games DVD. Is Benoit legit not covered up or something? I can't help but assume WWE did the same thing South Park did with Mohammad and just put a big black censor in place of the figure.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Put me in the same camp as Scott on this one. I knew the Hennig turn was coming b/c everyone and their mother was joining the nWo at that point. It was a good match but I grew up a Horsemen fan and seeing them lose to essentially the nWo b-team and Kevin Nash and subsequently being booked into Bolivian (tm Mike Tyson) depressed the shit out of me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Knuckleberry PinnJuly 9, 2013 at 7:43 PM

    I'm watching the set myself right now, and it's cool watching the first set of core participants (Rhodes, Flair, Warriors, etc) get better and more comfortable.

    Particularly, the match on the set that has Luger on the face side, Windham on the heel side, and Nikita Koloff w hair, is just an incredible jolt in intensity, work rate, violence, crowd heat, blood, and passion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 1996 is the one that is worth another look.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I never understood why WCW didnt release this on home video.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Guess I'm in the minority. Yeah the turn was predictable but I thought it made perfect sense. Hennig thought he was above Flair and destroyed him. Simple as that. It even played up their WWF history. And the follow-up started out well, with a pissed-off Flair out for Hennig's blood but things just kinda ended out of the blue. Wasn't a cage match scheduled for Starrcade that was canceled? Or am I remembering wrong?

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's a great story, in that it plays out the Sting not being trusted thing very well. Like he beats the nWo up and shows that they need him, but he doesn't need them and leads to the change of his character.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Flair was injured so DDP got the shot.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Did on the UK.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Well I live in MURICA and in MURICA I want every WCW PPV on home video.

    ReplyDelete
  11. As a fan of the Horsemen I was rightfully pissed when Hennig turned on them. But I was even more furious that they would do that in HORSEMEN country! Burying the Horsemen in Winston-Salem doesn't help the ticket window the next time WCW comes to town.

    ReplyDelete
  12. They keep him in compilations of PPVs and histories of certain gimmick matches (he was in the EC set too). I think they do minimize commentary about him, though. I haven't got to the 1997 match yet, nor did I buy the EC set.
    War Games set is awesome, BTW. Worth waiting for. re: the Tower of Doom inclusion, I wonder if they could have gotten the Thundercage Clash match on there (no team members enter at intervals rule, though, so maybe not) or WCCW's Triple Dome of Terror if they ever did a team format (I know of a singles and battle royal version)? And the ECW version on the blu-ray...is that uncut? Was it ever seen on Hardcore TV?

    ReplyDelete
  13. In principle, having nWo beat the former top stable in WarGames made sense, but there was just never any kind of payoff to this.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Unfortunate that Benoit didn't get to step into Flair's spot vs. Hennig. DDP was ready to move up to main event status with or without the US title and Benoit could have benefited a lot at that point.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment