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WarGames match

WarGames is a specialized steel cage match in professional wrestling. The match usually involves two teams of four or more wrestlers locked inside a steel cage that encompasses two rings placed side by side. The cage may or may not have a roof, depending on which professional wrestling promotion the match is held in.

Created by Dusty Rhodes in 1987, the WarGames match was originally used in Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) of the National Wrestling Alliance, and later, held annually in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), usually at the Fall Brawl pay-per-view event. These original WarGames matches had a roof on the cage with no pinfalls as a win situation, although later WCW versions allowed pinfalls to win.

Since 2017, WWE, which purchased the assets of WCW in 2001, has held annual WarGames matches at WarGames branded events, first at NXT WarGames from 2017 to 2021 and currently at Survivor Series (which is in turn branded as Survivor Series: WarGames) since 2022. WWE's WarGames matches do not have a roof on the cage and also allow pinfalls as a win situation.

Over the years, other promotions have held their own versions of WarGames matches under different names, notably All Elite Wrestling (AEW), which established its own version called Blood and Guts in 2021. AEW's version is based on the original JCP version with a roof on the cage and no pinfalls and it is held annually at the Blood & Guts event.

The WarGames match was created when Dusty Rhodes was inspired by a viewing of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It was originally used as a specialty match for the Four Horsemen. The first WarGames match took place at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia during National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member Jim Crockett Promotions' (JCP) Great American Bash '87 tour, where it was known as War Games: The Match Beyond. It would be held at three house shows later that year, once at the Miami Orange Bowl, once in Chicago at the UIC Pavilion, and the other at the NWA's debut at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. In 1988, JCP was sold to Turner Broadcasting and rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), although with WCW still under the NWA. That year, WarGames would be held during the Great American Bash Tour in 1988 at 11 house shows (one was released on the WWE Horsemen DVD). The final War Games matches under the NWA/WCW banner were at The Great American Bash in 1989 and a house show rematch at The Omni in Atlanta. WCW, no longer under the NWA, then first used the match in 1991 at WrestleWar and at five house shows during the 1991 Great American Bash tour and in 1992 at WrestleWar, before it became a traditional Fall Brawl event from 1993 to 1998.

In 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002) purchased WCW and its assets, including the rights to the WarGames name. WWE, however, would not use the match concept until 2017, when the promotion revived the match to be held for their developmental brand NXT at an event titled NXT TakeOver: WarGames. This would become an annual NXT TakeOver event for WWE until 2021. That year, the TakeOver series was discontinued, but a WarGames event was still held for NXT in December. The following year, WWE rebranded its annual Survivor Series pay-per-view for the main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown, as Survivor Series: WarGames, marking WWE's first main roster event to feature the match.

The WarGames match consists of two or three teams, with between three and five participants facing off with each other in staggered entry format.

The setup of the cage consists of two rings side by side with a ring-encompassing rectangular cage that covered both rings, but not the ringside area. Doors are placed at far corners of the cage, near where the opposing teams wait to enter, so the teams do not contact each other before they enter the match. One exception was in the match held at Fall Brawl 1996, where tension between Team WCW and the New World Order led to the teams staying backstage and making their entrances from there.

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