Wargames (JCP - 7/4/1987)

Second

This isn't my favorite wargames, but I will happily second its nomination here. The wargames gimmick is one of my favorites and this was one of the best. If nothing else, this a touchstone match. Its high drama, has an electric atmosphere, and delivers what I would consider sort of meat-and-potatoes wrestling goodness. You could show this to just about anyone and they would get it and could probably enjoy it to whatever extent they were capable of enjoying wrestling.

Not a huge Wargames fan but this is one of the better ones. All outlined below.

Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Anderson & Tully Blanchard, JJ Dillon) vs. The Dream Team (Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors, Paul Ellering) - WARGAMES I

Definitely one of the best WARGAMES matches of all time. Much, much better than Wargames II and overall it had a lot more energy & zip than the other ones that I have seen. The Road Warriors remain the best suited for this environment. Road Warrior Animal may have gotten one of the loudest sustained roars I have ever heard in my life. That was enough to power the city of Greensboro. Animal must have been jacked! He was just steamrolling Anderson & Blanchard. Then he did his two spots with Blanchard lawn darting him to next ring and the sit up spot. I thought Dusty vs Arn was a better five minute opening. Dusty was ballshotting and flipping off the Horsemen. Also, Dusty used the roof of the cage twice. You know Dusty wanted to be the first to use the roof since that was his innovation. Tully & Arn stooging for the Double Bionic Elbow before settling in to work the leg was good. I covered Animal. Flair was a ton better in this. I love when just jumps on somebody. There were ballshots galore in this match. Flair was definitely in the right mindset here, just brawl mode. I liked Flair trying to cut Nikita off at the pass at the door by raking the eye. This made the Double Russian Sickle all the sweeter. Koloff was just Sickleing everything he saw. Luger came in and started beating on Nikita and then moved on. I really liked the fact they did TWO Spike Piledrivers on Koloff, who had a n injured neck remember he had a neck brace on at the Crockett Cup in April. Some actual strategy! Hawk came in and not quite as good as Animal, but was just a wrecking ball of energy. I love the Road Warriors! JJ was of course completely ineffectual. Paul Ellering brings in his spiked wristband, which I dont love. It is too small. When you have eight behemoths and two managers, two ring and a massive cage, you should have something HUGE so everyone can see. I feel like that Spiked Wristband is too small. DOOMSDAY DEVICE~! JJ breaks his collarbone. They ram his head into the cage and he surrenders. I feel like that finish was still anti-climatic, but the energy level was through the roof. This did NOT feel like a battle royale, much, much better. ****1/4

My 2020 #1.

I had 92 above this until rewatching recently. Top 20 lock.