The Great 8: Top Eight WarGames Teams

The first WarGames was at The Great American Bash in 1987. A brainchild of Dusty Rhodes, there would actually be several WarGames matches each year. It would become an annual event in 1992 and move to Fall Brawl the following year. The last WCW branded WarGames would be on the September 4th, 2000, episode of Nitro. It would then go dormant, outside of MLW’s version, until it was brought back in 2017 as an NXT event. It would be moved to Survivor Series in 2022. I always loved WarGames as a kid. And I think the WWE has done a good job in living up to the legacy.

Fun facts: Sting, Lex Luger, and Arn Anderson are in a three-way tie for most appearances with 19. Sting has the most wins with 15, and Arn Anderson has the most losses with 19.

So, with Survivor Series: WarGames less than a month away, let’s look at the top 8 teams to have competed in a WarGames!

Disclaimers

Caveat: I am ranking teams not just on if they won or not, it is on a mix of star power, in-ring ability, and if they won or not.

Disclaimer: This is my list; if you don’t like it or have a different list, awesome! Please share your own list and opinions in the comments section. I welcome open discourse about this wacky art we all love. It is an art form, so it is subjective; we all have our opinions on it, and all of them are valid. So, if you want to share your thoughts and opinions, don’t insult others for their opinion. There is enough negativity in the world right now; let’s not add to it. And with that, on to the list!

The List

HM: Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Lex Luger, and the Road Warriors, The Great American Bash Tour 1988, Ciampa, Gargano, Dunne, & Knight, NXT: WarGames 2021, The Undisputed Era (Cole, Fish, O’Reilly, and Strong), NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2018, and Sting, Brian Pillman, and the Steiner Brothers, Wrestlewar ’91

8: Bianca Belair, Bayley, Naomi, Rhea Ripley, and IYO SKY, Survivor Series: WarGames 2024

Women have been having their own WarGames matches since 2019. 2024’s face team was the most star-studded we’ve had so far. Fun fact, this was IYO’s sixth WarGames, and she has been in every woman’s WarGames so far. Ripley is the most over woman on the roster, and in the top five most over WWE wrestlers, period. Ripley, Belair, Bayley, and SKY are some of the most talented women in the ring as well. Naomi hadn’t broken out as a heel yet, but she held her own in the match.

While this match had some of the worst chair shots ever, looking at you, Jax, the match wasn’t all bad. SKY’s trashcan assisted moonsault is probably the most remembered spot from the match, and the avalanche Riptide through the table was a great ending to the match. While it isn’t the best WarGames match, it is still a decent one that is worth watching at least once.

7: The Hulkamaniacs: Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Sting, and Lex Luger, Fall Brawl ’95

In terms of sheer star power, I don’t think many teams can top this. Two of the biggest names of the 1980s, teaming with two of the biggest names in WCW history.

Fun fact: Luger is a last-minute replacement for Vader, who left the company a week before the match.

To be fair, Hogan’s star power isn’t what it was. We are only a less than a year away from the nWo here. Savage still had the fans on his side, but age was starting to catch up to him. No doubt, it is still a star-studded team, and represented the main event scene for WCW for the next five years. Unfortunately, the match itself is not great. While John Tenta and Meng did their best, Kamala and Ed Leslie were never great workers.

Hogan coming in, throwing powder in everyone’s eyes, and playing up his “dark side” that was never paid off didn’t really help the match quality either. So, while the star power affords this team a spot on the list. The in-ring quality doesn’t put them very high on it.

6: Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Randy Orton, and Sami Zayn, Survivor Series: WarGames 2023

This match is underrated, in my opinion. I think it gets overshadowed due to the return of Orton, followed by the return of CM Punk. Looking at the face team, you have four World Champions, and one of the most sympathetic baby faces of this generation in Sami Zayn. That is a stacked team that not only has star power, but four out of five of them are good to great in-ring performers.

Like I said, I think the match itself is underrated and deserves a rewatch. The crowd was hot for the whole match, and when Orton’s music hits, the roof gets blown off the arena. The RKO to Dom was another big pop, followed by the pop as JD McDonagh was thrown off the cage into another RKO. Orton’s return is one of the moments that remind me why I’m a fan.

5: The Road Warriors, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, and Paul Ellering, The Great American Bash Tour 1987

The first-ever “Match Beyond” had two star-studded teams. My reasoning for ranking the face team below the heel team is personal taste. These two teams could be swapped easily. When you put the most dominant team of the 1980s with one of the greatest of all time, a powerhouse, and their own manager into a team together, you are in for a treat.

The 10 men in this match exemplify pro wrestling, outside of the WWF, in the 1980s. Dusty Rhodes was the everyman babyface; he knew how to garner sympathy from the crowd and was a master in psychology. The Road Warriors dominated every opponent they stepped into the ring with. They looked mean, they looked tough, and they backed it up. Koloff turned face after rival, Magnum T.A.’s injury, and went from an evil Russian to a powerhouse for the side of good. And lastly, while Ellering was known more as a manager, he started as a wrestler and held his own during the match.

4: Dangerous Alliance: Arn Anderson, Bobby Eaton, Steve Austin, Larry Zbyszko, and Rick Rude, WrestleWar ’92

This is my favorite WarGames ever, and the Dangerous Alliance felt like a cutting-edge Four Horsemen. Heyman was already so good on the mic, showing why he is one of the few managers to survive through the 2000s. Anderson, Eaton, and Zybyszko provided the technical prowess, while Rude was the biggest star who could also carry his own in the ring. Austin was the up-and-coming star who, if booked correctly, could have been a major star for WCW for years to come.

I will write more about the match itself later on, but I want to note here, the crowd was absolutely on fire this entire match. There is a magic you can feel when you go back and watch ’80s and ’90s wrestling. The crowds were so into the action, and it sucked you in. We are starting to see hot crowds like that again. But the almost two decades of WWE resting on their laurels sucked a lot of that energy out.

3: Roman Reigns, The Usos, Sami Zayn, and CM Punk, Survivor Series: Wargames 2024

To quote Paul Heyman, “This is WARGAMES!” This was like 2023, a completely stacked face team, one less World Champion, but one of the best tag-teams ever. This was also the culmination of years of storytelling. The face team was struggling to build a team because no one trusted Roman and refused to forgive him. Punk finally agrees to help in exchange for a favor from his best friend, Paul Heyman.

To me, it was a beautiful start to the epilogue of the Bloodline story. While we would get the true end to the story a couple of months later, this night was magic. It’s a bit marred due to some ill-advised spots in that put at three men on the injured list. Still I think the match itself was a lot of fun, and lived up to the War part of the name. I think it’s definitely worth a rewatch if you haven’t seen it since last year.

2: The Four Horsemen: Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, and J.J. Dillon, The Great American Bash Tour 1987

And here you have the other half of the first “Match Beyond”. The first half exemplified the face side of wrestling; it was The Four Hoursemen who exemplified the heel side of 1980s wrestling.

They were the cool heels, before that was a thing. Everyone hated them, not just because they cheated, but because you wanted to be them. You wished you could look like Luger, have the talent of Blanchard and Anderson, and, most importantly, you wished you could party and live like Flair.

This was the first Wargames, and they set a high bar for it. The match is probably one of the best of the WarGames matches; you’ve got some of the biggest names and best in-ring talent from the 1980s. And while they wouldn’t win the match, the Horsemen oozed star power and were second to none when it came to in-ring talent.  Sure, the WWF had Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, but for NWA fans, even if you hated him, Flair was the man.

1: Sting’s Squadron: Sting, Nikita Koloff, Dustin Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Barry Windham, WrestleWar ’92

And now the other half of the best WarGames match ever. As I said up to, Sting has the record for the most WarGames wins, and he was a part of some star-studded teams. While this team may not be his most star-studded, it’s probably one of the best in-ring teams. Windham is underrated for his in-ring work, and Rhodes shows why he was more than just Dusty’s kid. Steamboat is one of the best to ever do it, and Koloff is another underrated wrestler.

Sting is Sting. He may not be the best technical wrestler, but he understood the psychology of wrestling. He knew how to carry a crowd on a journey and had the charisma to keep them invested. Like I said earlier, the crowd is molten for this match.  From the start with Windham and Austin, the crowd is popping huge.

I’ve watched this match so many times, and I love it more every time. I think it’s the best blend of star power and great in-ring action. Combined with the molten crowd, it’s a really quick 27-minute watch. Like, stop what you are doing, and take the next half hour to watch it.