10 Wrestling Promotions That Did WarGames Better Than WWE
*In William Regal's strong Blackpool accent* LETHAL LOCKDOWN!
Owned by WWE it may be, WarGames isn't best played in the sports entertainment market.
A stipulation dubbed 'The Match Beyond' can't operate under WWE's bygone PG ruling. Not successfully, anyway. The match is a feud-ender, a stipulation where lawlessness and anarchy are not only expected, but encouraged. It shouldn't be hauled out of storage because it's the next event on the WWE/NXT calendar.
It doesn't help that WWE is yet to host a singular standout example of the stipulation in action either. The glut of NXT battles and pair of WWE fights within the structure were memorable for the spots within - Tommaso Ciampa Air Raid Crashing Adam Cole from off the cage, IYO SKY diving off the cage with a bin over her head, et al - but can you remember anything about the bouts outside of the GIFable spots that were performed not to enhance the quality of the match, but to get clout on Wrestling Twitter?
No.
No one remembers The AOP being part of WWE's first NXT WarGames match. They're the missing piece that will prevent you from obtaining a full house in a pub quiz.
AEW Blood and Guts 2023, meanwhile, will forever be remembered - and it's yet to happen...
10. All Elite Wrestling
Indeed, AEW Blood and Guts 2023 is already a legendary clash.
Describing it as such may read as a biased take - again, the match hasn't happened yet at the time of submission - but it's the consensus opinion. The line-up is the strongest the match has ever had, it's an authentically heated feud that feels as such, and it'll mark the craved AEW arrival of Kota Ibushi. Revealed as The Elite's fifth man - smartly via video package, thus saving his first heroic pop for the match itself - Ibushi has been an AEW fan demand for years. If AEW is able to pull off his debut successfully, Blood and Guts 2023 will be a legendary clash.
It helps, too, that AEW already has a marginally strong track record with these matches. The Inner Circle vs. The Pinnacle in 2021 and The Jericho Appreciation Society vs. a Blackpool Combat Club-led unit of six in 2022 were both serviceable. They weren't perfect - Chris Jericho's comical fall of the cage in '21 onto a pile of conveniently-placed styrofoam was a particularly damning incident - but the matches both delivered on what the WarGames match represents.
AEW nailed the story, the character development, and the moments in these matches.
These felt like the first WarGames matches since the height of WCW.