10 Wrestling Promotions That Did WarGames Better Than WWE

You'll struggle to find a better hidden gem of a promotion from the nineties than Smoky Mountain Wrestling.

The short-lived group, running from 1991 to 1995, was spearheaded by Jim Cornette, with Cornette adopting the WarGames idea from his preceding employer. Dubbing the match Rage In A Cage, the bout also employed an elimination-style ruling, where pinfalls, submissions, knockouts, and handcuffing an opponent to the cage were acceptable grounds for elimination.

Playing out as a proper old-school WarGames match, wherein the heel manager blindingly leads his stable to dominance from within the ring only to have his men dumped out and be left to fend for himself, the match brilliantly boiled down to Cornette himself - who led The Heavenly Bodies and The Bruise Brothers into the story-heavy battle - submitting to the late Bob Armstrong, who was fighting within an inch of his life to survive for his team - consisting of sons Scott and Steve, and The Rock'N'Roll Express - whom the crowd was firmly behind.

The match was a lot of fun for an early-nineties indie and although it doesn't provide the same molten reactions as the WCW WarGames matches of the era were, it's worth a gander for the characteristically excellent heroic display from Ricky Morton. It's oft-forgotten how beloved he and Robert Gibson were at their peak.