Fall Brawl 1998 (Almost) Killed War Games

“…the main event was so atrocious that if you made a list of the very worst major main events in the entire history of this business, it would probably rank in the top five or ten.” -R.D. Reynolds & Bryan Alvarez, “The Death of WCW”

War Games was a staple in Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) for settling scores and rivalries. A decade before Hell in a Cell, this was the match where careers would be shortened and lives changed forever.

Dusty Rhodes and The Road Warriors vs. The Four Horsemen (1987), The Dangerous Alliance vs. Stings Squadron (1992) and WCW vs. NWO (1996) were viewed as the reasons why this match had such a mystique to it. Then there were matches like The Hulkamanics vs. The Dungeon of Doom (1995) and NWO vs. The Horsemen (1997) which made us cringe.

But the all-time biggest War Games debacle came in 1998. As a matter of fact, it laid the groundwork for the demise of WCW.

Since 1987, the rules of the match consisted of two teams sending one member in the cage to start the match. After five minutes of action, a coin flip would determine who would send in their second man, giving that team the advantage. Every two minutes, a member from the opposing team would enter, and so on and so forth until all men are officially in the match. The finish only comes when one team can make a member of the opposing team submit or surrender.

Simple right? NOT IN 1998!

The rules changed that year. Instead of two teams of four, it spread to three teams of three. The match could be won by any member of any team at any time (regardless if all men have entered) and pinfall was an option to win. Finally, the wrestler who scored the decision (NOT the team) would receive a World Heavyweight Championship match the next month at Halloween Havoc against Goldberg. Was the match really about teams, though?

As a reminder, only the person who scored the decision gets the title shot, so why should any of the teams actually work together? WCW went out of their way to emphasize that while there are three teams of three, it really was every man for himself. Wouldn’t it had just made sense to make it a nine-man free for all regardless of affiliation to WCW, NWO or Wolfpac? They were already combining all of their top rivalries together for the pay-per-view, whether it be Hogan/Warrior or Bret/Sting, but more on that shortly.

Before the actual match breakdown, let’s look back at some of the newsworthy events taking place during this time in 1998 that affected this match and buildup to Fall Brawl 1998.

In May of ’98, WCW would re-sign Hulk Hogan to a contract extension through May 2002 (obviously WCW wouldn’t make it that long). On top of his base salary, Hogan would earn either 15% of the 100% domestic pay-per-view sales or a guarantee of $675,000, whichever was greater. While I couldn’t find an exact number on how much the gate was, Hulk’s appearance alone likely put the event in the red. WCW reportedly still made $40 million in 1998, but it wasn’t off of their pay-per-views.

The writing team at this time was reportedly Eric Bischoff (executive vice president), Jason Hervey (former child star and close friend of Bischoff), Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash. This should explain so much – a lot of this show was said to be extremely disorganized with formats and matches changing frequently backstage as the show was going live.

Team WCW (Roddy Piper, Diamond Dallas Page, The Warrior) vs. Team NWO Wolfpack (Kevin Nash, Lex Luger, Sting) vs. Team NWO Hollywood (Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Stevie Ray).

Now for the trivia question: Which one of these is not like the other? WCW was making an effort to have Stevie Ray (and also his brother Booker T) featured more in storyline and main events, largely based off a reported discrimination lawsuit filed against the company by former wrestler “Hardwork” Bobby Walker. The case would later be settled out of court, but WCW was looking to make nice and give a good image to the courtroom by having Stevie Ray in the main event. If anyone in the company would be asked as to why he was involved in the match the standard answer to give was “because Scott Hall was scheduled in the match, but was injured and couldn’t participate.” But wait; there is more to this Scott Hall story, too.

Hall was scheduled for the match, which makes sense considering his storyline rivalry with Nash. The involvement of these two would carry over to next month’s blow off at Halloween Havoc. Hall was said to be “injured,” which he told management about just days before he found out that there was a “surprise” drug test coming. (We can all do the math.) What is more overlooked about this situation is that Hall still competed on the card against Konnan. As are most Scott Hall stories, this one doesn’t make sense either.

By this point, Diamond Dallas Page was seen as the true locker room leader in WCW. While not seen as a proficient worker, many wrestlers and management would admit that they knew how much work Page put in daily. He was consistently doing promotional interviews, charity events and everything possible to keep a positive light on himself and the company. There was a rumor of a major push (bigger than his previous feud with Randy Savage) extending into the fall and especially into Starrcade.

Ric Flair was due to come back to TV around this time after finally trying to put to rest the lawsuit between him and WCW. Flair was sued by WCW after missing a Thunder taping in April to attend his son Reid’s amateur wrestling tournament. Flair claimed that he had informed WCW upper management, not specifically Bischoff, that he would miss the show. Regardless of the miscommunication, WCW had advertised him on the previous Nitro. WCW claimed that Flair was in “breach of contract” while Flair filed to have his agreement with WCW voided because he didn’t have a contract at the time with WCW, but a letter of intent to stay with the company through 2001 while a new contract was being negotiated. While it was being reported that Flair would return very shortly after Fall Brawl, but not before it was suggested that Flair had gone into negotiation with WWE and be brought into an angle with Stone Cold Steve Austin (oh, what could have been).

The Warrior (not “Ultimate Warrior” due to a WWE copyright lawsuit filed against WCW) would return to the wrestling industry on the August 17th edition of Nitro with no promotion due to the lawsuit. A judge reviewed and oversaw the case three days before the debut and ruled in favor of Warrior and WCW; therefore (outside of the “Ultimate” part of his name), Warrior could debut. Had the judge gone into favor of WWE, Warrior wouldn’t be able to debut and thus would have saved WCW two months of them insulting their audience’s intelligence. Now back to the Nitro episode: Warrior’s return promo was just as memorable as it was horrible. Reports would suggest his promo was scheduled to be only six minutes long…18 minutes later, the fans were becoming so bored, they were turning on Warrior. He would say the word “ultimate” three times during the promo despite WCW management advising against it earlier in the day for legal reasons. Finally, WCW management had to shuffle up the rest of the show, including shortening matches and even cancelling one.

Now for the actual War Games match!!! This match can be viewed from WWE Network under either the Fall Brawl 1998 event in its entirety or from the Collections section under “War Games.”

DDP comes out first to start the match to some very generic music that was played about the same time that they were lowering the cage down to the ring. Maybe a WWE Network edit due to music copyrights.

Bret Hart is out second to the same generic music. The commentary team (Tony Schavione, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay) discuss about whose side Bret was on considering his storyline (and real-life) heat with Hogan. They also announce at this time that Goldberg would be facing Sting the following evening on Nitro. Of course, if Sting is in the match, now you take away any belief that he could win and face Goldberg again at Halloween Havoc…

Page tried for an early pin about a minute into the match to put emphasis on the “match can end at any time” rule. This would also be one the first times in a War Games match that there are referees inside the cage because they have to somehow count the pinfall.

Stevie Ray is out third, making the match two members of NWO Hollywood, one of WCW and 0 for the Wolfpack. Stevie would start in on Page with Bret coming in to help for a double team. There would be an opportunity during this time that Stevie would appear to go for pinfall but backed off last minute. This would the signal that he is out to only help fellow teammate “Hollywood” Hogan win the match. BUT IT’S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, BUT THEY’RE STILL A TEAM!

Sting would be out fourth. He heads to ring 1 to battle Stevie Ray, who eventually retreats to ring 2, only for Sting to dive over both set of ropes. Unfortunately, Sting’s feet get caught mid leap and he lands face first without Stevie catching him.

“He leapt across from one ring to the other. What a variation of the Stinger Splash that was!” Listen, Tenay. First of all, he barely made it and secondly, it was also a flying clothesline.

Six minutes in and Page and Hart are both down on the mat just like Okada and Omega after 45 minutes of their wars.

Roddy Piper is out fifth, hitting everybody in the ring, including his teammate DDP.

Lex Luger walks out sixth. Hart takes time to wave to Luger, carrying forward the story of “whose side is Bret on?” Luger would punch Hart in the face less than a minute later. It’s hard for me to keep track, too, but just hang with me here.

“Big Sexy” Kevin Nash is out at 7 to pyro. (Who’s booking this shit? Oh yeah!) He goes straight into ring 1 with Stevie Ray and Piper while everyone else is in ring 2.

Thirty-seven seconds later (there was a clock on screen), Hogan is walking down the ramp and sneaking into the cage. Stevie Ray tosses Hogan his signature slapjack to use on Nash and Piper and then bashes Sting and Luger, who at the time, had Hart ready to submit with the Torture Rack.

Hogan and Hart come face to face in the ring until Stevie Ray chop blocks Bret. I THOUGHT THEY WERE ON THE SAME TEAM…BUT IT’S EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF!

Oh, and just to mention that the entry clock is still on the screen with 30 seconds left before Hogan is supposed to enter the match. Oh well, brother. Hogan legdrops Nash and begins to stall with Stevie for a long time. The clock now disappears from the screen. After more and more stalling, the clock is back on with 1:27 left. (Holy shit, WCW can fast forward time!)

Hogan and Stevie are still stalling.

With 1:06 left, ring 1 begins to fill with smoke and then Hogan realizes that was his cue to go for a pin, so he quickly covers Nash. He almost immediately stands up again in terror.

As the smoke thickens in the ring, the commentators begin coughing like its bothering them despite the smoke blowing the other direction from where their announce table is. Warrior appeared magically in the ring once the smoke cleared (through a trapdoor). Hogan hit Warrior from behind to take him down with 35 seconds left on the clock.

Smoke fills the ring again and when cleared, Hogan is holding Warrior’s jacket with its owner nowhere to be found. After an explosion at the entrance ramp, Warrior runs out of the back with 12 seconds left. How come no one has investigated WCW for having a teleportation device?

Warrior attacks Hogan until Stevie Ray hits Warrior from behind, giving the Hulkster time to run toward the cage door on ring 1. The Disciple (formerly known as Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake) pulls Hogan out of the cage, locks the door from the outside and hits the referee. Warrior takes out Stevie Ray in the process.

“Warrior will tear the roof and sides off the cage if it means getting to Hogan,” exclaimed Bobby Heenan. Warrior starts kicking through the side of the cage and attacks Hogan in the entrance area until security breaks it all up. He couldn’t teleport through the cage?

In ring 2, Bret grabs DDP to hold for Stevie Ray to hit with the slapjack (didn’t Stevie just attack Hart about five minutes ago?). Ray swings and, unless he was swinging a knee-high sock full of quarters, completely missed DDP and Hart. Hart sell this “shot” as like he was just literally shot.

DDP runs in and hits a quick Diamond Cutter on Stevie Ray and covers for the 3 count and the win.

Bret, having been shot 10 seconds beforehand, almost immediately gets up after the 3 count and walks out of the cage and to the back as Page struggles to recover. Meanwhile, Nash, Stevie Ray, Luger, Sting and Piper all lie virtually dead in the ring selling this 20-minute abomination of a war. Fall Brawl and War Games goes off the air with DDP celebrating through the crowd.

In the weeks after the match, many other news items would come to surface as well as the reception towards the match.

During the opening match of Fall Brawl, British Bulldog fell twice onto the portion of the ring where the trapdoor sat that Warrior used to come through the ring. Bulldog suffered a severe back injury that nearly paralyzed him as a result. He was hospitalized for about six months. This injury is believed to have led Bulldog toward his addiction to painkillers and morphine. The addiction, along with his history of steroid usage, is believed to have been the main contributors to his fatal heart attack in 2002. What did WCW do during his time on the injured list? They FedExed his termination papers while he was in the hospital. He would rejoin WWE by mid-1999.

Despite the build-up toward a DDP vs. Goldberg main event at Halloween Havoc, Goldberg wasn’t set to drop the title until Starrcade, at the earliest, to either Hogan or Nash. Coincidentally, both were on the booking committee…

Ric Flair would return the very next night on Nitro from Greenville, South Carolina. Flair would arrive to reunite with his Four Horsemen stable, ready to run rampant on WCW and specifically, Eric Bischoff. The lawsuit between WCW and Flair wouldn’t be resolved for a few more months, but the decision was made to drag out the tension on TV in an attempt to drive up ratings against Raw. Flair would scream at Bischoff: “You I hate your guts…you’re a liar, you’re a cheat, you’re a scam, you…are…a…no good…SON OF A BITCH!” The crowd was the most alive you’ll ever hear on an episode of Nitro. I question as to why this couldn’t be done the night before on pay-per-view to drive up some extra buys or even create a buzz on the event. This was proof that all WCW cared about was nothing but TV ratings.

“The War Games main event was up there with the Triple Decker Cage from Uncensored 1996 as far as worst PPV main events go.”
-Dave Meltzer

This match is horrible – from the structure to Warrior’s overall performance. I recommend this match only to fans of Colt Cabana’s “Bad Wrestling Comedy.” If you want to see the beginning of the end of WCW or just living proof that the company had no idea of what to do with Goldberg, Hart or the world title, this is your match.

NEXT MONTH I’LL TAKE YOU BACK TO THE NIGHT THAT WCW LOST ITS PAY-PER-VIEW FEED BEFORE THE MAIN EVENT, HALLOWEEN HAVOC 1998!