WWE Makes Major Change To NXT War Games Match

Just a couple of days before WWE NXT presents NXT TakeOver, and we’ve just learned of a major change the company has made to the headlining match on the show.

Fans have been anticipating this show for weeks, ever since WWE announced they would be bringing back the classic War Games match for the show. War Games was a yearly match held in NWA/WCW and one of the most iconic matches in wrestling history. The match was last held at WCW Fall Brawl 1998. That marked the 30th War Games match in NWA/WCW history.

The War Games match style was originally created by Dusty Rhodes under the NWA banner. He was reportedly inspired after seeing Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The matches typically consisted of two teams with varying numbers of people, and they were always fought inside of a cage that encompassed two rings. The cage also had a top (similar to Hell in a Cell), and that’s where the change has been made.

It was revealed on Thursday via Triple H that the War Games match that NXT will feature this weekend will have a cage without a top. This surprised most, as any long-time wrestling fan knows that without a top on the cage, this really isn’t the War Games match of the past. It’s essentially just a cage match now with an extra ring. One of the things with War Games in the past was that you were trapped inside the structure; in the new War Games match, people will be able to escape.

During Thursday’s conference call, Triple H said, “”We’re not going to have a roof,” Triple H said. “I think it’s a little bit limiting. I think the style has changed. I’m not saying that anyone’s going to do it in this match, but I think going forward, I try to think about the future. Look, Arn Anderson wasn’t doing moonsaults off the top of a cage (laughs).”

“This allows for there to be a little bit of a different opportunity there to do some things. “I don’t think personally that we’ve changed the concept of what it is. There are some small tweaks, but I think they work better in today’s generation than it did in the format that was originally used.”