WarGames is a specialized steel cage match in professional wrestling. The match usually involves two teams of four or more wrestlers locked inside a steel cage that encompasses two rings placed side by side. The cage may or may not have a roof, depending on which professional wrestling promotion the match is held in.
Created by Dusty Rhodes in 1987, the WarGames match was originally used in Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP) of the National Wrestling Alliance, and later, held annually in World Championship Wrestling (WCW), usually at the Fall Brawl pay-per-view event. These original WarGames matches had a roof on the cage with no pinfalls as a win situation, although later WCW versions allowed pinfalls to win.
Since 2017, WWE, which purchased the assets of WCW in 2001, has held annual WarGames matches at WarGames branded events, first at NXT WarGames from 2017 to 2021 and currently at Survivor Series (branded as Survivor Series: WarGames) since 2022. WWE's WarGames matches do not have a roof on the cage and also allow pinfalls as a win situation.
Over the years, other promotions have held their own versions of WarGames matches under different names: All Elite Wrestling (AEW) established its own version called "Blood and Guts" for an eponymous annual special in 2021, which is based largely on the original JCP/WCW rules.
History The WarGames match was created when Dusty Rhodes was inspired by a viewing of Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. It was originally used as a specialty match for the Four Horsemen. The first WarGames match took place at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia during National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member Jim Crockett Promotions' (JCP) Great American Bash '87 tour, where it was known as War Games: The Match Beyond. It would be held at three house shows later that year, once at the Miami Orange Bowl, once in Chicago at the UIC Pavilion, and the other at the NWA's debut at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. In 1988, JCP was sold to Turner Broadcasting and rebranded as World Championship Wrestling (WCW), although with WCW still under the NWA. That year, WarGames would be held during the Great American Bash Tour in 1988 at 11 house shows (one was released on the WWE Horsemen DVD). The final War Games matches under the NWA/WCW banner were at The Great American Bash in 1989 and a house show rematch at The Omni in Atlanta. WCW, no longer under the NWA, then first used the match in 1991 at WrestleWar and at five house shows during the 1991 Great American Bash tour and in 1992 at WrestleWar, before it became a traditional Fall Brawl event from 1993 to 1998.
After the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, renamed to WWE in 2002) purchased WCW in 2001, it discontinued the concept until 2017, when the promotion revived the match to be held for their developmental brand NXT at an event titled NXT TakeOver: WarGames. This would become an annual NXT TakeOver event for WWE until 2021. That year, the TakeOver series was discontinued, but a WarGames event was still held for NXT in December. The following year, WWE rebranded its annual Survivor Series pay-per-view for the main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown, as Survivor Series: WarGames, marking WWE's first main roster event to feature the match.
Format The WarGames match consists of two or three teams, with between three and six participants facing off with each other in staggered entry format.
The setup of the cage consists of two rings side by side with a ring-encompassing rectangular cage that covered both rings, but not the ringside area. Doors are placed at far corners of the cage, near where the opposing teams wait to enter, so the teams do not contact each other before they enter the match. Exceptions to this format were in the match held at Fall Brawl 1996, where tension between Team WCW and the New World Order led to the teams staying backstage and making their entrances from there, and again for both the men and women's matches held at Survivor Series 2025, where participants were held backstage and released in surprise order.
The match begins with one member of each team entering the cage. After five minutes, a member from one of the teams (usually determined by a coin toss, but in the 2025 AEW version, determined by a best-of-three singles matches by members of each team the previous week; traditionally, the "heel" team gets the advantage in order to provide heat. Before 2025 Survivor Series: WarGames, the team advantage is determined by preliminary matches.) enters the cage, giving his team the temporary 2-on-1 handicap advantage. After the next two or three minutes, a member from the other team enters to even the odds. Entrants alternate between teams every two or three minutes, giving the team with the advantage the temporary advantage in terms of numbers, before giving the other team the advantage with the freshest man and even odds.
Teams continue to alternate during the remaining periods until all participants are in the ring. Once all participants enter the cage, what is referred to as "The Match Beyond" begins. Both teams wrestle each other in the cage until any participant either submits, surrenders, or is knocked unconscious. There originally were no pinfalls, no count-outs, and no disqualifications. However, later WCW versions, along with WWE and Major League Wrestling, allow pinfalls.
In WWE and Major League Wrestling's variations, the cage is roofless. In WWE's variation, however, if one member of a team escapes the cage, their whole team is disqualified. In a 2022 interview with The Ringer, Triple H explained the removal of the cage's roof. Triple H said:
On the October 31, 2019, episode of WWE NXT, the first-ever women's WarGames match was announced for that year's NXT TakeOver: WarGames event. Women Superstars Uncensored and Pro-Wrestling: EVE have previously held variations of the WarGames match, but this would be the first official match to follow the WarGames format.
WWE/NWA/WCW matches NXT-branded eventNWA-branded eventWCW-branded eventRaw/SmackDown-branded event