-Listing has the matches taking place at the 7/4/87 show in Atlanta, the 7/18/87 show in Charlotte, and the 7/31/87 show in Miami.
-Tour higlights to start off with, focusing, of course, on the War Games.
-Tony starts us off with a proper introduction from inside the War Games cage, and previews that match.
-Commentators are Tony Schiavone & Jim Ross
-Match 1: War Games I "The Bomb": The 4 Horsemen & JJ Dillon VS Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors, & Paul Ellering
-The crowd is ready for some death and dismemberment as the face team enters. Dusty & AA start it off, and it doesn't go well for Arn. Dusty, ever the sportsman, hits Arn in the nuts, then flips off the Horsemen. JR calls Dusty "The Living Legend". Hope that Zybisko hasn't seen this. Dusty dominates the first segment, and Arn gets opened up. The Horsemen win the coin toss to gain the advantage. Tully enters, and Dusty fights both off with elbows for a short time before falling to the numbers game. Animal joins the fun to make it 2-on-2. The faces control until Flair enters to give the Horsemen the advantage again. Dusty's leg gets worked over. AA holds Animal for some Flair punches before Dusty makes the save. Nikita enters, and shrugs off an attempt at offense by Flair & AA before going after Tully. Dusty goes up top, and waits for Nikita to hold AA's leg out before diving onto it. Animal and Dusty hit AA in the gut with a double-dropkick as Lex Luger enters.
-Luger & AA occupy Animal & Dusty, allowing Flair & Tully to take Nikita out with two spike piledrivers. Arn adds a DDT on top of that, and Nikita may be legally dead. Hawk enters and goes after any Horseman he sees, including stomping a mudhole in Luger. JR of course goes nuts during all of this, exclaiming that we will never see action like this again. JJ enters and makes the mistake of going after Hawk, whose "really?" reaction to JJ's attempt at offense is really funny. Ellering enters last to start "The Match Beyond" portion of War Games. Ellering goes after JJ, and grinds his spiked wrist band into JJ's face. The faces isolate JJ, and the Road Warriors give him a version of the Doomsday Device, which causes JJ to land awkwardly and fuck up his shoulder. Hawks grinds JJ's face into the cage with his foot until JJ gives it up. Wonderfully chaotic, with both teams actually having a strategy to win the match instead of just doing a bunch of moves and cage spots. Good psychology with the Horsemen only having a distinct advantage when they had the numbers in their favor. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it.
-Match 2: Western States Heritage Champion Barry Windham VS Rick Steiner (non-title)
-Match is clipped to Windham giving Rick a backdrop. JR & Tony note that Windham is the first holder of his title. Rick just kills Windham with a couple clotheslines, drawing pops as he does so. Odd to see Rick wrestling without the headgear after all these years. Rick knocks Windham outside, and throws him into anything Rick can find. Rick slams Windham from the outside to the inside with a jackhammer, but Windham rolls through to get the pin. Too short to mean much, but if you like seeing a Steiner kill an opponent with clotheslines, then you'll like this one.
-Match 3: Cage Match for the NWA United States Championship: Nikita Koloff [c] VS Lex Luger (w/JJ Dillon)
-Nikita has a neck brace on after taking the spike piledrivers in the first War Games. Bob Caudle and David Crockett have the call on this one. Match is heavily clipped, as Luger goes from 100% fresh to covered in sweat in the matter of seconds. Luger v e r y s l o w l y works Nikita's neck over, and the match really drags as a result. JJ reminds Lex that it's no-DQ, so go for a piledriver. Nikita fights out of a lengthy chinlock, but walks into a swining neckbreaker. Luger follows that up with a full nelson, but since he's no Chris Masters, it doesn't finish. Another chinlock. Nikita fights out of that, but accidentally takes the ref out along with Luger in an unconvincing bumb. JJ hands Luger a chair, which he uses to nail Nikita in the back. Torture Rack gives Luger the title. Dreadfully boring clipped, I can't imagine how bad it must have been with the full 30 + minutes.
-Match 4: Dick Murdoch (w/Eddie Gilbert) VS Steve Williams (w/Magnum T.A.)
-"Captain Redneck" and "Dr. Death" are two of the best wrestling nicknames ever. Williams' left arm is in a cast. Match is clipped to Gilbert distracting the ref, allowing Murdoch to hit Williams twice on the arm with a wrench. It's not announced beforehand, but Tony & JR note that this is Death Match/Last Man Standing rules, requiring a 10 count instead of a pin or submission. Murdoch continues to go after Williams' broken arm, but can't put him away. JR can't resist going into Williams' college football past. Murdoch's wobbly-kneed sell of Williams' punches is tremendous. Williams misses a charge into the corner, but comes off the top to nail Murdoch on top of the head with the cast for the win anyway. Gilbert takes a shot too. Murdoch gets a hold of a chair and goes after the injured arm, but Magnum gives Williams his cane, which Williams uses to fight off the heels. This was OK, but again heavily edited.
-Match 5: The Fabulous Freebirds VS Ivan Koloff, Manny Fernandez, & Paul Jones
-Freebirds are over big as babyfaces here. Hayes starts off with Manny, and does a lot more dancing than wrestling. Hayes gives Manny a bunch of slams, and Manny calls for a timeout. Jones really conveys acting like he wants to tag, but not really wanting in the match well. Buddy Roberts gets tagged in, and he becomes the face-in-peril. That doesn't last long, as Ivan makes the mistake of tagging Jones, who is left to fight Gordy. The match breaks down, and Gordy quickly pins Jones with an elbowdrop. Way too short to give a real opinion on it.
-Match 6: "Lights Out" Barbed Wire Match for $100,000: NWA Television Champion Tully Blanchard (w/JJ Dillon & Dark Journey) VS Dusty Rhodes (w/Barry Windham) (non-title)
-What a name for Tully's woman. Both men are dressed in street clothes. "Lights Out" is a fancy term for no-DQ. This is also apparently a ladder match, with the winner having to climb the ladder and retreive the $100K. Both men focus on grinding the other into the barbed wire, and bleed pretty quick. Windham slides the ladder into the ring, but Tully stops Dusty from climbing it. Dusty does a really shitty DDT. Tully almost gets the money, but gets pulled down. JJ hands Tully a black glove, which he uses to KO Dusty. JJ gets involved and bitch slaps the ref (why?). Windham helps Dusty out, and that allows Dusty to climb the ladder and get the cash. Not much here. I was expecting Tully to get the bag after Dusty got it, and be declared the winner because the ref was out, but thankfully, that didn't happen.
-Match 7: NWA World Heavyweight Championship Cage Match: Ric Flair [c] (w/JJ Dillon) VS Jimmy Garvin (w/Precious)
-David Crockett & Tony Schiavone have the call for this. If Flair wins, he gets Precious for one night. I was wondering how Jimmy was getting this title shot. Match is clipped to Jimmy pounding on Flair in the corner and getting a couple near-falls off that. Flair tries to escape, but gets tossed off the top rope, and put in the Figure 4. JJ's arm is in a sling, so this is after War Games I. Flair counters another Figure 4 attempt with an eye poke. Jimmy wins a chop exchange at the 15 minute mark. Flair tries to send Jimmy into the cage, but gets shoved off into it himself. Jimmy grinds Flair's head into the cage. Flair tries to escape again, but ends up getting his tights pulled down (to a disturbingly huge pop), and sent back inside. Jimmy tweaks his leg on a leapfrog, giving Flair an opening. Ronnie Garvin comes to ringside as Flair works over his brother's injured leg. Flair takes time out to spit at Ronnie and let him know exactly what he's going to do to Precious. Flair methodically destroys Jimmy's knee.
-Jimmy fights back with chops, and again Flair tries to escape and shows off his ass. Flair gets crotched on the top rope for a close near-fall. Jimmy tries for a brainbuster, but his knee gives out. Ropes-assisted Figure 4 gets the pin for Flair. Flair wants Precious now, but Ronnie saves her. What was shown started out really slow, but greatly picked up in intensity after Jimmy's ill-fated leapfrog.
-Match 8: NWA World Tag Team Championship VS NWA United States Championship Title VS Title: NWA World Tag Team Champions The Rock N' Roll Express VS NWA United States Tag Team Champions The Midnight Express (w/Big Bubba Rogers)
-JR puts the rivaly over as equalling Celtics VS Lakers. Fast start with Gibson out-wrestling Eaton. Lane tries to duck from Gibson, but takes a kick to the ass, which sends him tumbling outside. Enziguiri sends Lane back outside. Morton tags in. Lane keeps pulling Morton's hair, but that doesn't work out the way Lane wants it to. Eaton and Morton try a test of strength. Morton litearlly walks up Eaton to get out of it in a really cool spot that I don't think I've seen before. No Cornette at ringside for the Midnights, and Tony & JR note how much quieter it is. Gibson tries the headscissors on Eaton, but gets too close to the ropes, and is punched in the face by Lane. This leads to Gibson playing the face-in-peril. The match breaks down, and the RnR hit the double dropkick on Eaton, but Lane saves. Big Bubba runs in behind the ref's back and drops Morton with the Bubba slam, but the ref sees Bubba's hat and sunglasses laying in the ring, and a ref actually uses his head for once, and DQ's the Midnights. No titles change hands. Match was OK, but it was nice to see a ref not be a complete idiot, which as we all know is extremely rare.
-Match 9: War Games II "The Explosion": The Four Horsemen & The War Machine (w/JJ Dillon & Dark Journey) VS Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, The Road Warriors, & Paul Ellering
-JJ is out due to injury. The War Machine is a really generic looking big guy with a black bodysuit and a mask. AA and Dusty start it off again. The editing is strange, because depending on the angle of the camera, the lighting is drastically different, and makes it look like two different matches spliced together. AA lowers his head, and takes the sitty Dusty DDT. Dusty of course, dominates AA, and the Horsemen win the coin toss. This time, War Machine is second in. The heels bust Dusty open and work him over until Hawk enters to even the sides. He almost slams War Machine, but can't quite do it. Match is pretty much the same as the first one, just with War Machine in there instead of JJ. Ellering has some really fruity looking tights this time around. The War Machine is cornered, and Animal rubs Ellering's spiked wristband into his face for the submission. Not as good as the original.
-Show was pretty decent, but really only the first War Games is worth going out of your way to see.
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