WrestleWar (1991)
WrestleWar 1991: WarGames was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW). It took place on February 24, 1991 from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. This was the first PPV not produced under the National Wrestling Alliance banner. It was the third year in a row WCW promoted a PPV under the name "WrestleWar", a series that included four shows in total.
| WrestleWar (1991) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Promotion | World Championship Wrestling | ||
| Date | February 24, 1991[1] | ||
| City | Phoenix, Arizona[1] | ||
| Venue | Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum[1] | ||
| Attendance | 6,800[1] | ||
| Tagline(s) | We Want You! | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| WrestleWar chronology | |||
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In 2014, all WCW pay-per-views were made available on the WWE Network.
Storylines
The event featured wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.[2]
Event
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| Commentators | Jim Ross |
| Dusty Rhodes | |
| Ring announcer | Gary Michael Cappetta |
| Interviewers | Tony Schiavone |
| Referees | Randy Anderson |
| Nick Patrick |
The 1991 WrestleWar show was the first time WCW held a WarGames match outside of their Great American Bash shows, the match was a Steel cage match that enclosed two rings at once with two teams fighting inside. In the War Games match The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Barry Windham, Sid Vicious) and Larry Zbyszko defeated Sting, Brian Pillman, and The Steiner Brothers (Rick Steiner and Scott Steiner). The match ended after Sid Vicious repeatedly powerbombed Brian Pillman, including at least one powerbomb where Pillman's head hit the roof of the cage. Unable to continue El Gigante came to the ring and surrendered the match on Pillman's behalf.[1][3][4][5] This was a constructed ending to allow Sting's team to lose without actually submitting, making Sid Vicious a bigger heel and making Brian Pillman a more sympathetic underdog in his fight with the 4 Horsemen. Zbyszko was not a member of the 4 Horsemen but brought in as a replacement for Arn Anderson who was injured at the time.[3]
The power went out during the tag team match between The Young Pistols and The Royal Family.[6]
The eighth match of the night, a match between Stan Hansen and Big Van Vader ended in a disqualification when both wrestlers threw the referee out of the ring to continue their brawl. After Lex Luger defeated Dan Spivey to retain the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship supposedly-retired wrestler Nikita Koloff came to the ring to present Luger with a new United States championship, but instead he attacked Luger to start a storyline between the two.[1][3][4][5] In the semi-main event The Freebirds (Jimmy Garvin and Michael Hayes) defeated Doom (Butch Reed and Ron Simmons) to win the WCW World Tag Team Championship. After the match Reed and Long turned on their longtime partner Ron Simmons, ending Doom as a team and allowing Ron Simmons to become a "face" in the eyes of the fans.[1][3][4][5] Due to WCW's television taping schedule the Fabulous Freebirds had already wrestled a match against The Steiner Brothers where they lost the championship six days prior to the PPV, but the match had not yet aired on TV.[7]
Reception
Dave Meltzer wrote in the March 4, 1991 issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the show was the best he'd seen live since 1989's The Great American Bash.[6] Meltzer referred to the War Games match as one of the best he'd ever seen live. A fan vote in the same issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter had 221 out of 227 fans give the show a thumbs up. The other six votes were thumbs down. Meltzer noted at that point that the 97.3% thumbs up rate was the third best in the history of the poll, only behind 100% for 1989's WrestleWar and 99.8% for 1989's Clash of the Champions IX. An updated count in the March 11 issue had 522 thumbs up votes, 33 thumbs down votes, and 2 in between votes.[8]
In a March 11 poll, the War Games match received the majority of votes for the show's best match, with 428. The match for the WCW World Six-Man Tag Team Championship received the most votes for the worst match of the night with 153; the tag match between The Young Pistols and The Royal Family received 129 votes for the night's worst match.[8]
Dave Meltzer reported the show was attended by 6,800 people, with 4,300 paying for tickets for a live gate of $53,000. He also reported that there were between 140,000 and 170,000 homes, for a gross of $2.8 to $3.4 million. WCW's share would have been between approximately $1.1 and $1.4 million.[8]
The World Wrestling Federation ran a show the night before in the same market, drawing 4,800 paying tickets out of a total of 6,000, with a reported gate of $60,000.[8]
Results
References
- "WrestlWar 1991". Pro Wrestling History. February 24, 1991. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- Grabianowski, Ed. "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks, Inc. Discovery Communications. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
- Cawthon, Graham (2014). the History of Professional Wrestling Vol 4: World Championship Wrestling 1989-1994. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 1499656343.
- "2007 Wrestling Almanac & Book of Facts". Wrestling’s Historical Cards. Kappa Publishing. 2007. p. 135.
- "WCW Ring Results 1991". The History of WWE. Retrieved May 30, 2015.
- Observer Staff (March 4, 1991). "March 4, 1991 Observer Newsletter: WCW Wrestle War review, tons of news". F4WOnline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved February 21, 2020. (subscription required)
- Royal Duncan & Gary Will (2006). "World Championship Wrestling World Tag Team Title". Wrestling Title Histories (4th ed.). Archeus Communications. ISBN 0-9698161-5-4.
- Observer Staff (March 11, 1991). "March 11, 1991 Observer Newsletter: WrestleWar 91, Costas drops Mania, bra and panties controversy". F4WOnline.com. Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved March 4, 2020. (subscription required)