Bret Hart's WarGames Match Was A WCW Experiment That Just Didn't Quite Work

After finding a great deal of success and even surpassing rival WWF in ratings during a stretch of the professional wrestling boom of the 1990s, WCW was a company that was on top of the world; that is until they began self-sabotaging with bizarre booking and lackluster live events that left fans walking away disappointed. Case in point: September 1998's WCW/NWO Fall Brawl: WarGames pay-per-view.

Fans had to put up with a number of strange decisions before the main event even began, from Chris Jericho defeating a Goldberg imposter in a fake-out, to Scott Hall's alcoholism being used as an angle, and even an exciting bout between the Steiners — Rick and Scott — that was cut short by ref stoppage after just five minutes due to a fake injury angle from Buff Bagwell; Bagwell wasn't even involved in the match. By the time the star-studded three-team main event rolled around, WCW fans in attendance were clearly in a poor mood, and things would not get better from there.

Though WarGames had historically been a team-based match, and this was the first WarGames bout to feature three teams, the winner of the main event would receive a shot at Goldberg's WCW World Heavyweight Championship. This logic is already questionable. What incentive was there for team members to work together when a title shot is on the line for the one who gets the pin?

The groups were split up into three trios for the match. Team WCW consisted of "Diamond" Dallas Page, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, and The Warrior –- formerly known as The Ultimate Warrior -– in his WCW debut. NWO Hollywood was made up of Hulk Hogan, Stevie Ray, and Bret Hart in his one and only WarGames match. Finally, Kevin Nash, Lex Luger, and Sting teamed up as the NWO Wolfpac.

Things started off slowly with Hart and Page in the ring together. One by one, Ray, Sting, Piper, Luger, and Nash made their way into the match. Throughout most of this time, it seemed as though the crowd could not care less -– either due to the match's slow pace or the disaster that was the undercard. Eventually, Hogan would enter the fray earlier than intended, taking out just about every other competitor.

It was here when things really went off the rails. A fake Warrior appeared in a cloud of smoke, only to get promptly beaten down by Hogan. At this point, the real Warrior charged down from the back, fighting Hogan and Ray for a brief time before Hogan escaped and locked the cage behind him, with Warrior giving chase by clumsily breaking through the door. Just then, after 20 minutes of so-called action, Page would land his finisher on Ray and pick up the victory.

With such an impressive lineup, along with Warrior's debut and Hart's first WarGames showing, expectations for the main event going into the PPV were undoubtedly high. By the night's end, the argument could be made that WCW was clearly in a downward spiral.