With yet another WWE War Games on the horizon at Survivor Series, and this being September, the annual month Fall Brawl was held, I wanted to dive into the gimmick match’s drawing ability on PPV. Note that I didn’t count the Bash 1989 version because it wasn’t the show’s main event.

Not only did the 1991 War Games held at Wrestle War ‘91 have the highest number of PPV buys for a War Games event in the following five-plus years, but it is also the only PPV event to feature War Games to have the highest number of WCW PPV buys in a calendar year. Perhaps it was not doing War Games at all in 1990, and not doing one for about a year and a half in total. That had to play a part since the Sting vs. Horsemen feud was mostly cold by this point. 

1992 was one of those classic War Games matches everyone remembers, with Sting’s Squadron vs. The Dangerous Alliance. However, it didn’t do well on the PPV market, with 105,000 PPV buys. The child sex and steroid scandals in the WWF were also rocking the North American pro wrestling business.

1993 was when War Games became exclusive to Fall Brawl on PPV. This was Sting & Bulldog’s team against Sid & Vader’s team, continuing their program that began at Beach Blast ‘93. This was also the show where the Shockmaster’s disastrous debut at the Clash the month before was the big angle for the match. Everyone focuses on the absurdity of what happened when Shockmaster appeared at the Clash, but that only masks the million-dollar question: What kind of business would this show do with a big mystery reveal revolved around Fred Ottman? The guy was coming off the end of a WWF run in 1993, where he mostly did jobs to midcard heels like Doink and Bam Bam Bigelow. He briefly flirted near the top of the card in the WWF in 1990 in the Hogan vs. Earthquake feud, but was quickly pulled and replaced with the Big Bossman for unknown reasons. Why was he in the main event besides being the booker, Dusty Rhodes’ brother-in-law? This event was the new record-low for War Games on PPV with 95,000 buys, only beating the catastrophic Battle Bowl PPV that year.

The Dusty Rhodes vs. Stud Stable War Games in 1994 brought the number of buys back to 115,000, making it the highest since Wrestle War ‘91 three years prior. 1995 with Hogan’s team vs. The Dungeon of Doom was back down to tying their record low from 1993 of 95,000 PPV buys. The only two PPVs that did worse in 1995 for WCW were the World War 3 show with the 60-man battle royal for the WCW title and the WCW vs. NJPW Starrcade. 

1996’s Horsemen vs. NWO War Games set a match record with 230,000 PPV buys, which was good for fifth out of ten WCW PPVs that year. It’s interesting to note that when it was the Horsemen versus a less-star-studded NWO team (Kevin Nash, Syxx, Buff Bagwell, and Konan), there was not only a fifteen percent drop year over year to 195,000 buys, but the show also came in eleventh in PPV buys out of WCW’s twelve events in 1997, only beating the ill-fated NWO Souled Out event in January. 

The last War Games on PPV in 1998 was the company’s all-time record for War Games on PPV for the horrible three-team affair, where the winner won by pinfall and won a WCW title shot at Halloween Havoc. While doing 275,000 PPV buys, this show tied with Spring Stampede and Slamboree in PPV buys and only beat World War 3 conclusively. By this time, the concept had worn itself out, very similar to WWF’s King of the Ring.