In the rush to bastardize all its classic non-big 4 pay-per-view names, the WWE has sent out a flier to its fans to vote on a new name for its June PPV, Judgement Day. Other options include the original name, WWE Multimania (lolwut?), WWE Riot Control or WWE WarGames. The last option is sure to arouse all the old WCW marks and classic wrestling fans, harkening back to one of the most classic match set-ups in WCW's and JCP's history.
While a WarGames match in this day and age would sound intriguing and perhaps see a spike in PPV buyrates at a time when people aren't buying PPVs (word on the street is that SummerSlam did ~375K, down from 500K last year), I'm a bit skeptical as to whether they can pull it off for a few reasons.
The first is that WarGames was often a means to an end in a stable war. Some of the best WarGames matches from back in the day involved a makeshift alliance of faces joining together to stop the rampage of a heel stable, most notably the Four Horsemen or the nWo. Of course, not all of them were like this, but for the most part, this was the formula. The biggest problem that I see with the WWE now having one is that there are no real, major stables that warrant having a WarGames match. Of course, there are smaller stables - DX, Legacy, the Hart Dynasty - but they're smallish and two of them really aren't stables as much as they're tag teams. The third, Legacy, was used more as a means of job absorbtion for Randy Orton at first, and now have kinda drifted away from Papa Orton and are more entities unto themselves. The most telling development to happen over the last month was that Orton told Legacy that they had the night off and then he employed JeriShow to be his henchmen rather than the guys he was running around with for the last 6 months.
While I wouldn't shirk away from having a WarGames match without having a real story surrounding a real stable, well, again with the PPV atmosphere supposing to be special, I can't see it doing the trick for me completely if the WarGames participants were a bunch of people from different everlasting-feuds-of-the-half-year being cobbled into the match. Of course, June is still a pretty long ways-away, and they can take the time to build up a stable or two to make a pretty compelling WarGames match, but that would take a pretty hefty shift in the old-school direction when it comes to pushing entities rather than individuals.
The other concern that many have is that in this potential WarGames match, there'd be no blood unless someone got busted open hardway. A lot of what made those old matches great was Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes bleeding like stuck pigs. In today's climate though, the WWE is TV PG, which means no blading altogether. Admittedly, no blood wouldn't ruin the match for me, but for a lot of people, the allure of the match, the intrinsic brutality, it's all lost without blood. I can see where they come from, even if I don't exactly see eye to eye with them on what the match should be. Then again, I'm not an old-school WCW/JCP fan, so WarGames never meant as much to me as the Royal Rumble or Survivor Series did.
Finally, as is the problem with having gimmicked PPVs, it ruins the organic excitement of the event. War Games was often used as the climax to a big feud, or at least the good ones were used as such. It would be great if the WWE booked a big feud to end in such a manner at this PPV, and there's time for that to happen, but the converse also has precedent. CM Punk and Undertaker met for the first time for the World Championship in a submission match. There was no heat on the feud. In fact, Undertaker just showed up and pulled the old Batista routine ("o hai! i can has title shot?") and bam, insta-feud with very little personal heat behind it. Yet, the first match is a submissions match, mainly because the PPV dictated it. Wouldn't you want to build the feud up a little bit before doing that? Yet, having the gimmick match there, and of course, having a PPV happen every three weeks both preclude proper build-up for feuds if the plan is to have the same two people feud for months on end.
So, while I don't discourage optimism for a long-awaited return of WarGames, I'm not exactly on board with the concept either. I think if the WWE really wanted to get my PPV dollar for Multimania or whatever ends up winning the fan-survey, they need to do an earnest shift in the way they book things. Vince McMahon has gone on record saying he's putting out a more sophisticated program. Well Vince, put your money where your mouth is. Book a more sophisticated program with smarter angles, better-built feuds utilizing all tiers on the card. Then, maybe you'll get a bigger paying audience for your June PPV, (and all your PPVs for that matter) whatever it's called.
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