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Explaining WWE's WarGames, Brainchild Of The Late, Great Dusty Rhodes

"We just upped the ante a little bit with WarGames and made it evolve," Triple H explained.

By Ethan Absler

WWE’s Head of Creative and Chief Content Officer, Triple H, announced earlier this year that for the first time ever, a WarGames match will be coming to Survivor Series, set for this Saturday, Nov. 26. The match, which is the twisted brainchild of the late Dusty Rhodes, pits multiple teams inside two side-by-side rings, all inside a giant steel cage. It’s hard to imagine, but the match is appropriately named and the structure is right up there with wrestling’s most dangerous.

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“We’ll have a men’s WarGames match and a women’s WarGames match. The tradition of Survivor Series has ebbed and flowed and changed slightly over time, but this will be similar to that. This will not be Raw vs. SmackDown. It will be much more story-line driven. I still look at it as a traditional component to Survivor Series in there because it’s large teams of people competing. We just upped the ante a little bit with War Games and made it evolve,” Triple H told The Ringer.

For members of the WWE Universe who have never experienced WarGames, and even for seasoned veterans, the rules can seem quite complicated. Luckily, we here at USA Insider have you covered.

Basically, the rules are as follows: Two teams (sometimes more) are contained in separate outside cages with just one member from each team starting inside the caged rings. The bell rings, but the match doesn’t start at that point. For five minutes, a no disqualification fight happens until one member from team one is randomly released into the fray.

Yes, this creates a 2-1 handicap situation where one Superstar must fight off two opponents for three minutes, until the odds are evened up when a member of team two is finally released. One member from alternating teams are then let into the match every three minutes until all Superstars have been let in. Then the match begins and, of course, it’s no holds barred.

In 2017, NXT brought back the WarGames match for the first time in nearly 20 years and later held the first-ever women’s match inside the cage. Now with this year's addition, the collective WWE Universe is buzzing with excitement over this kind of match being brought to the main roster for the first time. Until this weekend, you can catch up on every WarGames match ever on the WWE Network on Peacock and can stream Survivor Series on Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET.

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