WarGames Chair Authenticity Challenged
WWE and Fanatics Auction WarGames Chair, Authenticity Challenged Due to Match Details
Key Points
The listing includes the line 'No autograph has to dress it up,' indicating a marketing emphasis on provenance over autographs.
No steel chair was used in the Women’s WarGames match; the 2022 bout featured tables, trash cans, ladders, and kendo sticks instead.
Industry coverage has questioned the item’s provenance, with ITR Wrestling labeling the listing a 'scam' and other outlets calling for a correction or explanation from WWE/Fanatics.
The auction ties to a historically significant moment: the 2022 Survivor Series Women’s WarGames was WWE’s first main-roster WarGames and featured Becky Lynch’s return.
Slam Wrestling notes the auction had limited bidding, with about 11 bids and a top bid around $80 at press time, signaling tepid interest.
WWE and Fanatics are auctioning an "authentic match-used" steel chair tied to the 2022 Women's WarGames match at Survivor Series — but there's a problem: no steel chair was ever used in that match. eWrestling News and multiple outlets confirmed the bout featured tables, ladders, kendo sticks, and trash cans, not a single chair.
The auction launched June 15 on the Fanatics platform. By June 24, bidding had reached just $80 across 11 bids — a fraction of comparable items on the same site. Wrestling Inc reported that WWE and Fanatics have since quietly removed the listing without any public statement.
A Chair That Was Never Inside the Cage
The Women's WarGames match at Survivor Series 2022 ran nearly 40 minutes. According to 411Mania, weapons brought into the match included kendo sticks, a ladder, trash cans, and a table — but not one steel chair. The match took place inside a double-ring steel cage structure, and no chair appears in any broadcast footage of the bout.
The auction listing made a specific claim: the chair "took its share of the damage" during the first women's WarGames match on WWE's main roster. It also noted, "No autograph has to dress it up," leaning hard on provenance as the selling point. PWMania reported the listing has since come under wide scrutiny for that very reason.
How a Men's Match Chair May Have Been Mislabeled
The same Survivor Series 2022 event also featured a Men's WarGames match. That match did use steel chairs. eWrestling News suggested the chair in question may have been a backstage or under-ring backup — or simply an item from the men's bout that was wrongly assigned to the women's match in the listing.
Critics called it a "copy-paste" marketing failure. NoDQ noted that the listing's very specific storytelling — describing the chair as central to the women's match — points to marketing copy written without checking match footage. Inside The Ropes labeled the listing a "scam," while other outlets called it a "logistical blunder."
Tepid Bids Signal Collectors Spotted the Problem Early
The low bidding tells its own story. At the time the listing was pulled, the top bid sat at roughly $80 across just 11 bids, according to 411Mania. By contrast, another item on the same Fanatics platform — an "El Grande Americano" mask — was drawing bids above $40,000. Experienced collectors often use frame-by-frame match footage to verify dents and marks on items. This chair could not survive that check.
PWMania noted the tepid interest suggests "smart money" in the hobby recognized the discrepancy fast. The Federal Trade Commission treats selling an item as "match-used" when it was not as a potential material misrepresentation — a legal risk that may have pushed WWE and Fanatics to pull the listing quickly and quietly.
A Historic Match Now Shadowed by a Credibility Question
The 2022 Women's WarGames was a genuine landmark. It was the first WarGames match on WWE's main roster — a concept revived from WCW — and it featured the return of Becky Lynch. Team Bianca, which included Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, and Mia Yim, defeated Damage CTRL, Nikki Cross, and Rhea Ripley in front of 15,609 fans at TD Garden in Boston. Legitimate memorabilia from that night holds real historical value.
That makes the mislabeling worse, not better. NoDQ and others warned the incident threatens trust in higher-value items from the same collection. If an $80 chair can be wrongly described, collectors are now asking harder questions about costlier pieces. WWE and Fanatics have offered no public explanation, choosing silence over correction.
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