Held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's developmental territory NXT, it was broadcast live and available only through pay-per-view (PPV) and the livestreaming services Peacock and the WWE Network.

From 2017 to 2019, the event was held in November as a support show for Survivor Series, but it was moved to December in 2020.

The event's name was derived from an old match type created by Dusty Rhodes in 1987 and originally used by the National Wrestling Alliance's (NWA) Jim Crockett Promotions (JCP), and later, an annual match held by World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which WWE acquired in 2001.

The inaugural TakeOver: WarGames was held on November 18, 2017, at Houston's Toyota Center and livestreamed on the WWE Network.

[3] In September 2019, NXT, which had previously been a developmental territory for WWE, became one of the company's three main brands, thus the 2019 event was the first TakeOver held following this recognition.

In October, NXT's events were moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, where the main arena was reconfigured as the Capitol Wrestling Center, which was similar to the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble utilized for the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brands.

[6][7] The 2020 event was in turn held at the Capitol Wrestling Center (which became NXT's permanent home base), as well as the first TakeOver: WarGames to air on traditional PPV in addition to the WWE Network.

[14] On the day of the event's announcement, WWE had originally made a post on Twitter that had the event titled as "TakeOver: WarGames"; however, the Tweet was quickly deleted and WWE reposted the announcement with the "TakeOver" title removed.

[15] On September 19, 2022, WWE announced that its annual Survivor Series event that year for its main roster brands Raw and SmackDown would be branded Survivor Series WarGames and feature two WarGames matches.

In a 2022 interview with The Ringer, Triple H explained the removal of the cage's roof, which the original NWA/JCP and WCW versions had.

Triple H said: When we first started redoing [the match], people were upset that we didn't have a top on the cage.