World War 3 was the World Championship Wrestling's answer to World Wrestling Federation's Royal Rumble.

The rules are not all dissimilar from its counterpart in the WWF. The differences are the following:

• The WW3 match is played out in three rings, each holding twenty men.
• All sixty men start the match at the same time.

The rules for the World War 3 match were the following:

• All sixty men are assigned a specific ring before the match begins, determined by random draw.
• The match begings with all sixty men, in three rings, when the bell rings.
• You must knock your opponent over the top rope of the ring, and both feet must touch the floor of the arena in order to eliminate said opponent from the match.
• When three men remain, they will move to one ring, and the match will continue.
• The last man standing in the ring, is declared the winner.

The original rules of World War 3 state the winner of the World War 3 match is declared the World Heavyweight Champion of the WCW. Later, this rule was amended to follow the format of WWF's Royal Rumble, where the winner of the World War 3 match would be one of the two wrestlers in the main event at WCW's final Pay-Per-View of the year, Starcade.