Welcome to another unplanned but worthwhile edition of UnWrest Focus WarGames Edition. In another example of a company being too big to see the small details, MLW was able to trademark the name "War Games," allowing them to be able to do WarGames matches without WWE's permission. WWE may be the king of the mountain (Wait! They're not JEFF JARRETT! Lol.), but it becomes easier and easier for kings to miss the finite details sometimes. As it is, a lot of WWE's core audience won't likely notice or care. Still for die-hard wrestling fans (ie. me), we root for the small companies like MLW to get a one-up on WWE once in a while.
Apparently, Sami Callihan and Shane Strickland have a problem. Callihan wants to get rid of Strickland once and for all and has assembled an army to do so, including TNA/Impact legend "The Monster" Abyss. For his sake, Strickland has assembled his own team to fight back and defeat Callihan's, including John Hennigan(/Impact/Morrison/Mundo) and ECW legend Tommy Dreamer.
The Ravengers cut a promo about loving war and how this feud has gone beyond wrestling. It's about taking the other team out. Tonight, thumbs up, thumbs down. Strickland's team talks about trust and unity, casting doubts on whether The Ravengers can trust each other. Dreamer goes into a larger context saying that this is about not only "The Dream" but a "Dream" of being united despite any differences people might see. Dreamer says they are united by their love of professional wrestling.
Rich Bocchini and Tony Schaivone(!!!) are our announce team for this show. They are piecing the cage together.
(Note: WarGames starts a few minutes into the show. So you should fast-forward into the 12 minute mark.)
To follow along with this match, click on the following Link: MLW WarGames 2018
MLW
Published on YouTube on September 15, 2018
WarGames
The Ravengers (Sami Callihan, Jimmy Havoc, The Death Machines, and Abyss) vs. John Hennigan, Tommy Dreamer, Barrington Hughes, Kotto Brazil, and Shane Strickland
The ring announcer goes over the rules.
The first entrant is Kotto Brazil for Team Strickland. Fulton from The Ravengers and The Death Machines enters the cage. OR HE WAS... until Brazil just absolutely throws himself through Fulton back through a table at ringside! DAMN! Fulton is thrown in by Brazil. He dives at Fulton, but he gets hammered. Brazil with some really good offensive moves here. But Fulton grabs him and throws him into the cage. Brazil gets tossed from one ring to another. Big missle dropkick by the big man. Impressive. We have a cameraman inside the cage, and Brazil was literally thrown over him into the other ring a second ago. Speaking of Brazil, he continues to be tossed like a bad habit. Now he gets raked into the cage. Fulton is absolutely destroying him in this match.
Here comes John Hennigan. WHAT?! THE FACES WON THE COIN TOSS! THE FACES WON THE COIN TOSS! LOL! He gets in between Fulton and Brazil. Double team by the faces here. The count goes on here.
Here comes Jimmy Havoc. Havoc grabs Hennigan's fingers and gives him a papercut across the hand and the face. He does the same to Brazil's face. (I'm not making that up.) Brazil gets tossed from one ring to another getting hit iwth a stop sign on the way into the other ring.
Here comes Shane Strickland. BUT SAMI CALLIHAN ATTACKS HIM FROM BEHIND. Strickland gets propelled off the stage THROUGH A TABLE! Powerbomb by Callihan to Strickland through the remnants of the table. He slams the cage door in Brazil's face and walks in the cage. Tony wonders what that does to the time intervals or who comes out next. Havoc comes off the ropes and drives Hennigan through the table. KOTO BRAZIL GETS LAUNCHED INTO THE CAGE by Callihan.
Here comes TOMMY DREAMER! And he's got toys! Weapons are flying into the ring. Dreamer just made this WarGames EXTREME! (Note: He came out to "Man in the Box." Great!) A lot of action going on now wtih Dreamer and Hennigan using the weapons to their advantage. Brazil isn't much help at the moment.
Here comes Leon Scott of The Death Machines. He brings in a baseball bat for Callihan to use. A stop sign is put over Dreamer's... well... and the bat... you put two and two together. You know what happened next. The heels are dominating here now using the weapons to their advantage.
Here comes Barrington Hughes. My God, this dude is huge. He barely gets into the cage. He no sells some hard hits to the head. A stop sign finally stops him. Shane Strickland is done for the night, according to the announcers.
HERE COMES THE MONSTER ABYSS! He has a bag with him! Oh my God. The cage has closed. The Match Beyond begins. Chokeslam by Abyss. Dusty attacks by Dreamer. Elbows do not knock the Abyss down. BLACK HOLE SLAM. Barrington Hughes and Abyss go at it. Both men have the chokeslam on each other, but the others break it up. Brazil goes to the top of the cage and nails a Corkscrew Plancha from the top to all of them! Fulton is bleeding right below his eye. (It's weird to hear Tony call a match seriously after listening to What Happened When so many times.) Dreamer has polka dots on by the way. Abyss and Hughes are back at it again. BIG splash into the corner by Hughes. Abyss knocks Hughes off his feet seconds later. Scott puts himself through a table trying to get to Hennigan. Abyss unleashes the tasks! He almost puts Brazil on them, but Brazil gets loose. A big reversal sends Abyss back first into the tacks with Brazil getting some as well. Callihan gets thrown into a clothesline by Havoc. Cutter to Havoc. Barbed Wire now?! They are wrapping Barrington Hughes in barbed wire?! WHAT?! They ram him into Callihan and the back of Fulton. Splash to the back of Fulton now. THEN Brazil and Hughes use the barbed wire to CROSSFACE Fulton!!! He tapped out.
Winners: Team Strickland (minus Strickland, lol)
Match Grade: C. This was an average WarGames match at best. I'm giving this points for doing some original stuff (like the faces winning the coin toss, even if it had no bearing on the finish) and using a ton of weapons in the match. But there was no heat to a lot of what I was seeing. That's the problem with having All-Star teams in these matches: You better hit the home run. Otherwise, it damages the match in reality. Still, the effort was there. And I liked a lot of the focus being on the younger talent.
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WarGames Ranked (Thus Far)1. WarGames (2017)- The Undisputed Era vs. Sanity vs. Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong
2. WarGames (1992)- The Dangerous Alliance vs. Sting's Squadron
3. WarGames (1988)- Horsemen vs. Dusty's Team
4. WarGames (1991)- The Horsemen/Zbyzsko vs. Sting, The Steiners, and Pillman
5. WarGames I (1987)- The Four Horsemen vs. The Dream Team
6. WarGames (1994)- The Rhodes and The Nastys vs. The Stud Stable
7. WarGames (1989) - Road Warriors/ Midnight Express/Dr.Death vs. Freebirds/Samoans
8. WarGames (1996)- Team nWo vs. Team WCW
9. WarGames II (1987)- The Four Horsemen vs. The Superpowers
10. WarGames (2003; MLW)- Funkin' Army vs. Extreme Horsemen
11. WarGamees (2018; MLW)- The Ravengers vs. Team Strickland
12. WarGames (1997)- Team WCW/Horsemen vs. Team nWo
13. WarGames (1993)- Sid, Vader, Harlem Heat vs. Sting, Bulldog, Dustin Rhodes, and Shockmaster
14. WarGames (1995)- Hulkamaniacs vs. The Dungeon of Doom
(Tie)15. WarGames (1998)- Garbage
(Tie)15. WarGames (2000)- WarGames 2000
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That does it for this edition of UnWrest Focus WarGames. If you find any more matches you want me to review (WarGames or other matches), send me a message here in the comments section or on Twitter (@cdub1898).
Until then, take care of yourselves. Spread some awesomeness.
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