In July 2017, Major League Wrestling resumed promoting events for the first time since the promotion's original closure in 2004. The success of these events lead MLW to secure a television deal with beIN Sports for a new program, MLW Fusion, which debuted on April 20, 2018. On June 20, MLW.com announced that it would be holding an event titled Fury Road on September 6. However, on July 10, MLW owner Court Bauer tweeted that he would bring back the WarGames match on September 6 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the same venue where MLW had previously held the WarGames match in 2003. Fury Road was postponed to take place on October 4, while WarGames was finalized as the September 6 event.
Storylines
The card consisted of matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by MLW's writers. Storylines were played out on MLW's television program Fusion. On the June 22 episode of Fusion, Barrington Hughes ensured that the World Heavyweight ChampionShane Strickland would not get attacked by Sami Callihan and his Death Machines. This led to Hughes being attacked by the Death Machines. On the July 13 episode of Fusion, Shane Strickland was mysteriously attacked, which led to him losing the World Heavyweight Championship to Low Ki. The attacker was revealed to be Strickland's former ally Sami Callihan, who said that he perpetrated the attack due to greed of money being paid to him by Ki and Salina de la Renta. Callihan would go on to defeat Strickland on the August 3 episode of Fusion. On August 7, it was announced that Strickland and Callihan would be captains for opposing teams in the WarGames match at WarGames, with Strickland's team consisting ofJohn Hennigan, Tommy Dreamer, Barrington Hughes and Kotto Brazil and Callihan's team called the Ravagers, which would be consisting of Jimmy Havoc and the Death Machines. On August 20, Abyss was revealed as the fifth member of Ravagers.
Event
The event featured the namesake WarGames match, in which Barrington Hughes, John Hennigan, Kotto Brazil, Shane Strickland and Tommy Dreamer took on The Ravagers. Near the end of the match, Havoc was about to nail an Acid Rainmaker to Dreamer but Dreamer tossed him into Callihan. An enraged Callihan hit a cutter on Havoc. Brazil then wrapped barbed wire on Hughes, who hit a big splash on Fulton and then Brazil and Hughes wrapped the barbed wire around Fulton's head, forcing him to tap out. After the match, the entire losing team attacked Havoc blaming him for the loss.
Aftermath
Sami Callihan and Jimmy Havoc's brawling led to both men demanding several stipulations for a match against each other, which led MLW management to make a Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal match between the two at Fury Road. Shane Strickland moved on to a feud with Tom Lawlor, which led to the two competing in a match to determine the ace of MLW at Fury Road.
