Survivor Series: WarGames – Everything You Need to Know
For WWE fanatics who haven’t watched a match in months, here’s a complete guide to the Survivor Series: WarGames event, which will take place on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET from Petco Park in San Diego. This Premium Live Event (PLE) will be available exclusively in the United States for those with an ESPN Unlimited plan subscription, either directly or through a traditional television package, on the ESPN app.
What is a WarGames match?
The Survivor Series have evolved a lot since their beginnings. Previously, the matches were based on team eliminations with several wrestlers, with unusual pairings and curious team names. Want to see Lex Luger team up with The Undertaker against a team of “foreigners” that included Roman Reigns’ cousin, Yokozuna? There was a Survivor Series for that!
Since 2022, Survivor Series has featured men’s and women’s WarGames matches, contested between two rings surrounded by a giant, roofless steel cage. The absence of a roof marks the difference between a “cage” and a “cell” in WWE jargon. Two participants from each team of five people start the match. A new member from each team enters the match at pre-set time intervals until all participants are in the ring and the match officially begins. The match can only be won by pinfall or submission. Things tend to get violent quickly.
Last year, Roman Reigns teamed up with his cousins, Jimmy and Jey Uso, forging a fragile alliance with CM Punk, against a team that included Bronson Reed. This year, the match has… Reigns teaming up with his cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso, forging a fragile alliance with Punk, against a team with Bronson Reed. But there’s much more!
Who competes in the men’s WarGames match?
In addition to Usos and Punk, the fifth member of Reigns’ team this year is the Undisputed WWE Champion, Cody Rhodes. Or rather, “Rhodes’ team.” Or is it the team of the World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk? As usual, galactic-sized egos try to coexist for the common good, but Reigns has indicated that he wouldn’t mind a shot at Rhodes’ or Punk’s title when this WarGames matter is over.
In this case, “the common good” is to defeat The Vision, the faction led by the evil Paul Heyman. Let’s remember that The Vision was the group founded by Seth Rollins after his epic heel turn against Reigns and Punk at WrestleMania 41. The Vision now includes Bron Breakker and Reed, who joined forces with Rollins only to attack him months later, taking him off television for at least six months after a shoulder injury suffered at Crown Jewel. (Although after that turn with the crutches, we are doubting any injury timeline from Rollins).
What’s the point of having nefarious antagonists if Logan Paul isn’t part of the team, right? The hate magnet hit Punk with a pair of brass knuckles on a recent episode of “Raw” before aligning with Heyman’s group. Later, Paul and The Vision attacked Punk, with Rhodes and Jey Uso arriving to defend him against their own rivals. Punk issued the challenge for a WarGames match, telling Heyman to find his team. The next guy he found was technically not authorized to fight.
Galactic-sized egos will try to coexist for the common good in the men’s WarGames match on Saturday at Survivor Series.
Drew McIntyre was suspended by the “SmackDown” general manager, Nick Aldis, for attacking a referee. But Heyman, wise as he is, found a loophole in his WarGames contract: he was allowed to choose any member of the WWE roster to join Team Vision. McIntyre, although suspended, is still a member of the roster, so he was on the team and joined an attack against the Usos, Rhodes, and Punk.
On November 17th, Heyman’s team added a formidable fifth member: Brock Lesnar, who arrived in the “Raw” ring and gave Punk and Rhodes an all-expenses-paid trip to Suplex City. But just as Lesnar was congratulating Heyman in the ring, Reigns’ music played to the surprise of the audience. A Superman Punch to Lesnar later, and it became clear that the odds had evened out.
(Lesnar would later set the Internet on fire on the “farewell” episode of “Raw”, slipping and falling during his pyrotechnics-filled introduction. But we give him high praise for the Simone Biles-style somersault that interrupted the blunder).
While half of the competitors in this WarGames match were hitting the cages a year ago, this is far from a repeat affair. Heyman was aligned with Punk and Reigns in 2024, but not so much now. Last year’s match came in the final throes of The Bloodline’s dispute; this year’s event finds The Vision, and especially Breakker, more ascendant. And with all due respect to Sami Zayn, who was the fifth member of the Punk-Reigns team last year, but any WarGames is more compelling with Rhodes inside the cages, considering that his father, the late Dusty Rhodes, was the inventor of the format.
And the Women’s WarGames match?
There are many erupting rivalries fueling this match, but the most compelling one features a former women’s champion who hadn’t been seen in WWE for nearly a decade before this year: AJ Lee.
About two months ago, Punk was feuding with WWE’s power couple, Rollins and Becky Lynch, who attacked Punk during a match against Rollins at Clash In Paris. When Lynch and Punk faced off on the mic after that attack, the fans began chanting “AJ Lee!” in reference to Punk’s real-life wife. Lynch finally responded with “she doesn’t work here!” … until Lee started working there again in September, coming out the back as if it were 2013 again, much to Lynch’s surprise.
This led to a mixed tag team match between the two couples at Wrestlepalooza, where Lee forced Lynch to submit with the Black Widow. Then came the ultimate indignity: Lee distracted Lynch in a title match at Madison Square Garden, allowing Maxxine Dupri to end “The Man’s” Intercontinental Championship reign in a record of 163 days.AJ Lee (center) will compete for the second time since returning to WWE after a decade away from the ring.
The defeat sent Lynch into a spiral. He accused referee Jessika Carr of being a CM Punk fan, calling her “corrupt.” He threatened legal action, calling Lee an unlicensed manager in the ring and claiming the match was “rigged.”
Another dispute in the women’s WarGames match is between the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) and their former teammate, Iyo Sky. The Warriors didn’t like that Sky wanted to align herself with Rhea Ripley, which ultimately led them to turn on Sky and attack both Sky and Ripley.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, the rivals who became best friends, who won the Women’s Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam in August, were involved in a dispute with Nia Jax and, ultimately, NXT call-up, Lash Legend. Legend, a former WNBA player, attacked Bliss during a match between Flair and Jax and then helped Jax cost them the titles in a match against the Kabuki Warriors, the new champions. Sky and Ripley returned from injury to rescue Bliss and Flair from a four-on-two beatdown, leading Ripley, wearing a mask after breaking her nose in a match last month, to throw down the challenge to WarGames.
Initially, Flair refused to participate in Ripley’s reindeer games, citing their long history as rivals as a reason not to trust her. But thanks to a wooden table, dramatic music, and ambient lighting, the two made a truce after Ripley said there was no one she would rather go to war with. Which, it’s true, sounded a bit confrontational, so she followed up with “there’s no one I’d rather stand side-by-side with” in a war.
Anyway, Flair said “OK” because flattery gets you everywhere.
There’s a lot of talent in this match, with high-flyers and power wrestlers. But it’s hard not to think this WarGames match will come down to Lynch and Lee.
What’s up with the Women’s World Championship?
WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill is not on the Survivor Series card, although she could have some issues with United States Women’s Champion Chelsea Green on the horizon. Women’s World Title holder Stephanie Vaquer, she of the terrifying ram horns, defends her title against her former ally Nikki Bella at Survivor Series.
Vaquer and Bella were a team that was feuding with Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez of The Judgment Day. Vaquer highlighted the fact that she was teaming up with a legend of the Divas’ Revolution. As the saying goes, never form a makeshift team with your idols. Bella turned on Vaquer, attacking her with the title belt and then taking off her red shirt to reveal a BLACK EVIL SHIRT underneath, as if going from nWo WolfPac to Hollywood in an instant!
Who could have foreseen a betrayal like this from Nikki Bella? You know, besides her twin sister, Brie?
What’s new in John Cena’s retirement tour?
Survivor Series is the last PLE for Cena before his retirement match on December 13th at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, D.C. Fun fact: he first appeared on a WWE pay-per-view over 23 years ago, defeating Chris Jericho at Vengeance 2002.
Cena enters Survivor Series as Grand Slam champion after his Intercontinental Championship victory over Dominik Mysterio on November 10, winning each of the individual and tag team championships during his WWE career. That victory came in Boston, not far from Cena’s hometown of West Newbury. He agreed to give “Dirty Dom” a rematch in Mysterio’s hometown, San Diego, at Survivor Series.
As expected, Mysterio has enjoyed trolling Cena before his rematch for the title. Witness his antics on “Raw” on Monday, when he thrilled the audience by playing Cena’s entrance song only for a wrestler from the Micro Wrestling Federation dressed as Cena to emerge from the back. When the “little” John went off script in the ring, Dom kicked him in the chest. In case you were worried, Dom couldn’t be more hateful.
While Cena has this title defense at Survivor Series, there is an ongoing “The Last Time Is Now” tournament in WWE to determine who will face the “Last Real Champion” in his retirement match.
Did you know that Gunther, who is in the final four of the tournament, is the longest-reigning Intercontinental champion in history and has never faced Cena in a match before? Wow, how curious.
What is the most important thing to keep in mind at Survivor Series?
What to keep in mind this Saturday is what has always made Survivor Series matches intriguing: “Can they coexist?”
That applies not only to Flair and Ripley in the women’s match, but to the holy trinity of vanity that are Rhodes, Punk, and Reigns: three wrestlers united by a common enemy and potentially divided by their own personal interests. In the end, the true survivors are those who can leave their egos at the cage door. And, obviously, not everyone in these WarGames will survive.
