Survivor Series: WarGames – A Cagey Affair

On Saturday (November 30th), WWE put on their second to last Premium Live Event of the year with Survivor Series WarGames. As has been a theme this year, the show consisted of 5 matches and all of them left us with something to talk about.

The show opened with the Women’s WarGames match, which saw the team of Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Bayley, Iyo Sky & Naomi ultimately defeat the team of Liv Morgan, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, Raquel Rodriguez & Candace LeRay. The match was a hectic one, including another attempted cash in from Tiffany Stratton who noticed the perfect opportunity with both champions down in the same match but the cash in was ultimately thwarted before we got to find out how a cash in would even work during this match. There was also a double high spot where Tiffany Stratton hit a Swanton Bomb off the top of one cage while Iyo Sky hit a Moonsault after donning a trashcan as a helmet of sorts also off the top of the other cage. The match was ultimately decided when Rhea Ripley finally got a hold of Liv Morgan properly and hit a Riptide off the second rope 

through a table to keep her down for the three count.

Then, we saw Shinsuke Nakamura manage to defeat LA Knight for his United States Championship. From the start of the match & Shinsuke’s incredible entrance, you could tell Knight was intimidated as he even dropped his title during his own entrance (which was foreshadowing what was to come). All things considered, Shinsuke defeated LA Knight with relative ease, eventually putting him down with a Kinshasa to the back of Knight’s head. Bron Breakker however successfully defended his Intercontinental Championship in a Triple Threat match with Sheamus & Ludwig Kaiser. This was an intense affair with particularly Sheamus and Breakker putting everything on the line for the title. And Sheamus at one point got painfully close to becoming a Grand Slam champion when he successfully dodged a spear and hit a Brough Kick on Breakker, only for Kaiser to drag the referee out of the ring right before the referee hit a three count. And eventually Breakker hit the fatal spear on Sheamus to continue his dominant reign and once again prevent Sheamus from finally getting the Intercontinental Championship.

In the World Heavyweight Championship match, Gunther defeated Damien Priest but this was not without controversy. Priest gave it everything he had and at many points seemed like he would pull out the win. But in a crucial moment where Priest was pushed to the outside of the ring, Finn Balor emerged from the crowd & hit a Coup de Grace on Priest clearly still holding a grudge from the split of the Judgement Day. Gunther clearly did not appreciate this & attacked Balor afterwards and while he still won the match you could tell Gunther hated that he had won this way, as it does nothing to redemonstrate his dominance as the Ring General as despite the fact that Gunther could have won without the assistance, Balor getting involved does soil the victory.

And in the Main Event, the OG Bloodline of Roman Reigns, Jey & Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn & CM Punk took on the New Bloodline of Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa & Bronson Reed in the second WarGames match of the night. This match was also a chaotic and personal affair with plenty of tension between Roman Reigns & CM Punk. During the match we saw Bronson Reed attempt to hit a Tsunami off the top of the cage through a table to Roman Reigns but Reigns was saved by Punk at the last second which evidently earned Roman’s trust to some degree at least for the rest of the match. Jimmy Uso also went to the top of the cage, successfully hitting an Uso Splash through a table to Jacob Fatu (which we have since learned resulted in him breaking a toe). The climax of the match saw Solo Sikoa with the rest of his team taken out take finishers from all of the OG Bloodline & Punk which won the match for the OG Bloodline and while Solo still holds the Ula Fala, a win for Roman’s Team is definite progress from when they lost at Crown Jewel.

In closing, Survivor Series not only served as a great show generally, but also is technically the end of an era as it marked the final PLE of the era of the WWE Network (not counting Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 14th), as with WWE moving all of its content to Netflix in the UK, there’s no real reason for the network to exist anymore. And also, the highlight for me following my previous article is that William Regal seemingly heard my disappointment at the end as he did end up saying “WARGAMES!!” in his iconic way which made me extremely happy to see.