This Saturday, November 30th WWE will be hosting what would normally be their final Premium Live Event of the year (but not so this year due to Saturday Nights Main Event on December 14th) Survivor Series: Wargames. And as is usual these days, the 5 matches on offer (barring any last minute additions on tonight’s Smackdown at time of writing) all look to be really interesting which is suitable for a PLE given the honor of being one of the “Big 4”.
Firstly, to discuss the non WarGames matches, all 3 of these are title matches so every match on the card is either for a title or held within the iconic Dual WarGames cages. US Champion LA Knight will be defending his United States Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura, who returned to WWE a few weeks ago and blindsided LA Knight. Prior to this, Shinsuke had been missing since April and many were questions where the King of Strong Style had gone and are thrilled he has finally found his way back to programming and will no doubt be a tough opponent for LA Knight to get over and a US title win would no doubt bring forth some strong momentum almost immediately after returning.
The Intercontinental Championship will be defended in a Triple Threat match as Champion, Bron Breakker will have to defeat both Ludwig Kaiser of Imperium & Sheamus to continue his reign. Both of the challengers have strong reasons to want to win this match apart from the obvious title win, Ludwig Kaiser recently has been more & more stepping out of the shadow of Gunther and a Intercontinental Title win would definitely help him further cement his legacy outside of Imperium. And Sheamus of course if he won the match would finally become a Grand Slam Champion as the Intercontinental Championship is the only title for that distinction he has never won. And Breakker since debuting on the Main Roster in February has been a constant threat/monster to the rest of the roster despite still being so young so a win here would only continue to cement his position as one of the biggest threats in WWE and likely make the World Champions begin looking over their shoulder wondering when/if Bron will come for them.
World Champion Gunther will also be defending his title against the same man he won it from in Damien Priest. In recent weeks, Priest has done a surprisingly good job at creating/showing cracks in Gunther’s “Ring General” persona, and has been adamant that his history in the streets of Puerto Rico growing up will be the deciding factor in their bout when there isn’t anyone from the Judgement Day to distract him. And as I said, Gunther has seemed less in control than he has been historically whenever he has been in a feud so he will no doubt want to put Damien Priest firmly in the past by defeating him and reminding everyone that the ring is sacred and why he was the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time.
Now, moving onto the 2 WarGames matches. Firstly for the women, the team of Judgement Day’s Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton & Candace LeRae will be taking on Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Naomi, Iyo Sky & Bayley. Apart from the obvious fact of Liv & Rhea being able to continue their fiery rivalry amongst the chaos there are other factors to note. Firstly, the fact that Bianca’s tag partner Jade Cargill, who originally was to take part in this match has been replaced by Bayley as she was injured in a vicious attack by a currently unknown assailant, which no doubt Liv’s team would have been happy that Cargill was out of the picture (whether it was one of them who attacked her or not). Also, Tiffany Stratton of course still holds the Women’s Money in the Bank contract and both brands champions are taking part in this match, and of course last year The Judgement Day attempted to cash in Damien Priest’s briefcase last year and were only stopped by a returning Randy Orton so it is clearly something Stratton would be able to do if the perfect opportunity presented itself and it would immediately become one of the most unique cash in’s of all time. And lastly, with the now announced Women’s versions of the Intercontinental & United States Championships, no doubt all of the women in this match would like to win to gain some momentum in preparation for when those titles are officially able to be contested for.
And on the Men’s Side, we continue the Bloodline’s blood feud as the New Bloodline of Solo Sikoa, Tonga Loa, Tama Tonga, Jacob Fatu and Raw’s Bronson Reed will be taking on the OG Bloodline of Roman Reigns, Jimmy & Jey Uso, the ‘Honorary Uce’ Sami Zayn and the fifth member, none other than CM Punk. The New Bloodline had little trouble convincing Bronson Reed to join them which makes sense given he has been clear of his want to establish himself as a main event threat which taking down Roman Reigns & his Bloodline would definitely help make that point. Meanwhile the OG Bloodline faced great troubles in finding a fifth man given their years of terrorising the main roster naturally left them short of allies to call on. The main example of this was Sami Zayn reaching out to Seth Rollins (who also turned down Solo’s offer to be a fifth man) but Seth bluntly refused making it clear he wanted nothing to do with Roman Reigns. So it makes sense that the only way they could get a fifth man was through The Wiseman as Paul Heyman finally returned and unveiled that he had gotten Punk to be the fifth man. In Punk’s previous stint with WWE he spent a long period as a ‘Paul Heyman Guy’ and a few months ago while he was still trapped within Solo’s Bloodline he did ask Punk directly to save him from Solo so it was clear in retrospect that they still cared for each other so it makes sense that Punk would do a favour like that for Paul Heyman given their history.
In closing, Survivor Series again looks to be a stacked show (again, fitting for a Big 4 event). If for no other reason than if you went back in time a few years and told a wrestling fan that in 2024, CM Punk would not only be back in WWE, but teaming up with Roman Reigns in the Main Event of Survivor Series in a WarGames match they’d likely think you were crazy. But by the end of the night we’re sure to have had a great show. The only negative I have to say is that at no point has William Regal yelled “WARGAMES!!!!” which is a great disappointment.
