Hiya!

I’m still kind of on the fence with the WWE switching out the traditional Survivor Series elimination match with Wargames. I understand the appeal and all but I don’t really get why they had to scrap out the regular Survivor Series match. Why not have Wargames as its own pay-per-view instead of co-opting one that exists? This is probably why I go to every Survivor Series: Wargames show with a little twinge of sadness in my wrestling fan heart. So, let’s go see if this year’s Survivor Series: Wargames pay-per-view can heal my hurt heart.

The first match of the night was the Women’s Wargames match. This saw the team of AJ Lee, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley take on Becky Lynch, Lash Legend, Nia Jax, Asuka and Kairi Sane. One thing I have to say about this from the outset is I didn’t care too much for the buildup to this. I mean, I’m happy to see AJ Lee again as she was my favorite wrestler. I’m just not buying Becky Lynch being terrified of her. I also didn’t care for the so-called animosity between Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley.

I also have to say it was a slog to get to the actual Wargames match. Usually, a lot of the hype behind a Wargames match is how everyone beats on each other before the match officially started. This time, it felt like a new woman enters the ring, goes on a rampage for a while and then they just do nothing until the next participant enters.

There were some minor highlights, like when IYO SKY tried to walk the top rope between the rings only to slip and kinda hit Asuka with… something, Kairi Sane totally wrecking IYO SKY with a trash can lid, Becky Lynch wrapping up the faces in a chain to allow the Kabuki Warriors to nail them with sandwiching dropkicks, AJ Lee climbing the cage and connecting with a crossbody to the Kabuki Warriors with flying crossbody from the top turnbuckle, Rhea Ripley locking in her Prism Trap hold on Kairi Sane who was in a trash can while IYO SKY hit a dropkick, Nia Jax and Lash Legend military pressing IYO SKY and then tossing her into the faces as well as the obligatory trash can spot from IYO SKY. While these were the highlights, they all felt somewhat underwhelming.

The finish came after Lash Legend entered the ring and the heels started to dominate. The heels then surrounded Rhea Ripley. Ripley tried to fight back and Asuka set up to spit her green mist at the Eradicator. Charlotte managed to push Ripley out of the way, cause the Empress of Tomorrow to send the mist into Lash Legend’s eyes. Charlotte and Rhea then started to clean house, even taking out Nia Jax with a double suplex while Alexa Bliss hit her Twisted Bliss finisher on the Unstoppable Force. IYO SKY scaled the top of the cage and AJ Lee tried to hand her the trash can but was too short to reach her. Ripley then carried AJ Lee up and this allowed IYO SKY to hit the aforementioned trash can spot. The faces then cornered Becky Lynch. Ripley hit her Riptide finisher and AJ got the submission finish with her Black Widow hold to win the match for her team.

As I’m writing this, I realized what I’m writing makes all of this look exciting. So, why did I think it was lame? Well, that’s mostly because of all the waiting between these spots! It looked like there was a lot of time wasting while waiting for the right people to come in. There are also the botches, like IYO SKY nearly slipping and mistimed double team maneuvers. I wanted to like this but the entire match came off as out of sorts.

The next match of the night saw John Cena in his last pay-per-view match before he retires (allegedly) defend the WWE Intercontinental Championship against “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio, who had the entire Judgement Day in his corner. Well, this wasn’t really much of a match as the two official competitors really didn’t do all that much. This was more of a showing of how creative “Dirty” Dom and the Judgement Day can interfere and how much John Cena can endure. Because of this, there were a ton of highlights but not necessarily from the ones in the match. These would include Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanna Perez hitting their finishers on John Cena while “Dirty” Dom was feigning an injury on the outside, Mysterio unzipping his boot so it would slip out leading to him hitting a 619 and JD McDonagh and Finn Balor trying to interfere only to eat a double Attitude Adjustment from Cena.

The finish saw John Cena calling for another official but, instead of a referee, Liv Morgan came bouncing down the entranceway. She enters the rings and slaps “Dirty” Dom before jumping on Cena and hugging him. This was all a ruse, though, as Morgan then low blowed John Cena after the hug. This led to Mysterio hitting a 619 and Liv comboing that with a belt shot. One frog splash later and “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio is your NEW WWE Intercontinental Champion!

This was a fun match. Although there wasn’t really much wrestling here, this was a joy to watch. It’s nice to see Cena give the rub to these guys and especially “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio. I can’t wait for the promos he’s going to give, proclaiming he just proved he’s better than John Cena by beating him. This really put the “entertainment” in “sports entertainment.”

The next match of the night saw Stephanie Vaquer defend her RAW Women’s Championship against Nikki “I Wish You Died In The Womb!” Bella. Look, my bias is going to be showing very much here. I never cared for Nikki Bella and I don’t care for her now. Seeing her get a title shot for the RAW Women’s Championship despite not really doing anything to deserve it really grinds my gears. This match proves I’m totally right as, surprise! It was bad. Okay, bad may be too strong a word and that’s just my bias showing. A more accurate word would be boring. The action was pretty lame and the only real highlights would be the couple of Devil’s Kisses Vaquer did to Bella with one on the announcer’s table and that rather wicked knee drop Stephanie hit while Nikki was draped across the ring apron (the hardest part of the ring!). Other than that, this was pretty uneventful.

The finish came after the second Devil’s Kiss in the middle of the ring. Vaquer then climbed to the top turnbuckle and hit a corkscrew moonsault to get the pinfall win to retain her RAW Women’s Championship. This was a big nothingburger. No one expected Nikki Bella to win, not while Stephanie Vaquer is red hot in popularity. The only compliment I can give is Nikki Bella didn’t botch anything this time around. As this is the pay-per-view shown on Thanksgiving, we can all be thankful for that, at least.

The final match of the night was the Men’s WarGames match. This had the faces, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso and CM Punk, go against the heel team consisting of Brock Lesnar, Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Logan Paul and Drew McIntyre. Like with the Women’s WarGames match, the teams just seemed to be mashed together with no real rhyme or reason other than one side are good guys and the other side are bad guys. It did have one thing the earlier WarGames match of the night didn’t. It had drama. The heels seemed to have a lot more cohesion while the faces miscommunicated a lot.

There were some really cool highlights, though. Some of them would include Cody Rhodes climbing the cage to enter it as well as hitting a crossbody from the top of the cage to Drew McIntyre, Rhodes and Punk connecting with a Hart Attack and a Doomsday Device to McIntyre and Breakker respectively, Drew and Logan performing a double delayed suplex to a bloody Punk, Bronson Reed hitting his Tsunami finisher on the 3 faces just as he entered the ring, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns brawling outside the cage (which I don’t agree because, even though the match hadn’t officially started, Brock still left the cage and that should still be a DQ), Logan Paul breaking up a dual Cody Rhodes and CM Punk pin on Brock Lesnar with a splash, Reigns stealing the brass knuckles from Logan Paul and using it to hit superman punches and Reigns spearing Lesnar through a table while the Beast was setting up for an F5 to Jey Uso.

The finish saw a hooded individual scale the cage hit a kick to CM Punk and then nail a Curb Stomp to the Second City Savior. He then fled by climbing the cage. Bron Breakker then hit a spear to Punk to get the pinfall victory for the heel team. As the faces recovered in the ring, Reigns looked down on both of CM Punk and Cody Rhodes. CM Punk and Roman Reigns did a fist bump as a sign of respect. Rhodes did not do the same, however.

I actually enjoyed this match quite a bit. I do think this isn’t all that memorable as a WarGames match, though. It’s just lacking a certain quality to nudge it to being great. A lot of that has to do with the general randomness of the participants. I don’t mind the swerve ending too much as it does open up a new storyline on who this person may be. It strongly hints it’s Seth Rollins but it’s most probably isn’t.

Overall, this was just an okay Survivor Series: WarGames show. Weirdly enough, the match of the night wasn’t any of the stunt filled WarGames matches. What stole the show was the John Cena vs. “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio for its own brand of stunts. I say that match makes the entire thing worth it.

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Survivor Series: WarGames show? Let me know in the comments section below!