It’s Survivor Series…
WARGAMEZ!
From last year…
So yeah, full disclosure: I had this laying around last year and never got around to posting it, but since it’s around that time again, I’d figured why not. Here are my (very quick) musings on last year’s Survivor Series PPV, which featured the reunited Bloodline (led by Roman Reigns and also featuring CM Punk) and the Bloodline B-Team led by that Solo guy and a bunch of other Samoans that got signed from New Japan or something. If, a year after the fact, this is what I’m referring to that “other” Bloodline team, maybe it’s not as effective a storyline as some would suggest.
Also, yes, even though most of this was written last year and promptly forgotten about, there will be occasional notes to try and keep this more timely, as though it was written up on a few days ago as opposed to months prior or even a whole year previous.
Anyway, let us begin…
Bianca Belair, Naomi, Iyo Sky, Bayley & Rhea Ripley defeated RAW World Women’s Champion Liv Morgan, Smackdown WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax, Candice LeRae, Tiffany Stratton & Raquel Rodriguez in the obligatory Women’s Wargames match that saw Nia Jax run the entire 30+ match and made me regret watching this show in the first place. Granted, there have been moments where Nia has been… tolerable from a performance standpoint… sometimes even somewhat imposing, which is a stark improvement over her previous run… but my goodness, a sports entertainer of that size isn’t built for long-ass marathon matches and you add to the fact that she isn’t that good in the first place. Sometimes, big people are best used in small doses, especially if they’re not very good. And speaking of not very good, this Wargames match was terrible. Bad enough that it’s the WWE version with no cage roof and pinfalls count, bad enough that you give the babyface team the woman advantage, which all but kills the drama – Big Vinny V once did an angry rant about this sort of shit booking when TNA did it for one of their Lockdown PPVs – but then you have to include weapons in there because the women are seemingly incapable of putting on a compelling Wargames match without the use of plunder. And if that’s the case, either don’t have the match or get better women in there. On the bright side, I did like Rhea Ripley’s mask. That looked kinda cool.
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated United States Champion LA Knight to win the match… because all it takes is an extended absence and a new suave black ninja garb look to get another (quick) title run, I guess. But hey, a surprise title change on a show that looked to be business as usual certainly woke the crowd up and they didn’t disapprove, either. The match itself was okay, it was fine. Despite the new look, Nakamura was his usual self and LA Knight was LA Knight… and he’d win the title back at the reboot SNME a couple weeks later, anyway, so…
Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker defeated Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser to retain the title. Not exactly a “banger” of a match as the kids would say, but certainly a fine enough 3-way with all the big guys doing their thing. I’ve seen worse three-ways, but I’ve also seen way better, especially with all three involved.
World Champion GUNTHER defeated Damien Priest with an assist from Finn Balor to retain the title. Again, this was fine, but I recall their Summerslam match being much better than this was. GUNTHER is still awesome and I’m still convinced that Damien Priest should get another title run under his belt one of these days. That dude figured it out a long time ago and has earned another shot when the time is right.
Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso & CM Punk defeated Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, Jacob Fatu & Bronson Reed (I had to copy and paste the names because I, for the life of me, am terrible with names) in a Wargames match that… well, the right guys got over, at least. They didn’t give whatwas essentially the Bloodline equivalent of the nWo B-Team led by Virgil the victory in an effort to convince me that they’re on equal footing as the OG Bloodline guys (with special appearance by CM Punk). Don’t get me wrong; the guys individually are great and Jacob Fatu certainly blah, but at no point was I convinced that Solo was on the same level of star power and notoriety as Roman Reigns or even the Usos. This Wargames had the same issue with the women’s; lots of jumping off the cage and getting hurt in the process (some injuries were suffered, I’m told), some use of plunder, and honestly, just taking a very long time to get to the very obvious ending that only was less obvious because of the aforementioned fear of going the other way for shits and giggles – that would have been a Russo thing to do. They didn’t go that route. The right team got over. And then… stuff happened.
Oh, and as for CM Punk’s favor? He gets a Wrestlemania main event match with Paul Heyman at his side. His opponents for said main event. Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. But that’s another story.
I didn’t watch the 2023 Wargames offering, but I did watch the 2022 version which is when they first starting doing this on the main roster. I had issues with the format back then and unfortunately, those issues continue to exist. I like a good Wargames match – WCW had some killer ones back in the day before they eventually fucked it up – but nothing I’ve seen out of either the WWE or NXT camp has been good. Some spots were fine in a vacuum, but nothing that would have me going “This was awesome. I will remember this for a very long time.”
I will remember none of this show after having watched it. The matches were fine, there was a surprise title change, and the right people won in their respective Wargames matches, but the Wargames concept in general doesn’t jive with me and feels like a farce than an actual successor. People are going to cry about it, but I feel AEW does the Wargames concept better than WWE does – and even there, I have some issues.
Anyway, that was Survivor Series 2024. It was a perfectly fine show… but one that will be quickly forgotten afterwards… hence why it took me a year to post this thing… because I forgot about it soon afterwards.
On the bright side, this took place in Vancouver, BC, CANADA… and they resisted the urge to pull another Montreal Screwjob off. Congrats on your restraint, I guess.
dtm666 