WWE gave us plenty of stories to digest — without an empathic note — during an entertaining and groundwork-laying Survivor Series that fell short of special.
The men’s WarGames match provided the foundation for the Roman Reigns-CM Punk story for whenever WWE is ready to pick it back up. Reigns showed appreciation for Punk’s help with a handshake, but WWE made sure you could clearly hear Punk remind Paul Heyman he owed him a favor after their victory at Rogers Arena on Saturday night.
The Reigns and Punk drama began in the shark cages, where they stood on opposite end looking like they were on the wrong side of buddy-cop movie.
Reigns held back Punk from joining the match at one point and then the “Best in the World” cut off Reigns from going into the main cage the next chance he got. Once in the match officially began, Heyman came out to plead with his Tribal Chief to trust Punk.
Unfortunately, Reigns mistakenly speared Punk. But Punk earned everyone’s trust by pulling Reigns off the table at the last minute to avoid a Bronson Reed Tsunami splash.
It was the moment that finally got Punk and the Original Bloodline on the same page. The match ended with each member taking a shot at Solo Sikoa before Punk hit a GTS and Reigns a spear as he pinned Sikoa to earn the win.
It meant for the first time since they reunited the love and respect returned to the Original Bloodline. Sami Zayn, Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso all gave Punk a hug of thanks when it was over and then finally they all embraced Reigns as they got back to the stage.
Despite the defeat, Jacob Futu continues to steal the show whenever he is on screen with his intensity and athletics and Saturday night was no different.
There is still a ton of unfinished business and Reigns will now have to face Sikoa one-on-one — likely at either Raw’s debut on Netflix or the Royal Rumble for the claim of Tribal Chief and the Ula fala. Reigns’ likely victory should bring The Rock back to WWE.
If the men’s match was about Reigns and Punk then the women’s WarGames was about Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan. Morgan was the final person into the math with Mami standing and waiting for the Women’s World champion to arrive with the bat that injured her.
Later in the match, Ripley was smart enough to take Raquel Rodriguez out of the equation by hand cuffiing her to one of the center ring posts. Rodriguez, who saved Morgan from getting cashed in on by Money in the Bank winner Tiffany Stratton, thwarted Ripley’s first Riptide attempt but couldn’t stop the second.
Ripley lifted up Morgan for an avalanche Riptide through a table to end the match and give the babyfaces the win. It likely means we are headed for the third meeting between these two for the championship in this current feud sooner rather than later. Ripley kissing the table at the end of a nice touch.
The match itself — which was not as good as some past women’s iterations, was more about big moments than any heavy storytelling outside of Ripley and Morgan. Iyo Sky continues to be a joy to watch it these WarGames matches But when it was over we were still no closer to knowing Jade Cargill’s attacker and got yet another cash-in tease that never came close to being the real deal.
We did, however, learn a few things in the three championship matches that completed the card.
WWE is serious about pushing this version of a returning heel Shinsuke Nakamura. He looked menacing and correctly defeated L.A. Knight to win the United States championship with a Kinshasa knee strike — despite it happened on the shortest least attention-grabbing match on the card.
Damian Priest feels done with the main event scene for a while as World Heavyweight champion Gunther, just like he did at SummerSlam, defeated him with help from Finn Balor. With Priest spilled out on the floor and Gunther down in the ring, Balor came out from crowd and leaped off the steps for a stomp on Priest.
It opened the door for Gunther to hit a powerbomb, elbow Priest in the neck, and put him out with a choke. Priest and Balor — jealous of his former friend in The Judgment Day will be left to finish their rivalry while Gunther will look for his next challenger.
He will have plenty of options once the calendar flips to January from Seth Rollins to CM Punk to potentially John Cena and Goldberg.
Bron Breakker continued to look like a star as he defeated Sheamus and Ludwig Kaiser to retain his Intercontinental championship in a fast-paced and high-drama match. Sheamus, who has never won the IC title, was given a great chance to score the pin but Kaiser — who rose to the occasion in a rare PLE performance — pulled him off Gunther.
Biggest Winners: Jacob Fatu and Shinsuke Nakamura
Biggest Loser: Damian Priest
Best Match: Men’s WarGames
Grade: B+