As a service to fans who have a general interest in WWE but might not have watched a match in months, we're happy to provide this FAQ as a guide to Survivor Series: WarGames, on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET from Petco Park in San Diego. The Premium Live Event (PLE) will stream exclusively in the U.S. for fans with a subscription to the ESPN Unlimited plan -- either directly or through a traditional pay TV package -- on the ESPN App.
What's a WarGames match again?
We've come a long way from the humble beginnings of Survivor Series. Back in the day, it was all about multi-wrestler elimination tag-team matches, with mismatched partners and goofy team names like "Roddy's Rowdies" and "Clowns Are Us." Want to see Lex Luger team with The Undertaker against a team of "foreigners" that included Roman Reigns' cousin, Yokozuna? There's a Survivor Series for that!
Since 2022, Survivor Series has featured men's and women's WarGames matches contested between the two rings surrounded by a giant steel cage without a roof. The lack of ceiling denotes the difference between a "cage" and a "cell" in WWE parlance. Two participants from each five-person team start the match. A new member from each team enters the match at preset time intervals until all the participants are in the ring and the match officially begins. The match can only be won by pinfall or submission. Things tend to get violent fairly quickly.
Last year's match had Roman Reigns teaming with his cousins, Jimmy and Jey Uso, while forging a fragile alliance with CM Punk, against a team with Bronson Reed on it. This year's match has ... Reigns teaming with his cousins Jimmy and Jey Uso, while forging a fragile alliance with Punk, against a team with Bronson Reed on it. But so much more!
Who's battling in the men's WarGames match?
In addition to The Usos and Punk, the fifth member of Reigns' team this year is undisputed WWE champion Cody Rhodes. And by that we mean "Rhodes' team." Or is it world heavyweight champion CM Punk's team? As usual, galactic-sized egos are trying to coexist for the greater good, but Reigns has indicated he wouldn't mind a shot at either Rhodes or Punk's title when this WarGames business is over.
In this case, "the greater good" is beating the snot out of The Vision, the faction led by the malevolent Paul Heyman. Please recall that The Vision was the group founded by Seth Rollins after his epic heel turn against Reigns and Punk at WrestleMania 41. The Vision is now Bron Breakker and Reed, who joined forces with Rollins only to attack him months later, writing him off television for at least six months following a reported shoulder injury suffered at Crown Jewel (Although after that swerve with the crutches, we're side-eying any Rollins injury timeline.)
What's the sense of having nefarious antagonists if Logan Paul isn't part of the team, right? The heat magnet slugged Punk with a pair of brass knuckles on a recent episode of "Raw" before aligning with Heyman's group. Later, Paul and The Vision attacked Punk, with Rhodes and Jey Uso arriving to have his back against their own rivals. Punk issued the challenge for a WarGames match, telling Heyman to go find his team. The next guy he found technically wasn't allowed to wrestle.
Drew McIntyre was suspended by "SmackDown" general manager Nick Aldis for attacking a referee. But Heyman, wise man that he is, found a loophole in his WarGames contract: He was allowed to choose any member of the WWE roster to join Team Vision. McIntyre, while suspended, is still a member of the roster, so he was on the team and joined in an attack on the Usos, Rhodes and Punk.
On Nov. 17, Heyman's team added a formidable fifth: Brock Lesnar, who hit the "Raw" ring and gave Punk and Rhodes an all-expenses-paid trip to Suplex City. But just as Lesnar was congratulating Heyman at ringside, Reigns' music hit to the shock of the crowd. One Superman punch on Lesnar later, and it was clear the odds had been evened.
(Lesnar would later light up the internet on the "go home" episode of "Raw," slipping and falling during his pyro-filled intro. But we give him major props for the Simone Biles-esque somersault that undercut the botch.)
While half the competitors in this WarGames match were banging against the cages a year ago, this is far from a repeat affair. Heyman was aligned with Punk and Reigns in 2024 -- not so much now. Last year's match was in the last gasps of The Bloodline feud; this year's event finds The Vision, and especially Breakker, more ascendant. And due respect to Sami Zayn, who was the fifth member of the Punk-Reigns team last year, but any WarGames is more compelling with Rhodes inside the cages, considering his father, the late Dusty Rhodes, was the inventor of the format.
What about the women's WarGames match?
There are a lot of simmering rivalries fueling this match, but the most compelling features a former women's champion who hadn't been seen in the WWE for nearly a decade before this year: AJ Lee.
About two months ago, Punk was feuding with WWE power couple Rollins and Becky Lynch, who attacked Punk during a match against Rollins at Clash In Paris. When Lynch and Punk dueled on the mic in the aftermath of that attack, fans began chanting "AJ Lee!" in reference to Punk's real-life wife. Lynch eventually snapped back with "she doesn't work here!" ... until Lee started working there again in September, skipping out of the back like it was 2013 again, to the shock of Lynch.
This led to a mixed tag-team match between the two couples at Wrestlepalooza, where Lee forced Lynch to submit with the Black Widow. Then came the ultimate indignity: Lee distracted Lynch in a title match at Madison Square Garden, allowing Maxxine Dupri to end "The Man's" Intercontinental Championship reign at a record 163 days.
The loss sent Lynch into a spiral. She accused referee Jessika Carr of being a "crooked" CM Punk fan. She threatened legal action, calling Lee an unlicensed manager at ringside and claiming the match was "rigged."
Another feud in the women's WarGames match is between The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) and their former teammate, Iyo Sky. The Warriors didn't like that Sky wanted to align with Rhea Ripley, which eventually led them to turn on Sky and attack both Sky and Ripley.
Meanwhile, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss -- the rivals-to-besties who won the Women's Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam in August -- were involved in a feud with Nia Jax and, eventually, NXT call-up Lash Legend. The former WNBA player, Legend, attacked Bliss during a match between Flair and Jax and later helped Jax cost them the titles in a match against new champs, The Kabuki Warriors. Sky and Ripley returned from injury to rescue Bliss and Flair from a four-on-two beatdown, leading Ripley -- sporting a facemask after breaking her nose in a match last month -- to issue the challenge to WarGames.
Initially, Flair refused to play Ripley's reindeer games, citing their long history as rivals as a reason not to trust her. But thanks to a wooden table, dramatic music and mood lightning, the two called a truce after Ripley said there was no one she'd rather go to war with. Which, admittedly, sounded a little confrontational, so she followed that up with "there's no one I'd rather stand side-by-side with" in a war.
Anyway, Flair was like "OK" because flattery will get you everywhere.
There's a ton of talent in this match, with high-flyers and power wrestlers. But it's hard not to think that this War Games match will come down to Lynch and Lee.
What about the Women's World Championship?
WWE women's champion Jade Cargill isn't on the Survivor Series card -- although she might have some business with women's United States champion Chelsea Green on the horizon. Women's world title holder Stephanie Vaquer, she of the scary ram horns, defends her title against former ally Nikki Bella at Survivor Series.
Vaquer and Bella were a tag team feuding with the Judgment Day's Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. Vaquer put over the fact that she was teaming with a Divas' Revolution legend. As the saying goes, never form a makeshift tag team with your idols. Bella turned on Vaquer, attacking her with the title belt then doffing her red shirt to reveal an EVIL BLACK SHIRT underneath, like she went from nWo WolfPac to Hollywood in an instant!
Whoever could have seen a betrayal like this coming from Nikki Bella? You know, besides her twin sister, Brie?
What's the latest on the John Cena retirement tour?
Survivor Series is the final PLE for Cena before his retirement match on Dec. 13 at Saturday Night's Main Event in Washington, D.C. Fun fact: He first appeared on a WWE pay-per-view over 23 years ago, defeating Chris Jericho at Vengeance 2002.
Cena enters Survivor Series as Grand Slam Champion after his Intercontinental Championship victory over Dominik Mysterio on Nov. 10, winning each of the singles and tag team championships during his WWE career. That victory came in Boston, not far from Cena's hometown of West Newbury. He agreed to give "Dirty Dom" a rematch in Mysterio's hometown of San Diego at Survivor Series.
As one might expect, Mysterio has enjoyed trolling Cena ahead of their title rematch. Witness his shenanigans at "Raw' on Monday, when he popped the crowd by playing Cena's theme music only to have a Micro Wrestling Federation wrestler dressed as Cena emerge from the back. When "little" John went off script in the ring, Dom gave him a boot to the chest. Just in case you were worried, Dom couldn't become any more loathsome.
While Cena has this title defense at Survivor Series, there's an ongoing "The Last Time Is Now" tournament in the WWE to determine who will face "The Last Real Champion" in his retirement match.
Did you know that Gunther, who is in the final four of the tournament, is the longest reigning Intercontinental champion ever and has never before faced Cena in a match? Huh, fancy that.
What's the biggest thing to watch at Survivor Series?
The thing to watch for this Saturday is the thing that's always made Survivor Series matches intriguing: "Can they coexist?"
That not only goes for Flair and Ripley in the women's match, but the holy trinity of self-importance that is Rhodes, Punk and Reigns -- three wrestlers united by a common enemy and potentially divided by their own self-interests. In the end, the real survivors are the ones who can check their egos at the cage door. And clearly, not everyone in these WarGames will survive them.
