It's The Let's Watch Some Wrestling WWE Survivor Series/ WarGames Preview!

 

Good Morning!

It’s Friday morning as I’m sitting down to write this. The house is still asleep since my wife had to stop in to the emergency animal hospital she helps manage, and I slept in after cooking a massive Thanksgiving meal for the two of us and our buddy. So, leftovers for the next week or so it is! And not just any leftovers: the best idea from one of my favorite TV shows of all time, interpreted by one of my favorite YouTube cooks. It’s Thanksgiving Balls!

That’s right. As Shawn Spencer says, “It is an entire meal of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and an Andes mint rolled into a ball, battered, and deep fried.” A whole-ass Thanksgiving dinner, deconstructed and re-constructed into a handy little ball. And while Psych had a tendency to make up some outlandish foods without giving the viewer much background -- quatro quesos dos fritas, for example -- this is one that the internet was nice enough to prepare a recipe for. I’ve made them in the past, and I’ll be sure to post some pics of the glorious final product.

As for the week, I understand that many folks have a tough relationship with Turkey Day. It can be hard to deal with family for any number of reasons, and pressure to do what one is “supposed to” can really wreak havoc on the nerves. I ain’t here for all that! We run a low-key household, where we welcome anybody to eat and watch Mystery Science Theater and generally just relax. It’s been especially cool to have friends who just moved out here get to enjoy a meal or two with us before they gain a foothold and establish their own traditions, whether that’s with their own families or chosen ones. I just like cooking, eating, and watching robots make fun of movies on Thanksgiving. I’m a simple man that way.

The WWE Survivor Series/ WarGames Preview!

First things first here: I don’t really like the whole “Survivor Series as WarGames” gimmick. WWE went through all the trouble of getting rid of the contrived Hell in a Cell pay-per-view only to do the same thing with WarGames -- force a narrative so that a pair of big matches have to happen for a gimmick match at a gimmick show. And don't get me wrong, Survivor Series was that same thing before it was turned into Triple H’s new baby. But it at least made a little more sense, as teams were generally like-minded individuals, and the matches weren’t of the Blood and Guts variety.

The Fed considers Survivor Series to be one of its “Big Four” shows, although I would say that we hadn’t had many consequences for this big show for years, until recently. Before WarGames, the tacky “Raw vs SmackDown” storyline popped up every November, with superstars briefly becoming incredibly loyal to the brand they wrestled on, just long enough to squeeze a few matches out. But it was the format that I liked! Sole survivors, multi-person tag team elimination format, loose alliances with cool team names. 

Give me that over lousy builds for matches that are way too high-stakes for the storylines. I get it for the Bloodline vs Bloodline thing, that’s just an ongoing feud where every match at this point seems like it’s worth adding a stipulation. But the women’s WarGames match this year stands out for its slapdash construction. And yeah, WWE had to pivot away from Jade Cargill when she got injured, slowing the breakup of our women’s tag team champs. But it’s still a very flimsy set of good guys, teaming up to bring down the champs of both main shows plus some flunkies. And there’s no real stakes, either. You win, you celebrate, you move on. No championships or number-one contenderships are on the line…although there is still a Money in the Bank briefcase in play. We’ll get to that in a bit.

But I digress! The women assembled for this year’s WarGames match include some of the best in recent WarGames history, IYO SKY and Candice LaRae in particular. Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley are top-tier superstars, and if this match somehow leads to a match between the two of them while Cargill heals up, all the better. And Bayley, well…we love Bayley. I’ve heard some talk that folks would like to see her turn heel again, but I think it’s too soon for that. She had a bummer of a championship run this year, and her theme music and character motivations are crap, but she’s still great in the ring. I just don’t feel like giving up on one of the greatest babyfaces in recent history for a quick bump in crowd noise is necessary -- at least not yet.

So let’s get into this preview. Aside from the two big WarGames matches, we’ve got three championships on the line on Saturday night as well. And since I enjoyed doing it, we’ll do the WWE 2K24 simulations alongside my own predictions. There’s a little hiccup in that the game can only handle eight wrestlers in the ring at a time, meaning our Survivor Series matches will have to lose a member of each team. I tried to pick the person who will have the least impact for their team in terms of outcome and storyline. 

I benched Candice LaRae for Team Evil - Women’s Division, because even though she’s probably going to have a bonkers spot in the real life match, I think she’s the least likely to influence the finish of the match. She also threw off the balance between champs and pals, so she’s out. For Team Good (no relation) I pulled Naomi simply because she isn’t in the game, and I forgot to download her when I was assembling this roster. Sorry, Naomi, although I do see stuff happening with you down the road!

For the men’s match, I had to employ different logic for who to sit. With a tag team on each team, it made more sense to bench the member who’s less likely to affect both this match, and upcoming storylines. So Jimmy Uso and Tonga Loa both were pulled for this one, and non-family members CM Punk and Bronson Reed were allowed to stay.

Bianca Belair, Bayley, Naomi, IYO SKY, and Rhea Ripley versus Liv Morgan, Raquelle Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LaRae in a WarGames match

As I said earlier, this match is kind of a slapped-together bit of business. Part of that is due to Jade Cargill being replaced by Bayley, but the whole bad guy team is basically together because the good guys needed people to fight, and those championship rivalries were already established. 

Aside from the constant threat of Tiffany Stratton cashing in her title opportunity, there hasn’t been a lot of excitement from the WWE women’s division. Rhea came back from an injury to resume her feud with Liv Morgan, got injured again, came back again, and just resumed that rivalry. Nia Jax has been dominant as champ, and the assembly of a team of mean girls to help her retain that title has been good for getting other talent on TV, but never really feels necessary, you know? Nia’s not a cowardly heel, she’s a powerhouse that doesn’t need to fall back on the generic tropes that most bad guys in a group use.

So what do we have? A couple champs and their pals, one of whom is worth keeping an eye on throughout this match, as Stratton cashing in is always a possibility. On the other side, we’ve got Bianca Belair learning to trust Bayley, whom IYO SKY turned on earlier this year before turning face herself. Rhea we talked about. That leaves Naomi as kind of a wild card on the good guy team. I think we’ve seen some hints that she could turn heel, as her position as the third wheel to tag champs Belair and Cargill might have birthed a little jealousy. She is a former world champion, why is she relegated to helping the tag champs retain their titles? For that matter, why was she put into a group at all? 

I kind of like the idea of Stratton cashing in mid-match. Inject some fun chaos into this women’s division. While we’re at it, let’s turn Naomi soon, too. Hell, folks have been fantasy booking her into the Bloodline for a while now. Why not bring some women into that whole storyline, too? 

My Pick: The good guys win, Bianca looks strong, some new stories begin

These matches are LONG in real life, and watching the video game version of them felt like it would be a little daunting. But the downtime between entrants is shorter, and the health bars at the bottom of the screen give enough extra information to help navigate downtime. I ran this one after the men’s, and as such plotted entries a little better. Bianca and Tiffy started things off, as I imagined Bianca wanted to show her teammates why she’s the de facto leader of their side, and Nia would want Stratton a little run down early, just in case she decides to try to cash in again. 

A regular back-and-forth between those two was ended when Raquel Rodriguez, with sledgehammer, entered the brawl. Bianca took a helluva beating until IYO ran in to help her out, but her missed dropkick to Rodriguez led to both the good guys taking extended bludgeonings from the baddies. Bianca eventually recovered, tossing Stratton into the other ring and resuming their match for a while. Raquel beat poor IYO up even more before swapping rings to help Tiffy out, and by the time Nia Jax joined in everybody was in the right ring. 

Crowding in that ring did the bad guys no favors, as Raquel “accidentally” whaled on Jax with her sledgehammer a number of times while Bayley made her way to the cage. Bianca and Tiffy really stayed paired up for the better part of the match, which feels like a programming issue but also made me want more of that matchup in a real ring. Bayley separated Rodriguez from the rest of the group, but IYO SKY’s penchant for trash can offense in real WarGames matches came true in the game, and she accidentally took Bayley out after 3 finishers would have ended the match. Nia hit a pinfall on IYO shortly afterward, and that was that. 

2k24 says: Bad guys win due to miscommunication!

L.A. Knight © versus Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States  Championship

Shinsuke is a weird guy. And I don’t just mean, like, his whole aura. I mean he’s hard to figure out. Does he still care about wrestling? His matches aren’t great, and haven’t been for some time. When he hasn’t been injured, there have been long stretches where WWE just hasn’t used him. I wonder if it’s just a case of mutual burnout -- Shin isn’t used, doesn’t like that, doesn’t put his all into his work. WWE sees that, isn’t in any hurry to use him again, doesn’t book him into anything too consequential. 

That brings us to this match, which could be viewed as filler in Knight’s championship run. Since winning the title from Logan Paul at SummerSlam in early August, Knight has defended against Santos Escobar, Ludwig Kaiser, Andrade, and Carmelo Hayes. While those matches haven’t been bad, I’ve never felt like any of his challengers have really had a chance. It’s weird to pick against better wrestlers simply because a guy says YEAUH and the crowd loses their minds, but that’s where we’re at with LA Knight. He’s still super over, despite his ring work being average at best. Plus, look at how happy he looks in the game!

But what if he does lose here? What if Shinsuke feels like proving himself and we get a longer feud and some good matches out of this budding rivalry? Nakamura has only been back for a few weeks now, and it would be a bit weird to have him lose immediately after re-introducing him. And he’s made some good points about LA Knight in his promos: if the US title is Knight’s identity, a decent story could be built around Knight needing to win it back, maybe even turning heelish to do so. It’s more interesting than Knight being the lesser guy in rivalries with guys who always seem to have better matchups floating around while they’re also engaged with Knight. So why not? Let’s be bold here.

My Pick: Shinsuke Nakamura wins, even if only to drop the title back to LA Knight in the near future.

2k24 says:

LA Knight retains, which is probably more likely even if it is a little boring. 

Bronn Breakker © versus Sheamus versus Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Championship

Sheamus and Kaiser have gone back and forth for weeks now, interfering in each others’ matches when they aren’t fighting directly. So it makes sense to just toss them into a match with Bronn together, although I don’t get why Breakker gets punished for these other guys being idiots. 

Regardless, I can’t imagine this plays out any differently than it has for the buildup to this match -- Sheamus and Ludwig negate each other, and neither walks away with a championship. Bronn should be able to have some fun with the double-ring setup that WarGames provides, though. Maybe all that extra running room results in a super spear for the ages? Who’s to say!

My Pick: Bronn retains, and Sheamus and Kaiser continue their feud.

2k24 says:

Shockingly, Ludwig Kaiser! The little guy managed to sneak a win by taking advantage of Bronn Breakker’s hubris. Bronn laid Kaiser out inside the ring before annihilating Sheamus with a spear near the announce table, but then the champ decided to pose and clear off the table for a big finish. While he was doing that, Sheamus recovered and slid into the ring, right into a possum pin for the quick 1-2-3. Bronn was locked in an animation, and wasn’t able to slide back into the ring to try to break up the pin until it was too late, and his elbow drop to kaiser was just a second too slow. Unlikely, but that’s why we sim the games!

GUNTHER © versus Damien Priest for the World Heavyweight Championship

I think WWE has done a good job with this feud despite it feeling really predictable. Priest isn’t winning here -- I think we can all agree on that. But when the former leader of the Judgment Day (non-Ripley division) won the match that scored him this title shot, I know a lot of us sighed and just figured we were killing time until GUNTHER gets into a real program with a real big deal superstar. However, the narrative of the champ questioning himself, and seeing what happens to his confidence as a result, has made for a few weeks of interesting TV. At least they’re trying.

Priest is always improving, which is a little weird to say for a guy that has been wrestling as long as he has. I think he’s got a lot going for him, too -- the whole “bisexual Undertaker” label is a little much, but he’s definitely got a rockstar vibe working for him. People seem to want to cheer for him, but putting him back into a feud with GUNTHER this soon doesn’t really help him. We know he’s not winning, and while the TV has been good, it’s had less to do with Damien and more to do with GUNTHER and, to a lesser extent, Ludwig Kaiser.

I’m interested to see where both of these guys go after this show. GUNTHER has a number of challengers waiting in the wings, and Priest’s solo face run should get some more time before anyone declares it a success or a failure. But for the purposes of this preview, decent match, GUNTHER wins, we move on.

My Pick: GUNTHER retains

2k24 says:

The same! HOWEVER, it should be noted that Ludwig Kaiser was manager for this match. I didn’t know that when you pick Kaiser to manage GUNTHER, there’s a lengthy cutscene with Ludwig doing the ring announcing for the champ! It’s a cool little Easter egg in a game full of them. Ludwig also directly contributed to the win, distracting Priest several times throughout the match. After hitting a Razor’s Edge that could have won him the match, Damien got into a shouting match with Kaiser that allowed GUNTHER to lock a sleeper hold in, allowing him to retain in a much closer match than I think we’ll see on Saturday.

Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn, and CM Punk versus Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Bronson Reed in a WarGames match

This match has been so, so well set up that I am willing to forgive the whole forced nature of WarGames for it. Of course, when you have a single narrative that’s been running for the better part of three years, weaving its members into any kind of match isn’t too difficult. However, the addition of CM Punk and Bronson Reed, and by extension Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre and Paul Heyman, has really put the outcome of this WarGames, and the direction of the story to come, into question. I legit have no idea if there’s a turn coming, although I did notice that Paulie was looking a little like a Solo Sikoa tribute in his red shirt and black jacket the other night. I haven’t seen spoilers for the taped SmackDown that airs tonight, and while I can’t imagine too much will happen before the PLE, you never know what little bread crumbs might be dropped.

I’ll say the bad guys win because there’s never not drama among Triple H’s good guys. It almost feels like the faces he writes are just waiting for their turn to, well, turn, because bad guys are just cooler. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but it has made for a compelling story so far. 

There are just too many moving parts on the OG Bloodline team for me to think that everything will go smoothly. Punk brings the baggage of a Drew McIntyre storyline that hasn’t necessarily finished up. Seth Rollins can say he was really thinking about joining up after being attacked, and Punk is just taking yet another opportunity from him. Heyman may still be holding a grudge against both Punk and/or Roman Reigns, and maybe he’s got another Paul Heyman guy or two waiting for revenge. Sami Zayn and Jimmy Uso aren’t even necessarily on the same page, and that doesn’t even begin to get into Sami’s forever rival/brother Kevin Owens, or KO’s relationship with Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, too. And Roman, while playing nice for now, is only recently removed from a reign of terror that saw every show and every story revolve around his whims. On top of all that, there’s a nonzero chance that the Final Boss himself, the Rock himself, could make an appearance!

My Pick: As Dark Helmet said, “Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.”

Solo and Roman started things off, because I didn’t realize that the entrants aren’t randomized. Whoops! That’s fine, though -- let the respective heads of the tables battle it out before their subordinates jump into the fray on their behalf. After some back and forth, Solo nailed Reigns with a spike before Jacob Fatu came into the cage. Roman made a bit of a comeback before the New Bloodliners realized they didn’t have to take turns attacking, and he was at the mercy of the two until Jey Uso popped in to even things out. Jey went right after Solo, giving me the pairing of Jacob and Roman that I really hope plays out on Saturday. 

Tama Tonga was the first to bring a weapon with him into the match, tossing a stop sign and a table in before joining. Sami Zayn took that as inspiration, tossing a steel chair and sledgehammer in, too. Things started to spread out a little more now, with Zayn and Reigns teaming up against Solo in one ring, and Fatu and Loa getting more than they could handle with Jey in the other. The addition of Bronson Reed moved everyone into the right side ring, but crowding started to make things awkward -- twice, Reed tried to put Zayn through a table only for janky pathfinding to force him to abort the attack. 

CM Punk came in last, and Bronson Reed immediately put the veteran through a table for his troubles. That victory was short-lived, though. While that was going on, Roman found Solo Sikoa once again, and locked in a submission that resulted in Solo tapping out and Roman picking up the win for the good guys.

2k24 says: OG Bloodline, with Roman choking out Solo Sikoa.

And that’s it!

Survivor Series, for all its flaws, has become the beginning of the road to WrestleMania. While the Royal Rumble is where it gets going in earnest, I think we learn a lot about who WWE thinks is “main event material” on this show. I’m hoping for strong showings for several of the participants in the matches on this show, as I really do like a lot of the talent involved. Tiffany Stratton is a superstar in waiting. Ludwig Kaiser may have lost his biggest proponent in Samantha Irving’s announcing, but he’s shown a lot of character development to go with his in-ring acumen. Priest and GUNTHER have worked together enough to maybe surprise us with some new wrinkles in their work, and Bronn Breakker could steal the show with some insane spot. 

On top of the non-WarGames matches, that main event is really going to show us where the next few months will lead. Challengers for both GUNTHER and Cody Rhodes may materialize, and undercard titles will also start to have some direction. It’s an exciting time to be a fan, and I can’t wait to see where we are after this weekend! We’ve also got Collision and Rampage on Saturday for the AEW sickos, so I’ll try to make time to watch those before putting together a weekend review of everything for the early part of next week.

Thank you so much for reading. If you liked what you saw, consider telling your friends, mentioning Let’s Watch Some Wrestling on social media, or even buying me a hot cup of coffee using the Ko-Fi button. Have a great week, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!

2024 Predictions

WWE Royal Rumble 2/4

NXT Vengeance Day 1/6

WWE Elimination Chamber Perth 4/4

AEW Revolution 9/11

NXT Roadblock 4/6

NXT Stand and Deliver 5/7

WWE WrestleMania Night One 4.5/7

WWE WrestleMania Night Two 4/6

AEW Dynasty 11/12

WWE Backlash 5/5

WWE King and Queen of the Ring (SSM XIV) 6/6

AEW Double or Nothing 9/12

NXT Battleground 4/6

WWE Money in the Bank 2/5

NXT Heatwave 3/6

AEW All In 6/10

WWE Bash in Berlin 3/5

NXT No Mercy 3/6

AEW Full Gear 8/9

Total Correct/Total Predictions 93.5/133

2K Predictions

AEW Full Gear 4/9