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, scheduled for Saturday at 6p.m. ET (Peacock) at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.
WarGames ... that's the one with the two teams in two rings under one giant steel cage, right?
In other words, the perfect environment for grudges to be settled and uneasy "BUT CAN THEY COEXIST!?" alliances and competitors to be so worn out by the grueling metal-encased battle that they stay down for prolonged periods so we can focus on other storylines during the match.
It can get pretty chaotic ... eventually. The match starts as a 1-on-1 battle, and then a new competitor from each team enters every three minutes after that. The actual WarGames match officially begins when all the participants have joined. It can only be won by pinfall or submission -- hence, anything goes in this no-disqualification battle.
Recall the 2023 Survivor Series, when a team led by Cody Rhodes defeated The Judgement Day only to have the match immediately overshadowed by a returning CM Punk at the end of the event. How do you top that one year later? By having CM Punk take part in a WarGames match, fighting beside Roman Reigns and the original Bloodline against the Solo Sikoa-led new Bloodline.
Wait, Reigns is fighting "The Bloodline"? Wasn't he the Tribal Chief? And he has his own Bloodline again, and Punk is fighting with them? Is he even Samoan?
Yes, it's a lot to unpack. Let's catch up with this yearslong storyline.
Reigns disappeared from WWE after losing the Undisputed Universal Championship to Rhodes at WrestleMania XL. In that power vacuum, Sikoa declared himself the new Tribal Chief of The Bloodline. In the process, he exiled Jimmy Uso and kicked "The Wiseman" Paul Heyman out of the group, populating the new faction with Sikoa loyalists: Jacob Fatu and The Tongans, Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa.
Reigns made his dramatic return at SummerSlam during Rhodes' title defense against Sikoa, wearing an "OTC" shirt. Which apparently means "Original Tribal Chief."
(This is one of those great kayfabe moments that makes wrestling so much fun: Did Reigns consult the WWE merchandising department before deciding to interrupt the main event of SummerSlam? Or do they just have "OTC" shirts available on the off chance Roman came back and conveyed his displeasure with Sikoa's duplicity?)
Anyway, Reigns speared Sikoa and allowed Rhodes to win the match after the two had the kind of intense stare-down usually reserved for Vin Diesel movies.
Cut to Bad Blood 2024 in October, where Rhodes and Reigns teamed up against Sikoa and Fatu. Reigns was about to finish off Sikoa with a spear when he was distracted by Tonga and Loa, and took a spear from Sikoa instead. Afterward, Sikoa had a chance to finish Reigns with a Samoan Spike but succumbed to what the late film critic Roger Ebert termed "The Fallacy of the Talking Killer," in which the villain has a chance to vanquish his opponent if he would just shut up and stop taunting him.
That delay allowed a hooded, masked figure to emerge behind Tonga and Loa, taking them both out with superkicks before revealing his identity: Jimmy Uso, gone for six months, and now reunited with Reigns. They returned to the ring to help Rhodes as he was being jumped by Bloodline 2.0 -- before the Guitar Hero version of The Rock's theme hit and "The Great One" reminded everyone that he is in fact "The Final Boss", as his graphics package would indicate.
Jimmy Uso eventually told Reigns that the two needed to reunite with Jey Uso in their fight against Sikoa. One tiny problem: Jey attacked and left The Bloodline after Jimmy cost him the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam 2023, claiming that winning the title would corrupt Jey. That led to a year of Jey wrestling as a singles star and selling a metric ton of "YEET" T-shirts, free of The Bloodline.
Jey refused the overture from Jimmy and Reigns until Bloodline 2.0 cost Jey his Intercontinental title due to interference. Last month, Jey finally rejoined his brother and the OTC on the condition that Reigns treat him as an equal. Seeing as how Reigns is completely free of ego and self-glorification, this shouldn't be a problem, right?
Sikoa, Fatu and Tama Tonga faced Reigns and The Usos at the Crown Jewel event earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, and the aftermath included a delightful development for those who have followed The Bloodline saga: Sami Zayn surprise attacking Sikoa, saving Jey Uso ... and then accidentally delivering a Helluva Kick to Reigns.
No matter: Zayn was back with The Usos. Please recall he was an "Honorary Uce" until breaking with the Bloodline in 2023 -- after frequently forcing the Bloodline to break character (with laughs) during his hilarious interviews.
But WarGames are traditionally 5-on-5. With Zayn back, each side of The Bloodline feud still only had four members. So Sikoa recruited 330-pound mountain Bronson Reed, who has Samoan heritage. What would the O.G. Bloodline do to even the odds?
On SmackDown, they had their answer courtesy of a returning Paul Heyman, looking like he spent some time in Adam Cole's tanning bed. The Wiseman revealed that CM Punk would fill out the team for WarGames -- the same Punk who five months earlier called Sikoa's Bloodline "fake-ass Usos and a phony cosplay Tribal Chief."
Long-term storytelling! Triple H, we acknowledge you!
Will The Rock electrify Survivor Series and upend the Bloodline feud?
Tough to say. He's currently filming the live-action "Moana," which could dominate his schedule and prevent him from making the trip to Vancouver.
[Glances at box office revenues for "Red One."]
Yeah, he'll probably show up.
What about Cody Rhodes?
The undisputed WWE champion defeated world heavyweight champion Gunther to win the inaugural WWE Crown Jewel championship in his last high-profile match. Rather than lend his babyface star power to Survivor Series, Rhodes's next big showdown is with Kevin Owens on the return of "Saturday Night's Main Event" to NBC and Peacock on Dec. 14.
Owens attacked Rhodes in the parking lot after Bad Blood in a fun segment that was captured on fans' cell phones. Owens, who put Randy Orton out of commission with a piledriver, claims that Rhodes lost his way as champion in teaming with Reigns, a.k.a. "the guy who tried to take my livelihood away." And K.O. has a way of being convincing in a feud like this.
Are we at least getting Gunther defending his world title at Survivor Series?
Indeed we are, against a familiar opponent: Damian Priest, from whom Gunther took the title at SummerSlam. Priest won a chaotic fatal four-way match with Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Sheamus and his former stablemate and ESPN's No. 1 wrestler under 30 in Dominik Mysterio which featured copious amounts of Bronson Reed interference. Priest pinned Mysterio to earn the shot against Gunther. Gee, I wonder if Dom will be in attendance in Vancouver ...
Meanwhile, one of Gunther's Imperium lieutenants is taking part in a championship match.
Sounds like a Bron Breakker match.
Breakker, the son of Rick Steiner and the nephew of Scott Steiner, has continued his ascent in the WWE by winning the Intercontinental championship again, joining such wrestling legends as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho and Bad News Barrett as multi-time IC champs.
Breakker, who finished No. 11 on ESPN's 30 under 30 list, defends the strap in a three-way dance with Imperium's Ludwig Kaiser and everyone's favorite fella, Sheamus. Of note, neither of Breakker's opponents has ever won the Intercontinental belt. The late edition to the Survivor Series card came after Sheamus interfered in a Breakker vs. Kaiser title match on RAW. Slobber will be knocked in this match, one of three singles title bouts on the card.
What's the other championship match?
LA Knight defends his United States championship against Shinsuke Nakamura, who keeps attacking Knight after his successful title defenses. Which, frankly, is a handy way to get a guy's attention.
Nakamura made a spooky video in which he claimed that the crowd reacting to Knight is an illustration of his personal insecurities and -- look, this match was a late addition to the card and a way to get everyone to chant "Yeah!" Sometimes that's fine.
What about the other WarGames match?
As soap operatic as The Bloodline has gotten, it doesn't hold a candle to the enmity between Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley. It's got romance. It's got betrayal. It's got a villainess systematically stripping away everything her rival holds dear -- thanks in no small part to the duplicitous "ex-con" in the middle of it all, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio.
Back in April, Morgan injured Ripley in an attack that forced Rhea to vacate her women's world championship. Morgan eventually captured that title ... while starting to make time with Mysterio while Ripley was out of action. Ripley, who finished No. 4 on ESPN's 30 under 30 list, returned in July to break up an amorous moment in the ring between the two; and despite his protestations to the contrary, Mysterio helped Morgan defeat Ripley at SummerSlam and planted (gasp!) a big smooch on Morgan to formally betray Ripley.
Then Morgan stole Ripley's faction, joining The Judgement Day while excommunicating Ripley from the group. This is straight-up "Mean Girls" scheming.
The two met again at Bad Blood with Mysterio suspended above the arena floor in a shark cage. At one point, Mysterio fell out of the cage's open door and dangled in the air by his foot restraint. Ripley found a kendo stick and started going to town on his back -- until a returning Raquel Rodriguez attacked Ripley for the DQ. Morgan kept the title, and Rodriguez joined Judgement Day.
Later, Morgan and Rodriguez attacked Ripley in the WWE Performance Center parking lot -- always a treacherous place -- and Ripley injured her orbital bone. They moved on to a feud with WWE women's tag-team champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, attacking them during a match involving Nia Jax against Naomi on SmackDown. Jax was the beneficiary of interference from Tiffany "Ms. Money in the Bank" Stratton and Candice LeRae, despite the best efforts from Bayley to keep them at bay.
Naomi, Cargill, Belair and Iyo Sky -- the No. 1 contender for Morgan's title after winning a battle royal for the honor -- were aligned against Morgan, Rodriguez, Stratton, Jax and LeRae on an episode of RAW. That's when they revealed their fifth member: a returning Ripley, wearing a protective facemask, who bellowed "WAR GAMES!" before head-butting Morgan like a hooligan.
Alas, Cargill was thrown off a platform and through a car windshield by a mysterious assailant, which put her out of action and necessitated that Bayley join the WarGames team. She has heat with both Stratton and Jax, who won the WWE women's championship from Bayley at SummerSlam.
There's a lot of "CAN THEY COEXIST!?" happening within that Ripley-Bayley-Belair team. The WWE can put as many wrestling rings inside of steel cages as they want, but it's that uneasy alliance that has always been the essence of Survivor Series: a disparate collection of wrestlers, thrown together by circumstance or fate, trying to win as a team or fall apart because they couldn't work as one.
To put it in seasonal terms: It's like a Friendsgiving dinner where everyone is one wrong move away from throwing a pumpkin (or sweet potato) pie across the table. And that's what makes this all delicious.
