For nearly 40 years, Survivor Series has been one of WWE’s premier pay-per-view events. This year’s event is going to make history for multiple reasons. For one, over 45,000 fans will be in attendance, making it the biggest crowd to ever witness a Survivor Series live and in person.
More importantly, though, this show will feature the very last pay-per-view match for John Cena, as we are exactly two weeks away from his career coming to an end. I continue to say this, but I’m not ready for his career to be wrapped up. Even though his opponent here, Dominik Mysterio, is in his hometown of San Diego, California, I am fully expecting yet another rowdy crowd that is fully behind the retiring legend.
It’s a small card, with only four matches listed, but two of them are WarGames bouts, and WWE hasn’t had a WarGames match go less than 30 minutes since 2019, and that particular one was a four-on-four contest. With both editions being five-on-five this year, I’m thinking it’s a safe bet that we’ll be getting two matches in the vicinity of 40 minutes each.
No more talk, and no more wasting time. The fans inside of Petco Park are ready. I’m ready. Are you ready?
Let’s have some fun.
Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Iyo Sky & AJ Lee vs Becky Lynch, Asuka, Kairi Sane, Nia Jax & Lash Legend – Women’s WarGames Match
With the megawatt star power in the men’s WarGames match, I don’t think anyone is surprised to see this match go on first. I would assume that aforementioned star power will mean that the men’s match goes on last, too.
Charlotte’s ring gear is apparently designed by a seven-year-old girl who is currently battling a brain tumor. The girl is in the front row in the aisleway, and she and Charlotte make a heart with their hands and have a moment together. As the father of a seven-year-old girl, that hit me right in the feels. I wasn’t expecting to get misty eyed before the first match is even underway, but here we are.
Charlotte and Asuka are starting things out here, with Charlotte’s team getting the advantage in five minutes.
It’s just after 4pm in San Diego, so there’s still plenty of daylight out. It’s a great visual in an open air baseball stadium, and something that we don’t see often enough during wrestling shows.
Iyo Sky is out next, giving the face squad the temporary numbers advantage. She makes her entrance holding a trash can lid that has her logo painted on it.
Iyo went for a double jump move of some sort, jumping from one ring to the other, but she slips a bit, landing short of Asuka. Being the pro that she is, though, she recovers almost instantly and was still able to land some offense. That could’ve been a rough spot, but she saved it and saved it well.
Becky Lynch is out next, wielding a kendo stick as she marches to the ring. Iyo is on the receiving end of multiple shots from said kendo stick.
As Becky talks trash to Charlotte while beating her down, Alexa Bliss is our next entrant, giving the face squad the numbers advantage again. Alexa hits the ring with the quickness, and she makes a difference right away, as Asuka and Becky were on the offensive. With Alexa in the ring, things change right away, and now it’s Becky that is tasting Charlotte’s boot and the steel cage at the same time.
Kairi Sane is the next entrant, and she is bringing a chain to the ring with her. So far, everything is moving along nicely, albeit a bit on the slower side. It’s natural for this stage of the match, as there aren’t any pins or submissions until everyone enters the cage, and we’re still waiting on four women to make their entrance.
Make that three women, as AJ Lee is out next to a solid reaction. As AJ makes her way to the ring, Becky frantically grabs the cage door and holds it closed. AJ then decides she’s just going to climb over the top and enter the match that way, and Becky looks at AJ like she had two arms growing from her forehead, completely SHOCKED that an adult woman could climb a steel cage door.
Nia Jax is out next. She grew up in San Diego, and her ring gear is inspired by the City Connect alternate uniforms for the San Diego Padres, who play their games right there at Petco Park. I like that we’ve already seen multiple people with new ring gear. It’s a little touch, but it shows how big this show is.
Rhea Ripley is out next, but all of her partners are being decimated in the ring. The tide really changed once Nia entered the match. Rhea, wearing a mask and ring gear inspired by Art The Clown from the Terrifier movie series (another woman with new ring gear!), brings a series of kendo sticks and a trash can with her to the ring.
Lash Legend is out next, and as soon as she enters the cage, the match will officially begin. She is the youngest and greenest woman in the match by leaps and bounds, but all the credit to her, because she looks like a star. At six-feet-tall, she is quite the tall drink of water, and she hits the ring and shows off her power game right away. She is throwing Alexa and Charlotte all over the ring, but the crowd pops when Rhea pops up behind Lash and waves at her.
They’re not very loud, but there’s “whoop that trick” chants as Lash is on offense. For those not in the know, Lash is the girlfriend of NXT’s Trick Williams. Well, she WAS his girlfriend. They got engaged over the Thanksgiving holiday. Congratulations to the happy couple.
The heel squad has surrounded Rhea and are going after her. Asuka goes to spray mist at Rhea, who is pushed out of the way by Charlotte, causing the mist to blind Lash Legend instead. Just like that, the momentum has changed yet again.
Iyo climbs the cage and asks for a trash can. LOL @ AJ trying to give it to her and jumping over and over, but she just isn’t quite tall enough. That’s where Rhea Ripley shows what a good teammate she is, putting AJ on her shoulders, allowing AJ to hand Iyo the trash can. We know what comes next. Iyo puts the trash can on herself, and then dives off the top of the cage, taking most of the heel squad out. I say most because Becky Lynch was left standing… but not for long. She is beaten down by the face team, ultimately being locked in AJ’s Black Widow submission. Becky taps, and the face team picks up the win.
That was fun. I wouldn’t say it was an all-time great or anything, but it was entertaining, and it gave the crowd more than enough to cheer for. 3.5 Stars. It’s kind of funny to see just how little AJ did during the match. She is still being protected an awful lot. Maybe that will change as she wrestles more, and maybe it won’t, but it’s still worth pointing out.
I’m not sure why you would wonder this, but in case you are, nobody bled during the match. There weren’t even a ton of weapons being used. It was a really tame WarGames, all things considered. I can already tell people are going to complain about that. While I wasn’t expecting this to turn into an AEW-style bloody mess, it might have been nice to see more physicality. This was, for all intents and purposes, a ten-woman tag match that just so happened to take place inside of a steel cage that wrapped around two rings.
John Cena vs Dominik Mysterio – WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Well, here we go… John Cena’s last ever pay-per-view match, and second-to-last match, period. Keep it together, Hus.
Dom is joined during his entrance by Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez. The male members of The Judgment Day are nowhere to be seen, but I think it’s a safe bet to say we’ll probably see them before this one is over.
After several seconds of making the crowd wait, Cena’s music hits, and the crowd goes wild. The on-screen decibel meter shows that the crowd noise tops out at 110 decibels. That is in the “very loud” category on most recognized decibel charts, and is very close to reaching “painful” levels.
LOL @ the “Brock’s got a weird case, why is he around?” sign in the crowd. It’s a reference to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” song, where he has a similar line about one of Drake’s closest associates that had a sex trafficking charge against him back in 2014. Kendrick is from Compton, which is about a two-hour drive from San Diego, so I guess it shouldn’t be too big of a surprise that we’re getting that type of reference.
Maybe it’s happening because we’re in Dom’s hometown, or maybe it’s happening ironically because people won’t have another chance to do it after tonight, but there is a noticeable “let’s go, Cena” and “Cena sucks” chant battle. It feels like forever since we’ve heard one of those.
Dom goes for a Hurricanrana from the guardrail, but Cena plants him with a Powerbomb on the floor instead. It was clean looking, but Dom is holding his shoulder and grimacing in pain. The Referee calls for the medics, who are checking on Dom. With the Ref distracted, Raquel and Roxanne get in the ring. Raquel hits the Tejana Bomb on Cena, who then takes a Pop Rox from Roxanne. Dom hops up quickly, revealing it all to be a ruse, and he hits Cena with a 619. However, the Referee isn’t counting, instead yelling at Dom for his scam. Raquel and Roxanne are kicked out of the ringside area. That was well done. Like I said, it was entirely too smooth looking for me to believe the injury to Dom was legit, but it was a nice bit of drama nonetheless.
Ref bump! Cena goes for his trademark shoulder tackles, but Dom ducks the second one, causing Cena to take the Ref out instead. Sure enough, with the Ref down, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh come running out, and they attack Cena. Their numbers advantage doesn’t last long, though, and Cena ends up hitting both of them with an Attitude Adjustment at the same time. His level of strength is still incredibly impressive, even after all these years.
Cena hits Dom with an Attitude Adjustment and calls for another Ref, but instead, Liv Morgan’s music hits to a big pop. Liv enters the ring and smiles at Dom, only to slap him across the face. Liv then turns around and jumps into Cena’s arms, before turning her smile into a very creepy face, similar to the one Cena made when he turned heel on Cody Rhodes back at Elimination Chamber. She hops down then kicks Cena in the little Johnnies. It was yet another ruse! 619 from Dom, and it’s enough to get the pin and the win. We have a new Intercontinental Champion, as I think most everyone expected.
It literally took six people to get the job done, and I think that’s going to anger a lot of people, but the entire thing made sense. I fully expected Dom to get his title back here, but there was no shot it was going to be in a clean fashion. Would I like Dom’s matches to discover a different formula? Yes. Did I expect that new formula to happen here? Of course not. The match itself was entertaining, albeit overbooked with all of that interference. Both John and Dom did a good job of keeping the crowd involved, though. It wasn’t quite on the level of a lot of Cena’s matches during his retirement tour, but I’ll still give it 3.5 Stars, which might be generous.
Stephanie Vaquer vs Nikki Bella – WWE Women’s World Title Match
I have no idea what to expect here. On one hand, I have complete faith in Stephanie Vaquer to have a good match. Then, on the other hand, there’s Nikki Bella, who isn’t exactly on a hot streak in the ring since making her return. Throw in a crowd that I’m expecting to be quiet after all the noise they made during the previous two matches, and this one has the potential to be ugly.
Almost zero crowd reaction for Nikki during her entrance. Not much better for Stephanie during her entrance, but at least it was something.
Holy shit, Nikki has the MJF Special with her spray tan. She has at least 20 different shades of orange and brown all over her body. Do these people not have a fucking mirror they can use before they walk out in front of the world?!? If there’s a positive to find, it’s that Nikki’s spray job doesn’t look as bad with the way the lights are for the match itself. During the ring introductions, the lights were in such a way that she looked absolutely ridiculous. It’s worse with MJF, who looks terrible from the moment he walks out on stage until the moment he leaves.
Oh, boy. Nikki is already throwing some awful looking strikes. She was also thrown into the announce table and hit it with the type of force that my daughter uses when she tries to tickle her mother and I.
After some teases, Steph finally gets Nikki with a Devil’s Kiss, but the camera angle showed that Nikki’s face was nowhere near making contact with the mat.
Stephanie wins, and I’m glad the match is over, as it went on too long. It should’ve ended after ten seconds, and Nikki should head right back into retirement. She has no business being in the ring anymore. The business has passed her by, and please don’t even get me started on Brie Bella saying she wants to make a return. Say whatever you want about Nikki, but she was ten times the in-ring performer that Brie was in their primes, so I don’t even want to think about what she would look like in the ring today if this is what Nikki brings to the table these days.
2 Stars. Let’s move on. Poor Stephanie.
Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Roman Reigns & The Usos vs Bron Breakker, Bronson Reed, Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre & Logan Paul – Men’s WarGames Match
Main event time. I’m going to need this one to be special, as the rest of the show hasn’t exactly lived up to the expectations that you would have for one of the WWE’s biggest annual events.
CM Punk is the first man out for the face squad, and his entrance wakes the crowd up.
Joining Punk in the start to this match is Bron Breakker. They start things off with a staredown, and it damn sure seems like a look at the not-too-distant future to me. Perhaps an April 2026 night in Las Vegas?
Drew McIntyre is out next, and things might be getting ugly early for Punk.
Bron has a spray tan that is similar to what Nikki Bella had earlier. He is very inconsistent with his spray tans. Some weeks, he looks the way he does tonight. Other weeks, he looks like a black guy. Can we get him some help, please? I think my TV is too good. I’m not sure I should be noticing stuff like that so easily every week.
Cody Rhodes is out next to even the odds. Interesting that the World Heavyweight Champion and the Undisputed WWE Champion are the first two entrants for the face squad here. I don’t think many people would’ve predicted that.
Punk has been busted open. It happened off-camera, but it appeared to have taken place after he had his face driven into the cage.
Good Lord Almighty. Bron is on Cody’s shoulders, and Punk comes off the top to perform a Doomsday Device, but Bron takes an ugly landing, hitting head-first on the mat. He was a couple degrees away from landing directly on the top of his head. That could’ve been REALLY bad.
Logan Paul is out next. Bron hasn’t been shown on camera since his bad landing, and we’re told that he is being checked on by the ringside doctor. As Logan enters the cage, though, Bron is shown on his feet and throwing strikes at Punk, which is a great sight.
Punk is bloody, and Cody was already battered and bruised. They’re being beaten down by the heels here, but Jimmy Uso is out next to even the numbers. He grabs a table from beneath the ring to a big pop from the crowd. Jimmy gets a flurry of offense, and it gets shut down quickly by a Claymore from Drew McIntyre.
Things have slowed down, with the heels walking around and beating Punk, Cody, and Jimmy, basically taking turns delivering offense. The cut above Cody’s eye has been opened up, and now he’s bleeding as Bronson Reed makes his entrance. This has been ugly for the faces, and it’s likely about to get even uglier.
Two seconds after entering the cage, Bronson hits a Tsunami on Punk, and then goes up top and lands another one on Jimmy. He goes back up yet again and delivers a Tsunami to Cody. This has been quite the one-sided match so far. Whenever one of the faces gets any offense in, it gets shut down within seconds.
Jey Uso is out next, and he makes his way to the ring somewhat hesitantly. Upon entering the ring, a flurry of Superkicks get the advantage for his team, allowing for his teammates to get back to their feet. Jey looks at the camera and calls for his entrance music to be run back, so we get it again, and both Usos stand on the top rope and lead a 45,000+ person Yeet party.
The party ends prematurely, though, with the arrival of Brock Lesnar. On commentary, Michael Cole says that this is the first match Brock has had since 2004 that saw him have any sort of tag partner. It’s the first WWE match he has had with teammates since 2004, but overall, it’s his first match with a partner of any kind since a 2006 New Japan match that saw him teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat the duo of Riki Choshu and Akebono.
Brock, of course, destroys just about everything in his sights, taking the advantage back for the heels, but he gets distracted by Roman Reigns, who makes his entrance as the final entrant in the match. Brock has left the cage, meeting Roman at ringside, and they’re brawling already. Because Roman never entered the cage, the match never officially started, and because the match never officially started, Brock is legally able to leave the cage. By WarGames law, Brock leaving the cage would’ve been a forfeit for his team if the match was officially underway.
Brock puts Roman through the announce table with an F5, and then gets thrown into the ring. The match begins.
Paul Heyman hands a pair of brass knuckles to Logan, who uses them, but his attempt at using them on Roman is intercepted. Logan is down, and Roman grabs the knucks. Roman puts the knucks on, and he starts handing out Superman Punches.
Whatever momentum the face squad has comes to an end when Roman hits Brock, who was holding Jey Uso up in F5 position, with a Spear and sends all three of them through a table.
A masked man in a hoodie hops the guardrail and enters the ring. He hits Punk with a Superkick and then a Stomp before getting out of dodge and leaving the ring again. Michael Cole and Woi Bar-ruh take the bait and assume it was Seth Rollins, confused as Seth just had shoulder surgery recently. If you look at the masked man closely, it didn’t appear to be Rollins. At immediate glance, it seemed like someone who wasn’t necessarily as tall or as lanky as Seth, but we’ll see how that plays out in the future. The interference was enough for Punk to take the pin, giving the win to the heels.
This match was put together in a very interesting fashion. It wasn’t non-stop action. In fact, it was nearly the opposite of that for many stretches, with the heels being so dominant for most of the match and slowing things down completely.
It told a good story, though, and it was more of a WarGames match than the women’s version, so I’ll rate this one higher, but just barely. 3.75 Stars
It’s worth pointing out that Bron Breakker pinned CM Punk to win the match, further teasing a potential WrestleMania showdown between them in April.
Honestly, that was a bit of a disappointing pay-per-view. A lot of people had really high hopes, and while it wasn’t a bad show, I don’t think it reached the expectations that a lot of those people had. Four matches on the show, one of which was bad, one of which was comically overbooked, and the other two almost unnecessarily featuring the WarGames stipulation. The best match of the night didn’t quite crack the four-star mark for me.
Again, it wasn’t a BAD show, outside of Stephanie Vaquer vs Nikki Bella, but it’s something that you should lower expectations for it if you didn’t already watch the show.
WWE can do better. I know that. We know that. I think they know that, too.
