WWE Survivor Series review: Hope you like weapons

The final WWE PLE of the year, Survivor Series, ended with one burning question: what does CM Punk want from Paul Heyman?

We don’t know just yet, and that will be the million-dollar question as we approach the final weeks of 2024. What we do know is that Punk and Reigns put aside their differences in the WarGames match to come together and take out Solo Sikoa in what ended up being an excellent match, filled with fun and exciting spots that made the match shine, something that has sorely been needed in recent Bloodline drama-fests.

I’m praising the main event, but at the same time I am at a crossroads when it comes to WarGames matches in WWE. With blood limited, the company often resorts to weapons, and boy was there a lot here. The men’s match had weapons, but the women’s match went completely overboard. I don’t believe I’m kidding when I say literally every time someone came to the ring for that particular match they took a detour to look under the ring for a weapon.

Here’s the thing that annoys me logically about excessive weapon use in a match like this: THE CAGE IS A WEAPON. There were no tables or chairs or anything in the first WarGames matches because they were already inside a weapon! NXT introduced the idea that every WarGames match needs to enter Plunderville in order to be special and it’s something that has bothered me ever since. Maybe I have entered the ‘old man yells at cloud’ era of my wrestling takes. But darn it, this is something I’ll die on a hill for.

Don’t get me wrong, the main event was great and I’m probably in the minority when I say the women’s WarGames match was good too. I’m just exhausted seeing the same weapons in every match that isn’t just a regular WWE match. They all blend together, and do you really want a once-a-year stipulation like WarGames to blend in with everything else WWE does all year?

Honestly, I’m in favor of bringing back Survivor Series matches. Those were fun. Remember Survivor Series matches at Survivor Series?

Anyway, the rest of the card:

Rhea Ripley’s team bested Liv Morgan’s team in the women’s Survivor Series WarGames match. I thought this was good. Not great, the men’s WarGames was much better, but I thought this was fine. I don’t think others agree, but hey, it’s my review. Based on the finish, we’ll probably see Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan one more time for the Women’s World title. And I think it does need to be one more time as that feud has somehow managed to drag on for most of the year.

The Intercontinental three-way was pretty good, about what you would expect with these three. People were into the idea of Sheamus winning the title but alas, no dice. Even though he took the pinfall I’d like to see at least one more singles match between Sheamus and Breakker before they move on. Breakker shouldn’t lose the title anytime soon, but I’d like to see a match between these two with a better finish than what we got last time.

The United States title match wasn’t much. There wasn’t any heat save for the surprise title change, the work was just kinda there, then Nakamura pinned LA Knight to win the title. Nakamura has been given a new werider gimmick that actually reminds me a lot of The Great Kabuki for whatever reason. Problem is, Nakamura’s work in WWE has been uninspired at best and this match didn’t really prove otherwise. Not sure what the future of the US title is under him because quite frankly, I didn’t expect him to win here.

Gunther retained the World Heavyweight Championship over Damian Priest. The finish had echos of SummerSlam as Finn Balor interfered, allowing Gunther to retain the title via rear naked choke. This was pretty good, not an all-timer Gunther main event style match but what they did was perfectly fine. Clearly, there’s still a blowoff match between Balor and Priest in the cards, the question is when they’ll pull it off. As for Gunther, that’s anybody’s guess. Maybe Punk?