I decided to write up a partial review just on the two War Games matches themselves. I really didn’t care for the other matches enough to want to sit down and watch them, although I did read that Nakamura beat poor LA Knight for the US Title. I might talk about that later but I have to warn people that I’m going to be a bit brutal in certain parts of the review because certain parts were exceptionally brutal to watch but not in a violent way.
Women’s War Games Match
I’m going to start here because this is what started off the show and was one of the two War Games matches on the card. In previous years, Survivor Series was more about a simple elimination match where you had two teams that would beat each other when the last member of the other team was pinned or had submitted. These days it seems that the WWE decided to adopt the old NWA War Games idea because it had a cage. However, to put a hat on a hat (as a certain podcaster would say), they include other bits to refurbish the old format by allowing the competitors to search around for planted devices.
With this women’s match, the two teams were:
- Nia Jax, Candice LaRae, Tiffany Stratton, Raquel Gonzalez, Liv Morgan
- Bayley, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley
The lead up to this match seemed like a clusterfuck and in all honesty, I think only Rhea Ripley should’ve been in this spot. The ordering, the fact that the heel team actually lost the advantage and structure (or lack thereof) of this match turned me off big time. First of all, they made a horrible mistake in letting Nia Jax start for her team. She is just god awful. But the problem I saw was that she lacked endurance for a match like this. She barely can react nor move half the time and when she has to take a big move like Bayley’s rana, she needs to stand around to prepare to take it. You can tell she’s just waiting to do it and looks blown up in trying to summon the energy to take a move like that. Logically speaking, she should’ve gone last because she could’ve served as an equalizer due to her size but this division mostly has no clue.
I started to get really frustrated as the women would search around the ring for weapons while their opponents would stand around inside the cage allowing them to grab whatever the next fresh woman could find. It just looked ridiculous. When Candice LaRae entered, it felt like dead silence had been draped over the arena. The announcers attempted to prop up Candice’s “experience” but she’s just really bad and no one cares about her. I have no idea why they let her participate in this match because she’s a nobody in the WWE. Sorry but I’m just stating facts.
A lot of the match in between here and roughly when everyone got into the ring was ugly. The only person that barely impressed me in this was Tiffany Stratton. Truthfully, I haven’t seen a lot of Tiffany Stratton but the one thing about her I could positively say was that she looked sharper than most of the other women in this match. Perhaps, years of wear and tear have taken their toll on the participants but people like Bayley, Naomi, etc. whom I expected more from, just appeared sluggish and off. The moves did not look impactful and there was absolutely no flow in this match. At least, with Tiffany the few things she did looked crisp.
Once Iyo Sky made her into the ring, I felt really mixed. Iyo can be good but she’s awful in multi-women matches. I think a huge problem is communication issues because there was a particular part where she was meant to sell but started to enter the first ring prematurely. I think someone told her to stall and sell so that whoever was left in the other ring could get their moment. Normally, I’d be on Sky’s side because I think instinctively she probably doing the right thing (meaning, going on offensive rather than just sitting around waiting to get to the next chapter in the story) but that mistiming was caught on camera and made this match sink even further down the drain.
I got pretty frustrated as the match kept going. I looked at the timer and saw that anywhere between 30-40 minutes had passed. I kept asking, “When the fuck will this shit end?” And again the reason why I was upset was the stupid weaponry, the fact that this match had no flow, no build. It was just meaningless spots that were executed in a very ugly fashion half the time as people just wandered around looking lost because someone needed to do their big move to get their moment in. The crowd considered this match awesome but I couldn’t tell why.
There was one really ridiculous move where Iyo Sky placed this stupid purple trash can over herself, got up to the top of the cage and performed a moonsault. This literally was a hat on a hat moment. When I tried to watch this match from start to finish, I didn’t get this far because I gave up at some point. So I only caught this move on a video clip over on reddit. But I knew this match was going to be a shitshow in seeing all the weapons and stupid things going on.
But to put it mildly, I got too frustrated watching this match because I felt like I was wasting my life. Pretty much I stopped watching the rest of the Survivor Series and ended up watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes because I kept thinking about old Elvira and Mystery Science Theater 3000 bad movies that might be competitive on a scale of badness as this show was at this stage.
Anyway, I ended up at that point figuring that the rest of the card except the main event was going to be utter trash that wasn’t worth my time so I effectively skipped ahead just to watch the main event. So let me cover that part.
Team Roman vs Team Solo
Team Solo (the winners of the advantage) are (in order):
- Tama Tonga
- Bronson Reed
- Jacob Fatu
- Tonga Loa
- Solo Sikoa
Team Roman are:
- Jey Uso
- Jimmy Uso
- Sami Zayn
- CM Punk
- Roman Reigns
So in this match, the heels got the classic advantage. Jey was the last person on his team to make an entrance but also the first person in the match. I’m guessing because of his entrance they wanted him first. At the same time, it sort of made sense as you want to build typically from least significant or hardest worker (not necessarily an inclusive attribute) to the big names (or worst worker; check out War Games 1996 for a near perfect setup minus the fake Sting which was good story-wise, but bad choice for the actual fake Sting since no one cared about the guy playing the imposter). Opposite of Jey starting was Tama Tonga.
One thing that the WWE has mastered, at least with the upper echelon folks, is how to milk a crowd. With these two, they set a pace that was slower than a reverse moving snail and tortoise combined. I mean, there’s milking something and there’s making cheese from something so old and stale that ferments that quickly. Anyway, neither Tama nor his brother or whatever interest me. Neither Jey nor Tama are good workers nor even exciting. Jey mostly has his “Uce” gimmick but he can only use that sparingly in matches before the blandness of his limitations fall through the cracks.
Next, Bronson Reed showed up and I had real mixed feelings about this. Logically speaking, Tonga Loa should’ve entered because his brother or regular tag team partner was already inside. Also, Bronson Reed has been slowly built up as this upcoming mega heel. So you want someone like that to make a bigger impact. The real impact player on Solo’s team though is Jacob Fatu, which cancels out Bronson Reed in a manner. But Jacob only cancels Bronson out because there’s already an existing tag team in the new Bloodline group. Anyway, once again these next guys start looking for a weapon where Bronson grabs some random chairs and tosses them into the ring rather than just getting inside and dishing out punishment. The only reason he tosses chairs into the ring is to punch one out as a key spot. I get what they’re trying to go for but it feels backwards. Like if the chair spot came out of nowhere and the chair was at ringside rather than prematurely thrown into the ring, I would accept that spot because it feel more natural. Here, it just feels setup like a lot of modern matches.
Anyway, the double team goes for an excruciating period until Jimmy Uso comes into aid his brother. Now, this part made a lot of sense to me. It would’ve been better to have Tonga Loa step in around so that both teams could go after each other. Even if the Usos don’t chase tag team gold ever again, they could still have a nice 1-2 match PPV feud against the Tongas. So that was wasted. That said, outside of the little brother saving brother bit, the match itself has me terribly bored and somewhat frustrated.
At this stage, the match starts to pick up because Jacob Fatu enters. Just before though, Tonga Loa was about to go but Solo halted him. I’m guessing that Tonga Loa is the one who sucks on his team and Jacob pretty much is the real star just waiting to happen. Jacob really is one of the best workers in the match and he’s going nuts and the action pumps up with the announcers really putting this guy over. Logically speaking, Jacob is the secret weapon to Solo’s group (or not so secret anymore now that the cat is out of the bag and people are seeing him perform) which is why I would’ve put him last. Being in the middle makes it weird for him since he has to sell when the next group of guys come in. But in terms of his partners, he’s the best of the bunch and probably the glue to his team.
Next came Sami but not before Roman Reigns prevented Punk from going in. I actually liked that move because it mirrored what Solo had done earlier but here it seemed more personal between Punk and Roman so there’s a little intrigue going on with some doubt on who to believe between the two. Sami as the 3rd person to enter on his team felt odd because of how he shot up briefly to become a main eventer in facing none other than Roman Reigns himself before readjusting himself to being an upper midcard wrestler. With Sami, he’s not a great worker in the same manner as Jacob Fatu but Sami is more emotional and the crowd gets behind him easily. In a match like this though, he gets lost because he’s better at working as an underdog with emotion since his offense mostly is inoffensive. But he sells great and probably was a good compliment to Jacob in terms of being someone receiving punishment. Also, he has history with the Usos and he got a little funky moment with Jimmy which was a nice touch.
Next went Tonga Loa. In all honesty, I didn’t even notice him. He’s just not discernible in a situation like this which is why I think he should have gone in 2nd because then you’d have team vs team. And if Bronson Reed came in now, he would’ve been a fresh, huge difference maker. So the ordering on Solo’s team seemed off for me. But then again Tonga Loa might be the worst worker in the match but Solo couldn’t be overshadowed since the focus is mostly on him (even though the truly important person in all of this is Jacob Fatu for his team)
So Punk came in for his team as the 4th member. He had a VERY interesting interaction with Roman where he shoulder bumped Roman to push his way out of the cage, leaving Roman as the 5th person to enter for his team. One thing that has grown on me with Punk is that he always does these little things that makes his matches special or different. As he was about to enter the ring, he found himself with the dilemma of the dominant Solo team having the literal higher ground. So he brought in a toolbox to give him a boost. Fortunately, he only used the toolbox as a weapon rather than anything inside of it. But that said, it made enough sense in the way he did it although I hated the toolbox shots since they looked weak.
One cool thing I noticed is that he went after Jacob Fatu. I feel like a lot of people want to work with Jacob Fatu right now and probably in a year or two’s time, he’ll be one of the top names in the company easily. But one cool thing I saw was how Punk put over Jacob Fatu big time with a pop up Samoan Drop. That looked really good and Punk sold it like a million dollars. If Punk and Jacob Fatu were to have a PPV match in the near future, Fatu would lose nothing if he jobbed to Punk since Punk is a big name.
Anyway, it was Solo’s turn to enter. Quite frankly, I don’t see anything special in Solo. He’s able to talk well for himself and his group but that’s about it. His matches are pretty bland though and he’s not much better than the bulk of the people in this match. But he does get a reaction from the crowd, so I guess that’s a plus. Also, I really don’t get why he still loves Roman Reigns and co. despite telling them that they would die if they refused to join his version of the Bloodline. While he can say the words, the meaning behind the words make absolutely no sense and he’s never explained why he decided to turn on Roman (I have my theories but that’ll come later).
Obviously, it’s the big man coming in with Roman Reigns making his long awaited come back moment. Solo’s team in having the advantage now has the cage cut off. The door is locked up and Roman’s team is down. So how is Roman going to counter? Well, he’s going to scale the cage of course. And rather than every single member of the new Bloodline rushing to assail Roman, it’s one of those movie one-by-one assaults that Roman can easily repel with Solo being the last guy getting countered before Roman makes his grand entrance.
With Roman in the cage, the match officially starts. There’s some tension though between Roman and CM Punk. At that moment, Paul Heyman saunters out and reminds them what they’re in the cage for: War Games! But the two teams are divided on each halves of the two rings. And I really hate these situations in wrestling matches where everyone wants to do an Avengers assemble moment. It just looks stupid and you know it’s being done for a cheap pop. Worse yet, the center of the two rings have a double set of ropes and a metal middle section to prevent what happened to Davey Boy Smith that lead to his demise back in WCW years back. What that means though visually is that both groups have to come together somehow in the middle to deliver sloppy, ugly looking hockey style blows until one side gives. I don’t care if the Avengers did it; it’s a stupid visual in a supposed combat (illusionary) sport.
Chaos ensues as it becomes impossible to keep track of who does what. At one point, Punk goes for the GTS while Roman is about to spear someone and ends up accidentally knocking Punk down. So at this point, things start to look blurred as one would think after all this time with Roman and his temperamental nature whether Punk and he will come to blows.
Eventually, the big spots happen where in particular Bronson Reed sets Roman up on one of the two tables and goes to the top for a splash. However, Punk saves Roman, despite the earlier mishap, which means lights out for Bronson Reed (which I’m happy about because someone FINALLY stays down after executing a heavily kayfabe botched move). However, Jimmy is able to get his top of the cage splash on Jacob, taking out the other big guy. Who knows what the fuck happened to the two Tongas though. I really didn’t care by this point as the key people were being focused on.
With all the bad guys out that left poor Solo by himself to face the five. Solo confronted Roman and dared to fight him mano e mano. But Jey and Jimmy took turns giving him super kicks along with their signature double super kick, Sami followed up with his corner kick (I don’t want to spell it out), Punk hit his GTS which seemed a little off but just enough for Roman to come in with a spear for the 1-2-3. As the heroes collected themselves, they took turns hugging each other for this victory, except that Roman hugged his team then his team hugged Punk. Sami managed to convince Roman that Punk held his side of the bargain up and Roman offered Punk his hand, for which Punk took a moment to stare at him and shake out of respect.
So that match wasn’t horrific like the women’s War Games match but it wasn’t pretty either. The first half up until Jacob’s entry was bland at best and the ordering made little sense outside of the possibility that Tonga Loa really is that awful and inexperienced. It picked up once Jacob got in but the meat and potatoes of the match to me were the little interactions between Punk and Roman. I didn’t see their story from back in the day when the Shield was used to protect Punk’s back. I’m guessing Punk saving Roman was a long term story callback to what the Shield had done for him (besides Punk entering this match for Heyman’s sake) At the end, we were left with Punk reminding Heyman that he owes him a favor. What that favor is, is anyone’s guess.
That does leave us with a defeated new Bloodline and the outcome for that. Given that Solo’s group is utterly loyal to Solo, I’m really hoping they avoid the whole “oppressive bastard evil leader” trope that tosses his minions under bus when he doesn’t get his way. And I’m hoping his minions, especially Jacob Fatu, don’t quickly turn on him for failing to be a winning leader. But my belief in this issue is that Solo had been compromised by none other than The Rock to tear Roman Reigns and the OG Bloodline apart. And The Rock does have a good motivation for doing this: he was the original person to have a match against Roman Reigns instead of Cody Rhodes. I still think we’re going to get the eventual Roman Reigns vs The Rock at Wrestlemania next year. It won’t be for the title but it’ll still be either a main event or one of the chief matches on the card.
So what does that mean for Solo? I mean, he’s generating heat but his matches just aren’t great and no one can really take him seriously now that his entire team lost at War Games. Punk showing up as the 5th member of the OG Bloodline group was almost a Deux Ex Machina type of move. Some people speculated that Seth Rollins was going to interfere since he has beef with both Punk and Bronson Reed. Oddly, for all of the overbooked matches Roman Reigns had in the past, this match was booked just right.
Still, in the case of Solo, it really felt like his team needed the win. But now without that key win, it looks like the OG Bloodline is back in business and the new Bloodline is up in the air. Sure, Solo has the flower thingy but it’s kind of a so-what deal. Roman Reigns has his wise man back so he’s at full power. That’s why I think The Rock is going to show up fairly soon. At the latest, I would say he appears at the Royal Rumble. He won’t have to participate in the Royal Rumble but I can see the guy making an impact on Solo’s behalf. Also, there could be more new Bloodline members. I think there’s a rumor that some other family member got signed. But there’s Hikuleo who is signed to the WWE and ought to be a player at some point. Because Hikuleo is one huge mother fucker, I can only assume he’d be with Solo’s team, which would give them a huge advantage over Roman Reign’s team. I think we haven’t seen him because either they’re waiting to spring at the right moment or he’s not in the best shape either physically or at the wrestling level they need him to be in showing up on the main roster in a near main event capability. But I can only assume that they’re going to fast pass this guy near the top when they’re ready to pull the trigger just based on his size and name. And when that happens, the OG Bloodline will be in trouble (unless Brock Lesner makes his appearance but after the allegations against McMahon, who knows if we’ll ever see Brock in the WWE again)
At any rate, the only things I’m intrigued about in wrestling are the main event stories and characters. It’s been mostly hit and miss. The main event here was okay but I don’t feel it solved anything. It’s just another chapter in the book.
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