Two of the biggest brands in wrestling look set to collide this year after Triple H announced that two WarGames matches would be taking place at WWE’s Survivor Series. Survivor Series WarGames – as it will almost certainly be called – will see one of the WWF’s original big four PPVs hosting a match that was developed in the NWA and then popularized in WCW.
Weirdly, or perhaps expectedly, as nothing in wrestling is ever truly original, WarGames and Survivor Series were inaugurated in the same year. The first ever Survivor Series was hosted at the Richfield Coliseum in November 1987, while the first WarGames match was held at the Great American Bash in Atlanta in July of that same year.
Given how brutal the territory wars and then the WWF/E versus WCW feud were, to see the two names on the same program will be nothing short of stunning for long-time fans of the business. Sometimes life does write scripts fit for a champion.
Survivor Series: WarGames
This news was first reported by The Ringer. Here is a section of what Triple H had to say.
“We’ll have a men’s WarGames match and a women’s WarGames match. The tradition of the Survivor Series has ebbed and flowed and changed slightly over time, but this will be similar to that.”
“This will not be Raw versus SmackDown. It will be much more story-line driven. I still look at it as a traditional component to Survivor Series in there because it’s large teams of people competing. We just upped the ante a little bit with WarGames and made it evolve.”
I cannot express just how much I love this concept. The WarGames match type was bought back into wrestling after a 17-year absence at NXT TakeOver WarGames in 2017. That match was outstanding, as was the one the following year that saw The Undisputed Era taking on the combination of Pete Dunne, Ricochet, and War Raiders. This was when NXT was still essential viewing, and the addition of WarGames felt perfect for the brand.
The aspect of the announcement I most like is that the event will be storyline driven. WWE has been horrible for over a decade in making matches mean anything on the main roster. This can be traced back to when Hell in a Cell became a yearly PPV instead of a match type specifically used to end blood feuds. I get why the company did it, but there have been so many cell matches with so little heat because the gimmick match was quickly overused.
If they do this right – and I have way more faith in Trips than I would if Vince were still around – then this could be epic. Survivor Series has felt like a lower-tier PPV since the classic format matches stopped mattering (or just stopped existing altogether). This new concept should breathe life back into the November PPV and will hopefully see it once again restored to its former glory.
Oe request for the company, though. Hire back William Regal for just one day for him to fire out his now iconic “WARGAMES” line.
Always remember folks. Pro Wrestling is Real.
