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WWE Survivor Series (2023) -- Results & Afterthoughts

The 2023 Survivor Series: WarGames was the 37th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, November 25, 2023, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, marking the third Survivor Series to be held at this arena after the 1989 and 2019 events (the 1989 event was held here when it was still known as the Rosemont Horizon; renamed in 1999). It was the second Survivor Series to include the WarGames concept after it was first introduced to WWE's main roster with the 2022 event, and as a result, it was the fourth Survivor Series to not feature a traditional Survivor Series match, after the 1998, 2002, and 2022 events.

Five matches were contested at the event, including two WarGames matches. In the main event, which was a men's WarGames match and was the main match from Raw, Cody Rhodes, Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and Randy Orton defeated The Judgment Day (Damian Priest, Finn Bálor, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh) and Drew McIntyre, while in the women's WarGames match, which was the opening bout and was the main match from SmackDown, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Shotzi, and Becky Lynch defeated Damage CTRL (Bayley, Asuka, Iyo Sky, and Kairi Sane). The event also notably featured the returns of Randy Orton and R-Truth, both of whom had been out with an injury since May and November 2022, respectively, as well as the return of CM Punk in his first WWE appearance since the 2014 Royal Rumble (discounting FS1's WWE Backstage in 2019–20).

This was also the final WWE event to be distributed on Blu-ray and DVD as WWE proceeded to shudder WWE Home Video entirely after 36 years at the end of 2023. Survivor Series: WarGames will have a 2-disc release on December 26 in the United States.

Match Results:

Women's WarGames Match

Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Shotzi, and Becky Lynch defeated Damage CTRL (Bayley, Asuka, Iyo Sky, and Kairi Sane) (with Dakota Kai) by pinfall

I'll be honest. I zoned out largely for most of this match, even when I had to rewatch this show the following morning since I was merely listening to the first half of it during my commute/drive home that prior evening. WWE has me mostly bored with this modern WarGames concept where they send out the workhorses to work the early portions of this match and milk the reactions from the crowds who pop off workrate until they sweeten the entry times for the remaining team members.

That being said, I felt that Shotzi was the MVP of this match. She got the holy hell beat out of her at various points of this match and still brought the fire regardless. I can't imagine the emotional rollercoaster that she's going through with her sister battling cancer via chemotherapy, despite having a similar experience with that when my late grandmother was undergoing her own treatment.

Speaking of hard knocks, Kairi hasn't been back with the company for not even two full PLEs without Charlotte Flair already trying to kill that poor girl. Charlotte's thighs slammed Kairi square over the top of her head when her tall, Amazon (no) ass did that whack ass looking cage-dive variant of her signature Moonsault that she has to plug into almost every match. She should really consider retiring that move, especially when Tiffany Stratton has one of the best looking moonsaults in the entire company when it comes to the women. Pretty sure hers and Iyo Sky's will be up for debate whenever it's "Tiffy Time" on the main roster.

The tale of this match was that Bayley was taking a ton of the bullets meant for the other members of Damage CTRL, obviously to continue this storyline where Bayley's trying to stay in the group's good graces since she's obviously not in charge anymore with the number of joshi talent in the mix now, with both Asuka and Kairi as part of the group in Iyo's corner. If Bayley goes back face in the next couple of months, I can easily see it being the Horsewomen against this new Damage CTRL/Kabuki Warriors for WrestleMania. That pot could be made even sweeter if WWE manages to sign Guilla from Stardom and convince Sasha Banks to come back.

In my honest opinion, I don't see either of those women signing or returning anytime soon, especially not Sasha when her grand world tour was cut short by her impromptu injury last year before she could even get started well into her title reign.

The babyfaces won after Bayley ate the pin so that's going to play into the rest of Damage CTRL potentially turning on her too. I just really didn't agree with the babyfaces going over here. I get they have a story they want to tell, but Damage CTRL deserved a win especially after the rocky start they had in the beginning and to endure all of that and still come out better for it currently. I know I wouldn't be wrong for thinking that Shotzi was in this match on the babyface's side merely to eat the pin for the babyfaces, but obviously something changed for them to go with Bayley eating the pin instead, not like that team needed any more prestige/bragging rights to go off of.

Singles Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Gunther (c) defeated The Miz by submission

I was borderline offended that this wasn't a one-sided affair. Miz had far too many "hope" spots in this match than I cared for and even more near-falls to boot. (Laughs) Miz must've begged WALTER not to give him too many of his infamous chops in gorilla or something as this has to be the tamest WALTER match I've seen to date.

Miz had no business getting that many near-falls against WALTER. I get that they were trying to give him some credibility given how much prestige that he put on the Intercontinental Championship in the modern era, but this was like seeing Marko Stunt have a competitive match against Brock Lesnar.

Singles Match

Santos Escobar defeated Dragon Lee by pinfall

This wasn't a bad match at all; quite the opposite really. My only fear with Dragon Lee (kinda) bypassing NXT (much like Ricochet) with a shorter tenure there is that WWE could be giving the notion of forcing him down fans' throats too soon and too fast. I'm all for him on the main roster, especially after being well-versed of his work when I was watching Ring of Honor regularly roughly a decade ago, so I'm over the moon to see him get this chance to shine on a bigger stage. If he was in AEW he would have been lost in the shuffle with a half dozen other luchadors that they have either overexposed or have poorly booked since signing them. The language barrier is always going to be a problem with a lot of those international stars, but I think slotting Dragon Lee immediately into a feud with Santos Escobar and aligning him with LWO and Rey Mysterio is a great start. Zelina Vega can talk for him like she's done for a lot of these Latino Superstars while his ringwork speaks for itself in terms of his in-ring ability.

Escobar isn't a slouch either, but I think that he's a victim of circumstances after Rey Mysterio's hasty departure due to injury. Otherwise, they would have had more time to make his heel turn not feel so rushed. Unfortunately, WWE had their hands tied and it would odd to drag the turn out without Rey around for a few months.

My only knock on this match as the finish felt like it was very abrupt in terms of timing. I don't mind Escobar going over, but damn. It felt like someone gave the signal to go home and they just said fuck it. It sucks too as these two have great chemistry and I would love to see them run this back in a longer contest.

Singles Match for the Women's World Championship

Rhea Ripley (c) defeated Zoey Stark by pinfall

I have said and thought it since she was in NXT that I think that Zoey Stark is a very solid worker, but I don't see her more than a "good hand" or rather enhancement talent to make the other women look good. I see her falling into that role that Natalya has been firmly slotted into for well over a decade now.

It sucks for her that she's this early into her WWE career on the main roster and no one doubted in their minds that she had a chance of dethroning Rhea Ripley here. That being said, this was exactly how I figured it would be - a well-put-together match with the "good hand" making Rhea look good while at the same time, Rhea does her part in giving Zoey a few "hope" spots to give her something in terms of street cred for the new kid on the block.

I think we all can admit that Zoey Starks' momentum has fallen off a cliff after turning on Trish Stratus. I was foolish to think that the turn/betrayal was going to lead to something significant.

Men's WarGames Match

Cody Rhodes, Seth "Freakin" Rollins, Jey Uso, Sami Zayn, and Randy Orton defeated The Judgment Day (Damian Priest, Finn Bálor, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh) and Drew McIntyre by pinfall

This match started off much like the Women's WarGames match did with the workhorses starting things off. Once again, that's not a problem, especially when you got excellent workers in Seth Rollins and Finn Balor leading the charge. My problem with the modern WarGames matches is made apparent when long stretches of this match doesn't matter until all of the team members enter this match. The tale of the tape for this match was whether or not Team Cody was going to have Randy Orton show up or not since he didn't arrive to the building at the start of this match so they had to start without him. Boy, were WWE milking this to the last minute too to fuel more and more speculation that CM Punk could have been the man to replace him against the Judgment Day. This Chicago crowd fell for it hook, line, and sinker at various points of this match too and I don't blame them. Live reports and accounts from fans in the building said that Randy Orton's wife was in attendance and hamming it up with fans all night, so there shouldn't have been too much doubt on whether or not he was showing up.

Once all ten participants were in this match that's when it really got cooking in terms of excitement, not to say that this wasn't thrilling up to this point. It's just like I said previously that there's nothing at stake in these modern WarGames matches until all of the teams have entered the match. I think between the NXT variation of this match, along with IMPACT/TNA's own Lethal Lockdown matches (along with every other promotion under the sun who has done their own style of WarGames matches) have all contributed to making this match type stale/stagnant to watch until this point as it is always painfully obvious that they are padding the runtime of these matches just to get to this point.

The heels in this match, the Judgment Day in this case, had the clear advantage - in more ways than one - until Randy Orton arrived to even the odds. After his entry, this match turned into a largely one-sided affair, even though they tried to tease that Orton was going to turn on Team Cody and lay out Jey Uso, but that was nipped in the bud far too quickly for my taste. Speaking of Orton, I thought they killed JD McDonagh with that RKO from the top rope. At first glance before the replays, it looked like JD spiked his head firmly into the mat before Orton even caught him for the RKO, but the replays showed a different angle and I sighed a breath of relief, despite how devastating that looked. Team Cody stood tall victorious in this showing, but that's not the final talking point for this show.

Surprisingly enough, Triple H had one more bullet in the chamber for this show...

CM Punk returns back to WWE in his hometown of Chicago at the end of this Survivor Series PLE.

CM PUNK RETURNS TO WWE!!

WWE flashed the copyright logo as the PLE seemed to come to an end, but the sound of "Cult of Personality" filled the arena and the crowd became unglued as CM Punk stepped out onto the stage. It wasn't anywhere as impressive as his arrival in AEW but nonetheless still impressive that he can still garner that type of reaction from wrestling fans.

I have to say that I laughed my ass off as I caught completely off-guard by his return at this event. I'm glad I wasn't one of many wrestling podcasters, dirtsheet writers, and other miscellaneous so-called wrestling "journalists" who were making fun of fans and anyone else who held into the idea and any shred of hope that CM Punk would show up at this show. All of those clowns definitely had mud on their faces by the time that this show was over.

CM Punk didn't speak or do anything but stand at the top of the entrance ramp to give people enough intrigue and interest to want to check out the weekly shows the following week.

Then we also have to address the elephant in the room of the fan cam footage of Seth Rollins flipping out at the sight of CM Punk and flipping off CM Punk while Michael Cole of all people is holding him back. At first glance, I fell for it just like everyone else that Punk's arrival already upset the locker room. After looking at it more closely, I can recognize that it's clearly a work and a very clever piece of the puzzle in terms of planting seeds to a possible match between them down the road, preferably at WrestleMania next year.

I sat through the entirety of that following Monday Night RAW to see and hear what CM Punk would have to say and I have agree with a lot of opinions online that it was extremely underwhelming. Punk didn't tease any feuds or address any of the "controversy" surrounding his termination and departure from All Elite Wrestling. It was foolish for anyone to think that he would bring up AEW on WWE programming. It's just not their style to talk about the "other" companies, whether it's their competition or not. Merely acknowledging their existence would be legitimizing their existence and WWE doesn't owe Tony Khan nor anyone for that matter that type of promotion/free advertising. On top of that, there's a laundry list of NDAs signed so Punk couldn't have spoken on the matter even if he wanted to. I think Triple H put it best during the media scrum after this event. Whether you love or hate CM Punk, one thing is certain - he gets people talking, good or bad.

All of that being said, I thought Punk would at least address the thought of how a lot of his fan base might see him as a "traitor" and/or hypocrite for coming back to WWE, especially to one now being ran almost entirely by Triple H since Vince McMahon is pretty much checked out for all intents and purposes. It was delusional for people to assume that Punk would address and air all of that dirty laundry from the other camp. Like I said before, WWE doesn't owe Tony Khan or any company that type of free publicity/advertising, no matter what "cute" tongue-in-cheek jokes and childish comments that the Young Bucks and their elk are doing over there on their weekly Being The Elite show over on YouTube at Punk or anyone's expense.

Now THIS was the CM Punk that I wanted to see in WWE. Let's rip the band-aid off and let him have time to speak like this more often. This appearance was a much better and much more well-received appearance if we're going by reactions online across social media. I loved every moment of this as I personally felt that we should have gotten this on Monday Night RAW instead of the "warm and cuddly" CM Punk who just wanted nothing more than be back "home". Don't spoon feed us the bullshit that WWE wants you to say. Be the outspoken Punk that made people fall in love with you back in 2011 in the first goddamn place without any filter. It's like Eric Bischoff always say, "Controversy creates cash."

Punk gave us a bit of everything in this promo: alluded to and referenced his fights with the Young Bucks and Jack Perry without directly saying their names, called out numerous Superstars, including Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Kevin Owens - all notable talents who have known issues (read: legit heat/animosity) with him throughout the years, and put it out there that he's looking for somewhere to plant his feet firmly in terms of which brand to call his home.

For the sake of this write-up, I'm NOT going to cover his appearance on NXT Deadline here, but mention it in that write-up.

This most recent appearance from CM Punk during the Dec. 11th edition of Monday Night RAW is his most intriguing one to date after making a brief stop at NXT over the weekend during the NXT Deadline event. He has finally decided to sign on the dotted line and make it official that he has chosen Monday Night RAW to be his home brand for the foreseeable future. Internally, Punk is still seen as a free agent, much like Brock Lesnar, so I don't doubt that he's going to be able to float around the brands as he sees fit when WrestleMania season gets rolling into full swing once the new year comes all in the coming weeks.

Punk's signing promptly brought out the arrival of Seth Rollins who doesn't waste any time reading Punk the riot act and throwing down the gauntlet. I'm glad to see that WWE aren't milking this feud for another few months. We're getting this right out of the gate and it's the first thing that I have been interested in concerning Rollins in months. Maybe this will inject some personality into his goofy Batman '66 character and make me actually care to watch for once. I will mention that if they want to run this match back at WrestleMania, I don't think that it necessarily needs the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, but if it does have it, I won't complain as it's not just another body to pad out this initial run of said title with Rollins. On the flip side, I don't need to see Punk win a World title on his debut match with the company. Let's see how his body handles the WWE schedule before we start planning long time again, especially after how many injuries he suffered in his AEW run.

Closing Thoughts

The truth of the matter is that WWE is doing record-breaking attendance records and television ratings, they honestly don't even need CM Punk right now. He's another good attraction to have on their rosters to garner more leverage with their television deal negotiations coming up in 2024. If he can contribute to this current boom of hungry talents making to make the WWE machine better than ever before under Triple H's direction steering the ship, then I'm all for him being back on board as long as he keeps that drama behind him. Besides, we know WWE would nip that shit in the bud ASAP and wouldn't allow it to get to the point of public unprofessionalism where it did in AEW.

To be honest, I don't have a problem with CM Punk either way. It doesn't bother me in the least to see him back in this company as I've burnt bridges with people over the years and mended fences with others years down the line. Nobody's perfect and no one never stays gone from WWE forever. Money talks. Everyone has their price. Time heals. I'm not saying that I doubt that Punk is going to play nice here and everything will be peaches and rainbows for him here in WWE. He could probably stir up another situation similar to "Brawl Out" or his altercation with Jack Perry within another few months here in WWE and be out of the door in less than another year and completely sqaunder his last chance at closing the book on his wrestling career. Either way, it's an exciting time to be a WWE fan right now with so many things going on, whether you're a fan of this guy or not. There's enough going on in WWE right now to sink your teeth into to please a wide variety of fans.

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