WWE Survivor Series: War Games (2022) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Women's WarGames Match

Team Belair (Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, Asuka, Mia Yim, and Becky Lynch) defeated Team Bayley (Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky), Nikki Cross, and Rhea Ripley) by pinfall

Much like a lot of these WarGames matches, I think that the opening minutes before all 10 participants enter this match are pretty boring. There's not much one can do to change that, especially when it comes to these types of matches, outside of "sweetening" the entrant release times. Boy did they abuse that towards the end of this match, there was one point where I was starting to think that they forgot about the remaining two people in this match from how long they were taking to set things up for the actual WarGames match.

Once everyone were in there and this match finally went under way, I thought it was fine enough for what it was worth. Mia Yim seemed like she working out the nerves as a lot of what she was doing was coming off sloppy or awkwardly executed. She came through by the time it was over and I hope she wasn't injured by that bump with Rhea Ripley through the ladder. I applaud those girls for staying down after something like that as we know if that was some random indie match, people would have jumped back up and did at least a dozen more spots before the finish. The same could be said about Becky Lynch's cage dive leg drop for the finish. Her and Bianca had some hard-hitting back and forth offense against the rest of Bayley and Damage CTRL before putting them away with that finish along with the KOD that Bianca hit on Bayley for the win. That leg drop coming off the top of the cage had to suck for Dakota and Iyo, especially with Becky landing right on top of their chests.

Even though Alexa Bliss didn't do much here, I was happy to see Nikki Cross back in her old Sanity gimmick as the wild child/crazy woman. She seemed much more at home doing that than Almost a SuperHero (A.S.H.) gimmick. That was worse than Rosey being the S.H.I.T. (SuperHero In Training) with The Hurricane. I still say that storyline should've ended with Rosey beating the sin out of Helms, but nope. Helms would become Gregory Helms after a heel turn and become the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion of that era at the time. As for Bliss, it seems like she might be returning to her previous gimmick as a follower of Bray Wyatt and I'm already cringing inside, dreading whatever the fuck that's going to end up being again.

As a whole, I thought this was a decent debut for the Women's WarGames on the main roster. I can't say that it was better than some of the others in the past on NXT, but it was fine for what it was worth, despite being sloppy at points in terms of in-ring execution and pacing.

Singles Match

AJ Styles (with The O.C. (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson)) defeated Finn Bálor (with The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio)) by pinfall

Finn and AJ went out there and wrestled this match like they were main eventing at the Tokyo Dome. I guess they wanted to give the fans the next best thing to that since they weren't going to be at Wrestle Kingdom two months from now. This was a lot better than I was expecting going into this match, but it doesn't change the fact that I feel that Finn is miscast in this role as the leader of the Judgment Day faction, especially when they walked out together and Damian Priest was easily the most bad ass looking and imposing member of that group by miles in comparison to Finn and Dominik.

Styles winning was the right decision and I honestly wouldn't mind seeing him win the Royal Rumble and get a shot at Reigns at WrestleMania. It seems like he has been one of the main guys that has been specifically avoided during this 2+ year reign of Roman's run on top with the Bloodline. Besides, they aren't strangers to having good matches with each other either, so there's that too, along with the fact that they could have Gallows and Anderson backing him up against the rest of the Bloodline.

Singles Match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Ronda Rousey (c) (with Shayna Baszler) defeated Shotzi by submission

A teary-eyed Shotzi devoted this match to her late father earlier on The Bump. I hated say it while I was watching it live when I tweeted it, but this crowd didn't give a damn about this match. I can't put that on Shotzi as she was clearly trying to make something out of this debacle. Ronda (complete with Helga G. Pataki unibrow painted on with her makeup/face paint) moves around the ring as if she doesn't want to be there or has something better to preoccupy her time with. When she's conveying that emotion with her body language so that everyone can easily see that, it's hard to care about anything that she's doing in the ring. As a result, we got a lackluster match with an even staler finish, even though I loved that Avalanche Judo Throw off the top rope spot at the end. Too bad Ronda couldn't transition into the Piper's Pit afterwards to make it look even more effective.

Once again, I'm not putting this mess on Shotzi as I've seen her have better matches with other opponents in NXT and even on the indies prior to joining this company. It's just that Ronda didn't give her much to work with here.

As of this posting (11/29/22), it seems that #FireRondaRousey is a popular hashtag that has been trending after this event. I can't blame people when you see performances like this from her. I get that they want to put the belt onto a high profile celebrity/talent in the absence of Charlotte Flair on the SmackDown! brand, but whatever they think they are doing with her isn't working at all. Ronda has nuclear go-away heat and keeping that title on her isn't doing that division as a whole any favors. I said it when Liv Morgan lost the title to her at Extreme Rules that they pretty much shot themselves in the foot where they booked themselves into that situation where they had to put it back on Ronda instead of potentially having fans turn on Liv (similar to John Cena) after she beat Ronda three times in a row. It sucks too as I actually think the pairing of Ronda and Shayna Baszler could be good, but Ronda definitely doesn't need that title to get that team over. Put the SmackDown! Women's Championship on someone else and let Ronda and Shayna start at the bottom and work their way up that (short) ladder of opponents in the Women's Tag Team division instead. There's better ways to make a return on their investment in her than this.

Triple Threat Match for the WWE United States Championship

Austin Theory defeated Seth "Freakin" Rollins (c) and Bobby Lashley by pinfall

This match was a pleasant surprise as I didn't know what to expect out of this after hearing over the past few weeks that Theory was made to look like a geek when he cashed in his MITB briefcase and lost as a result of the beatings at the hands of both Lashley and Rollins. What we got out of this match was a spectacle of back and forth action that didn't miss a beat for an instant from bell to bell.

The finish surprised the hell out of me as I didn't think that Theory would win the title that way. It simultaneously gives Lashley an out (as he thought he thwarted the finishing maneuver) and Theory just happened to land on top of Rollins in a compromising position to steal the win right from underneath both men's noses. It's like I said on social media when I heard Theory lost the MITB contract, he was going to look like a geek regardless if he cashed in on Brock or Roman when we all knew he had a snowball's chance in hell of winning in that scenario for either of the World titles. Now is the time to rehabilitate the guy from the damge that Vince did from taking him underneath his wing once he was called up to the main roster. Theory has a massive upside in terms of his talents and there's no doubt that he's going to be one of WWE's biggest future stars in the making if he can stay out of trouble and bounce back from the rough beginnings he's had so far. This win here put him off to a good start in that regard in my eyes.

I have to see these guys run this match back at another PPV though as it was too damn good for a one and done affair.

Men's WarGames Match

The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Solo Sikoa, and The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)) (with Paul Heyman) defeated The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland, and Butch), Drew McIntyre, and Kevin Owens by pinfall

Throughout the entire show, the narrative that WWE was painting was whether or not would the Bloodline fall apart during this show or would Sami Zayn turn on them first. Roman had Jey Uso and Sami Zayn come to his locker room and speak to him individually while defending themselves for their actions on SmackDown! from the night before. Jey warns Roman that Sami is going to stab them in the back after talking to Kevin Owens, but Sami retorts back that his "Honorary Uce" status means more to him than anything. Paul Heyman's facial expressions during these backstage segments are priceless while Roman is interrogating them as if he's Deebo from Friday ready to punk these clowns out for their grandma's chian and bike. So yeah, the story here made this match above all else.