Wrestling news: WWE must scrap WarGames from Survivor Series or risk ruining the format’s legacy

On Saturday, November 29, WWE will present Survivor Series: WarGames San Diego – and the format needs to take a break after that.

In the first year of Triple H’s creative leadership, he introduced the WarGames match to the main roster, having used it during his time in NXT.

WarGames is an old WCW concept created by Dusty Rhodes and inherited by the WWE when it purchased the company in 2001.

However, the ‘match beyond"’ didn’t make its WWE debut until 2017 as part of NXT TakeOver: WarGames, which took place on the weekend of Survivor Series.

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Mosaddek Abu outlines why the concept has become problematic.

Forced format

The format involves two teams of five (sometimes four) competing in two rings, each surrounded by a large steel cage.

After five minutes, the team with the advantage goes first, creating a 2-on-1 situation.

The team members then alternate every two to three minutes until all 10 wrestlers are inside the ring.

At that point, the match can officially begin, with the only way to win being via pinfall or submission.

Fans loved the matches and wished for it to be used for the main roster one day.

Then, in 2022, WWE announced the first Survivor Series: WarGames, taking a break from the traditional format of SmackDown vs. Raw, which had become tiresome due to its meaningless matches and lack of storylines.

The change couldn’t have come at a better time as it coincided with the peak of The Bloodline.

Yet, as we enter its fourth year, the match is starting to lose its lustre, with it being forced upon audiences rather than growing organically from a rivalry that needs to be settled.

It was the same issue Hell in a Cell had when the match was turned into a PLE back in 2009.

The matches never felt right for the Cell and were merely being put inside it for the sake of it – there were no actual blood feuds that could only be settled within “Satan’s Structure”.

WarGames is now starting to reach that same point.

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Risking legacy

This year’s edition will see a team formed by CM Punk take on one led by Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed while a team fronted by Rhea Ripley meets one led by The Kabuki Warriors, consisting of Asuka and Kairi Sane.

The rivalries simply don’t feel intense enough to justify settling them inside WarGames.

Instead, you could have done the classic, traditional Survivor Series five-on-five tag team elimination match.

Fans are starting to miss those and feel bored by WarGames.

The WarGames matches are indeed insane and awesome, but there is no point in doing them for the sake of it, especially because there is a real chance that some of the superstars get injured.

That would derail creative plans as we move forward into WrestleMania season.

Ultimately, 2025 should be the last year WWE runs WarGames, otherwise you run the risk of ruining the legacy of one of the most significant match concepts ever created.

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