After watching Cody Rhodes make his not-so-surprising return at the Royal Rumble, Roman Reigns keep his title reign alive at WrestleMania, and Jey Uso come up just short of being named the new Undisputed Universal Champion at SummerSlam, the WWE Universe has officially made its return to Chicago, Illinois, for Survivor Series, the final Big 4 Premium Live Event of the 2023 calendar year.
With just five matches on a card loaded up with two of the most exciting matches professional wrestling has to offer, WarGames, fans at the United Center will be treated to some hard-hitting battles, two title defenses and the Premium Live Event debut of Dragon Lee, who looks to defend the honor of both Rey Mysterio and Carlito against the “Emperor of Lucha Libre,” Santos Escobar, even if he might just have some extra assistance from the tag team formerly known as Los Lotharios and even Elektra Lopez, who LDF left behind in NXT in favor of an LWO revival with Zelina Vega.
Needless to say, if you want to spend the final Saturday of November watching sports entertainment instead of actual sports – or AEW's three-hour wrestling block – this is the show to watch, and fortunately, because of WWE's deal with Peacock, it couldn't be easier to catch the proceedings.
How to Watch WWE Survivor Series
Stream: Peacock
Time: 8:00 p.m. ET/ 5:00 p.m. PT
*Watch sports LIVE with fuboTV (click for a free trial)*
3. Can Damage CTRL secure a WarGames win?
In 2022, Damage CTRL took part in the first-ever edition of WarGames on the main roster, with Paul “Triple H” Levesque finally brining the concept to a WWE Premium Live Event following years of success with the concept in NXT.
*Spoiler alert* they lost.
That's right, despite hooking up with Rhea Ripley and going into the event a cohesive unit, Bayley came in as second banana to Becky Lynch once more, with “The Man” securing the win for her team with a big leg drop off the top of the cage for the 1-2-3.
So now, with even more star power added to Damage CTRL in the form of the reunited Kabuki Warriors, Asuka, and Kairi Sane, can Bayley's bunch finally get a win inside the steel cage? Or will the babyfaces, who are having issues of their own from a trust perspective, once again prove that their collective star power wins out once more? All things considered, it feels like this might be Damage CTRL's year to do some dam… darn good work.
2. Will Drew McIntyre remain true to Judgment Day?
When Drew McIntyre officially put his babyface ways in the past to fully go over to the spooky, Hot Topic-esque dark side that is Damage CTRL, it turned heads around the WWE Universe.
Sure, McIntyre will assert that he hasn't turned heel and that he is instead simply expressing himself as a human being, the sort of realness that other WWE Superstars like, say Sami Zayn get celebrated for, but when the bell officially sounds and all of the cages have been emptied into the WarGames cage at Survivor Series, McIntyre will be standing alongside Damian Priest, Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh, not Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, and the “Underdog from the Underground.”
… or will he?
I mean, think about it: McIntyre wants to teach Uso a lesson and get himself back into contention for a singles belt, the latter of which can't be achieved with a WarGames victory. Could McIntyre, angered by how he's being treated by his faction, disenchanted by the match as a whole, or even bribed by Rollins with another shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, simply walk out on his team and give Team Cody the easy win? Stranger things have happened in a WarGames match, as Tegan Nox will tell you.
1. Will the Chicago crowd boo if CM Punk doesn't show up
And last but not least, the biggest question surrounding WarGames is the one that's the hardest to predict beforehand: Will CM Punk make his return to WWE in Chicago?
As of right now, good money would say no, as unless the promotion is keeping it a very big surprise, Dave Meltzer believes internal signs point towards the “Best in the World” watching the show on Peacock just like the rest of the fans around the world who didn't get a ticket to the show. Still, if Punk doesn't show up, in a way, that almost makes things more interesting, as it creates the potential for something WWE hates more than anything else: Uncertainty from their audience.
Will fans boo? Will they chant “CM Punk” through the entirety of WarGames? And will social media posts regarding the “Second City Saint” far outweigh the positive posts about WarGames? All things considered, this has the potential to be incredibly interesting, even if it has WWE's creative team sweating in Gorilla, wondering how Survivor Series fans will react next.