SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Though we’ve barely had enough time to digest Summerslam, it’s worth looking ahead to the next major stop on the WWE PLE calendar, which has traditionally been Survivor Series in November. For the last few years, the company has run the War Games cage match at that show in lieu of the traditional Survivor Series elimination tag matches.
Recently, there has been a Women’s War Games match and a Men’s War Games match on the card. This year, there doesn’t yet seem to be a clear direction for the women related to this stipulation. As for the men, there are two factions that are in disarray and both stories could conceivably come to a head in a War Games match. The likelihood, however, is that only one feud will get that billing.
Summerslam saw the complete eruption of the Judgment Day group. Dominik Mysterio lived up to his nickname, doing Rhea Ripley dirty by turning on her and aligning with Liv Morgan. Later, Finn Balor cost Damian Priest his World Heavyweight Championship. On Raw, the rest of Judgment Day sided with Balor, leaving Ripley and Priest together as babyfaces. There are a couple of paths WWE could traverse with this.
They could do an intergender or mixed War Games with Morgan on one side and Ripley on the other. They could also leave the women out and have just the men. The heel side is obvious: Balor, Dominik, Carlito, JD McDonagh, They could recruit one more to take Priest’s place in the group, or simply do four versus four.
With Ripley or without, five or four, Priest would have to engage with some fellow babyfaces to aid his cause (I’m sure R-Truth would be more than happy to step in). Judgment Day has left a path of destruction during their time ruling the roost on Raw, so there could be a locker room full of good guys looking for vengeance against them.
The other option for the Men’s War Games match is probably more obvious: Bloodline vs. Bloodline. The Roman Reigns return at Summerslam set the wheels in motion for this one. Solo Sikoa, Tonga Loa, Tama Tonga and Jacob Fatu (with perhaps a yet-to-debut Hikuleo) against a team headed by Reigns and The Usos is a tempting play here.
There are a ton of options for the fourth and fifth members on the babyface side, from Cody Rhodes to Kevin Owens to Sami Zayn to Randy Orton, all of whom would have to set aside their deep hatred and distrust of Reigns to fight this battle. There’s always the specter of The Rock hanging over Bloodline proceedings as well.
If WWE decision-makers didn’t feel obligated to force a Women’s War Games match into the picture, they could run both of these scenarios at Survivor Series. I believe that’s unlikely, so instead my money is on only one of these matches playing itself out in November. With the proper build, I don’t think WWE could go wrong with either choice.
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