Speaker #0hello wwe universe welcome to faces and heels your podcast for professional wrestling here on the kb radio network it's been a minute it's been a minute since i've recapped and reviewed or reacted to a wwe ple for a number of reasons which i'm gonna get into but i decided to come back for this one And this is Survivor Series War Games, which came to us from San Diego, California. And this was the 39th annual Survivor Series. You know that this is a Thanksgiving weekend tradition. But for almost 40 years, Survivor Series is one of the big four. You know, the original big four. You have Survivor Series. Royal Rumble, SummerSlam, and of course, WrestleMania. So those were the big four that came out of WWF at the time. And it has rolled over and it's still a big event. Now you add the element of war games for the past, I don't know, how long has it been? Five years of war games and war games originated. Well, it originated in Jim Crockett productions, but WCW took it to another level. At that time, it had a roof over it. It had a roof on the cages. But now when WWE decided to incorporate it, they took the roof off, which is fine. But I still would like to see the roof, you know, because you can do so many different spots on top of it. You know, I'm not saying Mick Foley. thrown off the top type dives and all this here but you can still do some stuff up there but i'm not going to complain the reason this is my first recap in about i don't know three four months maybe i think uh clash in paris was the last recap i did here on the show and the reason is i just i just haven't been inspired by wwe and they're It just grew stale, you know? It wasn't like it was bad. It wasn't anything bad. It just wasn't... It just didn't have nothing to make me want to watch. The premium live events just felt like extension to Raw. You know, nothing special about those shows. And you had some good matches to come out. I mean, WrestlePalooza, you had a couple of good matches. there you had a a couple of good matches uh i can't even think what was the last premium live event from wwe well i think it was a saturday night main event but it it just didn't have the same pop that uh i'm used to you know no excitement no build and and even with this i wasn't really super excited about survivor series it was more of a traditional thing to really get into it because i wasn't really into the lead up to this premium live event because of the story and the way the stories have played out now a couple of the uh storylines they were pretty decent but they got so much going on i think it's too many irons on the fire uh in wwe right now you can't really focus on one Cohesant story. One big story. Because everybody's beefing with everybody. Nobody has just one guy that they're going after. You know, Cody isn't just, you know, feuding with Drew McIntyre. He's also feuding with Division. He's also feuding with Roman Reigns. You know, so there's so much going on there. And when you're the WWE champion, of course, you're going to have everybody coming at your neck. I get all that. It just, it's bouncing all over the place, even with CM Punk. Now, a lot of that, you have to incorporate injuries and stuff like that. Seth Rollins' injury really put a monkey wrench into a lot of things, you know, especially when it comes to CM Punk and The Vision and so many other things going on. So that threw a monkey wrench in it. Now, I don't know what's going on. and we're gonna touch in on it in the main event i don't know because the man just had legit surgery this wasn't a fake out like he did at summer slam when he pulled off the rules of the century i think he's legit hurt i don't know what happened in the main event you know with this masked figure but you know we'll see how it goes with all that being said you know it had decent story leading up to it it wasn't just thrown together matches here it's just that the stories didn't captivate me this premium live event was really good this is probably the best war games match or the war games pay-per-view i would say in a very long time you know it was really only one predictable match well two two well they all were predictable let me let me correct myself i i knew who was gonna win each match it was only four matches on the card i knew who was gonna win and i got them all right but in the matter that they won that caught me off surprise by surprise and i That's what added to my level of excitement because it added to the story. It fit into story. You know, you have a continuous story going on. And in case you hadn't caught the theme story. Yes, the wrestling's good. The grabs of good. Of course, you want to watch the gladiator aspect of everything. Who doesn't? That's the whole point of watching wrestling. But this is also a soap opera. This is also a. entertaining um in between the black and white we got to get into the gray area and i love what i got out of this show like i said we had four matches on this card number one you had a women's war games match uh with a team of aj lee i'm about to say styles aj lee alexa bliss charlotte Flair, EO Sky, and Rhea Ripley, they were taking on the team of Becky Lynch, Lash Legend, Nia Jax, and the Kabuki Warriors. And you also had an intercontinental match between John Cena, the champ, going up against Dominic Mysterio, as well as a Women's World Championship match between Stephanie Becker and Nikki Bella. And then for the main event, you had the Men's War Games match, where you had The Vision teaming up with Drew McIntyre and Block. Brock Lesnar and Logan Paul, along with Paul Heyman, of course. They were taking on the world heavyweight champion CM Punk, the WWE champion Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and the Usos. A lot of star power. I mean, it was top heavy, man. That was all the big names in this company in one match. In one match. All of the stars. That is crazy to me. But, hey, you kind of needed that. And it fit the narrative. And it made what I've been suffering, not just me, all of you as well, what we've been suffering for the past few months on Raw and SmackDown actually make sense. You know, some of those segments and matches and run-ins and... beatdowns that just came out of nowhere it looked like it wasn't leading to anything actually culminated here in the pay-per-view which okay i'm sorry for doubting you triple h my bad but man we had to go through so much to get to it and it didn't stop this wasn't the end game here this this is not the end this is just uh another chapter that that's the page we're going to turn to kind of lead us into wrestlemania season i think this really set up a lot going into wrestlemania season normally we read we don't get it kicked off until uh the royal rumble but i feel there's a lot that got set up especially in that main event and we'll we'll get to that in a few moments but let's go over these matches beginning with the first match the woman or the women's war games match and this let me start off by saying i love the change that they did for this uh version of war games we didn't have the shark cages immediately i was bought in to this premium live event not that i hated the shark cages But I never really gave it much thought until we didn't have the shark. He just is weird. It's super weird. This show or these two matches, the two war games matches felt different. It felt it had a kind of a Royal Rumble feel to it, you know, where the next next opponent comes out, but once the counting down the clock and then the next pony. opponent comes out it just felt more hype the anticipation of who's coming out next was there and it felt just felt more real you didn't see them you didn't know they weren't there on display uh cramped up in these little shark cages with four other men uh and women it just didn't make sense you know it all of that came to fruition today and i was like why did we have the shark cage what was the point i think this was a a great well subtraction not addition but a subtraction it just it just gave it a new fresh vibe to the match and i think that's what we needed because it was getting stale it really was getting stale still is in a lot of sense you know it's i can't put my finger on what you can change but that was a good start and so we start off with our first match of the night. The women's war games match aj lee alexa bliss charlotte flair eo sky rhea ripley taking on becky lynch lash legend uh naya jacks and the kabuki warriors this match uh this match um normally normally you know if you listen to this show long enough you know that i'm a huge fan of women's wrestling, especially in WWE. I love all these women for their talents and skills, what they bring to the table. It isn't just eye candy. That isn't it. They really bring it. Those women go out there every week and it's like they got something to prove, you know, like they're trying to get to the level, you know, of the men. But I think they surpassed it. At least they have in my book. I really did enjoy him. Now, lately you know it hasn't gotten stale but it's it's like they're in a holding power pattern and you know we're getting the same matches over and over it feels like nothing new nothing fresh it feels like we're about to turn that corner it does you know especially with the addition of lash legend being called up from nxt uh didn't watch too much of her in nxt um The little that I did see I was excited. I really was expecting her to be called up to be a part of Like a stable with Jay Cargill or something like that That that that kind of would have been cool But I'm cool with where she's at and the way she was presented in this match Tells me that they have they got plans for last legend in the future in and I mean near future uh starting off this match you had charlotte flair and oscar they kicked it off first five minutes of the match gave us a traditional match uh to kind of start off decent it was decent you know didn't set the world on fire but you know it was nicely paced being as though they knew they had to go another 40 minutes in this in this match but uh on a personal note, I still have a little disdain for uh charlie flair and oscar for their wrestlemania match from i forgot how long ago what was it third not 30 uh when it was in new orleans last because i was at that wrestlemania i saw that match live i was right there to watch that match and it was so much hype around that match because oscar she was undefeated at the time Oscar had just won the Royal Rumble. Coming up from NXT, she was a beast. They really presented her well, real strong. Get into this match with Charlotte, who was the champion. And I was like, yeah, man, this is going to steal the show. It didn't. It didn't. I think Charlotte won that match, and that's what really made me mad. Why did Charlotte go over in that match? Really? And Asuka hasn't recovered since. Haven't recovered since. Asuka is great. She's doing great work. and has been doing great work since, but not to the level she was in NXT and when she was first called up until we got to that WrestleMania match. It really, it really lights a fire under my butt. I really cannot stand. They really made me mad. I was in the Superdome hot. After that, I didn't care what happened. I think the John Cena Undertaker, um quote-unquote match happened after that and then you had the main event it was brock lesnar and roman reign i didn't even i didn't care it was and then you had the uh and i know i'm going off a tag a tangent here but it's all coming back to my head i got mad at the uh aj styles and um oh my god why am i blanking on his name tensei uh dr moore that's who yeah i got mad that once again another one a beast in NXT called him up he won the Royal Rumble he's challenging AJ Styles and you got that match and I was hot hot that those two matches but anyway anyway let's get let's focus back on Survivor Series Survivor Series uh kicked off with these two it was all right they had just had a match on Smackdown to see who would have the advantage going into this match And it was Charlotte's team that had the advantage because she beat Asuka. And they kicked it off first five minutes. All right, decent. Next entry, Io Sky. Io Sky, the undisputed MVP of War Games matches, her and her trash cans, which made an appearance today. And she came in, man, if Io Sky isn't the best wrestler. currently working and i'm saying best wrestler not i didn't put a male nor female in front of it wrestler point blank period eo sky is great mic work i mean there's a language barrier there so i'm taking that and throwing that to the side i mean in the ring being able to connect with the audience despite all that being able to work a match with whoever It doesn't matter who she's in the ring with or how many people she's in the ring with. And she is a beast. She is an MVP. She came in. We had a good face-to-face with her and Asuka. You know, there's history there that goes beyond WWE. The one thing that kind of confused me when Asuka and Io were going at it. I'm sitting there like, where is Charlotte? You know, Charlotte just disappeared for like five minutes in this match when Io came in. And it was a lot of that in this match. It was, well, I'll get to it at the end. But anyway, I'm like, man, where'd she go? Where'd she go? Even when the next person came in, who was Becky Lynch, it still took her a minute or so to pop back up. uh becky lynch she enters she takes control gives some shots on uh eo and then we get uh face to face with becky and charlotte look we all know the history there started off as friends became frenemies then came straight up enemies and they uh said at one point that they weren't going to work together again they they were not going to get in the ring with one of them That's how much disdain they have for each other. I mean, I remember an interview when Becky Lynch, this was years ago, she was in tears talking about Charlotte Flair on how much love and respect she had for her and how good friends, they was in a car crash together and all this other stuff. It was like she was pouring her heart out and it killed her. The fact that... they can't be friends anymore it was dead deep you know how you know how mad you gotta be to not want to deal with somebody but express how much you love them it's kind of like marriage but we'll get into that another time anyways they did lock up they has they had a good back and forth i actually enjoyed that part of the match a lot because they work well together that was a part of the reason why it was so hurtful that they declared that they weren't going to work together again but here we are and so uh becky gets up her head oscar teams up on them after she took out eo so it was a team up on charlotte and then alexa bliss comes in to aid her bestie and uh she starts laying out folk over she starts laying out folk it is hard to look at alexa bliss and take her serious because alexa bliss look like it looks like you could just pick her up and put her in your pocket she's so tiny you know now it's not like the women that was currently in the ring at this point were huge you know we get the big the big big girls in there later but at that it's still she still look puny you know next to becky lynch who isn't a healthy woman you know yo um she's not a big woman but she i mean she just looks so puny man but i love alexa bliss i really do i wish they would do more with alexa bliss because she is a she's a beast as a heel that's what she needs to be a heel but they're holding that back for some strange reason so uh once again we get another dear disappearance Io she disappeared for about 10 minutes she for about five minutes or so but she disappeared and that was part of the things that just bothered me about this match you know because the men did it better the men did it so much better and I hate to compare the two I really do but the problem I had with this match and I was saving it to the end but I gotta I guess I'll talk about it now. just felt so choreographed and yes they're all choreographed I know I've been watching wrestling for 45 years I know but it looked choreographed it looked everything just looked staged like everybody had to get to their point you could see the wrestlers the performers there they were telling them scoot over or move over here it was just weird man And he was... It just didn't feel real, you know, and they weren't making the effort to make it look real, you know. It just looked like they were trying to hit their spots. And it was just here, because once the match officially started, it got better. The match got much better, but at first, as everybody was following into the match, it was just real paint by numbers, you know. Like, okay, I need to be here. I need to hit. this mark and all this here and so uh after after uh who had came in i think alexa yeah after alexa came in uh kairi sane came in who is equally as small if not smaller than alexa bliss but once again big fan of kairi sane is she uh she started laying waste with the aid of a chain i think this was the first introduction of weapon no Becky brought in a kendo stick I think Was it Becky who brought I know it was a kendo stick in there But anywho The chain was even worse She wrapped it around her hand She's clotheslining people Hitting people in the face with it So That's where it got kind of Ridiculous I'm like okay You hitting somebody flush in the face With a chain wrapped around your hand It would be not cool out there there'll be some blood here but you know it's women i get um they save that for later we got blood in the main event after kairi we got the returning aj lee uh aj lee performing in her first survivor series match her first uh war games match i should say and you know like i said i haven't done the show in a minute haven't done it since she returned Uh, I'm happy to see AJ Lee back. I am, man, because she looked like she hadn't missed a beat. She looks the exact same. She kept herself in shape, boy. So she is AJ Lee. I'll just leave it at that. But I don't know if she particularly fits this era. And, you know, it didn't really dawn on me until this match. I had my little questions at WrestlePalooza, but WrestlePalooza was a first match back, you know, it was a tag, mixed tag team match, and you know, I didn't really read into it too much. But this one here, her style just didn't really mesh with the style that was prevalent in this match and was prevalent in WWE's women's wrestling. And you know... Once again, it isn't like she's in a solo match. You know, we've yet to see her in a solo match. So I'm a reserve judgment. But it just felt like she was off a little bit. Now, the moves, her moves, she hit her moves flawlessly. She was working around the ring. She did everything she was supposed to do. I'm not pulling on her. I don't want you to think that I'm crapping on AJ Lee. I'm just saying, I don't know yet. I still need to see her in a one-on-one match in WWE. and I know it's coming soon and I know it's going to be Becky Lynch and that's going to help her a lot because if anybody going to make her look good in the ring it's Becky Lynch and so uh I'm anticipating that after AJ Lee entered we finally got the heavy hitters uh next up was Nia Jax who came in and just laid waste as she was supposed to. She I mean, she's the biggest one, you know. She's the most, well, I can't say she's the most powerful one. I'll take that back. She's not the most powerful one. That's yet to come. But I noticed something about good old Naya. Naya look like she's slimming up on, it looks like she kind of, she's still big, but she's not, and I mean big in a good way now. But she's, kind of slimming up you know trying to get her a little olive glass there you know like okay naya i see you girl i see you but she's a beautiful i mean if anybody if anybody says anything negative about naya jacks they need to be shot they need to go get their eyes checked that woman i don't care what her size is she is gorgeous and she she works her size you know but whatever I'm going on a whole nother, a whole nother round. So we already know who's next up for the baby face team. And that is none other than the biggest baby face there is. And that's Rhea Ripley who enters and she brings all the weapons, trash cans, Kindle sticks, and a terrifier mask. She came in and did her thing. Started working her way through the Hill team. Nice, nice little. Oh, no, that's not yet. I'm about to get to that. But, yeah, she she did. She did her thing when she came in next up for the Hill team. And last. And this was the shock for me. Last was last legend. Soon to be Mrs. Trick Williams last leg. legend. Congratulations to her and Trick. They got engaged on Thanksgiving Day. So, good on them. But she came in last. And that speaks volumes. That says a lot. That she's coming in last. So, WWE is really getting behind Lash Legend. And when she entered, they really put the exclamation point on it because she laid out everybody. uh showed off her power uh i'm not i'm i'm anticipating a lot of big matches from her and we got a little tease with her and rhea ripley oh boy i can't wait to see that in live action bro that one-on-one battle between those two it won't be coming soon i know a lot of us or you know mouth foaming at the mouth for Wrestlemania oh Lash Legend and Rhea Ripley let's pump the brakes Lash Legend just got there it's plenty of time plenty of time to get to that we can set that up for next year's Wrestlemania or whatever you know SummerSlam or something like that there's no need to rush and that's part of the problem with WWE that's part of the problem with pro wrestling as a whole We want to rush into these dream matches. And then after that, then what? You know? Let's take our time. Let's build up to the big match. You know? Let Lash Legend go through her little trials and tribulations and work her way up the ladder. And then they can clash. And it will pay off better. It will feel better. Don't just throw her in the ring. I appreciate what they're doing with Roxanne Perez. Roxanne Perez. dominant in NXT I'm glad they didn't have her come in there like a Stephanie Vecchia who just picked up where she left off you know collecting belts and I'm not mad at that that works for Stephanie Vecchia but for uh uh Roxanne Perez you can build around her and so they're building you know they're making it when that moment happens it's going to be impactful and that's the whole point. to reiterate what i said before i didn't watch too much lash legend in nxt the little that i did i thought she was all right you know but nothing really screamed oh man i can't wait to see her on the main roster but i'm i'm i'm looking to buy into this i'm looking to see where this goes with her. I want to see what plans. They have for her because the way she was presented tonight, they are they are pretty much scrapping a rocket to her. I'm shocked by this. Seriously, I thought I thought if anybody would come in last, it probably would have been Nia Jax or Becky Lynch. But that's not the case. They threw them in first and let her come in last. And it's important, man. Just think about. If you don't think that mounts up to anything, who came in last in the main event, in the men's war game? Roman Reigns. And that was impactful, was it not? And so that, I don't know. You tell me. Anyways, like I said, this match got much better once the match officially kicked off. where they're all to piss. participants if i could get it out were in the ring uh it was exciting it was fun now the one thing the one thing i'll say the moment when kairi sane got in the ring that's when it really started to pick up i really was invested you know all that clunky choreographed feel of the match went away once kairi sane got in there because She looks like she's just a energized bunny just running around just doing stuff. It just added a new element to the match that made it feel real. And then it really got another thing. I was going into this like, man, I pray that EO Sky does not dive off the cage with a trash can over here. That was my only. only wish it really was that was my only wish because she's done it every year i think man do something different something different now she came in at first with the trash lid this so i already knew the trash can wasn't far behind but at least she started off with the lid i'm like okay i can live with that but hey my wish was dashed away But I must say, I was all right because she did something different. She did a moonsault off of her. Normally, she just straight up dive because she's blind. She don't know. She's just she just died and everybody catches her. But this go around, she actually did a flip off with the with the can and my mouth dropped and I quickly apologized. okay you did something different and it looked fire it landed flawlessly it worked it it worked i loved it loved it great great ending to this match the team of aj lee alexa bliss charlotte flair eo sky rhea ripley defeats the hill team of becky lynch lash legend naya jacks and the kabuki warriors to win the women's war games match this match went 41 minutes and 10 seconds give you a little spoiler alert this was the longest match of the night it was longer than the main event by a minute actually by a few just by what 30 seconds but it was longer nonetheless it was the longest match of the night i it was sloppy at times It was predictable. Like I said, I knew who was going to win, but I was entertained. And that's all I can ask for. You know, I never once thought about getting up and going to get something to eat. I was completely invested in this match from beginning to end, even though I had my issues with it. If I'm grading it on a letter grade scale, I give this match a C+. Yeah, I thought it was a good match, man. It was a good start to the night. You know, it wasn't going to be, oh, man, this should have been the main event. It wasn't that, but as far as an appetizer to get you ready for the main course, it did its job. We move on to the second match of the night, and it was for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. And this was... John Cena's final premium live event and with me saying that I got chills up my spine I don't know if I ever told y'all that I never well not never, I'm embellishing I wasn't the biggest John Cena guy, I thought he was alright entertaining yes in the ring not so much I mean five five moves of death you know five moves of doom i wasn't it didn't get me it never got me uh i like them better as the thugonomics you know but when he became a fruit loop uh cena i was like uh and that's another thing when people had the hill turn thing like oh man john cena never turned hill what you mean he started off as a hill he was uh what you thought the doctor of thuganomics was he's a hill he was a hill started off as a hill but uh i i didn't i didn't really have that connection to john cena and i guess is that you never miss a good thing till he's gone and when he announced that he was retiring i was like devastated oh i really was hurt i was like man No more John Cena. Even after, he's given us some good, really, really good matches. None I would consider great, but really good matches. And he did hold his company down for many years. You know, he was the face of this company. He still is in a lot of sense. You know, everybody knows John Cena, inside and outside of wrestling. And tonight. Tonight is starting to sit in. That's why I'm going on this long diatribe. It's really starting to sit in that we're two weeks away from the end of this man's career as a wrestler. And at the end of this match between him and Dominic Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship, I really got a little teary-eyed. I got some water in the tear ducts. Nothing fell. but I got a little water in there. I was like, man, this is it for the premium live events. You know, December 13th, that's it. And it really set, and I was, my stomach just, it was like somebody kicked me in the stomach. And I was hurt. I was seriously hurt by it. With that being said, John Cena enters this match as the Intercontinental Champion. I knew he was going to lose this match because it didn't make sense for his last match to be for the Intercontinental Championship. It's his last match. We know he's going to lose. Nine times out of ten, it's going to be Gunther. It's going to be Gunther. So what does Gunther need with the Intercontinental Championship? That's a waste of time for him. So it wouldn't have been for that. And so I knew that he was going to lose this match. It was just a matter of how. How was Dirty Dom going to pull this off? I love this match. This was as much as predictable as this was. I have never been more entertained. This was the most entertaining match. of the card hands down i did not see all these things coming that came in this match at one point I was pulling for Cena. I wanted to be wrong. I wanted Cena to win because Cena was out there. He was doing his thing, man. And to Dom's credit, Dom, I'm going to do equal share here. Since I gave John Cena his flowers, let me give Dom his. I was telling a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about Dominic Mysterio. And I said, let me tell you, Dominic Mysterio is currently my favorite wrestler all around. He is. killing it man i love dominic mysterio he has it he gets it he he now it helps it helps that your father is one of the greatest of all times but he gets it's not even about his father you could take the mysterio off his name and he is holding it on his own and i think that's why I respect him more than anything. He doesn't really. That's not what he's, he's not a nepo baby. He's not doing this. It's weird to say, let me take, let me run this back. Let me try to formulate this better. Yes. Do he use his father's move? Yeah. The 619. Yeah, of course. Of course he does. Does he always bring up his deadbeat dad? Of course he does. But there's more to it than that. it is his swag it's his vibe his attitude his style of wrestling it's just everything he does inside and especially out is perfect i use the prime example of there was a segment on raw when rusev and penta were backstage and they were arguing on who was gonna face dom for the intercontinental championship i think this was at the last right before the last uh uh saturday night main event and rusev was just standing in the hallway and dom was coming around the corner and the way the camera was set dom he saw he saw rusev and he just a look on his face and he just ran off the other direction i don't know why that's it's just seared in my brain as one of the greatest moments on Raw. It was just that little thing that he did in his acting at that moment was spot on perfect. And I just love the dupe. And after this match, this match in particular, just amanned everything that I felt about it. We start this match off pretty basic. Thought this was going to be a pretty formulated. match between John Cena and Dom and it took a turn it took a turn if you don't know last week on Raw Penta and we sending sending prayers and thoughts to Penta who got injured on Raw in the last time is now tournament when he tried to Hurricane Rana and he fell on his shoulder and I think he messed up his shoulder. Dom did the same thing, ironically, to John Cena tonight in this match. And he kind of landed on his shoulder, his head or whatever. And he looked like he was hurt. Legitimate. And I'm like, man, what's the odds of this happening twice? Now, in the back of my mind, I'm like, no, this is Dom being Dirty Dom. You know, but. The way it was playing out for the first two or three minutes, I was like, wait, this is real. This might be real. And then Raquel and Roxy got involved. Oh, my God. They did. They really got me. They got me. They were pulling this off. They went to beating John Cena up, and they actually beat up John Cena. which was ridiculous but you know john cena not gonna uh it's not like he's gonna a a roxanne perez uh now that would have been nice that would have been cool to see it's but no he he got beat up by him uh dom comes in now they were interfering before that now uh but uh the ref didn't see it And Dom, he just jumps up off of the apron, off of the floor, rolls in the ring, hits the splash, starts to count. And, well, the ref didn't even count. The ref was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You was just on the ground, screaming in pain. You broke his shoulder, whatever, whatever. And then he looks over. He sees Raquel and Roxanne, and he kicks them out. And he's like, nah. nah we're not doing it like this we're going to do it right uh so they go back at it dom and uh john cena um john cena was it john yeah john cena knocked out the ref he knocked the ref out accidentally knocked him out the ring and then you see the rest of the judgment they come out and uh jd mcbeast mcdonough who they began beating up on John Cena. Now, John Cena wouldn't hit a woman, but he would hit them. So he went, fought back on them, and hit a double AA on them. That was the best-looking double AA ever. It took him 20 years, but he finally hit that double AA perfectly with J.D. Madonna and Finn Balor. It was perfectly executed. There's more back and forth between Dom and John. And suddenly we hear Liv Morgan's music. I kind of had a feeling she was coming back. WWE teased it. I don't know why they do these teats. It spoils the surprise. It doesn't, you know, let it be a actual surprise. But they was kind of spoiling it on social media that Liv was coming back. But whatever. They're happy to see her back. She comes back. She slaps Don. And you're like, okay. And I thought it was going to be a little swerve. But then it set in. I was like, wait, no, it can't be this easy. And when she jumped into John Cena's arms, I was like, oh, is she going to give him the oblivion? Or at least attempt to give John Cena the oblivion? Which would have been cool, but that's not what she did. It was a fake hug. Low blow John Cena threw him in the ropes. Dom hit the 619, then hit the splash. One, two, three. He regains his Intercontinental Championship, making him a two-time Intercontinental Champion, along with being a AAA Mega Champion as well, as he leaves the ring holding the belts and Liv Morgan. John Cena. He's laid out in the ring, and this is where it hit me. This is the moment where the emotion started. I was like, oh, man, this is the last time. At least for a premium live event. You know, we got one more. One more. But that was cool. That was cool. And I know a lot of people were upset that this match was taking place because this is John Cena's last run. Why is he wrestling Dominic Mysterio? twice you know and you got a tournament going on where people are legit getting hurt in this tournament you know penta is out for a while uh seamus is hurt he's out you know they're in this tournament and they you know fighting for the chance to be the last man to uh face john cena in his career and dominic mysterio just voila gets two matches in a one month span you know with john cena it was supposed to be this way and this match was supposed to go exactly how it went dominic couldn't beat john cena straight up no i mean it keeps john cena looking like john cena like the superhero and it keeps dominic mysterio looking like the slimy backstabbing cheat the win character that he is and so it was perfectly done you know uh was it necessary to have two matches maybe not you know what i would prefer to see john cena face somebody else sure but with him having the intercontinental championship it had to go this way it had to because he couldn't go into his last match holding a belt that that that would have been ridiculous so we uh oh if i had to grade this match on a letter grade i'd give it a b plus i thought it was really good It was really, really good. Our third match of the night is for the Women's World Championship. The champion, Stephanie Vecchere, takes on... Nikki Bella. This was the one match that I wish was not on this card. This is the one match I wish didn't happen, period. And there's no slight on Stephanie Becker. Huge fan. Huge. It's huge. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. There's no bigger crush currently going on right now than my crush for Stephanie Becker. I will risk it all for Stephanie. uh but she's a beast in the ring as well she deserves everything that she is uh uh currently holding and which is that belt right now and no slight on her but nikki bella nikki bella nikki bella never was look would all do and i mean with all due respect to nikki bella Nikki Bella was never a ring worker like that. She was a Divas Era wrestler. That's what she was. You know, she wasn't there for the grabs. She was there for the eye candy, along with a lot of women in that era. You know, WWE didn't take women's wrestling seriously during that time. It was all about who looked the best. in a scampi outfit in the ring. That's all it was about. And she played her role well, because she did look the best in a scampi outfit. And so, I mean, I'm not knocking her for that, but I mean, as far as her in-ring skills, in comparisons to Stephanie Vecchiaire, not even close. Not even close. Now, I'll give Nikki Bella this. This was her best outing. Since she's returned. And I think a lot of that probably goes to Stephanie Becker carrying the match. But she had no business being in the ring with Stephanie Becker. This match was lame. This was the worst Stephanie Becker match, man. I wasn't entertained at all throughout this match. Now, the one thing that did entertain, you know. aside from the devil's kiss was the uh court screw splash that is a thing of beauty that is the best one of the best finishers currently in wrestling did she her execution her her it was it's just perfect and that's not an easy move to execute and she does it flawless man what a move and she nailed it the one she did to eo to win the women's world championship at, uh, wrestle Palooza was, was, I thought was flawless. This one was better. I mean, perfect, perfect. Uh, she wins this match. It was nothing, uh, you know, to write home and tell mom about, you know what I was anticipating? I was, I was waiting for the moment. Brie Bella to come out from underneath the ring. I really was waiting. I thought Double Trouble was in play because I didn't see any other, any other way Nikki Bella had a shot at winning this match. But that didn't happen. Stephanie Becker wins clean. On a grading scale, I give this match a C-. And I'm being very kind. I think most of that is because of my, uh, uh, love if i can use that word for uh stephanie make care but other than that that this match was what it was we move on to the main event of the evening and it is the men's war games match and this was an all-star battle we had the vision as braun breaker and bronson reed with paul hayman Along with Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre, and Logan Paul. Going up against basically a bunch of champs. Either champs or former champs. You got the current World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk. The current WWE Champion with Cody Rhodes. The former both with Roman Reigns. And the former... tag team champions with the Usos and a former heavyweight champion with Jay just a bunch of former champs you know and It was a lot of hardware on that side of the fence. And so plenty of star power. We start off the match with, once again, this was a shock. I was shocked that Bronson, not Bronson, Bron Breaker and CM Punk started this match off. I thought it was going to be, I thought Punk would probably wait a second to last or something like that. You know, I didn't think they were going to come out hot. And they came out hot. This is a match that I was thinking WWE was probably saving for, I don't know, Royal Rumble maybe? Not so much WrestleMania, but Royal Rumble with CM Punk and Braun Breaker? Because I see Braun Breaker being that dude. And we'll get to the end of this match, which kind of helped that theory. They are teasing that Bron Breaker is in for some breakthroughs. No pun intended. But they started off the match. It started just like you would think. Pretty brutal. Bron Breaker, of course, had the upper hand. Being the stronger, younger, faster guy. CM Punk showing his wisdom. His experience. Uh, getting the upper hand at times as well. Good start to this match. Uh, well-paced, you know, you don't want to get CM Punk blown up early. You know, he's not a, he's not a spring chicken. And so they would, they properly paced the opening minutes of this match before our, uh, third contestant came in. And that was none other than Drew McIntyre. One of CM Punk's hated rivals had the best feud. in 2024 between those two and so now you got cm punk between a rock and a hard place literally with uh a feud of the past with drew feud of the future with ron breaker oh man he's in trouble and it is exactly what exactly what you thought you you started off with drew entering the cage and immediately hitting cm punk with a claymore kick It's... I mean immediately and I was like, okay, this is not gonna go well for punk This is gonna be a long three minutes and it was uh They took it to him before his help arrived and it was none other than the WWE champion Cody Rhodes ran sprinted to the ring to help his boy and Even out the odds pretty good pretty good back and forth between those two, especially with Drew McIntyre. Drew McIntyre had recently got suspended for attacking Cody Rhodes or attacking a ref, actually, but that was after he beat up Cody Rhodes and then he jumped Cody Rhodes in his tour bus a couple of weeks ago, leaving him a bloody mess. And so that assault continued. by the end of their little beatdown in this little three minute interval, you had blood. Cody was bleeding and CM Punk was bleeding. It was, and that's how it was supposed to be, you know, and they saved it for the right time and they saved it for the right people. And it was kind of weird to see both champs, your heavyweight champion and the WWE champion leaking like that in this ring. Oh, but that's how, uh, that's how they left. where we're leaving them until Logan Paul. He entered the ring to zero fanfare. Look, I'm with everybody else or with the vast majority who hates Logan Paul. It's hard for me. It is really hard for me because the dude performs at a breakneck pace in that ring. He is awesome in that ring. Awesome in the ring. uh, outside could care less, but in the ring, he's, he is, he is really committed, man. This isn't something that he's just doing. You know, when you see some celebrities that come in for matches, you know, little special matches that they have, you could tell that they just doing it to do it. Not him. He really is committed to this. He's all in, I mean, character and all, uh, I gotta give him that. I'm gonna give him that. you know but he comes in You know, he has a little feud with CM Punk as well. He wants a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. Also, that leads us to Jimmy Uso entering the match to once again even out the odds or actually get the upper hand. Oh, no, no, no. To even out the odds. To even out the odds. He does his thing. Poor Jimmy, I feel the same about Jimmy as I do about Jay. And I'm going to get to Jay in a sec. But I don't, I just don't see. They are a great tag team. I'll put it that way. And we're going to move on. And so they're doing their thing. Jimmy allows the babyface team to kind of get the upper hand. Or, yeah, to get a little upper hand, even out the odds. And then Bronson Reed enters. And Bronson Reed lays out of it. Bronson Reed comes in and immediately hits not one, not two, but three tsunamis. It's one on CM Punk, one on Cody Rhodes, and one on Jimmy Uso. It was a thing of beauty. And at this point, the Babyface team is done. The Babyface team is all laid out. They're there. I don't know who could come in to save him. We already know that Roman's not going to be next. They're not going to save Jay for last. At least I was hoping that wasn't the case. But either way, neither one of them was going to come in and help him at this point. But Jay does come in next. And Jay comes in. His music hit. Everybody go crazy. This match, I'm going to give a little spoiler alert. This match would have been pitch perfect for me. This would have been an A-plus match. It really would have, until this part of the match. I like Jey Uso. I like Jimmy Uso. I like the Uso. Them ass singles don't work for me. Never have. And it seems like it never will. It was a good moment that Jey won the championship at WrestleMania against Gunther, even though I still don't like him. Daddy beat Gunther. Not only beat him, but choked him out or tapped him out. But I just don't get him, man. I just don't see the main event allure of Jey Uso. Mid-card? Sure. Main event? No. No. Just the other night, he beat Rusev in the tournament. And I'm like, well, no, no, because I don't want him to be the final opponent of John Cena. That that would be a trash match for John Cena to go out. But Jay just don't do it for me. And a reason, one of the reasons I should say is the mess he pulled here. He comes in, he saves everybody. He lays out everybody. They are building him up like he is peak Bloodline Roman Reigns level. And he just lays out everything. So after he laid out the entire vision, he starts his music back up and gets on top of the cage in the middle of the match and does the... As he's doing that, the beast incarnate comes out, Brock Lesnar. And while Brock Lesnar is coming out, he's still on top of the game. It just took me completely out of the match. I was like, man, why are y'all doing this, bro? Did y'all have to do this in the middle of the match? If you wanted to have that moment where the stadium is rocking with the yeet, have him come out first. They should have had him come out first. and allowed the audience to have their time in the sun. But this was dumb. It just logically was stupid to me. I did not enjoy that at all. And it took me out. And I had to literally take a long inhale and exhale and just cool out and let Brock Lesnar come in there and just ravish everybody. literally Michael Cole said it best during the match he was like man it's like being locked in a cage with a grizzly bear and that's exactly what he was he was just it's not enough tea in China to get me in a steel cage with Brock Lesnar in a ring period but in a steel cage no I'll pass he went to work on him and true to form our next our last entry into this match was Roman Reigns to make it official. Bruh. This was like when they were in the alleyway, when Brock came out of the cage to meet Roman at the alleyway. And I'm looking at them like it was like the good and bad and the ugly when Clint Eastwood is standing there in the midst of the draw. And they were just staring at each other, preparing to charge. And I was like, man, are they going to charge at one another and just jump, you know, and just collide like two? You ever saw two? You ever watch those nature shows where you see lions fight and they just run and collide with one another and just. That's what that's what I envisioned in that hallway when they were standing there about the charge. We didn't get that, but it was it was cool. But that would have been a cool moment at that point. Roman hits Brock with about three Superman punches to the point where Brock catches him at one of the attempts. And F5s him onto a table. Starts beating him down. They finally enter the ring. The match officially starts. And it went pretty quick after that. I was a little shocked. on how quick the match went. Now, the match was 40 minutes in total, but it was like once it officially started, we didn't get a lot of big spots. And I think that was because, number one, basically your top roster, everybody on the top is in this ring. You can't afford not one individual in this match to get hurt. Not... They can't chip a nail in this match because the future plans for the next three to four months are hanging in the balance of this one match. You know, your whole main event card. And so you didn't get any big spots, but there were some good spots, really good spots. Like I said, I like the Bronson ring read. I should know his last name. Bronson Reed tsunami sequence, which was cool, you know, kind of a full circle moment. We know that he hurt his foot, broke his foot last year at this event and in this match that had him out for about six, seven months or something. So this was full circle for him. Roman came in and. look like the tribal chief that he is you know unstoppable force and then you had the immovable object in brock lesnar and it was just it was just it was it was it was some good clashes in this match that led to the mystery guy you had this mystery guy in a black hoodie he's he's i mean he's wrapped up man he's wrapped up like a christmas present you don't you couldn't see not one ounce of flesh on this dude enters the ring super kick cm punk and then curve stomps him and runs back out the ring or climbs out the cage and leave you know who is this now when he first got into the ring let me tell you what my mind went chris jericho i thought chris jericho was gonna make his return you know that's been talked about rumored for a couple of months now because his contract at aw is coming up if not up already and okay that would be cool if he joined the vision that would be cool you know something like that i don't know i you couldn't pay me to give you my true thoughts on who i think that is i don't think it's sephra now what Uh, yeah. Once he did the stomp, I knew it wasn't Chris Jarrett. But it still can be. It still can be. But I'm not, I don't know, man, the way his body shape and how quick he move. I don't think that's Chris Jarrett. But I don't know. I don't know who that could be. Anyways, that led to a big spear from Bronson Reed on to CM Punk. for the 1-2-3 and uh vision in the hill team wins comes out victorious now there is a lot you can take away from this number one ron breaker pinned cm palm the heavyweight champion There's a lot there. There's a lot to unpack there. You know, like I said, to start this match, that's the two that started this match. That's kind of been teased for the last month or so as a potential, I don't know, main event for PLE. I don't know WrestleMania per se, but soon, soon. Or it could be WrestleMania. Who knows? We'll see. Or it could be sooner than that. They could be at the Saturday Night Main event that's coming up. But I don't think that. I don't think they're going to have any other matches. I think it's going to be that one match with the John Cena match. Because that's all everybody cares about on the 13th. But coming up soon, we're going to get Braun Breaker versus CM Punk because he pinned the champ. But my biggest takeaway in this match, all the champions lost. You know, in this match, not over the course of the night, because Stephanie Vecchia did win, but your heavyweight champion loss and your WWE champion were left laying in the ring. Bloody. Both of them left in the ring. Bloody. There's a lot there. And then you have Roman Reigns kind of burying the hatchet with CM Punk. They shook hands and fist bumped, but not with Cody Rhodes. Not with Cody Rhodes. He helped up punk. He just looked at Cody and told him before he walked out the cage that this is the last time I'm going to team up with you. And walked out. So that's possibly setting up Roman versus Cody 3 at Wrestlemania. That's probably setting that up. I don't want to see that we've been there we've been there it's time to move on for that it's time to get the belt off Cody I will say that as much as Cody is your prototypical traditional champion he hasn't done anything with that belt nothing has happened with that belt since it's been around his race I would rather Roman you know and you wouldn't have heard that from me six years ago you wouldn't have heard that from anybody six years ago put it on anybody but Roman but man that bloodline storyline still the greatest storyline in all of wrestling and I think they pulled the plug on that a tad bit too soon but I give this match an A minus. I wasn't going to give it a B plus, but I'll give it an A minus. You know, what took that yeet in the middle of the match, bro, I just cannot get over that. I cannot get over that. But overall, good night, good card. I enjoyed the matches. You know, even the women's world championship match. I mean, it didn't bore me, but that could have been on Raw. It didn't need to be on this premium live event. But what I did enjoy about these matches, this PLE the most, is the stories, is the storylines going in and what's continuing going out. Because now you have more questions, you know, more questions, more things to look forward to going. You know, who's the mystery guy? What's next for Brian Breaker and CM Punk? What's next for Cody Rhodes? What's next for Stephanie Vecchia? Who's going to step up next and challenge her? We're still waiting to see who will be John Cena's last opponent in a couple of weeks. AJ Lee, Becky Lynch, what's up with that? Or, you know, so many questions. So many questions. But I did enjoy war games this year. I really, really had a good time. I hope that you did, too. And I hope that you had a good time listening to me recap this Survivor Series war games from San Diego. I had fun. Hope you did, too. I would love to know your thoughts. What do you think? Who do you think the mystery man in the hoodie is? Let me know in comments and by email. Email the show, kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. Also, don't forget about YouTube. You can subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever. You are currently listening to Faces in Heels here. on the kb radio network everybody thank you for joining me it's been a long time man long time But I'm back, baby, and I'm back for good, hopefully. Hopefully. Triple H, man, keep it up, bro, because the last few months has been a chore. So if things keep going the way you set it up tonight, we're in good shape. But I'll be back to recap Saturday Night Main Event on December 13th when we watch. The last time, man. The final match for John Cena. And it's going to be full of tears. But it's going to be fun nonetheless. Everybody, enjoy the rest of your weekend. I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Until next time, y'all be cool. Peace.
