It’s that time of year again — WWE Survivor Series season. Survivor Series is one of WWE’s “big four” Premium Live Events and it’s one that families far and wide tune in for during their Thanksgiving festivities. This year’s event contains two WarGames matches and John Cena’s penultimate career appearance.
The Men’s WarGames match features heavyhitters Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Roman Reigns, and The Usos on one side and The Vision teaming with Drew McIntyre and Brock Lesnar on the opposite. Cena will put the IC title on the line against Dominik Mysterio yet another time, but perhaps this is where Dom gets his payback.
This year’s women’s WarGames would’ve featured Charlotte Flair, but she backed out because of her connection to Rhea Ripley. At the time of writing, the teams are as follows: Rhea Ripley, IYO SKY, Alexa Bliss, and two TBA vs. The Kabuki Warriors, Nia Jax, Lash Legend, and TBA. Finally, Stephanie Vaquer will face Nikki Bella one-on-one for the Women’s World Championship. Is it Stephanie’s era or is Nikki taking back control of what she lost years ago?
The biggest question is: how did Survivor Series become as much of a tradition as the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Simple, Vince McMahon’s pettiness.
The Birth of WWE Survivor Series
WrestleMania III was an undeniable success for WWE (the WWF) and it showed pay-per-view providers that hosting WWE content was well worth it. Of course, this opened the gates for other companies to take advantage. Enter Jim Crockett Promotions and Starrcade. Although they opted to have their show on during the day to avoid overlap with McMahon’s promotion, it reportedly left the former WWE Chairman furious.
In the 1980s, promotions didn’t dare go against McMahon. So, he gave providers an ultimatum: if you showcase Starrcade, you don’t get WrestleMania IV. Given how much money the WrestleMania pay-per-view just made them, they came up with a solution. WWE’s answer? Create a show to counter-program them. That’s how Survivor Series was born.
This was the beginning of a downward spiral for NWA. At every turn, WWE had an answer. When Crockett headed back to New York in January with Bunkhouse Stampede, WWE answered with the creation of the Royal Rumble. Crockett was thrown into a war that was almost impossible to win.
The first-ever Survivor Series — live from Richfield Ohio — featured almost every single star on the roster at the time. With a main event featuring Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan part 2 — yeah, there was no way they were winning that battle.
Survivor Series: WarGames kicks off Saturday, November 29, 2025, at Petco Park in San Diego, California. For fans within the United States, Survivor Series — and all other WWE PLEs — can be found on ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming service. Fans overseas can tune in via Netflix.
Stay tuned to VICE for live updates of this year’s Survivor Series: WarGames PLE.
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