John Cena Shock Ending, Liv Morgan Return Highlight Wild Survivor Series Wargames

This past Saturday, at Survivor Series Wargames in San Diego, WWE hit it out of Petco Park. In front of a 49,000-strong crowd, WWE delivered for its audience. Featuring four matches on the card, the WWE Universe walked out with a few questions, but saw WWE superstars go to war! With surprises up their sleeve and an epic conclusion, the ESPN Era of PLE’s shines bright.

In the last PLE match of his career, John Cena took an unusual amount of time to get out as even “Dirty Dom” stood in the ring, wondering where the never-seen seventeen was. After a few brief moments, Cena’s music hit, and the Intercontinental Champion made his way through the crowd, giving everyone high fives. He then gave an emotional speech to the camera and walked down in his final entrance in a PLE ever. Michael Cole said Cena has the second-most PLE wins with 100, behind only the Undertaker. That is some great company to be a part of.

Upon entering the ring, Alicia Taylor gave Cena his own intro before the bout began. Early on, Dominik Mysterio took advantage of the help from Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez, who both attacked Cena behind the ref’s back. Mysterio then performed the “Three Amigos” on Cena and slithered out of the ring upon being confronted. The IC Champ exited the ring only to run into Perez and Rodriguez before Dirty Dom hit him with a sneak attack. Soon after, Dom hit Cena with an acrobatic move and played possum on the ground as medics came to attend to him.

That left the girls to do their finishers to Cena, followed by Dom’s own 619 and frog splash for a two-count. Before the fans knew it, Perez and company were kicked out, leaving Dom on his own. John Cena then performed his five moves of doom. He puts Dom in an STFU, but could not succeed. Then Dom does another 619 and a frog splash for a two-count. Cena counters with an AA but does not get the job done. Suddenly, Cena knocks the ref out, leaving him vulnerable to outside interference. Finn Balor and JD McDonaugh come to the rescue, but Cena puts them in a double AA.

In the biggest surprise of the night, Liv Morgan returned to confront Dominik Mysterio. She slaps him in the face and hugs John Cena. Then, in a similar moment to Cena’s heel turn at Elimination Chamber, Morgan’s facial expression changes, and she low-blows Cena. This led Dom to hit a 619 for the win. After Dirty Dom left the arena, the WWE Universe serenades Cena with “Thank You Cena” chants. Just like that, in the blink of an eye, the greatest of all time has one match left.

For the Women’s World Championship match, it was surprisingly competitive as Stephanie Vaquer squared off against Nikki Bella for the Women’s World Championship. Bella was in control early and almost had a victory with the Rack Attack. However, La Primera’s foot was on the rope at the last second, saving her in the process. That is when the tables turned, as Vaquer performed her signature move “Devil's Kiss” on both the announce table and in the middle of the ring. 

She capped off her performance with an impressive corkscrew moonsault off the ropes to retain the title. Some fans were expecting Brie Bella, Nikki Bella’s sister, to return and either cost her the match or help her win. Time will tell when and if “Brie Mode” will be activated and we get a reunion. As for the champ, the door is open for a new challenger to step up, and perhaps on Monday Night Raw, she will find out who is ready to step up.

That leaves us with the two Wargames matches. First was the women’s match that pitted Team AJ Lee (AJ Lee, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Iyo Sky, and Rhea Ripley) against Team Lynch (Becky Lynch, the Kabuki Warriors, Lash Legend, and Nia Jax). The bout started with a WarGames Advantage rematch between Flair and Asuka. With the time limit up, Iyo Sky came to the ring carrying a trash lid with her name on it. Sky got revenge on her former teammate, Asuka, before Becky came out with a kendo stick. The horsewomen clashed as Becky and Charlotte traded blows. Then Alexa popped up and did a double natural selection alongside Charlotte. Kaire entered, followed by AJ Lee. Lynch guarded the door, prompting Lee to climb into the cage instead.

Nia Jax then entered the fray, bulldozing the competition, with AJ Lee attempting to take Jax down, but it did not work. Rhea Ripley was greeted with a massive pop as she carried down a trash can and some kendo sticks. Ripley took down her opponents with a kendo stick. That left Lash Legend to come out to quite the groovy tune. She came toe-to-toe with Rhea and tried to pin her, but failed. The highlight of the night came when Rhea hoisted AJ Lee on her shoulders, who then gave Iyo Sky a trash can. Then Sky put the trash can over her head and pummeled all her opponents with the exception of Becky Lynch. In a sequence of finishing moves, it was AJ Lee who tapped out Becky Lynch to take home the victory for her team. It sure looks like the rivalry between these two is not over yet.

From the women to the men’s Wargames match, where WWE superstars waged war on each other. Team Roman Reigns (Reigns, Cody, Punk, and the Usos) faced Team Vision (Bronson Reed, Bron Breakker, Logan Paul, Drew McIntyre, and Brock Lesnar). This was an all-out brawl from start to finish.

CM Punk kicked off the match to a thunderous pop, entering the cage the same way his wife did—by climbing up the steel barbs instead of through the door. Next up was Bron Breakker, who wore a badass leather jacket. Neither superstar could find an advantage over the other, and soon came out Drew McIntyre. With the Wargames advantage, the two took turns beating up CM Punk, not giving him any room to catch his breath. Punk had help, however, with the arrival of Cody Rhodes. After Drew made sure Rhodes could not enter via the stairs, Rhodes climbed the cage and delivered a cross-body to Drew and Breakker. The Universal Champion then gave Breakker a Cody Cutter off the ropes. It looked like the babyfaces had momentum on their side, as Punk and Rhodes hit Drew with a few bionic elbows of their own.

Not for long, though, as Logan Paul entered the fray, retrieving steel chairs from under the ring. He and Rhodes scaled the cages before delivering blows to each other at the top. Jimmy Uso was out next and introduced a table to the ring. Three minutes later, Bronson Reed entered the equation, hitting his signature move “Tsunami” on all his opponents. Jimmy’s brother, Jey Uso, took to the ring, and the two were super-kicking everyone in sight. With his opponents down in the ring, Jey ran his theme back one more time.

That did not last long, though, because the final member of Team Vision interrupted Jey’s party.

Brock Lesnar, accompanied by Paul Heyman, entered his first Wargames match and looked to wreak havoc. San Diego became Suplex City as Lesnar absolutely decimated his opponents. One by one, he took them down. It was fun while it lasted, though, because the final entrant was here.

Roman Reigns took command of the situation, and it was looking like the babyfaces were bound for victory. That was until a masked man climbed into the cage and gave a bloodied CM Punk a curb stomp. He glanced at Bron Breakker, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone. Breakker speared Punk for the win, but it was what happened afterwards that got people talking. Roman Reigns said, “This is the last time I’m teaming up with you,” to Cody Rhodes before the PLE was out.

There was plenty to unpack in this year’s Wargames, as well as a few questions. Will we see Becky Lynch vs. AJ Lee soon? What is next for Judgment Day after both Dominik Mysterio’s championship win and Liv’s return? Who was the masked man who took out CM Punk? As of this writing, nothing has been announced for Monday Night Raw, so the WWE Universe will have to tune in on Netflix and find out what’s next.