Survivor Series: WarGames (2024)

The 2024 Survivor Series: WarGames was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American promotion WWE. It was the 38th annual Survivor Series and took place on Saturday, November 30, 2024, at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the third annual Survivor Series based around the WarGames match, a team-based steel cage match where the roofless cage surrounds two rings placed side by side, and as a result, it was the fifth Survivor Series to not feature a traditional Survivor Series match, after the 1998, 2002, 2022, and 2023 events.

This was the first Survivor Series to take place in Vancouver and WWE's first PPV event held in the city and venue since Rock Bottom: In Your House in 1998. It was subsequently the third Survivor Series event held in Canada, after 1997 in Montreal and 2016 in Toronto. This was also WWE's final main roster PPV and livestreaming event to air on the standalone WWE Network in most international markets and Binge in Australia due to its content merging under Netflix in January 2025, as well as the last Survivor Series to air on Peacock in the United States as ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service assumed the main roster PPV and livestreaming rights beginning in September 2025.

Five matches were contested at the event, including two WarGames matches. In the main event, which was a men's WarGames match and was the main match from SmackDown but had involvement from Raw wrestlers, Roman Reigns, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), Sami Zayn, and CM Punk defeated The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa, Jacob Fatu, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa) and Bronson Reed, while in the women's WarGames match, which was the opening bout and was the main match from Raw but had involvement from SmackDown wrestlers, Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, Naomi, Iyo Sky, and Bayley) defeated The Judgment Day (Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez), Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LeRae.

Production

Background

Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event produced every November by the American promotion WWE since 1987, generally held the week of Thanksgiving. The second longest running pay-per-view (PPV) event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Royal Rumble, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". From 1987 to 2021, the event was characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which were tag team elimination matches that typically featured teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. In 2022, the event was rebranded as "Survivor Series: WarGames" and instead of Survivor Series matches, the annual event became based around the WarGames match, a type of steel cage match where two teams face each other in a roofless cage that surrounds two rings placed side by side and the teams typically feature four to five wrestlers each but is decided by one fall instead of eliminating all opponents. WWE's developmental brand NXT previously held an annual WarGames event from 2017 to 2021 before the match became a part of Survivor Series, thus marking the fifth Survivor Series to not feature a traditional Survivor Series match, after the 1998, 2002, 2022, and 2023 events.

On August 1, 2024, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced that the 38th annual Survivor Series, and third annual as WarGames, would be held on Saturday, November 30, 2024, at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the third Survivor Series to take place in Canada, after 1997 and 2016, but the first to be held in Vancouver. It was thus the first WWE PPV event in the city since Rock Bottom: In Your House in 1998, which was held at the same venue when it was still known as General Motors Place.

Broadcast outlets

Survivor Series: WarGames was broadcast live on traditional PPV worldwide and was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Binge in Australia, Abema in Japan, SonyLIV in India, and the WWE Network in most other international markets—including the Canadian version, distributed by venue sponsor Rogers Communications. This was the final Survivor Series, and WWE's final main roster PPV and livestreaming event, to air on the standalone WWE Network in most international markets, as well as Binge, as its content moved to Netflix in January 2025; a select few territories still maintain the standalone WWE Network into 2025 due to pre-existing contracts but will also merge under Netflix when those contracts expire.

Storylines

The event included five matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

From 2021 until 2023, Roman Reigns and his cousins The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) led The Bloodline stable, managed by Paul Heyman, holding both the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships, respectively, until their losses at WrestleMania 39 and XL, respectively. Also during this time, Sami Zayn joined as an honorary member until January 2023, with The Usos's younger brother Solo Sikoa also joining. After an internal strife, The Usos left the group and emerged victorious during the Bloodline Civil War tag team match at the 2023 Money in the Bank; however, The Usos split up, with Jey moving to Raw and Jimmy remaining on SmackDown and rejoined The Bloodline, but despite being on different brands, this led to a match at WrestleMania XL where Jey defeated Jimmy. Reigns also lost the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship to Cody Rhodes at the event. In the months after Reigns' defeat, Sikoa assumed leadership of The Bloodline while forcibly exiling Jimmy and Heyman, and excommunicating Reigns, subsequently adding Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Jacob Fatu. Reigns returned at SummerSlam, beginning a rivalry with Sikoa, while Jimmy returned at Bad Blood, which led to a reunion of Reigns and The Usos. At Crown Jewel, Reigns and The Usos lost to Sikoa, Fatu, and Tama after interference from Loa, with Sikoa pinning Reigns. Following the match, Sikoa's Bloodline outnumbered Reigns and The Usos until Raw's Zayn came out to save them, however, Zayn accidentally performed a Helluva Kick on Reigns intended for Sikoa. On the following Raw, Zayn was confronted by The Usos, with Jimmy claiming Zayn attacked Reigns on purpose. Jey then urged Zayn to appear on that week's SmackDown to make amends with Reigns. On SmackDown, Zayn told Reigns that the kick was an accident and stated it felt good to team with Reigns and The Usos again, however, he would only reunite with them against Sikoa's Bloodline if Reigns apologized to Jey for his past mistreatment of him, but Reigns refused. Later that night, Reigns confronted Sikoa and his Bloodline with Sikoa challenging Reigns and a team of his choosing to a WarGames match at Survivor Series: WarGames. Sikoa then introduced Zayn as the fifth member of his team, however, Zayn attacked Sikoa with Reigns acknowledging Zayn, officially reuniting the original iteration of The Bloodline (Reigns, The Usos, and Zayn). It was then announced that they would face the new Bloodline in a WarGames match at the event with a fifth member of each team to be determined. On the November 15 episode of SmackDown, Sikoa's Bloodline recruited Bronson Reed from Raw, while the following week, Heyman returned and revealed his old client, CM Punk from Raw, as the original Bloodline's fifth member. On the November 29 episode of SmackDown, Punk explained that he joined Reigns's team to get revenge for what Sikoa's Bloodline did to Heyman and that Heyman owed him a favor for agreeing to the match. Later that night, Fatu defeated Jey to earn the WarGames advantage.

At SummerSlam, Gunther defeated Damian Priest to win the World Heavyweight Championship. Three months later on the November 4 episode of Raw, Priest won a fatal four-way match to earn a rematch for the title, which was confirmed for Survivor Series: WarGames.