WWE Survivor Series 2024: Biggest Winners And Losers

Another Survivor Series has come and gone, and as in years past, the show featured not one but two War Games matches, a new WWE United States Champion, myriad injuries, and an almost cash-in from Tiffany Stratton.

It's that time then, to break down the Winners and the Losers of last night's show. As always, the literal wins and losses of professional wrestling don't matter here, that's what our results page is for. Instead, it will focus on who looked good, who looked bad, who's on top of the mountain, and who's got a long, hard road to Calvary. Even on a show with only five matches, there were still plenty of winners and plenty of losers.

Without further ado, the winners and losers of Survivor Series: War Games.

Look at the team above, you have two brothers who fought each other in April, the cousin who spent three years playing them against each other, the Quebecer who has been either betrayed or attacked by all three of them, and finally locker room fight aficionado CM Punk. I spent much of the build to Survivor Series telling my co-workers that they were crazy for believing these five guys could work together in any productive way. I was wrong. As the Stephen Schwartz song says, "There can be miracles when you believe."

It speaks to the unified aggression of The New Bloodline that 4 of WWE's top stars and Jimmy Uso appeared to be the underdogs heading into Survivor Series, but the men were able to put their seemingly endless baggage behind them and got the win over Solo Sikoa and his crew. Their communication wasn't always perfect, and Punk and Reigns clearly bristled against each other multiple times, but nonetheless "The Second City Saint" and "The Tribal Chief" stood victorious and united.

The Women's War Games was an equally inspirational showing, with Bayley and her former Damage CTRL running mate Iyo Sky uniting alongside the motley crew of Rhea Ripley, Naomi, and Bianca Belair to overcome a far-more divided team. Tiffany Stratton's near cash-in on Jax underlined just how little trust there truly was amongst the heels. Maybe it's the hangover from the recent election, but it was nice to see both War Games matches be the story of disparate sides coming together against a common enemy.

On Saturday, a weary husk of a former IWGP Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion who lit up the 2010s with intensity defeated Knight, and no I am not talking about Andrade, I am talking about Shinsuke Nakamura. Nakamura's win is a loss for Andrade, as he's so similar to Nakamura that I can't help but wonder where he went wrong.

Andrade and Carmelo Hayes have been battling each other for much of 2024, having a highly-praised series of matches that led to them entering the WWE United States Championship hunt. Neither man was able to best Slim Jim spokesperson LA Knight, and for Hayes, it's not such an issue. He's a young star who is making the most of his start on the main roster. There is no reason to believe that he won't recover from this and someday hold main-roster gold. I wish the same could be said for Andrade.

Andrade blew up his WWE career to head to AEW and then blew up his AEW career to head to WWE. Now he's entering the waning days of his prime without a solid foothold. Outside of a run with the WWE Speed Championship, it feels like Andrade is just as lost in the shuffle in WWE as he was in AEW. It's possible he can re-enter the US Title hunt and re-ignite his decade-old feud with Nakamura, but that runs the risk of showing audiences just how far both men have fallen since then.

22 years ago, Paul Levesque suggested that WWE should make its own version of War Games. Known as "The Elimination Chamber," the match debuted at Survivor Series in WWE's home venue of Madison Square Garden. 22 years later, Levesque has his cake and is eating it too.

Levesque, now no longer forced to suggest things and let guys like Eric Bischoff take credit for them, is now running WWE, and it is a WWE that both utilizes his original Elimination Chamber concept and also now officially runs the War Games matches of his little WCW fan heart. Purists might take issue with WWE's version of War Games, but it doesn't change the fact that Levesque has revived a wrestling tradition that clearly meant something to him.

I'm not the biggest fan of the running bit where Levesque is shown as much as possible, sucking up the adulation of the WWE fans and the praise of content creators in the post-show press conferences. It might not be in good taste, but it's certainly a win that his name is uttered as much as any main eventer of the events he puts together. The WWE Universe is Paul Levesque's universe and we are merely living in it.

The term de jure at the moment is "escalation." Everything in wrestling right now is caught up in an endless cycle of escalation. In the same way, private equity must constantly keep the gains coming in and the line going up, wrestling keeps getting bigger, faster, and more dangerous, and guys like Adam Copeland, Braun Strowman, and now Bronson Reed are all paying the price for this escalation. It is no longer "Go big or go home," but instead "Go big and go home (with an injury)."

Bronson Reed messed up one or both of his ankles from jumping off the top of the War Games cage and crashing through nothing more than a thin table. The moment was emotional, the self-serving Punk saving his teammate Roman Reigns from annihilation, but it doesn't change the fact that as of publication, Reed still was having trouble walking. Add him to the list with Braun Strowman, who is recovering from a groin injury suffered against Reed. Adam Copeland was taken out of action for months doing a similar stunt earlier this year, despite his advanced age and injury history.

Reed is another case of wrestlers clearly coming up with something in a video game, and assuming that they were as invincible as their digital avatars. Add in Jimmy Uso's broken toe, and Jacob Fatu's near-miss on a Moonsault, and it felt like an overly reckless match that claimed at least one victim. I often find myself saying to friends and wrestlers alike, "Remember that these are people." They are flesh and blood, and it seems too many these days have bought into the kayfabe that they are indestructible supermen.