WWE Survivor Series 2024 preview: Punk makes Roman Reigns look strong again

WWE Survivor Series takes place tonight (Sat. November 30) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It begins at 4:00 p.m. ET with the free countdown show, which runs for two hours on YouTube, WWE.com and various other social media channels. That leads directly to the PPV at 6pm ET, which you can stream on a range of devices if you have a subscription to Peacock in the US and WWE Network everywhere else.

CM Punk makes Roman Reigns look strong again

The Bloodline Civil War reaches its climax tonight at War Games as CM Punk teams up with the OG Bloodline in a battle for survival against Solo Sikoas Bloodline and Bronson Reed. For those readers who don’t know what a War Games match is, you can find out all the rules here.

Roman Reigns took a break after his loss to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. During this time, Sikoa made quick moves to push Jimmy Uso and Paul Heyman out of the bloodline, add the Tongans and Jacob Fatu into the mix, and declare himself the new tribal chief.

It was to this battleground that Roman returned at SummerSlam when he stopped Sikoa from winning the WWE Undisputed Championship from Rhodes. Reigns and Sikoa have been working on it since then, but the OTC needed help dealing with the numbers game on Solo’s side.

Jimmy returned and convinced Roman to try to work things out with Jey, while Sami also offered his services to Zayn to return to the family for this war. However, they struggled to find a fifth man until The Wiseman made a surprise return and brought CM Punk into the fold as the final member, receiving an undisclosed favor in return.

So how exactly can Solo’s team stop the reunited OG bloodline at War Games? Well, Fatu gave his team the advantage in the war games by defeating Jey in a singles match. On top of that, Roman and CM definitely don’t like each other. This dates back to a decade ago, when Punk’s “make Roman look strong” story broke the internet and contributed to the fan backlash against Reigns at the time. If these two top stars cannot work together in War Games, the OG bloodline could fall apart and be forced to surrender to Solo Sikoa.

CM Punk claims that he is joining this war out of loyalty to Heyman. That means his job tonight is to ultimately make Roman Reigns look strong again by emerging victorious with him in the War Games double cage. Will things turn out this way, or will a wild card like Seth Rollins emerge and thwart both teams’ plans? You’ll have to tune in to Survivor Series to see which version of The Bloodline wins this civil war.

The rest of the map

Here are the four remaining matches also announced for Survivor Series:

War Games: Rhea Ripley, Bianca Belair, IYO SKY, Bayley & Naomi vs. Nia Jax, Liv Morgan, Candice LeRae, Raquel Rodriguez & Tiffany Stratton

Of course, Rhea Ripley wants to go to war with Liv Morgan after the women’s world champion tried to take everything from Rhea during her revenge tour this year. Liv and Raquel attempted to take out Rhea for good by bashing her face in with a baseball bat in the NXT parking lot, but Ripley returned just weeks later wearing a protective mask and ready to tear Morgan apart. Liv is also breathing down her neck as the new contender for the number one world title.

The other drama unfolding here is the mysterious backstage attack on Jade Cargill, which forced Bianca’s team to replace her with Bayley. Bayley earned this spot by helping Belair defeat Nia Jax and gain the advantage in this War Games match.

Will Liv and Raquel try to injure someone else on the team before the game starts to negate this advantage? Will the babyface team implode despite previous issues between Bayley, IYO SKY and Belair? Is tonight the right time for Tiffany Stratton to cash in on her Money in the Bank contract, considering that Liv Morgan and WWE Women’s Champion Nia Jax could be incapacitated at some point during this war? Will we find out who attacked Jade?

GUNTHER (c) against Damian Priest for the world heavyweight championship

Guenther lost his skills after losing to Cody Rhodes in Saudi Arabia earlier this month. Damian Priest rubbed this failure in GUNTHER’s face and assured that he will take back the world title from Ring General at Survivor Series. GUNTHER tried to ambush Priest backstage, but that too failed, which only made his self-confidence issues worse.

WWE has essentially tried to do as much as possible to make it seem like Damian has a good chance of winning this match, even if the betting markets don’t think so in the slightest. Is this because Finn Balor is lurking somewhere in the shadows, making sure his former stablemate in Judgment Day never holds that belt again?

LA Knight (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the US Championship

The megastar needed a new challenger after defeating Carmelo Hayes and Andrade at Crown Jewel. Enter Shinsuke Nakamura, who returned to WWE television for the first time since April to present Knight. Shinsuke has been defeating LA all month, and that includes firing the Kinshasa at him and blinding him with black mist. Can Knight make the necessary adjustments in time to beat Shinsuke and retain his mid-card gold at Survivor Series?

Bron Breakker (c) vs. Sheamus vs. Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Championship

If someone new wins the Intercontinental Championship, it won’t be long before the Celtic Warrior comes knocking on his door, as it’s the only title in WWE that has eluded him throughout his career. Sheamus and Bron actually fought for the belt earlier this month, but the finish was ruined by Ludwig Kaiser, who had been a thorn in Sheamus’s side for some time. Now all three men will fight for the title at Survivor Series.

Summary

Let’s face it, the undercard title matches are fine, but Survivor Series is all about the two War Games matches. Bloodline Civil War, in particular, is the most anticipated WWE main event since WrestleMania, and that was true even before CM Punk joined the fray. I would argue that CM and Roman on the same team represents a more compelling dynamic than Reigns’ partnership with Cody Rhodes from last month on Bad Blood. The Bloodline storyline succeeds as well as ever, and there’s no reason to believe things will be any different tonight at Survivor Series.

What will you be looking for at Survivor Series?