WWE’s closing moments of Survivor Series: WarGames on Saturday night were laughably bad.
Sometimes it’s best to be as blunt as possible. Whatever that was has certainly earned the brevity and the sure-fire negative reactions across the WWE fanbase.
All WWE has to grasp, at this point, is the mystery attacker angle… and it better shock fans with it. And soon. The mystery part of it could be super fun for fans, but Saturday’s closing moments were most certainly not.
In a match that locked a team of CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns and The Usos in a cage against the monster squad of Brock Lesnar, Drew McIntyre, Logan Paul, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, interference won the day.
In a contest that was supposed to tease next year’s WrestleMania 42 headline feuds, GOAT candidates like Lesnar needed help to pick up a win.
And in a match at John Cena’s final PLE, it was Logan Paul stepping into the shoes of Seth Rollins, getting help from Paul Heyman before the interference.
So, yes, the mystery attacker angle is now a big deal.
WWE closed the show with the hooded figure nimbly scaling the side of the cage and stomping Punk. No face reveal. Just an obvious ode to Seth Rollins that, given what fans know about his injury, can’t be true.
Unfortunately, the whole thing isn’t nearly as entertaining as it should be. Austin Theory, Joe Hendry or someone else will feel like a stand-in feud for Punk while Rollins rehabs. That doesn’t mean The Best in the World can’t make his assailant a bona fide star in a hurry with a fun program, but the context of Saturday night matters.
And the context is the team of monsters needing help to get a win. It was Rhodes visibly watching Breakker get the pin on Punk, but not help. In fact, the entire match had a weird pace that kept it feeling flat, as if it never really got going. A Yeet break and long entrances before finisher spam. Rough. Blink, and one might have missed that Reigns was even involved.
Some of this is the fault of the match format. WarGames has gone the way of Hell in a Cell: Another PLE-themed event that gets shoehorned into feuds because the calendar says so, not when a feud actually needs it. And until the very end of the build, Lesnar and Reigns coming back to even be involved in the match at all felt unnecessary.
It wasn’t all bad, at least. WWE laid some obvious ‘Mania hints. Punk and Rhodes will clearly have a major program at some point. Reigns appeared to hint that it’s Rhodes he will go after next. Breakker got the pin on Punk, which is a huge rub at this stage of his career.
And who knows? The mystery attacker could use this as a launching pad to massive heights. A long time ago, when casual audiences didn’t know who the members of The Shield were when they ambushed a guy named Ryback, nobody knew then they were looking at three future Hall of Famers.
Maybe a similar fate awaits this hooded figure. It won’t recontextualize the sloppy, underwhelming finish all that much, but that can mostly go forgotten if this turns out well.
There are creative fantasy-booking ideas worth considering, too. The masked attacker could be a lackey sent by, say, Chris Jericho, as speculation continues to run rampant that he’ll make a return in 2026. He and Punk have a history. It could be someone sent by Rollins himself or an NXT star looking for a chance.
Again, though, there’s that problem of the mysterious figure feeling like a placeholder. And the execution sure made it feel like a PLE-opening-match finish, but the big names involved demanded it went on last. Cena’s contest probably should have closed the show.
It’s going to be an uphill battle for this masked figure and WWE. But a little intrigue, especially in an “offseason” of sorts in the winter months, can be a good thing. Like many things, pro wrestling fans might be best advised to have fun with it, not take it too seriously, and see what gets cooked up.
With any luck, Saturday night’s sour taste turns into something much sweeter soon.
