Jey Uso wins and 5 smart booking decisions

WWE Survivor Series 2024 isn’t shaping up to be the “Big Four” pay-per-view it should be as the creative team hits a booking hold en route to the Vancouver event.

For much of 2024, WWE’s bookings have been on point, and that has led to a standout year of pay-per-views. At the start of Survivor Series, however, WWE’s booking was unspectacular, and the only truly exciting match on the card is probably the WarGames match between the original Bloodline and the new version of the faction, with CM Punk the five-man team of the former Group completes squad.

In terms of in-ring quality, Survivor Series should of course deliver a strong match night, but will it even surpass Crown Jewel? This event took place in Saudi Arabia just earlier this month and featured a rare Roman Reigns match as well as a dream match between Gunther and Cody Rhodes. Even then, the hype leading up to this show was minimal, but the execution exceeded expectations.

WWE officials should be confident that the lackluster lead-up to Survivor Series, as was the case with Crown Jewel, will not affect the show. In fact, with these five smart booking decisions, the creative team can regain momentum at WWE’s final pay-per-view of 2024, Survivor Series.

ForbesWWE Crown Jewel 2024 results, highlights and takeawaysFrom Blake Oestriecher

Gunther confidently defeats Damian Priest

Gunther vs. Damian Priest will be the first world title match ever to headline both SummerSlam and Survivor Series in the same calendar year – an impressive feat but one that ultimately feels like a step backwards.

The rekindled rivalry between Priest and Gunther leaves a lot to be desired and feels more like a stopgap feud than a compelling long-term rivalry for the ages. That would be all well and good for a B-level pay-per-view, but this is Survivor Series, which is supposed to be one of the most important WWE shows of the year.

Rehashing a feud that wasn’t all that exciting to begin with is a tricky booking decision, especially considering most WWE PPVs now have incredibly limited undercard spots. But Gunther already hinted at a much bigger upcoming feud on Raw two weeks ago, meaning he won’t have a problem with Priest at Survivor Series.

That’s how it should be. Gunther needs a resounding win in Vancouver, especially after losing to Cody Rhodes at Crown Jewel and being portrayed as a lesser version of himself in recent weeks.

Tiffany Stratton wins the women’s WarGames match

The WWE Women’s WarGames match is a pretty star-studded affair, especially on the babyface side, featuring Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, Bayley, Naomi and Rhea Ripley.

All of these stars have previously held a world title, but oddly enough, there is one future babyface on the heel side who would benefit from a win more than anyone else in this match. This star? Tiffany Stratton, a former NXT champion and current Money in the Bank holder, is a year into the main roster and still doesn’t have a singles win to speak of.

While the women’s WarGames match really comes down to which team will emerge with a win, Stratton fits the bill best as a borderline top star who really needs a big win to catapult to the next level. Ultimately, Stratton continues to generate strong reactions, and as we saw back in February at Elimination Chamber, she will become a fantastic fan favorite when the time calls for it.

Imagine Stratton getting the win for her heel team at Survivor Series. This can then be used to further increase the tension between Stratton and her “friend” Nia Jax, hastening their inevitable implosion and Stratton’s facial change.

Bron Breakker and LA Knight retain their titles

Even with just a five-match card, both WWE midcard championships are on the line, and the two respective champions are trending in opposite directions.

WWE has big plans for Bron Breakker, the current Intercontinental Champion, pushing him as a “tweener” who prefers to be either a babyface or a heel, depending on what his feud requires at the time. All indications are that Breakker will have a huge resurgence in 2025, in which he will reportedly play a big role Monday Night Raw when the show makes the big move to Netflix.

US champion LA Knight, on the other hand, hasn’t had anything interesting to do since winning the title at SummerSlam in August. In fact, there hasn’t really been much compelling storytelling for The Megastar, even further back to early 2024. Now Knight gets a Survivor Series match against Shinsuke Nakamura that was incredibly rushed, with Nakamura only returning a few weeks ago to ignite this feud.

Maybe WWE wants Knight to vacate the title so he moves on to something bigger, but given the other top stars he would have to leave behind on SmackDown, that seems unlikely. Given the current makeup of the SmackDown roster, Knight’s best chance is to win Survivor Series and then move on to a better feud and more exciting storyline as Champion.

Therefore, as is the case with Breakker, Knight should leave Survivor Series as champion, if only because a loss could immediately halt Breakker’s momentum and continue Knight’s cold streak.

Seth Rollins confronts CM Punk

It was surprising to see CM Punk’s absence from Survivor Series, considering he made his unexpected and epic WWE return at this pay-per-view last year. But perhaps his disappearance from Raw in recent weeks was intentional, to lead to another blockbuster return.

That’s exactly what happened last week on SmackDown, as both Punk and Paul Heyman returned in an epic final segment of the show that added so many more layers to The Bloodline’s storyline in just a few minutes. Punk, of course, grabbed the fifth spot in the WarGames match alongside The OG Bloodline, a spot originally offered to Punk’s nemesis Seth Rollins.

That was certainly no coincidence either.

Now that Punk is throwing another rock at Rollins, it should send Rollins into a frenzy and reignite a heated feud between Rollins and Punk that is still expected to culminate at WrestleMania 41. No matter how things play out in the men’s WarGames match, Rollins should make his presence felt with an important moment in the confrontation with Punk.

Jey Uso gets the win for the original bloodline

Despite some fluctuating bookings, Jey Uso’s popularity is absolutely undeniable. His crowd reactions are consistently incredible, and last month he even surpassed Punk, Reigns and Rhodes as WWE merchandise king.

Given that the original Bloodline fell short in Solo Sikoa’s six-man tag team action tournament at Crown Jewel earlier this month, it only makes sense that they would bounce back with a win at Survivor Series. It will be tempting for WWE to give Reigns the win after he was pinned at Crown Jewel, but let’s face it, he’s bulletproof and doesn’t need the win.

Of all the stars who could benefit from a big win for The Bloodline’s babyface side, Jey Uso stands out as the top choice. He still has an incredible connection with the audience and is, to put it simply, the hottest thing. WWE needs to keep this going for as long as possible because there’s no telling how long it will last.

At Survivor Series, the final image when the show airs should be of Jey celebrating a win with the crowd as the good guys tie the score and Jey gets revenge after losing to Fatu on SmackDown.