WWE Survivor Series: WarGames returns on November 28 and could potentially return to a format not seen since its 1990 outing.

In its fifth year as a WarGames-led PLE, WWE Survivor Series has been a fixture on the schedule since its introduction in 1987.

The second longest-running PLE in WWE (after WrestleMania), the event typically features multi-star matches, with differing numbers across its lengthy history.

With the first WWE Survivor Series: WarGames match announced, it may be time for a return to the ‘good ol’ days’:

Four, five, seven ten stars per team

Announced by Rey Mysterio, the first match to be added to Survivor Series: WarGames is a “classic five vs. five Survivor Series match” between Team USA and Team Mexico, with the WWE Hall of Famer leading the latter. The “classic” stipulation for the match type is tag team elimination.

Over the years, WWE has varied the Survivor Series match format, with four, five, seven, or ten members per team. The 1999 event went even further, with a sub-90-second victory for Big Show in a one-on-four Survivor Series match that saw him beat Big Boss Man, Mideon, Prince Albert and Viscera.

Bookended by WarGames

Recent years have seen a shortening of the card for WWE PLEs, with five matches typically being the sweet spot for such events. Last year’s Survivor Series: WarGames ran to just four match, with events under the WarGames branding being bookended by the women’s and men’s stipulation matches.

In between the WarGames matches, other matches obviously take place, with the 2025 PLE seeing John Cena lose the Intercontinental Championship to Dominik Mysterio, and Stephanie Vaquer retain the Women’s World Championship against Nikki Bella, as an example of the variety.

An old format returns

It hasn’t been since Survivor Series 1990 that the whole of the titular PLE featured matches exclusively under that stipulation.

Since then, the Survivor Series stipulation has played a varying role at the event, with November 1998 featuring no matches being contested under that format. The twelfth Survivor Series revolved around ‘Deadly Games’, a one-on-one tournament to determine the WWF Champion, with The Rock claiming victory over Mankind in the finals.

With past indications that WWE was building towards The Bloodline vs. The 946 in a WarGames match, and the likelihood of the women’s WarGames match returning, there’s an opportunity to have a show of multi-star matches between WarGames and Survivor Series stipulations, alongside the announced Team USA vs. Team Mexico match.

Keeping the card to just four matches would, under this opportunity, result in just one more being needed under the traditional variant, and there may be an obvious choice for that.

The John Cena Classic

John Cena has been confirmed for an appearance at Survivor Series: WarGames, following appearances on the November 13 episode of SmackDown and the following week’s episode of Raw.

With the retired star announcing names of the John Cena Classic, depending on the size of the December 14 event, Survivor Series: WarGames offers a rare opportunity.

Back in 2019, the first three-way Survivor Series match took place between Raw, SmackDown and NXT, with a chance for that to return with stars from each brand competing for spots in the tournament in one fell swoop.

Too much Survivor Series

It’s likely that the entire event being built around one match type would tire a modern audience, even varying between traditional Survivor Series and WarGames stipulations, potentially a reason why the number of Survivor Series matches has varied over the year. Variety is, after all, a core strength of professional wrestling shows.