Triple H announced via an interview with The Ringer on Monday that two WarGames matches will take place at this year’s Survivor Series pay-per-view on Nov. 26 in Boston. Elsewhere in the same interview, WWE’s Chief Content Officer talked about bleeding in WWE’s presentation. WarGames matches, especially early on, were notorious from bloodletting during matches and other promotions like AEW, Impact and New Japan haven’t shied away from it. But WWE has pivoted away from bleeding (especially the old wrestling art of blading) over the past decade and “The Game” indicated he won’t be changing that stance under his booking.ย
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“The world has changed. The world has evolved. I don’t think it’s necessary,” Levesque said. “If we have talent that gets [cut open], usually you’ll see them roll out and they’ll get looked at to make sure that there’s nothing dangerous. I’m just of the opinion right now, given the state of the world and the pandemic, and at the end of the day, what we do is dangerous enough without intentionally making it more dangerous. Yes, we did [feature bleeding] for a long period of time, but we’ve changed that practice. And it’s irresponsible to go back.”
“Look, when you have guys and women performing at the highest of levels, I feel like I spend more time talking them out of stuff than I do [talking them into something],” he later added. “I’ve done this for years, and as you’re sitting back there behind that TV monitor, watching this go down, you’re holding your breath the whole show. I feel like there’s always a risk-to-reward ratio. Is it so big that people are gonna walk away from this with that vision implanted in their mind and they’ll never forget it? Because if you are risking your health and your longevity in your profession, over that spot, over that moment, it needs to be worth it. So I’ve talked people out of doing things because sometimes I’m like, ‘Look, be honest; it’s just a spot.’”
WarGames was initially revived in WWE in November 2017 as the annual NXT TakeOver event. There have since been eight WarGames matches under the WWE format. Meanwhile, AEW introduced its own version of the match, Blood & Guts, in May 2021.
