Huge WarGames Match Was Pitched For 2019 Survivor Series

A massive tri-branded WarGames match was considered for the 2019 Survivor Series when NXT joined Raw and SmackDown in a battle for brand supremacy.

With AEW Dynamite on the horizon in late 2019, WWE took a pre-emptive strike against Tony Khan’s company as they debuted NXT on the USA Network just weeks before Dynamite began on TNT kickstarting the ‘Wednesday Night Wars.’

With Survivor Series being the place where bragging rights between brands were often settled, NXT joined Raw and SmackDown in this regard for the first time ever, leading to some three-way elimination matches on the show.

Speaking on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, WWE Senior Vice President Road Dogg Brian James revealed that Triple H wanted to bring WarGames to the event but the idea was turned down by then Chairman, Vince McMahon:

“Yes, and look he’s always wanted to do that, he’s had that in mind, and that’s why we started doing it down there. But yeah, he wanted to do it there. It just wasn’t time yet. And so I don’t disagree with that, we hadn’t had one yet. I don’t think we had had one yet maybe we had at that point.” [NXT had held two WarGames matches in 2017 and 2018, with two more taking place on an NXT TakeOver on the night before Survivor Series].

“But I feel like Hunter liked that match a lot more than Vince did. And I think Vince thinks, and rightfully so by the way, this cannot be argued with, it does step on Hell in a Cell a little bit. Like you can’t have those two close together because it’s a huge cage match and a huge cage match and how do you promote and keep special one or the other? So it is a debate to be had.”

“But yeah, Hunter always thought that WarGames was a great, you know, one of Dusty’s creations that was awesome. And he wanted to carry it forward. So yeah, he always had that idea.”

With Triple H now firmly in charge of WWE, the double ring cage match which began life in Jim Crockett Promotions will come to the WWE main roster for the first time at Survivor Series with the teams for the men’s match now set following SmackDown.

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