WWE Survivor Series 2022 is now in the books. The event was historically important for the first two War Games matches to ever occur on the WWE main roster. That’s not to mention advancement of the Bloodline storyline, a big showing for Becky Lynch in the women’s War Games match, the United States Championship changing hands, and AJ Styles and Finn Balor threatening to steal the show.

Related: 10 Weird Finn Balor WWE Moments We Completely Forgot AboutLike so many major events from WWE, the event featured a number of interesting points of trivia and hidden highlights that may have flown under the radar.

Every 10 Years, WWE Does Something Different At Survivor Series

There’s little question that what fans will remember most from WWE Survivor Series 2022 is that it featured the debut of the War Games gimmick on the main roster. Indeed, WWE has owned the War Games intellectual property for over twenty years, but didn’t do anything with it (besides a DVD compilation) until NXT started booking War Games matches in 2017. Booking War Games was fresh here and particularly a departure for using ten-person team matches, but not in the traditional elimination tag team format.

Indeed, eight or ten-person elimination tag team scenarios have dominated Survivor Series history, but WWE has done something different, particularly with its main events every decade “on the twos.” A polarizing 1992 for WWE finished its PPV calendar with the first Survivor Series without even one elimination tag match. Instead, the event was headlined by bright emerging main event stars Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels. In 2002, the event saw the first ever Elimination Chamber match emanate from Madison Square Garden. 2012 was not as experimental, but nonetheless featured a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship headlining as CM Punk retained over John Cena and Ryback. (It may be more worth noting that this show also included the debut appearance from The Shield as they factored into that main event.)

More War Games Experience In The Women’s Than Men’s Match

Despite Survivor Series featuring the first main roster War Games matches, that doesn’t mean that everyone involved was new to the gimmick. Indeed, a big part of Dakota Kai's career in NXT, as well as the tenures of Iyo Sky and Butch was that each participated in three War Games. Rhea Ripley participated in two, and Kevin Owens and Bianca Belair each worked one. That made these six out of the twenty participants at Survivor Series 2022 “repeat customers.”

Related: The 10 Best War Games Matches, RankedIt's interesting to note, then, that, the women’s match featured competitors with a cumulative nine previous WarGames appearances by four performers, whereas the men’s match only had four cumulative berths in the match prior to this point from two wrestlers. That added up to quite a bit more experience with the gimmick on the women’s side.

Dakota Kai And Bianca Belair Technically Faced Off In War Games For The Second Time

Despite a number of the main roster War Games participants having worked such matches before, there was actually only one rematch of two participants officially squaring off again within the double cage. That applies to Dakota Kai and Bianca Belair who were officially on opposite teams in 2019, and interestingly enough were the first two wrestlers to ever enter War Games on the main roster when they opened Survivor Series.

This point of trivia comes with a huge asterisk because Kai turned on her team before she was going to actually go to the ring in the NXT War Games match in question. She was still technically listed as a participant and winner after Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae beat the odds to win, two-on-four, but certainly didn’t trade blows with Belair in this overlapping performance. Kai also happened to work War Games against teammates Iyo Sky twice and Ripley once.

The Announce Team Invites Comparisons Between Solo Sikoa And Stars Who Preceded Him

Michael Cole and Corey Graves didn’t hesitate to heap superlatives on Solo Sikoa as he made his way to the ring and as he got on a roll inside the War Games cage. They repeatedly called him The Enforcer of The Bloodline, which particularly in the context of War Games couldn’t help but feel like an homage to The Four Horsemen and Dangerous Alliance Enforcer, Arn Anderson.

The broadcasters also referenced that watching Sikoa was as if someone had put a Ferrari engine in a Samoan Bulldozer. The Samoan Bulldozer line was clear reference to Sikoa’s Anoa’i family elder, the late Umaga. The Ferrari engine bit, interestingly enough, had a connection to a more embarrassing part of Bray Wyatt's career, when he frequently touted that he was “an army tank with a Ferrari engine” when he wrestled as Husky Harris in NXT and in the Nexus faction.

Every War Games Winner Enjoyed Their Very First War Games Victory

Six of the participants in War Games matches at Survivor Series 2022 had wrestled in War Games before—Dakota Kai, Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, and Bianca Belair on the women’s side; Butch and Kevin Owens on the men’s side. Out of this cluster of performers, Kai, Ripley, Butch, and Owens had actually emerged on the winning side of War Games before.

The Damage CTRL-led heel team lost the women’s War Games match at Survivor Series, and the Brawling Brutes-led babyface team lost the main event. That means that everyone who won a War Games match in 2022 either was working their very first War Games or had only lost inside the cage before. Every winner was a first-time winner.

In the end, WWE Survivor Series 2022 was a very strong show. The only lackluster match on the card was Ronda Rousey vs. Shotzi which, itself, wasn’t offensively bad, and came off reasonably well for not stemming out of one of Rousey's more compelling WWE feuds. The strong action elsewhere more than compensated for it.

Related: Survivor Series War Games Winners and Losers: Sami Zayn Sells His SoulThe biggest takeaways seem to be that War Games will remain a part of the WWE landscape under Triple H’s leadership, and that The Bloodline is still running strong. Indeed, Roman Reigns built upon his case as one of the greatest Survivor Series performers of all time as he emerged with his fourth consecutive victory at the event (with a sole survivor showing in 2018 and this was his third straight main event win at the November PPV).