Dom Mysterio, Liv Morgan Face Run Loading, Survivor Series Backlash, More Reaction

Liv Morgan being back in the fol is the exact sort of shot of adrenaline WWE TV could use right now in the wake of an otherwise uneventful Survivor Series.

The former Women's World champion shockingly resurfaced on Saturday night during Dominik Mysterio's Intercontinental Championship clash with John Cena, helping him regain the gold and hand Cena his final loss on a premium live event.

How the rest of The Judgment Day will react to her return remains to be seen, but it should soon lead to Mysterio and Morgan breaking off by themselves as babyfaces to feud with the faction.

Meanwhile, the overall backlash to Survivor Series isn't entirely unwarranted. The two WarGames matches were solid but further enforced that the stipulation is no longer necessary as an annual staple at the show.

Continuing to run two at the same time every year has greatly devalued the concept, to a point now where it no longer feels remotely as special as it once did. However, WWE has given zero indication they intend to do away with it at Survivor Series in the near future.

From the damage done to WarGames to a rumored retirement storyline in WWE for Chris Jericho, these are the top takeaways from the week that was in wrestling.

Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan's Babyface Turn Must Be Imminent

All signs pointed to The Judgment Day being on the brink of a breakup prior to Liv Morgan getting sidelined with a shoulder injury over the summer. Her absence evidently led to Dominik Mysterio getting back on the same page with his stablemates, and any tension that's been teased as of late hasn't amounted to anything.

Judgment Day have been an incredibly successful and celebrated stable for three-and-a-half years, but it's high time they meet their demise and move on in different directions, specifically Mysterio and Morgan.

Mysterio has been trending toward becoming a full-fledged babyface since winning the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 41, but it was imperative that he had Morgan a part of his act for the turn to be complete. Morgan being out injured only delayed the inevitable.

Judgment Day will prevent Mysterio from reaching that next level he's proven he's ready for, and there's no reason to drag out the group's inner turmoil any longer. The split should occur within the next month or so to ensure the momentum Mysterio and Morgan have right now isn't wasted.

From there, they can settle their score with Finn Bálor and Roxanne Perez in a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania 42 before setting their sights back on championship gold.

LA Knight Is the Ideal Opponent for a Retiring Chris Jericho

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WWE's booking of LA Knight has been puzzling for so long that it's almost not even worth questioning anymore. He somehow remains super over with the audience despite not having had meaningful television time in well over a month.

It's painfully apparent that the company wants him nowhere near the World Heavyweight Championship picture and he has no clear direction once he's eliminated from The Last Time Is Now Tournament, but it isn't impossible to imagine him making the WrestleMania 42 card if his opponent ends up being Chris Jericho.

Per Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the working idea for a Jericho WWE return is for him to have a retirement storyline, likely leading into 'Mania. Y2J turned 55 in November and has no business being back in WWE as a full-time member of the active roster.

Of all the fresh faces Jericho could mix it up with on The Grandest Stage of Them All, Knight would make the most sense. They'd surely have instant chemistry on the microphone and would be capable of a match that's entertaining enough.

Above all else, it'd give Knight the chance to share the squared circle with a bona fide WWE Hall of Famer and ideally beat him. If that'd actually elevate Knight to world championship contention is unknown, but few others would be as interesting of an adversary for Jericho at this stage of his storied career than Knight.

AEW Needs New Blood in Its Main-Event Picture

Samoa Joe always excels with whatever he's presented and will be fun to watch as AEW World champion this second time around. It was also immediately established that the returning Swerve Strickland is hot on his heels, along with Adam Page remaining in the main-event mix.

The issue is that AEW has done very little to feature new names in the world championship scene this year, with the conversation constantly centering around the same few faces.

Page, Joe and Strickland have not only held the gold before but have already feuded with each other in the past. Even the element of MJF returning soon and cashing in his guaranteed title shot isn't all that exciting given his history with both Page and Joe.

MJF vs. Strickland is the sole storyline among those four that AEW hasn't explored yet, but once that rivalry runs its course, the company will be forced to push new stars toward the top of the card. And there's no shortage of options, either.

Kyle Fletcher has been amazingly impressive any time he's been spotlighted, Bobby Lashley has been relegated to the tag team ranks and Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita have been stuck competing over the AEW Continental Championship. They've hardly competed in AEW main-events and would be welcome additions to the scene, simply for the sake of switching things up.

It's Sink or Swim for Austin Theory as the Masked Assailant from Survivor Series

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A mysterious masked figure provided the assist to Bron Breakker at the end of the men's WarGames main-event at Survivor Series by laying out CM Punk with a Seth Rollins-esque curb stomp and allowing Breakker to pin Punk for the victory.

Rollins being behind the mask would lack all logic after Breakker betrayed him in October, and it's highly unrealistic to think either Randy Orton or Chris Jericho could move as quickly as that masked individual did climbing the cage.

Random NXT call-ups such as Joe Hendry and Tony D'Angelo could be considered dark horses, but Austin Theory fits the bill better than anyone. That said, it's a dangerous spot for him to be in following all of the failed pushes he's been on the receiving end of while Triple H has been at the helm of WWE.

Theory is both talented and young enough that he could still be salvaged, but his booking dating back to early 2023 hasn't been encouraging and it will take more than being aligned with the top heel faction on the Raw roster for fans to take him seriously again.

He may not be the popular choice, but it could help him turn his career around if WWE doesn't drop the ball as they have with him so many times before.

WWE Is Killing Whatever Mystique WarGames Has Left

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WWE's obsession with Raw and SmackDown battling for brand supremacy at Survivor Series eventually wore thin and thus the decision to bring WarGames to the main roster starting at the 2022 installment was well received among fans.

The first few featuring The Bloodline, The Judgment Day and Damage CTRL had a storyline reason to exist, but this year's pair of WarGames matches for the men and women alike weren't anything out of the ordinary. Rather, they felt forced into the double cage because they just so happened to coincide with Survivor Series.

WWE ran into a similar problem with the Hell in a Cell premium live event for many years by booking two or three Hell in a Cell matches on the same night. It wasn't long before the concept lost all of its mystique and appeal, and WarGames is rapidly approaching that territory.

The company can still make Survivor Series an important event by bringing back the traditional tag team elimination matches or just putting more effort into the rest of the card. Faction warfare with such a stipulation should be a much bigger deal than it's become.

Unfortunately, WWE is bound to see the success that Survivor Series 2025 did as the first-ever stadium show in the history of the event and will want to keep that going for years to come. As many other things in WWE these days, it will soon be all about the visual and the style than the substance of what originally made WarGames a cool concept.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.