6 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE Survivor Series WarGames

5. Knowing Their Characters

Nikki Cross WWE Survivor Series WarGames 2022
WWE.com

It’s crazy to think that as recently as January, Rhea Ripley and Nikki Cross were a floundering tag team, with Nikki running around as a superhero, and Ripley getting turned on. Neither woman was going anywhere, and both looked pretty dead in the water.

Fast-forward to Saturday night and Cross and Ripley were part of the first women’s WarGames match in WWE, with very different personae, Nikki having reverted to something closer to her Sanity character, and Rhea embracing a role as Judgment Day’s eradicator.

While it was a simple and small moment, during the introductions, Cross went to climb the cell that holds the participants, and Ripley put her thigh out to give her former tag partner a boost. Nikki perched up top and stared out into the crowd, while Rhea grabbed the roof bars and started doing pullups… because of course she did.

Sometimes, you just see wrestlers who get their characters. While you might not like Cross’ new iteration, you can’t say that both women are in much better spots today than they were at the start of the year. In Ripley’s case, she seems to be on her way to a title match at WrestleMania. Knowing who she is and exuding that confidence at every turn certainly helps.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.