World Wrestling Entertainment took over the home of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, for the 2024 Survivor Series: WarGames on Saturday, but it was the CFL team that plays across the street that got top billing from legendary announcer Michael Cole.
The 57-year-old play-by-play commentator tee-ed up the pay-per-view event by introducing the city of Vancouver to viewers from around the world, highlighting the accomplishments of the B.C. Lions.
“This is Vancouver, British Columbia in far western Canada, home to the 2010 Winter Olympics and the six-time Grey Cup champions of the Canadian Football League, the B.C. Lions,” Cole said in the intro.
The Canucks did eventually get a mention, courtesy of the event taking place at their home venue of Rogers Arena.
It is unsurprising that the WWE would choose to shout out the local CFL team first, given the three-down league’s penchant for producing wrestling stars. Marquee names like Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Lex Luger, George Wells, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham, Angelo ‘King Kong’ Mosca, and Glenn Kulka are among those who have entered the squared circle after their careers in Canada were over.
The 38th edition of the Survivor Series will feature one former CFL player, as six-time WWE world champion Roman Reigns headlines the Men’s WarGames match. The native of Pensacola, Fla. played one season for the Edmonton Football Team under his legal name of Joe Anoa’i, appearing in five games.
This is the first WWE event held in Vancouver since 1998 and the third Survivor Series to take place in Canada, joining Montreal (1997) and Toronto (2016) as host cities. The event is centred around WarGames, a team-based steel cage match where the roofless cage surrounds two rings placed side by side.
