Survivor Series (2008)

Survivor Series (2008)
File:Sur 300x450.jpg.jpg
Promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)	Raw SmackDown! ECW
Date	November 23, 2008
City	Boston, Massachusetts
Venue	TD Banknorth Garden
Tagline(s)	Spoilin' for a Fight
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous Cyber Sunday (2008) Next → Armageddon (2008)
Survivor Series chronology
← Previous Survivor Series (2007) Next → TBD

Survivor Series (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on November 23, 2008 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. The event was the 22nd under the Survivor Series name and featured talent from the ECW, Raw, and SmackDown brands. Six matches were scheduled on the event's card.

Background

See also: Professional wrestling

The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a fan favorite character as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers were from the ECW, Raw, and SmackDown brands –a storyline division in which WWE assigns its employees to different programs.

John Cena, who had been sidelined with a herniated disk injury, had been advertised to return at the event on WWE programming and as seen on the Survivor Series promotional poster. On the November 3, 2008 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon announced that John Cena would challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series. Cena would face the champion resulting from a Steel cage match between Batista and Chris Jericho, which Jericho won.

The main feud on the SmackDown brand is between Triple H (Paul Levesque) and Vladimir Kozlov (Oleg Prudius) and Jeff Hardy over the WWE Championship. Kozlov was one of the choices for Triple H's challengers at Cyber Sunday for the fans to vote, but Jeff Hardy won the poll and faced Triple H for the title, a match in which Hardy lost. Then, after Kozlov demanded a WWE title match against Triple H on SmackDown, General Manager Vickie Guerrero put Kozlov in a match against The Undertaker (Mark Calaway) on the November 7 edition of SmackDown, adding that if Kozlov won, he would challenge Triple H at Survivor Series for the WWE Championship. Kozlov won the match, albeit via disqualification after Hardy interfered and hit Kozlov with a steel chair. However, after seeing Hardy defeat The Undertaker in an Extreme Rules match the next week, Vickie put Hardy in a non-title match against Triple H on the November 21 edition of SmackDown, stating that should Hardy win, she would add him to the WWE Championship match at Survivor Series, making it a Triple Threat match. Hardy won the match and earned the title opportunity. However it is unknown if Hardy will compete after it was reported he was found unconscious in a hotel stairwell in Boston.

Another feud from SmackDown heading into Survivor Series is between The Undertaker and The Big Show (Paul Wight). At Unforgiven, Big Show turned on Undertaker and attacked him. At No Mercy, in a match between the two, Big Show knocked Undertaker out with a punch to the face and won the match. However, at Cyber Sunday, in a fans' voted Last Man Standing match, Undertaker defeated Big Show by choking him out with the gogoplata. On the November 7 edition of SmackDown, Big Show challenged Undertaker in a casket match at Survivor Series.

Also, keeping to the Survivor Series tradition, three inter-promotional traditional Survivor Series Elimination matches have been announced for the event. In one match, Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) will captain the team of Rey Mysterio (Oscar Gutierrez), The Great Khali (Dalip Singh Rana), and Cryme Tyme (JTG (Jayson Paul) and Shad Gaspard) against John "Bradshaw" Layfield and his team of Montel Vontavious Porter (Alvin Burke, Jr.), Kane (Glen Jacobs), John Morrison (John Hennigan) and The Miz (Mike Mizanin). Another match will feature Batista (Dave Batista) captaining the team of Matt Hardy, R-Truth (Ron Killings), CM Punk (Phil Brooks) and Kofi Kingston (Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah), and facing off against the team captained by Randy Orton, consisting of Shelton Benjamin, William Regal (Darren Matthews), Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry. And the third match announced was a Divas Elimination match, having Beth Phoenix (Elizabeth Carolan) lead Team Raw comprising of Mickie James, Candice Michelle (Candice Beckman-Ehrlich), Kelly Kelly (Barbie Blank) and Jillian Hall (Jillian Fletcher), against Team SmackDown, which would feature Michelle McCool as captain, Victoria (Lisa Marie Varon), Maria (Maria Kanellis), Maryse (Maryse Ouellet) and Natalya (Natalie Neidhart).

Matches

#	Matches	Stipulations
Dark	The Brian Kendrick defeated Kung Fu Naki	Singles match
1	Team Michaels (Shawn Michaels, Rey Mysterio, Cryme Tyme (JTG and Shad), and The Great Khali) defeated Team JBL (John "Bradshaw" Layfield, Kane, John Morrison and The Miz, Montel Vontavious Porter)	Five-on-five Survivor Series Elimination Match
2	Team Raw (Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Kelly Kelly, Candice Michelle, and Jillian Hall) defeated Team SmackDown (Michelle McCool, Victoria, Maria, Maryse, and Natalya)	Five-on-five Divas Survivor Series Elimination Match
3	The Undertaker defeated Big Show	Casket match
4	Team Orton (Randy Orton, Shelton Benjamin, William Regal, Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry) defeated Team Batista (Batista, CM Punk, Kofi Kingston, Matt Hardy and R-Truth)	Five-on-five Survivor Series Elimination Match
5	Edge defeated Triple H (c) and Vladimir Kozlov	Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship
6	John Cena defeated Barack Obama (c)	Singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship
(c) - refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

See also

• Survivor Series
• List of WWE pay-per-view events

External links

• Official Survivor Series website