The 2008 Survivor Series was the 22nd annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on November 23, 2008, at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. This is the second event to take place in Boston, the first one since 1993. The event's card consisted of six professional wrestling matches. The event received 319,000 pay-per-view buys, less than the previous year's event. It was also the first Survivor Series PPV broadcast in high definition.
The main event was for the World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, returning after suffering a herniated disc at SummerSlam, and the champion, Chris Jericho, which Cena won by pinfall after executing a FU. Another match on the event was the SmackDown main event, which saw Edge return and defeat Vladimir Kozlov, and the champion Triple H, in a Triple Threat match to win the WWE Championship. The undercard matches included The Undertaker versus The Big Show in a Casket Match and three five-on-five elimination tag team matches.
Production
Background
Survivor Series is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every November by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 1987. In what has become the second longest running pay-per-view event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and SummerSlam, referred to as the "Big Four". The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically pits teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. The 2008 event was the 22nd event in the Survivor Series chronology and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The event was scheduled to be held on November 23, 2008, at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first Survivor Series PPV broadcast in high definition.
Storylines
The event featured professional wrestling matches involving wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw, SmackDown, and ECW.
Advertising on WWE programming and on the Survivor Series promotional poster had foreshadowed the return of John Cena, whom a herniated disk injury (that he suffered during his match with Batista at SummerSlam) had sidelined, at the event. On the November 3, 2008 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon announced that Cena would challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series. Cena would face the champion resulting from a Steel cage match between World Heavyweight Champion Batista and Chris Jericho, which Jericho won to become the new World Heavyweight Champion, setting up his match with Cena at Survivor Series.
The main feud on the SmackDown brand involved Triple H, Vladimir Kozlov and Jeff Hardy, who were competing for Triple H's WWE Championship. At No Mercy in October, Hardy came close to winning the WWE title from Triple H but failed to do so when Triple H pinned him with the roll-up. Kozlov was one of the choices for Triple H's challengers at Cyber Sunday for the fans to vote, but Hardy won the poll and faced Triple H for the title, a match in which Hardy lost again. 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 on the November 7 episode 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 following week, Guerrero scheduled Hardy in a non-title match against Triple H on the November 21 episode 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 was announced during the event that Hardy was found unconscious in a hotel stairwell in Boston, casting doubt over whether he would be able to compete in the match.