Cyber Sunday (2006) - Background

Background

The main feud heading into Cyber Sunday was between WWE Champion John Cena, World Heavyweight Champion King Booker, and ECW World Champion The Big Show, the top champion of each of the three brands. This feud began on the October 9 edition of Raw, where they came face to face, arguing about who was the most dominant champion in WWE. WWE Chairman Vince McMahon interrupted, and booked a triple threat "Champion of Champions" match at Cyber Sunday between the three of them. This also gave each show's General Manager an opportunity to choose opponents for each other's champion that night. This resulted in Big Show defeating Jeff Hardy and Booker defeating Rob Van Dam; however, the match between Cena and The Undertaker was interrupted by Booker, Big Show, and The Undertaker's storyline rival, Mr. Kennedy. At the same time, Cena began a minor feud with Kevin Federline. Federline, as the on-screen close friend of Johnny Nitro and Melina's, appeared on Raw to promote his album, "Playing With Fire". Cena rapped about Federline, but Nitro came out to Federline's defense and was thrown out of the ring by Cena. Cena was then interrupted by his two Cyber Sunday opponents, and McMahon who announcemed that a championship would be on the line at Cyber Sunday. Cena performed the FU on Federline, after being insulted. The feud between the champions continued on the October 20 edition of SmackDown!, when Big Show and Cena were at ringside during Booker's title defense against Batista. Batista speared Booker onto Big Show, who, in response, assaulted Batista, ending the match via disqualification. Cena then joined the brawl, and SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long announced a tag team match for the next week. On the next Raw, Cena defeated Nitro after an FU, but was assaulted afterwards by his Cyber Sunday opponents, who turned on each other shortly after to start a brawl between the four to end the show. Batista and Cena were successful in the tag team match, after Big Show abandoned Booker. The next week, on Raw, a preview of Cyber Sunday's interactivity was displayed when fans voted for Cena's opponent for the night, between Big Show, Booker, and Jonathan Coachman. Coachman won in the voting, but was easily defeated by Cena.

The main feud on the undercard was between D-Generation X (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) and Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton). The feud began to develop on the October 9 edition of Raw, when Edge convinced Orton that Triple H was the reason for their unsuccess. Orton lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Triple H in 2004, and Edge lost a title match due to interference from DX the previous week. This led to Edge and Orton joining forces. On the next edition of Raw, Edge praised Mr. McMahon's booking skills and suggested that he and Orton have a match with DX at Cyber Sunday where fans could choose a special guest referee. Mr. McMahon liked the idea, and decided for the options to be Coachman, Eric Bischoff, and himself. The following week, Orton pinned Triple H in a match after hitting Triple H in the head with a steel chair. Coachman had been the special guest referee, but Michaels superkicked him after he tried to count the pinfall, after Edge had interfered. On October 30, McMahon, Coachman, and Bischoff were guests on Edge's talkshow, The Cutting Edge, and McMahon booked a match between Orton and Triple H for later that night, with Edge as the guest referee. Before the match could start, however, Triple H performed a Pedigree on Edge, meaning he couldn't officiate. Edge recovered and interfered, meaning the match ended in a no-contest. Edge and Orton attacked Triple H with steel chairs, until Triple H got his sledgehammer and retaliated.