Survivor Series (2005) - Background

Background

Six professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. Matches were planned with predetermined outcomes by WWE's creative staff and featured wrestlers playing characters for the entertainment of the audience. All wrestlers were from either Raw or SmackDown—the two brand divisions to which WWE assigned its employees.

The main leading rivalry into the event was between the Raw and SmackDown! brands as a whole, rather than individual wrestlers. Eric Bischoff and Theodore Long, the authority figures of Raw and SmackDown! respectively, began an angle on the October 3 episode of Raw, a special episode billed as "WWE Homecoming." A special match featuring SmackDown! superstars was scheduled for the show; but as it began, Bischoff came out and ended the match by turning the lights off. Later in the show, Long came out and interrupted a Raw match in return, and as a result, the two brands started a brawl. The two brands interfered in the other's show before facing each other in a tag team match at Taboo Tuesday, a month earlier. The two teams consisted of Rey Mysterio and Matt Hardy (from SmackDown!) and Chris Masters and Snitsky. Team SmackDown won the match. After Taboo Tuesday, Bischoff and Long decided on a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match, a type of elimination match, and a singles match (also known as a standard wrestling match) between the two at Survivor Series. The teams feuded on both shows, and Batista (Dave Bautista), the captain of the SmackDown! team, suffered an injury after being attacked several times. Eddie Guerrero was originally scheduled to be on Team SmackDown!, but due to his death on November 13, 2005, he was replaced by Randy Orton.

Another rivalry heading into the event was between John Cena and Kurt Angle, over the WWE Championship. Their feud began in August, when Bischoff chose Angle as the number one contender to the WWE Championship. Angle failed to win the title at Unforgiven, due to Cena disqualifying himself. At Taboo Tuesday, Shawn Michaels was chosen by the fans as the third participant in their Triple Threat match, a standard wrestling match involving three wrestlers, however, Cena retained the title. On the November 7 edition of Raw, Angle refused to compete due to the "you suck" chants from the audience. Angle finally agreed to compete when Bischoff censored the crowd and let him have a special guest referee, whom Angle chose to be Daivari. Daivari's officiating was unfair and biased towards Angle's opponents.

Another staged rivalry was between Triple H and Ric Flair. It began at WWE Homecoming, when Triple H returned to WWE television after three months. The two had been aligned since 2002, as members of Evolution, and were partners in a tag team match on the show. After they won the match, Triple H turned on Flair, and attacked him with a sledgehammer. The week after, Triple H explained his actions, saying that he realized Flair was no longer the legend he was, and he needed to stop Flair. Flair and Triple H met in a steel cage match at Taboo Tuesday, a match where two wrestlers fight in a cage with four sheets of mesh metal which Flair won. A Last Man Standing match was made between the two for Survivor Series.