Unforgiven (2006) - Background

Background

The event featured seven professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to the Raw brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other being SmackDown!.

The main feud heading into Unforgiven was between Edge and John Cena over the WWE Championship. The two were evenly matched, with one victory each. Cena defeated Edge by disqualification at Saturday Night's Main Event, and Edge had beaten Cena at SummerSlam to retain his championship. On the August 21, 2006 edition of Raw, Lita, Edge's girlfriend, threw Cena's customized belt, which had a spinning center plate of the WWE logo, into the Long Island Sound. Afterwards, Edge proclaimed that it was the end of the "Cena era" in his life. Edge went on to unveil a new version of the belt, which had a spinning center plate of his "Rated-R Superstar" logo. Later in the evening, Edge had a match with the returning Jeff Hardy; however, the match ended in a no-contest after Cena interfered and attacked Edge. After the match, the two fought outside the arena, and Cena tossed Edge into the Long Island Sound. On the August 28, 2006 edition of Raw, Edge demanded that Shane McMahon, who was in charge of Raw that night, fire Cena for his actions the week before. Cena, however, interrupted and told Edge that if he got another WWE Championship match and lost, he would sign a contract with SmackDown! and leave Edge's life. Edge agreed, but on the condition that he decided when, where, and what type of match it would be. After Cena defeated Chris Masters later that night, Edge hit Cena with a chair, a ladder, and later put him through a table. Following his attack, Edge told Cena that the match was going to be a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match at Unforgiven in his hometown of Toronto.

The other main match on the card was D-Generation X (DX) (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) versus The McMahons (Vince and Shane) and The Big Show in a Hell in a Cell match. At SummerSlam, DX defeated The McMahons in a tag team match. On the August 21, 2006 edition of Raw, as part of the storyline, DX vandalized the WWE headquarters and Vince McMahon's personal jet plane and limousine. On the August 28 edition of Raw, The McMahons viciously attacked DX after their 3-on-2 handicap match with their SummerSlam opponents, Mr. Kennedy, Finlay and William Regal. But before Vince and Shane proceeded to attack DX, Big Show attacked DX, giving the advantage to The McMahons. Moments after the assault, Vince booked a match at Unforgiven, where he teamed up with Shane and Big Show to take on DX in a 3-on-2 handicap Hell in a Cell match.

One of the main undercard matches was between Lita and Trish Stratus for the WWE Women's Championship. Lita engaged herself in a feud with Trish Stratus, after Lita and Edge interrupted Stratus' title match with Mickie James. Lita and Edge then went onto attack Stratus', only to involve Carlito, who was in an on-screen relationship with Stratus, to brawl with Lita and Edge. A scheduled tag team match between Lita and Edge versus Stratus and Carlito occurred, in which Edge and Lita were the winners. On the August 28, 2006 edition of Raw, Lita revealed that Stratus would retire following Unforgiven, which was later confirmed by Stratus. On the September 4 edition of Raw, Stratus challenged Lita to a match at Unforgiven for the WWE Women's title, for her retirement match, in which Lita accepted.