Survivor Series (2019)

The 2019 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 33rd annual Survivor Series and took place on November 24, 2019, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. This was the second Survivor Series held here after the 1989 event when the arena was still known as the Rosemont Horizon (renamed in 1999). It was the first and only Survivor Series to include the NXT brand (along with NXT's sister brand NXT UK, which was grouped with NXT), the first since 2009 to feature three major brands, and the first and only to feature three-way Survivor Series elimination matches. The theme of the event was brand supremacy and featured wrestlers from the three brands against each other.

Ten matches were contested at the event, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two Survivor Series elimination matches: Team NXT won the women's match in the opening bout, while Team SmackDown won the men's match. In the main event, NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler defeated Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley in a non-title triple threat match. NXT won brand supremacy by winning four of the seven interbrand matches; SmackDown won two while Raw's sole win was on the pre-show. In what were the only non-interbrand matches on the card, all three of WWE's world championships at the time were defended: Brock Lesnar retained Raw's WWE Championship against Rey Mysterio in a No Holds Barred match, "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt retained SmackDown's Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan, and Adam Cole retained the NXT Championship against Pete Dunne.

Production

Background

Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event produced every November by WWE since 1987, generally held the week of Thanksgiving. The second longest running pay-per-view (PPV) 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. Announced on November 19, 2018, the 33rd Survivor Series was scheduled to be held on November 24, 2019, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, marking the second Survivor Series held here after the 1989 event when the arena was still known as the Rosemont Horizon (renamed in 1999). In addition to airing on PPV worldwide, the event was available to livestream on the WWE Network.

Following the reintroduction of the brand split in July 2016, Survivor Series became centered around competition between wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown for brand supremacy. In addition to traditional Survivor Series matches between the brands, the champions of Raw faced their SmackDown counterparts in non-title matches, which began at the 2017 event. In September 2019, NXT, previously WWE's developmental brand, debuted on the USA Network, solidifying its status as WWE's third major brand, and was subsequently added to the 2019 event as part of the brand competition theme (wrestlers from NXT UK also appeared and were grouped under the NXT umbrella). It was in turn the first Survivor Series to include NXT and the first since the 2009 event to feature a third major brand. Due to NXT's addition, it was the first Survivor Series to have three-way Survivor Series elimination matches.

With the exception of the men's top champions—as each brand's top championship was defended at the event—the 2019 Survivor Series featured the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Women's Champions facing off, Raw's United States Champion, SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, and NXT's North American Champion going against each other, and the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT Tag Team Champions in a triple threat tag team match. As the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was the only title of its kind in WWE, it was defended in a triple threat match against challengers of the opposing brands. During a media call for NXT TakeOver: WarGames, WWE Chief Operating Officer and NXT head Triple H said that there were talks of doing a triple threat match between Raw's WWE Champion, SmackDown's Universal Champion, and the NXT Champion, but because of the storyline between WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Rey Mysterio, they felt that their match needed to happen at this event. He also said that Universal Champion "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt worked better in his own storyline.

Storylines

The event comprised 10 matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and Wednesday night's NXT.

World championship matches

On the September 30 episode of Raw, Brock Lesnar brutally attacked Rey Mysterio as well as Mysterio's son, Dominik, who was seated in the front row. After Lesnar won the WWE Championship during SmackDown's 20th Anniversary, an injured Mysterio appeared along with Dominic's godfather and Lesnar's former Ultimate Fighting Championship rival, Cain Velasquez, who attacked Lesnar. At Crown Jewel, Lesnar retained the championship against Velasquez by submission and continued to apply the Kimura Lock after the match had concluded until Mysterio attacked Lesnar with a chair. Lesnar fended off Mysterio, who retaliated by striking Lesnar with multiple chair shots, forcing him to retreat. On the following SmackDown, Lesnar quit SmackDown to move to Raw (with the WWE Championship) in order to seek revenge against Mysterio, who had been drafted to Raw. On the following Raw, Lesnar proceeded to attack crew members in search of Mysterio, including commentator Dio Maddin, whom he put through the broadcast table with an F-5. Mysterio then appeared, struck Lesnar with a steel pipe, and later challenged Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Survivor Series, which was made official. On the November 18 episode of Raw, Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman suggested a No Holds Barred match and Mysterio accepted.

At Crown Jewel, SmackDown wrestler "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt won Raw's Universal Championship, thus transferring the title to SmackDown. Backstage during the November 8 episode of SmackDown, as Sami Zayn was trying to convince Daniel Bryan to join his faction, "The Fiend" appeared and attacked Bryan with the Mandible Claw. During a "Miz TV" segment the following week, Wyatt (as his normal self) taunted Bryan by mocking the latter's former "Yes Movement" persona. In response, Bryan challenged Wyatt for the Universal Championship at Survivor Series and Wyatt accepted, but with Bryan facing Wyatt's alter-ego "The Fiend".

On November 19, Adam Cole was scheduled to defend the NXT Championship at Survivor Series. His opponent was determined by a triple threat match that occurred at TakeOver: WarGames the night before Survivor Series, where Pete Dunne defeated Damian Priest and Killian Dain to earn the title shot. This marked the first time that an NXT championship was to be defended on the main card of a Survivor Series event.

Champions brand supremacy matches

On the November 1 episode of SmackDown, after Bayley defeated Nikki Cross to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship due to interference from Sasha Banks, NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler appeared and attacked all three. During a sit-down interview on the following Raw, Charly Caruso informed Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch that she would be facing Baszler and Bayley in a non-title triple threat match at Survivor Series, after which, Baszler appeared and confronted Lynch. Over the following weeks, the three would invade each others shows, attacking one another.

Prior to the November 6 episode of NXT, Raw's The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson) invaded NXT and attacked The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong). On the November 11 episode of Raw, a non-title triple threat match between United States Champion AJ Styles, Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, and North American Champion Roderick Strong was scheduled for Survivor Series. Following a tag team match on the November 22 episode of SmackDown, the three brawled with each other.

On the November 4 episode of Raw, a non-title triple threat tag team match between Raw Tag Team Champions The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar), SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder), and NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) was scheduled for Survivor Series. However, on the November 8 episode of SmackDown, The New Day's Big E and Kofi Kingston defeated The Revival to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, thus replacing them in the match. During a rematch the following week, The Undisputed Era invaded SmackDown and interfered, costing The Revival the match.