Survivor Series (2020)

The 2020 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 34th annual Survivor Series and took place on November 22, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The theme of the event was brand supremacy and featured wrestlers from the two brands against each other—unlike the 2019 event, NXT was not included at this year's event. The event also celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Undertaker's WWE debut—his retirement ceremony closed the event. This was the fourth Survivor Series event to take place in the state of Florida (two events in Miami and one in Tampa).

The event was originally scheduled to be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas; however, all public gatherings were indefinitely restricted by the City of Dallas government due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, and just like the majority of WWE's other shows, the event was moved to the Amway Center in Orlando. It was subsequently WWE's final PPV presented from the Amway Center during the COVID-19 pandemic as the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two traditional Survivor Series elimination matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event match, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Also on the card, SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks defeated Raw Women's Champion Asuka, and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods). Raw won brand supremacy by winning four of the seven matches.

Production

Background

Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event produced every November by WWE since 1987. 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. The 2020 event, which was the 34th Survivor Series, was scheduled to be held on November 22, 2020. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, the event was available to livestream on the WWE Network.

Since WWE reintroduced the brand split in July 2016, Survivor Series has 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 face their SmackDown counterparts in non-title matches, which began at the 2017 event. The 2020 Survivor Series featured Raw's WWE Champion against SmackDown's Universal Champion, the Raw Women's Champion facing the SmackDown Women's Champion, Raw's United States Champion going against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions facing off with the SmackDown Tag Team Champions.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

According to WrestleVotes, the 2020 Survivor Series event was planned to be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. However, mayor Eric Johnson announced on March 13 that all public gatherings 500 people or above were indefinitely banned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic that affected the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.

WWE's initial agreement with the Amway Center expired on October 31, but with the option to extend the contract with a two weeks notice. On October 12, PWInsider reported that the contract had been extended, with Fightful revealing the amended contract's expiration date as November 24. Survivor Series was subsequently the final WWE pay-per-view presented from the ThunderDome at the Amway Center, as WWE relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, which began with the December 11 episode of SmackDown. This move was also done due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons as the Amway Center is the shared home of the Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL) and the Orlando Magic (NBA).

411Mania reported that the COVID-19 pandemic was a reason that the NXT brand was not involved in the event, unlike the previous year. Outbreaks of the virus had occurred at both of NXT's home arenas, Full Sail University and then the WWE Performance Center, prompting WWE to exclude NXT wrestlers from the event to avoid potential transmission of the virus to members of the Raw and SmackDown rosters. This report was confirmed by WWE executive and NXT head Triple H during the NXT TakeOver: WarGames media call on December 3.

Storylines

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

Survivor Series elimination matches

Qualifying matches for the men's Survivor Series elimination match began on the October 26 episode of Raw. AJ Styles, Keith Lee, and Sheamus earned the first three spots on Team Raw by defeating Jeff Hardy, Elias, and Riddle, respectively. The following week, Braun Strowman qualified for the team by defeating Lee and Sheamus in a triple threat match. Riddle won the final spot on Team Raw by defeating Elias and Hardy in a triple threat match on the November 9 episode. Team SmackDown's first two members were determined on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Kevin Owens and Jey Uso qualified by defeating Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan, respectively. The following week, King Corbin and Seth Rollins won the next two spots by defeating Rey Mysterio and Otis, respectively. On the November 20 episode, WWE official Adam Pearce named Otis as the final member of Team SmackDown.

For the women's Survivor Series elimination match, all five of Team Raw's members were initially revealed on the October 26 episode of Raw. WWE officials Adam Pearce and Pat Buck announced that WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, along with Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, would represent Team Raw. The fifth and final spot was determined by a fatal four-way match that night, which Lana won by defeating Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, and Nikki Cross. On the November 16 episode of Raw, due to Jax and Baszler attacking Rose's arm during a tag team match, and then Retribution's Reckoning later attacking Brooke backstage, both Rose and Brooke were deemed unable to compete at Survivor Series, thus Pearce announced that they would be replaced by Evans and Royce. Team SmackDown's first member was determined on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Bianca Belair won the spot by defeating Billie Kay and Natalya in a triple threat match. Ruby Riott won the second spot on the following episode, where she defeated Natalya and Zelina Vega in a triple threat match. On the November 13 episode, Liv Morgan qualified by defeating Chelsea Green, Natalya, and Tamina in a fatal four-way match. The following week, Pearce added Bayley to the team, and Natalya defeated Tamina to win the final spot on Team SmackDown.

Champions brand supremacy matches

All four of the champions brand supremacy matches were announced on the October 26 episode of Raw. At the time, it was announced that Raw's WWE Champion Randy Orton would face SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Raw Women's Champion Asuka would face SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks, Raw's United States Champion Bobby Lashley would face SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn, and Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) would face SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford).