WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
The 2021 Survivor Series was the 35th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and was the first Survivor Series to livestream on Peacock. The theme of the event was brand supremacy and featured wrestlers from the two brands against each other; this was the final Survivor Series to carry the brand supremacy theme as well as the traditional Survivor Series matches.
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 Big E. In other prominent matches, Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) defeated SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and in the opening bout, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch defeated SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair. The event also commemorated the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series where a 25-man dual-branded battle royal took place in honor of the occasion; Raw's Omos won by last eliminating SmackDown's Ricochet. Raw won brand supremacy by winning five of the seven matches, only excluding the pre-show and main event matches. The event also had a promotional tie-in with the Netflix film "Red Notice", which stars The Rock, though The Rock himself did not appear at the event despite rumors before the show suggesting that he would have appeared.
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, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble, originally referred to as the "Big Four", and as of August 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five", along with Money in the Bank. The event is traditionally characterized by having Survivor Series matches, which are tag team elimination matches that typically features teams of four or five wrestlers against each other. Announced on August 16, 2021, the 2021 event was the 35th Survivor Series and was scheduled to be held on November 21, 2021, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide and the WWE Network in international markets, it was the first Survivor Series to livestream on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March. Tickets went on sale on September 24 through SeatGeek.
Since WWE reintroduced the brand split in July 2016, Survivor Series has also 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 2021 Survivor Series featured Raw's WWE Champion against SmackDown's Universal Champion, the Raw Women's Champion against the SmackDown Women's Champion, Raw's United States Champion against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions against the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. The 2019 event had also featured the NXT brand - being elevated to third main brand status with its debut on USA - involved in the competition, making all brand supremacy matches triple threats. NXT was removed from the 2020 event due to COVID-19-related issues, and in September 2021 was repositioned to its previous status as the developmental brand for the main roster under the "NXT 2.0" banner.
Storylines.
The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. 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".
On November 6, WWE revealed both Raw and SmackDown's team members for the men's Survivor Series match. Team Raw's members were announced to be Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Rey Mysterio, and Dominik Mysterio. On the November 8 episode of "Raw", WWE official Adam Pearce noted that every member of Team Raw was a former world champion, except Dominik. In turn, Pearce scheduled Dominik to face Bobby Lashley where the winner would be on the team; Lashley defeated Dominik. After Rey was seemingly injured during a match with Lashley the following week, Pearce removed Rey from Team Raw and replaced him with Austin Theory. For Team SmackDown, its members were announced as Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Sami Zayn, and Happy Corbin. On the November 12 episode of "SmackDown", Hardy defeated Zayn in a match where the loser would be removed from the team. The vacant spot was filled the following week by Sheamus, who defeated Cesaro, Jinder Mahal, and Ricochet in a fatal four-way match to earn the spot.
Also on November 6, WWE revealed both Raw and SmackDown's team members for the women's Survivor Series match. It was announced that Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Carmella, Queen Zelina, and one-half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Rhea Ripley, would represent Team Raw. Team SmackDown's members were revealed to be Sasha Banks, Shayna Baszler, Shotzi, Natalya, and Aliyah. On the November 12 episode of "SmackDown", however, WWE official Sonya Deville removed Aliyah from the match seemingly due to her relationship with Naomi, who had been at odds with Deville. On November 18, Deville revealed via WWE's social media that Toni Storm would fill Team SmackDown's vacant spot.
A prominent rivalry heading into Survivor Series was between WWE Champion Big E and Universal Champion Roman Reigns. On the September 17 episode of "SmackDown", Big E interrupted a promo by Reigns, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and Paul Heyman of The Bloodline. Reigns and Big E then posed with their belts, leading to a tag team match where Big E was victorious. Later that night, he told Heyman and Reigns that he would face the Universal Champion at Survivor Series before The Usos attacked him. This led to a six-man tag team match pitting The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods) against Reigns and The Usos on the September 20 episode of "Raw", which The Bloodline won after interference from Bobby Lashley. This led to a triple threat match where Reigns defeated Big E and Lashley, who Reigns pinned. With The New Day resuming their feud with The Usos in late October, on November 8, it was announced that Big E would face Reigns one-on-one at Survivor Series.
Also on November 8, it was announced that Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, who have had a long history with each other, would face each other at Survivor Series. 
For the remaining champion vs. champion matches, on November 15, WWE announced Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) vs. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) and Raw's United States Champion Damian Priest vs. SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, the latter of which was scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show on the day of the event.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut at the 1996 Survivor Series, a 25-man dual-branded battle royal was scheduled to take place at the 2021 event.
Event.
Pre-show.
On the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show, SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (accompanied by Rick Boogs) faced Raw's United States Champion Damian Priest. Priest controlled the match early while Boogs played his guitar to try and distract Priest. Priest performed a Falcon Arrow for a near-fall. Nakamura countered a Chokeslam with his knee. Priest performed a South of Heaven for a nearfall. Priest attempted The Reckoning, but Nakamura countered with an armbar. In the end, Priest broke Boogs' guitar over his knee and hit Boogs over the head before accidentally hitting Nakamura with it and getting himself disqualified, thus Nakamura won, giving SmackDown the first match of the night.
Also during the pre-show, WWE Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mr. McMahon arrived at the arena holding what he said was a real Cleopatra golden egg, which was part of a promotional tie-in with the Netflix film "Red Notice", which stars The Rock.
Preliminary matches.
The actual pay-per-view opened with Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch taking on SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair. The two started the match by slapping and hair pulling. Flair attempted the Top Rope Moonsault, but Lynch shoved her off the top rope to the floor. Lynch applied the Dis-Arm-Her, but Flair countered with a Powerbomb. Lynch performed a leg drop to the back of Flair's neck while she was caught up in the ropes. Lynch attempted her own version of Flair's figure-four leglock, but Flair reversed the pressure until Lynch made it to the ropes. Flair performed a Queen's Boot for a nearfall. Lynch performed an Inverted DDT and a Manhandle Slam, but Flair put her foot on the bottom rope to void the pin. Flair performed a Top Rope Moonsault on Lynch outside the ring. Back inside, Flair did a roll-up pin, but the referee caught her holding onto the ropes for leverage. Lynch then reversed the pin and used the ropes herself as leverage to win the match, giving Raw its first match of the night.
Next was the men's Survivor Series elimination match where Team Raw (Seth Rollins, Finn Bálor, Kevin Owens, Bobby Lashley, and Austin Theory) took on Team SmackDown (Drew McIntyre, Jeff Hardy, King Woods, Sheamus, and Happy Corbin). At the start, Owens walked out on his team and got eliminated by countout. Corbin was eliminated by Bálor following a Coup de Grâce. Woods was eliminated by Lashley as he passed out in the Hurt Lock. Lashley and McIntyre fought outside the ring and both were eliminated by countout. Bálor was eliminated by Sheamus after a Brogue Kick. Sheamus was eliminated by Theory with a roll-up. Sheamus attacked Hardy before leaving, but Hardy eliminated Theory after a Swanton Bomb. Hardy performed a Twist of Fate on Rollins, but Rollins got the knees up to block the Swanton Bomb and performed The Stomp on Hardy to win the match as the sole survivor for Team Raw, thus putting the score at 2-1 for Raw.
In a backstage segment, Roman Reigns met with Mr. McMahon in the latter's office. There, McMahon showed Reigns the golden egg that he said was given to him by Reigns' cousin, The Rock, and that it was worth $100 million as it was the real egg and not a prop used in "Red Notice".
After that was the 25-man dual-branded battle royal to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Rock's WWE debut. Raw's Omos dominated the match by eliminating half of the competitors. His tag team partner AJ Styles stayed outside the ring for most of the match, but was eliminated despite help from Omos. Omos won the match after last eliminating SmackDown's Ricochet, thus giving Raw a 3-1 lead over SmackDown.
The fourth match saw Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton and Riddle) taking on SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). This was Orton's 177th match on pay-per-view, breaking a tie with Kane for most pay-per-view matches contested. In the end, Jey performed a Superkick on Riddle. Both Usos performed Double Superkicks on both Orton and Riddle. Jimmy went for the Uso Splash on Riddle, not knowing that Orton was the legal competitor. Orton caught Jimmy in mid-air with an RKO to win the match, thus putting the score at 4–1 for Raw, clinching brand supremacy for the night.
In another backstage segment, Mr. McMahon, Adam Pearce, and Sonya Deville were talking in McMahon's office when they realized that the golden egg had disappeared. McMahon ordered Deville to call the police and then told Pearce to tell everyone on both the Raw and SmackDown rosters to report to "Raw" the next night as he was going to get to the bottom of it.
The penultimate match was the women's Survivor Series elimination match where Team Raw (Bianca Belair, Rhea