WWE pay-per-view and livestreaming event
The 2019 Survivor Series was the 33rd 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, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. The event took place 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). 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 , 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.
Survivor Series elimination matches.
On the November 8 episode of "SmackDown", Michael Cole announced Sasha Banks as the captain for Team SmackDown's women's team. Later that night, Carmella and Dana Brooke defeated Fire &amp; Desire (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville) to qualify for the team after the match had been rescheduled due to a backstage attack from NXT's Bianca Belair the previous week that led to Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox defeating Fire &amp; Desire. On November 14, WWE.com announced Lacey Evans as the fourth member of Team SmackDown, followed by Nikki Cross on November 17 after Cross, who was originally scheduled to face Bayley in a non-title qualifying match, scored the pin in an eight-woman tag team match on the November 15 episode of "SmackDown". On the November 18 episode of "Raw", Charlotte Flair was announced as the captain for Team Raw, with Natalya, Sarah Logan, and WWE Women's Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) revealed as the other team members later that night. Following a tag team match that night in which Flair and Becky Lynch faced The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce), the latter being disgruntled as they were not selected for Team Raw, NXT's Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir, and Jessamyn Duke attacked the women. On the November 22 episode of "SmackDown", Rhea Ripley was revealed as the captain for Team NXT. Later that night, Ripley defeated Flair and Banks in a triple threat match, and a brawl occurred with all the women from the three brands following the match. After the conclusion of TakeOver: WarGames, Ripley picked Candice LeRae, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and Toni Storm (from NXT UK) as the other members of Team NXT.
On November 8, WWE.com announced that Seth Rollins was selected as the captain for Team Raw's men's team, with Kevin Owens, Ricochet, Randy Orton, and Drew McIntyre revealed as the other team members during the November 11 episode of "Raw". On the November 12 episode of "WWE Backstage", Roman Reigns was revealed as the captain for Team SmackDown, with Mustafa Ali (formerly known as Ali), Braun Strowman, King Corbin, and Shorty G also announced for the team. NXT head Triple H tried to convince Rollins as well as Owens to leave Raw and come back to NXT where they had started their WWE careers. Both turned down the offers, leading to the NXT roster attacking members of Raw, as well as those on SmackDown. At the conclusion of the November 18 "Raw", Triple H invited members of Raw and SmackDown to the following episode of "NXT", where a large brawl broke out between all three brands. All the members of Raw, SmackDown, and NXT would brawl again following the conclusion of a six-man tag team match on the November 22 episode of "SmackDown". Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Road Dogg led the NXT roster in the invasion of SmackDown, reenacting how D-Generation X had attempted to invade World Championship Wrestling's "Monday Nitro" in 1998 with a tank. After the conclusion of TakeOver: WarGames, Triple H announced that Shawn Michaels would reveal the members of Team NXT during the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show.
Event.
Pre-show.
Three matches occurred during the two-hour Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show, two of which were announced during the pre-show. In the first match, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode from SmackDown won an interbrand 10-man battle royal featuring tag teams from the three brands, lastly eliminating The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) from Raw, giving SmackDown the first point of the night.
In the second pre-show match, NXT's Lio Rush defended the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in an interbrand triple threat match against Raw's Akira Tozawa