page_title: Survivor Series (2008)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Survivor Series (2008) / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: The Undertaker
context_page_description: Survivor Series (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on November 23, 2008, at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. The event was the 22nd annual Survivor Series and involved wrestlers from WWE's brands, Raw, SmackDown, and ECW. The event's card consisted of six professional wrestling matches. The event received 319,000 pay-per-view buys, less than the previous year's event.
  The main event was for the World Heavyweight Championship between John Cena, returning after suffering a herniated disc at SummerSlam, and the champion, Chris Jericho, which Cena won by pinfall after executing a FU. Another match on the event was the SmackDown main event, which saw Edge return and defeat Vladimir Kozlov, and the champion Triple H, in a Triple Threat match to win the WWE Championship. The undercard matches included The Undertaker versus The Big Show in a Casket Match and three five-on-five elimination tag team matches.
context_section_description: The event featured professional wrestling matches involving wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw, SmackDown, and ECW.
  Advertising on WWE programming and on the Survivor Series promotional poster had foreshadowed the return of John Cena, whom a herniated disk injury (that he suffered during his match with Batista at SummerSlam) had sidelined, at the event. On the November 3, 2008 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon announced that Cena would challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series. Cena would face the champion resulting from a Steel cage match between World Heavyweight Champion Batista and Chris Jericho, which Jericho won. This event marks the first time that Jericho and Cena would wrestle for a major championship since August 2005. During that summer, Cena defeated Jericho on two occasions for the WWE Championship (the title that Cena held at the time). First at the SummerSlam event and on the following night's episode of Raw in a "You're Fired" match, a match that ended the career of Jericho, until his return on the November 19, 2007 episode of Raw.
  The main feud on the SmackDown brand involved Triple H, Vladimir Kozlov and Jeff Hardy, who were competing for Triple H's WWE Championship. At No Mercy in October, Hardy came close to winning the WWE title from Triple H but failed to do so when Triple H pinned him with the roll-up. Kozlov was one of the choices for Triple H's challengers at Cyber Sunday for the fans to vote, but Hardy won the poll and faced Triple H for the title, a match in which Hardy lost again. Then, after Kozlov demanded a WWE title match against Triple H on SmackDown, General Manager Vickie Guerrero put Kozlov in a match against The Undertaker on the November 7 episode of SmackDown, adding that if Kozlov won, he would challenge Triple H at Survivor Series for the WWE Championship. Kozlov won the match, albeit via disqualification after Hardy interfered and hit Kozlov with a steel chair. However, after seeing Hardy defeat The Undertaker in an Extreme Rules match the following week, Guerrero scheduled Hardy in a non-title match against Triple H on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, stating that should Hardy win, she would add him to the WWE Championship match at Survivor Series, making it a Triple Threat match. Edge won the match and earned the title opportunity. However it was announced during the event that Hardy was found unconscious in a hotel stairwell in Boston, casting doubt over whether he would be able to compete in the match.
  Another feud from SmackDown heading into Survivor Series took place between The Undertaker and The Big Show. At Unforgiven, Big Show betrayed The Undertaker and attacked him, punching him in the head on several occasions. At No Mercy, in a match between the two, Big Show knocked The Undertaker out with 2 punches to the face and 1 to the back of the head, prompting the referee to rule the match a knockout in Big Show's favour. However, at Cyber Sunday, when the fans voted for a Last Man Standing match, Undertaker defeated Big Show by choking him out with the gogoplata or Hell's Gate. On an episode of SmackDown, The Undertaker defeated Chavo Guerrero in a casket match despite of the Big Show's interference. On the November 7 episode, Big Show challenged Undertaker to a casket match at Survivor Series.
  Three inter-promotional Survivor Series Elimination matches were scheduled for the event. In one match, Shawn Michaels captained the team of Rey Mysterio, The Great Khali, and Cryme Tyme (JTG and Shad Gaspard) against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) and his team of Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), Kane, John Morrison and The Miz. The feud that led to the Team HBK vs. Team JBL match began between Rey Mysterio and Kane over the summer then a couple of months later, the Team of Cryme Tyme (from the Raw brand) started
caption: The Undertaker faced Big Show in a casket match
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