Survivor Series 2008 Survivor Series 2008 was a professional wrestling pay - per - view ( PPV ) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE ) , took place on November 23 , 2008 at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston , Massachusetts . The Survivor Series was in Boston 15 years prior in 1993 in the now - demolished Boston Garden . The event , the 22nd Survivor Series , featured talent from WWE ' s all three brands , Raw , SmackDown and ECW . Six professional wrestling matches were featured on the event ' s card . 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 , and the champion , Chris Jericho , which Cena won by pinfall after executing an 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 5 - on - 5 elimination tag team matches . Background . The event featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre - existing scripted feuds , plots and storylines . Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a fan favorite character as they followed a series of events that built tension , and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches . All wrestlers came from the ECW , Raw , and SmackDown brands — a storyline division in which WWE assigns its employees to different programs . 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 different 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 . Hardy 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 , in a fans - voted Last Man Standing match , Undertaker defeated Big Show by choking him out with the gogoplata or Hells 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 . Keeping to the Survivor Series tradition , three inter - promotional traditional Survivor Series Elimination matches were announced 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 their own feud against John Morrison and The Miz ( from the ECW brand ) . From the SmackDown brand , MVP and The Great Khali have had their own issues in the few weeks leading up to Survivor Series . The main rivalry between the captains , Michaels and JBL , began on the October 27 episode of " Raw " , when JBL attacked Michaels before a tag team match between the latter and Batista , taking on JBL and Chris Jericho . Despite of the assault , Michaels and Batista defeated JBL and Jericho . The following week , a match between JBL and The Undertaker took place , with Undertaker winning , after JBL was counted out . Moments after the match , Michaels threw JBL back into the ring , allowing Undertaker to perform a Tombstone Piledriver on JBL . On the November 10 episode , JBL retaliated when he helped Chris Jericho defeat Michaels in a Last Man Standing match . Another match featured Batista captaining the team of Matt Hardy , R - Truth , CM Punk and Kofi Kingston , and facing off against the team captained by Randy Orton , consisting of Shelton Benjamin , William Regal , Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry . The rivalry between Team Batista and Team Orton originally started between Matt Hardy and Shelton Benjamin . On the June 23 episode of " Raw " , Hardy was drafted from SmackDown to ECW when he was the WWE United States Champion at the time . Then at The Great American Bash , he lost the U . S . title to Benjamin . Afterwards , Hardy went for the ECW World Championship held by Mark Henry on a few occasions . At Unforgiven , Hardy won the ECW title from Henry in the Championship Scramble match after he pinned The Miz . Henry challenged Hardy for the title at No Mercy but lost by pinfall . From SmackDown , Benjamin had successfully defended the U . S . title against the likes of Jimmy Wang Yang , and Jeff Hardy but has yet to defeat R - Truth in a non - title match . At Cyber Sunday , Benjamin defeated R - Truth in a WWE . com match to retain the U . S . title . Then on the November 7 episode , Benjamin defeated R - Truth again to retain the title but on the next two weeks on SmackDown , he and Henry lost to R - Truth and Hardy in a tag match . From the Raw brand , then World Tag Team Champions , Kofi Kingston and CM Punk would have their own issues with Cody Rhodes and Manu for two months . It began on the September 1 episode of " Raw " , when Randy Orton appeared to belittle Raw ’ s champions , drawing then World Champion , CM Punk out to the ring to confront Orton . At Unforgiven , Rhodes , Ted DiBiase , and Manu attacked Punk , as well as Kingston who tried to help Punk . After they had attacked both Punk and Kingston , Orton made use of this opportunity to perform a running punt on Punk . In result of this , Punk was stripped of the World title and was replaced by Chris Jericho before the third Championship Scramble began on that event . The main rivalry between the captains , Batista and Orton began on the November 10 episode of " Raw " , when Batista invoked his rematch clause against Chris Jericho , whom he lost the World title the week before in a Steel cage match . Stephanie McMahon , however , appeared in the titantron to address Batista , alerting him that due to her brother , Shane ' s promise that whoever won the Steel cage match would go on to face John Cena for the title at Survivor Series , she was unable to grant Batista his rematch request until after the pay - per - view event . Following this , Orton made his way to the ring , dredging up bad history from he and Batista ' s days in Evolution several years earlier . Orton then said that after Cena , it was his turn for a title opportunity , not Batista ' s . On the November 17 episode of " Raw " , Orton defeated Punk in a Lumberjack match with the help of then WWE Intercontinental Champion , William Regal . After the match , Batista entered the ring and attacked Orton , leading all of the superstars present to get involved in what became an out - of - control brawl that ended the show . The third match announced was a Divas Elimination match , in which Beth Phoenix led Team Raw comprising of Mickie James , Candice Michelle , Kelly Kelly and Jillian Hall , against Team SmackDown , which featured Michelle McCool as captain , Victoria , Maria , Maryse and Natalya . On the October 3 episode of " SmackDown " , Women ' s Champion , Beth Phoenix defeated the Diva ' s Champion , Michelle McCool in a Lumberjill match due to interference from Maryse . The feud between Phoenix and McCool restated on the November 17 episode of " Raw " , when Raw ' s diva , Kelly Kelly fought SmackDown diva Victoria and was victorious . As a result of this , Victoria attacked her opponent after the bell before Kelly ’ s fellow Raw divas ran to her rescue . Aftermath . After Edge returned and captured the WWE Championship , Triple H , Jeff Hardy , and Vladimir Kozlov participated in a Beat The Clock challenge for the # 1 Contender ' s spot . Kozlov lost his match to Matt Hardy , while Jeff Hardy and Triple H each won their matches in exactly the same time . Due to the results , a reluctant Vickie Guerrero announced that Edge would defend his WWE Championship against both Hardy and Triple H in a triple threat match at Armageddon . At the PPV , Hardy defeated Edge and Triple H to win his first WWE Championship . The feud between John Cena and Chris Jericho continued on into Armageddon , where Cena defeated Jericho to retain the World Heavyweight Championship . The day after Survivor Series , Melina returned from injury and resumed her feud with Beth Phoenix that began back in June 2008 . On the December 29 edition of " Raw " , Melina won a battle royal to become the # 1 Contender to Phoenix ' s WWE Women ' s Championship . At the Royal Rumble , Melina defeated Phoenix to win her third Women ' s Championship . After Survivor Series , Michelle McCool began displaying a heel persona when she attacked Maria after losing a non - title match to her on the December 5 episode of " SmackDown " . Two weeks later , Maryse defeated Maria in a # 1 Contender ' s match to earn a shot at McCool ' s WWE Divas Championship . On the December 26 edition of " SmackDown " , Maryse defeated McCool to capture the Divas Championship in a match where Maria was the guest referee . After the match ended , McCool attacked Maria and blamed her for the loss , completing McCool ' s heel turn . Reception . The event was generally well received by critics . The Sun praised the shock return of Edge and his and Cena ' s subsequent World Championship victories . However they highly criticized the poor quality of the casket match and the Jeff Hardy storyline , which they regarded as " tasteless " . The Team Orton vs Team Batista match was viewed as the best wrestling match of the night . Overall they gave the event a rating of 7 out of 10 . PWI named the PPV Worst Event of 2008 and heavily criticized Vladimir Kozlov for his poor acting and lackluster wrestling ability .