Survivor Series (2012)

Survivor Series (2012)
Promotional poster featuring WWE Superstar The Miz
Theme song(s)	"Now or Never" by Outasight[1]
Information
Promotion	WWE
Sponsor(s)	Kmart
Date	November 18, 2012
Attendance	8,500[2]
Venue	Bankers Life Fieldhouse
City	Indianapolis, Indiana
Pay-per-view chronology
Hell in a Cell (2012) Survivor Series (2012) TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs (2012)
Survivor Series chronology
Survivor Series (2011) Survivor Series (2012) Survivor Series (2013)

Survivor Series (2012) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE and presented by Kmart that took place on November 18, 2012 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.^[3][4] It was the 26th annual Survivor Series event and the first one held in Indiana. The event received 212,000 pay-per-view buys, down from 281,000 buys the previous year.^[5] This event is notable for the first appearance of The Shield.

Production

Background

This event was originally scheduled at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, giving Pittsburgh its first WWE pay-per-view since Bragging Rights in 2009 and the first pay-per-view since the Consol Energy Center opened in 2010.^[6] However, the WWE booked the event around the same time the National Football League announced the schedule for the 2012 NFL season, and inadvertently booked the event on the same night the Pittsburgh Steelers have a home game on NBC Sunday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens. Despite Pittsburgh being a strong WWE market and one of the traditional WWE markets dating from the territorial days of professional wrestling, the WWE decided to make no attempts to compete against the fanbase of the Steelers locally (especially since the game is against the teams archrival) and pulled Survivor Series from the Consol Energy Center for 2012.^[7] On the July 31, 2012 SmackDown taping, Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis was chosen for the Survivor Series event.

Storylines

Survivor Series involved different wrestlers from scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on WWE's television programs: Raw or SmackDown. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.^[8]

It was revealed on the October 29, 2012 edition of Raw that a team formed by Mick Foley would take on a team formed by CM Punk in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match. Later that night, the teams were announced. For Team Punk - team captain CM Punk, The Miz, Team Rhodes Scholars (Cody Rhodes and Damien Sandow), and Alberto Del Rio. For Team Foley - Kofi Kingston, Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan), Randy Orton, and Ryback, with Foley serving as ringside captain. At Hell in a Cell, all 10 participants had matches. First Del Rio lost to Orton in a singles match. Rhodes and Sandow defeated Team Hell No via disqualification, but did not win the WWE Tag Team Championship. The Miz unsuccessfully challenged Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. The match at Survivor Series was originally centered on the feud between the WWE Champion CM Punk and Ryback. At the pay-per-view, Ryback lost after the referee Brad Maddox low-blowed him, followed by a fast count to give Punk the pinfall victory. Ryback then took out his frustration on Punk and Maddox, first press-slamming Maddox out of the ring into the side of the cell, then chasing Punk to the top of the cell, where Ryback caught him and hit his finishing move, Shell Shocked. On the November 5 episode of Raw the match was changed, as The Miz quit the team due to Punk abandoning his team in an attack by Team Foley and Vickie Guerrero was forced to remove Punk and Ryback in favor of making another match involving them, team captain, CM Punk, was replaced by Dolph Ziggler by Vickie (with the team also being renamed Team Ziggler) and The Miz was replaced by Wade Barrett after being recruited by Paul Heyman before Punk was removed from the match, Ryback's replacement however was left up to the WWE Universe with a RAWactive poll with the choices being The Miz, Santino Marella, and Zack Ryder. Rhodes was replaced by David Otunga at the event due to an injury sustained in the lead up to the event.

The event also featured a rematch from Hell in a Cell between Sheamus and Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship, with former champion Sheamus invoking his rematch clause.

The event also featured a triple threat match for the WWE Championship, in which CM Punk would defend his title against Ryback and John Cena. The storyline over the past two months was focused on the fact that Ryback was screwed out of his match with Punk at Hell in a Cell and Punk fought Cena to a draw at Night of Champions. The match was announced after WWE Chairman Vince McMahon questioned Vickie Guerrero's decision to place Punk in a match in which he did not need to defend his title and could hide behind several partners.

Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd were initially scheduled to face 3MB in the pre-show available free on YouTube, but were replaced with Team Co-Bro (Santino Marella and Zack Ryder) due to being placed in a different match at the event.

The Divas feud heading into Survivor Series was between Eve Torres and Kaitlyn over the WWE Divas Championship. At Night of Champions, Kaitlyn was attacked by an unknown woman moments before she was set to face off against Layla for the Divas Championship, which led to Eve replacing Kaitlyn and winning the title. In the weeks that followed, the evil Aksana was eventually revealed as Kaitlyn's attacker, doing so under Eve's orders. As a result, a Triple Threat Match took place at Hell In A Cell, with Eve defeating Layla and Kaitlyn to retain the title. On the November 12 edition of Raw, Kaitlyn defeated Layla to earn a Divas Championship match at Survivor Series.

Event

The first match, featured on the pre-show, was a tag team match between 3MB (Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal with Drew McIntyre at ringside) and Team CoBro (Santino Marella and Zack Ryder). Though Ryder was able to hit The Browski Boot and Rough Ryder on Slater, he missed the tag made by Mahal who pinned Ryder resulting in victory for 3MB.

The second match was an unannounced traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match between the team of Brodus Clay, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara and the team of Tensai, Primo & Epico and The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil). Brodus Clays's team won with the final elimination on Young being scored by Mysterio.

The third match was a Divas match for the Divas Championship between reigning champion Eve and challenger Kaitlyn, which was won by Eve.

The fourth match was a singles match for the United States Championship between reigning champion Antonio Cesaro and challenger R-Truth. Cesaro won the match via pinfall after landing the Neutralizer.

The fifth match was a singles match for the World Heavyweight Championship between reigning champion Big Show and the challenger Sheamus, who had lost the championship at the previous pay-per-view, Hell in a Cell. The match ended when Big Show intentionally used the referee as a shield, causing Sheamus to inadvertently hit him with a Brogue Kick. With Sheamus distracted and looking to attend to the official, Big Show hit him with the Knockout Punch, after which another referee counted the fall and awarded Big Show the victory. Referee John Cone told ring announcer Justin Roberts to reverse a decision that Big Show has been disqualified and Sheamus won the match by disqualification, but Big Show still retaining the title. After the match, Big Show argues with the referee John Cone about being disqualified, before Sheamus assaulted Big Show with a steel chair, and setting up a rematch at next pay-per-view TLC.

The sixth match was a traditional Survivor Series match between Team Foley (Randy Orton, The Miz, Team Hell No (Kane and Daniel Bryan) and Kofi Kingston, with Mick Foley at ringside) and Team Ziggler (Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow and David Otunga). Team Ziggler picked up the win with Ziggler scoring the final elimination on Orton.

The main event was a triple threat match for the WWE Championship between reigning champion CM Punk and challengers Ryback and John Cena. The match came to an end when the debuting trio of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns interfered from the crowd and triple-powerbombed Ryback through the announce table, allowing Punk to retain the title by pinning Cena after the Shell Shock from Ryback. The group would later become known collectively as The Shield.^[9][10] With Punk's win he became only the seventh wrestler in history to hold the WWE Championship consecutively for one full 365-day a year.

Results

Survivor Series elimination matches

^1

^2

References

External links

• Official Survivor Series website