Survivor Series (2014)

The 2014 Survivor Series was the 28th annual Survivor Series professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It took place on November 23, 2014, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and was the first Survivor Series event to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February. The event was notable for the WWE debut appearance of former World Championship Wrestling (WCW) wrestler Sting and also the first Survivor Series since 2001 to not feature a world championship match.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. The main event saw Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Big Show, and Ryback) defeat Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Luke Harper, Mark Henry, and Rusev) in a 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match, with Ziggler emerging the lone survivor. Ziggler was the second wrestler to survive a 3-on-1 situation in a Survivor Series elimination match, eliminating Kane, Harper, and Rollins. The only other person to survive a 3-on-1 situation was Ric Flair at the 2006 event. The event had 100,000 buys (excluding WWE Network views), down from the previous year's 177,000 buys.

Background
Survivor Series is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) produced every November by WWE since 1987. The second longest running pay-per-view 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, collectively 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. The 2014 event was the 28th Survivor Series and was scheduled to be held on November 23, 2014, at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view, it was the first Survivor Series to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February.

Storylines
The event comprised eight matches, including two 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, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.

On the October 27 episode of Raw, after John Cena, the #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, rejected an offer to join The Authority, Triple H scheduled a traditional Survivor Series tag team elimination match, with a team representing The Authority facing a team captained by Cena. Later that night, it was hinted that Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler had joined Team Cena; both Cena and Ziggler saved each other from post-match attacks. The next week on Raw, Vince McMahon announced that if Team Authority loses at Survivor Series, The Authority would be out of power (Triple H would be fired as COO, Kane would be fired as Director of Operations, and Stephanie McMahon would no longer be a Principal Owner of WWE). Seth Rollins, Kane and Randy Orton joined Team Authority with Rollins as captain, while Ziggler joined Team Cena. Later that night, Orton was ejected by The Authority after he attacked members of The Authority, and turned face in the process for the first time since 2013. The next week on Raw, Rusev joined Team Authority after The Authority helped him retain the United States Championship from Sheamus. Sheamus joined Team Cena along with Big Show and Jack Swagger, while Mark Henry and Ryback joined Team Authority. But, by the end of the night, Swagger dropped out of Team Cena after Rollins injured him, while Ryback attacked and left Team Authority after Kane interfered in his main-event match against Cena. Luke Harper applied to join Team Authority by attacking Ziggler. The next week on Raw, Harper was confirmed as the final member of Team Authority. While Cena was scouting Ryback to fill out his team, team Authority attacked the rest of Team Cena, which played a part in Ziggler losing his Intercontinental Championship to Harper, and Sheamus dropping out of Team Cena after Mark Henry injured him. Later that night, Erick Rowan and Ryback joined Team Cena. On the November 21 episode of SmackDown, in response to comments made by Cena stating that he felt responsible for his team, Triple H announced that if Team Cena lost, all of Team Cena, except Cena himself, would be fired. Later that night, with Cena absent, Team Authority and a chair-wielding Triple H attacked the rest of Team Cena.

On the October 31 episode of SmackDown, Nikki Bella won a Battle Royal to face AJ Lee for the WWE Divas Championship. On November 10, WWE.com announced that AJ Lee would defend the title against Nikki at Survivor Series.

At Hell in a Cell, Bray Wyatt attacked Dean Ambrose during his Hell in a Cell match against Seth Rollins. On the November 10 episode of Raw, it was announced that Ambrose would face Wyatt at Survivor Series.

On November 17, it was announced on WWE.com that Gold and Stardust would defend the WWE Tag Team Championship against The Miz and Damien Mizdow, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and Los Matadores (Diego and Fernando) (with El Torito) in a fatal four-way tag team match at Survivor Series.

On November 17, it was announced on WWE.com that the Survivor Series kickoff show would feature the return of Bad News Barrett from injury and Fandango, accompanied by Rosa Mendes, against an unknown opponent.

On November 18, it was announced on WWE.com that Alicia Fox, Natalya, Emma, and Naomi would face Paige, Cameron, Layla, and Summer Rae in a Survivor Series elimination tag team match at Survivor Series.

Pre-show
The analysis team was hosted by Renee Young and consisted of Alex Riley, Booker T, and special guest Paul Heyman.

During the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show, Fandango faced Justin Gabriel. Fandango executed The Last Dance to win the match.

Later, Jack Swagger faced Cesaro. Swagger forced Cesaro to submit to the Patriot Lock to win the match.

Preliminary matches
The event began with Mr. McMahon calling The Authority and John Cena to the ring. He added the stipulation, that should Team Authority lose, the only person who can bring The Authority back to power would be Cena himself. Cena then responded by saying "there is no chance in hell" he would bring The Authority back to power.

The first match saw Gold and Stardust defend the Tag Team Championship against The Miz and Damien Mizdow, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), and Los Matadores. After Goldust was incapacitated by a Samoan Splash from an Uso, Mizdow stole the pin to win the titles for his team.

Next, Team Natalya (Alicia Fox, Emma, Naomi, and Natalya) faced Team Paige (Paige, Cameron, Layla, and Summer Rae) in a traditional 4-on-4 Survivor Series elimination tag team match. Cameron was eliminated by Naomi after Naomi pinned her with a bridging rolling reverse cradle pin. Layla was eliminated by Fox after a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Summer Rae was eliminated after Emma forced her to submit to the Emma Lock. Paige was eliminated by Naomi after a handstand modified headscissors driver.

After that, Dean Ambrose faced Bray Wyatt. Ambrose was disqualified after he hit Wyatt with a chair. After the match, Ambrose attacked Wyatt with Dirty Deeds on the chair, a diving elbow drop through a table and buried Wyatt underneath a table and chairs and climbed a ladder. Later in the event, it was announced that Wyatt would face Ambrose in a tables, ladders, and chairs match at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.

In the fourth match, Adam Rose and The Bunny faced Slater-Gator (Heath Slater and Titus O'Neil). The Bunny executed a missile dropkick on Slater to win the match.

Next, Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and John "Bradshaw" Layfield interviewed Roman Reigns via satellite, who announced he would return in late December.

In the fifth match, AJ Lee defended the Divas Championship against Nikki Bella. After Brie Bella kissed AJ, Nikki executed the Rack Attack on AJ to win the title.

Main event
In the main event, Team Cena (John Cena, Dolph Ziggler, Big Show, Erick Rowan, and Ryback) faced Team Authority (Seth Rollins, Kane, Mark Henry, Rusev, and Luke Harper) (with Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Jamie Noble, Joey Mercury, and Lana) in a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination tag team match. Henry was the first man eliminated by Big Show after a Knockout Punch. Ryback was eliminated by Rusev after a Curb Stomp from Rollins and a jumping savate kick. Rusev tried to put Ziggler through a broadcast table with a splash but missed, fell through the table and was counted out. Rowan was eliminated by Harper after a discus clothesline. Cena was eliminated by Rollins after a Knockout Punch from Big Show, who betrayed Team Cena by shaking Triple H's hand and walking out on the match, eliminating himself by countout and turning heel. Ziggler eliminated Kane with a Zig Zag and Harper with a schoolboy. Ziggler executed a Zig Zag on Rollins but Triple H pulled the referee out of the ring. The Authority attacked Ziggler, but he fought them off and executed a second Zig Zag on Rollins as another referee came out to the ring. Triple H attacked the other referee and attacked Ziggler, executing a Pedigree on him. He called out Scott Armstrong to count the pin, but WCW wrestler Sting appeared, making his WWE debut. Sting knocked out Armstrong and had a staredown with Triple H. Sting then executed a Scorpion Death Drop on Triple H and pulled Ziggler on top of Rollins for the pin and win. Per the pre-match stipulation, The Authority was removed from power. Triple H was fired as the COO, Stephanie was no longer a principal owner of WWE and Kane lost his role as the Director of Operations. The show ended with Triple H and Stephanie heartbroken that they lost their power, and they realized that they were nothing better than the people that clean the floors and they realized that since they were fired from power, they lost the privilege to fly on the corporate jet to WWE events, and they can only work at WWE headquarters and no longer influence the careers and lives of the superstars. The fans chanted "Yes! Yes! Yes!" and "You got fired!" Stephanie would throw a tantrum and not accept the results as she would cry as the event went off the air.

Reception
Survivor Series received generally positive reviews, with particular praise going toward the main event, with highlights including Sting's debut and Ziggler's performance. Speaking of the Ambrose-Wyatt match, Larry Csonka of 411mania said "The match was good, and they set up next month so I really don't have a lot of complaints with this". He gave the match ***3/4 (out of *****). He gave the main event ****, calling it "a very good main event presentation". He gave the entire event a score of 7 out of 10. The main event received the Slammy Award for match of the year 2014.

Aftermath
On the November 24 episode of Raw, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon bid farewell to the WWE Universe, but were interrupted by Daniel Bryan, who returned and served as the general manager for both Raw and SmackDown that week, putting members of Team Authority in unfavorable situations. Mark Henry was put in a match against Ryback, which he lost quickly. Luke Harper defended his Intercontinental Championship against Dean Ambrose, which ended in a disqualification due to Harper pushing Ambrose into the referee. Kane was put into concessions for the night as Concessions Kane. Rusev and Lana were forced to speak out the Pledge of Allegiance or defend the United States Championship in a Battle Royal, which Rusev did successfully on SmackDown. Seth Rollins lost a 3-on-2 handicap match against John Cena and Dolph Ziggler, with Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury chosen as his partners by fans poll. At the end of the show, it was announced that the Anonymous Raw General Manager would be returning the following week.

On the December 29 episode of Raw, after threatening to Curb Stomp guest host Edge (who had to retire due to multiple neck injuries that could leave him paralyzed), Seth Rollins coaxed John Cena into bringing back The Authority after just over a month of exile. The following week, The Authority rewarded Rollins by placing him in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at the Royal Rumble also involving Cena and defending champion Brock Lesnar. Also on that same show, the Authority also gave out pre-match stipulated consequences to Team Cena, which resulted in the firings of Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, and Ryback. Later, on the January 19, 2015, episode, Cena defeated Rollins, Big Show, and Kane in a 3-on-1 handicap match (with his #1 contendership on the line) with the help of Sting - thus allowing Ziggler, Rowan, and Ryback to get their jobs back. On the January 22, 2015, episode SmackDown, Daniel Bryan welcomed Ziggler, Rowan, and Ryback to celebrate their return to WWE.

Later on the February 2, 2015, episode of Raw, Cena welcomed Ziggler, Rowan and Ryback to celebrate their return to WWE and they were placed in matches by Stephanie McMahon respectively. On the February 9 episode of Raw, Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan came out and helped Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns to defeat Seth Rollins, Big Show, Kane and J&J Security (Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury). On the February 16 episode of Raw, after Ziggler defeated Rollins via disqualification, he was attacked by Rollins and J&J Security, but Ryback, and Rowan came out and saved Ziggler. On the February 19 episode of SmackDown, after Rollins defeated Ziggler, the Authority attacked Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan. Afterwards, it was announced that Ziggler, Ryback, and Rowan would face Rollins, Big Show, and Kane in a six man tag team match at the event which they lost. Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan avenged their loss on the February 26 episode of SmackDown, defeating Rollins, Kane, and Big Show. The three would go their separate ways just before WrestleMania 31.

On the December 8 episode of Raw, AJ Lee invoked her rematch clause against Nikki Bella for the Divas Championship at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs.