The 2020 Survivor Series was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 34th annual Survivor Series event and took place on November 22, 2020, from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. The theme of the event was brand supremacy in which every match on the card involved wrestlers from the two brands in direct competition, including the titular Survivor Series match, a tag team elimination match that pits teams of multiple wrestlers against each other. The event also celebrated the 30th anniversary of The Undertaker's WWE debut, which occurred at the 1990 event—his retirement ceremony closed the show.
The event was reportedly planned to be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, which would have been the second Survivor Series at the venue, after 2003; however, all public gatherings were indefinitely restricted by the City of Dallas government due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the event was moved to the ThunderDome at the Amway Center, which made it the fourth Survivor Series to take place in the U.S. state of Florida, after 2000 in Tampa and 2007 and 2010 in Miami. It was subsequently WWE's final PPV and livestreaming event presented from the ThunderDome at the Amway Center as the bio-secure bubble was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons. This would also be the final Survivor Series to livestream on the American version of the WWE Network, which merged under Peacock in April 2021.
Seven matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The card was highlighted by two Survivor Series matches: Raw's men's and women's teams were victorious over SmackDown's. In the main event match, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Also on the card, SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks defeated Raw Women's Champion Asuka, and SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods). Raw won brand supremacy by winning four of the seven matches. The 2019 event had also included the NXT brand, which won the brand supremacy competition that year, but NXT was not included at this event largely due to the pandemic as outbreaks of the virus had occurred among the NXT roster.
Production Background
Survivor Series is an annual professional wrestling event, produced every November by WWE since 1987, generally held around Thanksgiving in the United States. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. In what has become the second longest-running PPV event in history (behind WWE's WrestleMania), it is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Royal Rumble, 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 34th Survivor Series event was scheduled to be held on November 22, 2020.
Since WWE reintroduced 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. The 2020 Survivor Series featured Raw's WWE Champion against SmackDown's Universal Champion, the Raw Women's Champion facing the SmackDown Women's Champion, Raw's United States Champion going against SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion, and the Raw Tag Team Champions facing off with the SmackDown Tag Team Champions.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
According to WrestleVotes, the 2020 Survivor Series event was planned to be held at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, which would have been the second Survivor Series at the venue, after 2003. However, mayor Eric Johnson announced on March 13 that all public gatherings of 500 people or above were indefinitely banned as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began taking effect in mid-March. Due to the pandemic, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's shows were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which at the time was hosted at Orlando's Amway Center. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.
WWE's initial residency agreement with the Amway Center expired on October 31, but with the option to extend the contract with a two weeks notice. On October 12, PWInsider reported that the contract had been extended, with Fightful revealing the amended contract's expiration date as November 24. Survivor Series was subsequently WWE's final PPV and livestreaming event presented from the ThunderDome at the Amway Center, as WWE relocated the bio-secure bubble to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, which began with the December 11 episode of Friday Night SmackDown. This move was also done due to the start of the 2020–21 ECHL and NBA seasons as the Amway Center is the shared home of the Orlando Solar Bears (ECHL) and the Orlando Magic (NBA).
411Mania reported that the COVID-19 pandemic was a reason that the NXT brand was not involved in the event, unlike the previous year. Outbreaks of the virus had occurred at both of NXT's home arenas, Full Sail University and then the WWE Performance Center, prompting WWE to exclude NXT wrestlers from the event to avoid potential transmission of the virus to members of the Raw and SmackDown rosters. This report was confirmed by WWE executive and NXT head Paul "Triple H" Levesque during the NXT TakeOver: WarGames media call on December 3.
Storylines The event comprised seven matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
Survivor Series matches Qualifying matches for the men's Survivor Series match began on the October 26 episode of Raw. AJ Styles, Keith Lee, and Sheamus earned the first three spots on Team Raw by defeating Jeff Hardy, Elias, and Riddle, respectively. The following week, Braun Strowman qualified for the team by defeating Lee and Sheamus in a triple threat match. Riddle won the final spot on Team Raw by defeating Elias and Hardy in a triple threat match on the November 9 episode. Team SmackDown's first two members were determined on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Kevin Owens and Jey Uso qualified by defeating Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan, respectively. The following week, King Corbin and Seth Rollins won the next two spots by defeating Rey Mysterio and Otis, respectively. On the November 20 episode, WWE official Adam Pearce named Otis as the final member of Team SmackDown.
For the women's Survivor Series match, all five of Team Raw's members were initially revealed on the October 26 episode of Raw. WWE officials Adam Pearce and Pat Buck announced that WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, along with Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, would represent Team Raw. The fifth and final spot was determined by a fatal four-way match that night, which Lana won by defeating Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, and Nikki Cross. On the November 16 episode of Raw, due to Jax and Baszler attacking Rose's arm during a tag team match, and then Retribution's Reckoning later attacking Brooke backstage, both Rose and Brooke were deemed unable to compete at Survivor Series, thus Pearce announced that they would be replaced by Evans and Royce. Team SmackDown's first member was determined on the October 30 episode of SmackDown. Bianca Belair won the spot by defeating Billie Kay and Natalya in a triple threat match. Ruby Riott won the second spot on the following episode, where she defeated Natalya and Zelina Vega in a triple threat match. On the November 13 episode, Liv Morgan qualified by defeating Chelsea Green, Natalya, and Tamina in a fatal four-way match. The following week, Pearce added Bayley to the team, and Natalya defeated Tamina to win the final spot on Team SmackDown.
Champions brand supremacy matches All four of the champions brand supremacy matches were announced on the October 26 episode of Raw. At the time, it was announced that Raw's WWE Champion Randy Orton would face SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns, Raw Women's Champion Asuka would face SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks, Raw's United States Champion Bobby Lashley would face SmackDown's Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn, and Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) would face SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford).
Over the next few weeks, five of the champions defended their titles before Survivor Series, with four of them retaining to keep the matchups the same as initially announced. SmackDown Women's Champion Sasha Banks retained her title against Bayley on the November 6 episode of SmackDown, Bobby Lashley retained the United States Championship against Titus O'Neil on the November 9 episode of Raw, Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn retained his title against Apollo Crews on the November 13 episode of SmackDown, and The New Day retained their Raw Tag Team Championship against The Hurt Business (Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin) on the November 16 episode of Raw. Also during this time, SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits tried to get info on their Survivor Series opponents from former New Day member Big E, who told them that New Day would win. The men's world championship matchup, however, changed. After losing the WWE Championship to Randy Orton at Hell in a Cell on October 25, Drew McIntyre was given a rematch for the title. Prior to that, McIntyre appeared on the November 13 episode of SmackDown to confront Universal Champion Roman Reigns, despite not being the WWE Champion. On the November 16 episode of Raw, McIntyre defeated Orton to regain the WWE Championship, thus becoming Reigns's opponent at Survivor Series.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Corey Graves Tom Phillips Samoa Joe Byron Saxton Spanish commentatorMarcelo RodriguezRing announcerMike RomeRefereesDanilo AnfibioJason AyersShawn BennettJohn ConeDan EnglerEddie OrengoRod ZapataInterviewerKayla BraxtonPre-show panelCharly CarusoJohn "Bradshaw" LayfieldPeter RosenbergBooker TJerry Lawler Pre-show During the Survivor Series Kickoff pre-show, an 18-man dual-brand battle royal was contested, with its participants evenly divided between Raw and SmackDown. In the end, Raw's The Miz eliminated SmackDown's Dominik Mysterio to win the match, giving Raw the first win of the night.
Also during the pre-show, The Gobbledy Gooker, a character that also first appeared at the 1990 Survivor Series, pinned R-Truth to win the WWE 24/7 Championship.
Preliminary matches