10 Years Later: WWE Survivor Series 2015 Retrospective

WWE Survivor Series: WarGames is on the horizon. WWE’s next PLE will take place on Saturday, November 29, live from San Diego’s Petco Park. As always, whenever a classic WWE PLE is coming up, fans love to go back and rewatch previous editions of said event. Survivor Series is definitely a fan favorite, having a rich history that dates all the way back to 1987.

In this article, we’ll take a look back at Survivor Series 2015 – a show that celebrated The Undertaker’s 25th anniversary as a WWE star, and featured a tournament for the vacant WWE World Heavyweight Championship after the former champion, Seth Rollins, suffered a nasty injury in Dublin. As crazy as it sounds, it’s already been a full decade since that all happened, so now is the perfect time to go back and rewatch Survivor Series 2015.

We’ll start by addressing the WWE Title picture, particularly some of the most notable tournament matches that happened on television, before moving on to a recap of the actual PPV itself. Enjoy!

WWE Survivor Series 2015 – The Build

The build to Survivor Series 2015 began in the final minutes of the previous PPV, Hell in a Cell. Moments after the end of the main event, which saw Brock Lesnar beat The Undertaker in a superb Hell in a Cell Match, The Wyatt Family came out to attack The Undertaker before carrying The Deadman out of the ring.

Undertaker missed the next night’s Raw to sell the beatdown, but the story continued as Kane – one night after losing a WWE Championship match to Seth Rollins at Hell in a Cell – came out to confront The Wyatts, only to be attacked and carried out of the ring as well. The Brothers of Destruction would eventually come back a couple of weeks later, looking for revenge on The Wyatts, and a tag team match was booked for Survivor Series.

The October 26 episode of Monday Night Raw kicked off with The Authority announcing Seth Rollins would be defending his title in the main event of Survivor Series against the winner of a “mini-tournament” featuring eight wrestlers who’d won their matches at Hell in a Cell. The competition would start with four singles matches, and the winners would then compete in a Fatal Four Way Match to determine the new number one contender.

Roman Reigns (with a win over Kofi Kingston in the opener), Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens (saw off Cesaro next), new United States Champion Alberto Del Rio (defeated Neville), and Dolph Ziggler (beat Big E in the last qualifier) advanced to the Fatal Four Way Match, which The Big Dog won.

Roman Reigns was now the number one contender, and according to reports, Reigns was actually going to beat Rollins at Survivor Series to win his first world title. However, fate had a different idea…

Seth Rollins’ Injury Forced WWE To Change Their Plans

Unfortunately, Rollins injured his knee the following week during a title defense against Kane in Dublin, Ireland. The member of The Authority was forced to vacate his championship, and WWE had to quickly come up with a new main event for Survivor Series. The solution? A 16-man tournament began on the very next edition of Raw.

The Final Four (semi-finals + final) would take place at the pay-per-view itself, and the winner of the tournament would become the brand new WWE World Heavyweight Champion.