WWE Survivor Series 2004

WWE Survivor Series 2004 took place at a time when the promotion were in the middle of transitioning from the botched push of Randy Orton (which had led to his World Title win in the main event of Summer Slam that year) and the hugely successful push of fellow Evolution member Batista (who would go on to win the World Title from Triple H in the main event of Wrestlemania 21). Going into the show, Randy Orton was positioned as the main babyface in the company, in position as the team captain of the good guys in the main event opposing ‘The Game’ as team captain on the heel side of the aisle. Unfortunately, due to a combination of Orton not really being ready for the babyface top spot- and the manner in which, having won the title (to become the youngest World Champion in WWE history), Orton was unceremoniously defeated by Triple H at Unforgiven just a month later to lose the belt- he didn’t live up to this billing and Survivor Series drew just 325,000 buys on pay-per-view (though a number that would have been considered a success more recently, was at the time the lowest number the show had done in 7 years). The number was put down to Orton and following this show, the spotlight would really begin to shine on WWE’s next project-  Batista.