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.

WWE Unforgiven 2003

In the years immediately following the end of The Attitude Era, WWE didn’t do a whole lot to create new stars to fill future main events on their shows. Instead they relied upon a number of names that had drawn big numbers either in the past or elsewhere to carry the future business of the company. This began with the Invasion angle, where the two biggest names that were brought in were the initials ‘WCW’ and ‘ECW’, with few of the men and women who represented those companies (and were therefore new to a WWE audience) given a chance to genuinely grow into main event acts. In 2002 the company shifted their emphasis even further into the past with the return of Ric Flair to the company, the invasion of the NWO and the latest revival of Hulk Hogan’s career. Then Shawn Michaels, having been on the shelf for four years, made a comeback that had at one time seemed improbable. Within the space of 18 months, any upper midcard talent that was waiting their turn in WWE was all of a sudden at the back of a much bigger queue. The brand split did go a little towards easing this issue but in late 2002 and early 2003 another two big name stars from WCW’s past arrived in Scott Steiner and, more importantly to Unforgiven 2003, Bill Goldberg.