10 Fascinating WWE Survivor Series 2010 Facts
And we never saw John Cena again.
The 2010 Survivor Series featured a rather interesting moral quandary in its main event. Nexus leader Wade Barrett challenged for Randy Orton's WWE Championship, with unwilling Nexus disciple John Cena coerced into acting as special referee. If Barrett won the belt, Cena would earn his freedom from the Nexus. If Orton won, Cena would lose his job, period. Even for a character as morally strong as Cena (we'll wait for Alex Riley and Tyler Reks to stop laughing), resisting the urge to screw Orton over was going to be a challenge.
There was potential intensity in the drama, that is until you remember that WWE (having crafted their entire show around Cena) would rather drop dead than have their cash cow off TV for any extended period of time. Even if Orton did win, you just knew there would be some "Deus ex Ma-Cena" to get him back on television.
That's about the only interesting thing there is to say about Survivor Series 2010, a night where outside of the main event, the entire promotion felt like it was stuck in neutral. Story-void undercard title matches, an average elimination match, and some gaudy storytelling in the big title matches firmly attached the "just another show" label to Survivor Series, finish be damned.
Here are ten facts about Survivor Series 2010 you may not have known.
10. There Was Almost No Survivor Series At All
In February 2010, Vince McMahon announced at an investors call that Survivor Series would be rebranded, beginning with 2010 and going forward. McMahon said during the call, "We think that Survivor Series is obsolete as far as the title is concerned.”
McMahon may have been committed to moving past the event name, but his constituents weren't. There was an immediate backlash from WWE fans when the decision was announced. As one would expect, the petitions came out, as fans fought to save a WWE tradition, even if that tradition's lustre had been dulled over time.
The campaigning seemed to work. Approximately four months following McMahon's announcement, tickets for the 2010 Survivor Series went on sale. The name has remained ever since, with shows like the 2016 edition fully embracing the classic spirit of the event.