The event is notable for the onscreen main roster debut of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins, who would collectively be known as The Shield.

[6] However, this booking inadvertently conflicted with the National Football League's schedule for the 2012 season, which pitted the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Baltimore Ravens in a home game that same night.

Despite Pittsburgh being a strong WWE market dating from the territorial days of professional wrestling, WWE decided to make no attempts to locally compete against the fanbase of the Steelers (especially since the game was against the team's archrival) and moved Survivor Series to the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, marking the first Survivor Series held in the state.

[7] WWE compensated Pittsburgh by having a double Raw and SmackDown taping in December, before giving the city a "Big Four" pay-per-view with the now-infamous 2014 Royal Rumble.

Ryback had lost a title match at Hell in a Cell after the referee Brad Maddox low-blowed him, before a fast count to give Punk the pinfall victory.

Ryback's replacement was to be chosen by a Raw active poll, with the choices The Miz, Santino Marella, and Zack Ryder being candidates.

Survivor Series also included a rematch from Hell in a Cell between Sheamus and Big Show for the World Heavyweight Championship.

As a result, a Triple Threat Match took place at Hell In A Cell, with Eve defeating Layla and Kaitlyn to retain the title.

On the November 12 episode of Raw, Kaitlyn defeated Layla to earn a Divas Championship match at Survivor Series.

Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd were initially scheduled to face 3MB (Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal, with Drew McIntyre) in the pre-show available free on YouTube, but were replaced with Team Co-Bro (Santino Marella and Zack Ryder) due to being placed in a different match at the event.

On the pre-show, 3MB (Heath Slater and Jinder Mahal, with Drew McIntyre) faced Team CoBro (Santino Marella and Zack Ryder).

[10] The main show opened with an unannounced Survivor Series elimination match between the team of Brodus Clay, Tyson Kidd, Justin Gabriel, Rey Mysterio, and Sin Cara and the team of Tensai, Primo & Epico, and The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil).

[10] The fifth match was a Survivor Series match between Team Foley (Randy Orton, The Miz, Kane, Daniel Bryan, and Kofi Kingston, with Mick Foley at ringside) and Team Ziggler (Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, Alberto Del Rio, Damien Sandow, and David Otunga).

[10] The main event of the night was a triple threat match for the WWE Championship between reigning champion CM Punk and challengers Ryback and John Cena.