Survivor Series is the second pay-per-view event created by WWE, taking place in November every year since it's advent.

Survivor Series started as the (then) World Wrestling Federation's "Thanksgiving Tradition", created specifically to compete with rival Jim Crockett Promotions' Starrcade, also running on Thanksgiving Day. After Jim Crockett Promotions was sold to Ted Turner, Starrcade moved to December, where it stayed until Turner's World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was sold to WWE in 2001. Survivor Series would shift from Thanksgiving Day to Thanksgiving Eve, before finally settling on the usual Sunday night slot.

Survivor Series was originally named such due to its slogan of "Teams of Five Strive to Survive!", a reference to the five-on-five tag team elimination bouts that were its signature, prior to moving to a format similar to the other pay-per-views on the calendar.

Despite its status as one of WWE's signature events and one of their "Big 4" original events, it is often overlooked by WWE, which once considered changing the name of the event.