WWE Survivor Series match card preview: Big Show vs. Randy Orton

WWE Championship

Randy Orton (c) vs. Big Show

The odds seem stacked against Randy Orton here. He has to go it alone against an angry giant, as The Shield doesn't have his back, and his powerful allies Triple H and Stephanie McMahon have raised doubts about him being the face of the company. But is this just another elaborate ruse by the Cerebral Assassin to shaft the Big Show again?

The Road to Survivor Series

On the Sept. 2nd Monday Night Raw, it was revealed that the Big Show was broke and that he needed his WWE job to support his family. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon used this information to blackmail the friendly giant into doing their dirty work. Thus, he reluctantly knocked out Daniel Bryan, Dusty Rhodes and The Miz over the next several weeks whilst he battled with his conscience.

However, by the Sept. 30th Raw, Show finally snapped in the middle of a promo and vowed to KO Hunter, but he was nowhere to be found and the cops eventually came to arrest him for the violent threats he had made. However, Stephanie stepped in and told them not to take any action, before reminding Show about his money troubles.

The plot thickened on the Oct. 4th Smackdown, as Triple H revealed that he had bought Show's house from his bank and that he would now have to pay all his mortgage payments to him, before booking the giant in a four on one handicap match against Randy Orton and The Shield. Despite the numbers disadvantage Show held his own until he got clobbered with a chair by The Viper to win by disqualification, but was beaten down until The Usos and Daniel Bryan made the save for him.

At Battleground, the Big Show threw a spanner into The Authority's game plan by hitting the WMD on both participants in the main event match for the held up WWE title, Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton, and the referee too meaning that the championship remained vacant.

This resulted in Show being fired by Stephanie McMahon for failing to follow orders properly on the next day's edition of Raw and being escorted out of the building. Of course, he came back to finally knock out Hunter at the end of the show, much to the pleasure of Daniel Bryan who led the crowd in chanting "Yes! Yes! Yes!".

As a consequence, Vickie Guerrero declared that Big Show's house was up for sale on the Oct. 11th Smackdown. By Raw, Stephanie was announcing that she was foreclosing his home and pressing charges for assault against her husband. Of course, once again Show was back at the end of the night to cost The Shield the WWE Tag Team Championships in their match against The Rhodes Brothers and piss off Triple H again.

On the Oct 18th Smackdown the Big Show also appeared, thanks to a ticket from Daniel Bryan, which allowed him to serve notice to WWE that he was filing a lawsuit against the Authority for unfair dismissal. He also knocked out Brad Maddox, because he had nothing to loose at this point.

He made another surprise entrance on the Oct. 21st Raw, by driving into the arena in a freaking semi truck, distracting Orton and allowing Bryan to hit him with a flying knee smash. Earlier in the event, he had also hacked into the satellite feed to lambaste Hunter and Steph until they managed to cut his feed.

The week after, Big Show broke the restraining order Triple H had out against him due to having friends who would happily bail him out and KOd Randy Orton again, while Hunter decided against confronting the angry monster.

Big Show's lawsuit was settled on the Nov. 4th Raw, due to the WWE Board Of Directors getting on Steph's back, and he managed to get his job back and a WWE Title shot against Randy Orton at Survivor Series in return for dropping it. However, Triple H got revenge by booking him in another handicap match against Randy Orton and The Shield, which ended when a suit and tie clad Kane threw them all chairs that they used for the disqualification. The beat down finished with an exclamation mark as The Shield triple powerbombed Show through the announcer's table.

However, it was Randy Orton who got put through a table the next week on Raw, as the Big Show trapped him in the aisle when he walked out of his handicap match with the Rhodes Brothers and planted him through the wooden structure with a chokeslam.

A worried Orton frankly admitted on the go home episode of Raw that he didn't think he could beat Show on his own and demanded to know what Hunter and Steph were going to do about it. Other than allowing him to destroy Brad Maddox in a no DQ match for the chaos he caused in their absence last week, they gave their A+ Player short shrift. Orton tried to ensure that The Shield had his back, which they reluctantly agreed to do as that's what The Authority wanted, only for them to go AWOL when the Big Show speared The Viper later on in the night, leading to a justifiably paranoid Orton confronting the McMahon Helmsley couple again. Stephanie told him that they were having their doubts about him being their face of the company, which suggests that he'll have to take on the Big Show alone tonight.

On Smackdown, however, Orton changed his tune, vowing to beat Show on his own at Survivor Series, while his opponent confidently claimed he would win the WWE Championship in their match together. Meanwhile, WWE COO Triple H, in an interview with Michael Cole, dismissed the conspiracy theory that the Authority would turn on the whinging Orton and make Big Show their new handpicked WWE champion on Sunday in a manner that suggested that maybe there's something to those rumours:

"I wish I had the time or the energy to be as manipulative and maniacal as they think that I am, you know? The conspiracy theories are amazing. But at the end of the day, Cole, on Twitter and social media and the Internet, you want to know why all those people ask the questions, why the WWE Universe asks the questions they do? Because I want them to."

What's at stake?

The most important wrestling title in the game, but also the determination of who will be the face of the company leading into WrestleMania XXX. For Triple H, the right guy winning, whether that be Big Show or Randy Orton, will ensure that he and his wife will continue to assert their domination over the WWE roster, while his handpicked guy losing may mean that The Authority's empire will begin to crumble.

For complete results and our live match coverage of Survivor Series tonight, Cagesiders, please click here.