The 2005 Armageddon was the sixth Armageddon professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's SmackDown! brand division. The event took place on December 18, 2005, at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island.
The main event was a Hell in a Cell match between Randy Orton and The Undertaker, which Undertaker won by pinfall after performing a Tombstone piledriver. One of the predominant matches on the card was an Interpromotional tag team match between WWE Tag Team Champions Rey Mysterio and World Heavyweight Champion Batista and World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane. Big Show and Kane won the match after Kane pinned Mysterio following a chokeslam. Another primary match on the undercard was Booker T versus Chris Benoit in the fourth match of their "Best of 7" series for the vacant WWE United States Championship. Benoit won the match after forcing Booker to submit with the Crippler Crossface, thus earning his first victory in the series.
Production
Background
Armageddon was established in 1999 as World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) December pay-per-view (PPV) and was held every year except in 2001. The 2005 event was held on December 18 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. It was the sixth event in the Armageddon chronology. Like the previous year, the 2005 event featured wrestlers exclusively from the SmackDown! brand.
Storylines
The event featured six professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in pre-existing scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers were portrayed as either villains or fan favorites as they followed a series of tension-building events, which culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers (aside from the one interpromotional match) belonged to the SmackDown! brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other being Raw.
The main event at Armageddon was fought in a Hell in a Cell match stipulation between The Undertaker and Randy Orton. The buildup to the match began at WrestleMania 21, where The Undertaker defeated Orton, a Raw superstar at the time, in an Interpromotional match. On the June 16 episode of SmackDown!, during the third annual WWE Draft, a mock sports draft lottery in which wrestlers switched programs, Orton was drafted to the SmackDown! brand. At the August pay-per-view event, SummerSlam, Orton defeated The Undertaker, where he pinned him after performing an RKO following interference from his father, "Cowboy" Bob Orton. This led to a Handicap Casket match between Undertaker and Orton and his father at No Mercy. At the event, Orton and his father defeated Undertaker, and set the casket, which Orton locked Undertaker in, which was scripted to be on fire. The proceeding month, at Survivor Series, the Undertaker returned and attacked several SmackDown! superstars following a 5-on-5 Survivor Series match between Raw and SmackDown!. Orton, who won the match for SmackDown!, was able to escape the attack. Then, on the December 2 episode of SmackDown!, Undertaker called Orton to face him inside Hell in a Cell at Armageddon, which was made official.