The 2011 Vengeance was the eighth Vengeance professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on October 23, 2011, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas. It was the first Vengeance held since 2007 and also the last until 2021 when Vengeance was rebranded as an NXT TakeOver event titled Vengeance Day. The 2011 Vengeance replaced Bragging Rights. Vengeance was dropped the following year in favor of only holding one PPV during October, Hell in a Cell. The event garnered 121,000 buys, down from 137,000 buys the previous year's Bragging Rights.
Nine matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Alberto Del Rio defeated John Cena in a last man standing match to retain the WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, World Heavyweight Champion Mark Henry fought Big Show to a no contest, Randy Orton defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes in a non-title match, and The Awesome Truth (The Miz and R-Truth) defeated CM Punk and Triple H.
Production
Background
Vengeance was an annual pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE from 2001 to 2007. From that inaugural event until 2006, it was promoted solely as Vengeance, but in 2007, WWE promoted Vengeance as a joint PPV titled Vengeance: Night of Champions, which was both the seventh Vengeance event and the inaugural Night of Champions event. The 2007 event was the final Vengeance event as WWE dropped Vengeance in 2008 in favor of continuing Night of Champions. In April 2011, the promotion ceased going by its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, with "WWE" becoming an orphaned initialism. Later that same year, WWE reinstated Vengeance—separate from Night of Champions—and scheduled it for the October slot in their PPV calendar, replacing Bragging Rights, which was two months after the end of the first brand extension. The eighth Vengeance was held on October 23, 2011, at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Storylines
Vengeance featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that developed on WWE's television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers portrayed heroes or villains as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
The main rivalry involved WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio against former champion John Cena for the WWE Championship. At Hell in a Cell earlier in the month, Cena lost his title to Del Rio after Cena was locked out of the steel cell while Del Rio pinned CM Punk in a Triple Threat Hell in a Cell match. A week later, recently instated Interim General Manager of Raw John Laurinaitis booked Cena's rematch against Del Rio for Vengeance. On the October 17 episode of Raw, Cena won a tag team match with Jim Ross to defeat Del Rio and Michael Cole and as per the pre-match stipulation, he chose the match at Vengeance to be a Last Man Standing Match.
Another rivalry was between CM Punk, Triple H, The Miz, and R-Truth. At Night of Champions, during the main event which was between the COO Triple H and Punk, Miz and Truth interfered and attacked both competitors. The following night on Raw, Triple H fired Miz and Truth. At Hell in a Cell, Miz and Truth attacked John Cena, CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio, the referee, and cameramen while the cell was still closed. The entire WWE roster came out to find a way into the cell. Eventually, they found pliers and got into the cell and Triple H attacked Miz and Truth. On the October 10 episode of Raw, Triple H was relieved from his duties of running Raw (though still COO) and Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis was named Raw Interim General Manager and later that night made this match.