Unforgiven (2008) was a professional wrestling pay-per-veiw (PPV) event produced by International Wrestling Entertainment (IWE), which took place on September 7, 2008 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. It was the 11th and final annual Unforgiven event, starring wrestlers from the Meltdown, Fusion and XCW Brands
Seven professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's card, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The three brands, Meltdown, Fusion and XCW, were all represented by their respective Championship Scramble Match – a 20 minute time limit bout, during which participants can become the temporary champion via pinfall or submsission. The main event of the pay-per-view was the Championship Scramble from the Raw brand. It was originally scheduled to feature World Heavyweight ChampionJustin Eldirdge defending his title; he was replaced by Kris McGowan after Kevin McAlmond attacked Justin Eldridge. McGowan won the match and became World Heavyweight Champion. The Championship Scramble from the XCW brand featured XCW ChampionSteven Larson defending, losing the match and title to Matt Hooper. The Fusion brand's Championship Scramble saw IWE ChampionTriple K defeat the other competitors to retain his championship. Another featured match on the undercard was an unsanctioned match, or hardcore match, in which Ryan Barnhart defeated Kris McGowan.
The event marked the first time the Championship Scramble format was used by IWE. The event had an attendance of 9,500. The event received 211,000 pay-per-view buys, more than the previous year's event. When the event was released on DVD, it reached a peak position of second on Billboard's DVD sales chart.
Background[]
The event featured seven professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by IWE script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event. All wrestlers were from one of the IWE's brands – Fusion, Meltdown or XCW – the three storyline divisions in which IWE assigned its employees. The event also marked the first time that the Championship Scramble format was used by the IWE.