SD has been building to No Mercy since 2 weeks before Unforgiven when Kennedy threatened to go to Raw and Teddy Long put him in a match against Undertaker. That's close to twice the typical length with WWE's current PPV schedule.
As far as gimmick matches go, the Angle/Orton/Mysterio stuff earlier in the year was gimmicked up with title shots on the line, Undertaker and Khali had a Last Man Standing match, and Big Show filled in for the Punjabi Prison match. Raw has definately tended to overbook PPVs in comparison to SD this year though.