SummerSlam

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the pay-per-view series in general. For the inaugural event, see SummerSlam (1988).

SummerSlam
Promotion
WWE
BrandsRaw (2002–2011, 2016–present)
SmackDown (2002–2011, 2016–present)
205 Live (2018–2019)
ECW (2006–2009)
Nickname"The Biggest Party of the Summer"
First event1988

SummerSlam is a

livestreaming since the 2014 event
.

The inaugural SummerSlam took place on August 29, 1988, at

Los Angeles, California and from 2015 to 2018, the event took place at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Beginning with the 2021 event, SummerSlam has been held in National Football League stadiums across the United States. From its inception up through that 2021 event, SummerSlam was held annually in August. The 2022 event marked the first and thus far only time that the event was not held in August, as it was instead held in July, with SummerSlam returning to August for the 2023 edition
.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, that year's SummerSlam was WWE's first PPV produced from their bio-secure bubble, the WWE ThunderDome. After the promotion resumed live touring with fans in July 2021, that year's SummerSlam was promoted as the "biggest event of 2021" due to WrestleMania 37 having to be held at a reduced venue capacity. The 2021 SummerSlam in turn became the highest-grossing SummerSlam event of all time until that record was broken with the 2023 event, which also became the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania event for WWE.

History

California Sun
Barclays Center hosted SummerSlam four years in a row: 2015–2018

In the late 1980s, the

Clash of the Champions I event, which aired simultaneously with WrestleMania IV. WrestleMania IV garnered higher ratings, and not long after, Crockett filed for bankruptcy and sold his company to Ted Turner, who rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling (WCW).[1]

As the WWF continued to replace its

closed circuit programming with pay-per-view programming, McMahon added more pay-per-views to the lineup to capitalize on the success of his previous events. In addition to WrestleMania in March/April, Survivor Series in November, and Royal Rumble in January, McMahon created an event for August, which he named SummerSlam. The inaugural SummerSlam was scheduled to be held on August 29, 1988, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. To keep the WWF from having a pay-per-view market monopoly, Turner began airing monthly WCW pay-per-views. As a result, both companies brought in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue.[2]

Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer",[3] SummerSlam became one of the promotion's most successful events, eventually considered the second biggest event of the year, behind WrestleMania,[4][5] and also one of the "Big Four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and Royal Rumble, the promotion's original four annual events and their four biggest events of the year.[6] From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring, but that PPV event was discontinued after 2002.[7] In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five".[8][9]

In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the

orphaned initialism.[11] Also in March 2002, the promotion introduced the brand extension, in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform[12]—ECW became a third brand in 2006.[13] The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011,[14] but it was reintroduced in July 2016.[15] SummerSlam, along with the other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. In 2014, SummerSlam began to air on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched in February that year,[16] and in 2021, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March that year.[17]

As a result of the

Amway Center and it would be produced by way of a bio-secure bubble dubbed the WWE ThunderDome, which was first utilized for the August 21 episode of SmackDown. This made SummerSlam the first major WWE event to be held outside of the Performance Center since March 2020, as well as their first pay-per-view produced from the ThunderDome. Inside the ThunderDome, drones, lasers, pyro, smoke, and projections were utilized to enhance wrestlers' entrances, and nearly 1,000 LED boards were installed to allow for rows and rows of virtual fans, who could register for a free virtual seat. Arena audio was also mixed with that of the virtual fans.[21][22][23]

While SummerSlam has been considered WWE's second biggest event of the year for many years, in 2021, it was promoted as the promotion's biggest event of that year. WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, which was the promotion's first event with live fans since before the pandemic, had to be held at a reduced venue capacity due to the ongoing pandemic. In July 2021, WWE resumed live touring with fans, and in an effort to sell out that year's SummerSlam, which was held at the Allegiant Stadium in the Las Vegas suburb of Paradise, Nevada,[24] WWE promoted SummerSlam as the "biggest event of 2021".[25] The 2021 event in turn became the highest-grossing SummerSlam event of all time.[26]

From its inception in 1988 up through the 2021 event, SummerSlam had been held annually in August. The

Detroit, Michigan, thus returning SummerSlam to the month of August.[28] The 2023 event would break the 2021 event's record to become the highest-grossing SummerSlam of all time, as well as the highest-grossing event outside of WrestleMania.[29]

Events

# Event Date City Venue Main Event Ref.
1 SummerSlam (1988) August 29, 1988
New York City, New York
 Madison Square Garden
special guest referee
 [2]
2 SummerSlam (1989) August 28, 1989 East Rutherford, New Jersey Brendan Byrne Arena
Zeus
 [30]
3 SummerSlam (1990) August 27, 1990
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
 Spectrum
WWF World Heavyweight Championship
 [31]
4 SummerSlam (1991) August 26, 1991
New York City, New York
 Madison Square Garden
special guest referee
 [32]
5 SummerSlam (1992) August 29, 1992
(Aired August 31, 1992)
London, England
 Wembley Stadium
WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship
 [33]
6 SummerSlam (1993) August 30, 1993 Auburn Hills, Michigan The Palace of Auburn Hills
WWF World Heavyweight Championship
 [34]
7 SummerSlam (1994) August 29, 1994
Chicago, Illinois
 United Center The Undertaker vs. "The Undertaker" [35]
8 SummerSlam (1995) August 27, 1995
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
 Civic Arena
WWF World Heavyweight Championship
 [36]
9 SummerSlam (1996) August 18, 1996
Cleveland, Ohio
 Gund Arena
WWF World Heavyweight Championship
 [37]
10 SummerSlam (1997) August 3, 1997 East Rutherford, New Jersey Continental Airlines Arena
special guest referee
 [38]
11 SummerSlam (1998) August 30, 1998
New York City, New York
 Madison Square Garden
WWF Championship
 [39]
12 SummerSlam (1999) August 22, 1999
Minneapolis, Minnesota
 Target Center
special guest referee
 [40]
13 SummerSlam (2000) August 27, 2000 Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena
WWF Championship
 [41]
14 SummerSlam (2001) August 19, 2001 San Jose, California Compaq Center
WCW Championship
 [42]
15 SummerSlam (2002) August 25, 2002 Uniondale, New York Nassau Coliseum
WWE Undisputed Championship
 [43]
16 SummerSlam (2003) August 24, 2003 Phoenix, Arizona
America West Arena
 Triple H (c) vs. Chris Jericho vs. Goldberg vs. Kevin Nash vs. Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels in an Elimination Chamber match for the World Heavyweight Championship [44]
17 SummerSlam (2004) August 15, 2004
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 Air Canada Centre Chris Benoit (c) vs. Randy Orton for the World Heavyweight Championship [45]
18 SummerSlam (2005) August 21, 2005 Washington, D.C. MCI Center Hulk Hogan vs. Shawn Michaels [46]
19 SummerSlam (2006) August 20, 2006
Boston, Massachusetts
 TD Banknorth Garden Edge (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Championship [47]
20 SummerSlam (2007) August 26, 2007 East Rutherford, New Jersey Continental Airlines Arena John Cena (c) vs. Randy Orton for the WWE Championship [48]
21 SummerSlam (2008) August 17, 2008
Indianapolis, Indiana
Conseco Fieldhouse
Hell in a Cell match
 [49]
22 SummerSlam (2009) August 23, 2009
Los Angeles, California
Staples Center
Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match for the World Heavyweight Championship
 [50]
23 SummerSlam (2010) August 15, 2010
Justin Gabriel, Michael Tarver, and Skip Sheffield
) 		[51]
24 SummerSlam (2011) August 14, 2011
special guest referee then CM Punk (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio for the WWE Championship in Del Rio's Money in the Bank cash-in match
 [52]
25 SummerSlam (2012) August 19, 2012
No Disqualification match
 [53]
26 SummerSlam (2013) August 18, 2013
Money in the Bank cash-in match
 [54]
27 SummerSlam (2014) August 17, 2014 John Cena (c) vs. Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship [55]
28 SummerSlam (2015) August 23, 2015
Brooklyn, New York
 Barclays Center Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker [56]
29 SummerSlam (2016) August 21, 2016 Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Orton [57]
30 SummerSlam (2017) August 20, 2017
fatal four-way match for the WWE Universal Championship
 [57]
31 SummerSlam (2018) August 19, 2018 Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship [58]
32 SummerSlam (2019) August 11, 2019
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
 Scotiabank Arena Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship [59]
33 SummerSlam (2020) August 23, 2020 Orlando, Florida
Amway Center
Falls Count Anywhere match for the WWE Universal Championship
 [19][20][60]
34 SummerSlam (2021) August 21, 2021 Paradise, Nevada Allegiant Stadium Roman Reigns (c) vs. John Cena for the WWE Universal Championship [61]
35 SummerSlam (2022) July 30, 2022 Nashville, Tennessee Nissan Stadium
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
 [27]
36 SummerSlam (2023) August 5, 2023
Detroit, Michigan
 Ford Field
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and recognition of Tribal Chief of the Anoaʻi family
 [28]
37 SummerSlam (2024) August 3, 2024
Cleveland, Ohio
 Cleveland Browns Stadium
TBA
 [62]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to SummerSlam.
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