The 2017 SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 30th annual SummerSlam and took place on August 20, 2017, at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York. This was the third of four consecutive SummerSlam events to take place at the arena.
Thirteen matches were contested at the event, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. The event featured eight championship matches, the most for a SummerSlam event, where five of the titles changed hands. In the main event, Brock Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns, and Samoa Joe in a fatal four-way match to retain Raw's Universal Championship and in the penultimate match, Jinder Mahal defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to retain SmackDown's WWE Championship. In other prominent matches, AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens to retain SmackDown's United States Championship in a match that featured Shane McMahon as the special guest referee, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the Raw Tag Team Championship, and Sasha Banks defeated Alexa Bliss to win her record-tying fourth Raw Women's Championship. This was also the first SummerSlam to feature matches for the SmackDown Women's Championship, the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, and Raw's WWE Cruiserweight Championship.
Production Background
SummerSlam is an annual professional wrestling event produced every August by WWE since 1988. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". It has since become considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind WrestleMania. Announced on September 28, 2015, the 30th SummerSlam was scheduled to be held on August 20, 2017, at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York for the third consecutive year and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. Tickets went on sale on March 25 through Ticketmaster.
Storylines The event comprised 13 matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.
On the June 19 episode of Raw, Roman Reigns proclaimed himself to be the number one contender for the Universal Championship at SummerSlam. Later that night, Braun Strowman returned and cost Reigns his match against Samoa Joe and challenged Reigns to an ambulance match at Great Balls of Fire. At the event, Strowman defeated Reigns, but Reigns retaliated by locking Strowman in the ambulance and crashing it, leaving him bloodied and injured, while Brock Lesnar defeated Joe to retain the Universal Championship. The following night on Raw, as Raw General Manager Kurt Angle was about to reveal his plans for Lesnar's championship match at SummerSlam, Reigns interrupted, wanting the match. Joe then came out, wanting a rematch. Reigns and Joe were then scheduled for a number one contender match. During the match, Strowman returned and attacked both Reigns and Joe, resulting in a no contest. It was then decided that Lesnar would defend the title against Reigns, Joe, and Strowman in a fatal four-way match at SummerSlam. The following week, Heyman proclaimed that if Lesnar were to lose the Universal Championship at SummerSlam, then he and Lesnar would leave WWE.
At Battleground, Natalya won a fatal five-way elimination match to become the number one contender for Naomi's SmackDown Women's Championship at SummerSlam.
At Great Balls of Fire, Sasha Banks defeated Alexa Bliss by count-out, thus Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship. Over the next couple of weeks, Bayley scored pins over Bliss in a tag team match, and a non-title singles match. Bayley in turn felt she deserved a title shot, while Banks felt she deserved a rematch due to Bliss' actions at Great Balls of Fire. A number one contender's match between the two the following week was won by Bayley. Bayley then suffered a legitimate shoulder injury, incurred during a match with Nia Jax, forcing her to relinquish her number one contender's spot. Two triple threat matches were then scheduled for the following episode of Raw with the winner of each facing each other to determine the new number one contender for the Raw Women's Championship. Banks won the first triple threat match by defeating Alicia Fox and Emma, while Jax won the second by defeating Dana Brooke and Mickie James. The following week, Banks defeated Jax to become the new number one contender against Bliss at SummerSlam.
At Battleground, Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton in a Punjabi Prison match to retain the WWE Championship with help from The Singh Brothers and the return of The Great Khali. On the following episode of SmackDown, Mahal demanded a new opponent for SummerSlam. John Cena came out, congratulated Mahal, and then challenged him for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. However, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan said Cena had to earn his opportunity and scheduled a number one contender's match between Cena and Shinsuke Nakamura. The following week, Nakamura defeated Cena to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
On the Great Balls of Fire Kickoff pre-show, Neville defeated Akira Tozawa to retain the WWE Cruiserweight Championship. On the July 31 episode of Raw, a number one contender's match was scheduled between Tozawa and Ariya Daivari for the following night's 205 Live with the winner facing Neville for the Cruiserweight Championship at SummerSlam. On 205 Live, Tozawa defeated Daivari to become the number one contender. On the August 14 episode of Raw, Tozawa received his title match early and defeated Neville to become the new Cruiserweight Champion, and their originally scheduled SummerSlam match was made a rematch with Neville as the challenger. On August 16, WWE confirmed that the match would take place on the SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show.
At Battleground, Kevin Owens defeated AJ Styles to win his third United States Championship. On the following episode of SmackDown, Styles wanted to invoke his championship rematch, but he was interrupted by the returning Chris Jericho, who also wanted to invoke his rematch from when he lost the title to Owens back in May. As both Styles and Jericho were contractually owed rematches, SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon decided that they would both get their rematches for the title in a triple threat match that night against Owens, where Styles pinned Jericho to regain the title. After the match, Owens invoked his championship rematch for the following week. During the rematch that episode, Owens attacked the referee, but lost even though both shoulders were not on the mat. A frustrated Owens confronted Shane and SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan and demanded a rematch, but with a competent referee. Bryan scheduled the rematch for SummerSlam and made Shane the special guest referee.
On the August 1 episode of SmackDown, Rusev issued a SummerSlam "Open Challenge" to any wrestler on the SmackDown roster. Randy Orton, who Rusev had never defeated, accepted the challenge before attacking Rusev with an RKO.
At Battleground, The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, with Big E) defeated The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. On the following episode of SmackDown, as The New Day were about to make their entrance to celebrate their championship win, they were attacked by The Usos. The following week, The Usos proclaimed that they would reclaim the titles from The New Day, and a rematch was scheduled for SummerSlam. On the final SmackDown before SummerSlam, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan confirmed that The Usos would be facing Big E and Woods with Kingston in their corner. On August 16, WWE confirmed that the match would take place on the SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show.
At Great Balls of Fire, Big Cass defeated Enzo Amore. Amore and Cass then had a rematch on the July 24 episode of Raw that Cass again won. Cass continued to attack Amore after the match, after which, Big Show came out for the save, but Cass also laid him out. The following week, Cass defeated Big Show by disqualification after Amore attacked Cass during the match. After Cass gave a big boot to Amore, Big Show performed the KO Punch on Cass. On the August 7 episode, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated Amore and Big Show after a distraction from Cass, and a brawl broke out between the three. Later, Cass confronted Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, wanting a match against Big Show at SummerSlam, but with Amore banned from the entire state of New York. Angle suggested to suspend Amore above the ring inside of a shark cage. Cass agreed and the match was scheduled for SummerSlam.
On the July 17 episode of Raw, as Finn Bálor was making his way to the backstage after his match with Elias, Bray Wyatt appeared on the TitanTron. He said that he enjoyed Bálor's pain and that he was Bálor's worst nightmare. The following week, Wyatt cost Bálor his no disqualification match against Elias by giving Bálor the Sister Abigail. On the July 31 episode, as Wyatt cut an in-ring promo, the lights started blinking red and then went out. When they came back on, Bálor appeared in the ring and attacked Wyatt. The following week, as Bálor cut a promo about Wyatt, the lights in the arena went out and Wyatt appeared in the center of the ring. He and Bálor fought briefly before the lights went out again and Wyatt appeared on the TitanTron laughing at Bálor. Afterwards, it was announced that a match between Bálor and Wyatt was scheduled for SummerSlam. The following week, after a confrontation earlier in the night, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle moved their SummerSlam match up to that night where Wyatt defeated Bálor. After the match, Wyatt poured a blood-like liquid on Bálor. A rematch between the two was scheduled for SummerSlam where Bálor promised to bring his Demon King persona.
On the July 25 episode of SmackDown, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Mr. Money in the Bank Baron Corbin. After the August 1 episode, on the WWE Network, Corbin attacked Nakamura from behind after Nakamura's match with John Cena to determine the number one contender for Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship at SummerSlam, which Nakamura won. Cena came to Nakamura's aid and performed an Attitude Adjustment on Corbin through the announcers table. The following week, SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan scheduled a match between Corbin and Cena at SummerSlam. On the final SmackDown before SummerSlam, Corbin attacked Cena during the latter's non-title match against Mahal, causing a disqualification. Afterwards, Corbin cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, but when the match started, he attacked Cena, who was on the apron, allowing Mahal to roll-up Corbin for the victory.