The event was originally scheduled to be held on September 20, 2020, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, but Governor Phil Murphy canceled all large public gatherings of more than 50 people due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With WWE's ThunderDome residency at the Amway Center that began in late August, Clash of Champions was subsequently relocated to this venue and pushed back to September 27.

In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso by technical knockout to retain SmackDown's Universal Championship.

In other prominent matches, Bobby Lashley defeated Apollo Crews to retain Raw's United States Championship, and in the opening bout, Sami Zayn defeated AJ Styles and defending champion Jeff Hardy in a triple threat ladder match to become SmackDown's undisputed Intercontinental Champion.

[4] As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set.

[5] A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience.

The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena.

Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans.

[16] The following night on Raw, McIntyre gloated about his victory against "the greatest wrestler ever" with a wrestling move (a backslide), and stated that he knew that Orton wanted a rematch.

[18] On the following SmackDown, a fatal four-way match between Big E, Riddle, Corbin, and Sheamus was scheduled to determine the number one contender for the Universal Championship at Clash of Champions.

[24] The following week, Cesaro and Nakamura were scheduled to defend the titles against Lucha House Party on the Clash of Champions Kickoff pre-show.

The rivalry eventually reached a boiling point on the September 18 episode when an enraged Hardy announced that he would defend the Intercontinental Championship against Styles and Zayn in a triple threat ladder match at Clash of Champions.

[22] At SummerSlam, The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Andrade and Angel Garza to retain the Raw Tag Team Championship.

[22] At Payback, The Hurt Business' Bobby Lashley defeated Apollo Crews to win the United States Championship.

[21] However, just hours before the event, WWE announced that both Jax and Baszler were not medically cleared to compete and the match was canceled as a result.

[3] During the Clash of Champions Kickoff pre-show, it was announced that Women's Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, who were scheduled to defend the titles against The Riott Squad (Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan), and Nikki Cross, who was set to face Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship,[24] were not medically cleared to compete at the event.

[31] Also during the pre-show, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Lucha House Party (Kalisto and Lince Dorado, accompanied by Gran Metalik).

[31] The actual pay-per-view opened with Jeff Hardy defending the Intercontinental Championship against AJ Styles and Sami Zayn.

In the climax, Zayn unlocked his cuff (using a key that he was hiding in his mouth) and cuffed Styles, who was fighting Hardy, to the ladder.

[32] In a quick backstage segment, an impromptu 24/7 Championship defense occurred when SmackDown's Drew Gulak pinned champion R-Truth to win the title for the first time.

[32] Next, The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defended the Raw Tag Team Championship against Andrade and Angel Garza.

After no one seemingly answered the call, Bayley started celebrating as if she had won by forfeit, however, Raw Women's Champion Asuka came out to accept the challenge.

[32] In the main event, Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) defended the Universal Championship against his cousin Jey Uso.

[32] Bob Kapur of Slam Wrestling reviewed the event and gave it 5 out of 5 stars, calling the triple threat Intercontinental Championship ladder match "absolutely great.

Lots of brutal ladder spots, a truly creative and innovative finish" and praised the Universal title main event for having "one of the best storyline executions in recent memory."

"[33] 411Mania's Scott Slimmer felt the Universal Championship main event "stole the show with absolutely fantastic storytelling and character development" and praised Hardy, Styles and Zayn for delivering in the triple threat Intercontinental title ladder match.

"[34] Kevin Pantoja, also writing for 411Mania, praised the SmackDown Tag Title Kickoff, the triple threat ladder match for being "so refreshing to see creative and original ladder match spots after all this time", Vega's performance in the Raw Women's title bout and the storytelling throughout the Universal Championship main event.

He felt the United States, Raw Tag Team and SmackDown Women's title bouts were "all fine but unspectacular" and called the WWE Championship ambulance match very good with its "spots and storytelling elements", but found it "overbooked at times" and made McIntyre look weak.

[37] On the following episode of SmackDown, Universal Champion Roman Reigns (accompanied by Paul Heyman) came out to address what transpired at the pay-per-view.

An event for 2021 was originally scheduled for September 26 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio;[42] however, on July 9, 2021, WWE announced that Extreme Rules would instead take place on that date at that venue due to WWE rescheduling Money in the Bank to take place on Extreme Rules' original July date.