Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer",[2] it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four".

[4][5] The 2010 event was the 23rd SummerSlam and was scheduled to be held on August 15, 2010, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the second consecutive year.

[13] The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the Raw brand was between the champion Sheamus and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship.

On the July 19 episode of Raw, Orton defeated Edge and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match to become the number one contender for Sheamus' WWE Championship at SummerSlam.

The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the SmackDown brand was between the champion Kane and Rey Mysterio over the World Heavyweight Championship.

Mysterio won a battle royal to replace The Undertaker by last eliminating Kane, and went on to defeat the defending champion Jack Swagger, Big Show and CM Punk at Fatal 4-Way to win his second World Heavyweight Championship.

On the July 23 episode of SmackDown, Mysterio defeated Swagger in a two-out-of-three falls match to earn a rematch against Kane for the World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam.

The Nexus made their debut as a collective unit on the June 7 episode of Raw, attacking Cena, CM Punk, and members of the ringside crew, on the pretext of demanding guaranteed WWE contracts for all of them.

On the July 19 episode of Raw, Cena confronted The Nexus, who offered him a place in their stable, which he refused and instead revealed that he had assembled a team, christened 'Team WWE' (consisting of Cena himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali, and Bret Hart), to face The Nexus in a seven-on-seven tag team match at SummerSlam.

Following dissension on Cena's team in the next few weeks, Edge and Jericho left the SummerSlam match on the August 2 episode of Raw.

In order to conceal his baldness, Punk started wearing a mask until Big Show forcibly removed it on the July 16 episode of SmackDown.

On the July 30 episode of SmackDown, the Straight Edge Society attacked Big Show and repeatedly stomped his right hand into the steel ring steps.

The following week, it was announced that the Straight Edge Society would be facing Big Show in a three-on-one handicap match at SummerSlam.

The following week on Raw, Melina defeated Fox in a non-title match and was rewarded with a title opportunity at the Divas Championship at SummerSlam.

[1] After that, The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Joey Mercury and Luke Gallows) faced Big Show in a handicap match.

In the climax of the match, after every other member of Team WWE had been eliminated, Barrett delivered a DDT to Cena onto the concrete floor and scored a near-fall.