It took place on August 19, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the fourth consecutive year.

Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer",[3] 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".

[5][6] The 2012 event was the 25th SummerSlam and was scheduled to be held on August 19, 2012, at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the fourth consecutive year.

[9][10] The most highly promoted match, billed as "The Perfect Storm", on the card saw Triple H facing off against Brock Lesnar.

On the April 30 episode of Raw, Lesnar attempted to renegotiate his contract with General Manager John Laurinaitis.

[15] Then, on the August 6 episode of Raw, Shawn Michaels made an appearance to announce that he would be in Triple H's corner at SummerSlam.

In recent weeks, Punk claimed that even though he was WWE Champion, he often felt as if he was pushed to the background in favor of stars like Cena and The Rock.

[15] The following week, Cena and Big Show would fight in a number one contender's match for a shot at the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.

[17] On the August 6 episode of Raw Ziggler faced Alex Riley, but lost due to being distracted by Jericho.

[20] Ten months later, on the July 16 episode of "Raw", Mysterio made his return attacking Del Rio with a 619.

[22] On the July 16 episode of Raw, Kingston and Truth successfully defended the WWE Tag Team Championship against the Prime Time Players.

[21] On the August 10 episode of SmackDown, The Prime Time Players defeated Primo & Epico by disqualification after Kingston and Truth, who were at the commentators table, attacked Washington, earning a WWE Tag Team Championship match against reigning champions Kingston and Truth at the pay-per-view.

[23] That opportunity was not granted until Over the Limit, where Sheamus retained against Del Rio, Chris Jericho and Randy Orton.

However, the following week on SmackDown, after Del Rio defeated Chris Jericho, Sheamus asked for the match to be reinstated, which was accepted by Booker T.[26] On the August 13 episode of Raw, it was announced that Jersey Shore personality Pauly D would be the social media ambassador for the event.

Ambrose had accused Foley for being the cause of a lost generation at WrestleMania Axxess and would to continue to insult him on Twitter.

[27] Prior to the pay-per-view, Antonio Cesaro, who had been accompanied by Aksana, defeated Santino Marella to win the United States Championship after a Neutralizer.

Jericho's rib injury came into play when it cost him too much time to cover Dolph after performing a frankensteiner on Ziggler.

Dolph was very close to victory after raising his knees when Jericho tried for the Lionsault and then executed the Zig Zag for a near-fall.

[1] The next match was for the WWE Tag Team Championship between R-Truth and Kofi Kingston and the number one contenders The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O'Neil).

[1] A triple threat match was up next, which saw CM Punk defending his WWE Championship against John Cena and Big Show.

[1] The following night on Raw, Dolph Ziggler challenged Chris Jericho to a rematch, to which the general manager AJ Lee made official, with the added stipulation that Ziggler's Money in the Bank contract and Jericho's WWE contract were on the line.

Later on during the same show, CM Punk announced his intentions of defending his WWE Championship against John Cena in the near future.

On the August 27 episode of Raw, AJ announced that Punk would defend the title against Cena at Night of Champions, continuing their feud.

At WrestleMania, Triple H defeated Lesnar after hitting him with his signature Sledgehammer and the Pedigree on the steel steps in the ring.