The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions.

In the main event, Seth Rollins defeated Brock Lesnar to win Raw's Universal Championship for a second time.

In the penultimate match, Bray Wyatt debuted his new "Fiend" persona and defeated Finn Bálor.

Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer",[3] it is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views (PPV), along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four".

It featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brand divisions and in addition to airing on traditional PPV, the event was available to livestream on the WWE Network.

[16] After teasing some cash-ins, Lesnar finally cashed in his Money in the Bank contract at Extreme Rules and won back the Universal Championship right after Rollins had just retained the title.

[17] On the following night's Raw, Rollins won a cross-brand 10-man battle royal to earn a rematch against Lesnar at SummerSlam.

[23] On the July 23 episode of SmackDown, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston selected Randy Orton as his next title defense at SummerSlam.

[23] Following the Superstar Shake-up in April, Bray Wyatt, who had been on hiatus since the previous summer, began appearing as an eerie children's entertainer in pre-taped segments called Firefly Fun Fouse.

[23] At Extreme Rules, AJ Styles defeated Ricochet to win the United States Championship thanks to help from his O.C.

[17] On the July 29 episode of Raw, Ricochet won a gauntlet match, to earn a rematch for the title at SummerSlam.

[26] Backstage during the July 23 episode of SmackDown, Charlotte Flair voiced her displeasure that she was not scheduled to compete at SummerSlam.

Despite not being on the card, Flair stated she would be part of SummerSlam to prove that she was the "greatest female superstar of all-time".

[23] The following week, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus was a guest on Jerry Lawler's "King's Court".

[27] On the August 6 episode of 205 Live, Oney Lorcan won a six-pack challenge to earn the right to face Drew Gulak for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship on the SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show.

[29] In the final pre-show match, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship against The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce).

[29] The actual pay-per-view opened with the submission match in which Becky Lynch defended the Raw Women's Championship against Natalya.

members Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) defended Raw's United States Championship against Ricochet.

Owens eventually performed a pop-up powerbomb on Shane, only for Elias to pull the referee out from the ring.

[1] In the main event, Brock Lesnar (accompanied by Paul Heyman) defended Raw's Universal Championship against Seth Rollins.

In the end, as Rollins attempted a third Stomp, Lesnar caught him and attempted a second F-5, however, Rollins countered and performed a third Superkick and a third Stomp on Lesnar to win the match by pinfall, winning the title, and giving him his first singles clean defeat as defending world champion in WWE.

Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net described SummerSlam as "a solid show overall that closed with a satisfying title change".

[1] Powell also gave the Wyatt-Bálor match a positive review and said that "Wyatt's Fiend persona came off very well and the live crowd clearly loved it".

This was a nice redemption moment for Goldberg after he suffered the concussion and his match with Undertaker fell apart in Saudi Arabia, not to mention that the Canadian fans weren't still holding a grudge over booting Bret Hart in the head".

[1] The following night on Raw, new Universal Champion Seth Rollins thanked the fans for their support before being interrupted by The O.C.

Also on the show, Paul Heyman said that he was informed by WWE officials that Brock Lesnar would not be granted a rematch for the Universal Championship.

[30] The following week, Rollins and Strowman defeated Gallows and Anderson to win the Raw Tag Team Championship.

[39] Also on SmackDown, The New Day (WWE Champion Kofi Kingston and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Big E and Xavier Woods) faced Randy Orton and The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) in a six-man tag team match where Orton and The Revival won.

[34] On the August 19 episode of Raw, Big E and Woods defeated The Revival via disqualification after interference from Orton.