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

This was the first SummerSlam held after WWE merged with the Endeavor subsidiary Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in September 2023, under the banner of TKO Group Holdings.

[7] On July 15, 2024, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque announced two official theme songs for the event by country singer Jelly Roll: "Dead End Road" and "Liar".

[9] During the July 22 episode of Monday Night Raw, it was announced that Jelly Roll would perform "Liar" live at SummerSlam.

[12] SummerSlam was broadcast live on traditional pay-per-view worldwide and was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Disney+ in the Philippines, Binge in Australia, Abema in Japan, SonyLIV in India, and the WWE Network in all other countries.

[13] As part of SummerSlam weekend, the August 2 episode of Friday Night SmackDown was held at the nearby Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, while Damian Priest, Sami Zayn, and WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker all held events at the nearby Agora Theatre and Ballroom.

[17] At King and Queen of the Ring two days later, Raw's Gunther and SmackDown's Nia Jax won the respective tournaments, thus earning matches for the World Heavyweight Championship, held by Damian Priest, and the WWE Women's Championship, held by Bayley, respectively.

At King and Queen of the Ring, Morgan won the Women's World Championship after accidental interference from Ripley's onscreen love interest, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio.

On the July 8 episode of Raw, Morgan and Dominik teamed up to defeat the Latino World Order (Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vega).

[23] The following week, Ripley called out Morgan and challenged her to a match at SummerSlam for the Women's World Championship.

[25] Following the event, The Bloodline's leader Reigns and fellow member The Rock took a hiatus while Solo Sikoa became the acting leader, subsequently kicking Jimmy Uso out of the group and adding The Tongans (Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa) and Jacob Fatu to The Bloodline.

The group's manager Paul Heyman was also later kicked out after he refused to acknowledge Sikoa as the new Tribal Chief of The Bloodline.

[26] On the following SmackDown, The Bloodline talked about their win when Rhodes interrupted and said he knew Sikoa wanted a match for the Undisputed WWE Championship at SummerSlam and accepted the challenge.

[27] A contract signing was held on the July 19 episode, which made the match official for SummerSlam in Paul's native area of Cleveland.

[30] At Money in the Bank, Sami Zayn defeated Bron Breakker to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

[26] This would ultimately lead to a match between McIntyre and Punk, who was medically cleared, being scheduled for SummerSlam with Rollins appointed as the special guest referee.

[10] On the final Raw before SummerSlam, Rollins claimed he would be lenient in calling the match, implying there would likely not be a disqualification or a countout.

[1] The first match on the card saw Liv Morgan defend Raw's Women's World Championship against Rhea Ripley (accompanied by "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio).

In the final moments, Tiffany Stratton ran down to the ring, seemingly to cash in her Money in the Bank contract.

[1] Before the main event, SummerSlam host The Miz and his tag team partner R-Truth announced an attendance of 57,791.

SmackDown tag team A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory and Grayson Waller) interrupted and mocked Miz, Truth, and Cleveland.

[1] In the main event, Cody Rhodes defended SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship against Solo Sikoa in a Bloodline Rules match.

[40] On the following episode of Raw, Finn Bálor excommunicated Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley from The Judgment Day, with it subsequently consisting of himself, "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio, Women's World Champion Liv Morgan, JD McDonagh, and Carlito.

[41] This led to a mixed tag team match pitting Priest and Ripley, taking on the name The Terror Twins, against Mysterio and Morgan for Bash in Berlin.

[39] After successfully defending his championship against Solo Sikoa, on the August 9 episode of SmackDown, Cody Rhodes was saved by an attack by the new Bloodline by Kevin Owens.

Later, backstage, Rhodes and general manager Nick Aldis discussed his next championship match, with Aldis implying he would award a returning Roman Reigns; Owens reappeared, enraged at the prospect of Reigns getting the title shot, stating that if anyone in the locker room deserved it more; Aldis agreed, stating that everyone knows that Rhodes' next title match would be against Owens, setting the match for Bash in Berlin later that month.

[42] After the return of Roman Reigns at SummerSlam, Solo Sikoa and the new Bloodline prepared for his arrival on the August 9 episode of SmackDown.

With the Ula Fala - the sign of leadership of the Bloodline - laying on the ring, Reigns attempted to retrieve it; However, he was attacked by Tonga.