The 2016 SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 29th annual SummerSlam and took place on August 21, 2016, at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York. This was the second of four consecutive SummerSlam events to take place at the arena. It was also WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event held after the brand extension, which was reintroduced in July, went into full effect.
Twelve matches were contested at the event, including three on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, which was an interbrand match, Raw's Brock Lesnar defeated SmackDown's Randy Orton by technical knockout. In another marquee match, "The Demon King" Finn Bálor defeated Seth Rollins to become the inaugural WWE Universal Champion, which was introduced to be Raw's world championship. In other prominent matches, Dean Ambrose defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain SmackDown's WWE World Championship, and AJ Styles defeated John Cena in a singles match from SmackDown.
Production Background
SummerSlam is an annual professional wrestling event produced every August by WWE since 1988. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simultaneously livestreaming on the WWE Network in 2014. Dubbed "The Biggest Party of the Summer", it is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". It has since become considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind WrestleMania.
Announced on September 28, 2015, the 29th SummerSlam was scheduled to be held on August 21, 2016, at the Barclays Center in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, New York for the second consecutive year. Tickets went on sale on April 2 through Ticketmaster. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions, being the first PPV and livestreaming event to occur after the brand split went into full effect following its reintroduction the previous month.
Ahead of the event, WWE and KFC, which was that year's event sponsor, held a promotional tie-in for its "Chicken Little" chicken sandwich. It featured a match between The Miz, dressed as "Puppers Cluckers" in a yellow chicken suit, and Dolph Ziggler, as KFC's founder Colonel Sanders, which took place after the conclusion of the August 16 episode of SmackDown Live where Ziggler emerged victorious.
Storylines The event comprised 12 matches, including three on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.
On June 5, WWE granted Brock Lesnar a "one-off opportunity" to return to mixed martial arts competition at UFC 200 on July 9, while also confirming that Lesnar would compete at SummerSlam. On the July 7 episode of SmackDown, Lesnar's SummerSlam opponent was announced as Randy Orton, who was returning from injury. WWE billed the match as "15 years in the making". On July 15, WWE confirmed that the match would still be taking place, despite a USADA notification in regards to Lesnar's Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bout, stemming from an out-of-competition sample collected on June 28, which tested positive for a banned substance. A second sample taken in-competition on July 9 was also tested positive for the same banned substance, believed to be hydroxy-clomifene, discovered in the previous sample. On July 26, WWE confirmed that Lesnar would not be facing any disciplinary action from WWE as he was exempt from the WWE Wellness Policy due to his status as a part-time performer. Orton returned at Battleground as the guest on Chris Jericho's "Highlight Reel". Orton said that he only needed one RKO to take down Lesnar and also took a shot at Lesnar's failed drug tests. On the August 1 episode of Raw, Lesnar's manager Paul Heyman proclaimed that Orton would never be able to execute his finisher on Lesnar when Orton suddenly appeared and attacked Lesnar with an RKO. Lesnar subsequently attacked Orton with an F-5 during his match against Fandango on SmackDown the next night. The last Raw before SummerSlam saw Lesnar and Heyman cutting another promo on Orton until Heath Slater interrupted, aiming to earn a WWE contract (as he was undrafted in the WWE draft) by defeating Lesnar. Lesnar attacked Slater with an F-5 to send a message to Orton. Slater faced Orton the next night on SmackDown to earn a contract. Orton intentionally got himself disqualified, mocking Lesnar before attacking Slater with an RKO.
After SmackDown draftee Dean Ambrose retained the WWE World Championship at Battleground against Raw draftees Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match, Raw was left without a world title. Subsequently, Stephanie McMahon and Mick Foley announced a new championship, the WWE Universal Championship, the following night on Raw to serve as the brand's top championship. It was then announced that the inaugural champion would be crowned at SummerSlam in a singles match; Rollins, as Raw's #1 draft pick, was automatically set for that match, while his opponent was determined by two fatal four-way matches that night, with the winners wrestling each other in a singles match. Finn Bálor won the first qualifier by defeating Cesaro, Kevin Owens, and Rusev, while Reigns won the second by defeating Chris Jericho, Sami Zayn, and Sheamus. Bálor then defeated Reigns and was added to the title match at SummerSlam. Bálor and Rollins confronted each other the following week, both promising to win at SummerSlam. Rollins then attempted to attack Bálor, but Bálor countered, forcing Rollins to retreat. Two weeks later, Bálor's alter ego, "The Demon King", confronted Rollins after Rollins called him out.
On the July 26 episode of SmackDown, a six-pack challenge involving John Cena, Bray Wyatt, AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, and Apollo Crews was held to determine the #1 contender for the WWE World Championship at SummerSlam. Ziggler won the match by pinning Styles. The next week, after Dean Ambrose doubted Ziggler's ability, Wyatt attacked Ziggler and challenged him for his title shot. Ziggler accepted and defeated Wyatt. The next week, after Ambrose and Ziggler teamed up to defeat Wyatt and Erick Rowan, Ambrose performed Dirty Deeds on Ziggler. Ziggler responded by attacking Ambrose with a superkick on their "Miz TV" segment during the final episode of SmackDown before SummerSlam.
At Battleground, Sasha Banks recruited Bayley from NXT as a mystery partner to defeat WWE Women's Champion Charlotte and Dana Brooke in a tag team match when Banks made Charlotte submit. This earned Banks a title match against Charlotte the following night on Raw, in which she again made Charlotte submit to win the title. Charlotte invoked her rematch clause five days later to face Banks for the title at SummerSlam. The following week, a confrontation between the two was interrupted by Chris Jericho and Enzo Amore, resulting in a mixed tag team match, which Charlotte and Jericho won. On the August 8 episode of Raw, Banks defeated Brooke, resulting in the latter being banned from ringside at SummerSlam.
After the aforementioned mixed tag team match, Chris Jericho attacked Enzo Amore until Big Cass came out to help his partner. Later in the event, Owens told Jericho that he had his back during a backstage interview with Tom Phillips. The following week, Jericho defeated Amore by disqualification when Cass interfered. After the match, Cass challenged Owens and Jericho to a tag team match at SummerSlam, which Owens and Jericho accepted.
After AJ Styles's victory over John Cena at Money in the Bank, The Club (Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows) began attacking Cena until Enzo Amore and Big Cass came to Cena's aide, setting up a six-man tag team match for Battleground. At the event, Cena, Amore, and Cass defeated The club. During the draft Amore, Cass, Anderson, and Gallows were drafted to Raw, while Cena and Styles were drafted to SmackDown splitting up the two teams. On the August 2 episode of SmackDown, Styles challenged Cena to another match at SummerSlam, which Cena accepted.
On the August 2 episode of SmackDown, Apollo Crews defeated Baron Corbin and Kalisto in a triple threat match to earn an Intercontinental Championship match against The Miz at SummerSlam.
On the July 25 episode of Raw, The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods) were celebrating in the ring on becoming the longest-reigning WWE Tag Team Champions. While celebrating with a fan, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson attacked all three members of New Day. The following week on Raw, Big E and Kingston defeated Gallows and Anderson. Gallows and Anderson then attacked all three members of New Day, finishing with Gallows and Anderson pulling Big E groin-first into the ring post, causing a contusion in Big E's groin. On August 8, Woods and Kingston were scheduled to defend the WWE Tag Team Championship against Gallows and Anderson at SummerSlam.
After losing to Cesaro on the August 1 episode of Raw, Sheamus attacked Cesaro. On the August 8 episode of Raw, Cesaro defeated Sheamus again, but lost a match for the United States Championship against Rusev after interference from Sheamus. On the August 15 episode of Raw, Cesaro distracted Sheamus, costing him a match against Sami Zayn. During an ensuing argument, Raw General Manager Mick Foley scheduled a Best-of-Seven Series between the two, with the first match taking place at SummerSlam. On August 19, the match was moved to the SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show.
Eva Marie was drafted to SmackDown, but for several episodes of SmackDown, circumstances, including a pulled hamstring and a wardrobe malfunction, prevented her from making her in-ring debut. On the August 16 episode, Eva Marie no-showed for her match against Naomi. Later that night, Becky Lynch and Carmella took on Natalya and Alexa Bliss; during the match, Marie appeared on the entrance ramp. Naomi then appeared and started to chase Marie, passing the ring at one point. During the confusion, Lynch applied her "Dis-Arm-Her" on Natalya, who submitted. Later on, a six-woman tag team match was scheduled for SummerSlam. On August 18, Marie was suspended for 30 days due to a violation of WWE's wellness policy, taking her out of the match. In light of this, WWE's advertising was intentionally vague about whether the match would be turned into a three-on-two handicap or if Natalya and Bliss would have a third partner.
On the August 16 episode of SmackDown, American Alpha (Chad Gable and Jason Jordan), The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley), and The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango), The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor), and The Vaudevillains (Aiden English and Simon Gotch). On August 19, a rematch was scheduled for the SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show. On the same show, Jon Stewart, who had been SummerSlam's guest host the previous year, was announced to be returning to the event as a special guest.
Cancelled match On the August 1 episode of Raw, after United States Champion Rusev defeated Mark Henry to retain the title, Roman Reigns confronted Rusev. The following week, Reigns interrupted Rusev and Lana's wedding celebration and issued a challenge to Rusev for the title. Rusev declined and the two brawled, causing Lana to fall into a wedding cake. Backstage, Mick Foley told an angered Lana and Rusev that Rusev would be defending his United States title against Reigns at SummerSlam. Later that night, Rusev successfully defended his title in an impromptu match against Cesaro. After the match, Rusev was attacked by Reigns with a Spear. Reigns defeated Rusev in a non-title match the following week.
Event