The 2022 SummerSlam was a professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 35th annual SummerSlam and took place on Saturday, July 30, 2022, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. This was the first and only SummerSlam to not be held during the month of August.
Eight matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar in a Last Man Standing match to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, which was billed as their final match against each other. In other prominent matches, Pat McAfee defeated Happy Corbin, Logan Paul defeated The Miz, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) to retain the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship, Liv Morgan defeated Ronda Rousey to retain the SmackDown Women's Championship in a conflicted ending, and in the opening bout, Bianca Belair defeated Becky Lynch to retain the Raw Women's Championship. The event also saw the returns of Bayley, Dakota Kai (who had been released from her WWE contract in April), Io Shirai, and Edge.
This was the first SummerSlam to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced at the start of the year to refer to its events airing on traditional pay-per-view and via WWE's livestreaming platforms, as well as the first SummerSlam to livestream on Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, following the shutdown if its version of the WWE Network in late January. This was also WWE's first PLE following the retirement of WWE owner Vince McMahon, who had served as chairman and chief executive officer of the company since 1982. McMahon announced his retirement on July 22, eight days before SummerSlam; however, he returned as Executive Chairman in January 2023 before severing ties with the company in 2024.
The event received positive reviews from critics, who, along with fans, lauded the main event, and welcomed the new creative direction the company was taking. Praise was also directed to Logan Paul's performance and the Raw Women's Championship match, but criticism was directed at the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship match, the SmackDown Women's Championship match, and the United States Championship match.
Production Background
SummerSlam is an annual professional wrestling premium live event (PLE), originally produced every August by WWE since 1988. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it began simulcasting on WWE's livestreaming platforms 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", and as of August 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five", along with Money in the Bank. SummerSlam has since become considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind WrestleMania.
Announced on October 25, 2021, the 35th SummerSlam was scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 30, 2022, at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee, and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This marked the first SummerSlam to not be held during the month of August. Tickets went on sale on April 22, with premium hospitality packages also available. It was also the first SummerSlam since 2011 to incorporate a new logo and the first since 2008 to not feature the Star background of the logo. This was also the first SummerSlam to be branded as a "premium live event", a term the company introduced on January 1 to refer to its events that are available on PPV and via livestreaming.
Eight days before SummerSlam on July 22, WWE owner Vince McMahon announced his retirement from the company. He had served as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) since 1982. The 2022 SummerSlam was in turn WWE's first PLE following his retirement. Stephanie McMahon and WWE President Nick Khan took over as co-CEOs, and the former also took over as Chairwoman of WWE. However, on January 10, 2023, Stephanie announced her resignation as co-CEO and chairwoman, with Nick Khan being the sole CEO and Vince returning as Executive Chairman.
Broadcast outlets The PLE was broadcast on traditional PPV outlets worldwide. It was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, and the WWE Network everywhere else. This was the first SummerSlam to livestream on Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, following the shutdown of its version of the WWE Network in late January.
Storylines The event included matches 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 Friday Night SmackDown.
At WrestleMania 38 in April, SmackDown's Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated Raw's WWE Champion Brock Lesnar in a Winner Takes All match to become recognized as the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion. After Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on the June 17 episode of SmackDown, he claimed there was no one left to face him. Lesnar then made a surprise return after a two-month hiatus and offered Reigns a handshake. As Reigns went to shake his hand, Lesnar attacked Reigns and then attacked The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso), who had come to Reigns's aid. It was subsequently announced that Reigns would defend the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Lesnar in a Last Man Standing match at SummerSlam, which WWE billed as their last match against each other.
On the June 17 episode of SmackDown, after losing to Madcap Moss, Happy Corbin confronted commentator Pat McAfee—a former teammate when both played in the National Football League who consistently criticized Corbin on-air for his underhanded tactics. The following week, McAfee challenged Corbin to a match at SummerSlam. After Money in the Bank went off the air, Corbin attacked McAfee and subsequently accepted the challenge.
At Money in the Bank, Bobby Lashley defeated Theory to win the United States Championship. On the following episode of Raw, Theory announced he was granted a rematch against Lashley for the title at SummerSlam.
At Money in the Bank, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) to retain the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship. Following the match, replayed footage of the pinfall showed that Ford's shoulder was off the mat, thus the pinfall should not have been counted. A championship rematch was then subsequently scheduled for SummerSlam. On the July 15 episode of SmackDown, after Dawkins defeated Jimmy despite Jimmy's shoulder being off the mat, WWE official Adam Pearce announced that WWE Hall of Famer and Nashville area native Jeff Jarrett would be the special guest referee for the match.
At Money in the Bank, Raw's Liv Morgan won the women's Money in the Bank ladder match to earn a contract for a women's championship match of her choosing. After Ronda Rousey retained the SmackDown Women's Championship later that same night, Morgan ran out and used the contract to cash in on Rousey and win the title. On the following SmackDown, it was announced that Morgan would defend the title in a rematch against Rousey at SummerSlam.
At WrestleMania 38, social media influencer Logan Paul teamed with The Miz in a tag team match in which they were victorious. However, displeased that Paul scored the pinfall, Miz turned on and attacked Paul. In June, photos began surfacing of Paul training for an in-ring return and then on June 30, it was announced that Paul had officially signed with WWE. In a short video following the announcement, Paul said he was coming for The Miz. Paul then appeared on the July 18 episode of Raw to confront Miz and challenged him to a match at SummerSlam. Miz initially rejected, but after being goaded by Paul, Miz accepted.
At the previous year's SummerSlam, Becky Lynch made a surprise return from maternity leave and faced Bianca Belair in an impromptu match where she defeated Belair in 26 seconds to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. The two would face each other again at WrestleMania 38, this time for Lynch's Raw Women's Championship, where Belair was victorious. Over the next few months, Lynch failed various attempts to regain the championship. On the July 11 episode of Raw, during Belair's title defense, Lynch caused Belair to lose via countout, but Belair retained the title. The following week, Lynch stated that whoever was the champion by the end of the night would defend the title against her at SummerSlam. Lynch then attacked Belair, with the women's championship match occurring immediately afterwards. Belair again retained, keeping her as the defending champion heading into her match against Lynch at SummerSlam, with Belair vowing to rewrite what happened at SummerSlam the previous year.
On the June 27 episode of Raw, The Mysterios (Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio) were confronted backstage by Judgment Day members Damian Priest and Finn Bálor, who wanted Dominik to join their faction. This led to a match between the two teams for the following week, where Priest and Bálor attacked The Mysterios before the match began, but The Mysterios were still able to defeat Priest and Bálor with an Eddie Guerrero chair trick. The following week, Bálor and Priest confronted Dominik backstage, suggesting that he join The Judgment Day. This led to a match between Bálor and Rey, where Bálor won. On the July 18 episode, after Judgment Day again suggested Dominik join their group, Priest defeated Rey. After the match, Priest and Bálor threatened Rey with a Con-chair-to, but Dominik made the save. On the final Raw before SummerSlam, in what was Rey's 20-year anniversary of his WWE debut, Rey and Dominik defeated Bálor and Priest. While they were celebrating backstage, however, Priest and Rhea Ripley, also from Judgment Day, attacked them, with Priest sending Rey through a table. Later that night, a No Disqualification tag team match pitting The Mysterios against Bálor and Priest was made official for SummerSlam.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Jimmy Smith Corey Graves Byron Saxton Spanish commentatorsMarcelo RodriguezJerry SotoRing announcersMike Rome Samantha Irvin RefereesDanilo AnfibioDan EnglerJeff JarrettDaphanie LaShaunnEddie OrengoChad PattonCharles RobinsonRod ZapataInterviewersSarah SchreiberJackie RedmondPre-show panelKayla BraxtonKevin PatrickPeter RosenbergBooker TJerry Lawler
Preliminary matches