page_title: SummerSlam (2003)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: SummerSlam (2003) / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: Kurt Angle
context_page_description: SummerSlam (2003) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place August 24, 2003, at the America West Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. It was the 16th annual SummerSlam event and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown! brands.
  Nine professional wrestling matches were set on the event's supercard, a scheduling of multiple high-level matches. The first main event was an Elimination Chamber match, in which World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated Chris Jericho, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels to retain his championship. In the other main event, defending WWE Champion Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar in a standard wrestling match. The undercard included Kane defeating Rob Van Dam in a No Holds Barred match, and Eddie Guerrero defending his United States Championship against Chris Benoit, Rhyno and Tajiri.
  The event marked the second time the Elimination Chamber format was used by WWE; the first was at Survivor Series 2002. SummerSlam (2003) grossed over $715,000 ticket sales from an attendance of 16,113 and received about 415,000 pay-per-view buys, more than the following year's event.
context_section_description: The professional wrestling matches at SummerSlam featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown! with the Raw and SmackDown! brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its independent contractors to different programs.
  In the first main event of SummerSlam, wrestlers from the Raw brand competed in an Elimination Chamber match. The match was contested for the World Heavyweight Championship, in which Triple H defended the title against Chris Jericho, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels. The buildup to the match began on July 22, when during the SummerSlam press conference, the co-general manager Eric Bischoff, announced that Triple H would defend the championship against Goldberg in a singles match at the event. On the August 4 episode of Raw, Bischoff changed the stipulations of the match to No disqualification regulations. Later during the episode, co-general manager Steve Austin altered Bischoff's announcement, stating that the championship would be contested in an Elimination Chamber match, with Triple H defending his title against Goldberg, Chris Jericho, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels. On the August 18 episode of Raw, the rivalry among the six competitors intensified during a promo, in which each participant in the Elimination Chamber discussed the match and taunted the other wrestlers. During the show's main event, in which Orton wrestled Goldberg, Nash interfered in the match and attacked Goldberg. Michaels then came down to the ring, but as he was about to hit Triple H with the World Heavyweight Championship belt, Jericho ran into the ring and hit Michaels with a chair.
  The second main event resulted from events on the SmackDown! brand. In the match, Kurt Angle defended his WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar. The build-up to the match began on the July 31 episode of SmackDown!. During an interview promotion in the ring, Lesnar challenged Angle to a rematch after Angle won it from him at Vengeance. Vince McMahon decided that Lesnar would have to earn his rematch by competing in a steel cage match against McMahon himself with Angle officiating as a special guest referee. On the August 7 episode of SmackDown!, the steel cage match resulted in neither wrestler winning the match, after McMahon and Lesnar attacked Angle. On the August 14 episode of SmackDown!, McMahon announced that Angle would defend the championship against Lesnar at SummerSlam.
  In a preliminary match involving wrestlers from the Raw brand, Rob Van Dam wrestled Kane under No disqualification regulations. The events leading up to this match began on the June 23 episode of Raw, when Kane took his mask off and exposed his face in front of Van Dam and the crowd after he lost to Triple H during a World Heavyweight Championship match before chokeslamming Van Dam. On the July 7 episode of Raw, Kane attacked Van Dam backstage. On the July 14 episode of Raw, Eric Bischoff granted Van Dam a standard match against Kane, which took place on the July 21 episode of Raw and ended in neither wrestler winning the match. On the August 4 episode of Raw, Shane McMahon scheduled a No Disqualification match between Kane and Van Dam for SummerSlam.
  In another preliminary match, wrestlers from the SmackDown! brand competed in a match between four wrestlers for the WWE United States Championship: Eddie Guerrero defended the title against Chris Benoit, Rhyno, and Tajiri. The buildup to the match began with two different rivalries, one between Guerrero and Tajiri, and the other between Benoit and Rhyno. On the August 7 episode of SmackDown!, Guerrero and Benoit wrestled in a standard match. However, during the match, Rhyno and Tajiri interfered, resulting in neither wrestler winning the match. Sgt. Slaughter, a WWE official, scheduled a tag team match between Guerrero and Rhyno and Benoit and Tajiri, which Benoit and Tajiri won. On the 
caption: Kurt Angle, the WWE Champion heading into SummerSlam
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "WWE Raw superstar Kurt Angle (1996 Olympic Gold Medalist)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D100", "Image XResolution": "200", "Image YResolution": "200", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image DateTime": "2005:08:23 10:16:26", "Image Artist": "Journalist 1st Class Kristin Fit", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "306", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:08:21 21:11:24", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:08:21 21:11:24", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "200", "EXIF SubSecTime": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "70", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "70", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1683", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1615", "EXIF RelatedSoundFile": "", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 2, 1]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "300", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF DeviceSettingDescription": "[0, 1, 0, 1, 32, 32, 54, 49, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 49, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 49, 65, 48, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 32, 48, 0, 0]", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}