SummerSlam 2010

SummerSlam 2010 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), that took place on August 15, 2010 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California for the second consecutive year. It was the 23rd annual SummerSlam event and six matches took place. This event received 350,000 buys, slightly down on the 369,000 buys that SummerSlam 2009 received.
==Background==
SummerSlam featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches.
The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the Raw brand was between the champion Sheamus and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship. On the July 19 episode of Raw, Orton defeated Edge and Chris Jericho in a Triple Threat match to earn the right to face Sheamus for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. On the August 9 episode of Raw, the Raw General Manager added two stipulations to the match, stating that anyone who interfered in this match would be suspended indefinitely and if Orton lost, he would not receive another match for the championship while Sheamus is champion.
Another major rivalry from Raw featured The Nexus, a stable consisting of former WWE NXT 'rookies' led by the season's winner Wade Barrett, against 'Team WWE', led by John Cena. The Nexus made their debut as a collective unit on the June 7 episode of Raw, attacking Cena, CM Punk, and members of the ringside crew, on the pretext of demanding guaranteed WWE contracts for all of them. The following week on Raw, the then-General Manager Bret Hart refused and as a result, The Nexus attacked him, incapacitating him, and forcing WWE Chairman Vince McMahon to appoint a new, anonymous General Manager, who ultimately signed all members of The Nexus to the show. The Nexus continued to frequently attack various WWE Superstars, crew, and legends to display their dominance, although they focused mainly on Cena, costing him the WWE Championship twice. On the July 19 episode of Raw, Cena confronted The Nexus, who offered him a place in their stable, which he refused and instead revealed that he had assembled a team, christened 'Team WWE' (consisting of Cena himself, Edge, Chris Jericho, John Morrison, R-Truth, The Great Khali, and Bret Hart), to face The Nexus in a seven-on-seven tag team match at SummerSlam. On the July 26 episode of Raw, the anonymous general manager changed the match to an elimination format. Following dissension on Cena's team in the next few weeks, Edge and Jericho left the SummerSlam match on the August 2 episode of Raw. They rejoined the following week, however, when The Nexus tried to attack the members of Team WWE and Edge and Jericho. On the same episode of Raw, Khali was attacked by The Nexus, removing him from the match at SummerSlam. The Miz offered his services to the team as Khali's substitute, ultimately saying he would reveal his final decision at SummerSlam itself.
The main rivalry heading into SummerSlam from the SmackDown brand was between the champion Kane and Rey Mysterio over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the May 28 episode of SmackDown Kane's storyline brother, The Undertaker defeated Mysterio to qualify for the fatal four-way match for the World Heavyweight Championship at the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view in June. During the match however, The Undertaker suffered a legitimate injury, forcing him to be written out of the match by having him found in a "vegetative state" by Kane over the Memorial Day weekend. As a result, Kane accused several WWE Superstars of incapacitating his brother, and attacked them. Mysterio won a battle royal to replace The Undertaker, and went on to defeat the defending champion Jack Swagger, The Big Show and CM Punk at Fatal 4-Way to win the World Heavyweight Championship. At the Money in the Bank Kane won a Money in the Bank ladder match and cashed in his championship opportunity on Mysterio, after Mysterio had defeated Swagger to retain. Kane defeated Mysterio to win the World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 23 episode of SmackDown, Mysterio defeated Swagger in a two out of three falls match to earn the right to face Kane for the World Championship at SummerSlam. On the July 30 episode of SmackDown, Kane revealed that The Undertaker had disclosed that his attacker was Rey Mysterio, and vowed to get revenge.
Another rivalry from the SmackDown brand pitted The Big Show against the Straight Edge Society (S.E.S.), a stable preaching the hardlined straight edge lifestyle, led by CM Punk and consisting of Luke Gallows, Joey Mercury and Serena. In May, at the Over the Limit pay-per-view, Punk lost a match to Rey Mysterio, forcing Punk to have his head shaved bald as a result of the stipulation. In order to conceal his baldness, Punk started wearing a mask until The Big Show forcible removed it on the July 16 episode of SmackDown. In attempt to avenge Punk's humiliation, the S.E.S.'s masked "mystery man" faced The Big Show in a match, but had his own mask removed during the match, revealing him to be Joey Mercury. On the July 30 episode of SmackDown, the S.E.S. attacked The Big Show and repeatedly stomped on his right hand into the steel ring steps. The following week, it was announced that the S.E.S. would be facing The Big Show in a three-on-one handicap match at SummerSlam.
Another rivalry from the Raw brand was between the champion Alicia Fox and Melina over the WWE Divas Championship. In December 2009, Melina tore her ACL at a live event, which caused her to vacate the Divas Championship. At Fatal 4-Way in June, Fox won the title in a Fatal Four-Way match, also featuring the then-champion Eve, Maryse and Gail Kim, and retained the championship against Eve at Money in the Bank. On the August 2 episode of Raw, Melina made her return and attacked Fox. The following week on Raw, Melina defeated Fox in a non-title match and was rewarded with an title opportunity at the Divas Championship at SummerSlam.
==Production==
Much like the previous year's SummerSlam, WWE promoted the event with its SummerSlam Axxess fan convention. The convention was held at the Nokia Plaza in L.A. Live from August 14 to August 15. THQ revealed further details of the latest installment of their WWE SmackDown series, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011.
==Aftermath==
The following night on Raw, the anonymous general manager of Raw announced that members of The Nexus would face off against members of Team WWE in a series of matches throughout the evening. In order to find the "weak links" of the group, The Nexus' leader, Wade Barrett, declared that anyone in The Nexus who lost their match would be exiled from the group. Ultimately, each Nexus member won their match except for Darren Young, who lost to John Cena via submission. After the match, the remaining six members brutally attacked Young, symbolizing his banishment from The Nexus.
Randy Orton would go on to capture the WWE Championship by defeating Sheamus, Barrett, Cena, Edge, and Chris Jericho in a Six-Pack Elimination Challenge at Night of Champions. Orton retained the title at Hell In A Cell against Sheamus, ending their feud.
After being attacked by The Undertaker at SummerSlam, Kane later confessed to attacking Undertaker and leaving him in a vegetative state, which started the latest chapter of their storied feud. Kane defeated Undertaker at Night of Champions in a No Holds Barred Match to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
LayCool challenged Melina to a match to unify the Women's and Divas Championships at Night of Champions. Melina accepted, but only if the match was made into a lumberjill match. Michelle represented LayCool in the match at the PPV and defeated Melina, thus retiring the Women's Championship in the process.
===Reception===
The Sun's Rob McNichol said the event "failed to deliver in the ring, leaving us feeling lukewarm at best." He also stated that Daniel Bryan's return and the high-quality main event saved the PPV because of the first 2-and-a-bit hours. Summing up, he gave the event a 5.5 out of 10, which was lower than the 8 out of 10 the previous year's event had received.
==Results==
;
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*Dark Match: Evan Bourne defeated Zack Ryder (n/a)
*Dolph Ziggler (c) defeated Kofi Kingston to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship (7:05)
*Melina defeated Alicia Fox to win the WWE Divas Championship (5:20)
*The Big Show defeated The Straight Edge Society (CM Punk, Luke Gallows and Joey Mercury) (w/ Serena) in a 3-on-1 Handicap Match (6:45)
*Randy Orton defeated Sheamus (c) for the WWE Championship by DQ (18:55)
*Kane (c) defeated Rey Mysterio to retain the World Heavyweight Championship (13:31)
*Team WWE (John Cena, John Morrison, R-Truth, Edge, Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, and Daniel Bryan) defeated The Nexus (Wade Barrett, David Otunga, Justin Gabriel, Heath Slater, Darren Young, Skip Sheffield, and Michael Tarver) in a 7-on-7 Elimination Tag Team match (35:18)
;7-on-7 Elimination Tag Team Match
Elimination	Wrestler 	Team 	Eliminated by 	Time
1 	Darren Young 	Nexus 	Daniel Bryan 	00:42
2 	Michael Tarver	Nexus 	John Morrison 	03:42
3 	John Morrison 	WWE 	Skip Sheffield	07:32
4 	R-Truth 	WWE 	Skip Sheffield	07:59
5 	Bret Hart 	WWE 	DQ 	12:08
6 	Skip Sheffield	Nexus 	Edge 	13:13
7 	David Otunga 	Nexus 	Chris Jericho 	19:13
8 	Chris Jericho 	WWE 	Heath Slater 	20:05
9 	Edge 	WWE 	Heath Slater 	20:38
10 	Heath Slater 	Nexus 	Daniel Bryan 	29:02
11 	Daniel Bryan 	WWE 	Wade Barrett 	29:32
12 	Justin Gabriel	Nexus 	John Cena 	34:50
13 	Wade Barrett 	Nexus 	John Cena 	35:18
Winner: 	John Cena 	John Cena	John Cena 	John Cena
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jerry Lawler
*Michael Cole
*Matt Striker
;Interviewers
*Josh Mathews	
;Ring announcer
*Justin Roberts
*Tony Chimel
;Referees
*John Cone
*Mike Chioda
*Jack Doan
*Charles Robinson
*Chad Patton
==See also==
*List of WWE pay-per-view events
*SummerSlam Axxess 2010
*WWE Event History
*SummerSlam
==DVD release==
* SummerSlam 2010 on DVD
==External links==
* Official SummerSlam 2010 website
* SummerSlam 2010 at CAGEMATCH.net
* SummerSlam 2010 at Online World of Wrestling
* on WWE Network
Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events
Category:SummerSlam
Category:2010 pay-per-view events
Category:Events with Handicap matches