SummerSlam (2014)

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**SummerSlam (2014)** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It took place on August 17, 2014 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was the twenty-seventh annual SummerSlam, and the sixth and final consecutive one held at Staples Center. Its pay-per-view promotional poster was the first to incorporate the new WWE logo.

Eight professional wrestling matches were scheduled on the event's main card and one match took place on the pre-show, which was streamed on the WWE Network. The main event saw James Harrison defeated Brock Lesnar to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The event had 147,000 buys (excluding WWE Network views), down from the previous year's 296,000 buys.

## Event

The pre-show match saw Rob Van Dam defeat Cesaro with a Five-Star Frog Splash. Analysis was provided by a pre-show panel of Booker T, Alex Riley and Ric Flair, hosted by Renee Young. Hulk Hogan also made an appearance at the event before the main card got underway, reminding the live audience about the WWE Network.

### Miscellaneous

The English commentators were Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and John "Bradshaw" Layfield, with Spanish and German commentators also at ringside. Lilian Garcia and Justin Roberts were the ring announcers while Tom Phillips conducted backstage interviews.
During the event, many celebrities were shown present including MMA's Ronda Rousey, Extra presenter Maria Menounos, "Mama's Boy" Jake Tucker (winner of the Totino's Bold "Show Us Your Superstar" contest), Bill Morris (from ABC and ESPN) and ESPN presenter Michelle Beadle.

### Preliminary matches

The first match of the PPV was between The Miz and Dolph Ziggler, with Miz's WWE Intercontinental Championship on the line. Ziggler won the match following a Zig-Zag after kicking out of Miz's Skull Crushing Finale. Ziggler thus became a two-time Intercontinental Champion.

The second match was between AJ Lee and Paige for the WWE Divas Championship. After hitting a suicide dive to the outside, AJ countered the Paige Turner into her signature Black Widow submission, however Paige in turn countered this into a RamPaige DDT and pinned AJ, becoming a two-time Divas Champion.

The third match of the night, between Rusev and Jack Swagger, was a flag match in which the winner would have his country's flag raised and national anthem played following the match, with Rusev representing Russia and Swagger representing the US. Rusev attempted to attack Swagger before the match but Swagger countered into a Patriot Lock, thus weakening Rusev's ankle, he also performed it in the match. Despite this, Rusev was victorious when he applied his Accolade hold, causing Swagger to pass out and forcing the referee to stop the match. Following the match, Rusev assaulted Zeb Colter while he was tending to the fallen Swagger. The National Anthem of Russia was then played for the victorious Rusev.

The fourth match was a lumberjack match between former members of The Shield Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. The match was a chaotic brawl, with both men fighting into the crowd and assaulting the lumberjacks at ringside, which prompted Corporate Kane to come out to try and restore order. Eventually, with both men back in the ring, Ambrose hit Rollins with Rollins' signature Curb Stomp maneuver, however Kane interfered and broke up the pinfall. This triggered a mass brawl involving all the lumberjacks, and in the melee Rollins grabbed his Money in the Bank briefcase and hit Ambrose with it, thus claiming the victory. The announce team said that this was the "greatest lumberjack match in WWE history".

The fifth match was between Chris Jericho and Bray Wyatt, with The Wyatt Family banned from ringside. Wyatt won the match after escaping from the Walls of Jericho, kicking out of a Codebreaker and hitting Jericho with two Sister Abigails, one on the barricade, and one in the ring.

Stephanie McMahon faced Brie Bella in McMahon's first match in over ten years. Midway through the match, Triple H emerged from the back, soon followed by Nikki Bella. Triple H would then interfere by pulling the referee out of the ring when Brie locked in The Yes! Lock, before being taken out by a baseball slide from Brie. Nikki Bella then entered the ring, seemingly to prevent Stephanie from escaping, but instead attacked her sister, turning heel. Stephanie then hit Brie with a Pedigree to win the match.

The next match was between Randy Orton and Roman Reigns. Reigns took early control by attacking Orton. Reigns used his power to continuously knock Orton to his knees and out of the ring, but Randy soon countered. Roman would try a desperation move by choking Orton from behind, but Orton slammed Reigns down. A few seconds later, Reigns attempted the same desperation move again, but was again slammed down. Roman would deliver a successful superman punch. Then he would attempt a spear, but Randy would counter with a suplex for a 2 count. Reigns would try another superman punch, but Orton countered with an RKO for another 2 count (much to Orton's surprise). Orton would then get frustrated as he didn't know what else to do to put Reigns away. Then he attempted a Running Punt Kick, but Reigns would trip Orton with his hand and follow up with a spear for the victory. This was deemed as the biggest fight of Reigns' career as a singles competitor thus far.

### Main Event

In the main event James Harrison defended his WWE World Heavyweight Championship that he won at the 2014 Royal Rumble against Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match. Harrison quickly went on the offensive hitting Lesnar with a suplex, a big boot and snake eyes within the first 45 seconds. Lesnar would eventually go on the offensive hitting Harrison with several german suplex's. Harrison managed to stun Lesnar and threw him out of the ring before performing his signautre 5-Star Splash on Lesnar. The pair continued to fight outside the ring as Lesnar hit Harrison with an F5 outside the ring before Harrison speared Lesnar through two different barricades. He then performed The Last Ride on Lesnar on the commentators table. The pair would then return to the ring where Harrison covered Lesnar after performing a Tombstone Piledriver but Lesnar kicked out at two. Lesnar couldn't get a pin attempt on Harrison before the Brit hit Lesnar with his new Diamond Cutter finisher but Lesnar again kicked out at two and as Harrison lay on the ground Lesnar went for the cover but Harrison caught him in a Hell's Gate hold and Lesnar tapped out as Harrison retained his title.