The 2026 SummerSlam, also promoted as SummerSlam: Minnesota, was a two-part professional wrestling premium live event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 39th annual SummerSlam and took place as a two-night event on Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2, 2026, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
This was the first WWE stadium event held in Minneapolis and the second SummerSlam overall in the city, after the 1999 event, which took place at the Target Center. It was the first SummerSlam to air on the ESPN streaming service in the United States. This edition of SummerSlam was notable as Night 1 featured the final wrestling match of Brock Lesnar as well as the WWE in-ring debut of Nick Aldis, which was his first match since October 2023 on the independent circuit. Night 1 also featured the return of Randy Orton, who had been on hiatus since WrestleMania 42 earlier that year in April, while Night 2 saw the return of Kevin Owens, who had been out with an injury since April 2025.
The card included 12 matches, split evenly between both nights. In the main event of Night 1, Raw's Oba Femi defeated Brock Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match in Lesnar's final match of his career. In other prominent matches, CM Punk defeated Cody Rhodes to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship and Liv Morgan defeated Iyo Sky to retain Raw's Women's World Championship.
In the main event of Night 2, Roman Reigns defeated Seth Rollins to retain Raw's World Heavyweight Championship. Elsewhere on the card, Chad Gable defeated Penta to win Raw's WWE Intercontinental Championship and Chelsea Green won a five-way ladder match to become SmackDown's interim WWE Women's Champion.
Production Background
SummerSlam is an annual professional wrestling premium live event, traditionally held in August by WWE since 1988. It was originally broadcast exclusively via pay-per-view (PPV) before it also became available via livestreaming 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 is considered one of the "Big Five" with the elevation of Money in the Bank in 2021. It is considered WWE's second biggest event of the year behind WrestleMania.
Announced on May 23, 2024, the 39th SummerSlam was held across two nights on Saturday, August 1, and Sunday, August 2, 2026, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota and featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the second SummerSlam to be held across two nights (although it was the first one to be announced) and the first WWE stadium event held in Minneapolis. This was subsequently the second SummerSlam held in Minneapolis, after the 1999 event, which was held at the Target Center.
Broadcast outlets In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, SummerSlam was available to livestream on the ESPN streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, and SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa. This marked the first SummerSlam to livestream on ESPN in the United States, as WWE's contract with Peacock to air main roster PLEs expired at the conclusion of Clash in Paris in August 2025. This was the last SummerSlam to air on Abema in Japan as rights to all WWE programming is set to end on September 30 and are transferred over to Netflix Japan.
Additionally, audio coverage of SummerSlam hosted by NXT commentators Vic Joseph and Booker T was available on the SiriusXM satellite radio channel WWE Radio (formerly Pro Wrestling Nation 24/7), which relaunched shortly before the event in partnership with WWE.
Storylines The card included 12 matches, split evenly between both nights, 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 programs, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
Main event matches
On the June 29 episode of Raw, Seth Rollins confronted Roman Reigns, the World Heavyweight Champion. Rollins, who never lost the World Heavyweight Championship when he last held it as he had to vacate it in October 2025 due to an injury, claimed that Reigns possessed something that belonged to him. Reigns rejected this assertion, arguing that Rollins had not earned a title shot. Rollins countered by insisting he had always dominated Reigns since striking his back with a steel chair in June 2014 and ultimately ending their former stable, The Shield. He subsequently offered Reigns a chance to defeat him in what might be his "last chance". Reigns responded that he wanted his entire family to witness him defeat Rollins before accepting Rollins's challenge for the title at SummerSlam. The match was scheduled as the main event of night two.
At WrestleMania 42 Night 2 on April 19, Oba Femi defeated Brock Lesnar. Following the match, an emotional Lesnar removed his gloves and boots and left them in the center of the ring, seemingly retiring from professional wrestling. In the weeks that followed, Femi held weekly open challenges on Raw where he remained unbeaten. As Femi was about to have another open challenge on the May 18 episode, he was attacked by a returning Lesnar, who performed four F-5s on Femi. Later that night, Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman handed Raw General Manager Adam Pearce a contract for a rematch between Lesnar and Femi at Clash in Italy on May 31, where Lesnar defeated Femi after seven F-5s. At Night of Champions on June 27, Femi won the King of the Ring tournament to earn a world championship match of his choice at SummerSlam. As Femi was celebrating his win on the following Raw, Lesnar attacked Femi with a low blow and an F-5. Femi immediately recovered and challenged Lesnar to a match at SummerSlam. Lesnar accepted on the condition that it would be a Hell in a Cell match. The match was made official later that night with Femi relinquishing his championship opportunity to instead face Lesnar at the event, later explaining that Lesnar would have cost him his championship match anyway. The match was scheduled as the main event of night one.
Undercard matches
At Night of Champions on June 27, Sami Zayn defeated defending champion Cody Rhodes and Gunther in a triple threat match to win the Undisputed WWE Championship. On the July 3 episode of SmackDown, Raw General Manager and interim SmackDown General Manager Adam Pearce scheduled a match between Rhodes and Jey Uso for the right to challenge for the title on the following episode of Raw, which was won by Rhodes later that night. On the July 6 episode of Raw, Gunther attacked Rhodes backstage. Later that night, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis appeared and found Rhodes's replacement for the scheduled title match. In the episode's main event, a returning CM Punk, who had been on hiatus since the Raw after WrestleMania 42, replaced Rhodes and defeated Zayn to capture the Undisputed WWE Championship. On the July 10 episode of SmackDown, Punk challenged anyone to face him. Rhodes appeared and recalled that when he was the champion, he told Punk he would face him anytime Punk wanted. Punk then asked "when" which Rhodes responded with "SummerSlam" before they shook hands, and the title match was later made official. The following week, it was announced that should Gunther and Zayn defeat Punk and Rhodes in their scheduled tag team match at Saturday Night's Main Event XLV the next night, then Gunther and Zayn would be added to the title match at SummerSlam to make it a fatal four-way match. Punk and Rhodes defeated Gunther and Zayn to keep their title match one-on-one. The match was scheduled for night one.
Throughout June, the 2026 Queen of the Ring tournament was held where the winner would earn a women's world championship match of their choice at SummerSlam. Despite holding Raw's Women's World Championship, Liv Morgan entered the tournament as she wanted to ultimately win SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship to become a double world champion. Both Morgan and fellow Raw wrestler Iyo Sky made it to the final at Night of Champions where Sky defeated Morgan. Following their match, Sky chose to challenge Morgan for the Women's World Championship. The match was scheduled for night one.
On the July 13 episode of Raw, Chad Gable won a gauntlet match to earn a WWE Intercontinental Championship match against Penta at SummerSlam in Gable's hometown of Minneapolis. This setup a rematch between the two from January 2025, where Penta defeated a then-heel Gable in Penta's WWE debut, which ultimately led Gable to become the original El Grande Americano and coming to respect lucha libre after Gable was unmasked in May 2026. The match was scheduled for night two.
In April 2026, Roman Reigns began reforming The Bloodline with his cousins The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). Their cousin Jacob Fatu then joined after Reigns defeated him in Tribal Combat at Clash in Italy the next month. Before the reformation, LA Knight had teamed up several times with The Usos, however, Knight was against the reformation of The Bloodline due to his past issues with the group. Royce Keys, an old friend of Fatu's, also tried convincing Fatu not to join the group. After Fatu joined, he and The Usos went over to SmackDown to try and convince Solo Sikoa to rejoin—after Reigns went on hiatus in April 2024 and left The Bloodline fractured, Sikoa formed his own version called The MFTs, which had included Fatu until mid-2025 before the group disbanded in June 2026. Sikoa appeared on the July 13 episode of Raw to seemingly rejoin, but instead attacked his older brothers The Usos and cousin Fatu. Following this, Knight challenged The Bloodline (Fatu and The Usos) to face himself, Keys, and Sikoa in six-man tag team match at SummerSlam, which was subsequently confirmed. The match was scheduled for night one.
At WrestleMania 42 Night 2, Rhea Ripley defeated Jade Cargill to win the WWE Women's Championship. Ripley retained the title in a rematch at Clash in Italy, however, she sustained a torn meniscus. Due to her injury, Ripley was largely absent from SmackDown following the event. On July 17, Raw General Manager and interim SmackDown General Manager Adam Pearce confirmed that Ripley would not compete at SummerSlam and instead, it was announced that an interim champion would be crowned until Ripley's return, determined by a five-woman ladder match at SummerSlam. Qualifying matches began that night on SmackDown, where Tiffany Stratton and Cargill advanced by defeating Jacy Jayne and Nia Jax, respectively; Cargill advanced after Charlotte Flair attacked her, causing a disqualification win for Cargill. Jax was then given another chance in a qualifying match on the following week's episode against Flair, who also won by disqualification after Cargill's interference. Also on that episode, Chelsea Green qualified by defeating Kiana James. The ladder match was then scheduled for night two. The final qualifying match took place on the SmackDown the night before SummerSlam, where Lash Legend defeated Giulia.