SummerSlam (2023)

The 2023 SummerSlam, also promoted as SummerSlam: Detroit, was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 36th annual SummerSlam and took place on Saturday, August 5, 2023, at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan, returning the event to its traditional August slot after the previous year's event was held in July. The event was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the first SummerSlam livestreamed on Binge in Australia. It was the first WWE event held at Ford Field since WrestleMania 23 in April 2007. Michigan previously hosted SummerSlam in 1993. Nine matches were contested at the event, with four promoted as main event matches. In the final match of the night, which was one of SmackDown's two main matches, Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso in Tribal Combat to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and recognition of Tribal Chief of the Anoaʻi family. For SmackDown's other main match, Bianca Belair defeated defending champion Asuka and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match to win the WWE Women's Championship, after which, Iyo Sky cashed in her Money in the Bank contract and defeated Belair to win the title. For Raw's two main matches, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Finn Bálor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship and Cody Rhodes defeated Brock Lesnar in what was Lesnar's last WWE appearance until the 2025 SummerSlam, as he was later named in the Vince McMahon sex trafficking scandal. The event also featured Ronda Rousey's final WWE appearance; she lost to Shayna Baszler in an MMA Rules match at the event and then left WWE in October. According to WWE, this was the highest-grossing SummerSlam of all time, as well as the company's highest-grossing event outside of WrestleMania. WWE claimed an attendance of 59,194; however, this number has been disputed, with an actual paid attendance of 51,477. It was the second-largest crowd in SummerSlam history, after the 1992 event. This would subsequently be the final SummerSlam in which WWE was majority owned and controlled by the McMahon family before the company's deal with Endeavor was finalized on September 12, 2023, which saw WWE and Endeavor-owned Ultimate Fighting Championship subsequently merging to become divisions of a new jointly formed corporate entity called TKO Group Holdings. This was also the final WWE event to be officially distributed on Blu-ray in Europe, as WWE opted not to renew Fremantle's contract for home video releases after 2023, and shut their home video division down in 3 months later at the end of the year. SummerSlam had a 1-disc Blu-ray and 2-disc DVD release on September 25 in the United Kingdom.