SummerSlam (2011)

The 2011 SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It was the 24th annual SummerSlam and took place on August 14, 2011, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. This was the third of six consecutive SummerSlam events to take place at the arena. The card consisted of eight matches, but only seven were televised. In the main event, CM Punk defeated John Cena to become Raw's undisputed WWE Champion with Triple H as the special guest referee, after which, Alberto Del Rio cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase and defeated Punk to win the championship. In another prominent match, Randy Orton defeated Christian in a No Holds Barred match to regain SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship. SummerSlam attracted a sellout crowd of 17,404 fans at the Staples Center, grossing more than US$1 million, marking the highest-grossing SummerSlam held at the venue. The event garnered 296,000 pay-per-view buys, down from 350,000 buys the previous year. This was the first SummerSlam event held to be promoted under the company's shortened trade name of WWE, as following WrestleMania XXVII in April, the company ceased using its full name of World Wrestling Entertainment, although that remains the legal name of the company. It was also WWE's final PPV event held before the dissolution of the original brand extension, which was introduced in March 2002, although the brand split would be reintroduced in July 2016.