SummerSlam (2003)
| SummerSlam | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Promotion | World Wrestling Entertainment | ||
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown! | ||
| Date | August 24, 2003 | ||
| City | Phoenix, Arizona | ||
| Venue | America West Arena | ||
| Attendance | 16,113 | ||
| Buy rate | 415,000 | ||
| Pay-per-view chronology | |||
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| SummerSlam chronology | |||
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The 2003 SummerSlam was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the 16th annual SummerSlam, and took place on August 24, 2003, at the America West Arena in Phoenix, Arizona; it was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, and SmackDown! brand divisions.
Seven professional wrestling matches were set on the event's supercard, a scheduling of multiple high-level matches. The first main event was an Elimination Chamber match, in which World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeated Chris Jericho, Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels to retain his championship. In the other main event, defending WWE Champion Kurt Angle defeated Brock Lesnar in a standard wrestling match. The undercard included Kane defeating Rob Van Dam in a No Holds Barred match, and Eddie Guerrero defending his United States Championship against Chris Benoit, Rhyno, and Tajiri. There was also a match that occurred on the Sunday Night Heat pre-show.
The event marked the second time the Elimination Chamber format was used by WWE; the first was at Survivor Series 2002. SummerSlam (2003) grossed over $715,000 ticket sales from an attendance of 16,113, and received about 415,000 pay-per-view buys, more than the following year's event. This event helped WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $6.2 million from the previous year.