No Mercy (2016) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for the SmackDown brand. It took place on October 9, 2016, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California. This was the 12th event in the No Mercy chronology and the first since 2008.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on the pre-show. In the main event (which opened the pay-per-view), AJ Styles defeated Dean Ambrose and John Cena to retain the WWE World Championship. In another prominent match, Dolph Ziggler defeated The Miz to win the Intercontinental Championship, with his career also on the line. Finally, in the last match of the pay-per-view, Bray Wyatt defeated Randy Orton.

The card consisted of seven matches which resulted from scripted storylines played out on WWE's SmackDown brand, one of WWE's brand divisions. Storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television show SmackDown Live.

At SummerSlam, AJ Styles defeated John Cena. Styles went on to win the WWE World Championship at Backlash, when he defeated Dean Ambrose after a low blow and a Styles Clash. Two days later on SmackDown, Cena demanded a rematch against Styles in an attempt to become a 16-time world champion, equaling the record set by Ric Flair, while Ambrose invoked his rematch clause against Styles. SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon scheduled a triple threat match between Styles, Cena and Ambrose for the title at No Mercy. Later that night, Ambrose and Cena defeated Styles and Intercontinental Champion The Miz. Afterwards, Ambrose attacked Cena with Dirty Deeds. The following week, Ambrose defeated Cena with a roll-up. After the match, Styles attacked Cena and Ambrose, which prompted SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan to schedule Styles to defend his world title against Ambrose the following week on SmackDown, after which Ambrose attacked Styles with Dirty Deeds. On the September 27 episode of SmackDown, after a distraction from Cena, Styles retained the title against Ambrose. After the match, Cena attacked Ambrose and Styles with an Attitude Adjustment. On October 9, WWE announced that the world championship triple threat match would kick off the pay-per-view portion of the event. This was due to the fact that No Mercy and the second United States presidential debate were airing on the same night.

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