SummerSlam (2011) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE that took place on August 14, 2011. It was the twenty-fourth annual SummerSlam event and the third consecutive SummerSlam at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. This was also the last WWE pay-per-view where Raw and Smackdown would be brands. Six matches were scheduled for the event, with a seventh was added during the show when Alberto Del Rio cashed in his "Money in the Bank" briefcase and defeated CM Punk. SummerSlam attracted a sellout crowd of 17,404 fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles, grossing more than $1 million, marking the highest grossing SummerSlam held at Staples Center. The event garnered 296,000 pay-per-view buys, down from 350,000 buys the previous year.

The professional wrestling matches at SummerSlam featured professional wrestlers performing as characters in scripted events pre-determined by the hosting promotion, WWE. Storylines between the characters were produced on WWE's weekly television shows Raw and SmackDown with the Raw and SmackDown brands—storyline divisions in which WWE assigned its employees to different programs.

The main feud headed into SummerSlam was from the SmackDown brand was between Christian and Randy Orton, over Christian's World Heavyweight Championship. At Extreme Rules in May, Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match to win the vacant World Heavyweight Championship for the first time, only to lose it to Orton on the May 3, 2011 tapings of SmackDown (aired on May 6). After two unsuccessful attempts at regaining the title from Orton at the Over the Limit and Capitol Punishment pay-per-views, Christian finally won the championship for the second time at the Money in the Bank event in July, after he spat in Orton's face, provoking the latter to kick Christian in the groin and get himself disqualified; as per pre-match stipulations enacted by Christian, he won the title. At the July 29, 2011 episode of SmackDown, the new Chief Operating Officer of WWE, Triple H, scheduled a title defense by Christian against Orton in a No Holds Barred match at SummerSlam.

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