The main staged rivalry heading into SummerSlam on the Raw brand was between John Cena and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship. At The Great American Bash, Cena defeated Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Championship. The next night on Raw, one of three main television programs of WWE (along with WWE SmackDown and ECW on Sci Fi), after a Handicap match involving Cena, Orton came out and executed an RKO on Cena. Shortly thereafter, Executive Assistant Jonathan Coachman announced Orton as the new number-one contender to the WWE Championship.Before that, Orton claimed that he had never faced Cena in a one-on-one WWE Championship match. On the July 30 edition of Raw, Carlito defeated Cena in a non-title match after Orton interfered and distracted Cena. Three weeks later, on the August 18 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Cena faced off against Carlito in another non-title match, which Cena won. After the match, Orton came out and attacked Cena, which led to a RKO from Orton through a steel chair.The main storyline on the SmackDown brand was between The Great Khali and Batista over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 6 edition ofSmackDown, Khali issued an open challenge for a match at The Great American Bash, which was accepted by Batista later that night. On SmackDownthe following week, the match between Khali and Batista was made official after a contract signing. That same night, then-World Heavyweight ChampionEdge, who was scheduled to face Kane for the title at The Great American Bash, suffered a real injury—a left pectoral muscle tear—after Kane interrupted his Mardi Gras style celebration. On the July 20 edition of SmackDown, Edge was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship due to the severity of his injury.
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